Personal Development for Smart People^TM

I’ve been getting more and more inquiries from people wanting me to review their personal development books, ebooks, audio programs, DVDs, software, and other products, ostensibly in the hopes that I’ll recommend such products in this blog.

I figured I might as well post my policy on this publicly for anyone else who has the idea to send me products for review.

First, this isn’t primarily a product review site. If you want to find great personal development books or products, I highly recommend you visit Amazon.com and look for books/products with customer ratings of 4 or 5 stars. That’s how I’ve found many of the best books I’ve ever read. While user recommendations aren’t perfect, they’re usually pretty fair, and they’ll at least steer you clear of the junk.

I am, however, a major consumer of personal development products, and I actively keep up on the newest developments in the field. I typically spend thousands of dollars each year on personal development books, ebooks, audio programs, seminars, and conferences. Most of that money is wasted, but every once in a while I encounter a true gem of a product that more than makes up for the failures. A good example would be David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which I’ve recommended here multiple times.

Through this site I openly share the best ideas I find. So if I do come across a worthwhile product that I believe will benefit you, I’ll certainly mention it here.

I don’t recommend products that I haven’t tried myself. If I’m going to recommend something, I need to read it, listen to it, or use it first.

Although I’ve received a number of unsolicited info products for review (mostly books and audio programs), I’ve recommended very few of them. Mainly this is because I hold high standards on what I’m willing to personally recommend. I’ve read hundreds of books in the field of personal development, so I have a strong grasp of what’s out there (the good, the bad, and the ugly). I’m happy to recommend products that offer original, high-quality, compelling content, but most of the products I’ve received thus far were essentially rehashings of older material and are not among the best in their class. I don’t care if a book happens to be a bestseller — if the content isn’t of extremely high quality, I won’t recommend it.

I tend to evaluate products in the order received, but partly that depends on how many other programs I have queued up on that same media. I read every day, and I usually listen to audio programs on my iPOD when I go running, even if they’re six hours long. Currently in my evaluation queue I have two books, two ebooks, and two hours worth of audio. It will probably take me about 30 days to get through them at my current pacing.

If you have an affiliate program for your product, feel free to mention it, but it won’t affect whether or not I recommend it or what I say about it. The product has to speak for itself.

If you’d like to submit a personal development related product for me to evaluate, you’ll find my contact info here. Don’t send me a product to review unless you really believe in it though. If you don’t have something that’s original, compelling, and profound, I’m never going to recommend it.

My wife has been reviewing dozens of products through her web site for years. After a while she started receiving so many unsolicited products by mail (usually food) that she had to hire someone else to handle it. But before that happened, we used to get new vegan food products delivered every week. We loved the chance to evaluate brand new products (even though some didn’t taste very good), the product makers appreciated the feedback and exposure, and visitors enjoyed hearing about the newest products. One of my favorite all-time products we reviewed is the Vitamix, a high-end super blender which is well worth the price. It quickly became our most indispensible kitchen appliance, and we use it every day, especially for shakes and smoothies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2005 at 4:16 am and is filed under Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.