Book Review: The Power of Self-Confidence by Brian Tracy

The Power of Self-Confidence by Brian Tracy provides food for thought about how we are the ones who hold ourselves back from the goals we hold. The book discussed how self-confidence is built through perception and action that enhances character. It sheds light on how self-confidence is an inner game that once it is mastered moves to provide new ways of overcoming environmental challenges. 

The book has approximately seven chapters that include the foundations of self-confidence, purpose and personal power, achieving competence and personal mastery, the inner game of self-confidence, capitalizing on strengths, and overcoming adversity, and self-confidence in action. Each of these chapters will help readers gain greater awareness of what self-confidence is and where it can lead them. 

Self-confidence is a very personal game one can master with themselves. It is one in which you are both the player and the opponent. The world is a reflection of what you believe and this confirms our self-beliefs. There will always be those who desire to hold you back or gain at your expense but ultimately you are the one who chooses to allow them. Once you make the choice to stand up to yourself and for yourself the possibilities become endless. 

True self-confidence is missing in the vast majority of society even if most refuse to acknowledge it. The very act of not perceiving areas of weakness and a need for improvement is the very essence of lacking self-belief. Self-image is so low that some cannot bear the responsibility of viewing themselves how they truly are, the battery of skills they maintain, and the ones they need to add.  

 Before one can pull themselves up from their current station in life they must first acknowledge room for improvement and where to capitalize on the strengths they have already developed.

Those people who are unstoppable in life are the ones who can set goals and use the power of confidence to go after them. They allow no one to stand in their way or to tell them such goals cannot be achieved. With confidence they can blow by the competition and head straight for the goal posts. They are unstoppable! 

The last chapter of the book provides for the Four Ds of Success and Self-Confidence.  They include:

-Desire: You must desire to become a self-confident purpose.

-Decision: You must make the decision that you will work on yourself.

-Determination: You must be determined to change the way you act and spend your time.

-Discipline: Do it and get it done. 

The book is not scholarly by nature but does provide some sound advice for its readers. Each of us has a few places to learn, develop, and grow. There is no such thing as perfection in human life and those who cannot see the room for improvement are delusional. The book will move through a sequence of steps that help others gain a better perspective on how to achieve their goals.  It is in the genre of business.

Tracy, B. (2012). The power of self-confidence: become unstoppable, irresistible, and unafraid in every area of your life. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-118-46401-4

Price: $15-$25

Pages: 156

Blog Ranking: 3.7/5

Author: Dr. Murad Abel

Book Review: Grand Pursuit-The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar

The world economic system is changing and people are adjusting rapidly to new ways of living. Modern economics is full of wonder and predictions that are based in a number of assumptions from theorist history. Sylvia Nasar puts in perspective the history of economic thought so that readers can make better sense of the decisions today through a theoretical past lens. Like Robert L. Heilbroner’s 1953 classic The Worldly Philosophers this book goes a step further and describes concepts with increased clarity. 

The choice of theorists used in the book is interesting and entirely of the author’s choosing. Even though well-known theorists such as Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Joseph Schumpeter are present, other theorists such as Webb, Fischer, and Hayek are also discussed. These theorists contributed substantially to the thought of economic systems but have not had the opportunity to truly be explored in most books. 

The book moves into the perspective of the theories in the times and circumstances in which they lived. For example, Schumpeter was named the president of Vienna’s old investment bank M.L. Biedermann the day it went public at the ripe age of 29. By this time, he was so far in debt that he was chased both civilly and criminally by a pack of angry investors. A number of his businesses went broke, his Theresianum partner was a crook, and he was forced to compensate shareholders. 

You might also find some interest in Irving Fisher’s theories. He was one of the first neoclassical economists within the United States. Fisher was one of the first people to use cost of living adjustments for employees. Ironically he did not like them stating that they were “money illusions” and both Wall Street Traders and employees alike were prone to this inflation false perception. People perceived money as stable and price of goods as adjusting, which is actually the reverse of what was happening. 

As long as the cost of living was getting higher, the Index Visible employees welcomed the swelling contents of their “high cost of living” pay envelopes. They thought their wages were increasing, though it was carefully explained to them that their real wages were merely standing still. But as soon as the cost of living fell they resented the “reduction” in wages.

To Fisher money was fluctuating and employees who were given more money to make sure they were receiving their “fair pay” were happy. However, when the cost of living declined an appropriate reduction was taken from their paychecks to ensure that they were not overpaid. Employees did not understand the concept that money has relative worth compared to other costs around them. 

The author sets the chapters around three main Acts that help highlight in what context the economic thought developed. Hope, Fear, and Confidence were seen as the political and economic backdrops of different genres of thought. The book is well thought out and maintains an excellent host of references for each chapter. Such a book is written at a college level and is fairly easy to follow chronologically. 

Nasar, S. (2011). Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius. NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. ISB 978-0-684-87298-8

Blog Ranking: 4.8/5

Cost:  $15