Product Description

Having trouble deciding what you're going to do after you graduate from school? Do you simply want to take your life to the next level? "The Student Success Manifesto" will help you leverage the entrepreneurial mindset to define and achieve success regardless of your career path.

Discover how to: (1) Make massive amounts of money and enjoy doing it (2) Find or make your dream job (3) Make yourself irresistible for prestigious scholarships & awards (4) Get into your first choice school and make the most out of it (5) Meet and learn from mega role models (6) Start NOW without paying dues

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179477 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Mark Victor Hansen, Co-author, The One Minute Millionaire, Co-creator, #1 NY Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®
Every student should read this book!

Russell Simmons, Founder, Def Jam Records, Phat Farm, Def Poetry Jam, and more
"Everything you need to know about success is in this book."

Paul Orfalea, Founder & Chairperson Emeritus, Kinko's Inc.
I wish the "Manifesto" had been around when I was younger. The Student Succesto Manifesto, is an inspiration...

Customer Reviews

Developing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
"Your personal growth is your core asset and therefore has the most leverage. Making a small investment in your growth can lead to extremely large dividends over time in both personal growth and your other assets." ~Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons founded his first business, Princeton WebSolutions when he was only 16. He has written numerous articles about student entrepreneurship and they have appeared in College Bound Magazine and Whizteens in Business. His unique perspective appeals to young audiences and in The Student Success Manifesto he guides students towards a success frame of mind.

The list of successful college-age individuals is worth the price of the book. He lists companies like Hershey Foods, Dell, Federal Express and Subway. There are many more examples and he also includes a list of statistics like: "Over 50% of millionaire entrepreneurs never finished college."

Some of the highlights include:

The Fifteen Endeavors
Core Challenges
Elimination of Obstacles
Competitive Advantage
Rituals you can ignore to Excel

Michael Simmons seems wise beyond his years as he explores possibility and writes about following your passion and embracing learning for personal growth. The Student Success Manifesto contains some of the best ideas I've ever seen for pursuing a life of prosperity and success. The ideas are logical, the points well organized and the format intellectually appealing.

~The Rebecca Review

parents - READ THIS BOOK before letting you child read it!
The basic ideas underlying this book - that people should follow their dreams, work at what they enjoy, don't blindly follow the crowd, etc., are unquestionably good ideas. But the expressions of these ideas as espoused by Mr. Simmons in this book should give every parent pause.
Some examples - in the introduction he talks about African rituals such as putting a child's hand in a bag of ants as a ritual of becoming an adult. He then proceeds to directly equate this with the 'ritual' of attending school. His intended argument is that one should not consider oneself a 'bad person' because of poor performance in school. Feeling good about poor performance might be the politically correct thing to do these days, but I don't think it's the message most parents want their child to receive from a book such as this.
A couple of pages later a list of facts is presented that show that failure in school is not a 100% reliable predictor of failure in life. True enough, but all this is presented in a context that seems to say its OK not to study, that its OK to fail if you don't like school.
He further goes on to say that an education is becoming less and less valuable over time as evidenced by the idea that a high school education used to set one apart, then a college degree was required, and "this transition from the respected to the expected is now occurring with the master's degree." Similarly, "internships have become devalued" as more and more people get them. I could not disagree more. In today's environment where people compete globally, more and more education is required just to complete.
Among many other similar examples, one in particular stands out. In chapter 12, the case of Jubair Chowdhury of a company named Sybess Technologies (a web address is given, but the company apparently no longer exists) is presented. Mr. Chowdhury decided that, in order to save time and get into business right away, he would drop out of school, get a G.E.D., "focus on his business for a few years, and then go on to college." The author says that he "like[s] this path because it bypasses paying dues (high school)". While I may be wrong, my guess is Mr. Chowdhury probably now wishes he had stayed in school.
There is some good information in the book about networking, the value of compund interest, and other basic concepts. However, most of these can be found in many other books that do not proclaim themselves to be "extreme."
I bought this book with high expectations that it would give my teenage son some good ideas about life and living. I was very disappointed. This is pushing young people in the wrong direction. Yes, entrepreneurship and "extreme endeavors" are vitally important to the future of this country, and we need more people to adopt these attitudes. But this book is on the wrong tack when it disavows the value of education.
I am having my son read "The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" instead.

Just What I needed
There are certain times when you are feeling down and out and feel really lost. I equate it to someone who is running a marathon and they get to the final mile, it is the hardest mile by far, you start to stumble, you start to lose your will to push forward even though you know you are almost to the finish line you feel like you have no more left and you begin to fall...

It was at this point in my life when I was lucky enough to be given a Copy of Mr. Simmons book. A friend gave it to me when I was in a down point in my life. I read it and I was completely revived with new energy and a new want to pursue my dreams. As a college student, The Student Success Manifesto made me realize how many opportunities I have as a student and how to best capitalize on them. With his simple straight to the point writing style I was able to breeze through the book at a pace I didn't think possible. In 2 days I was finished reading the book and that is completely unheard of for me to do. The advice and wisdom that Michael gave me allowed me to find a mentor in one of my school's professors who is a very successful self-made millionaire, from there I was inspired to start my own business, www.theplacefinder.com, a business geared towards college students. I got involved with SIFE and now have an internship with one of the largest CPG companies in the world.

Not only is Michael's book amazing, Michael is amazing himself. I wrote him letting him know my appreciation for his book and how it changed my perspective on the world and he was kind enough to meet with me to discuss being an extreme entrepreneur in person!
This Book is by far what every student who is serious about success must read. The principals and fluidity of his words makes you realize that YES, SUCCESS is not only possible, it's possible for ME!
If anyone has gotten to read through my entire mammoth of a review, I hope you take my words seriously and read this book, it will change your life for the better guaranteed! And that we all want, isn't it?