Customer Reviews

Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World

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I'm not a big "self-help" guy but because I wasn't bowled over by a bunch of psycho-babble on the inside cover I was intrigued.
I hate likening anything to a fine wine. Its a cheesy analogy, but in this case, its almost true. This one gets better as you read on. Its not that the book starts out weak either, but as a father of three teens, I found that this book really took off in Chapter 5 . . . More like, it resonated with my parental ideals at that point.
Mr Goldman isn't afraid to spell it out. You (my dearest children) are going to have to work. And work hard too. But!!! If you work hard, and trust yourselves, you're far more likely to find success, love and happiness than you would if you just waited for life to unfold.
Bravo Mr. Goldman. All 3 of mine children will be reading this one!
Respectfully,
Steve

A truly useful book for those beginning their career path as well as those well along their career tracks. Readers will benefit immensely from Mr. Goldman's observations and common sense approach to becoming a success.
I very much recommend this book.

I found this book both provocative and enlightening. As a baby boomer, I recognized more of myself then I wanted and saw clearly the reflection of my son's generation and the problems we have bequeathed them. Mr. Goldman writes with an easy style that makes the content very digestible. He offers, with clarity, concise suggestions that will most certainly assist the younger generations to come on their journey through life. The book is not so much a 'how to' list but rather serious considerations that can lead to positive outcomes.

This book, is a testimony to the fact that success is not luck but indeed, design. Kudos on this initial book and I look forward to reading more and learning more from Mr. Goldman.

In Luck by Design, Richard E. Goldman addresses the children of the Baby Boomers about what personal, social and business issues they will face in striving for success in current times and the near-future. How to become successful at any endeavor and what resources are needed to pursue success are issues that everyone has to work out in his own unique way. But we all benefit from learning how others have worked them out before us. Goldman is a very successful man who has combined his own experiences with reading and advice received from others to not only achieve that success but also to pass on the "how to's" learned from his own perspective.

You will find that much of what he writes you may have heard before, depending upon your age and how much reading you do. That is because the same issues occur in every generation and every generation looks to the past as well as current wisdom to resolve those issues. The older we get, the more experiences we have, and the more we read, the more likely we we are to come to similar conclusions about the way life and success work. The differences between the various writers who pass on their life lessons to others lies in their own unique perspectives, stories and analogies.

In Luck by Design you will be treated to Goldman's stories from his very interesting journey through life and the ideas that his experience has afforded him about how he got here from there. His book is called Luck by Design because one of his discoveries is that, while we already know we cannot control what happens in the world around us to any great extent, we can pay attention to what is going on and be sufficiently self-aware that we can recognize both dangers and opportunities as they arise. Then we can fit them in to our pre-planning to fairly well design the life we want. We may not get exactly what we want, but if we pay attention to our life lessons and the accumulated wisdom of good thinkers who have gone before, we will find we get something that is just as good or even better than what we exactly planned.

Among Goldman's more important ideas are the notions that:

1) Life is misadvertised. Television, advertising, schools, movies, the Internet, and other factors of our modern life cause us to develop a warped sense of the way real life works and unrealistic expectations.
2) The generations following the Baby Boomers are going to have to work harder and longer and, perhaps, relative to their hard work, settle for comparatively less than the Boomers received.
3) Success and luck require planning and design in addition to hard work.
4) The secret to management starts in self-management.

Despite the serious nature of the issues he covers, Goldman treats them with a light hand and some humor. It is a flowing, connected story of success that moves smoothly from one "life lesson" to another. If you pay attention to the lessons Goldman shares, and adopt a good bit of his philosophies and methodologies, you may find that you can design a very lucky life indeed.

Richard Goldman is recognized as the marketing mastermind behind the emergence of Men's Warehouse from one small store to a chain of 680 outlets across the United States and Canada. In "Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World", Goldman relates how he made this happen, emphasizing that it was hardly sheer luck.

The book, however, is not just a story about Goldman and Men's Warehouse -- it's also a blueprint for success in almost any endeavor, in business in particular, and in life as a whole. Goldman delves into managing not just employees and customers, but also our own personal matters of consequence like time, introspection, perspective, and integrity.

While Goldman shares his missteps and lessons learned, he hints at what he could have done better, urging the reader to reflect on the insights he picked up along the way. In most of the chapters, Goldman bullets concepts and suggestions such as how to recognize and overcome fear, how to anticipate and deal with change, and how to manage yourself to become a better person, manager, and leader. He presents his principles and arguments in straightforward street-smart terms -- no sugarcoating, no beating around the bush.

