Careers Books

This is a good book, if you buy it new and have access to the online test. Otherwise the book is rather pointless.

We loved the concept behind this book (and its Christian companion, "Living Your Strengths"). Our church staff took the (included with book) online StengthsFinder assessment and all found it very accurate and helpful in providing insights on what drives our fellow co-workers. It brings to light strengths you may not have identified previously and validates them - empowering you to explore and utilize them in new ways. We just ordered enough for our ministry leaders and church council and will be recommending it to our congregation as a very helpful tool not only for self-discovery, but also insight on others who have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment.

Sorry to all who really liked this book, but I have to disagree. I read it for a management class and it was so short and general, it really did not d anything for me. It has a typical "personality" type assessment test, but instead of really giving you a great interesting test it was composed of a very simple, short test that took about 10 minutes. From that, Rath's website examines where your strengths are. My test was probably only 50% accurate. Don't buy the used copies, more than likely someone ha already used the code in the back of the book and then the book is virtually useless....geee, wonderful sales gimick! This type og general test taking to "Discover Your Strengths" is giving the world false impressions. Combined with a formula of Talent X Investment = Strength, Rath hopes that he can convince people to not waste their time if they have no natural talent for something. These types of books only want ot sell to the public and do not really offer much of any analysis.

Really an excellent improvement in the test compared to the original Strengthfinders test. The new test takes a combination of your factors to determine how each factor applies to you. I recently had my team go through the new strengthfinders and even people with the same strengths had different descriptions about how they were impacted and the types of ways the various strengths show themselves for each individual. The book itself is not as impactful as Now Determine Your Strengths, but the test is the primary value, so I'd recommend Strengthsfinder 2.0. I also highly recommend Marcus Buckingham's Go Play to Your Strengths.

We are a strength based organization and basically had all of our staff read this book and take the online test. THe results were so accurate in describing each individual and, as well, in explaining why each person was excelling in their work, that we have started a policy of having new employees, in the interview process, read the book and take the test. No, it is not a fortune teller. Rather, it shows tendencies and areas where a person can see the world from the power rather than as an observer... Yea! Great book!!

I got raving reviews from a number of my friends about the book so I decided to buy it. I read it and it was almost completely worthless. The authors say that if you imagine something is yours, magically it becomes so. This point is repeated over and over again from the first page to the last, with little of anything else in between. Waste of money, I wouldn't recommend it.

... is NOT positive thinking, the 'law of attraction,' or any other such nonsense.

When the U.S. economy collapsed in the fall of 2008, one cannot help but notice that "positive thinking" was never, ever, ever proposed as a solution to the economic problems by anyone in any serious position of authority.

Not a single person on either side of the aisle in congress; nor by anyone on Wall Street.

Why? Because 'positive thinking' is simplistic and doesn't work.

Skip this book.

Thanks for your prompt delivery and the book is in great condition. Pleasure doing business with you.

Rhonda Byrne just did what alot of other folks have done...taking stuff from the last hundred years or so and reformatting it. It was boring. Having read all of Wallace Wattles, Og Mandino, Robert Collier, it was basically the same pitch, only filled with the same over and over tidbits from the other same people doing the same thing ala Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Basically what it says is, "Stop playing the victim and get into the right way of living!" How do you do that? By praying. Put yourself into a good frame of mind and ask the Lord for blessings, and be grateful.
Just remember, Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You.
Jesus tried to impart The Secret to his followers: You can have anything you want, you can do anything you want, you can be anything you want. Just believe in yourself and live as God intended you to live.
So, be a good doobie while you're here. The rest will fall into place.

People can throw stones at the mysticism all they want but the truth is The Secret can help you have a more positive and productive outlook on life.

Even if you don't buy into the divine and supernatural aspect of the teachings included in The Secret you can improve aspects of your life by looking at the glass as half full rather than half empty.

Even if that's all you take away from The Secret then it's still a winner.

Great book! Many very practical advises on how to improve your performance and improve your life. I can recomend it to all office employees and entrapreneurs who want to improve their lives.

