10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea

When Suzy Welch's '10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea' first crossed my desk in an early reader copy, I pushed it aside. It fell into the self-help genre and the last thing I wanted to read was another one of "those". Luckily I was encouraged to pick it up by a mutual friend of the author's and mine. Good decision. No, make that great decision.

10-10-10 is one of those books that everyone should read; you could be 12 or 82, no matter. Welch's ideas change for the better the way you approach making decisions about your life. The central idea of 10-10-10 is brilliantly simple. Whenever one is faced with a fork-in-the-road decision, put your gut sense and your immediate emotional energy aside and think about how you will feel about the implications of each option: 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years from now. But the concept only comes to life when you read the real life stories that she shares.

In clear, engaging, compelling prose Suzy relates her own experiences applying her philosophy as well as the experiences of countless others she has counseled in her concept over the last several years. I was totally drawn into the personal stories and decision moments captured in the book, every one of which so genuinely reflect what we all face in one way or another. (You won't easily forget the story of her first road trip with then boyfriend, now husband, Jack Welch and her three misbehaving young kids.)

Buttressing the stories and anecdotes is some very powerful research about how our brains work when we are faced with making decisions that have both short term and long term consequences for our happiness and well being. Welch writes really well - she was the Editor of The Harvard Business Review - and she is a joy to read. I can honestly say that this book reframed how I look at things.

A series of 5 CDs take you through an simple approach on how to view difficult questions. Talks of personal values, comitment , daily and difficult issues one is faced with. A good approach, however, it's in the content of the difficult questions and in their resolution that is lacking. Nonetheless, a structured approach with many examples on how one can analytically view problems and delimas. I would have preferred a professional reader instead of the author being the reader. I found she lacked consistency in intonation.

All this book says is "Don't be stupid think before you make a decision" Anyone with common sense would do that anyway. This concept in this book is more fitting for a magazine article.

This was a quick read. The premise and main advice of the book it GREAT. But I can't help but feel a little disconnected somehow. The book left me wanting and unsatisfied.

Also even though I have a very strong vocabulary (or so I thought) I had to reach for the dictionary more than a few times. I felt like the author couldn't decide if she was writing as a women, mother, friend or from a journalist, scientist perspective and that felt confusing to me.

I feel this message and process is important and sound. I hope people will wade through the book to discover the great tips that are there.