The Power of Focus for College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life [Paperback]

Les Hewitt (Author), Andrew Hewitt (Author), Luc d'Abadie (Author), Donald Trump (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2005 | Series: Power of Focus

Over half a million people have read The Power of Focus (co-authored by Les Hewitt and the creators of Chicken Soup for the Soul—Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen) and have used its principles to dramatically change their lives. It's now time to get college students in on the action.

In teaming up with two recent college grads, this bestselling series has produced another groundbreaking book that answers the ultimate question to an international phenomenon—why are millions of graduates struggling to find a fulfilling career? The answer to what students need, what employers want, and what the 21st century demands, is all found within the pages of this book.

Using student friendly lingo, inspiring stories and plenty of cartoons, The Power of Focus for College Students teaches you an exciting new approach to college education. Included are nine practical focusing strategies that will ensure your college investment leads to concrete opportunities in a career you love.

INSIDE THIS BOOK YOU'LL DISCOVER:

    * A simple activity for gaining instant clarity on what career is best for you
    * How to tap into the hidden job market where 80% of jobs are found
    * What 3% of Yale graduates do that lead them to become wealthier than the other 97% combined
    * Four fighting tactics to break through procrastination and fear
    * The truth about money—a proven method for achieving financial freedom

If you are bewildered by career options, questioning your major, unsure what extracurricular activities to join and want to learn the timeless success principles used by the worlds top achievers, then this book should be number one on your reading list. The Power of Focus for College Students is the answer for high school graduates and college Freshmen looking for guidance, college Seniors who are searching for an attractive career and anxious parents wanting assurance that their college investment is being spent wisely.

Get started now—the countdown to graduation has already begun!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Les Hewitt is is one of North American's top business coaches and creator of the international bestselling series, The Power of Focus.

Andrew Hewitt is a college graduate and a professional speaker who  has developed a unique approach to college education. This led to nationwide recognition and paved the way for him to become successful speakers on the college circuit. You can learn more about him and his co-author Luc d'Abadie at www.focusedstudent.com.

Luc d'Abadie travels the world alongside his business partner Andrew Hewitt, in their mission in helping students discover and reacher the full potential. He has been featured in Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Calgary Herald, and Canadian Business Magazines, as well as countless other publications and magazines across North America. He is  the co-instructor of the Trump University Audio Business Course, Start Right! How to Launch a Great Career.Visit his website www.focusedstudent.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Focusing Strategy ^#1

Making College Count
in the 21st Century

A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.B.A.,
or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B.

                                                    —Fats Domino

    Let's tell it like it is. You can either go through the motions of college and end up with a degree, or you can maximize your college experience and end up with an abundance of cool career opportunities doing something you will love. The reality is, most students just go through the motions, defaulting into one of three postgraduate scenarios. The following are real-life examples.

Name:  Teresa Martin    School:  University of Texas, Austin

Degree:  Psychology     Debt:  $0

status:  Working at a local sports bar in Austin and still living
at home. Has been working part-time since her junior year, and this evolved into a full-time position after graduation seven months ago. Under pressure from her parents, she is considering going back to school to study law.

frustration:  Although Teresa doesn't mind working at the bar,
it isn't where she pictured herself ending up. Her parents, after paying the big tuition bills at a reputable college, are naturally disappointed. They wish she was applying her degree, pursuing a more attractive career and living independently.

    Constant pressure from her parents is driving Teresa up the wall. She simply doesn't know what career she wants to pursue and is struggling to find a way to apply her degree. She wishes she had put more thought into this and explored her options in greater depth while in college. Applications are due for law school in a few months, but she is paralyzed with indecision.

Name:  Taylor Smith      School:  New York University

Degree:  Finance          Debt:  $67,000

status:  Working as a securities analyst for a large bank in New York. With a serious girlfriend and 18 months in a stable career, he is well-settled into postcollege life.

frustration:  Although successful in the eyes of his friends and family, Taylor has great disdain for the career path he chose. 
    Long hours and routine work are wearing him down, leaving him with little energy for himself and his girlfriend. He now realizes that the image of the finance field he carried through school was candy-coated by the high salary and prestige.

