Customer Reviews

The Go-Getter: A Story That Tells You How to Be One

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The one good thing I learned from this book is that to be successful you have to live with the motto "it shall be done".

While the author thinks this is a great motto to live by, I question if this is really a good motto for someone to live by.

For example if you want to make 10 sales each day, and you work 14 hours a day to make it happen every day for years on end - thereby forgetting about your family and relationships, you may have attained wealth, but you will not have a balanced life.

Ok. You get my point. It's good to be a go-getter, but you need a balance too.

I highly recommend you read Cheryl Richardson's book, Take Time For Your Life, together with this one.

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

This book is a very nice surprise. It has been written a very long time ago but the lessons are timeless. If you are looking for inspiration and motivation to help you take your personal or professional life to the next level, this book is definitely for you!

This is an old classic that inspires all to try a little harder, remove obstacles and get the job done !

A must read for anyone. Its a maximum two hour read, and will change you outlook on your endevors.

This book is a must read for businessmen, educators, coaches, and anyone who feels like they are in need of a lift! The parable in this book is a great motivator. In today's world where most everyone is trying to find the easy way out and pass the buck, this book teaches you to be on the lookout for what may seem like a dubious task, but in actuality is a "blue vase" test! I read this book in about two hours, easy reading! Should be required in all schools.

A great little book that is a sort of "pick me up." I borrowed the book from the library on audio CD. It is a short little book, so even an unabridged audio was not very long. The Go Getter is a fanciful parable about the payoff of being a hard worker and being determined to get things done. The story is simple, direct, and motivational. It raises the listener's spirits without preaching. It was great fun and appropriate for any audience. The reader spoke clearly and with a feeling appropriate to the material. It was very comfortable listening.

ever failed to complete a task or project? did you have a good excuse? i am sure that you did... first, for yourself. then for others. when you are ready to stop making excuses and start achieving results, buy this book. if i could only have ten books on my bookcase, this would be one of them!

If you've read anything by Spencer Johnson or Ken Blanchard and enjoyed their work, you need to read this precursor to the latest rage. This is far superior even if it is a bit dated.

Do you have the blue vase in your life? Are you in the "get it done" club?

Fun, interesting and with enough twists and turns that you will enjoy the quick hour you will spend reading this book. You'll want to let all your colleagues and friends read this (but not your competitors).

It took me a few times to read the first chapter--I kept saying "huh?" (a weird opening) then finally got into it. Some of the best books start this way!

DON'T QUIT IN DISGRACE ACE, FACE THE VASE!

Greg "failing forward on my way to success" Rebuck

This used to be mandatory reading for ServiceMaster employees in the 1970s, and I got my copy from a retiring SM manager in the mid-1980s as he was cleaning out his office. This was the time when Tom Peters, fresh off his "Excellence" writings, was descending into his "break all the rules" type of exhuberant speechifying, and before "business process reengineering" hit the scene with Dr. Hammer, in suit and horn-rims from MIT. The Go Getter, by contrast, portrays a simpler, more direct world of business. You want the job? Pass this test.

You only have one arm because the other one was blown off in WWI? Pass the test. No ADA type accomodating here, no "norming" of the test. And the guy does it. He goes on the wild goose-chase treasure hunt and locates the object defined as his goal: the blue vase. All to prove he's fit to represent his new employer in Shanghai.

After hearing about business in China from a Chinese guy who shared our house in grad school, this seems like a good way to qualify for managing things over there. You want some guy spouting off about "seeing the future first" and making up slide shows? Or the relentless one-armed veteran who will stop at nothing to get the job done? If the job is all about moving lumber down rivers to be stacked and processed, doesn't sound too theoretical to me.

So I like this book, and for several years forced summer law student clerks of our firm to read it, to disabuse them of the notion that practicing law is some lazy, sit around and blow air all day type of undertaking. Don't clients want lawyers who are go getters? ServiceMaster did.