The Power of Focus: What the World's Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret to Financial Freedom & Success

I looked thru a few of the reviews about this book and I have to laugh at the review that said this information is for Homer Simpson and that anyone over the age of 10 should have figured it out. I must ask if it's so obvious, why do most people waste time working at jobs they hate, just to pay the bills, living a life of wasted talent and never come close to becoming rich or even more important happiness? If success is so obvious, why do most of us not take the necessary tasks? This book is in my top 5 of over about 280 personal development books I have read. I will agree that the topics are very simple, but extremely effective. We are all blessed with the same number of hours in a day. The ONLY way you will become happy and successful is if you learn to manage your habits, time, and money. Most of us waste many hours of the day doing meaningless tasks. Do you think your doctor would want to mop the floors? NO WAY. Why is it then that most of us feel as if we have to be a jack of all trades and master none? This book talks of specialization and how to make the most of this one time shot called life. This book makes sense of how to get down to the core of self-development which is how to change your habits, which will in turn change your life. If I had to recommend 2 books to anyone, the first would be this and the second would be The Master Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill.

Long ago when I was a child, I purchased a large box of Crackerjacks and the prize within was a small plastic magnifying glass. I recall using it to burn holes in leaves which demonstrated the power of focus. I thought about that as I read this book. Here is one of its core concepts: "Negative habits breed negative consequences. Successful habits create positive rewards." I agree. However, as the authors fully understand, replacing negative habits with successful habits is very difficult. A sincere and sustained commitment is imperative. However, as the authors of this volume correctly point out, something else is also needed: focus. "You must invest most of your time every week doing what you do best, and let others do what they do best....When you focus most of your time and energy doing the brilliant things you are truly brilliant at, you eventually reap big rewards." Within organizations, this is the essence of alignment: getting the right people in the right places, doing what they do best to achieve whatever the organization's goals may be. Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt recommend and then explain ten different strategies to develop and sustain successful habits, focus on strengths, see "The Big Picture," balance career with personal life, build excellent relationships with others, eliminate (or at least significantly reduce) fear and anxiety, ask for what you want (the authors provide a seven-point system to achieve prosperity), sustain consistent persistence, take decisive and appropriate action, and finally, how to simplify one's life without compromising one's purposes. A set of specific "Action Steps" is provided at the end of each chapter. If implemented effectively, the ten strategies can enable almost anyone to "hit" their business, personal, and financial "targets" and in many (if not most) instances "with absolute certainty." First, however, each reader must determine what her or his "targets" are. My own experience suggests that, over time, people change their targets. Also, whatever they may be at any given time, the little rascals tend to be moving. In their Final Words, the authors note that "there are no shortcuts to building a life of substance. It's an ongoing process. It takes time, real effort and a desire to become more than you already are. It's a worthy challenge. However, your biggest challenge starts tomorrow. How will you apply what you have learned between the covers of this book?" As suggested earlier, reading this this book reminded me of a large box of Crackerjacks. The material it provides reminded me of that little plastic magnifying glass. Both the box and the book offer the same "gift": an understanding and appreciation of the power of focus. I join with the authors in wishing their readers "an abundance of health, joy, and prosperity in the years ahead." If at all possible, read this book in combination with Bossidy and Charan's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done; Hammer's The Agenda: What Every

I am a busy full time worker and full time college student who can never seem to get anything done. I received this book as an 'out of the blue, for no reason, "this book made me think of you"'gift from my father and I couldn't have asked for anything better. My life is now fulfilling and I am really changing the value of my life from the advice given by this book. Although it is written from a business aspect, everything can be related to one's personal life as well. I will warn readers that it will require more than one reading to get all from the book, not because it is hard to read (it is actually very easy and compelling to read), but because there is so much useful information that it requires constant rereading and review to absorb it all. Also, make sure you pay attention when you are reading, don't just skim over the words with your eyes. Take notes and highlight. The Power of Focus also recommends other great 'must read' books. But this book really breaks down and organizes all the details and steps to building good habits that lead to success. I recommend this book to people of all ages, especially to teenagers, young adults, and college students. It's better to learn this stuff early.

I consider this book as the best self-help book which is actaually useful for me. Most self-help books use Top-down approach. You first set up the goals in your life, and solve the problem of how you may achieve them. While this works most of the time in building software, I do not think that it does in real life. Also, software engineers are trained to design software using top down approach. On the other hand, normal beings like us are not trained to construct our lives in top down approach. I am not saying that this approach is not good. It may work for highly motivated and well deciplined people.The book, Power of Focus, uses bottom up approach. So, the small things, concrete, do-able things first. The authors tell us to find out our bad habits, and change them one by one. Their stories were so convincing that it looked so easy. And it was really easy. One problem I had with other books' top down approach was that I didn't feel comfortable in setting or writing down so-called "great ambitions". But I felt very comfortable with this book's bottom up approach.

Most motivational books concentrate their time and effort on discussing one or two techniques of how to achieve personal and business goals. This one puts it altogether in one package. The book covers in detail 10 focusing strageties. This makes it a real winner from my perspective. At the conclusion of each of the 10 strageties, there are a series of worksheets that help you impliment what you have learned in the previous chapter. These have been invaluable to me in progressing toward my professional, relationship, and financial goals. I plan to purchase numerous copies and give them to all of my young adult children and their spouses. In addition, I will be teaching a professional development class and this will be the TEXTBOOK for the course. The real driver behind this work is Les Hewitt and he has done an excellent job of tying many of the loose ends in this field together in one wonderful bundle. I hope to read more by him in the future.