The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything [Hardcover]

Fred Gratzon (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 215 pages
• Publisher: Soma Press; First Edition edition (1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972046402
• ISBN-13: 978-0972046404
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,103,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No wonder this guy made so much money, January 25, 2008

By 

Michael Schein "Copywriter" (Hollywood, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything (Hardcover)

The author of this book was apparently the founder of two highly successful companies. I think the secret to his success is hatching schemes like getting people to plop down $30 for a book telling people that they can be "lazy" and have everything they've ever dreamed of. The problem is the book goes on to ramble about hippie pseudo-metaphysics for 200 pages but never really gives any advice whatsoever other than "do what you love and success will follow." Closely related to that theme is "if you are doing what you love, you are actually being lazy even if you work 16 hours a day, because you are not really working." I have heard that advice six thousand times before. A major flaw in this argument is that every job has a lot of unpleasant routine work, and this philopophy of only doing what you love accounts for many of the bankrupt musicians, writers, and people perpetually starting their own businesses. Furthermore, I was hoping to learn how to find more efficient, effective ways to accomplish the same amount of work -- instead all I got was essentially advice saying "you should find more effective ways to accomplish tasks" without any direction on how to do so. To add insult to injury, this guy used the hippie-aesthetic from his youth to talk about how making money is nature's way of saying that you're zen is on the right cosmic track. If that isn't an encapsulation of the Yuppie justifications of that generation and their failed ideals, I don't know what is. And then the plug for the Maharishi - jeez, even the Beatles ended up rejecting that guy as a fraud. The plusses of this book - nice cartoons, easy to read, and mildly inspirational for me to find more effective ways to get things done. But come to think of it, I was already inspired to do that before I read this -- why else would have I bought it?

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delightful, beautiful book, September 2, 2005

By 

Gerri Detweiler "host, Talk Credit Radio" (Gulf Coast, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything (Hardcover)

I invited Fred Grazton on my radio show to talk about his book. When it arrived it, the first thing I noticed was how different it is from the many books I receive as a radio show host.

First of all, it's a beautiful book, a high-quality coffee table-type book.

Secondly, the flow of the text and illustrations is gorgeous. I don't know how he and his editor managed it, but this book doesn't seem to contain any fluff or distractions or extraneous text. I had the feeling that every word was just right. It drew me in, kept me entertained, and challenged some of my long-held notions.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the opportunity to interview Fred about it. (You can listen to the interview if you'd like). It's purely delightful, and has some very relevant applications not just to work, but to what's going on in the world today in terms of terrorism, Katrina, etc. I highly recommend it!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Title!, January 17, 2006

By 

Kevin Eikenberry "Remarkable Leader" (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lazy Way to Success: How to Do Nothing and Accomplish Everything (Hardcover)

Can you think of a more compelling book title than this? How about the subtitle: How to do nothing and accomplish anything? Pretty strong stuff.

The author has built two multimillion dollar businesses, and brings that credibility to the table, but insists that he is lazy. Here are his three major premises:

* Success is inversely proportional to hard work.
* People who espouse the virtues of hard work publicly are doing a grave disservice to humanity because hard work is, in fact, counterproductive to success.
* The impulse to find ways of avoiding work drives all of civilization
* The deepest, most profound, most complete spiritual experience you can have is based on doing nothing. Absolutely nothing.

This book is irreverent (if you haven't figured that out yet), fun to read, full of great illustrations, and correct. It is the size of a coffee table book, and comes in at 215 pages. Buy yourself a copy for a great read and for a chance to re-examine some of your beliefs and principles. Read it and then put it on your coffee table or in your office. I guarantee with this title, it will stimulate conversation.