Product Description

More and more, people are finding that chasing only material success feels hollow, unfulfilling. What people desire now is a career that stems from their highest personal vision and deepest creativity, and that is richly enjoyable and fruitful not just materially but on personal and spiritual levels. Top life coach Fiona Harrold has talked to some of the world's most successful people and discovered the rules that they live by to make their astonishing achievements. She presents interviews with a wide range of people - from celebrities to entrepreneurs to people from her own background - who have found their passion and made it into their career. Fiona sets out in clear, accessible form the rules of their success, and shows the reader how to apply these rules to their own situation. Written in Fiona's trademark no-nonsense, but always inspiring style, this is the ultimate guide, from successful people, to attaining the success and fulfilment you always dreamed of.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #341692 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Fiona Harrold is not only one of the most dynamic and positive people you will ever meet, but also has the talent to make you feel the same way too.' - Robina Dam, Daily Mail. 'The country's top life coach' - Daily Mail. 'The UK's leading life coach and possibly the most positive person alive' - ES magazine. 'London's leading life coach' - Evening Standard. 'The can-do woman for the New Establishment' - Scotland on Sunday. 'A confidante to the powerful....people flock to Fiona' - Sunday Mirror. 'The Queen Bee of British life coaching' - Daily Express. 'THE 10-MINUTE LIFE COACH should be permanently in your bag for those panic "I need someone's help with this" moments in life. Brilliant.' - Susannah Osborne, Elle. 'Helps you focus on your goals - and get there fast' - Daily Telegraph. 'Immensely persuasive and practical' - Time Out. 'If you truly want to take charge of your life and be happier as a result - read this book' - Hazel Courteney"

About the Author
Fiona Harrold was brought up in Northern Ireland. From an early age, with the encouragement of her father, she immersed herself in the world of self-improvement. Since leaving Northern Ireland in the early eighties, she has single-handedly masterminded her own re-invention several times, transforming herself from political activist to New Age therapist to PR and Life Coach. She now runs a hugely successful Life Coaching agency, and is one of the most high-profile Life Coaches in the country. She regularly appears on TV (This Morning, Lorraine Live and a BBC Cutting Edge documentary) and other media. She is Eve magazine's resident life coach.

Excerpted from The Seven Rules of Success by Fiona Harrold. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The 7 Rules of Success – at a glance

1. Be Passionate
Passion is the driving force behind every significant human achievement from discovering the light bulb to defeating Hitler.
A successful life has to be underpinned by passion; otherwise you’re building your life on shaky foundations, which may well require restructuring later on. There’s just no mistaking this change in our outlook. We want more out of life, and money can’t buy it. You need a sense of purpose to bring passion into your life. Look at anyone who lives life passionately and you’ll find a sense of purpose underpinning their approach to life.

2. Practise Self-belief
You have to have self-belief to get anywhere in life. Where you end up is where your self-belief takes you to. You are the product of all that you believe to be possible for you. It really is that simple and it really is all in the mind. The inescapable conclusion I’ve come to is this: self-belief is self-created. The meaning of life and its direction is more down to you than even I thought.
Free will gives us the capacity to choose how we create our lives, our ability to be self-determined. Free will is the will not to conform to the past and it’s the measure of a person’s capacity to act as an individual.

3. Do More!
If there’s one rule all the achievers in this book share, it’s this one: they’re all doers. They do more than the average person. And because this rule is so darned obvious, it’s often overlooked in our quest to discover some hidden recipe for success in life and the secret of other’s success. Here’s the blinding truth that I came face to face with in the making of this book: successful people do more than their less successful counterparts.
Look at every single person who impresses you with their accomplishments and you’ll see a man or woman of action. Less talk, far more action.

4. Take More Risks
I’m not advocating recklessness of course, but I’m suggesting that being too frightened to give up some security is deadly, and one of the key inhibitors of success.
One of the greatest myths about successful people is that they have somehow achieved that success without any pain, disappointment or defeat. On the contrary, look beneath the surface of any great achiever’s career and you’ll find more than one ‘flame-out.’ You may have to look deeply as they won’t be publicising their mistakes, but they’re there. Sir Richard Branson, Virgin boss and the UK’S most popular and successful entrepreneur, once said of his success, ‘I’ve just failed a lot more than most people,’ and on another occasion, ‘The best developer of a leader is failure.’

