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Business Management Book Store > Business Management books beginning with T
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The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success |
Author: Andy Andrews
Published: 2005-05-02 |
List price: $14.99
Our price: $10.19
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As of: November 20th, 2008 12:50:31 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 A True Gift
All I need say is if you are ready to change your life and make a difference in the world, read this book. Andy is one amazing human being and The Traveler's Gift is a book you'll never forget.
 Two Thumbs Down
I'm always amazed when mediocrity somehow finds mass appeal. A song heard on the radio has a stock melody and banal, cliched lyrics and still becomes a hit. Obviously, after reading the overwhelming majority of positive reviews, I'll have to admit that Andy Andrews' "The Traveler's Gift" has resonated with a lot of people. It hasn't with me. I found the writing to be over-simplistic, juvenile, cliched, contrived and predictable. But beyond the literary merits or lack thereof, what about the moral message. It seems that the 7 rules for enhancing life are mostly concerned with financial success and that this is nothing more than a quick-fix-it manual for attaining personal wealth in the guise of a Christian leap of faith. I would find it difficult to pattern my life after Christopher Columbus who, according to many historical sources, tortured and murdered native Americans.
Moreover, why select historical figures involved in acts of war (Truman, Lincoln, and Chamberlain)? Why not people like Ghandi, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King?
Philosophically, I have problems with "The buck stops here" being a life-affirming bromide. The notion that we take responsibility for everything that happens to us in life is absurd. Surely a person who dies from a mugging attack or a serious disease does not bear sole responsibility for being victimized. Yes, the person who was mugged may have chosen to walk alone at night through a bad neighborhood and the person suffering from the disease may have eaten the wrong foods but there were certainly other factors involved.
In the hands of a talented writer, this could have been avery moving story with powerful messages delivered. In my opinion, it was anything but.
Finding happiness and a better life by taking responsibilty for it
This is a business parable, but really more of a life parable. The book provides seven lessons about taking responsibility and control of your life. Rather than letting your circumstances provide you with reasons for reacting to life and letting difficulties turning into personal failure, Andy Andrews preaches what some call an internal locus of control. No matter what happens to you, it is up to you to take charge and do something about it. Book is about David Ponder. He is a middle-aged guy with a great wife and a daughter. Like so many people who have been in a comfortable job for decades and then lost it, he finds his life spinning out of control. Unable to get a job anywhere close to the one he had before, without health insurance, and getting fired for merely using the phone to talk with his wife about his sick daughter, he wonders if his family wouldn't be better off with his life insurance than him. Driving recklessly fast, he spins out on some ice and wakes up talking to Harry Truman, then Solomon, and so on until he wakes up with his wife and daughter worrying over him in a hospital.
The seven lessons are very good affirmations to meditate on every day of your life:
1) The buck stops here. I am responsible for my past and my future.
2) I will seek wisdom. I will be a servant to others.
3) I am a person of action. I seize this moment. I choose now.
4) I have a decided heart. My destiny is assured.
5) Today I will choose to be happy. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.
6) I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit. I will forgive myself.
7) I will persist without exception. I am a person of great faith.
After each of his encounters in history, David reads a short essay on each of these lessons and, of course, we read it, too.
My own take is that this is a superb book for teenagers just deciding who they want to be in life, young adults who want to sharpen their path, and adults who want to get on a different and better path to getting control of their life.
No, this is not profound art. However, the lessons can have a profound affect on your life and help you enjoy more, achieve more, and bless the lives of others more.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Good read...
After running across his "7 Decisions" DVD, I was impressed enough to pick up the book. No surprise here, it's a great read with practical applications in life.
The Traveler's Gift
The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal SuccessThis will remind you of the things most of us know but really need to remember every year, month, day. Easy to read and great to pick up again and again. Must have for your library.
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