Yes Ma'am,No Sir: The 12 Essential Steps for Success in Life by Coach Carter
This books
adds personality and personal stories, to what can be read in a number of books
on business and success in life. The
book was not invaluable – but it offers fairly “common sense” principles,
alongside stories and coaching experiences.
With chapters focused on the need to respect people, write down your
goals, be persistent and courageous, participate with family, and embrace hard
work – to list most of the chapters – the author summarizes what I would call a
“solid work ethic” embedded with good morals and family values. Nice, but nothing remarkable within the genre
of “success” or "personal development" books.
As an
educator & minister, I don’t find myself “selling things.” And yet, there is much that I do that
involves the need to read & discern people.
And, as I work more with broader institutions, I realize that with
grants and the possibilities that might emerge in my future for other forms of
leadership – I am aware that I might do more “selling” in my future. [Getting people to buy into the importance of
a “product” that a school I work for might offer – or making contributions to a
non-profit I work for. In that regard,
Sell or Be Sold was a solid text.] In
truth, many of the chapters (or subsections of chapters) read like “blog-posts”
with snippets of key ideas about how to “sell” and move product. But the book offered ideas on believing in
the product you’re selling and motivating others to believe in it with
you. In that sense, I gleaned a series
of insights from the text and – if I’m ever trying to negotiate an important
deal on something in the future – I’ll want to remember to come back to this
text to see if there is something I can “do better” to close a future
deal.
The book’s
title is an over-sale of what is in the book!
The book is much more about how to use key phrases, ideas, and how to
use body language to both discern other people – and to, as it were, fool
people into thinking you know more than you know. I have not read anything else by these
authors, but based on the titles of their other works – this book seems to be a
marketing gimmick to re-publish what they have already sold. Their previous books on interrogation and
reading people might be better than this one.
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