Customer Reviews

Getting What You Want: The 7 Principles of Rational Living

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I have read every book Robert J. Ringer has written, and found great value in them all. His latest book, "Getting What You Want," is no exception. Ringer, who was influenced by the writings and philosophy of Ayn Rand, expounds again on Rand/Ringer principles for living: being grounded in reality, giving value for value in business and personal relationships, adhering to a code of honesty, ethics, and self-discipline. To this he adds his own Ringer philosophy of avoiding people, encumbrances and causes that drain your time and energy without contributing to your major goals. These are themes he has explored before, in "Looking Out For Number One" and "Million Dollar Habits"; but they are worth reading again, especially when reinforced by some new examples and perspectives, e.g., Ringer's experiences with his new employees in New Zealand. Some new issues that Ringer brings to "Getting What You Want" are getting rid of major encumbrances, in the form of a bad job, too much debt or an unhappy marriage, and how to move on with life following a bad break, such as the loss of a job or suffering an injustice.

Ringer's writing is full of good advice on how to succeed in life, but it is not only the advice that keeps me buying his books. As a writer, he is just plain interesting. His expositions are invariably illustrated by his own personal foibles, missteps and screw-ups, which are sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and always effective. In this book, he tells how he allowed himself to be pushed into acting "intimidating" on the "Tonight" television show, even though it misrepresented the real message of his first book, and how he wasted time in a trivial lawsuit until he realized that it was more about his injured pride than about money. Ringer also discusses three personal friends who suffered terrible personal setbacks (one was confined to a wheelchair following a traffic accident), but who were determined to succeed in spite of it, and did. Ringer's point: life is full of injustice, and the best thing to do is to learn from it what you can, and move on.

In "Getting What You Want," Ringer brings back his alter-ego, the tortoise, a comically drawn character who often illustrates his books. I have always liked the tortoise metaphor and the message it brings, that the race is not always to the swift, that persistence and perseverance can often win the contest even though one is not the fastest runner afoot. Ringer himself personifies this, as he has no special higher degrees or training; he is the self-made man, the legendary "little guy" who succeeds against all odds and obstacles, including government bureaucrats, hostile attorneys and deals that go bad. Perhaps that is why so many of his readers, including this one, find him so compelling.

Ringer ends this book with a delicious slice of philosophizing that I always enjoy from him. He has a fine mind, one that is open and willing to explore the cosmic "what-ifs." In the final chapter, "Afterword: the Endgame" Ringer discusses what happiness is, and some ways of achieving it. He touches on the concept of God, the existence of good and evil, and puts forth some interesting insights. Finally, he describes some examples of what mystics call "the mystical experience," including his own, a sudden burst of cosmic insight that can inspire joy and a sense of heightened awareness. The titles of Ringer's books always sound as if they were focused on amassing material wealth. Take it from me, there is a lot more to Robert Ringer than that.

Ringer's classics Looking Out For Number One and Winning Through Intimidation will be tough to surpass as philosophical treatises. Getting What You Want is a good read. Even when you completely disagree with Ringer, (his comments on Presley are from left field) you find you can't stop reading. This is a kinder and gentler Ringer but he still get's the basics across: He makes clear the value of being productive. It's time to quit whining and start doing. Clear yourself of the energy zappers from your life and develop self discipline so you don't blow it in life. This is an excellent read and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Kevin Hogan, ...

This is the best of Robert Ringer's books. In it, he gives you advice
for creating a life environment that will generate the most happiness
for you over the long term.

The seven principles are:

(1) Base
your actions on truth, courage, honesty, and effort.

(2) Focus on
providing value for others with urgency, rather than on entitlements
for yourself.

(3) Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty, and
humility. These approaches create the best reactions among others.

(4) Avoid those who drain your personal resources.

(5) Rid
yourself of major encumbrances (like a lot of debt).

(6) Develop the
self-discipline to act on intellect, rather than emotional impulse.
This gives you the potential to look for your long-term best
interest.

(7) Learn from bad breaks, and move on.

The book
assumes that you know what makes you happy. "Each of us seeks
happiness in our own way." So if you don't, you have some work to
do before you can apply these lessons.

I was surprised and pleased
to see the author emphasize getting what you want without "the
use of force or fraud against anyone else." He was become more
moral since his first books about intimidation.

The most interesting
part of the book for me was the discussion of joy. He describes it
beautifully as "extreme happiness identifiable by a higher than
secular awareness." He thinks that joy has to be unplanned and
comes at infrequent intervals. Leading the examined spiritual life,
if you are like me, so that you know what conditions bring out the
greatest happiness and joy can create predictable joy for you. I hope
Mr. Ringer will have a chance to learn that lesson as he follows his
own advice.

The book is full of relevant examples from
Mr. Ringer's New Zealand health products company, and is enlivened
with cartoons featuring his tortoise character from earlier
books.

After you have finished reading and thinking about these
principles, I suggest that you pick the area where you have the most
room for improvement. Set goals for yourself for improvement, and
keep a daily journal for examining how you did. This process should
accelerate your development. If you are pleased with that progress,
consider examining your spiritual life in the same way.

