Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life [Hardcover]

Spencer Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Moved My Cheese?, a brilliant new parable that shows readers how to stay calm and successful, even in the most challenging of environments.

A young man lives unhappily in a valley. One day he meets an old man who lives on a mountain peak. At first the young man doesn’t realize that he is talking to one of the most peaceful and successful people in the world. But in the course of further encounters and conversations, the young man comes to understand that he can apply the old man’s remarkable principles and practical tools to his own life to change it for the better. Spencer Johnson knows how to tell a deceptively simple story that teaches deep lessons. The One Minute Manager (co-written with Ken Blanchard) sold 15 million copies and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for more than twenty years. Since it was published a decade ago, Who Moved My Cheese? has sold more than 25 million copies. In fact there are more than 46 million copies of Spencer Johnson’s books in print, in forty-seven languages—and with today’s economic uncertainty, his new book could not be more relevant. Pithy, wise, and empowering, Peaks and Valleys is clearly destined to becomeanother Spencer Johnson classic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

John Dossett's crisp and polished delivery is a natural fit for Johnson's no-nonsense style of motivational storytelling. Dossett chooses to understate the pathos, projecting a tone of wistful contemplation instead of heavy drama. Both the story and the narrative within the story surround dialogue between a weary day-to-day corporate warrior and a seasoned sage who offers a broader perspective on our familiar notions of success, achievement and happiness. In light of the current economic climate, listeners will find the messages timely, even if the paradigm shifts may not seem especially original. As an added bonus, the audio book includes an interview with the author sharing how he strives to keep the public focused on his message instead of elevating him into a celebrity business guru. A Simon and Schuster hardcover. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Spencer Johnson has written or co-written three New York Times #1 bestsellers, including Who Moved My Cheese?, The One Minute Manager (with Kenneth Blanchard), and The Present. He received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Southern California, an M.D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, and is currently advisor to the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439103259
• ISBN-13: 978-1439103258
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Spencer Johnson, M.D., is one of the world's most respected thinkers and beloved authors. Dr. Johnson earned a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California, an M.D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, and medical clerkships at The Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School. More than forty-six million copies of Spencer Johnson's books are in print worldwide in more than forty-seven languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Which Leads the Reader to Some Important Truths About Life, March 9, 2009

By 

scesq "scesq" (New Milford, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

The first Spencer Johnson book I read was Who Moved My Cheese. This book follows the same formula. The reader is told a story. At points in the story the author stops and explains a self-help message, learned by one or more characters, which is relevant to the reader. A series of self-help messages (which are relevant individually or as a group) lead to a conclusion about how to make life better.

This story focuses on a man who is troubled by life. A friend tells him a story about a man, also troubled by life, who lives in a valley and makes a trek up a peak to see a wise man. The man also makes other treks up and down other peaks and valleys.

In this story the man learns that peaks and valleys are part of life. The key to living a richer life is how you perceive and address the peaks and valleys and what you learn while you are traversing the peaks and valleys.

I have found the information in Spencer Johnson's books often times to be intuitive. For instance one message in this book is "You can have fewer bad times when you appreciate and manage your good times wisely."

Yet Spencer Johnson also addresses truths that I often want to forget. One message is "The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring."

Finally Spencer Johnson always manages to come up with a couple of things I had not really thought about. For instance one message is "The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently."

As mentioned these messages correspond to events in the story. Spencer Johnson is most effective when the events in the story lead the reader to the message. In fact, when he is at this best the author does not even need to state the message because the reader will get the message without having to read it.

If you liked Spencer Johnson's works before you will be pleased with Peaks and Valleys. If you have never read anything by him and you are looking for a story which leads you to key truths about life, without a bunch of analysis, then you will enjoy this work.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars LITTLE BOOK, BIG HEART, February 25, 2009

By 

Roy Clark "rclarknv" (Edge of Toiyabe Nat'l Forest, NV) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This little, in every sense, book is 99 pages long. That's with large type, lines spaced well-apart. Reading in a rather studious manner, it was a 45 minutes read.

Read Page 90 and you'll get the whole message, only with less sentiment,
sunrises, sunsets, or moist-eye mentions, in a quick 1-2-3 outline style.

A whole page? 23 words would do: If you're in a valley (a bad place), apply
that experience while you envision the peak (a good place) you want to be.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS' format laces together a parable format (think sensei and grasshopper-acolyte) for passing on wisdom with loads of sentimentality ('His eyes moistened' kept repeating) and renderings of too-many too-well-worn platitudes over and over again. Far more fluff than facts.

Its platitudes are recognizable as common sense today. Or trite. Most are found in many self-help books already. There are, by Amazonian count, 30,548 such books
on the racks waiting to point the way to wherever.

Say, here's a tip: Writing Successful Self-Help and How-To Books (Wiley Books for Writers Series) Written by Jean Marie Stine. I've read her very well-done book - New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing There's a workbook book too. Maybe you can write a book and next for V&P will be a map.

(Oh, if you write that book and it doesn't sell, well, there's How to Heal a Broken Heart in 30 Days: A Day-by-Day Guide to Saying Good-bye and Getting On With Your Life (I actually read it. It kept its promise. Gave it 5-Stars!)

The only thing I found remarkable in P&V is that, as proclaimed on the back inside flap, Dr. Johnson's formula has sold over 46-million copies of his find happiness/ success/whatever books in 47 languages.

If you're past a ninth-grade reading level (where this book seems aimed in style and grammar), you might like a better though more challenging, sophisticated read: Just type in 'self help' in the book search window at Amazon; they have a wide variety of such books, enough to fit most-every specific need. When you search, note that many reviewers complain of the old same-old same-old repetition of advice. Sorta like P&V struck me.

I truly hate writing a negative review. So I followed a thread in the book which solicited comments and suggestions: An email address. After reading about Dr. Johnson's impressive Harvard credentials and 46,000,000 books sold in 47 languages, I asked if I missed something. Even included a copy of my review
(this one is a bit revised). Alas, no reply.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life...As A Metaphor (And So Much More!), February 8, 2009

By 

Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man "Jimmy Moore" (Spartanburg, SC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

If you are looking for a self-help book to get you out of your rut in your career, your relationships, and in the day-to-day of living your life, then PEAKS AND VALLEYS may just do the trick. This book gives you simple, common sense tools for surviving the low times (valleys) in your life when things may seem to be the worst while giving you the proper perspective for the good times (peaks) so you don't get too caught up in the moment. This balance and stability will serve you well in EVERY area of your life and we owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Spencer Johnson for imparting his life-coaching skills in such an easy-to-read, but highly profound book.