Taylor reviewed Gift of Influence by Tommy Spaulding
Review of 'Gift of Influence' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
This was sat on for a bit to cool off after finishing, and I still feel that this is a memoir, and not written to teach the reader anything about influence. I finished the book knowing heaps about the author's life and good deeds, but with zero notes or feelings of inspiration. I believe it's due to two things:
1. Teaching elements are almost nonexistent. The "4 'I's of influence" (interest, investment, intent, I) seem to just serve as categories for the stories. They aren't ever expanded on, or even recapped at the end. There are sometimes a couple of sentences at the end of stories, asking how you can relate to them. The rest of the book is personal stories.
2. The stories aren't relatable. They feature getting favors from top performers in their fields, star athlete children who attend West Point and who would rather go to bible …
This was sat on for a bit to cool off after finishing, and I still feel that this is a memoir, and not written to teach the reader anything about influence. I finished the book knowing heaps about the author's life and good deeds, but with zero notes or feelings of inspiration. I believe it's due to two things:
1. Teaching elements are almost nonexistent. The "4 'I's of influence" (interest, investment, intent, I) seem to just serve as categories for the stories. They aren't ever expanded on, or even recapped at the end. There are sometimes a couple of sentences at the end of stories, asking how you can relate to them. The rest of the book is personal stories.
2. The stories aren't relatable. They feature getting favors from top performers in their fields, star athlete children who attend West Point and who would rather go to bible camp than party with friends, friends who will fly in from around the country to mentor a child, a monthly meeting with friends where they fly to a different city every single month to ask each other how they're doing, and having an extensive network of professional connections who can give jobs to those in need. The author claims he can "sleepwalk through life" and still influence 2.8 people per day, and I can't tell if that's just a flex or is supposed to inspire non-millionaire-evangelists who work a 9–5.
It felt like performative piety, sorry. My thoughts were solidified when wondering why the following information would even be calculated, let alone written and included in a book about altruism:
"By the time I turned thirty, I was a top salesman living in a million-dollar condo in the South End. I had traveled to more than eighty countries and lived in Europe, Asia, and Australia. I had checked every box, won every award. I had even achieved my goal of being worth more than all my cousins put together."