Grade:  Top5er

[Please make sure to check out my Book Review Guidelines for what I look for in a book and how I evaluate same.]

Let me start off this review like this:  If you’re even faintly interested in success books, skip this review and go buy 50 Success Classics today — or grab it from your library or steal it from a friend.

It’s that good and it’s that vital for your path.

Tom Butler-Bowden has written a book called 50 Success Classics, and it — in and of itself — is a classic in my book.

TBB has studied the best of the best in the success literature genre.  This quest must have taken him a couple of years, at least, and it’s evident.  He knows the field, and he’s organized his book around four sub-categories within the success genre:

• Motivation
• Fulfilling your potential
• Prosperity
• Leadership

Within the Motivation category, Butler-Bowden profiles 14 classics, including:

1. Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.
2. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
3. Anthony Robbins’ Unlimited Power.
4. Zig Ziglar’s See You at the Top.

From the Potential group, TBB includes these from among 12 covered:

1. Cheryl Richardson’s Take Time for Your Life.
2. Richard Wiseman’s The Luck Factor.

In the Prosperity category, Butler-Bowden covers the following among his 10 selections:

1. Russell Conwell’s Acres of Diamonds.
2. Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.
3. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

And, in the leadership group, TBB includes the following among the 14 selections:

1. Roger Lowenstein’s Buffett.
2. Michael Dell’s Direct from Dell.
3. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom.

What’s most impressive is that it’s clear early on that Butler-Bowdon hasn’t skimmed these books; he’s studied and reflected on them.  I checked him, you see, by reviewing his comments about the classics that I’ve studied and know rather well, and TBB has nailed ‘em.

For each selection, Butler-Bowdon includes short selections (quotes), a very brief “in a nutshell” one-two sentence summary of each book’s chief point, and a three-four page overview of the book.

I find it amazing that he’s been able to review so much in the success field and to be able to summarize his research so succinctly and well.

Butler-Bowdon is also the author of 50 Self-Help Classics and 50 Spiritual Classics, and I look forward to reviewing them both in the coming weeks.

50 Success Classics is available from the Dream Jobs Dialog Bookshop.

So, check it out . . . this jewel is top drawer.

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