    Taylor wishes he had pursued something he was truly interested in and excited about—sports broadcasting perhaps, or journalism. With growing expenses and a seemingly inescapable debt load, Taylor feels stuck. He would love nothing more than to be able to go back to college and do it all over again.

Name:  Steven Lee        School:  Colorado State University

Degree:  Comp. Sci.     Debt:  $31,000

status:  Finished school eight and a half months ago and is still unemployed. Sent out more than 120 resumes, yielding only two interviews with no callbacks. Now spends the majority of his days playing computer games. Has basically given up on the job search, having recovered from the shock of realizing there was no corner office waiting for him upon graduation.

frustration:  He knows he has the skills to excel in a variety of information technology jobs and is deeply frustrated about not being able to get his foot in the door. He blames the economy, but knows there is more to the equation. As the weeks drift by with no job in sight, his self-confidence and self-worth continue to plummet. The only thing getting better is his computer game scores.

    What's wrong with these pictures? Why didn't those thousands of tuition dollars propel Teresa, Taylor and Steven into more fulfilling futures? Sadly, Teresa, Taylor and Steven are only three of the millions of college graduates who each year fit similar profiles. A great many of us drift through college hoping that life will work out later, hoping that the degree we earn will be a ticket to a successful and fulfilling future. In the last century this approach may have worked. Now, however, things are much different. In this first focusing strategy you will learn a new approach to college. Adopting this new approach is an essential step in making college the rewarding investment it should be. By putting these concepts into action, you will begin discovering what career you really want to pursue and start developing experience that will make you invaluable to employers. Best of all, college will become less stressful and a lot more fun. But first we owe you an explanation on why this new approach is so badly needed.

 

The Information

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: HCI (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757302890
• ISBN-13: 978-0757302893
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fluff over foundations, August 31, 2006

By 

D. Michael "Cloistered Biologist" (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Power of Focus for College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life (Paperback)

First, I would note that the authors have cut and pasted the other reviews for this book...resulting in a skewed impression on Amazon.

After reading this book from cover to cover, I am forced to ask whether a certain level of success should be required before you can write a book illustrating to others how to be successful...The authors, both 'recent' graduates have filled this book full of anecdotes and little cliches, prompting kids to 'follow their dreams'. One story that brought a tear (of pain) to my eye basically went like this:

"I wanted to be a dentist because I heard that they made a lot of money, but then other kids told me that they have high suicide rates, so I decided to not be a dentist...Boy am I glad!"

A large part of the book is devoted to the idea that 'experiences' are in the end worth more than a college degree, and that by becoming club President and co-treasurer...you'll have something to put on your resume that will sell yourself...I find this entire theory of fluff over substance to be rather saddening...especially given that instead of graduating college and finding a slick job making 200k someplace, these kids are writing books telling other kids 'how to do it'.

Written in a poor style, the authors throw out statistics and 'research' data with abandon, never actually following up any of these remarkable stats with actual 'references' (they must have been chairing a student group when their classes went through this concept).

Sure, some of the tips in this book are useful...but given that it's all common sense, this book is worthless.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book by authors who are the real deal, March 12, 2006

By 

Patrick Combs "Author of 'Major In Success: M... (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Power of Focus for College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life (Paperback)

This is a very, very smart book, and entirely practical. Perhaps best of all though, it's also inspirational and that matters because that's what gives it a HIGH READABILITY factor. I've already met students who LOVED this book and read it cover to cover.

One of this book's strongest points is its chapters and systems for discovering your passion. I've read a LOT of books that cover this subject and I can honestly say that this book offers a system for discovering your passion (and related jobs) that is great. What's unique about its approach is it tells you what TRULY creates passion, and how passion is related to values and abilities. So this book comes at the often-so-difficult task of pinpointing your passion from many different angles, and enough to finally reveal yours.

