Rhinoceros Success by Scott AlexanderMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
"Success Is Difficult But ... tomorrow morning, you could wake up as a full grown rhinoceros and
* charge your way to success
* use audacity to reach your goals
* be happier than you've ever been before
* make your life an exciting adventure
* have the persistence and tenacity necessary for success
* never worry again
* succeed at the world's most profitable hobby
* achieve more and have a better balance in the six major areas of your life: FINANCIAL, WORK, PHYSICAL, FAMILY, SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL
Scott Alexander has discovered the REAL secret of success: becoming a rhinoceros. Read it and go rhino! That's all there is between you and everything you've ever wanted to do or become in your life. CHARGE!"
~~back cover
I'm still puzzled about how this book wound up in my TBR pile. Did I really think it was about rhinoceroses?
It's a very simplistic book -- and the "secret of success" is based on a lot of advice that has already been given by countless other gurus, time and time again. What's different about this one is the exhortation to become single-minded, ruthless, over-the-top enthusiastic, and let nothing deter you from reaching your goal. It does make sense, but seems odd to me: on the one hand, you are constantly getting the rah rah treatment to use every shred of your energy and time to pursue your goal, but then you are also cautioned to pursue success only as a hobby, and to take care of yourself physically and mentally, etc. The two seem conflicting to me.
The only value to be gotten out of this book, imho, is to learn to change your attitude about how to acquire what you want from life. And you probably already knew that.
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Hello Kate, you asked in your comment on my blog post for the ISBN for each of the Ernest Aris books. Looking at my two I can't see any ISBN at all on either of them. They are all published by Fountain Press in 1948. They are all available on Abebooks
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=ernest+aris&kn=a+walk&sts=t&x=0&y=0
but all are from sellers in the UK I think. Hope you manage to get hold of them, they are nice old-fashioned little books.