Review of How To Be Successful

[Manoj Payal]

[Following is a volunteer review of "How To Be Successful" by M. Curtis McCoy.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The book is primarily a collection of responses to a set of questionnaire sent to various successful people in their own filed and along with that some insights by the author on the various traits that a leader should have.

The starting chapters seems confusing to me and it takes a while to get what the author is trying to say. The equating of success to Ferrari and Jaguar turned me off (It is just me, for others it may be the only yardstick), but I continued to see what the author has to offer. I was not sure of the purpose of brining the incident of "orange creamsicle", as it did not drive home any point at least for me. Then again, there are some contradictions in what the author is saying like " It may have been an incredible opportunity, but it wasn't a risk I would be comfortable investing in" and "It inspires me to see someone takes a risk that no one else understands". One more contradiction I found was "Delayed Gratification" vs "Reward Yourself Immediately". One of the chapters explores "Does using profanity make you seem more successful?" that's again is a weird chapter to be included in a book titles how to be successful. In today's social media age where there is a continuous race to get followers and views profanity may increase your viewership and followers, but those may not be quality followers.

The takeaways from the book are the responses of the people who were interviewed. Based on their own experiences they have shared their insights to various generic questions which may be helpful to the readers. Also, chapters by the author like "Don't take ownership of Misfortune" and "Stop comparing yourself with others" are good and tells us not to the mistakes we usually do while starting anything.

All in all the book is okay and one can read it for interviews of various people and their responses to a set of questions posed by author.

2 out of 4 - okay, fair

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How To Be Successful
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