Review: The Student Success Manifesto

The Student Success Manifesto is written by Michael Simmons, a young entrepreneur from New York. Michael contacted me directly and offered me a copy of his book. I gladly accepted and recently finished reading the book, so that means it’s review time!

The blurb:

The Student Success Manifesto: How to Create a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Prosperity is an unconventional and effective blueprint for planning, prioritizing, and pursuing your own vision and in so doing becoming one this century’s agents of change. Students who read and apply this book’s lessons will achieve the following benefits:

• Make massive amounts of money and enjoy doing it
• Find or make your dream job
• Make yourself irresistible for prestigious scholarships & awards
• Get into your first choice school and make the most out of it
• Make your bio top-tier talk-show worthy
• Meet and learn from mega role models
• Start NOW without paying dues

The Student Success Manifesto will help you leverage the entrepreneurial mindset to define and achieve success regardless of your career path. The entrepreneurial mindset is an extremely powerful force and it has been proven to account for the majority of innovation, job-creation, and philanthropy in America. Use this same force in your own life today!

I must admit I was sceptical when I begun reading this book mainly because Michael is a young guy. I have nothing against young people, especially being young myself, but I wondered how much I could learn from someone that is only starting off their business career and had already written a book. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised and by the end of the book I had learnt a few things and had that motivated “buzz” feeling.

Michael’s book is clearly aimed at young people facing life choices. At it’s core it is a motivational book that hopes to inspire young people by opening their eyes to options they may not have considered because it’s not what’s done or what society expects them to do. The book challenges certain assumptions young people might have about their life path and offers them alternatives and teaches extreme techniques (Michael runs the Extreme Entrepreneurship Education Corporation) they can employ to lead them to financial and life success.

I found the Success Manifesto, while not containing a lot of new ideas or concepts I hadn’t read or learnt previously, did reinforce a lot of techniques and attitudes that I sometimes forget and often don’t practice. I enjoyed Chapter 12: Extreme Endeavors the most because it detailed very practical advice that individuals can implement in their own life to work towards the kind of success that Michael teaches. Some examples include:

• Starting a business - My favourite action of course. Michael outlines some of what I believe are the most important benefits about undertaking this task, especially at a young age.
• Shadowing - Learning from the best by monitoring what they do, for example by spending a day with the CEO of a big company. Michael offers some great advice to maximise the benefits of this exercise.

• Strategic Volunteering - A lot of young entrepreneurs have fears about starting a business. So much fear and indecision that they never start anything until it’s too late and they end up entrenched in a job that has them psychologically and financially trapped. The best way to get over these early fears is to take action and build confidence. If the idea of starting something is too much for you to handle at this time, volunteering at an organisation is the perfect way to build your self esteem and confidence so you can make the leap into your own project.

The Success Manifesto is a quick read that is ideal for young people just starting off in their business life. It offers practical advice and attitude adjustments that if absorbed will give young people a competitive edge. For the more experienced entrepreneur this book offers some timely reminders and lessons that you may have forgotten about and may even reignite that spark of motivation if you have lost it.

Michael Simmons has a blog as does his business partner and girlfriend, Sheena Lindahl.