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BOOK REVIEW: Guaranteed Success When you Never Give Up |
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Written by TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER
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 Business is tough these days.
The economy isn’t where you’d like to see it. New clients are harder to get, and your competitors are scre-aming for your cus-tomers’ money. Vend-ors say things are looking up in other parts of the country, but that doesn’t pay the bills for you.
Your (mostly young) sales force needs serious motivation, but you’re tapped out. So spend a few bucks and buy everyone on your team their very own copy of Guaranteed Success: When You Never Give Up by hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur Percy “Master P” Miller.
Give them each a pencil and a free afternoon. Then watch what happens within your business and their lives.
Born and raised in poverty, Miller wanted, as a young boy, to make things easier for his family. To prove that motivation strikes at any age, he says that when he was 9 years old, he became a mini-entrepreneur by collecting aluminum for cash. Neighborhood elders saw his spirit and asked him to carry groceries for tips. Soon, they trusted him to fetch their groceries and run errands. This entrepreneurial speck grew into what is today a multi-million-dollar empire.
Using an analogy that’s easy to understand, Miller says that every new business person is like a butterfly-in-the-making. Caterpillars are folks who are crawling along, waiting for the right opportunity. He also calls this the “survival” stage. People in this stage are just getting by.
People in transition are cocoons. They’ve realized they can reach for their dreams and are exploring their potential. This is the “significance” stage where entrepreneurs learn most about themselves.
Butterflies are those who have finally achieved their dreams and are successful. Miller says “purpose” is at this stage. The businessperson realizes a reason for living, which breeds success.
But go back to the title of this book: How can someone guarantee success?
Miller says there are seven hindrances to success. Once these are recognized, steps can be taken to overcome them. Never quit, surround yourself with people who have the same goals in mind, get educated, then accomplishment and achieve-ment are both practically guaranteed.
Paging through Guaranteed Success, you might think it a little too simplistic for an established business person or an adult. Much like a grade-school workbook, it contains lots of blank lines waiting to be filled in this already-skinny book.
Don’t discount it, though.
Miller encourages readers to ponder and put their thoughts to paper, which, he points out, is one of the ways to success: seeing the goal and its pathway in black-and-white makes it easier to envision. Readers are further encouraged with easy-to-remember motivational one-liners, buzzwords, and a step-by-step action plan.
Overall, even though this book might be quite basic for someone who’s been “around the block” in business, it has its merits for boosting a young staff, as a refresher for experienced workers, or as an oomph for a teenager who has a speck of entrepreneurship in his or her blood. For them – and for you, Guaranteed Success is a guaranteed motivator.
Guaranteed Success: When You Never Give Up by Percy “Master P” Miller c.2007, Urban Books $16.95 / $21.95 Canada 154 pages
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EDITOR’S NOTE:
Master P is a hip-hop artist and rap mogul who in May announced that he and his son, Romeo, were forming a new record label, Take A Stand Records, that will seek to clean up both the image and lyrics of hip-hop music. The new label, he said, will represent artists who have pledged to be role models to both the music industry and music lovers of all walks of life through entirely clean lyrics and positive moral values.
Master P made the announcement on the web site, http://www.takeastandrecords.com/letter.html. In a letter on the website, Master P says, “I can honestly say that I was once part of the problem and now it's time to be part of the solution.”
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