This book was a cringefest, as are most of these "business self-help" books. Tony Robbins type stuff. They take common, even cliche, philosophies, andThis book was a cringefest, as are most of these "business self-help" books. Tony Robbins type stuff. They take common, even cliche, philosophies, and teach them as though they're these deeply profound and moving lessons, so maybe you should spend tens of thousands of dollars to pay for their seminars. Hey, it's not a cost, it's an investment! Every tale and every lesson ends the same way: "and then we profit!" It's disgusting and boring trash for the lowest common denominator salesperson type, who see selling people crap they don't need less as a job and more as a religion. I bought a Tony Robbins course once, where he went on at great length about how amazing the course is, which I eventually found so mind numbing that I had to fast forward to get to the actual course, only to discover his great profound insight was that you should tell yourself, "every day in every way I'm getting better and better." Eek.
This book goes in the reverse order. It starts with the meat of the course, and then spends most of the book talking about how great the first part was. It starts with a silly fable about two mice and two men who are the size of mice. If that sounds weird, you're right. They want cheese. They find cheese. Cheese runs out. They find new cheese. The end. That's the story. Sorry for the spoiler, but there's not much of a plot to spoil.
The second story is of a bunch of cringy business people sitting around discussing how deeply profound the first story is, how they forced everyone in their company to read it, and their company completely transformed as a result.
Sigh, alas I must give it two stars instead of one, just as I gave a Tony Robbins book two stars. The reason: just because a lesson is cliche and cringy doesn't make it not a lesson, even an important one. And, honestly, I did strongly relate to two of the characters, one of whom resists change and demands the world stop changing, and the other who reluctantly ventures out in search of new experiences after realizing that change is good for you, and a lot of the fears we tell ourselves are irrational and prevent us from fully living. I've found the hard way that I can spend years sitting around feeling sorry for myself because things changed, and that once I finally do break out of that spell I look back on the first part as a dark period of my life when nothing much happened. Years of my life wasted. Don't do that. That's the lesson of this book, and while the vehicle for teaching the lesson is awful, it is nonetheless the most important lesson every person should learn as early as possible. Carpe diem....more
Loading...
