Personal Development Product Reviews

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 occasionally 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.

You can see a list of the personal development products I currently recommend on my Products page.