5. Inspire Others
There’s only so much you can achieve on your own. Whether you want to start a revolution, rid your country of a colonial power, create an incredible business, get elected to parliament or simply find a way to live life on your own terms, you need the co-operation of other people to do it. You need to be able to inspire others. This ability to inspire has to be one of the most compelling characteristics of great achievers and it’s been a feature of success throughout human history. All great leaders know the value of it. How can you ignite someone else? You have to invoke the ‘What’s in it for you?’ question. Think: I will succeed in my goals by first of all helping other people achieve their goals.

6. Persevere
One of the untruest sayings is that the first step is the hardest. That’s nonsense. It’s really the 4th, 5th and 25th that are the hardest, once the initial excitement has calmed down. The simple truth is, people who succeed are those who have persevered.
The world of showbiz and every other world is full of talented people who’ll never make it. Because all the talent in the world doesn’t make up for a lack of staying power. Those who do make it do so because they have the muscle and grit to keep going, recover, make changes and keep going some more. Their determination, usually called ‘ruthless,’ takes them far.
The message is – stop expecting things to be easy – and fast.

7. Be Generous
My observation and conversations with happy, successful achievers has shown me that living and working with a generous approach to life pays big dividends. On a personal level, being generous leaves you feeling better about yourself, giving you that elusive feeling of fulfilment and satisfaction, that we know money can’t buy.
In business, it brings you career advancement and opportunities that meaner ‘jobsworth’ individuals envy and don’t understand.
And if you’re running the business, quite simply, people will want to work for you and stay with you.

Customer Reviews

A very positive read
Fiona Harrold is well known and rightly so for her very positive outlook on life. Her books so far have concentrated on Life Coaching and, though very good, have not been based on much research. This book is different. Here she has carried out extensive research and gone and interviewed people from a variety of backgrounds who, in varied ways, are successful.

In seven main chapters, she outlines rules for success, and gives exemplars. The rules are not, in themselves, earth-shattering, but that does not make them easy to apply, at least not consistently. My favourite is "Do more", and the chapter that accompanies it is full of examples and inspirations to do just that.

Fiona Harrold does not use just one definition of success, and is certainly not addicted to money as a marker of all that is worthwhile (one of her examples is Peter Tatchell who, whether you like him or loathe him, has been a phenomenally successful human rights activist, and he lives on just £8000 a year).

There is no doubt that, if you want to make your mark in your own way on your chosen field, this book will inspire you. Like all of Fiona Harrold's books, this is one to dip into again and again.

Altogether excellent, and worth every penny.

Disapointing
I've read 2 of Fiona Harrold's books before and I was looking forward to reading this one, however I found this to be a disapointing read. I didn't find this as life affirming and practical as her other books.

There was little new material and lots of comments like 'life is not a dress rehearsal' and 'you are never too old to change your life'. Good enough advice but these are ideas which have been around for decades, possibly centuries.

Another gripe was that it had a self congratulatory tone which I found offputting. Although there were chapters on being generous and inspiring others it often veered into a manual for being selfish.

There were one or two inspirational stories and it was gratifying to see that success was not solely defined my financial gain. Overall though I was really disapointed by this work from someone who has previosuly written such inspiring books.

Practical and common sense advice
It's great when books live up to their expectations. Fiona Harrold's book did just that - it was inspirational and thought provoking. Her 7 rules of success are derived from an understanding of the driving forces of individuals that have achieved extraordinary success - often from a standing start.

What I found particularly refreshing was the concept that success is not necessarily measured by the amount of money in the bank.

Whatever the goal - financial or altrustic - Harrold suggests that there is a common formula that results in a positive outcome.

Best enjoyed by readers who are willing to really do the thinking ; applying the principles and searching questions asked throughout the book to their own situations.

Easy to read and full of inspirational real life examples, I would recommend this book for anybody who appreciates that they are not optimising their potential or feels a lack of satisfation with their current life.