Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time - Book Report/Review Example

• Data:
• Book Review
• SUMMARY OF THE BOOK

‘Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time’ was the first book written by Keith Ferrazzi that was published in the year 2005 (Ferrazzi 1). The book highly gained its popularity after it was published, and it became the bestselling book for the particular year. The theme of the book is based on the fact, better relationships and networking makes an individual successful in both personal and in professional life. The author has portrayed the real life scenario in the form of story that depicts the central theme of the book. The book commenced with the story of an individual named Keith, who used to work as caddie in a wealthy town situated behind his hometown (Ferrazzi 3). During his working in clubs, Keith used to watch that the club members helped each other in their jobs and shared ideas with each other that would help in the overall team development. Moreover, he also used to watch that the club members also helped their children in getting admission in best schools, attain best jobs, and peruse their internship from best companies. This represents that better relationship and networking plays a very important role towards the success of an individuals’ life. The author of the book believes that success helps in breeding success, as rich people are being getting wealthier day by day. He also believes in the fact that the lack of financial resources does not refer as poverty, rather it is referred as the isolation from the certain sections of people that can make an individual more of oneself (Ferrazzi 1).

Keith Ferrazzi has also demonstrated in the book regarding the fact that for achieving the goals in life, it does not matter how much talent is present within an individual or to what extent an individual is smart (Ferrazzi 5). Similarly, it also does not matter from what background an individual came from or with how much monetary or other support one has started. The aspect that matters the most is to realize that one cannot achieve the goals of life by their own, rather the support and relationships with other individuals is very essential for achieving the goals of life. By demonstrating the work of Keith as caddie, the author understood the real meaning of networking (Ferrazzi 13). The appropriate meaning of networking as demonstrated by the author involved the participation of associates and friends, sharing of knowledge, and resources along with energy and time for providing value to others. The author is highly influenced by the scenario at the golf course, when he saw that the friends and families were helping each other and at the same time took care of each other. One of the major aspects that reflected in the behavior of individuals was that they were supporting a care for each other without the expectations of receiving any help from the other party (Ferrazzi 22).

The first segment of the book was completely related with the upbringing of Keith and various aspects of networking that can help towards the success of one’s life. The author also talks regarding the gusty move taken by his father for asking the still-mills CEO, whether he would support Keith in getting admission in a private school (Ferrazzi 12). The author clearly demonstrated that being around the successful people played a very important role in achieving the goals of life and at the same time attained successful position in life that would not be possible without networking or establishing relationships with such people. The author has clearly described in his book regarding the significance of relationship in the success of an individual’s life along with the tools that serves most effective in maintaining as well as nurturing relationship (Ferrazzi 75). Keith has tried to portray that helping others should be the first priority of an individual as the success of every person is only possible without the help of an effective networking and relationships. The author has provided suggestions to the people to show their genuine interest in others goals dreams and life in a genuine manner. One of the major aspects demonstrated in the book is regarding the ways involved in the creation of genuine relationship and connection with any desired individuals. The overall theme of the book served beneficial in demonstrating the concept of group dynamics, team leadership, and group behavior (Ferrazzi 121).

• CRITIQUE OF THE BOOK

The book ‘Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time’ written by Keith Ferrazzi has been successful in demonstrating that establishing positive relationship and enhancing networking plays a very important role in ensuring that the goals of an individual’s life is achieved and thereby leads to a successful life. Understanding the theme of the book would allow an individual to move ahead in life and climb up the ladders towards personal success. He has demonstrated that the power of relationships has helped in distinguishing the successful people from others. For a major section of people, the term networking possesses a negative perception, which is mostly represented by smiling, shaking hands, and finally entering into some contractual agreements for sole benefits (Ferrazzi 66). However, the author has proved that the perception completely wrong and thereby argued that establishing effective and true relationships with individuals is the key to success that serves beneficial for their both personal as well as professional life. There are various people, who are incapable of establishing mutually beneficial relationships with other people; hence, they fail to be successful in their life. This may be because of various factors such as lack of social skills or they do not perceive larger benefit from it (Ferrazzi 32). Thus, it can be argued that the concerned book is an effective guide towards ascertaining the benefit of networking and maintaining healthy relationships with the people in achieving success in life. The approach being demonstrated in this book does not deals with grabbing business cards, jamming or shaking handshakes with people, rather is a human approach that demonstrates that the key to a successful person depends on the extent to which he/she has been involved in the establishment of relationships with others and the level of exposure to networking (Ferrazzi 36).

