People Are IDIOTS And I Can Prove It.

I rarely read these types of books, ones that claim to have answers to your current situation. I know we all need help from time to time, but when I did read a self help book, I never found anything profound enough to change things. But this one...People Are IDIOTS And I Can Prove It by Larry Winget had me at hello. I was not disappointed.

The blurb about the book starts with:
"We talk a lot about the things we want, I want more money, I wan t a better relationship with my spouse, I want good, responsible kids, I want a promotion, I wan to be healthy, I want to be smarter, I want to retire...I want I want I want.
But do you know what people really want? They want what they got. Its a simple formula: You have what you want because your actions produce your results. Not your words and certainly not your wants."

Larry Winget will not coddle you to a better life. He holds a mirror up to you and says, "look...look at where your actions have gotten you."
"A guy wrote me a nasty letter about my books, saying that I didn't have one thing to offer that wasn't plain old common sense. He is totally right. But I have found common sense like common knowledge and common courtesy, is anything but common. ....knowledge is not power. The implementation of knowledge is power." (pg 7)

How true. I have never stopped to consider that. You may know a lot of things but if you don't do anything with that knowledge, what good is it?

This book is broken up into 3 sections:
1) The Idiot Factor...
Here he proves how people are idiots, what 10 things we do to sabotage ourselves and how we can stop being idiots.
2) The Idiot Fixes...
How we can take action.
3) Idiots: The Final Chapter...
It's easy to stay where you are and be an idiot. What are you going to do?


In section 1 Larry asks...
"What is you vision for your life look like? Not Sure? Let me help you answer this one: You are living it." (pg 55)
I have almost always been one to let life happen to me. After I left my 1st(drunken and abusive) husband I had 2 kids to care for on my own. (child support? HA!) So I decided to go to college so I could get a good job. I was driven because my kids were important to me and I wanted to provide for them. Being a single mom, working, and going to college was hard, but I did it. Why? Because I wanted it. I wanted it bad enough to get off my butt and get it. It would have been easy to sit back and stay on food stamps, government assistance and all, but I wanted more. Where am I at now? Hhhmmm...not using my degree. Why? Because I lost the vision, I settled and decided that I could just exist. So a lot of what Larry had to say resonated with me.
One of the ways people sabotage themselves? People don't give a damn. You do what you do because it is important to you. You want to spend time with your kids, save money and have a better relationship with you spouse so you do those things right? Me? not always, sure its important...but is it important enough to change? That's where it hit home. Its about prioritizing. This is only one way out of ten.

Section 2 Larry gives us action lists to help us out. One example is how to manage time better. Here he gives us ten things we can do to manage our time and then in the book gives us space to write down "Why I need to manage my time better" There are over ten action lists and spots to write down why we need to be better in these areas.

He closes the book by telling us if it is easy to do something, it is easy not to do it. Don't buy into the crap that it is hard to achieve what you want.


I like this guy. I took a lot of notes while reading this book. He's right, it is a lot of common sense, but was I using mine...nope. I've gotten so much from this book, but then again, I am the type of person who frequently need a kick in the butt to get out of my funk.

Thank You Larry for that!

I give this book a 5 out of 5. Definitely a book I will keep and continually refer back to to stay on track. Self help...NOT shelf help.