Customer Reviews

Winning Smart After Losing Big: Revitalizing People, Reviving Enterprises

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was a stimulating book - clear, concise and not too full of psychobabble. It dealt practically with recovering from loss leaving the responsibility on the individual. I also felt that it was encouraging and honest. It did not make me feel good, but admitting my flawed thinking rarely does.

This book is full of the obvious truths. In such, it is easy to understand. Chapter 3, Recognizing Your Loss, is one of them. I agree that we are often not honest with ourselves and hang on or ignore our losses. The observation in Chapter 2 that life is a series of wins and losses is another truth I had not thought of. It is encouraging to know that we have lots of experience in dealing with loss. Another obvious truth often overlooked is that we recover incrementally. We always seem to want it all back the way it was. That is not looking forward and not progressive. Learning and recovering from loss should make us stronger and as such, we should be looking to a future with more than the past.

This is a good quick read, encouraging and practical. I recommend it for anyone dealing with the loss of something or someone important.

I have to admit, this book did inspire me. When I read it, the ideas expressed were so overly simplified I thought, "Hell, I could write a self-help if this is all it takes."

We've all lost something at some point. We're all going to lose something again. However, Stearns's black and white assessments of winning and losing don't really apply to most of the situations you'll face. Simply put, Stearns says a win is when you get something you want or don't get something you don't want; a loss is the opposite on either side. What if you think you want something and later realize you don't, such as wanting to sleep with that girl you had a crush on in high school, but later learning she has chlamydia. Is that a win because you got to sleep with her or a loss because you caught an STD you didn't want?

Because the book is so sparse on examples of the ideas he's pushing, you are encouraged to think of your own from your own life. As such I found myself thinking of things like my career, in which I was successful, but ultimately was unsatisfied with the work and decided to get into another profession. Did I win because going into my career I set modest goals that I met and exceeded? Or did I lose because the joy I'd expected never manifested itself?

Speaking of the examples, this is where the book could have taken off but failed. Stearns has a few interesting stories, the best of which is his tale of venturing into post-Soviet Russia to tap into the scientific minds behind the Red Empire and bring their inventions to the West only to learn that the best invention to be had is a theorhetical self-defrosting freezer. This story really seems to be the heart of Stearn's theme, but is briefly touched only twice. Another story about his father is touching and serves its purpose, but the only other anecdote comes in the form of two stories about two friends who followed similar losing paths, with one ultimately pulling out of his tailspin and the other dying. The vague nature of the stories misses the point completely.

Without real-life stories, most of Stearns's ideas come off as nebulous and half-thought out, with MSPaint quality charts and graphs allegedly illustrating his points.

If you're at all curious, check this book out at the library. For seventeen bucks, you can pick up plenty of other better written books with more than 100 pages of content.

A MUST READ FOR MANAGEMENT

Reading "Winning Smart After Losing Big" inspired me to contact to author - Rob Stearns. Rob was gracious enough to meet with a colleague and me over coffee in Cave Creek, AZ. My objective was to learn more about this inspirational book and the man that crafted and lived the words. Rob is the real deal. He boldly went were most business leaders fear to go - to candidly discuss and admit to losing in the big game of business and life. What makes Rob and "Winning Smart After Losing Big" special is that he provides the reader with step-by-step guide leading you past losing to winning. He uses examples from his personal experience coupled with real world chronicles of ordinary people that have survived crippling defeats only to rise and win yet again. "Winning Smart After Losing Big" and its message might have been written in an earlier generation by thought provoking authors such as Norman Vincent Peale or Earl Nightengale. Business schools should make this book required reading.

other books (of the hundreds I've bought in my life) can make that claim. It's that good.

I'm a huge fan of aphorisms, truisms and axioms and that's the core of this book. The aphorisms are bound to together by a short and sweet text.

The author's real life losing experiences give him the authority to write the truth. He doesn't even list in full detail his background and the depth of his losses. No numbers but you know how far he fell. But his website gives you the detail: former CFO of a public company, Wall Street hot shot with an Ivy League education.

What was most helpful is that the book provides an analytic framework of how to win smart after losing.

Going through my two most recent losing events (stock market and divorce) I had the help of a friend who was able to express some of the insights from this book but it wasn't bound together by the research and time Stearns put into this book. It's all right in this book. One place.

In the notes he said he interviewed many people but only a few brief discussions are in the book. He edited out the bulk and, on reflection, I don't think the book would have been as good if it was a long list of "war stories."

Thanks to Bill Kristol for his review of this book in "The Weekly Standard." That recommendation - along with the title - prompted my purchase.

As an underdog and a loser in life, I find the book not helpful at all. The writing skill is bad and examples are few. However, that still didnt make my rating a one star, if not for the fact, with my very negative opinion of it, that I had been curious enough to check the mix of the ten five star ratings from the previous eleven reviews, and not so surprised to find three readers anonymous plus seven one shot only reviewers. Pardon me if I got it all wrong, but I do despise such manipulation on Amazon.

Move over Dr. Phil! Rob Stearns packed this book with practical advice that explains how to move onward and upward following any type of loss. Mr. Stearns outlines the thought processes and actions that take us from losing to winning. He makes it clear that while losing is a normal part of life, we are not puppets of fate but rather active participants in shaping our own destiny: it is up to us to take responsibility for our own actions and turn our losses into wins. This book tells us how in a conversational, no-nonsense, non-preachy style.

On a recent trip to Chicago I picked up this book and could not put it down. Rob Stearns speaks from his heart and guides you into a new way of looking at life. It is both inspirational and insightful. I'd love to attend one of his live programs when he is on the east coast. If his programs are as dynamic as his web site, www.robstearns.com, it will be worth the price of admission.

We all would like to think we're calm, cool, and collected. However, when faced with life's challenges and handed a loss most of us end up in a stagnant limbo for a period of time. Often times we are caught up in the moment loosing focus and the ability to make smart decisions. This book is an excellent reference to help clarify these thoughts and assist in choosing the right path forward. The book is a quick read and should be staple for those wanting to excel in life.

This is a great book for for anybody too busy to spend a lot of time wondering about how to deal with problems. As Rob Stearns says in this book, we're all the CEO's of our own lives. He shows us how to quickly make decisions to move on and begin to recover from major losses in attainable increments. Seems like he's been there in a big way. It's really a different kind of book than I've seen before - part business, part philosophy of life, but all very plain-spoken. The central thought that major loss is a part of everyone's life is actually oddly comforting when you read the book.

We're often taught that losing is a natural part of life, but we're not usually tutored in what to do after a loss has occurred. Mr. Stearns examines different types of loss, both personal and professional, and presents a clear course for moving forward positively, whatever the loss source. Insightful and touching anecdotes add texture to this fine read. I am already thinking and acting a lot "smarter" as inevitable loss touches my life.