Review

Rating: 7

Donny Deutsch is well known in the advertising field, and has become somewhat famous for his appearance on Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” and now on his own CNBC talk show.

Donny is an East Coast guy, and that comes across in the book and his writing partner, Peter Knobler, captures it well. From the liberal (but not offensive) sprinkles of profanity, to the “here’s what I think” attitiude, I has no trouble picturing myself sitting across the table from Donny listening to him speak the words I was reading.

Overall the book is entertaining is a fairly quick read. I heard about this book from Craig Garber and read it on a weekend trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

If you are looking for divine and wise business advice, this is not the book for you. It is really geared toward toward advertising folks, probably the people working right now in account or creative positions looking to head up a firm of their own someday.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. I did. There’s a couple things that struck me as very wise, and highly motivating, and I’ll take those lessons to heart and apply them immediately.

First, the reason I bought the book was the first chapter. Very wisely placed, in my opinion. Quoting the sub-headline for the chapter, “The key to success is not purely who’s the smartest, who’s the best, but also who can say with conviction, “‘ deserve it.’ The entire concept is wrapped up in one phrase: ‘Why not me?’”

I love that. Isn’t it true? When you stop to study the really successful people in business, or any facet of life, you get to the point where you seem to think, “what’s so special about them?”. In my experience, it’s not what they know, not what they do, but how they think. Successful people think differently. As Donny points out, it’s self-entitlement. For every 9 people that say ‘Why me?’, there’s one who will say ‘Why not me?’ In fact, that’s the very mindset that has turned my business around and made it successful. I stopped looking at everyone around me and comparing myself to them. I had to come to the realization that I was unique, I had something special to bring to the marketplace, so doggone it, why not me? if you can grasp this one concept, you will find success.

As for other things I learned and liked, on Page 135 he gets into story about a vendor who Donny was late in making payments to. Donny talked about this person coming to him and stating that if he couldn’t pay on time, that was unacceptable, and the relationship would end. What Donny pointed out about this vendor was they valued their service and demanded a fair price for the quality of service and was not wrong in asking for the price, nor wrong in asking to be paid for it. Allowing clients to constantly bargain with you, discount your price, and slip on payments, are you really valuing your service?

I needed that reminder. I was getting “sticker shock” for my clients, and feeling guilty about my prices until I started comparing the amount of money I was saving them, and more so, how much money I was making for them. Why the heck would I not ask for a fair price with confidence?

The last good lesson is for all you business owners that are trying to do everything yourself. As Donny puts it, “Want to be a bad boss? Make every decision come through you.” Wow, that’s an eye opener. Top heavy organizations, no matter how big or small, are not fun places for people to work, nor are they likely to grow into something special if the entire show is run by one ego. Not only does this create a bottleneck to work being done, it creates a climate where workers have “learned helplessness”. Employees and contractors are there to help you get things done, serve the clients, and solve problems. If everything comes through “the boss”, they don’t have any value to your company.

Overall, I would recommend this book. It’s a good read for business owners, marketers, and advertising people. I think you’ll appreciate Donny much more after reading this too.