Review by FeelingWords22 -- How To Be Successful
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FeelingWords22
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- Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
Review by FeelingWords22 -- How To Be Successful
[Following is a volunteer review of "How To Be Successful" by M. Curtis McCoy.]
How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M Curtis McCoy is a self-help book, a guide to becoming "successful". The author includes a collection of interviews, firstly he answers his own questions and then includes the interviews conducted to other successful entrepreneurs, amongst which Eric Payne and Caujuan Mayo. In between the interviews, there are chapters such as “Take Pride In Your Appearance” and “Teach People How To Treat You” where he gives advice and personal reminiscences.
McCoy speaks directly to the reader, sharing his real-life struggles, not with heft but rather conveying his motivation and willpower to overcome them. The book hooks you in since the beginning, the anecdote he recounts in the introduction had a big impact on me. I found it very personal, just like in many other sections in the book, which gives it the feeling of a diary at times. This shows how personal the narrative can be, so I think the introduction really sets the mood: from the very start, the author shows the reader what to expect from his book.
I found his choice to interview himself and his mother, who is involved in his business, rather interesting. You could either view it as an act of egocentrism or as a choice to introduce himself. I see it as the latter. I picked this book expecting it to be talking about McCoy’s experiences and successes, but he does more than this, he builds a relationship with the reader, he establishes a dialogue, and how can you begin any relationship without an introduction?
The book’s structure makes it incredibly easy to follow. It is clear and concise, no overly complicated paragraphs or explanations, just very straightforward which is what makes it accessible in my opinion. The author includes a variety of types of content, alternating between chapters with interviews and others in which he gives his advice and provokes the reader’s thoughts, often through rhetorical questions. I immensely liked the choice of including editor notes inside the books, which he uses to give some background knowledge during the interviews. This makes reading them and understanding certain passages much easier as who reads might not know the person being interviewed.
I genuinely appreciated how success was not defined but rather was left to the reader to interpret it. In the interviews, each person was asked for their own definition of success therefore the book provided multiple definitions of it and perspectives on the topic. McCoy explored success in friendship, in valuing yourself, in spirituality and religion and in physical health, as well as financial success, reaching out to a more diverse audience.
My favourite parts in the book were the ones that focused on you as a person, such as the part where McCoy explains how you should behave to improve your self-esteem but also to teach others how to treat you. This is because I struggle a lot to do this and I find setting boundaries very hard to do. He gives some very simple yet effective advice, an example of this is to walk with your head high, something almost too simple that sound obvious, yet many people forget all about it and need to be reminded to do it. I equally enjoyed how the author talks about building successful friendships and explains how to achieve that because it’s something I can improve in my life.
I generally appreciate quotes, I find them very inspiring. However, they are often thrown at readers randomly, so I appreciated, even more, the author’s decision to include them and use them to begin or continue a series of discussions and considerations. The quotes chosen were very varied, coming from people involved in different fields, but this didn't make them less relevant.
There was not any part in particular that I didn’t like, I enjoyed reading the book and found it very useful to improve myself. One thing I did notice was how central religion was in many interviews and also some of the author’s considerations. I'm not religious, so it was hard for me to relate to those discussions or learn anything useful to become successful from it, sometimes it also made me feel uncomfortable. However, this didn’t hinder my overall experience of the book too much.
The book is not only broken down into chapters, but it is also divided into sections, all with a heading, making it very easy to jump around without having to read it all front to back. If you are interested in only a small part of it or do not have time for big chunks of text all at once you can skip to the section you want to read. Some advice was given using bullet points which makes it even easier to read through but most importantly it can be used as a checklist if you then decide to follow McCoy’s advice to become successful. This also makes it easy to go back to the book and read over a specific passage you might want to refer to or go over.
I am giving How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M Curtis McCoy 4 out of 4 stars. I found the book very interesting and useful; it has helped me change my perspective on many things and pushed me to want to improve my life. It has inspired me to become a better version of myself and seize every opportunity I can, I think this is one of the best things a book can do. Not only did it motivate me to change, but it also provided simple steps to take to achieve this change which came from the author’s personal experiences. The best part is that it is so clear I can go back to it anytime I forget what said steps were. The editing was excellent, I did not encounter any spelling nor grammar mistakes and there was no vulgar language as it was censored, there is actually a passage in the book on how it is counterproductive the use vulgar language is.
Another great thing about the book is that it is accessible. I have never been a fan of self-help books simply because I preferred reading something “fun” that could make me forget about my life for a couple of hours and self-help books require too much attention to let me relax. I have recently tried to engage more in them because many say they are useful, and I want to make a change in my life. I was really surprised by how engaging and easy to read this book was. I suggest it to all those people who, like me, want to improve their life but don’t know where to start, who might not be fans of self-help books and find them boring because this book is actually helpful but isn’t boring.
