Friday, December 26, 2008

Book Review: The Truth About You

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Book title: The Truth about You
Author: Marcus Buckingham
Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2008
Number of pages: 110

I've been told that you can't judge a book by it's cover. But I did and that put two strikes on the board.

Strike one: I don't know that I want to know the truth about me.

Strike two: I wasn't thrilled by the packaging. I felt like I was too much of a grown-up for the book's gimmicky feel. A DVD was shrink-wrapped to the front cover of the book and a blue and black spiral note pad was nested in the book's back cover. Numerals printed in a large font informed me of the order I was to proceed. The DVD is supposed to be watched first, the book read second, and third, practical exercises worked out on the spiral pad.

I felt a little too grown up to follow the order and didn't watch the DVD until I was about half way through the book.

I immediately enjoyed reading the book which is why I popped the DVD in. Buckingham gives the gist of the book in a video introduction. I would have had a different attitude about the book had I taken it in order. When lost, I'm rarely humble enough to ask for directions, but Buckingham put me back on course with engaging and interesting monologue.

The book is about doing what you love with your life. Buckingham says you don't find a job like that; you build it. And then he takes every quaint colloquialism managers use to herd us workers down the road to nowhere and turns them upside down.

  • "Your strengths aren't what you're good at, and your weaknesses aren't what you're bad at."
  • "When it comes to the job, the 'what' always trumps the 'why' or the 'who'."
  • "You'll never turn your weaknesses into strengths."

This is how he starts how a few of the chapters.

I handed this book to my twenty-one year old daughter and she loved the look and feel of the book. When I gave her a quick recap and her face lit up. She's excited to start the book.

So, I made a mistake judging this book before I read it. Buckingham knocks the ball out of the park. I'll probably by a stack of them to hand out to young people to help them to think through what it is they want to do and to give them a way to set some expectations for themselves vocationally.

Pick the book up and read it. Then give it away to a young person preparing for a new career path. And then treat yourself to a new copy.

5 comments:

Phillip Santillan said...

Thanks for this review. I was wondering if I should pick it up or not, but now I think I will!

Anonymous said...

"then treat yourself to a new copy" . . . which I should then give to another young person?

Cherylsblog said...

My children also don't like to do things in the order I ask them to do (especially the boys....so your normal Bryon.) I think I'll read this book. How many copies did you say you picked up? :)

Bryonm said...

Cheryl: I gave both of the copies I had to the kids...

Anonymous said...

Bryon,

I'm going to get a hold of this book.

Justine