The book is structured so that readers are first given tools and directions on how to improve themselves and, in the end, encouraged to layout their own Life Design templates. Goldman stresses that our achievements and successes are all under our personal control. In "Luck by Design", he tells us exactly how it works, and how, by creating our own luck, we can make life precisely what we want it to be. - Ruby Bayan, OurSimpleJoys

As a happy Mens Wearhouse customer, I was delighted to find out about a book written by a man behind so much of the company's success. In this book, Richard E. Goldman talks to the children of the Baby Boomer generation and passes on key lessons for success in life. As a Boomer myself, I have made many of these points while mentoring those coming up behind me.

This book is a "must read" for anyone with Boomer parents. Much of what is going on with that generation is wasting their potential and leaving them poorly equipped to deal with the broken world my generation is passing to them. They need some amazingly good luck. The good news is they can design that luck. Richard E. Goldman talks directly to them, and explains how to make that luck happen. Thus, the title, "Luck by Design."

Goldman avoids getting preachy, and instead relates his experiences and the lessons from them. After he draws the lessons, he bridges the gap from theory to application. Goldman was an English major, and it shows. The writing style is clear and direct. He breaks with the norm and writes in standard English, thus avoiding the many "Huh?" moments one encounters when trying to decipher the typical book these days.

Goldman's daughter Emily heavily influenced what he wrote this book, and it's apparent that he wrote to meet her expectations. Whereas my generation prefers long passages, her generation prefers text in smaller chunks. So, that's how it's written. Writing to your target audience is never a bad idea. It's worth noting that Goldman knows this audience, because he speaks at high schools and universities (and to other audiences). In fact, he's a founding member of the Milton S. Friedman Lecture Series at Rutgers University.

This book begins with an open letter that sums up in one page how badly this world is broken. This is the sobering reality that children of the Boomers have to contend with. They need to know what they're up against, or they are going to be crushed by it.

The book continues from that point for nine chapters, then concludes with a PS to the Open Letter. In the PS, Goldman advises to abandon hope (with a nod to Dante, no doubt) and to embrace faith. Have faith in yourself and faith in others. He provides insight on what this means and how to do it. Reading this daily for a few weeks could be a "game changer" for any person starting out in a career.

The Preface introduces the reader to the book. It also explains whom the book is for, and why Goldman wrote it.

Rather than a chapter by chapter synopsis, let's look at a sampling. The title of the second chapter is "Life is Misadvertised." Goldman makes a point that too many people let advertising dictate their choices. And those choices, consequently, are not always in a person's best interests. Goldman asks, "What is your source of self?" If you define who you are and what you are about, then you can make the right choices. Goldman explains how to build the foundation for doing this.

Chapter Four is titled, "We're All Playing for the Same Thing: Time." If you search for me online, you'll see I'm a recognized time management expert. One of the keys to getting more done is to not multi-task. So many people have this exactly backwards. I like Goldman's take on this, and how he explains why multi-tasking is time-wasting. He's got many other gems in this chapter. For example, learn how to say no. If you carefully read, consider, and put into practice Goldman's discussion on this, it will probably be life-changing for you. Many people in my generation are still not getting this, and if their kids can read Goldman and then teach them, that's great.

The title of Chapter Seven is, "All Outer Problems Have Inner Solutions." This is a core concept in the martial arts. On its face, this statement would seem to have many exceptions. Dig deeper, and you find it doesn't. What determines success is how you counter, recover, and learn from the bumps in the experience we call life. Goldman provides specifics on turning problems into opportunities. And he discusses many other useful concepts related to problems. Problems will happen. It's how you deal with them that matters.

So, are you ready to make a go of it in the broken world your parents' generation is leaving you? Don't answer that until you've spent a little time reading and reflecting upon Goldman's thoughts.

Luck By Design by Richard E. Goldman is a timely book by the man known as the mastermind behind the marketing for one small clothing store that turned into the vast chain known across the US as Men's Wearhouse. Goldman identifies the terrible wrongs that exist in the world because of the greed and mismanagement of the Boomer generation, but he also tells how everyone, especially those just starting out in the business world, CAN correct those wrongs and make this a better world and a successful, cooperative, helpful, thriving business climate. That makes this a VERY important book today, with the discouraging news about the economy bombarding us daily. Goldman stresses that good luck does not just happen but it is consciously created by setting goals, treating other fairly, listening to ideas of others and helping augment them, getting our own egos out of the way. He teaches that it is important not to wait for someone else to teach you or tell you what to do but to dig in and teach yourself, because you 'll learn better. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Don't ask favors from others but create your own opportunities. Remember that synergy created by working cooperatively with others is greater than one person's energies working alone. This is a very helpful and positive book for any stage of life, and especially for young adults just entering into what seems a discouraging world