Dear Readers

As I mentioned before, I read a lot of self-help books, why? Because life is a self learning and improving journey and I strive to be the be the best I can be in my personal and professional. The current books I am reading now are Men are from Mars and Women from Venus » » by John Gray, a classic that I have been advised to read for years as it apparently helps improve communication and love relationship so I decided to take challenge to see whether this will truly improve my relationship! The second book I am in the middle of reading is « The Sell: the secrets of selling anything to anyone »by Frederik Eklund, self explanatory! Selling is a crucial part of my current job and in my opinion everybody should aspire to be a good sales person because we consciously and unconsciously sell every day in job interviews, when we first meet someone on a date, when negotiating with children to complete a task they don’t particularly like etc….. All in all it is a fundamental skill to acquire and master!

Although I read a lot and I will carry on reading,  I came to the conclusion that self-help books are to be taken with a pinch of salt, paradoxical right? They are an incredible tool to awaken your mind, to reveal your inner power, to help you find your path, to help understand ourselves and others but most of them are written by professional sales people whose aim is to get you hooked so that you come back for more and they can keep selling. For having read a lot of them over the past 4 years, I am in the position to ascertain that they all convey the same message such as happiness and richness come from within, your mind can be your best asset or your worst enemy if not managed effectively. Moreover, the majority of them pretend to hold the holly truth about life, work and relationships and they put forward some vague but seemingly bullet proof methods to help you reach your personal and professional goals, bulls*!!!! Those books are written by ordinary and imperfect human beings like you and I  therefore they don’t hold the ultimate and holly truth on anything. What they sell is a method tested by themselves and/or people who considered them as « gurus ». Their method may or may not work because we are different individuals from different background, sexual orientation, religions, social status so it is dangerous to implement the so-called bullet proof method the way it is outlined in their books. As a sales trainer, I can understand why they charm or even bully us into thinking that what we have in our hands will solve all our problems for no one will buy those types of books if they knew that what they are about to read is someone’s method not theirs.  To be crystal clear, the books will only give us tools to highlight a problem and to force us to know who we are and what we want to get out of life. If we don’t know that they are easily accessible poisoned gifts,we are setting ourselves up for failure as we will feel unhappy, frustrated, angry, disillusioned and we will blame ourselves for not achieving our goals,which completely defeats the purpose of a self-help book.

However, I recommend the following books who have truly contributed to transform my life, helped me be less perfectionist, love myself, feel grateful and compassionate and be determined as ever to achieve my life goals:

A tiny sample of my book shelf.

• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, who truly inspired me to understand that happiness differs from one human being to another.
• Lean In by the Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg who points out how much work it is left for us to do as women to gain full parity with men. I agree with her that the world would be a much better place if we had more female leaders!
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill –  if there is one book and one book only you should read is this one as it opens up your mind and clarifies why one should amass wealth to improve humanity.
• Rich Dad,Poor Dad by Robert Kyoasaki who reveals how rich people get rich and how they teach their kids to follow their steps. I mean look around, as outrageous and disgusting as it is, Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashians are not worth millions by accident!!! They don’t have real talent other than know how to create wealth.

On that note, start reading and improving yourselves but bear in mind that you are unique so your method of improvement will have to be adapted.