Author: Steven K. Scott
Publisher: Waterbrook Press, 265 pages
Book Review by Nano Khilnani
I had heard and read about this book several times, and I really did not “get around” getting it and reading it until recently.
This is a fantastic book. I will tell shortly why I think this is a must-read if you want to not only learn to acquire riches, but live a happy and satisfying life. Written by multi-millionaire Steven K. Scott, it is based on the Book of Proverbs from the richest man who ever lived who was also the wisest one: Solomon, who succeeded David as King of Israel and reigned from 971 B.C. to 931 B.C.
Steven K. Scott is a popular national speaker on the subject of personal and professional achievement. and is the author of five international bestsellers. He is cofounder of American Telecast Corporation, and along with his partners, he has created more than a dozen corporations that have achieved more than a billion dollars in sales.
Scott points out that just as there are physical laws in the universe – the law of gravity and the law of motion, for example – there are also “laws of living” which, when obeyed, can improve our relationships with family members, friends, even strangers, and lead us to success.
If you’re in business, a part of those strangers are your customers. Being a marketing guru, Steven K. Scott informs us (in a set of his CDs I had bought but cannot remember the name of it right now) that when customers are not only treated right but “wowed” beyond their expectations, your business blooms. That was his mission – to provide immense value to his customers – and he his business has succeeded way beyond his dreams.
As I browsed through the table of contents, the first chapter that caught my attention was Chapter 10, entitled: “Turning Your Best Enemy into Your Best Friend.” Now, mind you, I do not really have any enemies, but there are some people – just as in most people’s lives – that are difficult to get along with.
Since I believe in the important message of the saying “it takes two to tango” that the cause of conflict is almost never only one side’s fault, I read this chapter first. I was surprised to learn that your “enemy” is not really a person but your reaction to criticism you receive from others. The typical human reactions to criticism are to counteract with criticism of the critic, to disbelieve it because we think the motive is to hurt us, or to simply ignore it because the criticism hurts our ego.
However, Scott points out that criticism is really our friend. After reading Proverbs 27:5, Scott writes: “I discovered that these reactions can be far more destructive than the criticisms themselves. Solomon’s unique view is that instead of reacting to it as an enemy, he says that we should respond to it as a secret lover.”
The wise King Solomon tells us “Open rebuke is better than secret love.” If you remember how you felt when you received your first love letter from your girlfriend or boyfriend, you realize that a criticism you receive from someone who cares for you is one of the best gifts you will receive to improve your life. I believe that emotional self-growth comes from constantly learning, and a good source of that learning is people who care about us.
This is an extraordinary book with riches. You want to read with excited anticipation the first chapter, “How the Richest Man Who Ever Lived Can Make You Happier, More Successful and Wealthier” and you discover the incredible amounts of money Steven K. Scott made by following the “specific steps taught by Solomon in the Old Testament Boo of Proverbs.’
Scott writes that before he read the book, he was making only $18,000, or half the annual income of an American wage earner. His income rose from that to $7 million a year. And before he started learning the secrets of success revealed in that book, he was a hopeless corporate failure with a success rate of 0 percent. But after having read and discovered what we describe as the “gems” contained in the book, he has a success rate of 60 percent over a period of 29 years.
Studying the lives of some of the most successful people on earth, Scott discovered one single character trait that is common to all of them. When reading the Book of Proverbs, he found to his surprise, that same key ingredient he had found in those autobiographies he had studied. That all-important “Key to Winning Every Race” is the title of Chapter 2.
Chapter by chapter, this book is a delight to read. You will find out what is the “Activity That Creates Extraordinary Success” in the third chapter, “Solomon’s Power Secret for Turning Dreams Into Reality” in the fourth, and in the fifth chapter you will find “The Key That Opens Any Door.”
Reading this extraordinary book is like being in a gold mine. In Chapter 6 entitled “The Great Accelerator: The Key to Maximum Success in Minimum Time,” you will learn how to get what you and millions of others want – maximum success – even when you have very little of that very precious resource: time.
All of us want happiness. How to get it? Read Chapter 7: “The Happiness Secret.” How do you stand out from others at your place of work, to win recognition (perhaps a raise) from your boss? Read Chapter 8: “The Four Qualities That Make You Invaluable.”And that is only about half way. There are eight more nuggets of gold in chapters 9 through 16. I suggest to readers that first, they read the whole book once. After that, they read each chapter slowly, highlighting important passages and referring back to them periodically to derive maximum benefit from this great book by Steven K. Scott.