I've been teaching my students for years and years about the issues that Mr. Ferris explained in his book and I'm glad that I wasn't alone! The entire system of education in America (and in most countries for that matter), which is known as Prussian System, implies that the only option we have is to slave full time for somebody else for forty years and quietly die after that in poverty! That's how we are supposed to spend our lives! That it's perfectly normal to identify ourselves with how we make a living. It's unquestionable that it has to be a full time job to make money to survive in this world. It's normal to answer the question "What do you do?" with the explanation about where you spend most of your life trying to make money to survive. Isn't it humiliating! Is that what God planned for us? We stopped questioning it long time ago. Generations wasted their lives working. Just working! Do we even realize how huge it is? When a person can actually enjoy life, spend time helping others, learning something new, spending time with the family, actually doing what he or she enjoys, we somehow settled for forty years of hard work not even in order to achieve something in life, but just to survive, just not to starve to death! We can't even afford to stop working for a couple of month, because we are going to run out of money and become as poor as we are planning on being when we are retired.
The same thing with delegation. We don't know how to do it. We must make sure that we are busy 100% of the time and we can not delegate anything to anybody! If we get some free time it only means that we are lazy and we need to cure the situation by filling free time with more work!
The most ridiculous case of inability to delegate is our national crazy idea (I'm from Russia) that if you grow potatoes yourself - it's free! I still remember how pretty much everybody goes to plant potatoes in the spring. No matter how well off you are, you must do it yourself, because if you do it yourself - it's free! Can you believe it!
Anyway, this book is going to be called at least "controversial" or most likely will get one of those slap-on "get rich quick" or "it will never work" labels.
Our society is not ready for this.
But for a small business owner today it's one of the most comprehensive guides on today's business and a must-have.

Tim Ferris is part entrepreneur part action hero, all energy. I picked up the book having little in common with him other than a bald head and a desire to get control of my life and create time to do the things I've always dreamed of. I first picked up this book more than a year ago and have reread several parts of it since. Mr. Ferrris outlines both a plan and a philosophy which are mind opening to the average person. I ave adapted several of his tactics and a few of his philosophies in my own life and have found myself to be more efficient and productive in both my work and personal life. I have not yet gotten to a four hour week and don't expect I ever will but I've always felt that if you read a book like this and find one or two things to adapt into your own life you have made a great investment in both money and time.

This book has helped me to organize my life in such a way that I have completed two novels (not yet published) found time to help coach my son's soccer team and improved my relationship with my wife. These are priceless life improvements which may not have given me a nicely compartmentalized four hour work week, but have gien me a life balance that has changed my lfe.

The 4-Hour Work Week:
Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
By Timothy Ferriss

Twenty-years ago a young psychologist named Marsha Sinetar helped jumpstart a revolutionary approach to work. With the publication of her best-selling book "Do What You Love, The Money will Follow," Sinetar liberated millions from the idea that working was necessary only to make a living so you could do what you loved.

Since that time, the ideas of discovering your right livelihood, balancing work and life and becoming rich enough to afford retirement have spawned thousands of self-help books. Among these are numerous sterile accounts of how to become a millionaire before you are 30.

Now, a 29-year old suggests what may become the next step in the work revolution. In his book, The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Timothy Ferriss relays to us in his high speed text that change is long-overdue. Instead of the slave/save/retire mentality of most overworked employees today, there are new opportunities for workers that have never existed before.

But The 4-Hour Workweek is not another book on the work-life balance describing the problems we all face. It is about creating solutions by changing not just your workstyle, but your lifestyle. The new currencies, he says, are time and mobility. These should be used in the here and now to create a luxury lifestyle. The author assures us it is not difficult. It simply takes the courage to make a few uncommon decisions and follow them with equally uncommon actions.

There is already a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the "deferred-life" plan and are now distributing retirement throughout life instead of saving it for the end, Ferriss says. He titles this group the New Rich (NR) and states their main goal is to escape the rat race entirely, not win it. The NR believe that traditional one office locations and 9 to 5 workdays are obsolete. Money alone rarely ever solves problems or gives enjoyment.

The desire for more money, the author argues, is often laziness. "If only I had more money is the easiest way to postpone the intense self-examination and decision-making necessary to create a life of enjoyment--now and not later," he says. "Busy yourself with the routine of the money wheel, pretend it's the fix-all, and you artfully create a constant distraction that prevents you from seeing just how pointless it is."

