| | |  | Career Books | Home » » The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success | | | | | | | Description: | | An Experience to Revolutionize Your Life from Marcus Buckingham - the World's Leading Expert on Career Success! Want to know what you are supposed to do with your life? The Truth About You is an experience to unlock life's toughest questions. The process this revolutionary toolkit teaches will create higher satisfaction and performance in life and work. This cutting-edge product includes: Enhanced DVD. A high-energy film reveals how and why you must discover and prioritize your strengths and includes access to a wealth of downloadable resources, including five bonus Strength Tip videos. Interactive Book. With insightful exercises and tried-and-true life wisdom no one else will tell you, the book takes you to the location of your most powerful and unchanging talents. ReMemo Pad. Designed for a life on-the-go, the ReMemo Pad becomes your companion to complete the task of revealing your strengths using your everyday experiences. Perfect for high school and college students, young professionals, and people simply wanting to revitalize their career, The Truth About You helps you develop the kind of clarity and passion that drives a successful and satisfying future. Marcus Buckingham will help you discover the real truth, the truth about you . . . it will be your secret to success. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Marcus Buckingham | | Hardcover:
| 112 pages | | Publisher:
| Thomas Nelson | | Publication Date:
| September 30, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1400202264 | | Product Length:
| 7.78 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.66 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.96 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 148 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 148 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
I wish somebody had given me this book when I was youngerOct 26, 2008
By Pippa Lee
When I was about to graduate from high school, I did not know what I was going to do with my life or what I wanted to be. Because of my indecision, I got my share of well-intentioned advice: "Do what you're good at." "Go where the money is." "You'll figure it out later. Just get a job."
I wish I had Marcus Buckingham's "The Truth About You" back then. Buckingham's advice to success is simple: Work on your strengths. But it is his definition of "strength" that makes a world of difference. To him, strength is not something you're good at but something that excites you, something that you look forward to, something that makes you strong. The idea of focusing on how it feels when we're doing something rather than on how well we perform it has changed the way I look at my life and my work for the better. Now I don't feel embarrassed that I'm not good at math or regretful that I did not follow my teacher's advice (you're good at writing; therefore, you should be a lawyer). Instead, I give myself permission to concentrate on using what I'm good at in ways that make me feel accomplished and fulfilled. That does not necessarily mean it will translate into buckets and buckets of money. However, it sure beats waking up every morning to go to a job you do well but dread and hate.
"The Truth About You" is a very short book designed to be used in conjunction with the DVD (included with the book) where Buckingham talks about the three myths that stand in people's way to a better and more successful life and job career. The book not only expands on the material covered on the DVD but it also functions as a workbook with exercises to help the readers discover their strengths and weaknesses.
This book is obviously meant for soon-to-be-high-school graduates and college students still exploring their career options, but I would highly recommend it to older adults who are contemplating job changes or want/need to start a new career.
32 of 38 found the following review helpful:
 The Truth About The Truth About YouNov 05, 2008
By Sara J. Henry
Marcus Buckingham is a dynamic, persuasive speaker, charming and attractive, with a delightful English accent. Watch him speak and you find yourself sitting up straighter and deciding that you CAN improve your life.
But the words that are inspirational coming out of his mouth fall flat on the page. THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU tries to harness his dynamism and persuasiveness in book format, and it's not entirely successful.
His message is a valuable and valid one: Identify your strengths, and play to them.
But passages such as "In school, you knew which subjects you were drawn to, the ones that grabbed your attention and wouldn't let it go, the ones where class time flew by and before you knew it the bell had rung and, though you wouldn't have admitted it to your friends, you almost felt like you wanted to do the class all over again," are, well, insipid, and wordy, and boring. But when he says these words into the camera, somehow it works.
The book is short: 112 pages, with the first chapter starting on page 25, widely spaced, with places to answer questions aimed at helping you identify your strengths. Inexplicably, it's awkwardly bound and can't be removed from the bulky packaging. The book itself isn't much use and the DVD is undoubtedly where Buckingham's strengths lie. I was able to view five "strength tips" but the 24-minute film itself wouldn't play on my computer.
