Customer Reviews

Winnie-the-Pooh on Success: In Which, You, Pooh and Friends Learn about the Most Important Subject of All

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Re: "Winnie-the-Pooh on Success: In which You, Pooh, and friends learn about the Most Important Subject of All" (1997) by Roger E. Allen and Stephen D. Allen. (They've written similar books on Management and on Problem Solving.) This book has Very Good Form, but poor content.

The whole thing is about achieving your desires by setting goals and creating a plan. Period. The kind of thing that management consultants might give seminars about, with flip charts or PowerPoint slides showing all the steps to follow. To help you remember, there would be mnemonics such as the Three Ps: Preparing, Performing, and Putting Away. That's exactly what you'll find here, in an appendix.

To make it palatable, the authors tell the tale of a Stranger arriving at the Hundred Acre Woods and giving a series of talks to Pooh and his friends. Excerpts from the original Pooh books illustrate many of the points, and the animals excitedly react to these stories and interrupt with others. As they learn the SUCCESS formula -- Select, Use, Create, etc. -- they practice by building a swing and by rescuing Pooh from a honey tree. It's very well written, and almost constitutes a new Pooh adventure.

Alas, there are two major flaws. One is that we aren't seeing Pooh and friends doing Interesting Pooh Things, such as his search for the North Pole (and then the East Pole). This isn't Christopher Robin playing with his stuffed toys. There aren't any new illustrations, either. The plot consists of the Stranger arriving, the animals gathering, a lesson being given, and everyone celebrating with snacks. Ten chapters of the same plot, more or less. The dialogs and side plots are very well done, but the format is constraining.

The second flaw is far more serious. The lectures to which the animals listen have not been adapted for their intended audience. Instead of being written for Pooh and Piglet, they are written for the book reader -- or, perhaps, transcribed from actual Allen Associates presentations in industry. Here's an example: "Practicing with purpose means that each time you perform the activity, you do it with the intent of improving, either by working on one specific part of the overall skill, or by trying to improve on one part of the ability." That's only part of a paragraph, and part of a lesson. Maybe Owl could relate to this presentation style, with its thicket of Big Words. Is it believable that the response would be Roo asking "How often should you practice?" Is it believable that Roo could even sit still or stay awake through this? I had trouble myself, and can't recommend the book. A pity.

Length:: 1:19 Mins

This book was worth every cent! I've always loved Winnie the Pooh, so it is really great to have it used as a reference to achieving success!