Books I've read in May (2011)

See You at the Top - By Zig Ziglar




Over 30 years old, this is Zig Ziglar the motivational speaker's first major book about motivation and inspiration still remains a classic. Mr. Ziglar talks about a number of topics in the stairway to your motivational equivalent of the "top" whatever that might mean for you. From Self-Image to Desire.


My opinion:

Mr. Ziglar is one of the best motivational speakers in the country without question. He's not that bad of a motivational author either. My only minor complaint for the book is: toward the books' end when Mr. Ziglar begins to preach on every thing from gay marriage to prayer in school.

Overall it is a great book though, lots of stories and jokes and illustrations that Mr. Ziglar provides makes the book easy to read and enjoyable.

Key point: You can have whatever you want in this life as long as you have other people get what they want.

The Power of Story - By Jim Loehr





In this book Jim Loehr the author of "The Power of Full Engagement" talks about how the story we tell ourselves... about ourselves (self-image) affects our lives. Mr. Loehr and his company the Human Performance Institute  (aka HPI) work with primarily with athletes but also with military, police officer groups and professionals to improve their performance. He talks about how if you have a "faulty story" say for example "Men can't be trusted because, my Dad left my mom, my husband left me and I don't really trust my current boyfriend because I know he's probably cheated on me" you may project that faulty story into other places such as unjust bias towards male direct reports - failing to give them the respect they deserve due to baggage you have towards males in general.

Mr. Loehr's solution is to tell a different, more positive story if your story has always been somewhat negative or even incorrect in order that you will be able to make positive change in your life.


My opinion: I would say this book was at time a little hard to read it didn't flow very well in certain areas. The book does have a lot of areas where you can take a moment to write down objectives and take action to change your story which is good. Overall I would say this book could have been about 50 pages shorter and accomplished the same goals.

Key point: If the story you tell about yourself is not the same story you would want eulogize you with...you need to make some changes that bring you closer to your ideal eulogy.