Three Feet from Gold by Lechter & Reid (#3)

Greg was given tickets to Fiji after his most recent conversations with Buckland's mastermind group. He is excited about the opportunity and finds himself engaged in a conversation on the beaches of Fiji while he is waiting for his dinner reservation time.

He is speaking with John Hope Bryant who runs a nonprofit called Operation Hope which "helps people across the globe create better lives for themselves." (Page 102)

Greg writes down the following message from Bryant:

Success simply comes from going from failure

to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

As an individual, you must maintain a positive attitude as "Ten percent of your attitude is determined by what life hands you and ninety percent by how you choose to respond." (Page 104).

The message of Operation Home is that "There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of your spirit, and you must vow to never, ever, ever be poor again." (Page 104)

Greg finds the hour prior to his dinner reservation passing quickly and heads to the restaurant to await his mystery guest. Buckland typically leaves the individuals name out of the conversation when he is sending Greg to meet "someone").

"A familiar voice greeted him. "Hello, Greg."

He hesitated before looking up, trying hard to find his voice. He couldn't believe she would travel all this way to be with him. With tremendous emotion he said, "Hi, Mia. It's great to see you." (Page 105)

Mia and Greg had split up a few weeks prior and Buckland put her back in touch with Greg to witness the "changed man". Prior to meeting Buckland, Greg was self-centered and a "busy body" running around but getting nothing done.

Greg has determined over the course of his recent travels that he is going to write a book. He sees the world as a place in need of the stories he has heard and the messages he has received. He is still struggling though...and finds that he is missing the Association of the Success Equation. Buckland connets him up with a writer and together they start interacting with his first draft.

Here is the advice Greg receives about his first draft:

"You need some help with the writing. You are a nice young man and everything, but even Ken and I get outside help when doing this. Point is, this project has become bigger than just you, and more importantly, you owe it to the people you have interviewed to get some assistance in sharing their stories in the best light possible." (Page 139)

This book seems to jump from situation to situation in short chapters which is makes a summarization challenging. The Go-Giver was significantly "smoother" from a story perspective and took place over only 5 days, whereas this book condenses a year into 220+ pages. I think there are good lessons it this, but I am getting the sense that the authors attempted to wrap a story around the lessons rather than integrate the lessons into the story.

But what do I know...

This was a close one...20 minutes until midnight at time of posting...