The DNA of Success: Know What You Want to Get What You Want [Hardcover]

Jack M. Zufelt (Author), Jack Zufelt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 2002

Professional speaker Jack Zufelt explains that success is not something "out there" - success is an inside job. To achieve success people need to pinpoint their Core Desires - those things in life for which we have an intense, unwavering, and deeply felt desire (personal power, financial gain, improved personal relationships) - to find the motivation and direction it takes to get what we want. Only by accurately identifying our Core Desires can we achieve success. Using practical easy-to-follow steps, Zufelt sets forth a revolutionary new programme to help anyone identify and fulfill these Core Desires. Through case histories, testimonials, and proven advice, he reveals the proven methods that have transformed his own life - and those of thousands around the world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Zufelt is one of the top professional speakers in America and a highly acclaimed trainer, consultant and entrepreneur. He is a presidential Medal of Merit recipient and Winner's Digest selected him as one of the most effective speakers in the US.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Regan Books; 1st edition (October 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060006587
• ISBN-13: 978-0060006587
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #718,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars generic, April 30, 2006

By 

abysinth (chicago suburbs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The DNA of Success: Know What You Want to Get What You Want (Hardcover)

I'm really surprised by all the five star reviews because this book is pretty generic. Positive, up-beat, but definitely generic.

It's especially ironic that the author Jack Zufelt calls other self-help methods "a dash of psychobabble, a sprinkling of gobbledygook, and a heaping portion of positive thinking."

This same statement comes from a person who uses the word "DNA" to describe a heart-centered approach to life. His use of DNA doesn't even make sense because genetics and especially science is based on logic not intuition. However, if you actually read "DNA of Success" then you will see that his philosophy is based on Core Desires which can only come from the heart.

Also there is the success formula:

Success Attitude = (Core Desires + Direction) x Proper Action + Persistence

Wow! It's even mathematical. Graphing y = mx + b... that means that Core Desires + Direction would be the slope and Persistence would be the y intercept. Genius.

There is a heap of "psychobabble" to go around.

There are also anecdotes. Lots and lots of anecdotes. You can read quotes from Christopher Reeve, Oprah Winfrey, Mother Theresa etc. Inspirational, yes, but the sum is not greater than its parts.

Finally, there is the advice itself. I give this book 3 stars because it did help me to refocus on Core Desires. Actually, I only have one Core Desire, but I digress. A Core Desire is something we feel passionately about to a level of 100. You are supposed to keep asking yourself questions (drill down questions) until you get an answer about which you feel passionate. Then everything else falls into place. Supposedly.

He writes as if you have Core Desires for every aspect of your life including financial, spiritual, family etc. But in fact I have only one Core Desire. This issue of multiple Core Desires was never addressed in the book.

Also his analysis of Core Desires is inherently weak. He makes no distinction between goals and values. For example, a man who can't play football due to injury is told to focus on how making football would make him FEEL and then incorporate those feelings into other areas of his life. That's more of a value assessment. There is no linkage to a specific goal.

And the author does not believe in goal setting.

However, when he writes about Core Desires sometimes they are values, but more often they are goals like "learning to ski". How one makes the connection between a feeling and a specific action is never explained.

Then there are sections of generic advice. Like the importance of finding a mentor, checklists for parenting and the importance of dressing for success.

I just didn't think the advice was that insightful compared to other books. A book I enjoyed more was "Superself : Doubling Your Personal Effectiveness" by Charles J. Givens which incorporates values with goal setting.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, but somewhat arrogant., June 10, 2003

By 

Elias Rima "mediaartsbooks" (MIAMI, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The DNA of Success: Know What You Want to Get What You Want (Hardcover)

I don't give it 5 stars, because despite the book has great concepts and ideas, the author affirms that all of the rest of self-help authors are wrong, and I don't agree. He says that goal setting, visualization, affirmations, are all garbage, the only important thing according to him is to find what we really want from the bottom of our hearts and that will be the fuel that will move us to action and accomplish our desires. The concept is very important and I agree on that part. I don't agree with the critics to other systems or authors, because for me in particular, visualization has been of great importance, artists and sport people know the great importance of visualizing before games or performances. Goal setting is super beneficial if you follow the rules stated by Brian Tracy or Anthony Robbins, I know that goal setting can be detrimental, but only if you violate the ruls of goal setting, like writing an impossible goal, e.g. you are 80 lb overweight and pretend to loose 70 for next week, or you plan to write a 90 pages screenplay make 4 revisions in 2 days and be ready to be submited to an agent.
Use the information on this book and complement it with other equally important ones.
This book should be the base for other books. This is the beginning. I think this book should not be exclusive to other books, but a complement.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor, March 7, 2006

By 

J. Marui (Belgrade, SCG) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The DNA of Success: Know What You Want to Get What You Want (Hardcover)

The title is horribly misleading. With the word DNA in it, I expected something of substance, based on scientific facts and research. Instead, it was a bad self-improvent type of book.

The basic idea is simple and feels true - you can only succeed in something that you really want. But the idea is neither developed nor executed properly. The author did not build around it, he simply added quotes of famous thinkers and many "real-life" examples, and voila - almost 300 pages. And all the stories sound the same: John/Jane was very unhappy but then realized what he/she really wanted, achieved it and lived happily ever after.

To be honest, the author does attempt to present a method of discovering your core desires, but fails. The method consists of asking yourself these questions:

1. what is it that I want, but don't have?

2. if I had or did that, what would I gain with it and how would it feel?

Then you are supposed to rate each entry on your wish list on a scale of 100, based on how much you want it. The desires that you rated above 80 are the core ones. Duh!

Discovering what you really want goes hand in hand with getting to know yourself. As you get closer to who you really are, you learn to tell the difference between your true desires and ego-based and society-generated ones. It is a life long process and reading a book like this one doesn't make it happen any sooner.