Official Review: If life is a game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!!

[CataclysmicKnight]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "If life is a game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!!" by Onyeka Uzoma MD.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Learning to set realistic goals, making plans to reach those goals and keeping a positive attitude about reaching them is one of the best ways to achieve any form of self-improvement. These are some of the main things If Life is a Game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!! covers, and they just happen to be things I love to do anyway!

I've read quite a few motivational books and books that teach how to get out of debt or get a job, and a lot of them have at least a few things in common - they talk about how to motivate yourself, how to set goals, how to focus on those goals and generally some form of life-altering thought process that changes a person for the better (debt is evil, learn to meditate, budget better, etc.). If Life is a Game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!!, because of how short it is, ends up being like a CliffsNotes version of those books that can easily be read within an hour or two, acting like a refresher for the most important points made in most motivational books.

The downside to the length of the book, however, is that it often doesn't go into enough depth about important or intriguing points - often even just an image or example would have made a point so much stronger than the quick description of what it is. List making, the importance of setting goals with well-defined goal dates and the cost of working toward your goal and failing forward are a few of the well-defined points, but then there are some really interesting points made like using a dream board are only mentioned briefly without any examples or explanation. Perhaps the worst was the term "solution strategies" - while it's mentioned in chapter 3 and the author says the term will be "discussed in more elaborate detail in a later chapter", it's barely mentioned again. Places like these really could have used some specifics to make the book more valuable of a lesson.

Aside from the occasional lack of important details, the book does a good job most of the time relating the lessons with real life, from Thomas Edison to Martin Luther King, Jr., even the author himself! I was a bit worried when it was stated clearly in the introduction that "this is not a feel good novel", but the empowerment it granted left me feeling quite good about myself. The book only had one or two little grammatical errors, but sentences sometimes just felt rough, and once or twice I had to read a sentence a few times to understand it.

The author tells the reader frequently to take their B pill (that's "bitter pill"), and relates that to Neo choosing his pill in The Matrix, which I agree works as a great analogy for how one changes once they decide to take control of their life. The B pill in this case, however, is choosing whether If Life is a Game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!! is a good fit for you. If you've read other motivational books and want a refresher that's easy to read through anytime, then you'll likely find the book to be a great re-motivator, but otherwise I'd have to suggest getting one with a little more meat on its bones. If Life is a Game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!! gets 2 out of 4 stars from this reader despite the few great points found within.

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If life is a game, THEN PLAY TO WIN!!!
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[Trendydoc_73]

I truly did enjoy reading your review. In many ways it was super balanced in its analysis. Overall it was a sound critique. The only point is that I condensed the information on purpose, as the aim was to be able to take in all the information in your spare time (how much spare time do most of us have?). Life is fast paced and many people end up not finishing books, and I mean literary masterpieces because some just have way too much volume. In many ways this is a test run of what I think many books will look like in the next ten years. I might be right, I might be wrong......
In the end I can only say thanks for the review. This is my first book, so yippee!!! I am proud of it.

[kimmyschemy06]

This sounds like a helpful book but probably too short to include everything the author wants to say. Great job on the review.

[CataclysmicKnight]

I truly did enjoy reading your review. In many ways it was super balanced in its analysis. Overall it was a sound critique. The only point is that I condensed the information on purpose, as the aim was to be able to take in all the information in your spare time (how much spare time do most of us have?). Life is fast paced and many people end up not finishing books, and I mean literary masterpieces because some just have way too much volume. In many ways this is a test run of what I think many books will look like in the next ten years. I might be right, I might be wrong......
In the end I can only say thanks for the review. This is my first book, so yippee!!! I am proud of it.

That's totally understandable, and thanks for the kind words as well! The brevity does lend itself to be a fair recap and can be read rather rapidly at any given time; I could see it as a refresher for concepts on a long lunch break or on a day off, etc. In the end, you should be proud and deserve to be, and I'm glad you are!