Customer Reviews

Wisdom to Grow On

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

 

 

First, hats off to the author for not only coming up with an original idea but then following up on it and making it reality. Based on his description of the process in the intro that took a lot of work.
Overall, the comments of the celebrities in the book are quite inspirational, even in spite of the occasional platitude. I also appreciated the short biography section at the end, supplemented with the page numbers where that person's quotes appear. It helped me in particular because I was actually not familiar with many of the celebrities who are quoted in this work.
What in my view is the most serious flaw of this book is that apparently, the author's notion of what constitutes a 'successful' person is rather narrow, if not shallow. Most of the people quoted are either well-known athletes or entertainers, with a smaller proportion of well-known politicians and business people represented. This may be a reflection of the author's background as a former sports journalist and attorney, or perhaps he really did try and did not get any publishable replies from successful people in other fields. Nevertheless, it strikes me as hypocritical when many of the quotes admonish studying hard, and yet there is not a single successful person represented in this book the foundation of whose success is actually based on studying hard, as opposed to physical, artistic or interpersonal skill. Rather than quoting another b-list actor, it would have been refreshing to see a contribution from an engineer, mathematician, or scientist who was both personally and professionally successful.
The reason why I consider this a serious shortcoming of this book is that in my opinion, far too many youths today are trying to be the next (insert your favorite athlete/entertainer name here), rather than fully exploring their own innate talents, which may lie altogether elsewhere. Implicitly, by the selection of the celebrities it quotes, this book encourages this behavior, and thereby undermines its own central message (as I understood it) to find one's own path to success.
If the selection of celebrities had not been so one-sided, and if there were more fully printed responses, I probably would have given this book 5 stars.

This is an inspiring book. High School students want to read the short messages written by famous people that they know. I have been giving it as high school graduation gifts for several years, always with positive feedback from the recipients.

What wonderful words from some outstanding people to offer to a new child! Nice collection! A definite "coffee table" book to leave out for company to read.

What a joy to read........inspires one to accept responsibility, live life to the fullest and have plenty of fun along the way.....a wonderful gift to share with others along life's journey...... I'd like to see an inspirational calender made with some of the quotes

This is a wonderful and unique collection of advice that came out a loving gesture from a father to a son. I glance at it every so often and read a few pages for inspiration now and again. I also sent one to a friend expecting his first child.