Recap: The book is split in half – the first half on black paper/white text from Seth’s perspective and the second half on white paper/black text from Chandler’s perspective. I reviewed Seth’s half here.
PROS:
Considering the long break between my reading the first half and the second half, diving into Chandler’s section was like a breath of fresh air. It’s always exciting to see ideas I consider to be “Praxian” out in the real world. Chandler begins by talking about the scarcity mindset versus the abundance mindset and how winners adapt the abundance mindset. Plus, life is just more enjoyable when you don’t live life believing the pie is fixed and you have to fight for your piece.
I also appreciate his chapter on “unlocking your inner five-year-old” talking about how children can often accomplish great things because they haven’t yet learned that they aren’t “supposed to” be able to do that. It reminded me a lot of running cross country my freshman year of high school before I became a super competitive stalker of my competition. I would just go run races and do pretty well and be happy about it. The ignorance was blissful, and it became much harder to race when I started looking up the times other girls were running and finding who I “should” and “shouldn’t” be able to keep up with. (Luckily, I learned to use my research for good and haven’t been a complete headcase since then.)
The biggest difference between the two half is that Chandler invites the reader to interact with the book and had questions with space for answers in each section. Full disclosure, I did not participate or write in the book, but I think it could be really helpful, especially to a reader who is encountering these ideas for the first time.
I found myself agreeing and zipping through the second half of the book. Chandler writes about the same lessons as Seth but with his own personal touch, so it felt very familiar without being too repetitive. Chandler is also a proponent of starting your own business and offers similar advice regarding the tax advantages as Seth does without disparaging work if it’s “for someone else.” Some other highlights include:
- Having the strongest work ethic (but really, not just saying you do)
- Having a good attitude about your work
- Being efficient to work smart (basically doubling your work ethic)
- Setting SMART goals
- Having a proactive mindset instead of a reactive mindset (like this post!)
- Not being complacent after meeting a goal – set a new one!
- Learning “the rules” about money
CONS:
Similar to Seth’s half, I wished there was more information on Chandler’s story and how he got to where he is today. He mentions having a lawncare business while in high school and then working for Student Painters and having a lot of success through that, but I found myself wanting more details.
Timing is also an issue since Breaking out of a Broken System was published in 2014. Chandler started his business Self-Publishing School that same year (not sure which came first) and has published 6 books to date. These are things I found myself wanting to know more about when reading his chapters until I checked the publication date on the book. I’m sure I can find the story in one of his five other books, though.
Finally, Chandler has a Yahoo email address. This is mainly a joke since at Praxis we strongly suggest Gmail addresses to our participants. Our CEO says Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc. all send the message, “old, outdated, and behind the times,” so seeing the Yahoo address made me laugh.
Overall I would definitely recommend the book. Any of the cons about the book are either me wanting more details or something that I disagree with but is written with good/pure intentions. I also recommend the band NEEDTOBREATHE if you want to hear Seth play the bass! 🙂
Sara Morrison 