Customer Reviews

The Big Five for Life: Leadership's Greatest Secret

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There are a ton of books on leadership, but not since the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (Robin Sharma) have I read a book that brings all the best leadership concepts together in one engaging tale. With each passing page I wished that I knew the leader described in this book. If even half of our political and corporate leaders operated in the manner so eloquently described in this book, the world would be an extraordinary place. After reading this book, I realized how important it is for each and every person to step up their leadership ability... starting with me!

The Big Five for Life is a motivating and inspirational book for everyone. The simple and powerful story is told through an easy to grasp and dynamic narrative. The clear theme anchors the book and the information tips are like jewels throughout the pages. I read countless books on this topic, and this is one of the most profound and interesting books to make a lasting impact on me.

John gets to the core of things in a manner that everyone can relate to. An excellent read that is worth your time and a great follow-up to his "Why Are You Here Café".

The leadership concepts that John presents through the story are basic (but essential) messages that not only benefits those who seek additional guidance for their businesses, but also benefits those same individuals in their personal life as well.

I highly recommend for anyone who is about to start a business as well as those who already have.

John Strelecky's previous work was The Why Cafe (with a Spanish edition The Why are you Here Cafe). It is a fictional story about self-discovery and the meaning of life. The Big Five for Life is also a fictional story with an emphasis on our "Purpose for Existing" (or PFE). This one is about a popular CEO who everyone (customers, employees, friends) loves. In telling the story (mostly in dialogue) Strelecky explains what he believes leaders should do to be truly great leaders.

There is a plague of books on leadership. Amazon lists thousands when you search on "leadership (25,000 in the UK and 250,000 in the US). In my view this book is not one of the good ones. I didn't like it much, finding it tiresome to read and patronizing in tone, although the content and ideas are fine. For communicators I'd suggest The Leader as Communicator by Robert Mai and Alan Akerson, Amacom, 2003 and The Leadership Solution by Jim Shaffer, McGraw-Hill, 2000. More generally the works of John Kotter are brilliant (The Heart of Change, Leading Change; John P Kotter on What Leaders Really Do and others).

It does raise the issue of the use of fiction to educate or inform. Two fantastic books for communicators are based on fictional stories: Hugh Mackay's "Why Don't People Listen? Solving the Communication Problem" and David Pincus and Nicholas DeBonis's "Top Dog: a Different Kind of Book About Becoming an Excellent Leader". These have "theory" clearly separated from the fictional story. In both cases I read only the theory on my first reading. Strelecky does not have a theory section but relies totally on the dialogue and he does not write as well as Mackay or Pincus and DeBonis (e.g. "gotten" and "the amount (sic) of people").

If you like fiction and are into self-discovery (and concepts like "Make me Better or MMB") maybe you'll get something out of this one. As I mentioned, the content (about leadership) is fine. The author claims he has lectured on the ideas in the book to the likes of Boeing, Walt Disney World, Audi and other corporations. But maybe he just covers the theory in the lectures.

Then this book is for you. It is rich with thought-provoking concepts, entertaining and inspiring.
That's a lot for such a short book! Thanks, John, for changing my life!

Susan Bock
Consultant and Coach for Business Women
[...]

If you are a business leader or probably more importantly, have aspirations to lead others, then you NEED to read this book.

I have read a great many books on business and leadership and this is right up there with the best. The fact that it is written as a novel simply makes it easier to read and even more engrossing.

It is packed with some of the best and most practical tips for not just being successful financially in business, but in achieving that aim whilst having fun, touching other peoples lives for the better and being loved by the people that work for, or should that be, WITH you.

This book is quite a good sample on how not to make ebooks! It's just badly scanned from the original with so many typos I stopped counting (at least one per page!). These typos are mostly typical scanning typos, like setting /\ instead of a capital A.
So I finally wonder why do I have to pay nearly the triple price for the ebook that I had to pay for the hardcover?

This one only gets two stars, because the content is nice.

BAD JOB AMAZON!