Let me start off by saying I read VERY few books. I can probably count the number of books I have read in the past few years on my fingers. Maybe it is my short attention span, maybe it is the fact that in general I find reading for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time pretty dang boring, and maybe it is just because I am too busy or excited about other stuff to carve out a couple hours at a time to sit down and read. Basically it takes a whole heck of a lot for me to find value in reading a book.
But a few months ago when Gary Vaynerchuk announced he had a 10 book deal and Crush It was gonna be his first book it quickly became a must read for me. I have seen a bunch of the videos on Garyvaynerchuk.com and seen some of his keynotes and every time I have listened to him it makes me realize how much I am missing out on and how lame I am at most of the stuff I do (in a good way, not a “woe is me” way) and it fires me up to do more. So I preordered a copy of Crush It and waited for it to come.
The book went live on Tuesday and I got my copy on Wednesday. I quickly cracked it open and read a couple chapters and didn’t get back to reading the rest of it until tonight (or I guess this morning). I gotta say it met and exceeded my expectations. Most “business” type books come across to me as dry, preachy, unapplicable, or condecending but not this one. You can really feel from the writing Gary really believes everything in this book. It isn’t just a bunch of bland business rules or an ambiguious plan for success.
The biggest impression that you will take away from this book (or any of Gary’s videos or speaking engagements) is PASSION. Gary truely has a passion for what he does and it comes across very well in this book. When I first started watching some of his videos and stuff I thought “No way, this has to be an act. No one can care that much about what he does or be that passionate” and stuff like that. But the more I read about Gary and the more I saw his stuff I realized it is real. He really is that passionate about what he does and in this book he tries (and I think succeeds) in laying out how the rest of us can find something we are passionate about and “Crush It” to make a living doing what we love.
Now I do have to say that most of what is covered in this book has already been covered in videos on garyvaynerchuk.com and in his keynotes and you can (and should) go watch those videos but rather than watch dozens of videos and try to piece everything together I think you should just buy this book and see it all layed out in front of you. I can kind of compare it to watching some highlights of a football game on SportsCenter vs. watching the game. Yeah, if you watch the highlights you can get an OK idea of what happened but until you see the whole game you will be missing something.
This book is a pretty easy read. You can probably get through it in about 2-3 hours but you will probably want to read it a couple times because you are sure to miss something important the first time.
My favorite chapter? Probably Chapter 9 which is titled “The Best Marketing StrategyEver”. And that chapter consists of only 1 word: CARE. For years I have been in the affiliate marketing industry and my goal has been to get the customers from my site to the merchant as quickly as possible so I can make the sale. I always thought the best way to handle customers was to let someone else deal with them. I never really wanted any interaction with them. But just seeing that one word “Care” has made me rethink that. Why send the customers off to someone else when I can connect with them, help them with problems, answer questions, interact with them, etc. I need to do a better job of stuff like that on my websites.
So I give this book 2 thumbs up, 5 stars, 10 out of 10, or whatever other rating you want to use. Even if you aren’t a “business” person there are many principles in this book that will help you in normal life situations. If you don’t read this book you will be missing out. I think it got as high as #12 on the Amazon best seller list so it is a pretty popular book. So go buy this book today…
Or I have another option for you. Since I liked this book so much I decided to give away 5 copies. But there is a catch. A week or so ago I set up a website http://www.realsportsfanswearpink.com to raise money for some breast cancer charities. The site sells all types of pink sports fan gear like t-shirts, jerseys, sweatshirts, and much more. So if you go to that site and buy something and let me know what you bought you will be entered to win. So you help me, I help a charity, and you can get a free book (plus the awesome pink gear you buy). You can find out more about this at http://realsportsfanswearpink.com/win-a-copy-of-crush-it/
Joe I am with you on this. I rarely will read or finish a book but Crush It is a must read for anyone thinking of starting their own business. It is a true motivator! I went to this book signing last week and picked up a couple copies. I will finish reading it tomorrow and make a post about my thoughts. 🙂
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts Steph. I gave the book to a friend of mine who is trying to get some websites and blogs started and it will be interesting to see how he can apply some of the stuff in this book.