Don't Waste Your Talent : The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best

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Summary: .......Speackless
Review: Great book. Didnt want to put it down!! These two quys figured my out, read me like a book! Im ready for success

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Summary: Practical Help for Life's Turning Points
Review: I enjoyed this book enough to read it several times and to give it to several friends. The authors weave years of experience and research findings into a plan book for discovering who we are and where we fit best. In doing so the book tackles head on the questions that so many of us have about fitting within the systems that surround us.

While most people would like to have life on their own terms, most are unclear on what those terms are. This book helps us uncover those terms through explanations, true stories and thought experiments that lead the reader through the interplay of one's core abilities, skills, interests, style, family background, values, goals and career development cycle.

This is a hands-on book-one that encourages active participation as well as simple understanding. It is inspirational without being glib; radical without sacrificing practicality. I recommend it to anyone who feels he or she is at a turning point.

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Summary: This book is mostly a waste itself
Review: This book falls squarely in the self-help book genre and has all of the usual oversimplifications. One is urged to shed the various nefarious social systems which have operated on one since birth causing untold Stress, to find one's True Self, and to return to those very systems, mostly family and work, a new recharged and in-charge person. According to the authors, most simply need to go through a self-assessment process and thought experiments to reveal Personal Visions for the future.

Nowhere in the book do the authors discuss the power dynamics of the broader economy, society, and the polity and the impacts on persons. Managers are depicted not as powerful players in organizations who demand adherence to rules but as employee allies who want you to achieve your self-defined goals. Perhaps the authors could have reflected on the reason that labor unions formed. Or perhaps they could have pondered as to why social-democratic political parties exist in most democratic societies. The answer is most certainly not that corporations are interested in your True Self. Try the fact that workers and citizens need help against powerful players.

The authors operate a company that sells Whole Person Technology out of which comes a Personal Vision. Their customers are mostly large corporations which only adds suspicion about whom is to benefit. In fact, most of their individual customers seem to find happiness where they were previously unhappy. How convenient. For the readers of this book a battery of tests is available on CD for the tidy sum. The book has an unmistakable feel of being a promo for their self-help products.

In addition, the book is clearly intended for professionals, executives, managers, knowledge workers, etc. The book is loaded with snippets of case studies of such workers. Of course, they all found their Personal Vision. Apparently blue-collar workers don't have near the need to find a True Self.

Is the book completely bogus. No. It is Briggs-Myers on the cheap. Yes, distinctions between introversion and extroversion, specialization and generalization, logical and spontaneous, etc are minimally presented. If someone was hopelessly in the wrong job, perhaps that would be seen by reading this book ignoring the question of how he or she got there in the first place. But the book greatly oversimplifies the ability of individuals to make major transformations in their lives. I suspect that for most the costs and risks, resources and information available, and the power to affect change make real changes nearly impossible. And books that oversimplify the problems do not help.

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Summary: Discover your abilities, use your talents
Review: This book is for people serious about gaining more self-awareness of their own abilities. I say that because there are lots of principles and ideas shared in this book, but one of the most valuable parts of it are the thought experiments in every chapter which guide you toward personal application of the principles. When you buy this book, get a notebook or journal to go along with it. That will greatly increase the value of the concepts.

The authors have crafted what they call the Personal Vision Process, made up of eight components: your natural talents and abilities, skills and life experience, interests, personality, values, goals, family history, and your stage of life development. It is a very comprehensive model and draws on solid work in developmental psychology.

I think the previous review was off-base that called into question the authors' work. It's clear they have done their homework, and if you're looking for career direction, don't you want a guide that is fairly optimistic and supportive?

The authors have developed a CD called the Highlands Ability Battery that profiles your own ability pattern. I purchased this separately and completed the process. It was very helpful to do this with a trained consultant. The book has a self-assessment in it that you can complete, but I found the personal feedback from the consultant much more nuanced and customized to me.

Back to my first statement: this book is for those serious about gaining self-awareness of their abilities and setting their life/career direction. Except for the few rugged individualists, you will benefit most from working through the book with a friend, career counselor, coach, or a group that is providing support. For those seeking life direction, this is one of the best processes I've seen.