Ferriss is no poverty guru however. A few years ago, he was a poster boy for the extremely overworked and underpaid cubicle dweller. Using the insights he developed for this book, he went from $40,000 a year and 80 hours a week to $40,000 per month and four hours per week. In part because of his extensive world travel, he now speaks six languages. He is a national champion in Chinese kickboxing, an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong and holds a world record in tango.

The author offers four steps and strategies to reinvent yourself, whether as an entrepreneur or in your current job. The first letters of each step form the acronym of "DEAL" The manifesto of the "dealmaker" is simple: Reality is negotiable. Outside of science and law, all rules can be bent or broken. Here's the four steps for reinventing yourself:

* Definition: Define what you want to be doing.
* Elimination: Ask yourself three times a day "am I being productive, or am I being busy?" Eliminate interruptions. Stop checking e-mail more than once a day.
* Automation: Delegate or automate the remaining tasks, even sending personal tasks overseas. If you're a writer, outsource your research the night before to a virtual assistant in India. Have it ready the next morning. Cost: $4. Per hour.
* Liberation: Enjoy your mobility and use the time you create. Surround yourself with positive people who have nothing to do with your work.

This is a book about challenging assumptions. For example, the New Rich credo is not to strive to buy all the things you want, but to do all the things you want to do. The NR goal is not to have more, but to have more quality and less clutter and of course, the time to do what matters.

Can you have it all--by working 4 hours a week? Tim Ferriss's belief-blasting, fast-paced, book makes you want to believe it. It's an exciting, mind-expanding declaration about how our lives don't have to be all about work. If Ferriss' book is the ticket to the workplace of the future, you definitely want to get on board.

While reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss I kept asking myself: what world does this guy live in?

Then deja vu hit.

I've seen this world and actually lived in it for a few years. It was called a "bubble" and the year was 1999. Everyone was at the center of their own world of self-aggrandization chasing down pre-IPO stock, throwing lavish parties with chocolate fountains, and creating money losing companies at breakneck speed.

It's as if Ferriss had time traveled from 1999 or is some kind of fossil a book publisher dug up trying to cash-in on a perceived market for a 2.0 generation of greed seekers.

Yes, this book is that bad.

It seems like I'm a minority voice, as the average Amazon review is 4 out of 5 stars... if interested you can read entire review here:
[...]

The book is good but the tapes are so much more powerful. A group of us listen to them once a week and leave glowing with happiness and hope. It is a wonderful way to live by. This is more about life than just money. E. Johnson

I read the other books of Abraham. As it is, this book doesn't bring too much new things. However, by repeating the same message over and over, it finaly hitted me inside the hidden corner where there always has been a small resistance translated as a laziness and a scepticism. I mentally understood the message, I felt that it worked and still I wasn't able to get myself in the move for a better destiny. It could be done later, the member of this inner resistance told me.
By showing countless practical exemples, I suddenly got the hint and saw the light. I really could feel how easily I could make a switch in my life. I saw my limiting behaviour and how firmly I was focused on wrong things and how simple the solution was: changing my focus. So I experienced the stuff works.
Therefore, I do recommend this book; I'd say: 'don't wait, just go at last for the changes you can achieve with the help of this book'.

I was reluctant to buy this book because I've already bought the Hickses' other books, `Ask And It Is Given,' `The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent' and `The Astonishing Power of Emotions'.

I thought, "What more could they possibly say on this subject?" I thought I already knew all I needed to know, at least from the Hickses. But I was at a book store looking for another book, and it wasn't available, so, I went browsing and happened across this book. I thought I'd just flip through it, just to reassure myself that there wasn't anything new in it.

Well, I'm VERY glad I did. This book was, for me, a very pleasant surprise.

This book, for me, once again, adds to and enriches my understanding of this important principle, and how exactly to apply it, and how exactly it works, and how exactly I can know I'm working it in my life.

Like me, you may think you've already grasped all there is to grasp about The Law of Attraction, and how to apply it. You may, like me (like I was before I perused and bought this book) have even felt a little jaded or complacent towards the idea that there is truly a principle (LofA) that one could understand and apply to create dramatic, meaningful improvements in one's life. (**And this is AFTER I've already gotten many good results with applying LofA.**) If so, I urge you to put your cynicism or complacency aside long enough to at least browse this book at your local bookstore.

