An agreeable introduction for self-improvement newbies that is also worthwhile for veterans.
A simple, straightforward prescription for attaining lofty life goals which avoids superficiality and unrealistically rosy proclamations.
Ismail has read widely in self-improvement literature–his list of recommended resources at book’s end runs to five pages and includes books, films, software, websites and seminars. Not surprisingly, then, his effort fits neatly into the tradition of upbeat, pragmatic and personal tools for bettering oneself financially, spiritually and otherwise. From familiar fill-in-the-blank exercises to the inspiring quotes that preface each chapter, this ground was well-trodden long ago. Still, even longtime fans of Wayne Dyer or attendees of Tony Robbins seminars may find something new in Ismail’s dictums. If nothing else, the author brings admirable clarity and brevity to the field. Readers rarely need to scan a sentence twice to discern his meaning, and a quick look at his life-changing exercises need not take more than a single sitting. Ismail’s optimism comes across as genuine and unforced. Tales of his travails as an immigrant from Kenya to Canada and the recounted experiences of family and personal friends usually engage. They are occasionally puzzling, however, as when one exemplar proclaims that all human ailments appear to be related to the spine. The author’s method is both rational in design and pleasant to execute. In easy-to-digest stages, he walks readers through self-evaluation, intermediate range goal-setting and methods for overcoming obstacles to achievement. Ismail advises readers to set 20-year goals, but getting to that far-off plateau is accomplished in bite-size increments, through goals and plans for next week, the next 90 days, six months and so on. Along the way, the author displays his self-improvement erudition with mostly well-chosen motivational anecdotes and quotes from the likes of the Dalai Lama, Goethe, Richard Bach and numerous lesser lights.
An agreeable introduction for self-improvement newbies that is also worthwhile for veterans.Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-71947
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
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.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