Evidently, the book has been highly successful in promoting the fact that the success of an individual’s life completely depends on the level of networking that he/she possesses and the relationship with other people. However, there are certain areas that can be disagreed with the viewpoints of Ferrazzi (Ferrazzi 68). The overall theme of the book is based on the fact, stating relationships are never efficient but in real life scenario, it is generally found that the relationships are failed to be efficient. Even though it can be found that people are helping each other against pay or at small request and obtain the specific solution, at most of the cases, it is found that the efficiency that can be retrieved from doing the work solely can be much effective as compared to delegating them to some other people. Moreover, at majority of the circumstances people generally forget the commitments, which they make to each other for which the works are delayed as compared to the actual time that would be taken (Ferrazzi 78). In some circumstances, it can be found that the work that is estimated to be completed within in one month would take several months depending on other people. This behavior of the individuals is often unavoidable and undesirable, as they can become busy in any work for which the time can be overestimated than the original time being committed. In addition to this, the author has even mentioned in his book that genuinely helping and offering to help are two distinct concepts and at the same time, they are not co-related with each other. At most, of the circumstances, it is generally found that matching up with the offer and service takes a lot of time. This does not indicate the distraction of the core message to rely on the people, but integration of relationships into commotion list may not always be perfect (Ferrazzi 19).

Another major area that Ferrazzi has highlighted upon is being ‘yourself’, which can be highly criticized. Ferrazzi considers himself as a good networker and he considers this ability as the secret to his success (Ferrazzi 25). With the help of various skills being practiced by him, he became an effective networker that further helped him in transforming himself from young golf caddie to an elite golf caddie. However, this also does not represent that the advice provided by him is not worthless, but it also cannot be true. For an individual who involves in changing their behavior and attitude, there would be certain steps involved, but the author has failed to involve these in the book. The author has use the term “be yourself” to represent an individual, who possess good networking skills. It is also evident by reviewing the overall book that there are certain areas covered in the book that would serve beneficial in gaining success (Ferrazzi 67). One of the points is ‘don’t keep score’, which represents that seeking for favors helps in strengthening relationships rather than putting an individual to debt. There should be higher willingness of individuals to help a person inspire of making a perception of doing a favor (Ferrazzi 98). Another major point is ‘people as a part of goals’, which represents that people are required to strengthen their relationships for achieving the goal of their life. Making a good networking of relationships would serve beneficial in achieving the goals of life. It is very essential in selecting the right people, who would be able to take the responsibility and provide help in achieving the goal (Ferrazzi 44). The author has also mentioned in the book, ‘your weaknesses are your strengths’ with the help of which he has tried to state that the vulnerabilities of individuals strengths in a particular relationship. This also helps in making an individual more human, foster bonds, and more approachable. The author has also mentioned in his book a brief guideline to small talk that will help people in improving their small talk. He has provided balanced casual conversation with the intension of developing a better communication skill that will further serve beneficial in strengthening relationship (Ferrazzi 48).

From a detailed review of the overall book, it can be stated that the four different sections demonstrated in the book has been able to provide a detailed understanding about the importance of maintaining relationship towards the success of an individual (Ferrazzi 52). The first section is based on the assumption that working with different people in a business would lead to the success of an employee. It is very essential for an individual to understand that helping others will result in getting help in return. The author has depicted that true networking represents ascertaining the ways for making other individuals more successful. There should always be willingness of an individual to help others rather than taking it as a burden (Ferrazzi 74). This thinking of the author reflects the team leadership aspect of an individual, as the leaders are always available to help others. He has also advised people to believe on the fact that the choice should not be between failure and success, rather it should be between striving for greatness and choosing risk through which also the team leadership aspect is reflected. The second section of the book is ‘Skill set’ through which the author has tried to demonstrate that the use of fax, letter or email would serve much effective as compared to making a phone call in case a person wants to reach to an individual (Ferrazzi 46). The author has demonstrated that shared interest plays a very important role in building a relationship. Moreover, focus should be given on what one can deliver to other rather than focusing on what one can receive. The author has also demonstrated that the concept of group behavior through the second section of the book, which is considered as an important aspect for employee success in an organization. Successful communication is very essential to be established between individuals. Moreover, at the same time interact with the individuals in such a manner so that both the parties involved understand the inner feelings of each other (Ferrazzi 97).

The third section of the book is ‘Turning Connections into Compatriots’ through which the author has tried to relate the theme of the book with the practical life of the individuals. While having conversation with an individual, it is very essential to understand the factors that would help in motivating the individual. As per the author, the motivating factors include wealth, health, and other act of kindness (Ferrazzi 43). It has also been demonstrated by the author that connecting is completely related to philosophy and it is considered as the guiding principle of every individual that helps in meeting an opportunity. The fourth section of the book is related to ‘trading up and giving back’ in which the authors have asked the individuals be interesting as people highly prefer interesting people to hire or work as perception is made on such people that hiring them would help in making their companies better. The author has also related creativity in business with the relationships established among persons for the sake of shared interest (Ferrazzi 67).

Thus, it is evident that the overall book has been successful in demonstrating the importance of establishing relationship and networking in the success of one’s personal as well as professional development.

Work Cited

Ferrazzi, Keith, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time. UK: Penguin UK, 2014. Print.