About Year To Success

Bo Bennett knows about success. By the age of 29 he had developed, built up and sold an innovative technology company during the peak of the tech boom and sold it for $20,000,000 -- and got to keep most of it! He now gives back information and inspiration that can lead others to live a successful life in his debut book, Year To Success.

Bo represents a new generation of self-made millionaires, using creativity and initiative to exploit the latest developments in the fast-growing technology and service sectors. Many of the ideas in his book came from his independent pursuit of success and were later validated by the end results and echoed by other leaders and entrepreneurs.

"There are no secret formulas or insider rules to be acquired," says Bo. "In fact, many of the principles are not new, but rather, they are time-tested, proven and self-evident. This is perhaps the most comprehensive book, filled with simply stated values of how to become successful." In fact, where most people trumpet quick paths to boundless wealth, Bo purposely slows it down and creates a year-long program and systematic approach that has roots in the teachings of the masters of success: Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Denis Waitley, and Anthony Robbins.

"This catalog of time-honored methods presents a primer of core values and success principles for the next generation to utilize and put into place," says Bo. “It’s not something you can master in just one seminar; it takes daily practice for an entire year to absorb all of the vital principles one needs to utilize for success.”

Bo addresses the following story topics:

  • What do many people fail to do that could make the difference between living a life of proven success vs. one only of promise and what could be.
  • In an increasingly global, digital, freelance society, do the success strategies change with the times -- or are they as important and relevant as ever before?
  • What are the lessons learned from successful people like Oprah, Trump, Gates, Seinfeld and Schwarzenegger?
  • Is our society too money-centric to be successful?
  • Why you should believe you can be successful -- and what you'll need to do to become successful.

He shares literally thousands of principles, including: view failure as being temporary; never, ever lie; face your weaknesses; be a mentor; take initiative; never be a one-upper; and shows us how to find opportunities. He also emphasizes the need for time mastery, self-discipline, having a strong vocabulary, mastering grammar basics, learning speed-reading; and implores us to take up martial arts -- "it gives you confidence, discipline, fitness, security and goals."

Year To Success draws on the wisdom and inspiring words of model success stories, sharing the insight of dozens of political leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, inventors, and modern-day celebrities. Members of this diverse group include: Thomas Edison, Mary Kay Ash, Ben Franklin, J.K. Rowling, Albert Einstein, Michael Bloomberg, Helen Keller and Jackie Chan. Many references to pop culture and movies are made, providing easily identifiable examples, drawing on movies such as The Godfather, Crocodile Dundee, What About Bob, The Shining, and Naked Gun.

Bo shares some valuable insights into what success is -- or isn't. He says:

"The pursuit of quick riches only leads to cons, scams and shady sales jobs. Anyone promising instant fortune with little or no effort really means that they will become instantly rich off people who send them money."

"Nobody can tell you exactly how to become successful. Lasting success must be achieved through passion, and only you know what you are passionate about."

"Many people who sell 'how to get rich' ideas only became rich themselves by selling their own books, tapes and seminars on how to get rich! These are authors that usually hide their professional background from their readers."

Year To Success also tells us how to: handle mistakes; recognize a dead end, make strong first impressions; sacrifice; make decisions; make the best of a bad situation. Readers are also encouraged to create a "dream collage," which is a collection of photos, magazine clips or other images that define our ideas of success and read like a photo album of the life we'd like to live. It serves as an inspiring visual reminder.

Year To Success highlights Bo's foundation for success: education plus inspiration plus action equals success.

Bo warns us that one of the biggest mistakes people make in the pursuit of success is "giving up on single ideas, beliefs, skills and concepts because they see little or no change from them. They change to a successful behavior, notice no change, and then revert back to old behavior. This is like taking a step up your ladder, not being able to see the top any better, then stepping back down. With this pattern, you can easily see why so many never reach success."

Bo reminds us to be people of action: "Taking action is what this book is all about. It is doing the action steps that bring you closer to success." Or as Walt Disney said, "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Bo knows of no other way.

