The Greatest Salesman In The World
I've reviewed about a dozen products for Amazon.com within the last few months and have rated all products 5 stars. Unfortunately, I read "The Greatest Salesman In The World" right after reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" and "Mists of Avalon." If the last two were five star books, "Salesman" is one star in comparison.
Liked the scrolls, the rest was unnecessary.
The first half of the book introduces you to the ancient story of the greatest salesman and his scrolls, but this is quite unnecessary. Next are the scrolls - they have little to do with salesmanship and much more with self motivation/improvement and inspiration, yet they are indeed good. The theistic end to the book (including the last scroll) severely weakens the book's impact, simply because it cannot by its nature be in line with the motivational tone of the preceding scrolls. I'd suggest reading only the scrolls and skipping everything else.
RAH RAH Speech on steroids
If listening the RAH RAH motivational speeches helps you, you will love Og Mandino. Basically all of his books are pure emotional rally with very little logical advice. Some salespeople feel they need this to keep them pumped up and positive in the face of daily rejection. If this is you, then this is a 5 star book. If you actually want usable advice don't bother with the writings of Mandino. He gives no usable advice.
LOOK UNDER RELIGION - AWESOME MANDINO
There are only so superlatives to describe the writings of Og Mandino. I have included 2 quotes below from his books. The first is similar to something I read by W. Clement Stone 35 years ago. Paraphrasing Stone, in every adversity, seek out the positive and focus your mind on that positive rather than the adversity.
I went around for months repeating in my mind, "find the best in every negative". 35 years later, I can say it still works.
Og Mandino quotes:
"Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper."
"Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance."
Incidentally, if you go to Barnes & Noble looking for any of his books, you will find them in the "Religion" section.
The Greatest Salesman in the World
Fantastic
This is an incredible little book. The only criticism is that it is written in masculine terms and I didn't want to be repeating three times
a day that I am a wonderful salesman! So I typed it up myself with
language appropriate to my gender. In so saying, I believe that exercise
gels the scrolls in my consciousness even more so I have given it 5 stars
anyway. Make sure you do the repetitions for the full 30 days as repetition IS the first law of learning. If you don't repeat it, it
doesn't stay.
(166 reviews)
