You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero is a self help and motivational book. It shares many self help concepts and embrace the law of attraction.
Contents
Bullet Summary
- Your subconscious mind drives you: make sure it serves you well
- Go for the things you want without caring for what people think
- If you failed to change over and over, hire a coach
Full Summary
The very first step, says Jen Sincero in the introduction, is to believe in a world full of possibilities.
Subconscious Mind Drives You
The subconscious mind:
- It contains the blueprint of our lives
- We have no idea of what are our subconscious beliefs
- We are driven by our subconscious beliefs
Jen Sincero says the subconscious mind believes everything without discernment. And it starts absorving far earlier than our conscious mind develops.
So if you grow up in a culture believing that entrepreneurship is for suckers, that’s what you will absorb and carry with your for your life.
Unless you consciously set out to change that…
The Questions to Decide
I particularly liked Sincero’s questions to ask yourself when deciding what you want to be in life:
- Is this something I want to be, do or have
- Is it taking me where I want to go
- Does it damage anyone else (disappointed parents don’t count!)
If the answers are yes, yes and no, go for it.
Free Yourself From Ego Pleasing
Deny the criticism but also the praises.
There’s nothing wrong with a compliment, but if you find yourself seeking outside approval that you’re good, you’re relinquishing control.
You are giving away power to the people around you and let them drive your life. All it matters is what’s true for you, says Jen Sincero, what other thinks is their own perceptions of reality and that’s not your business.
Check this article to build your ego in a way that does not seek external approval:
Forgive: For Yourself First
When you forgive people, you are not letting them off the hook: you are letting yourself off the hook. The secret to forgiving are:
- Find compassion
- Focus on the task you have, not on the person
- Decide to be happy instead of right
Sell Yourself High
The author says that money is an exchange of energy, which sometimes matter more than expertise. This might be controversial, but there’s some truth behind the fact pricing is sometimes more random than people would think.
Real Life Applications
Go For It – Don’t Be a Parent Pleaser
Don’t let your family or friends stop you from going for what you want.
This can actually be profound for many. I know it was for me. We can be trapped in our drive to please our parents, especially if they were demanding and judgmental.
If that was your case, you need to work on it and develop your own independent personality.
CONS
Good Old Law of Attraction
There’s a lot of law of attraction in You Are a Badass and I am really allergic to that. Luckily the book is not built around the Law of Attraction as in the case for The Secret and The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, but it’s still a major undercurrent.
To me it crossed the threshold when she talks about a client of hers who convinced herself she owned her dream house in Tuscany, Italy. Even though she barely had the money for the flight ticket.
Lots of Overlap With Self Help
There is a lot of overlap with what has become mainstream self help literature these days, especially Tony Robbins. Things like “go for what you want”, “focus on the positives”, “give” and the “crab mentality“.
Self-Aggrandizing
The book uses the author as an example of what works, so it might come across a bit as self aggrandizing.
Red Sauce?
Sincero says that the words “please” and “thank you” are ingrained in herself like the recipe of his Italian’s father “red sauce”.
As an Italian I couldn’t help but shiver at hearing that word 🙂
PROS
Easy to Read
I finished the audiobook very quickly with almost no need to go back to any concept. That might seem like a critic, but it’s a great plus when an author can lay out concepts and theories in a very flowing and easy to grasp way.
Good Mix of Story and Principles
The book mixes well fun stories from the author’s life with the principles she espouses.
Great Insight on Pricing!
I loved how Sincero puts pricing into perspective. She says it’s not always about value, but sometimes it’s arbitrary. And it’s just about the price you decide to sell yourself for!
It’s not always like that, but there’s a lot of truth in it.
Review
There’s a lot of Law of Attraction in this book. It’s no coincidence some of the author’s favorite books are The Science of Getting Rich and Think and Grow Rich.
But there’s also a lot of valid content which is delivered in upbeat and uplifting tone.
In the end I gave it 3 stars because of the law of attraction and the repetition of many well known concepts.
If it were for the structure, ease of tone and delivery, it might as well be a 5 stars. It can also be very powerful as a motivational tool, so give it a shot.
The Title
I notice a trend of books using trendier and more informal title having quite some success. Of course that’s correlation and not causation, but I believe strong titles are a huge driver of sales.
Just think of: