Old wine in a new bottle

If somebody would tell you the secret formula of becoming rich in a short span, in all probability you'll take it for a small consulting fee. Big Bucks claims to be that formula, though without the right ingredients. Written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, the book puts up simple business rules in a 200 pages advisory for those who want to become overnight millionaires.

Big Bucks a story of Len, a young man searching for the secret to moneymaking and his adventurous journey with Rabbi Silver, Father Murphey, Pastor Edwards and the moneymakers from their congregations. It uses a business parable to demonstrate how to overcome three challenges -- the test of joy, the test of purpose and the test of creativity to achieve financial success

The book reinstates the fact it's possible to become rich, even in adverse circumstances, if you try to do so in an intelligent manner. It says that one can't stay profitable if he chases away customers or mistreats his employees. However, despite having a packaging that is bound to attract eyeballs, the book comes as nothing but a jerry-built attempt of explaining things which have been taught by various management gurus of the previous era.

Have fun what you are doing, make sure your customer is happy, be creative and help others to succeed and so on. Didn't we all know that? Yes, but still a majority of us are not even near to that "millionaire" tag. And here I was expecting some real game changing steps or examples, at least to affirm author's claim to help people becoming super rich by reading this epitome of good breeding.

However, the book reminds us of several substantial management rules that are vital to the resolution of a crisis. The author is at his best at explaining that it's extremely important to set right priorities at right time else, failure is on cards. "It takes a 13 year old kid about two minutes to figure out that if he wants to earn big money at a sport he'd better sharpen his basket-shooting skills or turn out for batting practice rather than for volleyball," is an insightful take at all those who crib at what they are doing. It underlines the same old rules that by focusing on concepts like commitment, intensity, purpose and even fun, anyone can build personal wealth and financial security.

Nevertheless, I would have rated this book far better had the author projected this as a road map to become an efficient entrepreneur. However, the author seems to be in a hurry to cash in on some emotional values of people. As the author says, the world is full of people looking for ways and schemes to make money, Big Bucks certainly falls under that attempt. My take: A reference manual for first generation entrepreneurs, not impressive for serious readers.

About the Reviewer:

Jatinder Singh is a Senior Correspondent with IT Next magazine. You can reach him at jatinder.singh@9dot9.in

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