******
How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M Curtis McCoy is a self-help book, a guide to becoming "successful". The author includes a collection of interviews, firstly he answers his own questions and then includes the interviews conducted to other successful entrepreneurs, amongst which Eric Payne and Caujuan Mayo. In between the interviews, there are chapters such as “Take Pride In Your Appearance” and “Teach People How To Treat You” where he gives advice and personal reminiscences.
McCoy speaks directly to the reader, sharing his real-life struggles, not with heft but rather conveying his motivation and willpower to overcome them. The book hooks you in since the beginning, the anecdote he recounts in the introduction had a big impact on me. I found it very personal, just like in many other sections in the book, which gives it the feeling of a diary at times. This shows how personal the narrative can be, so I think the introduction really sets the mood: from the very start, the author shows the reader what to expect from his book.
I found his choice to interview himself and his mother, who is involved in his business, rather interesting. You could either view it as an act of egocentrism or as a choice to introduce himself. I see it as the latter. I picked this book expecting it to be talking about McCoy’s experiences and successes, but he does more than this, he builds a relationship with the reader, he establishes a dialogue, and how can you begin any relationship without an introduction?
The book’s structure makes it incredibly easy to follow. It is clear and concise, no overly complicated paragraphs or explanations, just very straightforward which is what makes it accessible in my opinion. The author includes a variety of types of content, alternating between chapters with interviews and others in which he gives his advice and provokes the reader’s thoughts, often through rhetorical questions. I immensely liked the choice of including editor notes inside the books, which he uses to give some background knowledge during the interviews. This makes reading them and understanding certain passages much easier as who reads might not know the person being interviewed.
I genuinely appreciated how success was not defined but rather was left to the reader to interpret it. In the interviews, each person was asked for their own definition of success therefore the book provided multiple definitions of it and perspectives on the topic. McCoy explored success in friendship, in valuing yourself, in spirituality and religion and in physical health, as well as financial success, reaching out to a more diverse audience.
My favourite parts in the book were the ones that focused on you as a person, such as the part where McCoy explains how you should behave to improve your self-esteem but also to teach others how to treat you. This is because I struggle a lot to do this and I find setting boundaries very hard to do. He gives some very simple yet effective advice, an example of this is to walk with your head high, something almost too simple that sound obvious, yet many people forget all about it and need to be reminded to do it. I equally enjoyed how the author talks about building successful friendships and explains how to achieve that because it’s something I can improve in my life.
I generally appreciate quotes, I find them very inspiring. However, they are often thrown at readers randomly, so I appreciated, even more, the author’s decision to include them and use them to begin or continue a series of discussions and considerations. The quotes chosen were very varied, coming from people involved in different fields, but this didn't make them less relevant.
There was not any part in particular that I didn’t like, I enjoyed reading the book and found it very useful to improve myself. One thing I did notice was how central religion was in many interviews and also some of the author’s considerations. I'm not religious, so it was hard for me to relate to those discussions or learn anything useful to become successful from it, sometimes it also made me feel uncomfortable. However, this didn’t hinder my overall experience of the book too much.
The book is not only broken down into chapters, but it is also divided into sections, all with a heading, making it very easy to jump around without having to read it all front to back. If you are interested in only a small part of it or do not have time for big chunks of text all at once you can skip to the section you want to read. Some advice was given using bullet points which makes it even easier to read through but most importantly it can be used as a checklist if you then decide to follow McCoy’s advice to become successful. This also makes it easy to go back to the book and read over a specific passage you might want to refer to or go over.
I am giving How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M Curtis McCoy 4 out of 4 stars. I found the book very interesting and useful; it has helped me change my perspective on many things and pushed me to want to improve my life. It has inspired me to become a better version of myself and seize every opportunity I can, I think this is one of the best things a book can do. Not only did it motivate me to change, but it also provided simple steps to take to achieve this change which came from the author’s personal experiences. The best part is that it is so clear I can go back to it anytime I forget what said steps were. The editing was excellent, I did not encounter any spelling nor grammar mistakes and there was no vulgar language as it was censored, there is actually a passage in the book on how it is counterproductive the use vulgar language is.
Another great thing about the book is that it is accessible. I have never been a fan of self-help books simply because I preferred reading something “fun” that could make me forget about my life for a couple of hours and self-help books require too much attention to let me relax. I have recently tried to engage more in them because many say they are useful, and I want to make a change in my life. I was really surprised by how engaging and easy to read this book was. I suggest it to all those people who, like me, want to improve their life but don’t know where to start, who might not be fans of self-help books and find them boring because this book is actually helpful but isn’t boring.
******
How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
