Customer Reviews

Earning Money Without a Job: Revised for the 90s

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mel Ziegler started "The Banana Republic" after reading this book. I started my company soon thereafter.

If you have what it takes to question the prevailing paradigm and are determined to be happy at work, you'll find this book a refreshing, important alternative. If they don't get it in Estonia, shame on them, but I know it was the best $10 I ever spent.

I read the earlier edition years ago. It's a positive, upbeat book about creating multiple "profit centers" (or income streams, if you prefer to think of it that way) and planning for those "spaghetti days" when nothing is coming in. I wasn't as prepared then as now to put those principles in place, so I'm happy to have the revised edition.

What I like best is that he provides a broad enough spectrum of ideas in his books so that none of them are industry-specific. (By contrast, a lot of consulting books focus on only management consulting and many freelance books focus on journalism or advertising when you might be in IT, interior design, or tutoring.)

The Guru of Guerilla Marketing knows his stuff. So far, I never met a Levinson book I didn't like.

The author lays out many, many ideas in this book. While reading, my mind was constantly asking if that idea was for me or not. This book motivated me to consider other ideas. Jay Conrad Levinson challenges readers to turn these ideas into opportunities by acting on them immediately. He truly is a guerrila marketer.

There's one thing you won't learn from this book. It's how to earn money without a job.

For your better orientation, I'd like to divide the book in two parts, calling the pages 1 to 100 Part 1 and pages 101-end Part 2.

Reading Part 1, one gets the feeling that Mr. Levinson has never heard the word "system". Page after page after page he talks about everything and nothing, changing subjects as he pleases and turning back to same things every once in a while. Part 1's as chaotic as a book can possibly be. If you would tear out the pages, throw'em in the air and collect in a random order, it wouldn't make any noticeable difference.

Thus, it's not an easy task to tell you about the contents of Part 1, but I'll try. Mr. Levinson begins by saying that you can earn as much money as you wish by working as little time as you wish. (I'll have a million dollars a day by working 15 minutes a day, thank you very much.) Then, Mr. Levinson starts counting skills and qualities that you just have to have in order to earn money without a job. Some of them can be learned, some can't. If you don't have them - well, sorry pal, maybe that nine-to-five job of yours isn't that bad after all. You must have really strong nerves to read it. No one has ever demonstrated me so convincingly and persistently that I'm no good at anything. I got really depressed for quite some time.

Part 1 doesn't even deserve 1 star. In fact, people should be paid for reading it.

Now, on the page 101, Mr. Levinson starts actually delivering some information. You'd never believe it but in Part 2, there are chapters with clearly defined subjects, in logical order, each chapter dealing with a different subject and with only one subject at a time! You shouldn't hope too much, of course - it's still Levinson. However, because of the Part 2, he deserves 2 stars.

Still, the information provided in Part 2, useful as it may be, is nothing extraordinary and is very far from justifying the book's title.

Summary: The book contains some useful information, but definitely not worth the money. If you read the book anyway, you'd better start on page 101, skipping the first part for good. However, my advice is - don't waste your money on Levinson.