This book has done an amazing thing for me. It's got me - again -- really DOING what I need to do, in order to really create the lasting changes I really want in my life. It's got me IMPELLED to doing what I need to do.

If you're aware of the basics of LofA then you know that you really MUST get yourself feeling more and more in tune with whatever you want, in order to have it, in the way you want to have it - without struggle, pain or hardship, with ease and grace, or in ways that are completely in tune with your sense of greater well being.

Let me put it another way: Consider how you might otherwise spend the $20 or so that this book costs. Now ask yourself, "Is there any other way to spend this amount of money that will have as much positive impact on my life?" Would a dinner out, or a night out or at the movies, equal or even come close to the value of this book? Personally - maybe because I'm not struggling to make ends meet -- I can't think of a better way to spend this amount of money.

Really pleased with this purchase and great value.
One downside... book took 4 weeks to arrive.

What can I say but that this book is another great release from the Abraham-Hicks family. It presents all the usual Abraham material in block idea form i.e. focusing on particular topics and the questions that arise about it from forum audiences as well as Jerry Hicks. Rest assured there's sure to be an answer to a question you have (that's why you bought the book right?) It's definitely a must have in your stable of Abraham material.

Ken.

A lot of it is common sense, but things we tend to forget. Book came in great condition and came quickly.

This book will make you a million bucks just like it has me if you follow the very simple rules for relating to people.

No wonder this is a classic. It is a good reminder of all the things you inherently know, but forget as a normal part of daily life. Immediately upon starting to read it, the way I was dealing with people changed - and business improved quickly! Obviously, a book that should be read over and over. One of the best!

How to Win Friends and Influence PeopleA book of proven advice that has stood the test of time.

I haven't finished the book yet but it definately motivates you to better yourself and be a more positive person. I recommend this book to anyone.

Probably the best management and personnel development tool around! Four staff members were each given a copy to read and to follow the instructions for getting an analysis. Each was asked to bring the analysis for their annual job review. They expected the typical "this is good and that is bad" comments but found that when they reviewed their positive traits they were asked "how can you apply that in your job?" Ar real morale and performance builder.

[As a corporate human resources director, I often work on developing the latent talents and skills of various managers. Years ago, I taught a class where I had each participant to look into a hand-held mirror and ask the question, "Would you want to work for this person?"

This book takes this exercise to a completely different level. To discover your own inner strengths (and weakness) ensures that you will become the very best manager possible. As a fan of First, Break All the Rules, I was very satisfied that this follow-up was as timely and useful as the first book. I highly recommend you purchase a copy of this book for yourself and for all of your managers. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR Author of
[ASIN:1897326882 Wingtips with Spurs]]

Nice concept that could have been handled with a 10 page paper. Clearly authors had to have some volume to prove value so they drone on and on and on. Very tedious reading. Then at every turn they continue to try to sell other products or services. The major killer is having an online exam to evalute your strengths; however, the code is only good once - so DON'T buy a used book as your code will be invalid. If the exam is a work related exercise, you'll be forced to buy a new book just for the code. Also, DON'T let your spouse read the book. If you do, they'll want to take the exam and suprise suprise, you would need another new book just to take the test.

The book is very interesting and very effective. The internet test is very accurate. Nevertheless each strength profile should be discussed more in depth. Let's say you get an idea of who you are but you would like to get more of it. Anyway, the price is worth the stuff you find in the book!

I think the subject of the book is good, however a big part of dicovering your strengths is taking the on line strength finder quiz. Unfortunatley for me the code provided on the inside of the jacket is either invalid or has been used by someone already.
So as I read this book I will be left to wonder "what are my strengths..."

"The Law of Attraction is working at all times, regardless of your beliefs or your awareness of its presence. We are constantly attracting into our lives (whether deliberately or by default) what we are emitting into the universe." - From the book

From What the Bleep!? to The Secret, Jack Canfield to Abraham, teachings on the Law of Attraction now permeates our modern culture. Thanks to TV hosts like Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres, and Larry King, the Law of Attraction is receiving media attention like never before.

With the exception of authors like Michael Losier (Law of Attraction), it seems many teachers make the Law of Attraction more difficult (and outlandish) than it really is. Thankfully, Sonia Ricotti has written an accessible, sensible and practical guide to this universal law that works hand-in-hand with our soul contracts in her book The Law of Attraction Plain and Simple.

