I just finished reading Success Is A Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life. Written by Rick Pitino, a highly successful collegiate and professional basketball coach, this book was a good read in that it was well organized, eloquent, and included many stories from the author's own experiences.
As the title suggests, the author offers ten rules that must be adhered to to achieve maximum success. Like other self-help/motivational books, there's nothing here that would be considered groundbreaking. However, Pitino and co-author Bill Reynolds have a way of relating to the reader so that one recognizes his own shortcomings without feeling like a scolded puppy.
Chapter 8, entitled "Be Ferociously Persistent", was, in my opinion, the zenith of this book. With a well proportioned mix of timeless quotes, common sense, and personal experiences, Pitino reinforces to the reader that continued hard work is necessary to achieve and maintain success. If you buy into the whole "4 Hour Workweek" thing, you won't enjoy Chapter 8 - the author correctly illustrates that success requires that you work harder, longer, and with greater intensity than the next guy. I also enjoyed the final chapter, "Survive Your Own Success", which serves as a reminder that success itself can be poisonous if you allow yourself to become complacent in your achievements.
If you're looking for a clever book to guide you to success shortcuts, this is not the book for you. However, I do recommend this book as a concise motivational tool, a brief but useful set of reminders to those who are willing to go above and beyond.
