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Eric Lee's Reviews > Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life
Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life
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This book got a surprisingly good review from The Guardian and as one who likes to read the occasional personal productivity/self-help books, I thought – why not give the Terminator a go? Here’s why not: This is a book that tells you how amazing Arnold Schwarzenegger is. Really amazing. He was the best bodybuilder, ever. The inventor of action film heroes. The most fantastic governor California ever had. And through it all — he was just helping people. Many of the things he says, he says more than once. He flew people around on his personal jet — several times. He’s really good pals with lots of super-famous people and thanks, among others, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev in his acknowledgements. He even thanks his ex-wife for being a great mom to their kids. Yes, he’s a great guy. No, his book isn’t worth buying. Unless you really want to know a lot more about what a great guy he is.
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Reading Progress
October 21, 2023
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Started Reading
October 28, 2023
– Shelved
October 28, 2023
– Shelved as:
personal-productivity
October 28, 2023
– Shelved as:
autobiography
October 28, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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Tony
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 03, 2023 05:27PM
That’s a very narrow minded review.
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You didn‘t understand a bit, did you? Making Arnold small doesn‘t make you bigger.. and if he writes, how superb he is, it doesn‘t make you smaller. We can all win in this game:)
Thanks for your review - I had a feeling the book would be a lot like an autobiography rather than a self-help book. If I want to learn about his life, I'll read it, and otherwise I'll pass.(I read a book description that mentioned all his success comes from his father's message to him to 'be useful' and so I was considering reading the book to see how he broke that advice into 'seven tools for life'.)
You’ve missed the point here I’m afraid. The focus is never on the achievements, the flashy lifestyle and the name dropping. It’s about having the drive & determination to go after whatever you want - just like he did. If this doesn’t motivate you, what will?
So you think it would be more appropriate that somebody who was born in America, to wealthy parents, with everything handed to them on a silver platter, yet has never received international acclaim in health and fitness, the arts, or contributed to public service, or lead one of the worlds largest economies is better qualified to write a book to inspire people to create the best life they can? What a totally misled and sad person you must be