Living up to its name, The Law of Attraction Plain and Simple is a 125-page hardcover book simplifying concepts of negative energy, positive energy, allowing, and shifting thoughts to attract your "greatest life".

Take a page from Tony Robbins' decades-long approach, as well as Lynn Grabhorn and other teachers, Ricotti shares the eleven central steps to consciously activating the Law of Attraction including:

* Deciding what you want
* Removing meaning
* Forgiveness
* Gratitude

Written in language that even a grade school student could grasp, The Law of Attraction Plan and Simple is an excellent introduction to this oft-hyped concept, bringing it down to the ground while at the same time encouraging readers to reach for the stars.

I've used these principles in my own life and I KNOW they work, especially as you edit the meaning attached to events (and expectations), and go for a state of being/feeling rather than specific objects (although they may also be a part of your "greatest life"). I also love that Ricotti, a first time author, has the wisdom to emphasize the importance of personal VALUES in terms of the Law of Attraction.

The important idea of personal values influencing what we decide to attract, and what we determine we want to allow, is often overlooked in books on the LofA (except for Peggy McColl's books), but not in this one. In fact, Ricotti provides SIX pages of two-column lists offering a variety of core values to choose from.

For example, what I may value you may not and vice versa. I may value privacy and quietude while you may value community and teamwork. I may value risk-taking and creativity, while you value security and diligence. Thus, the Law of Attraction may be universal in how it's applied, but it's unique in manifestation based on ascertaining our values (so many don't even KNOW what they value!), making decisions, allowing, and our soul lessons (something not covered by Ricotti, but discussed in Transforming Fate into Destiny by Robert Ohotto).

If you or someone you know would like to discover what your core values are, as well as learn what this "law of attraction stuff" is all about, The Law of Attraction Plain and Simple by Sonia Ricotti is a fine first step to get you on your way to creating deliberately and designing your own best life.

(Note: to delve deeper into the truths shared by Ricotti, I recommend the two books Your Destiny Switch and 21 Distinction of Wealth, both by Peggy McColl. To know more about how pre-incarnation soul contracts factor into the Law of Attraction--including the LoA's limitations--read Transforming Fate into Destiny by Robert Ohotto.)

-- Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book

I have had the opportunity to read numerous books on the Law of Attraction, and I can honestly say that Sonia Ricotti's book stands out as being one of the very best. It is written in a manner that allows the reader to quickly grasp the concepts and then go off to apply them in their own lives. Highly practical, humorous and engaging, this is surely a bestseller that everyone should be adding to their bookshelf. It is also an amazing, perfect gift for introducing the topic to friends, family and loved ones, who can benefit from the advice too.

Just like the book, I will keep this plain and simple. If you are confused about the law of attraction or how these principles work in your life and business, buy this book. Don't resist. Just get it :)

This whole right-brain-left-brain thing is soooo left brain. Right brainers have no idea what the issue is about and perhaps it's better that way. But us left brainers have to sort and organize and categorize.... it's obsessive! The truth is that big-picture, extraverted, emotive people already are in the highest ranks of management. Check out our president. They may still be left-brained but far more right-brained than the lowly programmers and IT staffers. This is nothing new; while the techies labor long and hard to learn and problem solve, the right-brainers are smoozing and golfing their way up the corporate ladder. Now as to nurses and graphic artists ruling the world.... problem is these may be right brained jobs but the barriers to entry are low and so will be the salaries. An MFA may be the next MBA but it doesn't pay as well....

The chapter on abundance,asia,and xxx was actually somewhat confused but Insightful. The left brain right brain discusions were old hat. But his contention that Right brain cognitative processes are the salvation of the western world is so far beyond left feld(in foul territory) that only Gore would believe."Left brained", word based thought is what seperates humans from aninimals. It also led to western civilization, including the age of reason, the industrial revolution, modern agriarian reform,Information technology, Democracy, Motherhood, the atom bomb and the pursuit of Hapiness. What this country needs is more and better left brainers. smoke if you like.

This book is an excellent argument for the need for creativiity, decision making and other right brain functions in our current economic system. It points out that left brain functions can be sent overseas or computerized but the right brain functions add the most value. An easy read. We used it for the foundation of an arts leadership class.

