The Success Principles – Jack Canfield

This book was actually a gift from one of my staff members. Jack Canfield is co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. The other half of the team, Mark Victor Hansen, was the featured speaker at our agent Top Producer Retreat in Victoria, BC, last month. The term that springs to mind for this book is “formulaic.” That’s not so much a criticism as an observation. Both these gentlemen have found a very successful formula, and it’s something they work tirelessly to share with many other people through their books, seminars and other projects.

One of the keys to the success of the Chicken Soup books are their reliance on the story format. The oldest possible form of information sharing dating back to the caveman. Research, data, statistics and theories are all well and good, but nothing captivates the interest and imagination more than the story. This book is full of them too and the one that has stayed with me is the story of Jeff Arch, a karate instructor motivated by a Tony Robbin’s motivational program who sat down and wrote the screenplay for Sleepless in Seattle in less than a month. Okay, I was impressed by that. Mainly because I can’t imagine writing a screenplay in less than a month (or really at all) and I just love that movie!

I don’t think there’s anything particularly groundbreaking about this book, but time invested in the power of positive thinking is time well spent. It’s good to be reminded of the things we all know but don’t do. I mark all my books with post-it flags (can’t bear to mark in a book) and when I pick them up off the shelf, there all all these little colored tabs peaking out between the pages that let me find immediately a thought I wanted to keep. In flipping back through this book there are some well phrased pearls of wisdom that are worth keeping and even sharing. If you are a fan of the Chicken Soup books, you’ll certainly enjoy this one.