Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

John Dossett's crisp and polished delivery is a natural fit for Johnson's no-nonsense style of motivational storytelling. Dossett chooses to understate the pathos, projecting a tone of wistful contemplation instead of heavy drama. Both the story and the narrative within the story surround dialogue between a weary day-to-day corporate warrior and a seasoned sage who offers a broader perspective on our familiar notions of success, achievement and happiness. In light of the current economic climate, listeners will find the messages timely, even if the paradigm shifts may not seem especially original. As an added bonus, the audio book includes an interview with the author sharing how he strives to keep the public focused on his message instead of elevating him into a celebrity business guru. A Simon and Schuster hardcover. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

Making Good And Bad Times Work For You -- At Work And In Life

Peaks and Valleys is a story of a young man who lives unhappily in a valley until he meets an old man who lives on a peak, and it changes his work and life forever.

Initially, the young man does not realize he is talking with one of the most peaceful and successful people in the world. However, through a series of conversations and experiences that occur up on peaks and down in valleys, the young man comes to make some startling discoveries.

Eventually, he comes to understand how he can use the old man's remarkable principles and practical tools in good and bad times and becomes more calm and successful himself.

Now you can take a similar journey through the story and use what you find to your advantage in your own work and life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439103259
• ISBN-13: 978-1439103258
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #26 in	Books > Business & Investing > Business Life > Motivation & Self-Improvement
  #69 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Motivational

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Which Leads the Reader to Some Important Truths About Life, March 9, 2009

By	scesq "scesq" (New Milford, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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The first Spencer Johnson book I read was Who Moved My Cheese. This book follows the same formula. The reader is told a story. At points in the story the author stops and explains a self-help message, learned by one or more characters, which is relevant to the reader. A series of self-help messages (which are relevant individually or as a group) lead to a conclusion about how to make life better.

This story focuses on a man who is troubled by life. A friend tells him a story about a man, also troubled by life, who lives in a valley and makes a trek up a peak to see a wise man. The man also makes other treks up and down other peaks and valleys.

In this story the man learns that peaks and valleys are part of life. The key to living a richer life is how you perceive and address the peaks and valleys and what you learn while you are traversing the peaks and valleys.

I have found the information in Spencer Johnson's books often times to be intuitive. For instance one message in this book is "You can have fewer bad times when you appreciate and manage your good times wisely."

Yet Spencer Johnson also addresses truths that I often want to forget. One message is "The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring."

Finally Spencer Johnson always manages to come up with a couple of things I had not really thought about. For instance one message is "The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently."

As mentioned these messages correspond to events in the story. Spencer Johnson is most effective when the events in the story lead the reader to the message. In fact, when he is at this best the author does not even need to state the message because the reader will get the message without having to read it.

If you liked Spencer Johnson's works before you will be pleased with Peaks and Valleys. If you have never read anything by him and you are looking for a story which leads you to key truths about life, without a bunch of analysis, then you will enjoy this work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life...As A Metaphor (And So Much More!), February 8, 2009

By	Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Man "Jimmy Moore" (Spartanburg, SC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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If you are looking for a self-help book to get you out of your rut in your career, your relationships, and in the day-to-day of living your life, then PEAKS AND VALLEYS may just do the trick. This book gives you simple, common sense tools for surviving the low times (valleys) in your life when things may seem to be the worst while giving you the proper perspective for the good times (peaks) so you don't get too caught up in the moment. This balance and stability will serve you well in EVERY area of your life and we owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Spencer Johnson for imparting his life-coaching skills in such an easy-to-read, but highly profound book.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I am unmoved by this cheese., February 2, 2009

By	P. Blackburn "mr. right now" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

Spencer Johnson is brilliant at marketing popular psychology and I applaud his success. Here is a thin book of even thinner advice that boils down to common sense packaged as a folksy parable. The contents deal with the ups and downs common to all our lives, specifically how to get out of a valley (bad) sooner and how to ascend and remain on a peak (good). The contents are a story-within-a-story and Johnson's narrator insists that the listener (meaning you and me) pass it on, allowing Johnson to ascend to an even higher peak.

The parable format (of the "Once upon a time..." variety) is the vehicle Johnson uses to remove the reader from his/her own experiences and concentrate on the message being conveyed, but I found this worked at cross-purposes. The writing (Man struggles up a mountain, meets wise old man, sees an even higher peak but a river is in the way, ad nauseam) is so hokey that I found it actually blocked my ability to gain the intended insight. Had the presentation been the experiences of case studies or other real-life lessons, the contents would have presented themselves as stylistically relevant and for the serious reader who purchased the book for serious guidance.

The contents contain absolutely nothing you don't already know. Valleys ultimately end, so relax and be more loving and a better contributor at work. Live with your heart by stepping outside yourself, concentrating on specific, reasonable goals and you'll wind up loving the journey. And stuff like that. While these kinds of lessons are fine as occasional reminders and may cause you to look at yourself a bit more objectively, what a reader of this kind of book needs is practical application and technique and this book offers none. Just very general observations and feel-good sentiment.

As a book, you really don't need to read the parable because the "important lessons" are interspersed within the story and as full-page text. Thus, you can simply skim through and glean anything that you may find interesting. This repetitive, large-text format is a positive because it underlines what Johnson is presenting and allows for a quick reminder later on without rereading.

2 stars for an extremely obvious, cloyingly sentimental catalogue of inspirational phrases you find on workplace posters.