I loved this book. Very interesting. Very insightful. Like eating something nutritious and delicious.

[...]

Change is a-comin'. For those people that don't believe it, now would be a good time to leave the cave. And yes, power and control will go to people who possess strong right brain qualities. "R

The author gives us a quick trip through the halls of neuroscience which leads into acquiring the skills that will be needed for this new Conceptual Age. I actually preferred the second half of the book as I am not one that needs to be convinced that my environment and certainly the environment of my children and grandchildren will be vastly different from the one my father and grandfather grew up in.

Certain ideas and theories in this book could stand a little more research and certainly may be influenced by political leanings. All in all, it is still a very important book and should be part of any manager's survival pack. I hope you find this review helpful.

Michael L. Gooch, SPHR - Author of Wingtips with Spurs

If you have trouble with change you will like this book because it will force you to think about why change is such a problem to you and then, once the awareness strikes, you can change and deal with change more effectively.

I also like The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book as a change primer, and, moreso, as a book that showed me how I can be more effective personally and in my relationships with others.

Oh, as for parables, the only other one I like besides the Cheese is Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results. It's a better read than Cheese and it's lessons are no less powerful.

...that the reason this book is a best-seller is that companies about to lay off lots of people are buying it in bulk to distribute to those on the way out, in the hope that it'll brainwash them to the extent that they won't go postal and return to their erstwhile workplace with AK-47s.

Sounds likely to me.

It has been well documented that the people in this book are appalling stereotypes of average-Joe workers. Whose instinct is to moan about things that are out with their control rather than do something about it. I won't add to this by pointing out how offensive this is again.

Sod it, yes I will!!

I was one of those people who came across this book when the company I worked for bought thousands of copies and gave them out to people during an endless run of re-orgs. No doubt expecting us all to think "Ahh-now I get it, we have no rights. We should be like brainless animals and follow the commands of our betters". At the time the company weren't so much 'Moving The Cheese' as having "The Cheese" continuously flown around the world, attached by a long string to the back of a blind Stork. Occasionally, you would see "The Cheese" fly by the window on the 19th Floor.

Incidentally the HR Director who thought this was a great idea also thought that "Big Brother" (before the reality shows began) was a good thing. Unveiling a new coaching initiative with the slogan "Big Brother is back". When I challenged her on this (pointing out that Big Brother was a symbol of a totalitarian regime who tortured and killed anyone who even thought of standing up to them) her response was "But they (meaning the staff) won't know that". So her credibility was already gone by the time of "The Cheese" fiasco.

I'd like to say that the workers rebelled against the ideas that this book put forward and stood as one against the lacklustre management of the company while simultaneously burning the HR Director on a stack of Who Moved My Cheeses.

Or that the workforce upped and left (inspired by the book) and the company was forced to hire Mice, who were completely unable to operate even the simplest telephone system or grasp the concept of video-conferencing (but were cheap and had surprisingly good timekeeping and attendance). Thus sending the company share price plummeting and forcing the Management team into hiding in Rangoon.

Unfortunately, as you've probably guessed, everyone just shrugged their shoulders and started looking for Jobs on Monster.com. As is common in these cases, the really talented people got jobs elsewhere no problem and the company was left with the poor few who couldn't.

I was one of the lucky ones who got out. And now just a few years later this well-established Company is gone.

And the moral is - if your employers ever give you a copy of this book shove it up their a** and get the hell out of there!!

So as an indicator that you work for idiots.....it is good for something.

An excellent book that makes us think the way we are now and helps us move forward. After reading, I was laughing at my self and was comparing myself with the 4 characters in the book. A book worth kept for any time reading.

"Who moved My Cheese." This is a very interesting book which touch base on the basic human ways of dealing, reacting and processing life's changes.

The book introduce to us simple character that act as a form reaction so to say. In life we will run into complication. In life we will encounter unexpected change if we don't already know that there are molds growing. In life we will allow fear to inhibit our senses of the need to let go of our comfort zone and venture.

To venture out and seek something new, better can be very uncomfortable to somebody who feel as if everything is a okay or is working for them. We don't want to have to struggle to an unexpected zone because fear tells us maybe there is nothing out there better than what we already have.

Fear becomes the dominate self criticizers.

