Mark Sanborn

As it happens, I was feeling slightly lethargic and dispirited when I picked up this book, and had spent a few days procrastinating about working on my second novel. So what could be better than a self-help book to get me going? Well, perhaps a sharp, pointed stick. It would certainly have been more effective. And the stick might even have contained more original ideas than this collection of bog-standard self-help advice.

The premise of the book is that you succeed in life by being show more remarkable - a circular argument from the start, and an odd one since there's nothing remotely remarkable about this book -- in fact, it seems to have been written on self-help autopilot.

Nevertheless, that's the argument. And the secret of achieving remarkable performance is to use lots of words beginning with P: Preparation, Practice, Presentation, Polishing, and avoiding Pitfalls. And if that's not enough Ps for you, you can always refer to the Pyramid of Possibility, which has Personalization at the top, Potential at the bottom, Person and Performance along the sides, and Purpose, Passion, Principles and Persistence in the middle. The whole thing reminded me of an episode of Sesame Street.

There are, of course, plenty of anecdotes about people who sing while they prepare sandwiches, or tell jokes as they work at the cash register, etc. All remarkable performances that can inspire us to greater things. God, I wish I wasn't so cynical sometimes. Speaking of God, this is a religious book. It came as a surprise to me too. From the outside it looks like a normal business self-help book, bought by middle managers who want to know how to be Bill Gates. But in the prologue it suddenly starts talking about "our duty as Christians." That was a bit abrupt, and initially offputting, but actually the "Christian" bits were the best, I thought. I particularly loved a quote from St. Benedict: "Nothing can damage me except myself." That really hit me somehow, and it was almost worth wading through the rest of the book to get to it. Also, at the end of each chapter is a little passage called an "Intersection" where he tries to tie his advice about giving a remarkable sales presentation into some passage from the book of John. I quite liked those bits, and they gave the book another dimension. That still left it flat, but at least two is better than one.

Anyway, by the time I got to page 116, I was still feeling lethargic and still procrastinating about my work. So I was delighted to be reading a list of Preventable Pitfalls (those Ps again!) and see "3. Lethargy or Procrastination". Perfect! I wanted to learn how to rid myself of these pitfalls. Here's what he says: "What is the antidote to lethargy? Energy. The ability to get work done. Energy infuses a good performance with the something extra that can make it great."

That, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with the book. It states the obvious, and then restates the obvious as a way of achieving the obvious. Our goal is a remarkable performance, and we do this by performing remarkably. We avoid lethargy by having more energy. Other examples: "The antidote to fear is confidence", "The antidote to complacency is commitment", "The antidote to apathy is concern." Perhaps Mark Sanborn is just so full of energy, commitment, concern, etc., that it doesn't occur to him to tell the rest of us how to acquire them. If you are like me, and sometimes wake up and just feel like staying in bed for the rest of your life, then you'll find nothing in this book to help you be more like Mark Sanborn. You'll find plenty of cheerleading, and some of the general all-American positiveness might even rub off on you. But for actual concrete steps, you're on your own. Perhaps that's why they call it "self"-help. show less

OK Rick Warren, Move over! Mark Sanborn has taken your good ideas to new heights!

Using a format similar to The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren, Sanborn has created this simple, common sense guide to becoming the best! Whether you are a plumber or a PhD department chair, you will find a map to achieving the "Encore Effect". Particularly enjoyable is Sanborn's "Intersections" where he presents succinct examples of Biblical text to demonstrate that these are not new principals. Whether you show more take a purely historical view of these wonderful "Biblical codas" for each chapter, or read them from a Judeo-Christian perspective, Sanborn gives us a link to documented examples of the principles presented in each chapter. I recommend this book as a "must read" for all folks, even "Fred" the postman! I'm passing the book on to a minister who works with youth in our community! show less

The Fred Factor is an inspiring reminder that we can all find ways to work with passion and, as a result, foster extraordinary relationships and service experiences. This short book is packed with real examples, often involving people who could choose to view their delivery routes and late shift work as drudgery. Instead, they have found ways to elevate the experiences of everyone they meet. It would be hard to finish this book without motivation to raise your game in some way.

A couple years ago, while I was downrange, I read a book that really was a motivation to many of the decisions I have made since I read it. I got busy, as sometimes happens downrange—then moved from Germany, etc—and I keep recalling this book as important, as well as the review of it.
Mark Sanborn’s book, “Encore Effect” was monumental in telling me that I can achieve my dreams through diligence and focus. This idea was somewhat foreign to me, as I was “living the dream” in the show more Army—but there is so much I still want to achieve in the Army and beyond.
Preparation is one of the key underlying themes within the book that shows me that it is the effort that one places toward a goal that assists the person to achieve that goal.
This is an encouragement to spend your life focused on what you enjoy doing. Some would add that doing so is not always possible, but I would offer that it is—you may not like little details of the moment—but you must find what you enjoy and do it—because that is where you will be most successful. Even if you are in a job that you particularly do not enjoy—find an aspect that you can pour your passions into and focus on that.
I definitely recommend Mark Sanborn’s book, “Encore Effect” to be a motivator—as it was to me—of developing the skills needed to receive an “encore” every time you perform. show less