The Education Of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think And It's Not Too Late (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Honestly, I think the title of this book is unfortunate because it will both turn away people who would like the book (as it did to me, the first time I saw the title) as well as lure in unsuspecting folks who are looking for something more traditional (e.g. some of the other reviews here).I thought this book was going to profile the "charmed" (read: privileged) educational lives of famous rich folks--and this impression is what initially caused me to spurn this book. Later on, I decided to take a closer look at the book (it was available without a waiting list at my library, so why not?), and I'm so glad I did.This book is all about nontraditional education--especially education that people wouldn't normally label as "education" (e.g. learning on the job). Although the overall tone is highly critical and suspicious of higher education, if you take the arguments at face value, there are a lot of compelling points, e.g. that educational dollars should be scrutinized closely and not automatically allocated towards "college."Most of the book covers "success skills" the author distilled from numerous interviews with wealthy (mostly non-college graduate) people. The skills are: aligning meaning and work, finding mentors, learning marketing and sales, investing in yourself and your business, building up your "personal brand," and taking control of your career.As usual, while reading the book I made brief notes on interesting/compelling points. By the end, I was shocked to find that I had taken, by far, more notes on this book than any other book I've read. Maybe it's because a lot of the concepts were new to me, but either way it's clear this was a valuable read.My only complaints are that the book is too long (so many similar anecdotes that they started to blur together), much of the information is really just a set of pointers to other resources (still a good thing--just not convenient), and the previously mentioned strongly anti-formal education tone.Overall, I highly recommend this book--at the very least as a contrarian point of view to help broaden your own perspective on your education, career, and business. I'm giving this book 1 star because I believe it is a rip-off. It is nothing more than a well-conducted sales act. The author profits from the current trend and popular belief that you can be a self made millionaire and presents some techniques as to how this status can be achieved.However, as many other self-improvement books, his messages sound very good and promising, yet they fail to deliver in practical real-life situations. He also spends a lot of time talking about his associates and what they have to offer and directs us to learn from them (In the authors defense, he does say that these people are his personal acquaintances...).For example, in the chapter about Marketing the author says that we will learn how to learn about marketing. And, in his vision, learning how to learn about marketing means subscribing to the blogs and buying the services of his highly-advertised friends.I do admit that this book is very well written. However, this is precisely why you shouldn't buy it: it is dangerous, because it delivers nothing more than a hollow popular message dressed up in pretty words.
What do You think about The Education Of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think And It's Not Too Late (2011)?
Good, but this information isn't new if you've been reading the cannon of success literature.
—Martha
Really great book. Too sleepy right now to write a full review for this one.
—rishureddy
Probably one of the most helpful books I've read in years.
—courtney
Excellent book, full of truth. I really enjoyed it.
—normajean05
