Book 485: Your One Word – Evan Carmichael

I received a copy of this from the publisher* late last year and am only just now getting around to reading a responding to it. There are a couple like that, and you’ve seen a few already. Even though I don’t generally read business books, but did read quite a few last year about managing up, I said yes to this because it sounded a bit less business and a bit more personality than the usual books.

What sucks is that I’m sure what I write later in my response is going to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, but I really did. There were just a few things that weren’t to my #Taste, like that, and I should’ve noticed it from the cover of the book I mean there’s a big example of it on the front cover with #Believe. But honestly, what else could I expect from someone who has a huge social media presence for their first work.

Let’s start with what I really enjoyed about this book. I liked Carmichael’s writing, like really liked it. It’s conversational, witty and easy to read. I truly believed what he said when he talked about how he wants to talk to everyone and learn their stories and then help them become better entrepreneurs. I’ve read a lot of books that seem to have this offer and most of them come across as BS, but this one didn’t.

I also really liked the examples he used from a small “solopreneur” (blah – but the term works) all the way up to a multi-million dollar company and followed those examples through multiple stages to help prove the worth of his one word theory.

The other things I really enjoyed were the afterward and the recaps of every chapter. If you need a pick me up just grab this book and read the afterward, seriously I felt appreciated just reading it. And then the recaps are super useful as you don’t have to do your own recap, plus if your really lazy and don’t want to read the book they have a lot of the information (I’d recommend reading the book though.)

There were two things I didn’t like. I didn’t like the quotes at the beginning of every chapter. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as guilty as everyone else of using them in high school and even in early college, but it’s such a crutch that I think his book would’ve been even stronger without them. If he really wanted to include them he could’ve used them as call outs during the chapter or even just included a quote section at the end full of inspirational quotes. The other thing I didn’t really like was the #hashtagging. (And yes I just hashtagged hashtag.) I get that it’s really important on social media, but to include it in a book it just came across as gimmicky and hokey.

Recommendation: I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The subtitle of the book, “The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life that Matter,” really gives a lot more information and is more truthful than most. I’m surprisingly glad I read this and can definitely use some of his advice in my day-to-day life. I sort of knew what my word was without even having to think about it (#Efficiency) which made me laugh. Seriously though, if I were to ever start a consulting firm or any sort of business that would be my primary focus. There is so much wasting of time, resources and people power in businesses/nonprofits/schools

*I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion. No goods or money was received.

Opening Line: “‘Evan, I paid you big money. I flew you halfway around the world to be here today. You better make this audience come alive!’ Those were the words the organizer of the conference in Malaysia said to me two minutes before I was due on stage to kick off his event.”

Closing Line: “You have in this book, and inside you, the tools you need to succeed. It’s up to you to at. Act boldly. For your sake and the world’s. #Believe.” (Not whited out as this is a work of nonfiction.)