“Faith is not just about what you believe but also to the kind of person you become because of that belief.” – 2.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: faith, workouts, guitar, religion, specialization and generalization.

It’s one of the biggest lies you’ve probably heard your entire life: Mastering one specific skill set is the key to success. That may have been true 20 years ago, but in today’s global economy, being the best at a single thing just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Think about those people who somehow manage to be amazing at everything they do – the multi-millionaire CEO with the bodybuilder physique or the rock star with legions of adoring fans. We all quietly envy them from time to time—how do they manage to be so much better at life?

It’s tempting to believe they’ve achieved greatness because they’re the very best in their field… or think that maybe it’s just dumb luck. But it’s much more than that. They’ve defied traditional perceptions of success by acquiring and applying multiple skills to make themselves valuable to others. They’ve become generalists.

In How to Be Better at Almost Everything, bestselling author, fitness expert, entrepreneur, and professional business coach Pat Flynn shares the secrets to learning (almost) every skill, from marketing to music to martial arts to writing and relationships, teaching how to combine interests to achieve greatness in any field. His direct, “Generalist” approach to self-improvement gives you the tools you need to make your mark on the world and make buckets of money—without losing your soul.

Discover how to:

Learn any skill with only an hour of practice a day through repetition and resistance.
Package all your passions into a single toolkit for success with skill stacking
Turn those passions into paychecks by transforming yourself into a person of interest.

In today’s fast-paced, constantly evolving world, it’s no longer good enough to have a single specialty. To really get ahead you need a diverse portfolio of hidden talents you can pull from your back pocket at a moment’s notice.  How to Be Better at Almost Everything teaches you how to gain a competitive edge in both your professional life and personal life.

This was another case of I-like-the-title-so-let’s-read-it. Do you know the famous quote “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”? This is exactly what’s behind this book and I strongly agree: it is better to be good at a lot of things than the best at a single thing.

I was excited to read this book and it started out on the right foot for me. I was interested to see how the author would develop this topic and his perspective. At the end… it didn’t work out for me.

One of the biggest reasons why I didn’t like this book is that it feels more like a memoir other than a self-development book. It’s very focused on the author, his experiences and interests. This means there is a lot about playing the guitar, working out and faith/religious. It’s not a practical book where there’s tips and/or directions, only a few pointers on why you should do certain things. Also, it gets very repetitive at times.

The humor was a little cringey – and I don’t mean dad joke kind of cringey – and unnecessary at times, but I appreciate the author’s effort to try and make the book more pleasant.

I’m also not sure what I feel about the use of religion here. I personally don’t mind the issue but I can see how this can be a no-go for some readers because it gets a little too preachy.

At the end of the day, did I learn anything from this book? I… don’t know? If I did, it was definitely not in the conventional way. I like to read other people’s lives and experiences, so I guess I took more from this book in a memoir kind of way other than self-development.

Long story short: the main idea was underdeveloped, there was a lot of filler and the good/evil preaching session was probably unnecessary for this particular audience. Not the worst book I have ever had, but it was all over the place and I didn’t take much from it.