Be happy and
joyful!

I must say I found this to be a wonderful book, but I may have found it more wonderful than you will, because I was literally pondering some of the questions in life that Ringer addresses in this book. I was frankly appalled at so many people shrugging off O.J. Simpson getting away with murder, and shrugging off the rape allegations of Juanita Broaddrick against Bill Clinton. And Ringer addresses this problem (using, incidentally, Clinton and Simpson as illustrations) with going through life seeing immoral people get away with murder. There is much much more in this book, also things I'd been thinking about. If you take what he says to heart, you'll make your life, and those around you, better.

This is an interesting book, that gets a bit more metaphysical and philosophical than Ringer's other books. A lot of it is cannibalized from MILLION DOLLAR HABITS, so you'll be rereading a lot of what you read there (if you in fact read HABITS). But there is enough new in this book that I highly recommend it. (And, incidentally, I loved what he has to say about President Clinton.)

The 7 Principles of Rational Living

Do you ever feel like you're being lied to? I feel that way most of the time. I don't watch the news anymore for this reason.

There's an old expression in Journalism that says, "If it leads, it's bleeds." I feel that the more I watch the news, the more negative I become, but it's not just the news that does this to me, it's also being surrounded by negative people.

What's unfortunate is that I think most of us just aren't strong enough to resist the negativity in our lives, especially the negativity that comes from other people. If you're not, then you really want to read this book, "Getting What You Want: The 7 Principles of Rational Living," by Robert J. Ringer.

In this book, Ringer outlines seven different principles that he believes you have to live by in order to not only get what you want out of life but to find happiness too. These principles are:

1. Base your actions on truth
2. Focus on value, not entitlements
3. Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty, and humility
4. Avoid those who drain your personal resources
5. Rid yourself of major encumbrances
6. Develop the self-discipline to act on intellect, not impulse
7. Learn from bad breaks and move on

Some people will find this book to be offensive. After all, it's about recognizing where you are deluding yourself in your life, owning up to what you are doing, then taking steps to change. The value is that if you do that, you'll eliminate the obstacles holding you back in your life. Once you eliminate those obstacles, you'll be able to press forward and achieve what you really want.

One of the most important principles I learned from this book, or at least it was reinforced by this book, is that you can't change the world. In order to change the world, you have to change other people, or at least most people think you have to change other people.

If you're one of these people who thinks that you need to change the world in order to be happy or have a purpose, then take control of what you can and change yourself. All of us have the ability to improve, and all of us need to improve.

Regardless of what you are looking for in life, this book will help you achieve it. Not only does it tell you what you need to be doing, it tells you how to do it, and why you should be doing it in the first place.

I've read plenty of self help books. I am always working myself because I believe that we are always works in progress. What this book helped me finally do was shed the burdens of the past and not feel guilty for being happy and wanting to live my dreams.

Ultimately, what I learned, is that I am only responsible for me. I can only change me, and in changing me, that not only makes the world a better place, but it leads me to what I want in life, as well as my ultimate happiness. When you stop reacting to life, and start acting on life in a rational way, you will achieve what you really want.

Practical advice -- taken from the approach of stripping away emotional elements and focusing on raw reasoning to deal with the realities of how things work in the world, and how to use this reality to get the things you want for yourself.

Centers on the principle that you need to look out for yourself more than you probably have in the past, and that you must do this without bringing harm to others.

Stands apart from most self-help guides and offers a straightforward, reasonable, achievable, practical approach to life's challenges, without the wishy-washy "just go off and be happy with what you've got" emptiness that so many self-help books today will preach.

I had expected to find ideas on goal attainment utilizing rational emotive behavioral therapy in this book. Not even! Ringer comes across to me as a selfish whiny old man (note: I'm 45) who somehow found someone to publish his Libertarian political rants. Yes, there were some good ideas here but no great ones and certainly no insights unique to this book.

He contradicts himself over and over, advocating self-responsibility but then whining endlessly about situations he points to as unfair and rigged against whatever side he's on. He doesn't like teachers, he doesn't like liberals, he doesn't like change. He cites casual dress in the workplace as a way we compromise our dignity. Really???!!! Finally I had to laugh out loud about his decrying the fall of western civilization. If he thinks we were going to heck in a handbasket back when this was published, what must he think about 2012? Lol again! Time marches on, buddy. You can shake your tiny fist at the sky or you can join the present.

READ EVERYTHING WRITTEN BY ROBERT J. RINGER

You will learn what your schools and parents should have taught you. But you can't teach what you don't know. Ringer's books are worth their weight in gold. Make sure you find Ringer's website and get on his list.

I love Robert Ringer books. He writes for real people about the real world as it is, not as we wish it to be. What Ringer says, you can believe. His books are fun to read. They're unique. And one always comes away a smarter person --- ready to take on life and work and anything that comes along.

I liked this book very much. It's a down-to-earth book that will help you deal with life and become a winner. No hype. Just the real thing.