Review: Becoming Unbelievably Successful, by John Knotts

I bought this book a year ago, scanned it, and put it aside. I was too wrapped up in finishing  and self-publishing my own book and my “too cool for the people” cynicism kicked in every time, I picked it up.

I am not really the target market for this book. I’m 76 and comfortably retired, not really in the becoming unbelievably successful game. And yet . . .

. . . I got a great deal out of it. I especially liked and am revisiting the description of success defined, ikigai, how to think about and find purpose, and the Universal Laws.

John Knots’ story is kind of amazing, from not-so-great student to sergeant in the Air Force to many, many letters after his name, certifications and degrees, working on a doctorate. He’s started businesses and charities and does excellent work helping veterans with PTSD using horses, equine therapy. John still doesn’t call himself unbelievably successful, only says he is “on the path.”

I bought this book because I’ve met the author and because I was writing a book on how to be successful in a career (Traveling the Consulting Road: Career wisdom for new consultants, candidates, and their mentors), so John Knotts and I have something in common. We both want  to share what we’ve learned to make others’ path easier.

This is a book about self-leadership, about taking responsibility for your life and creating the life you want. I have in my life been this proactive and I have also just let life happen to me. In my experience being proactive works better. This is a lesson, I relearned far too many times, but finally got right. Would this book have helped me? Maybe.

There is a great deal in this book that will help someone become successful and it is clear that it is better if you start earlier rather than later. But I think John believes that if someone is the kind of high school student he describes himself as being (or that I was), that this book would be extraordinarily helpful. It would, but I doubt that I would ever have read it. If a parent or mentor bought it for me, I might have read it, but not in a way that I’d have gotten much out of it.

You see this is a workbook. John Knotts shares some very interesting ideas, some genuinely helpful ones in fact, but first you have to have thought about what success means to you, which probably means experiencing a little success and a little failure, even vicariously. Then you have to sit down to do the work. This book contains a helpful framework for the work.

The two most important chapters are Chapter 4, defining what success means for you, and Chapter 7, creating the plan. John has questions at the end of each chapter, but those questions aren’t all equal. He has recall questions to stimulate your memory, which are important, but “teachy.” The most important questions are the ones that deal with your application of the concepts to your life.

I came to learn (the hard way) that success, whether in business or life, is first about clear direction. Knowing where you are going and what you want to achieve is critical. Then it is about building capability, knowledge, skills, and support system to get you there. And it is about connections, the people who can help you on your path. This book covers all that and much more.

But it’s a workbook; it won’t work unless you do the work.

Please forgive the crass commercialism. I haven’t figured out how to attract sales for my book without hawking it. 😊 – Alan