Customer Reviews

How I Overcame Shyness : 100 Celebrities Share Their Secrets

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One of the things I like about this book is that the messages are so personal. That makes the writing easy to read. And because the messages are from famous people, the book has a lot of authority. Those people have obviously gotten over their shyness enough to become famous!

Or NOT gotten over their shyness. The book is inspiring because you realize that 1) shyness can be overcome, and/or 2) you can succeed even in highly public fields and remain shy.

This is not the magic bullet that will tell you all you need to know about overcoming shyness, but it will inspire and motivate you. So if you are on the path to overcome your own shyness, this book is a welcome companion. I'm the author of Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I can tell you that simple inspiration and motivation works very well to keep you taking the actions that will eventually change your life. I recommend this book.

This book isn't quite what I expected. I thought it would be meaningful quotations from interviews with the "100 celebrities" of its title who had experienced real shyness, overcome it, and were "sharing their secrets." Instead it's a combination of responses to questions and excerpts from books which are not necessarily sharing secrets or even about shyness per se. In fact, one individual says point-blank, "Never been shy!" To make matters worse, the quotations are often neither instructive nor inspiring.

However, this is not to say that the book isn't useful. Shy and socially anxious people will likely identify with those whose words appear. It's often important for those of us with social fears to discover that others, especially those in the public eye, share our problem. Furthermore, there are a few instances where people like Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, offer suggestions which worked for them, relate a relevant experience, or say something poignant or significant.

Not a primer on social anxiety or "Chicken Soup for the Shy Soul," this small volume is primarily a thinking-of-you gift book.