ISBN: 978-1-4566-0003-7 (ebook) / ISBN: 978-1-4566-2457-6 (paperback) / ISBN: 978-1-4566-2458-3 (hardcover) / Published by: Archieboy Holdings, LLC. / Published Date: 2004-01-01

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About Bo Bennett, PhD

Bo Bennett, PhD

Author

Robert "Bo" Bennett started "Adgrafix", a graphic design firm, right after graduating Bryant University in 1994, with a bachelor's degree in marketing. In 1995, he sold the graphic design business but kept the name "Adgrafix" that he used for his new web hosting company. As a self-taught programmer, Bo created one of the first (perhaps the first) web-based affiliate systems and web-based web hosting interfaces. He built Adgrafix to a 5 million dollar a year business, then sold it to Allegiance Telecom in 2001.

A day after he sold Adgrafix, Bo started Archieboy Holdings, LLC as a holding company for many different web properties, some of which have become their own entities, and sold to new owners, and others which he is still running today. One of the past sales includes Boston Datacenters -- the distressed datacenter in Charlestown, MA purchased by Bo from former HarvardNet founder. He took the company from losing tens of thousands of dollars per month to profitability in less than a year. In two years time, he sold the property to Hosted Solutions. Today, the property is owned by Windstream, and it remains one of the premier datacenters in New England.

Bo is currently the founder and CEO of eBookIt.com, a company that formats and distributes eBooks, print on demand, and digital audio books, as well as president of Archieboy Holdings.

By age 10, Robert "Bo" Bennett started listening to and reading personal development tapes and books. Over the years, he has developed a science-based approach to success that differs quite a bit from the over-hyped success guru's approaches commonly seen today. Before beginning his lifelong quest to shape the lives of others, he had to prove to himself that his theories, beliefs, and convictions worked.

Since his childhood venture of creating and selling wooden key racks in his father's workshop, Bo has started several companies and sold them anywhere from $1 to $20,000,000.00.

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Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

I used to have Donald Trump's endorsement on the cover of my book and featured it in marketing. I have since removed it by my own choice, along with the success biography of Donald Trump. I have written in the book that none of the people I feature in my book are perfect and we should take inspiration from their strengths. The fact is, we all maintain our own personal balance sheets, and sometimes, the weaknesses just don't compensate for the strengths. Much of what I wrote about Donald Trump from my research (back in 2004) turned out not to be true and the rest was highly suspect. Although I cannot in good conscience, continue to use the endorsement and keep his success biography in my book, I will always be grateful to Donald Trump for taking time out of his schedule to review my book and write a glowing review.
These are some of the people who have inspired me the most. I will admit, there are many more, but I felt it important to “mix it up” with people who have succeeded in all walks of life. The people I have included have demonstrated several of the principles of success contained within my book. Their stories are not only inspiring, but very entertaining as well.
They can. Whether they want to or not is a different story. I would like to paraphrase a rejection letter I received from a respectable, well-known publisher when I submitted my book, Year To Success...

"Dear Mr. Bennett, …we ultimately decided that your book does not tell people how to be successful in a few clear steps. We feel that this is what our readers want."

I will admit, it would be nice if success were all about doing A, B, and C, but it does not work that way. If it did, 95% of the population would consider themselves successful, not just 5%. Most books on success sacrifice content for marketability; they are edited to appeal to the population’s desire for instant gratification. Year To Success is different—very different. Not only is the book jam-packed with content, its one article a day format allows the reader to properly reflect on the information and actually retain the information.
Not in this book. I purposely kept Year to Success "religion free". If you want to read about my thoughts on religion and God, I have other books for that.
As the number of readers of Year To Success grows, I get more and more positive feedback about how the book has improved lives in some major way. I have had people tell me all about how they now see life in a new light, how they have improved relationships, and of course, how they have made more money. But what I love to hear most is when people tell me that my book is the reason they stopped smoking or abusing drugs/alcohol. To me, that is like saving a life. 
Year To Success is perhaps the most comprehensive book on success ever written. It uses my “formula” for success: education + inspiration + action = success. Education: each week starts off with two educational lessons and ends with two more educational lessons. Inspiration: the third day of the week is a success biography on someone I believe is one of the most successful people in history. These success biographies are full of inspiration to help keep your flame for success burning on high. Action: each of the educational lessons has one or more action steps associated with it. Taking action is what this book is all about. It is doing the action steps that bring you closer to success.

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