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Title: Getting Results for Dummies by Mark H. McCormack ISBN: 0-7645-5205-8 Publisher: For Dummies Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Only Use for Tips
Comment: If you've never read any other book on organization, time management, or efficiency, do NOT get this one. The author provides many useful tips, but not a "system."
The tone of the author is unfortunate. I have never read a book where I was so put off by the author. You know how Tom Cruise portrays Jerry McGuire at the beginning of the movie "Jerry McGuire"? That's what the author sounds like. Business is life, money is the bottom line, winning is everything.
The author, Mark McCormack, was the founder of the sports management company on which "Jerry McGuire" was based, so maybe that's where the similarity comes in. Whatever the connection, the tone of the book is that of an obnoxious braggart.
On more than one occasion, Mr. McCormack excuses bad behavior in favor of the results they achieve. The ends always justify the means.
With that said, there are some useful tips if you have already brushed up on time management and organization. If you have not, this should not be your first purchase. I would suggest: "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, "The Organized Executive" by Stephanie Winston, and/or "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey.
Rating: 4
Summary: mixed
Comment: It is hard to argue with Mark McCormack's success. He's built up an almost billion dollar business. I will say that in another book, he said he takes only 3 day vactions. That if he took a 2 week vacation "I'd be so worried about my business at the end of the second week, it wouldn't be worth it." And he promotes working long hard hours. But I know more than one filthy rich self-made man, who are not retired but active in their businesses, who nonetheless do NOT work long hard hours year round, and take as much as a month off straight, while their businesses hum along nicely without them. I would say McCormack is failing in his methods of getting results if he can't at this point take long periods of time off, without worrying about his business. Richard Branson is active in his much larger Virgin empire, but he takes weeks off to go on those balloon expeditions of his. What is he doing right that McCormack isn't?
An example: In the book TIME TRAP (a time-management book I highly recommend) the author sites a salesman who made two goals for the next few years. The goals were to, each year, 1) double his income 2) double his vacation time. (!!) And the salesman succeeded, so that he doubled his income, as well as his vacation time, so that in the third year he had a lot more money, plus 6 weeks in vacation time. THAT'S what I call getting results!!!!
Harvey Mackay in one of his books sites a saleswoman he hired, who told him she worked 20 hours a week at her interview. Mackey told her, "But your resume says you did $2 million in sales at your previous job." She said, "I did. You can phone them and ask." Mackay did so, and they confirmed what she said. Mackay says to the reader, "So I don't care HOW many hours a week she works, with those kind of results."
Maybe it's the nature of a service business (which is what McCormack's management company is): you can't let a factory stamp out widgets while you do something else. You have to keep cracking the whip, or inspiring your subordinate agents, if they are what make-up your company. If that's the case, I'll avoid service businesses.
Rating: 5
Summary: illuminating
Comment: This has helpful stuff in it. I even went out and bought a stopwatch to time certain tasks to speed myself up, as this book recommends. But the time obsession is kind of ridiculous at times, to the point where you almost expect Mr. McCormack to say, "If you could shave making love to your wife from 15 minutes down to 15 seconds, you'd save so much time." To get philosophical, Abraham Maslow wrote the seminal book TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING where he writes of the "self-actualized" personality, that he considers the most highly evolved personality type, but who are less than 1% of the population. One common trait amongst these extremely happy people is they often experience "peak experiences" where they feel immense joy and these experiences "trascend time." These people lose track of time during these experiences!!!! Now, it seems an obsession with time such as McCormack preaches would completely interfere with one's ever having such joyful experiences. I suppose it's like a lousy movie, where you are always looking at your watch, versus a great movie, where you forget about everything but the movie. So, I suppose to be successful and efficient, you have to say good-bye to happiness in a big way. But it's success that is supposed to make you happy, right? A major contradiction!!
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Title: Never Wrestle with a Pig and Ninety Other Ideas to Build Your Business and Career by Mark H. McCormack ISBN: 0141002085 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark H. McCormack ISBN: 0553345834 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1988 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: What They Still Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School by MARK H. MCCORMACK ISBN: 0553349619 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: On Communicating by Mark H. McCormack ISBN: 1931056129 Publisher: New Millennium Audio Pub. Date: 20 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Success for Dummies by Zig Ziglar ISBN: 0764550616 Publisher: For Dummies Pub. Date: 03 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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