 | The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life
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 2008-11-08 - Un libro más
Un libro más de autoayuda pero lleno de lugares comunes, frases que hemos leido muchas veces y planes de acción vacios. No dudo que pueda ayudar a algunas personas que se inician en estos caminos, pero está muy por debajo de mis expectativas.
No tiene profundidad y no proporciona argumentos sólidos, más allá de los que conocemos, que permitan la reflexión profunda y un verdadero aprendizaje. Me podría atrever a decir que es un "pobre" libro más de autoayuda que sólo enriquece a los que los escribieron y hace publicidad a sus propios productos y servicios. Le falta sustancia.
 2008-11-08 - 7.2/10: An Inspiring Book
"...your dream business will be not just possible, not just probable, but unstoppable."
The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life.
"The Answer" is a hybrid between a self-improvement book and a small business growth book which is obvious that while John Assaraf focuses on "you" in the first half of the book, Murray Smith focuses on "your business" in the second half.
Content (I'll divide into two halves)
First half: including 1. Inside the Box: John's Story 2. The Search for How the World Works 3. The Law of Attraction 4. The Universe Inside Your Brain 5. How to Change Your Mind 6. Your Dream Business 7. The Neural Reconditioning Process 8. Neural Reconditioning FAQs
The first half of the book is a mix of business, biology (anatomy, molecular biology, and neuroscience), psychology, quantum physics, and a touch of hypnosis. This first half tells you how you can renew yourself.
Second half: including 9. The Important Things: Murray's Story 10. Vision, Focus, Action 11. Your Ideal Customer 12. Innovating Your Business 13. Finding Your Business's DNA 14. Reaching Your Ideal Customer 15. Big Thinking
The second half of the book is a straightforward, no-nonsense, get-to-the-point business growth method. It is about typical things like customers, innovations, USP, and marketing communications.
...
Comparing "The Answer" to an ideal book; "A business book that is easy to understand, distinct, credible, practical, insightful, and provide great reading experience."
The Six Elements Review:
Ease of Understanding: 8/10; although, in the first half, molecular biology, quantum physics and business do not normally go well together, the authors can digest biology science (who knows whether it is harder or easier than rocket science?) into easy-to-understand science.
Distinction: 7/10; a nice blend of science and self-improvement in a business book in the first half deserves a 9/10, in my opinion. On the other hand, the concept of the second half is nothing new but there are some new, exciting, and simple approaches to the mainstream concepts (such as in customer identification and innovation) which deserve 5-6/10.
Practicality: 7/10; the book provides you with easy, interactive and simple steps on implementation. However, the book aims to be a "one-size-fits-all" book. It might seem easy while you read, but a great effort is required if you try to weave the ideas into you and your business.
Credibility: 5/10; I love the first half of the book (mostly) by John Assaraf and it is inspiring but unless it is solidly proven with facts and researches (especially the science of zero-point field, resonance, possibility), I cannot say it is totally credible. The second half is high on the credibility scale with lots of fascinating examples that are authors' experience or the experience of their clients.
Insight: 8/10; the first half is a real eye-openers with lots of amazing findings and how you can master them. The second half has some precise concepts and they are supported sufficiently. Examples are not cursory but they are probed and explained thoroughly.
Reading Experience: 8/10; reading this book is like having two mindful and thoughtful coaches taking turn trying to help you. The best thing is that you will feel that they really believe in you and believe that you can, and will succeed.
Overall: 7.2/10; if I'm biased (maybe I'm already biased!), I'll give more points to "The Answer" because I feel good reading it. If you feel distressed, down, or frustrated with your business, grab this book. Excluding every aspect of the book, this book make you feel energised, pumped up, and ready to take on anything ahead.
Viriya Taecharungroj
www.tedded.net
 2008-10-09 - I guess Im gonna find out in 30 days....
Here is a review that wasnt written by one of the authors in the self help author circle.
The way I found this book to be written was clear, concise and to the point and did an excellent job decribing the how and why scientifically all this is supposed to work on a quantum mind level. I suppose I buy that. I have seen things like that in my life. But I also have doubts, as I am a poker player.
