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The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success | 
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| Author: Marcus Buckingham
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $13.98
You Save: $16.01 (53%)
New (37) Used (9) from $11.99
Rating:  111 reviews
Sales Rank: 3646
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 1400202264
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9781400202263
ASIN: 1400202264
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: NEAR PERFECT. Orders to us by 3:30 pm eastern time are out the same day.
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Product Description
An Experience to Revolutionize Your Life from Marcus Buckingham - the World's Leading Expert on Career Success! Want to know what you are supposed to do with your life?The Truth About Youis an experience to unlock life's toughest questions. The process this revolutionary toolkit teaches will create higher satisfaction and performance in life and work. This cutting-edge product includes: Enhanced DVD. A high-energy film reveals how and why you must discover and prioritize your strengths and includes access to a wealth of downloadable resources, including five bonus Strength Tip videos. Interactive Book. With insightful exercises and tried-and-true life wisdom no one else will tell you, the book takes you to the location of your most powerful and unchanging talents. ReMemo Pad. Designed for a life on-the-go, the ReMemo Pad becomes your companion to complete the task of revealing your strengths using your everyday experiences. Perfect for high school and college students, young professionals, and people simply wanting to revitalize their career, The Truth About You helps you develop the kind of clarity and passion that drives a successful and satisfying future. Marcus Buckingham will help you discover the real truth, the truth about you . . . it will be your secret to success.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 106 more reviews...
 Good content, but not much of it January 8, 2009
I recently read Marcus Buckingham's new book The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success. The product is actually marketed as a "tool kit" that includes a book, DVD, and memo pad, and it is designed to help individuals discover their strengths and more effectively deploy them in their workplace. Overall, the product is somewhat insightful and potentially highly practical, but is also very short and overly simplistic.
Buckingham starts off by flipping our traditional definition of strengths and weaknesses on its head. He says that a strength isn't just something you are good at. Rather, a strength is something that leaves you feeling excited and fulfilled. Conversely, a weakness is anything that leaves you feeling drained and unmotivated. Thus, a weakness can actually be something that you are quite good at. Buckingham explains all of this in both the DVD and the book. Throughout both (which overlap a great deal) he sets out to expose some commonly believed myths and replaces them with truths. For example, he helps people remember the importance of the "what" when it comes to work. If we aren't fulfilled by the "what" in our work, then the "why" and the "how" don't matter. This is a valuable insight that is often overlooked.
Several parts of of the book encourage reader response, and there are several areas to write in answers to questions. This sort of personal reflection certainly increases the value of the book. Readers are also told to utilize the memo pad that comes with the book. This pad is used to record instances throughout one's week where they feel either especially excited and motivated, or especially weak and unmotivated. These notes are then used to help readers drill down what their specific strengths and passions are. I am already pretty aware of my strengths and weaknesses, but I nonetheless found this excercise helpful. The book also contained a smattering of seemingly counter-intuitive workplace/leadrship principles that were quite thought provoking (for example, rather than seeking to live outside of our comfort zones, we should instead focus our energy on thriving and being maximally effective within our comfort zone). All of this to say, there was much in the book that was very straight forward and practical.
That being said, this product is not without its problems. The book portion is barely 100 pages long, and if the pages were standard paperback size, with standard margins, and single spaced typing it probably would have been about 30 pages. There simply is not very much content in this book. Also, the DVD serves virtually no purpose. The key points of the DVD are rehashed in the book. The DVD of Marcus talking increases the sticker price of the product, but seems to just be an attempt to make up for the lack of content. The memo pad is a good idea, but it certainly is not worth paying extra for. While the content is good, there simply isn't much of it.
