Good to Great by Jim Collins is one of the most well-known business success books ever written. It’s also roundly mocked for saying common-sense things in a long-winded way.
Individuals have no problem grasping a point when it’s clearly stated.
As the critics tell it, it took Collins several hundred pages and years of research to make points such as “have the right people in your company” and “do what’s best for your company first, not your ego.”
Whether or not this book deserves that criticism, it’s not the only book in the self-help genre that could communicate its main points in a few pages. Time and again I’ve spent days on books that force me to wade through dozens of anecdotes and chapters just to get a bit of intellectual meat.
One of my friends suggests that self-help and business books should just be written as short blog posts. I have to agree.
Issue solved, right? Now the self-improvement industry can save itself a lot of time and put out a few articles every now and then.
There’s just one problem.
Human beings respond very well to storytelling.
James Walpole
James Walpole is a writer, startup marketer, intellectual explorer, and perpetual apprentice. He writes regularly at jameswalpole.com.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
