With 100 success tips on hand, you must at least score one

“The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success”
Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2000


Seminars on how to succeed abound, simply because participants, wanting to “hit it someday,” are simply plentiful anytime of the year.

Designing and copywriting success courses, deploying speakers, producing audio and video tapes, and publishing books have become a multi-million dollar industry in the Americas and Europe – and they find their way in the Philippines – leading to a surfeit of these “how-to-succeed” seminars, books and tapes given in installments.

Two questions pop up: For our shopping list of success tips, why can’t we have the equivalent of a “one-stop shop” that offers everything we need? Or, put another way, why can’t someone design a “carry-all” package that answers every need and deals with any situation?

One book, “The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success,” offers itself as a carry-all cart of principles to guide, warn and inspire us to achieve one goal devoutly to be wished: to be a success.

The author, Brian Tracy, renowned motivational speaker, has wisely divided these 100 laws into eight categories: Laws of Life, Success, Business, Leadership, Money, Selling, Negotiating and Time Management. He lumped them in one book, while another author could have produced eight books instead of one.

Tracy presents the laws as if they are, yes, unbreakable natural laws, even giving such an approach a scientific, philosophical and religious basis (how can he go wrong?). He quotes Aristotle to support his contention that “everything happens for a reason,” adding that every action, then, is purposive.

Sir Isaac Newton (who – legend puts it – came upon a great insight when an apple fell and hit his head) is also called in to reinforce the efficacy of laws, enunciating a principle we knew since our high school science class: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And he cites the Scriptures, with the King James Version’s rhetorical majesty: “Whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.” The author has gone through all that trouble to enunciate a single point: Success is no accident.

It is doubtful if these laws are as immutable as natural laws that govern earth and stars, but readers surely have the elementary wisdom to gloss over that ambitious claim and proceed to what Mr. Tracy wants to say. And sure enough, he makes sense, in the same way that success seminar speakers pass off formulae as products of mathematical equations.

Under the Law of Control, for example, he declares: “By failing to plan, you are planning to fail.” He quotes a highly successful entrepreneur producing and distributing audio programs on success (I told you!): “Success is goals, and all else is commentary.”

Is Tracy preaching selfishness? No, in fact, his 100 laws throb with the principle of service. His quote of Zig Ziglar on achieving something says it well: “You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people to get what they want.”

The book author is no believer in the “windfall mentality” or getting lucky. He presents the Law of Applied Effort: “All great success is preceded by a long period of hard work in a single direction toward a clearly defined purpose.” Said like a scientific hypothesis this homespun truth: The harder you work, the luckier you get.

He cites a corollary of the Law of Forced Efficiency to emphasize the need to test your limits: “Only by stretching yourself can you discover how much you are truly capable of. Poet Robert Browning said it better: “A man’s reach must exceed his grasp/ Or what’s a heaven for.”

And yet the author can be laconic with his laws (a rebuke against the verbiage of our legislation), especially when he endorses decisiveness: “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.” He is speaking from experience, and the truth truly inspires. Decisions, to him, must also be quick, lest one is overtaken by the law of obsolescence, which warns: “Whatever exists is already becoming obsolete.”

The book also has a dozen laws on leadership, topped by the Law of Integrity. “Annotating” such law, the author says: “Integrity lies at the core of leadership, at the heart of the leader. Everything you do revolves around the person you really are inside.” The book also has 14 Laws of Selling, highlighted by a principle couched in startling wit: “Nothing happens until a sale takes place.”

When you get the shorter end of the stick in a transaction, you can’t succeed. That explains why the author includes Laws of Negotiating, beginning with a simple truth: “Everything is negotiable.” The Law of Desire is particularly insightful: “The person who most wants the negotiation to succeed has the least bargaining power.” My brod Jun has given this advice long ago with regard to courtship.
By choice, I am no excited reader of “how-to” success books. You show your respect for your reader when you present principles, not methods. This book has done just that -- and is thus a refreshing exception.