Overall, I found this book to be decently helpful. I am already working to apply some of the principles to my life and they have made a difference. I would have been nice to see a bit more content. This product has a sticker price of $30 (though it can be found for much cheaper on Amazon), but would really only be a worthwhile purchase for about $8-10.
a must for every person wanting to grow as a leader January 7, 2009
I first heard about Marcus Buckingham after a few friends came back from Catalyst one year. They were enamored and thought the guy was awesome. Always skeptical, I watched his short film: Trombone Player Wanted... loved it. I was as hooked as my friends were. When his new book The Truth about You was an option for the Thomas Nelson Bloggers, I made sure I got my hands on a copy.
It didn't disappoint.
First of all the packaging is just great design. Silver and light blue combine and make one flashy presentation, and the DVD and notebook casing become just eye candy for any print designer out there. But this isn't a review of graphic design. This is a review on content.
The DVD played on the idea of the Trombone story, with Marcus' communicating a brief over of the book. The intro says that this is optional, but I highly recommend taking the time to watch this. The set up for what you'll read is worth the time. This actually is why it took me so long to finish this read; I found it hard to carve out some time to watch the film.
Once I did, the book flew. Even with the exercises, I finished the The Truth about You in two nights. The content was well thought provoking and well communicated. The homework is worth the effort. I'm two days in the project, but so far have found it invaluable for discovering some important feelings regarding my work and ministry. I look forward to putting the principles from this book into practice as I develop as a leader in my profession.
The words come across as they are coming straight from Buckingham's heart. He is passionate about his work and developing leaders across the world. This is evident through each anecdote and life principle. I got the impression that even though he has no clue who I am, he actually cares if I succeed or not.
I can highly recommend this book for people who want to discover why they're not happy at work, for those who are just beginning their career, as well as established teams that want to increase creativity and productivity.
A DVD to watch & rewatch - along with a book January 6, 2009
I actually reviewed this book on my blog[...] today. At first glance, I was less than enthusiastic about "The Truth About You" by Mr. Buckingham. But, after popping the DVD into my computer I was TOTALLY turned around. Marcus Buckingham is a brilliant motivational speaker and even if you do NOTHING more with this package than watch the DVD, it will have been worth the price of the book. I have a son who'll be graduating college this year and I have the feeling that he'll gain a GREAT amount of knowledge about his strengths and weaknesses and how to use them to his best advantage from this book/DVD.
The Truth about The Truth About You January 5, 2009
"Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts as Columbus to his own soul." (Author Unknown) The Truth about You is a simple, easy to read book that inspires one to dig a little digger into our "undiscovered character" and aids people on the journey of self discovery.
Buckingham presents challenging thoughts such as "Your strengths aren't what you're good at and your weaknesses aren't what you're bad so you'd better find out what your real strengths are" and "You will never find the perfect job." This is the type of advice I wish I had read twenty years ago.
The unique format of a book, DVD and notebook appeals to every style of learner.
The book's primary meaning is to develop and work from your strengths. While his message is very valuable, I found myself wanting a little more "meat" to the topic. The whole package is a lot of flash and not as much substance.
Yet reading The Truth About You is not a waste of time and can inspire people to rediscover their core essence. It would be wonderful high school or college graduation gift.
This is not my strength... January 5, 2009
It will likely take you longer to watch the video that comes with this book than it will take you to read the five chapters. Either way, you can probably pound it out in one sitting.
Buckingham gives what appears to be some great advice for how we should each try to play to our strengths in life. He also gives some fairly simple application steps for how you can figure out what your own strengths (and even weaknesses) are.
What's the goal? To get yourself into a situation where you find yourself working on your strengths a majority of your time while you attempt to pass on your weaknesses to others who are strong in those areas.
Buckingham is a very engaging author who obviously knows how to inspire people. He offers you hope while almost pushing you to believe in yourself. I know it sounds a little simplistic but I'm sure you'll find the infamous words of Rob Schneider racing through your head, "You can do it!"
As for me, the jury will likely be out until I can work through the ReMemo pad, which is basically the project of figuring out my own strengths and weaknesses.
In short, it's worth a read if you would like to do some self-reflecting while doing a little "on the job" homework.
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