Customer Reviews

Sacred Bull: The Inner Obstacles That Hold You Back at Work and How to Overcome Them

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

 

 

Many of the obstacles that commonly hold us back from achieving our potential are within our own minds. This book helps you to identify and overcome them. The authors point out that the ten obstacles they discuss are really fallacies and go so far as to write, "these beliefs actually stand square in the way of common sense."

You are challenged to cultivate relationships work, particularly with the boss. Realize that what decision-makers think about you has an impact on your success. Devote time to making the proper, professional impression. Speaking of challenges, they add, "challenge is essential to psychological health."

Along the lines of professional relationship cultivation is the idea of selling oneself. "It is never enough merely to have what it takes. You always have to convince other people," they advise.

Workaholics are seen as being people who cop out because they do what is comfortable rather than what is more difficult. Holistic management realizes life includes more than managing things.

One reality that is usually observed but not commented upon is that "in many companies, 'looking good'--understanding the system without being told-- is rewarded more than actually doing the job well," they poignantly state.

These are just some of the valuable epiphanies this book contains. It increases your effectiveness because it puts the spotlight on some things commonly observed, yet frequently not analyzed. It will help you to learn to "play the game" and get ahead.

Well written, funny and to the point. This is definitely a book for busy workers who are concerned with moving up in their own career. It explains by fictitious examples that are easily identifiable from personal experience. As a result the book is easy to read in small, digestable chunks. I read this book on and off for about a month while dealing with problems at work. It is fair to say that without this book I would have been stalled for a year or more dealing with these issues.

In most cases this book helped me to gain a much more objective perspective on my own life and to indentify problems that I didn't even realize existed.

A good book all around. Definitely worth the price.

The only reason I do not give this book a 5 star rating is due to the writers tendency to spend more time than necessary reinforcing points made throughout the book. I found myself skipping around, or paging forward because of redundant information. A very minor complaint, however.

Do not be led to believe that Albert Bernstein has written an oversimplified book. If anything, he illustrated with vivid clarity ten patterns of thinking which you may subscribe to or someone else in your life. I learned why perfectionism is actually never beneficial from this book. I found this explanation at the perfect time - and it explained my own behavior to me for the past several years. Immediately I changed and benefited. I have read plenty of quasi self help books/philosophy books and know all of the concepts of self esteem etc. yet this book really explained the obstacles that will halt people in their tracks that I could definitely relate to. I read this book in roughly 3 hours, and it is definitely the most important book I have read to date. For the bull of perfectionism for example, Bernstein says that perfectionists lend equal priority to practically everything, and therefore are exhausted in unimportant details. The opposite of perfection is efficiency. He writes anecdotes of fictional characters (I am presuming) multiple times in each chapter which clearly convey how subscription to one bull negatively impacts ones own life. Some of the bulls/10 bad thinking patterns overlap and rely on each other to some extent. Do not let the apparent simplicity here fool you, this book is gold and comes from a man who recognizes the need for one to be efficient in not only dealing with oneself but with other people.