After the world series of poker was won in 2005 we all knew who the winner was. Fossilman was the guys name. It takes incredible skill AND amazing luck to win the world series of poker. With over 20,000 entrants the chances of being the last one standing is pretty small indeed, skill non withstanding. Many of the top pros just dont have the cards go thier way as dictated by chance. You can be standing there in an all in situation against a pro (those that play or watch poker on cable know what Im talking about) and you are subject to random chance as the cards are drawn off the deck. If you flop the set you stay, if not, youre out and you go home. This sends many pros home and many ameteurs who do not possess the pros skill end up eventually winning the WSOP. In 03 a guy won that played for several years and entered in a contest online to get a seat at the WSOP(World Series of Poker) and won the whole thing. Astronomical odds. But someones gotta win, and there is going to be someone left standing at the end of the World Series of Poker, just as there is a 1 in 80,000,000 million multi state lottery winner. Anyway, watching the rerun tape of the WSOP (that I knew Fossilman won) I watched him win improbable hand after stunning just made the card he needed at the last second hand. Knowing he would be the eventual winner let me marvel at the raw luck this guy was enountering as he knocked off person after pro after guy, weaving his way through the tables knocking off his opponents to end up being the winner.
And thats my point. These two guys (authors) that wrote this book. Could it be that they were just two lottery winners of life that just so happened to be 2 out of 200,000,000 people that were at the right place at the right time every time like the guy that kept winning hands at the WSOP? Given a big enough population size, statistics dictate that there will be through random chance several SEVERE winners out of 200,000,000 non winners. There are 300,000,000 million people in the United States, 90% of which live check to check. Then there are these two guys that just so happened to win at everything they did and they became rich.
Perhaps the error of these two authors was to turn around and personalize statistical odds and think they could develop a system that could include the other 200,000,000 people that didnt win in their winning circle. But the problem with that is that capitalism is by nature a pyramid. The wealthy few exist at the top help up by the base of the majority of the others through services and the manufacture of goods.
Lets say everyone in America got a check from the government for 10,000,000 million dollars. Inflation non withstanding, what would happen? WOOOOO! Im a multi millionare! Youd want to be tended to, to buy stuff, be pampered, go on vacation. But why would the guy at the hotel serve you? He got a check for 10,000,000 too. So did the janitor. So did the pilot of the plane. No one is working, they all expect to be waited on as they are now rich. No one is building, manufacturing, producing food, everyone quits thier jobs. Suddenly if everyone has money, no one wants to work as THEY expect to be waited on. Suddenly the money is worthless, and we are back to trading beans. Not everyone can win and be rich.
Good book, good science behind it, I just decided to throw on a pair of horns and make the case for the other side. I guess Im going to find out if this really works within the next two months as I am going to do this every day.
Good luck people. And yes, I gave this max stars cause at least it got my hope up. We will see if it delivers: me sitting in my own house with a mercedes and Range Rover in the garage.
2008-10-04 - Read this book before getting MBA!
Excellent! This book allowed me to get out of the business that I spent a few years unsuccessfully trying to perform a CPR on and to get involved (successfully) with the business that I would never even attempt to join before I read this book! I literally force everybody on my team to study this book and also The Four Hour Work Week. Success in small business is more achievable than most of business owners think and "small" business can generate rather "big" money turned out!
The book addresses probably all of the aspects of small business development and the most important lesson that it teaches - it's not the business that fails, it's the business owner's inability to run it successfully.
I have a university degree in economics and most of the stuff this book has I didn't hear from my professors about. The matter of fact I think this book gave me more helpful information about how to run my business than four years in college!
2008-10-01 - Creating the right mindset
I really enjoyed this book. As an entrepreneur, it can be challenging to keep a positive mindset and focused on one's goals and reasons for being in business in the first place. This book does a great job of explaining the laws of attraction, gestation, and action. What I took away is primarily the vision, visualization, and affirmation work that I'm incorporating into my morning routine after meditation. I can't speak for it's effectiveness quite yet; however, I do feel my mindset is more focused.
The chapters on elevator speeches, unique selling proposition, ideal customer, and benefits were very helpful. There are 1000's of books on those subjects and I believe the authors here do a superb job of making these concepts more accessible and useful.
I believe the weakness of the book is action. While the book speaks of the necessity of action, the exercises are really about developing one's mindset. Perhaps it's the chapter that gets into marketing where this is more glaring. Even the recommended reading doesn't give one much to go on. Perhaps adding Guerilla Marketing for Consultants would help complete the program. The information on creating a compelling advertisement is very useful and concise.
Overall this book attempts much and succeeds.
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