Book review: IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL YOU WIN
How to become the person you always wanted to be no matter what the obstacle
Genres:
- Motivational
- Self-Help
Review posted on:
05.03.2016
The number of pages:
256 pages
Book rating:
4/5
Year the book was published:
First edition published 1998
Who should read this book:
- Anyone looking for a good self-help motivational book.
Why did I pick up this book and what did I expect to get out of it:
The first time I heard about Les Brown was at a sales seminar when the speaker shared a couple of Less’s quotes. After that, a couple of coworkers and I started sending each other short videos of Les Brown doing his seminars and not long after I found the book It’s not over until you win at the office so I decided to pick it up. I really like how Les Brown can take a difficult situation and break it down to the basics and help you see how to deal with that situation. The main reason for picking up the book It’s Not Over Until You Win and not dismissing it and instead looking at his videos online is that Les shares his own real-life situations and how he dealt with them in the book.
My thoughts about the book:
In the book It’s Not Over Until You Win, Les Brown takes us on his journey with intimate details of the hardest times in his life until then, and how he overcame those obstacles. He points out how failure is not final unless you make it that way, how negative thinking and making mistakes can cloud your judgment and perspective, and how and why your values are one of the most important things you have to battle doubt. When Les talks about failure and a permanent solution he is talking about people who committed suicide. He is very open about this subject because it is a very serious problem in the world. People in their darkest moments make permanent decisions without taking enough time to try to find a solution or help from someone. He mentions a couple of stories of people who took their own lives because of money problems, businesses that went wrong, or because of lost relationships. The problem is that when people hit rock bottom they lose an overview of their possibilities, they are 100% focused on the problem. And as it is where you put your focus there you will find your answer. So do not focus on the problem, but focus on the solution for the problem. He also shares how after he had lost his TV show he could not get over it. He lost his focus on work, family, about everything. He was defensive all the time, and he did things without putting too much thought into them. Consequently, he made a lot of mistakes with his staff and in his personal life. He finally got himself together when he found out his mother was going to die. That was the time when his core values kicked back in and when he started searching for solutions, for opportunities instead of problems. So you see even motivational speakers have their ups and downs.
I found this book as an easy read with a strong message. I recommend this book to everyone who feels like he needs a “pick-me-up” now and then. After reading it I put some things in perspective and found myself with a changed mindset about making mistakes and dealing with problems.
If you picked up this book please let me know what you think about it in the comment section.
My notes from the book:
- Your ability to handle life’s challenges is a measure of your strength of character.
- Experiencing pain is a sign of life. But you must focus on the life, not the pain.
- You have to monitor your thoughts and reject negative thinking and negative people who hold you back.
- Failure is not final. It’s not real unless you make it real. The only reality is how you respond to it, whether it makes you better or bitter.
- Learn from your mistakes, make a commitment to change, then move on.
- If you knock on the door of opportunity long enough and hard enough, somebody is going to answer.
- Your values are formed by your life experience, and by the paths you instinctively have chosen or rejected.
- You begin to grow when you achieve self-awareness by asking who you are, and establishing what your frame of reference is for looking at the world.
- Beliefs are acted out. By observing how a person spends time, energy, and money, you can learn a great deal.
- To model integrity is to have no gaps between what we promise and what we perform. Some of the worst emotional damage in others is created by those who promise what they cannot, will not, or do not deliver.
- When you live within a system of values, no one can throw you off because you will always understand within yourself what the true value of any of your decisions is to you.
- People don’t change unless they want to change.
- In times of conflict, you have to monitor how you express yourself because how you say something often determines how people take what you are saying.
- When speaking if your voice is charged with anger, the anger will carry more weight than your words. Often people respond to emotions and not to the content of what is being said.
- You feel the way you feel because of the thoughts you are thinking. You should not make the mistake of thinking that your feelings reflect the reality.
- We cannot always control the thoughts that come into our minds but we can control the thoughts that we dwell on.
- It is important to structure quiet time in which you can be alone with your thoughts and become centered.
- Instead of guilt, it is much healthier to recognize that damage was done, and a mistake was made, and then take action to learn from the experience and keep moving.
- All great achievements are preceded by many failures, failure is part of the process of success.
- We all have great potential but there is no guarantee we will fulfill it. You have to nurture, develop, and keep pushing your abilities to get beyond the ordinary.
- Find out what doesn’t work and you’ll have narrowed the search for what does work.
- Unless you attempt something beyond that which you have already mastered, you will never grow.
- There will come a time in your life when you will have more yesterdays than tomorrows.
- We spend the first half of our life learning and the second part living what we learned.
- Don’t mind losing to people if you get to take some of their skills away from the table with you.
- You can’t change toxic people, but you can change your relationship by distancing yourself from them, or by not allowing your actions and feelings to be controlled by them or their words.
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