Customer Reviews

No Rules: 21 Giant Lies About Success and How to Make It Happen Now

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Loosely speaking, this book falls into the "self-help" genre. However it sharply contradicts many, if not most of the books within that category. Ever read a PMA book that told you how great your future was going to be and never gave you a single concrete reason why? Frustrating, isn't it?

No rules is different. It's reality-based. Bold and brutal where necessary. It tosses out the idealistic "should-be" world and replaces it with a firm understanding of what reality IS. Then attempts to deal with it.

This book doesn't say that success begins with a positive mental attitude. It says that success begins when you start thinking different from everyone else and separating yourself from the pack.

Kennedy hunts down 21 major success myths and either debunks them entirely or else reveals subtleties and gotchas within those 21 principles that most people miss altogether.

Ultimately, No Rules is motivational and it sheds a lot of light on why some people who according to 'theory' shouldn't succeed, succeed anyway.

This is not a book you have to make yourself read. After the first chapter you'll be hooked and you won't be able to put it down. Kennedy is a great entertainer and storyteller, and he has many great stories to tell.

NOTE: This book is the paperback equal to the hardcover "How To Succeed In Business By Breaking All The Rules" by the same author. That books is also reviewed on Amazon. See all the raves and 5 star ratings.

Finally, someone has come and exploded all of those tried and true myths of success. A customer is always right, right? NOT! Just think positive and all good things will come to you. What other good jokes do you know?

In this hilarious book Dan Kennedy forces you to come to grips with reality and examine those micky mouse rules of success that have been ingrained in our minds. He shows the absurdity of them and encourages us to seek alternative avenues of self-fulfillment if we're going to make it in the business world. Nice guys finish last so smarten up.

No Rules is funny, insane and will offend those purists of positive thinking and other ideas of fair play. Come on folk, we live in a cut throat, competitive culture which calls for drastic measures. Get with the program is Dan's battle cry and wake up.

Despite the fact that Dan debunks the rules, he creates his own which are just as bad. He gives you the feeling that honesty is out and that being crude, rude and plain obnoxious is the way to success. Like everything else you must proceed with caution in swallowing his lines. The positive thing that must be said of this book is that it teaches us not to take things at face value. All ideas are open to critique and yes rules need to be broken in order to progress. Happy reading.

The message? "Challenge it all" and "don't be intimidated by authority". How? Contradict it all. Shake it up. Dan Kennedy's medium? Use a curiosity generating book title (No rules!) that threatens to debunk and make a mockery of established success formulas, then repeatedly quote from the classics anyway ... but put a spin on the interpretation (...this is what Peal really meant, p4). That seems to be Dan Kennedy's formula. Well done. My advice, however...stick with the classics - Napolean Hill, Clement Stone and Maxwell Maltz. Dan's book simply recycles the classics as it suits him, self promotes his other book and relies on annectdotal evidence (some of it incorrect, eg.p13- Darren Bennett was not an Australian Soccer Player!) Frustrating are the contradictions for which Dan apologizes in the introduction. Dan Kennedy writes in an entertaining, provocative manner. But in the end, it is a "me too" a generic with modern examples but adding little original thinking. If you are serious, get the full story, get the classics.

directions. Kennedy offers many platitudes regarding most of societies accepted notions about work and success. And generally I agree with the vast majority of his assertions which very adequately debunk the traditional thinking. But I found the book to be most useful (at least to me) in terms of validating many of my own beliefs rather than describing the manner in which to accomplish certain goals. For example, Mr. Kennedy basically states that we just need to take action. I certainly concur insofar as action always beats inaction but then there is no supporting instruction on how to take action. And unfortunately many people have no concept of just how to take action.

Even though Mr. Kennedy offers many great examples of particular actions taken by many self starters I feel that many readers would not be able to apply the general concepts to their own lives or endeavors. For example, I might have suggested that the text include the suggestion to evaluate all of the various actions that could possibly be taken regardless of how simple or improbable they may seem. After having a good list of possible actions then it would be advisable to select the best 3 based upon important criteria which might include level of effort, cost, time required and likelihood to succeed to name only a few. From those three it would then be advisable to proceed with the best one. In my mind that is understandable and practical. It is unrealistic to expect that people who have no history or experience with taking initiative or being entrepreneurial will have any clue about what truly taking action means.

Having said that... the book is truly an inspiration and certainly served to get my juices flowing again. Not to mention the fact that it is an easy and extremely enjoyable read. The story about the guy with the Ivan Boesky connection practically had me fallen out of my chair laughin'.

In short I love Mr. Kennedy's style, agree with his beliefs and his suggested actions but I feel the book is deficient in specific instruction. But I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to take charge of their career and more importantly their life.

I have read lots and lots of self help books and listened to plenty of audio tapes and never really got results. Now I know why. Before you search for the answer to the secrets of life make sure to use commonsense. Listen to your that little voice inside you. The stories in this book will are great and will inspire you. All the myths that you thought were true will shatter.

Please stop the self-help madness and make sure you read this book atleast a couple of times. You will get the perspective that you really need to succeed.

I highly recommend it! Don't procrastinate buy it now!

This isn't your be-all guide to success. But it should be read along with others, to show there are exceptions to cliche rules, and to show that some cliche rules are all wrong. One example is that it IS possible to get rich quick, as Kennedy points out. The odds are against it. But to stroke your chin and think patience, and slow-and-steady is the only way to wealth: We all know the internet-rich-people who got rich overnight. Similar helpful points are made in this book. I recommend it. I listened to an audio-tape of Kennedy's (an infomercial tape, where he was promoting the book PSYCHOCYBERNETICS) and he relates there how he once suffered a personal bankruptcy. Now he is wealthy. If he can get wealthy after being bankrupt, there is hope for the rest of us. And this book should help.

This book was sleeping in my shelf for more than 2 years until I found it. WOW! I don't know why I wasted reading so many books written based on virtual reality. No sugar coating and this is real world, real Life and This is Real Book.

Thank you Dan,

Barath
www.techemate.com

First off I'd like to say that Dan Kennedy is not for everyone nor does he want to be. Some of what he says goes against what is taught in business as well as what is dictated to us from technology. He puts things bluntly, truthfully and as basic as can be. His books are not for whiners, babies or wimps. With that aside I give this rave reviews. He rights with a statement then example over and over again to write a very good book.

This isn't your be-all guide to success. But it should be read along with others, to show there are exceptions to cliche rules, and to show that some cliche rules are all wrong. One example is that it IS possible to get rich quick, as Kennedy points out. The odds are against it. But to stroke your chin and think patience, and slow-and-steady is the only way to wealth: We all know the internet-rich-people who got rich overnight. Similar helpful points are made in this book. I recommend it. I listened to an audio-tape of Kennedy's (an infomercial tape, where he was promoting the book PSYCHOCYBERNETICS) and he relates there how he once suffered a personal bankruptcy. Now he is wealthy. If he can get wealthy after being bankrupt, there is hope for the rest of us. And this book should help.

Everyone can learn a lot from Dan "in-your-face" Kennedy. He is the contrarian's contrarian. If this book doesn't inspire you to reinvent yourself and the way you do business, you are dead and they haven't buried you yet!