Guru Ratings
Brian Tracy
Bad.
Remember my ratings criteria. I’m not judging these gurus on “global” or moral values, but very specific criteria. Many of my favorite books would be rated “bad” by my criteria for self-help (probably, because they are not self-help books). My ratings don’t reflect how well an author met his own goals, but how well they met my criteria for useful, accurate self-help.
Tracy has published countless books, audio CDs, DVDs, ebooks, and courses. But everything he stands for is summed up in Maximum Achievement.
Maximum Achievement (1993)
Maximum Achievement is basically a summary of all the books in its genre:
- motivational hype
- platitudes
- inspiring stories
- common sense and common nonsense set up as “7 steps” and “the master program” and “_____ in 21 days,” etc.
In a way, it’s a masterpiece. A masterpiece of marketable bullshit for suckers. All the bullshit of a thousand crappy success books is right here.
I’m tempted to actually recommend Maximum Achievement, just so you can read it and then never read another book of its kind. You could read this book and then skip the entire output of half the gurus on my list, because Brian Tracy crammed everything they say into this one book.
But no. I don’t recommend this book.