A serious and enthusiastic guide to taking control of one’s destiny.
A back-to-basics book dispenses advice on clarifying one’s life.
Successful businessman DeCoursey fills his nonfiction debut with telegraphic sections designed to keep his readers focused on key questions. Do you know what you want out of life? Do you like what you’re doing? Do you have a specific timeline for changing what you want to do into what you are doing? In laying out this bullet-pointed program for achieving the balance he views as essential for a happy, fulfilled life, the author downplays the idea of chance, favoring instead personal agency. “I have had a lot of people tell me that I am ‘lucky’ because I managed to find success in lots of different categories of my life,” he writes. “The problem is, I don’t believe in luck as a trait that some have and others don’t have.” The core of his book is refreshingly old school; the author’s insistence on personal responsibility wouldn’t have been out of place in self-help manuals from a century ago. “If you don’t hold yourself accountable,” he writes, “you start making excuses for why nothing went right for you.” And these excuses take the form of an “economy of falsehoods,” in which people’s refusal to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own actions can escalate over time. At the heart of DeCoursey’s work is the “DISC” concept, first developed by David P. Snyder in his book How to Mind-Read Your Customers (2001). In the sales and marketing world—and, by extension, in life in general— people can be categorized according to four personality types: Dominant, Influential, Steadfast, or Conscientious. Clearly assessing both their own types and the types of others should help readers achieve the personal and professional balance that’s the goal of the work. Some of the book’s punchy lessons are fairly rudimentary—stay positive, avoid fake smiles, don’t answer text messages during meetings, etc.—but the brisk main body of the message should be thought-provoking to just about anybody.
A serious and enthusiastic guide to taking control of one’s destiny.Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Realist Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2026 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.