This book is also very street smart. That is to say it is full of strategies that you might only be exposed to if you were to privvy to secrets and effectiveness strategies of super highly-successful people. For instance, the authors include a chapter of the Principle of Social Reciprocity. This is a very savvy understanding about human nature and how to use the Principle of Reciprocity in a way that creates both increased success and increased goodness in your life. I immediately began applying the principal because (1) it is a better, kinder way to go about your life, and (2) the author's are right about how there's no way it can't immmediately begin increasing your success.

Another strength of the book is in what seem to be its two major aims. First, to enable you to see yourself and career in a whole new light. The author's know how to teach you to "SuperSize" your career (my term, not theirs), and they dedicate half the book to doing so. They are clearly aware that college doesn't do the job adequately so they guide you to do so, and they do it very smartly. And you can trace the roots of much of their advice back to their own experiences in college. Luc and Andrew, both have many good inspiring stories to relate from their own experiences of doing college out of the box. They participated in amazing conferences that most students don't even know about, and they traveled to places most adults only dream of going.

The second major aim of the book is to help you be really good and smart with money. They devote a lot of pages to the topic of money and financial freedom and again the lessons are sophisticated and savvy.

Just to be fair, a couple minor drawbacks: Near the opening of the book there's a couple pages that wax on very academically about Global changes and Global this and Global that. It is clearly the writing of Les Hewitt, and certainly good reading for a corporate audience, but it felt out of place in this book. Fortunately Andrew and Luc have done 90% of the writing in the book and you can tell because their writing voice is fresh, straight-forward and very inspired.

Secondly, the book's FANTASTIC on GOAL SETTING, HABITS of the SUCCESSFUL, STRATEGIES for TAKING ACTION, and NETWORKING - all these things are THOROUGHLY taught and the advice is world class. What's not much discussed is a level of suggestions as to what actions and activities to take up during college. I'll explain. The author's teach you how create a powerful and dynamic plan (using the technique "Begin with the Ending in Mind" - and it's such a smart system, but not all college readers will not know WHAT to plan on doing. The authors offer some suggestions, but all-important actions such as (1) Run a campus club, (2) Attend Professional Association conferences and meetings, (3) Develop Show & Tell Items, (4) Do deep research on your dream field (5) Spend a semester overseas (6) Turn your best professor into a mentor (7) Spend your summers interning or doing 'Short-Term Job Adventures', (8) Apply for things you think you cannot get, but really want, (9) Build a Dream Binder, etc are mostly not written about.... The author's might rightfully assume that these are steps you can figure out for yourself, but it is my experience, having worked with thousands of college students on success at their dreams on a thousand campuses for 10+ years now, that students also appreciate having the specific things they should DO DURING COLLEGE spelled out very clearly. I call teach it as the "Unassigned Homework", but then to be fair, I don't discuss things like goal setting, networking and money as well as Andrew and Luc.

This book is an EXTRAORDINARY resource for students and I certainly give it my highest recommendation to every student and every parent of a student. Andrew and Luc are wise beyond their years as well as benefiting (and passing along) the advice of mentors who are super-successful, truly fulfilled and leaders in their field. If you doubt any statement I've made, just look at the first 8 pages of the book. It's filled with testimonials on behalf of the book from incredibly successful, remarkable and good people. In my mind, these testimonials say more about the authors' good character and early success, than they even say about the book.

Phenomenal book. Get it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!, January 29, 2006

By 

Dave Garland (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Power of Focus for College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life (Paperback)

I just finished this book and words cannot express how impressed I am. First off, I found myself unable to stop myself and put the book down once I got it started... so I totally `forgot' to do my homework... but it was soooo worth it. I found the book to be written perfectly: easy to understand, well organized, personalized, etc. The writing was great but not overly professional giving it a younger feel which was awesome. The tips throughout were very valuable and the chapters each made sense. The personal stories added valuable lessons and humor. Everything from the cartoons to the quotes worked. This was definitely one of the best books I've ever read.