Book Review Tuesday - The Truth About You

The Truth About You – Your Secret to Success by Marcus Buckingham

Marcus’ Buckingham’s latest book is a multimedia event.
The book comes with a notepad, the book itself and a video. You read the first chapter then you look at the video which is narrated by Buckingham himself. The author has been a consultant to Toyota and Coca Cola according to his biography so he probably knows all about success.
First the video. In the video we see the story of a boy named Ewan who played trumpet in the school band. No matter how much he tried to persuade his band director that he didn’t want to play trumpet the director didn’t listen. So Ewan took things into his own hands and found a replacement to play trumpet. He now plays drums. Why? Because he felt his strength was in playing the drum not the trumpet.
What Buckingham wants us to take away from this video is that your weaknesses are not necessarily what you aren’t good at. You may be very good at something, just not like doing it. It makes you weak.
Buckingham goes onto dispel some myths for example that you should work on your weaknesses. He insists you need to work on your strengths and either farm out things you are weak at, or make them a small part of your day/job.
The notepad is to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Buckingham suggests you spend a weak jotting down what makes you strong. What gets you jazzed. That’s how you’ll know your strengths.
Buckingham also suggests that you do the same for the things that drain you of energy. These are your weaknesses.
Many people will give you advice and Buckingham warns against taking some of that advice.
All in all, I found the book to be a refreshing change to most of the books on success. The author isn’t trying to get you to change, he’s trying to get you to work with the person you already are. Though I’m not in a position to look for a new job, I already am a writer, something that gives me energy, I could see how this book would be useful to someone who was. The author isn’t asking you to adopt habits contrary to your being, but instead work on developing and growing within the framework of your strengths. I think this book would make a great gift for anyone graduating from college.