bookshelf

YOU DON'T NEED TALENT TO SUCCEED

Name: YOU DON'T NEED TALENT TO SUCCEED
Author: Hector R. Hernandez
ISBN: 978-1450234269

BUT EVERYTHING ELSE COUNTS

by Hector R. Hernandez ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2010

Upbeat and encouraging, but short on real depth.

bookshelf

Hernandez presents a self-help book about attaining personal and financial success.

The author was just 8 years old when he and his family left Cuba for the United States, where he went on to a 30-year career at IBM and is now a college teacher and professional lecturer. His book’s premise is that everyone has unique abilities and the key to success is unlocking those abilities. One of Hernandez’s prescribed techniques is that each of us should connect to one’s higher self, meaning the individual must tap into their ability “to do something out of the ordinary…rise to an occasion…do something that was not expected.” Hernandez relates stories about how finding the higher self enables one to overcome challenges as well as act on unique opportunities, whether it’s earning a college degree or overcoming self-doubt and sharing ideas with higher-ups. The book contains thoughtful quotes from a wide variety of sources as well as the requisite acronyms covering a number of motivational and behavioral theories. Topics include how to build mental strength by “rehearsing victory” and the importance of welcoming new experiences and people into one’s life. Hernandez includes excerpts from six letters he received from appreciative students, illustrating how his lectures have buoyed and empowered them. He also shares some interesting anecdotes, as well as some not so interesting. Readers who enjoy taking quizzes in the hopes of reaching a particular self-actualization will be disappointed by the three-part quiz in which one question includes the true/false statement: “People who write books exaggerate.” In addition, a 29-page self-test covers 46 true/false statements, assorted questions and pronouncements, too many being either redundant or trivial: “From time to time, eat some Oreo cookies,” or “If you are having a good day, don’t forget to tell your face to smile.” The book would be more effective if Hernandez relied less on stories, included a more constructive self-test and offered a deeper exploration of his appealing theories.

Upbeat and encouraging, but short on real depth.

Pub Date: July 8, 2010

ISBN: 978-1450234269

Page Count: 118

Publisher: iUniverse

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | SELF-HELP

bookshelf

THE ART OF SOLITUDE

by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020

A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.

bookshelf

A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.

“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.

A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Yale Univ.

Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019

Categories:

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

bookshelf

MASTERY

by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...

bookshelf

Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.

The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.