Book Review- One Sentence Persuasion

“Don’t turn up the pages to find what is that one sentence or you will lose the essence of the idea.

 

 

                                ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

GENRE: Non-Fiction

AUTHOR: Blair Warren 

PAGES: 51 

YEAR OF PUBLISH: 2012

“One Sentence Persuasion”. “Really?” Can somebody be persuaded in one sentence? The following line reads: “27 words that can make the world do your bidding”. Again, the same question banged my head, “Really?” What rubbish is this?. I pick it up from the shelf and again, “Really?” just 51 pages? Why this book is so hyped in persuasion teachings?

What are these “27 words” that can persuade anyone? And what is that “One sentence”?

In the introduction, the writer put a disclaimer “Don’t turn up the pages to find what is that one sentence or you will lose the essence of the idea. I smiled gently, “you got me”. The writer tried to engage his reader from examples like the magic tricks are so simple to get you fooled. I was losing my patience to discover what is that one sentence persuasion. Finally, it arrived

“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicion, and help them throw rock at their enemies.”

 The line seems savage, immoral, and cunning. But you cannot put everything in one basket. If the objective is persuasion then it has to be persuasion, by all means, Isn’t it?

With this thought in mind, I kept on reading. The author further proceeds with advocating his points from examples- what is the meaning of encouraging their dreams, justifying their failures, ally their fears, and so on.

Now comes the last stage of the book: One thing which is missing in the above sentence: YOU.

There isn’t a word about your wants, your needs, your hopes, or your concerns. There isn’t a word about your offer or proposal. There isn’t a word about what you think. It is all about the other person. Again, this is heresy. People write books about how to frame your ideas, how to present yourself, how to put your best foot forward. And yet, all that people really care about is themselves. Can you imagine how much energy you will free up if you stop focusing on yourself and put your attention on other people? It further talks about The Secret and its teachings.

After reading One Sentence Persuasion, I discovered, the message of most books could be reduced to a single paragraph without losing anything of value.

In the categories of non-fiction, we have a mere one or two groundbreaking work. Others I found repetitive. Let me be very clear, I am no one to question people’s lifelong work. From a reader perspective, I felt this. For reading nonfictions, I had just one motivation – “To know new ideas/concepts”. When I read some work in non-fiction, it seems something is incomplete. Don’t know what or where.

My explanation may sound wage. So, let me make it in binary for better understanding and have a comparison. The following are some of the categories of Nonfictional books with its groundbreaking work. If you have read some of the books in these categories, pick up the book reviews I recommended as the benchmark and compare.

1.    Self Help: Think and Grow Rich

2.   Strategy: Art of War

3.   Investment: Intelligent Investor

4.   Economics: Das Kapital

5.   Management: Out of Crisis

6.   Personal Finance Management: Richest man in babylon

7.   Futuristic writing: Future Shock, Homoedeus

I found One Sentence Persuasion also in the same league of persuasion category of nonfiction. I have just read two books under this: “Made to Stick” and “Influencers” and I don’t feel to read any further in this category. Another brilliant sentence in the book was 

What holds attention determines the action.

This book will consume 3-4 hours of reading at max. You will never feel bored, nothing is repeated, every line generates curiosity to discover more.

 

 

 

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