OK,
it's good, and it beats Stephen Covey's 7
Habits of Highly Effective People by 57 (Jack's has 64). Well, it's actually 56 because Covey came out with an eight habit. So right off the bat here, you can see that if you're a person who is easily overwhelmed, buy Covey's book and steer clear of a lot of dizziness and heavy breathing. We don't want you passing out from principle overexposure.
As I referred to above, there's a lot here, 512 pages of a lot. And if you're like most people who buy a book and don't get past page 20 (an actual statistic based on how far the average book buyer gets on their purchase) then you're better off getting
Covey's book and only missing out on 364 pages not 492 (for you non-math majors, that means Covey's book has 384 pgs, Jack's, of course, 512). In business that's a better ROI (return on investment), and that's who this book is geared toward--the business elite. Did you think Canfield, he of the massively marketed Chicken Soup for the Soul series (be sure to get
Chicken Soup for the NASCAR-- and
Golf Lover's Soul; and don't forget your t-shirt, mug, and coffee cozy--they're rad!) would merely market to the common man? Of course he does, but he's really looking for that big ticket item. Why do you ask? Read on.
There are certain things you can and can not do if you don't have money--you low ticket item customers. First, you
can work, and do a lot of it, for you need to pay the bills, feed the kids, and catch up on your 4 hours of television (average American watches 4 hours a day--hmmmm does great success come with that side order of
American Idol? Oh, don't forget to get your
Chicken Soup for the American Idol Lover's Soul). Second, you
can't do some of the things Canfield suggests because of time and money restraints. He says (and keep in mind that those he's talking to a great degree of the time are business owners) that if you aren't being productive hire someone else to do the stuff that's getting in the way of you
being productive. Well, if you're a mom or dad who is working, just getting by (like 75% of Americans), where do you get the money to do this? And even if your time is freed up, who takes care of the kids? Well, there's some more money to spend.
I may be harsh on Jack here, but maybe amongst all those millions he's made selling soup books, he's forgotten how the common man and woman lives. And there's also the fact that not much research has been done on self-help techniques and their effectiveness.
Forbes Magazine tells us that little if any at all has been done. But don't get me wrong, there's a lot of principles in here that are useful and empowering but the impractical may just outweigh the practical.
Canfield talks about visualizing and positive-thinking exercises but these are only aids not cure alls. The majority of those who are successful are so because of downright hard work outside of the dream world. And Canfield's "take 100% responsibility for your life" principle is a bit much. Am I to believe that it was my fault the guy on the 405 hit me? even though I didn't see him? That I got laid off from my engineering job because I wasn't in greater control of keeping the Cold War alive so I could build some more defense stuff? Who exactly is he talking to? What of those people who are at a disadvantage due to race or socioeconomic conditions, or inherent abuse (the thousands who grow up in abusive homes.) Certainly these disadvantages can eventually be overcome, and maybe through using Canfield's principles, but he leaves more out of the picture than he includes by not qualifying or specifying who would immediately be able to take advantage of all these great principles.
Jeff Brown
SearchWarp.com
Top 100 Author
Check out Jeff's work at AuthorsDen.com 
Where authors and readers come together!
But maybe that type of realistic thinking just doesn't sell books. I guess the best way to sort all this out is to take a survey some years down the road as to how many have achieved success after reading Canfields' book, or maybe a better question is how many even remember reading the book? There's one for ya!
Chicken Soup for the I Forgot Every Principle Lover's Soul.
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