Customer Reviews

The Currency of the Future

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This book gives the reader some fundamental insight into making money and improving ones life in general. Although the ideas are not all new, they are presented in an easy-to-read format that keeps the reader engaged throughout. He covers everything from how to get yourself personally ready for the future, to specific trends that can pass us by if we are not ready for them. I haven't met anyone yet that hasn't liked this book.

I have read many personal growth and improvement books over the last forty years, this is one of the best if not the best I have ever read. You can tell that the author is writing from personal experience and not theory. From beginning to end this book is full of wisdom and useable nuggets of truth. The last chapter (chapter 12 - The Payoff) is a perfect ending and let's you know that whatever it takes - "It Is Worth It".

Well, Brad deHaven is obviously sincere. His message belongs to what I call 'successorism', a kind of a particularly mid-American hype that grates on non-American ears and activates whatever sense of humor one has.

Brad takes the successor creed very seriously. There is no self-deprecation or self-directed sense of humor to be found anywhere in this book. It's a young man's 'hey, look at me!' diatribe.

The diatribe reads like a poor man's Tony Robbins. You know the spiel: there is no such thing as circumstances; there is no such thing as objective reality either - it's all in your head; so kick yourself up the pants, you lazy brat, and get a life. Brad did it!!

The most important thing in the book is... Brad's backyard. I think he uses it as a sort of metaphor for the glorious future he sees for himself and his household. We are treated to his plans and fantasies about his backyard... whatever for?

The most disquieting motif about this book is its unapologetic patriarchalism. The phrase 'as a husband and a father' is recurrent as Brad's identity signifier. He seems unaware of anyone who is not. According to Brad every man's highest purpose is to ensure that his wife does not have to go out to work but can stay at home to bring up her man's children.

But the book is deceitful as well. We never found out what is it exactly that Brad does for a living, who of what his mysterious mentor is, or what he got 'acclaimed' for at that Duck Pond event.

To sum up, this is not a book about the changing economy of our times or ways in which an enterprising individual can adapt to it. It's a long pep talk, with a lot of autobiographical snippets about Brad. Does the reader really need to know that his wife gets the hots for him when she sees him bathing their kids? Whatever for?

Overall, good for a laugh.

So sad that this book never made any best seller lists. I've had it in my library for years and recommend it to everyone - and everyone who reads it absolutely loves it. And it's true that none of the concepts are all that groundbreaking, but it the way that he packages them all into this little book.

I never write reviews but for whatever reason I need to give this book props. I think the reason the book never took off was because the publishers didn't pump it as much as they should have.