Books like Enter The Dragon: How I Transformed My Life And How You Can Too

The story of the football obsessed (and I mean obsessed!) family man and dragon and how he turned his life around. Well, where to begin a review? With other reviews, I think. Some people have slated this book for not being the business book they somehow thought it was. I have to disagree with them completely. Enter the Dragon is not billed as a business book. It’s a book by a very successful businessman who turned his life literally from rags to riches, hence the subtitle, but he never claims he’ll tell you how to be successful in business yourself.What Mr Paphitis does in this book is describe a quite remarkable life, beginning as a child newly arrived from Cypress and struggling not only with the language barrier but also with dyslexia and having to get through school at a time when those difficulties were very rarely supported. Branded as ‘thick’ he could easily have given up there and then. Of course, we know he’s anything but thick and is not only very quick but also very shrewd.Enter the Dragon does give some rules for business at the end (which are on Theo’s website too, so we know these are not the purpose of the book) and if you have an ounce of common sense you’ll find yourself agreeing with them. The thing that stands out from this book as the way Theo transformed his life is his attitude. He has the tenacity to keep trying and the determination to succeed. He has the sense to cut his losses and not carry them with him into the next venture. Most of all, he embraces his abilities with the key attitude that he can do anything he puts his mind to. We can all do that (within our physical limitations) but how often do we allow ourselves to believe it?You might not get direct insight to business plans and how to play every move in the game from this book. If you sit back and read it and exercise a little common sense you can easily interpret the message though. If you give up, you’ll never be anything like Mr Paphitis. If you allow your heart to rule your head in business, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. If you bite off more than you can chew, you’ll choke. If you don’t do your homework, you’ll get caught out. It’s all about having the spirit and the sense to succeed. Theo’s had some near misses but he fought back with a powerful faith in his ability to spot an opportunity.There’s a lot to be got from this book, whether you’re looking for a sense of direction in business or just want to know more about the dragon we’ve all come to appreciate for not pussy-footing around. If it’s how to you’re after, this is not the book for you. If you can apply a little independent thought to what you read and think about how you can change your attitude and approach, then it’s a very useful read. It’s nice to learn more about Theo the person as well.Four stars Theo – a bit too much football for me, and yes I know that’s highly relevant to you and both your business and personal life – it just makes very little sense to me so I didn’t take much in for two chapters. Readers, you can still learn that it’s good to have more passions in life than ‘strictly business’ – this man is football crazy and I wouldn’t mind being a tenner behind him!