Author: John Tschohl
Publisher:  Best Sellers Publishing – 187 pages (published in 1995, revised in 2010)
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram

“I only wish I could get all 435 members of Congress to read this book and take it to heart,” writes Jim Romstad, former Member of Congress, in his Foreword to this book.

In the Acknowledgments section of this book as well, John thanks his mother: “My mom Agnes Tschohl, who died at age 102, was more responsible for my success than anyone else. My father died when I was seven years old, and my mother raised me and developed in me a strong self-concept and belief in myself.”

He also expresses his gratitude to his wife and two children. He writes: “My wife of 33 years Pat and my two children Christina and Matthew also deserve a great amount of thanks. They willingly endured not only my passion for customer service, but also many vacations filled with publicity interviews, book signings, and speaking engagements.

We all have people who play major roles in shaping our lives personally and professionally. and in how much we contribute for the betterment of humanity. John writes: “The late Paul J. Meyer made a huge impact on my life with his Success Motivation Institute and Leadership Motivation Institute personal development programs and his mentorship. Paul was one of the most financially successful people I’ve ever known.”

We all know that money is a measure of success. It is also a manifestation of success, your outer life. But many of us do not realize that success begins with your inner life: your beliefs about yourself, including your self-worth, and what you think others think of you (e.g. whether it is positive or negative), your idea of success, and how much success you believe you can achieve.

This book shows you how to improve yourself, and why you must serve and help others improve themselves. It also looks at what qualities successful people have, and why it is essential to develop those qualities in yourself. Below we list the titles of its chapters to give you a sort of birds-eye view of this book:

  1. Section I: Self-Improvement
  2. Self-Development
  3. Importance of Personal Development
  4. Self-Concept
  5. How to be Successful
  6. Attitude Determines Action
  7. Be Pro-Active
  8. Self-Image
  9. Desire
  10. How to be Your Own Teacher
  11. The Win-Win Paradigm
  12. Pursue Self-Improvement Aggressively
  13. How to Get Noticed
  14. Section II: Service Improvement
  15. Self-Image
  16. Being a Good Listener
  17. Handling Complaints
  18. It’s Not What You Say But How You say It
  19. Consider Yourself Empowered
  20. Relationships Are Vital
  21. Doing More than Necessary
  22. Each Customer: An Individual
  23. Quality
  24. Section III: Qualities of Successful People
  25. Joy in Your Work
  26. Humor’s Benefit
  27. How to Learn A Sense of Humor
  28. Empower Yourself
  29. Time
  30. Service Recovery
  31. Energize
  32. Leisure
  33. Weekend Neurosis