SUMMARY: The message is good, and it works if you can imagine a tiny Marcus Buckingham dancing across the pages emoting to you (or if you watch the video while you read). But overpackaged, overpriced, overly simple writing.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Simple Guide to Career SuccessOct 29, 2008
By Antoine D. Reid
"80sforever"
"The Truth About You" is pretty much your standard self-help book but what makes this stand out is that the advice is straight forward, practical, and best of all, it isn't cheesy like most self-help books. What is special about this book is that unlike many books, this is more like a guide. It is divided up into three components; a DVD with a short video that is also a CD for your computer with some bonus tips and materials to help you along the way; secondly, the actual book; third, a (re)memo pad (which is explained in the book).
"The Truth About You" works simply because it's relatable for those who feel a bit hampered and drained by their professions and work. The guide opens with simple statements that will help you figure out what your problems at work may be. From there, the book turns into a journal/workbook where author Marcus Buckingham asks you specific questions meant to help you figure out your 'path to success'. This is what I enjoyed most about this book/kit: instead of just boring the reader with motivational speak and little tips you should follow, Buckingham took the time to create space within the book where you must fill in information specific to you and gives you ways that you can use this information to find happiness through work. Yes, some of the book is repetitive and a bit simple, which is why I don't feel like this is a five-star book, BUT unlike many self-help guides, this one actually calls for you to be engaged in diagnosing your issues and gives you something to do long after you read the book.
In all, quick read, enjoyed what I saw and learned from the DVD and what I read in the book and especially liked that it gives me something to work on in the coming weeks. Definitely worth checking out.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Not His Best WorkDec 12, 2008
By Sean McGever
Here is a great piece advice: Find something in which you have found success, something that you look forward to doing, something that makes time fly by, something that is incredibly easy for you to focus on and something that fulfills a need of yours... and then do it. Find ways to do it in your job, no matter what your job is. Find ways to incorporate that into your relationships, your free time, anywhere and everywhere. This is Marcus Buckingham's advice in "The Truth about You". This is not new advice, but it is concise and timely for nearly everyone.
I work with so many college and young career friends of mine who are constantly trying to figure out what the heck they should be doing with life. Buckingham provides some good help in "Now, Discover Your Strengths" and this book and others of his have been helpful for some of my friends and even personally."The Truth about You" is a book in the same vein, minus the testing component of the Strength Finder. But the easiest way to say it is it is dumbed-down. It is simplified. The "book" has three components. A 24-minute DVD, a 110 page book, and a memo pad to use as a tool to take notes on daily moments where you find your strengths and your weaknesses.
The book uses a large font, lots of blank pages and too much empty space on each page. I read it in one setting in about 60 minutes in depth. The DVD is really well done and Buckingham is fun to listen to. Yet he is pretty much reading the book word for word in a dramatic, motivational-presentation style voice. The memo pad is a good idea, it takes steps to really engage a whole new level of learning that simple reading cannot. Yet, instead of a spiral notepad, they could have included a 3x5 card to slip in your wallet or purse instead.
I also have to say that I didn't like the tone Buckingham uses in this book. Cocky is the word I think of. With phrases like, "[in your hands right now] you're holding that answers to these questions", and "[this is...] the best advice you will ever get". Maybe in order to make the book concise he chose to speak in absolutes on every single page. He offers little support or solid reasoning for most of his claims in this book; this is a departure from his previous work.
Unfortunately the book doesn't seem to introduce much new material and is over-packaged. It tried to make up for it by having a DVD and hip formatting, but ultimately lacks quality content.
As you can tell I was disappointed by this book. I really like his other books, but this is a step in the wrong direction. It would be a good primer for someone who is new to the idea of personal strengths or who has spent little time in personal professional development.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Appropriate for young adults.....Not so much for anyone beyond 30Feb 20, 2009
By LoriAnnR
Although the description of this product suggests that it is "perfect" for high school, college students, young professionals, and people wanting to revitalize their career, the primary target for this workbook is definitely for a younger population. I would suggest this product is most appropriate for people between age 16 to individuals in their late 20s. Being fortyish, this DVD and workbook were really too juvenile for my taste. I was so bored with the DVD it was a real test of my patience to even finish watching it and I was never able to complete the workbook assignments. If you have kids in high school or college who are confused about their vocational abilities and skills this might be an appropriate resource for them. Older more experienced adults who are looking to "revitalize their career" should look elsewhere as they'll likely be disappointed in this product.
See all 148 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
