The Art of People: The 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I picked up this book at the airport on my way to Ireland for a holiday. As I started reading I quickly found out that you had to do an enneagram test before continuing. Since I didn’t really have much time to take a test properly I decided to read this book later and saved it as a good start for the new year. New year, new things learned!

This book has been nothing but a disappointment after I finished taking the tests. One of them is inside the book itself and will give you some insight into what type of person you are. This was the coolest thing about the book. Then there was another test you had to take, but it was online. It was only ten multiple choice questions, so why I had to go online to do a test is beyond me. They could have just included the test inside this book.

I went on reading thinking we would actually be doing something with the test results, but this never happened. Never. It was such a huge letdown for me, because I was hoping to really learn something from this book.

Trudging through chapter after chapter of this autobiography, which it basically is, was not fun. There were so many things that I didn’t like about the book. The tone of voice, the overall very American point of view on business. And when Dave Kerpen was giving tips, he always ended it with something benign like “Be genuine when you say something to someone! You have to really mean it, or otherwise it won’t work!” Yeah, no shit Sherlock. People don’t like fakers…

The more I read of this garbage the more I found myself disagreeing with Dave Kerpen. The only thing I agreed with is that you have to actively listen to people and don’t listen with the intent on giving an answer. People just want to be heard and they will often think you’re a great person if you just listen. Well, I didn’t really need this book to know that.

I think the biggest problem with this book, however, is that it’s all based on Dave’s personal experiences, with little to none scientific or research based evidence to support his claims. This makes it all seem biased. What works for him, won’t work for me most of the time. Especially since Dutch people have a fundamentally different business ethic and are much more direct than Americans. Something they often see as being blunt.

The lesson learned from this book can be summarised as: “Be nice and people will treat you nice.”
There, I just saved you a tenner.

This book’s tagline is “The eleven people skills that get you everything you want!” All I wanted was to learn something. Shame I didn’t. I really wanted. Dave’s anecdotes and his tips just never really hit me as something I wouldn’t normally already do. It was all just a whole bunch of common sense to me.

The best thing about this book is probably its smell, which I give a solid 🌟🌟🌟🌟. Otherwise, steer clear of this book. It won’t teach you anything new if you’re a genuine, listening human being.

Final score:

Print/lettering: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Paper smell: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Originality: 🌟
Information: 🌟

Overall: 🌟

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