Hi
I thought, for a change of pace, I might introduce some new books rather than the classics and old favourites. With the great number of property investment and motivation books out in the marketplace at the moment, and separate to the old favourites, I'm always looking for a fresh new voice that just doesn't repeat what you've basically heard before from a number of other books.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise that the two books I picked up were both authors with the name Fitzgerald:
– Toney Fitzgerald's "Don't Bitch Just Get Ritch" (Don't Bitch) published in 2006 – he is a life coach from Sydney.
– John Fitzgerald's "7 Steps to Accelerated Wealth" (7 Steps) – he is a property developer/wealth coach provider from the Gold Coast. John had published an earlier book called "7 Steps to Wealth" which I have read – this is more advanced and published in 2008 (it is not an updated reprint).
Toney's book takes the reverse approach of what is popularly presented – rather than look at the elements of success or successful people he examines the forensics of poor people and their habits and attitudes. But before you say this has been done before by Kiyosaki, his approach is a little more detailed then generalised 'gems of wisdom'. He takes the case studies of 7 people (probably fictional) to tell the story. For objective analysis, each of his cases refers to themselves in the third person to establish objective distance and in an attempt to de-emotionalise their 'poor' condition and habits. Then through a series of confronting sessions, he gets them to commit to being rich with some practical goals and personal contracts. Although being a life coach, his strategy was to focus purely on the 'finance and wealth' goal and not the grander goals.
John's book looks at a showcase of more advanced 'property development' strategies (advanced when compared with passive property investment) such as re-zoning, subdivisions, business arrangements, landbanking, flips, and so on. These were told in a simple but matter of fact way without the usual hype but drawing on some of his experiences. By a process of 'enlightment' from reading about these strategies you may decide that this is not for you and you prefer the more simple passive property investmewnt strategies. A recurrent theme running through the book are the 'grander' and what you might call 'spiritual' goals of community, giving back, being custodians of wealth and knowledge, and charge with higher responsibilities for helping others. He refers to his community sponsorship of Toogoolawah, a school/community for at-risk kids.
It was an interesting contrast to see the life coach emphasising the forensics of finance motivation rather than life balance, and the wealth coach emphasising the more noble goals rather than pure wealth. Some might view these outcomes as purely good marketing in respect of having made it, they can afford to be generous. I don't believe this to be the case, but that's only my opinion.
Hi Gary ,
thanks for posting your review of the two books Fitzgerald. I cannot speak for Toney and have not read any of his titles (yet), however as far as the latter Fitzgerald is concerned, John is an outstanding individual. To this end, your opinion of genuine intent ( and not clever marketing) is correct.
Having worked thru his home study (Success from Scratch and Signposts to Success), read his two property books and also We Can Be Heroes (worth a read for inspiration if you've never read it) and met him in person at live events and in person (one on one) for near on one hour (very giving of his time), he is a very humble, generous man and greatly spiritual…….yes, there will be those that pander to the image of clever marketing (and John was attacked by one in the The Australian several weeks ago), but they are usually people with their own barrow to push and self interests to protect.
True prosperity involves the forensics of finance (as you nicely put it), motivation, wealth strategies, life balance and noble notions of giving and passing on the baton by way of being a custodian and ensuring we utilise our responsibility to pass on knowledge and help other to help themselves.
It's amazing to me how you can say "bitch'' on this forum, but not on SS.
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