Book Review: The Truth About You

The Truth About You
Marcus Buckingham
$29.99; Kit w/ Booklet, DVD, Notepad; 112 pp.

This kit contains several good ideas that are certain to aid people in analyzing their temperament, discovering their strengths, and working themselves into more satisfying jobs. Unfortunatley, there is probably not enough new content here to justify the $29.99 price tag.

The author’s aim is to coach readers through a series of exercises that enable him or her to identify strengths (as opposed to skills or talents), the things that produce energy and satisfaction.

He also dispels several commonly held beliefs that may keep people trapped in boring or unfulfilling vocations. Most notable is the idea that you should work to improve your weaknesses—Buckingham contents that this is pointless and we’re better of playing to our strengths.

However, several of Buckingham’s points (such as the one regarding the futility of improving weaknesses) have been well made elsewhere, including in the author's previous work.

Also, Buckingham’s central point—that only you can know yourself thoroughly enough to identify your strengths—directly contradicts his previous book Now Discover Your Strengths, which includes access to an extensive online survey aimed precisely at diagnosing the reader’s strengths.

The 20-minute DVD includes nearly all of the material contained within the scant 110 page booklet. This material has the feel of a workshop or half-day seminar that has been packaged as a consumer product.

Buckingham’s thesis has merit, but anyone familiar with current business or self-improvement literature will have heard most of this before.

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