Maximum Achievement

'Maximum Achievement' Summary of the book Brian Tracy grew up in a poor family and had to wear charity store clothes. After dropping out of school he worked in a succession of laboring jobs, living in boarding houses. At 21 he found work on a Norwegian freighter ship and travelled around the world, but two years later was back laboring and doing some commission selling.Though not an outward success, Tracy had always been interested in the question, "What makes some people successful and others not?" As a freshly minted salesman, he started to read voraciously on selling techniques and what makes the best salespeople the best. He copied what they did, and slowly, his results improved. Six months later he was the top salesperson in his company. When he moved into management, he read everything he could on managing people and built a large sales organization across several countries. Entering the real estate industry, he "hit the books again" and talked to successful developers. His first project was financing, building and leasing out a three-million dollar shopping center. At night Tracy completed a high school diploma, and eventually gained entry to an MBA program to study business theory and marketing, which enabled him to become a management consultant. To learn about happiness, he read what he could find on metaphysics, psychology and motivation, and when he married learned all he could about parenting. To get a sense of perspective, and find out why some countries were rich and others poor, he read widely on history, economics and politics. After two decades of thinking about the question, "What makes some people more successful than others?", Tracy decided to put everything he knew into a 'success system' which could help others. He designed a seminar, but it took about three years to really catch on. Then he released an audiotape program, The Psychology of Achievement, which went on to sell half a million copies. (butler-bowdon.com)