“You Are a Badass” is a self-help and motivational book written for a wide and general audience.
The author uses an ironic style to share many popular self-help concepts, including the popular law of attraction.

Bullet Summary

• Your subconscious mind drives you: make sure it serves you well
• Go for the things you want without caring about what people think
• If you failed to change over and over, hire a coach

Full Summary

About The Author: Jen Sincero is a former band performer and marketing executive. After her success as an author, she trasitioned into coaching and speaking.
She is also the author of “The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping With Chicks“.

Introduction

The very first step, says Jen Sincero in the introduction, is to believe in a world full of possibilities.
From belief, that world will manifest.

The Subconscious Mind Drives You

The subconscious mind:

1. It contains the blueprint of our lives
2. We have no idea of what are our subconscious beliefs
3. We are driven by our subconscious beliefs

Jen Sincero says the subconscious mind believes everything without discernment. And it starts absorbing 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:

1. Is this something I want to be, do or have
2. Is it taking me where I want to go
3. 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:

• Build an antifragile ego

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..

CONS

This is what I would warn the readers about:

• Bad 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 part of it.

To me it got too much when she talks about the experience of a client of hers.
Her client convinced herself she owned her dream house in Tuscany, Italy. Even though she barely had the money for the flight ticket to Tuscany. And in the end, guess what happened?
Yep, she ended up owning one.

Sounds like a BS of a “proof”?
It is.

• 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“.
The crab mentality which is another self-help myth, BTW.

• 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 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 2 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 if you are new to self-help.

The Title: A Great Marketing Ploy

I notice a trend of books using trendy and more informal titles 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:

• Fuck Him
• The Power of The Pussy
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

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