7 Strategies Of Success: Live Up To Your Full Human Potential, by Rod Hall

This book was written by a slight acquaintance of mine, and after reading it, I felt greatly conflicted about it. On the one hand, this is a book written with obvious passion and sincerity of belief. On the other hand, it is a book that has some serious tensions, and even contradictions, in its approach, the sorts of tensions and contradictions that I write about fairly fiercely when it comes to other books. It is a book that urges its readers that change is constant and that people need to be able to deal with it, but it is also a book that markets cassette tapes. It is a book that focuses attention on appearance and how to manage that effectively, but it features a rather unattractive typeset and the bland sort of cover that cannot hope to compete in terms of appearance with its glossy rivals from large publishing houses [1] which all tend to focus on the same small set of leadership experts that this book quotes, like Jim Rohn, Steven Covey, Napoleon Hill, and others like them. It is a book that, at least twice, uses the same (probably bogus) study to denigrate the value of intellect, but the book is mostly of interest in terms of intellectual history, namely the spread of the same set of positive thinking principles throughout contemporary society in an unholy mixture of God and mammon. It is a book that proclaims to promote godly values, but shows its author to be someone who makes merchandise of God’s word, repackaging the prophetic speculations and works like The Incredible Human Potential and The Seven Laws Of Success that spring from a common Church of God tradition, with only slight attribution to its origins. In short, this is the sort of book that would be easy to tear apart were the author a total stranger to me, yet also a book that is worth reading for several reasons, including reasons not likely intended by the author himself.

In terms of its contents, the book consists of a short introduction and then seven very unevenly sized principles for success that are simultaneously distress signals, an unexpected duality of meaning that adds interest to the book’s materials. The seven principles the author touts are as follows: turning dreams into reality, essential education, action, positive attitude, perseverance, physical and mental preparation, and divine guidance. The author correctly notes that many leaders succeed on the first six and fail to leave a lasting legacy of godliness, or find eternal life, becuase they neglect the importance of divine guidance. Yet the author himself, although he is a professed Christian, has a rather ambivalent attitude when it comes to the relationship between godliness and earthly success, and it is unclear whether the author is aware of the tension between his praise of clearly corrupt business leaders and his advocacy of living God’s way. Likewise, it is unclear whether the author realizes the extent that this work is largely of interest to older audiences who will appreciate the references to Lee Iacoca, Bill Gates, Dr. Laura, Oprah, and others. The book could use some serious freshening up–its sources date, at the latest, from the mid-to-late 1990’s, back when I was still in high school, and some of its dietary advice shows some obsolete focus on lowering fat.

In many ways, this book straddles an uncomfortable divide shared by many books of its type, and it is hard to untangle the core of solid encouragement that this book gives to people to remain upbeat but realistic, to persevere in the face of difficulties, to choose a life of action rather than paralysis by perfectionism, and so on. Part of the reason why so many motivational self-help books like this are so similar is because the principles of success, at least on a worldly level, are not that complicated. It is easy to know them, but it is hard to do them, and so many books seek to provide prodding and encouragement, and this book certainly serves in that noble function, with lots of quotes and stories, many of them well-worn and often repeated. Yet at its core, this is a book that seeks to marry worldly principles of success with godly ones, and the effort is not entirely successful, as many people who are praised for success in the corporate world do so unethically, seriously tainting their worth as moral exemplars, no matter how often they seek the sanction of various religious people for their business success. That said, this is a book that has powerful words to say about the need for employers to value their employees and to be concerned for their well-being, demonstrating that there is at least some interest in giving encouragement to managers and executives to treat others with compassion and humanity and to show empathy, and that is advice that is always to be appreciated. This is a book that deserves to be taken seriously, for all its unevenness in approach and its simultaneous desire to preach timeless truths while also being trendy and up-to-date, succeeding far more at the first goal than the second.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/book-review-the-4-dimensions-of-extraordinary-leadership/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/book-review-friend-foe/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/book-review-your-blueprint-for-life/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/book-review-the-career-playbook/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/book-review-the-complete-101-collection/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/book-review-performing-under-pressure/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/book-review-the-reputation-economy/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/book-review-fairness-is-overrated/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/book-review-leadership-lessons/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/05/17/book-review-redefining-leadership/