We have been program to go through steps in our lives. From not knowing as infant...the ability to crawl, walk then run; to going through a programmed chapter in our lives from elementary, high school, college, grad school and then getting the big job. What else should we do. Have we not found the "big cheese?" Yet it is perhaps this way of comformity is what traps us in the many form of unhappiness we face.

We try to be content with our jobs, our relationship, our life but in doing so we have harness this comformity along with fear of decomforming. We want to look for "new cheese," becuase the "cheese" we have now is either molding or just not being the "cheese," we thought it would be.

It is not the idea that if something is great we should disregard it and look for something better. It is the idea that we should open our minds and think outside of the box. Maybe the journey may be long, maybe we will only finds crumbs, and maybe we will find a whole new batch of cheese that is better tasting than the ones we have. The idea is our life does not just end at one station of cheese. Living is believing in yourself. Finding that letting go of your fear and learning that worries and trouble thoughts we have can confine us and stop us. The matter can easily be dealt with a simple laugh and a strong mindset that there are better things out there. Life does not end at one place.

The book taught me the easiness of life. We should not hold too much value in any aspect of our life because life is unpredictable, things change. What we should do is be the best and the happiess in our moment of comfort but fear not for changes or sell ourself short by stopping. "Never give up" life is about happiness and where can we find happiness? It's not in finding "New cheese." It in the process of regaining ourselves in every aspect; from confidence to freedom.

"Who Moved My Cheese?" Does that question really need to be asked? Maybe the cheese need to be moved.

-TK

I am a second year MBA candidate at Columbia Business School and in the thick of interview prep. I have a stack of case prep materials and had no idea to begin. When I asked my friends who have successfuly gone through the process, i.e. they're all heading back to top consulting firms, they said I should stick to Case in Point.

They were right. Case in Point is by far the best case book out there. The book's lighthearted approach helps you dissect cases and the Ivy Case System makes breaking these problems down simple. It helps you organize your thinking to focus on the key aspects of the case- something that interviewers are definitely looking for. I've also been using CQ Interactive on CaseQuestions.com, which lets me practice even when I can't get someone to give me a case.

Case in Point does a great job highlighting things that you might take for granted but that would be really important in an interview to set you apart from the rest of the pack. If you are looking into consulting, this is where you should turn.

After having read some german case interview preparation books I bought this book and I have to say that "Case in Point" is the best preparation for consulting interviews you can get.
The cases in this book are absolutely realistic! The solutions that are suggested by the author are very detailed.
This book helped me a lot to get some offers of big consulting firms in Germany.

Unequivocally the best consulting/case interview preparation book I've read to date. For anyone interested in Management Consulting -- if your Career Center doesn't have this text you should seriously consider transferring...

To put my review in its proper context, my background involves several years of consulting experience followed by an MBA and MSF from a top institution. Currently, I lead the strategy unit for a F500 technology services business.

From the "Look Inside" preview the value-add should be obvious, so I won't go into the details other than to say Marc provides a framework that can be applied to just about every business situation/case. I will comment, however, that in addition to preparing the candidate for the interview process, the book also gets the successful candidate thinking about how an engagement should be managed (identifying issues and hypotheses, prioritizing, developing work streams etc...). Adopting this higher-level of thinking during the interview process will help you score points with interviewers.

When I saw that Marc Cosentino's book is now available to the general public, I cheered! Mr. Cosentino's book is a systematic, thorough, intuitive and unpretentious tool for grappling with the all too over-mystified case interview.

I not only used this book for my own first foray into the business world, but I made frequent trips to the Harvard Career Services Office to buy copies for friends. These individuals ranged in all levels of experience: from Sloan MBA students, to freshly-minted grads and young professionals with a few years experience. With no exaggeration, they all moved into consulting with Mr. Cosentino's help.

Treat this book as your main go-to for case and personal interviews. All the others similarly catchy-titled books, including Ace the Case, are simply its supplements.

I recommend Case in Point for 2 main reasons: It is both practical and thorough. The simulated cases give the novice a sense for the given-and-take of a case interview. And Cosentino's "Ivy Case System" helps non-MBAs to get grounded in the broad classes of issues that companies, and hence consultants, face.

My advice: Kick-start your case interview preparation with this guide, and then check out CQI to boost your business quant and test your case-cracking skills.