Amazing Things Will Happen: A Real-World Guide on Achieving Success and Happiness

Dear Prospective Amazon Book Buyer,One day, I called C.C. Chapman and asked him to co-author a book on content marketing with me. He didn't say yes immediately because (I found out later), he had another book in him that he wanted to write. He took a weekend to think it over - a long, anxious weekend for me, by the way - before he called me back and gave me his answer. "Yes!" he said.Our collaboration was a happy and successful one -- "Content Rules" became the best-selling book on content marketing.Meanwhile, C.C. postponed but didn't completely abandon that other book idea. That second book - which was really his first book, if you are following -- is this one you are now considering, "Amazing Things Will Happen."So you've already figured out that C.C. Chapman is a friend and colleague and someone I treasure in my life. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I should also mention that I'm not much of a fan of self-help books, either. I find them cloying or annoyingly prescriptive -- or frequently, both.You might think that both of these things are reasons to distrust what I have to say here. But actually, I think both allow me to speak with greater authority.Here's the thing: C.C.'s second book (or first, depending on how you look at it), isn't really self-help. C.C. doesn't tell you what to do, or where to live, or who to marry, or what vegetables to eat, or how to think, or which candidate to vote for, or what to order, or whether to use paper or plastic, or follow Paleo vs. South Beach, or any of that.In other words, C.C. doesn't tell you how to live your life - instead, he reminds you simply *to* live your life. He does so relaying unfussy stories of what has worked for him.Taken as a group, the short chapters and straightforward anecdotes function as a subtle reminder to not squander your time on this planet, to follow your own heart, and treasure people who deserve to be treasured, and to pay attention to what's true and essential, and to slough off that which is not. Only when C.C. says it, you absorb it more -- because his stories are both personal and universal.In my case, for example, C.C.'s book was a good reminder not to over-think every single little detail of any given situation to the point where the minutia of it all overwhelms, and I'm completely paralyzed. After I'd finished this book and walked away, that's one thing that stayed with me - to lighten up, loosen up, give it a go, even if everything isn't perfect... perhaps because that's a message I needed to hear. (And C.C., if he's reading this, is probably nodding and laughing to himself at this very moment, because he knows it's true!)But if you choose to buy his book, you'll probably take away something completely different, because you and I are different people.Which leads me to my last point: People who know C.C. and read this book recognize his voice immediately. There isn't a single thing that's false or phony about his writing - what you get here is real and true. (Even the phrasing, by the way, which I honestly found awkward at times - it's nonetheless quintessentially C.C. And he knows I say this with utmost affection.)Which is why I feel I have the necessary authority to assure you of this: There isn't a speck of artifice about this book. Instead, the work you are considering is authentic - which is rarer than it should be in books, and perhaps in life. Reading this book might not transform your life, but it'll grip you by the shoulders and shake you so you won't squander it, either. Because C.C. - and his words - won't let you.I hope you enjoy.

Lucky me, I know CC Chapman in person, and have for many years. Despite this, I'm going to try and review the book in as objective a manner as I can. Hope that's ok.As more and more books have come out from online publishers of all sorts-- Youtube stars, big bloggers, etc.-- you may start to notice a lot of these books being released. They are profoundly personal, they are sort of motivational also, plus they have a kind of biographical angle about them. Amazing Things Will Happen is a lot like that. It's kind of like reading the auto-biography of, say, Richard Branson, as he gives you a bunch of advice about how to live your life, based on his experience.The way I always view them is that I want to obtain some unique piece of knowledge, some little thing that will help me out in my life, from the book. Amazing Things Will Happen fits that bill. It gives you lots of good advice, and it does so quickly.I should mention that I don't usually read books like these-- in fact I'm mid-way through an epic 900-page biography of John D. Rockefeller Sr called Titan  Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. , a biography of a totally different kind-- and in a sense, these two books are similar. They are both going through a person's life, and the reader is attempting to discover pieces of wisdom, a kind of direct transmission process. Lucky for you, CC's book is not 900 pages.A lot of this stuff is distilled and short, which is great because you can read it on a plane and you'll learn a few things. But in a sense it's almost TOO short, which is my reason for giving it 4-stars. Some of the stuff you read in this book makes you want to actually be in front of CC and ask him "but wait, give me more detail here..." This is probably the only way in which reading this book falls short of being in front of CC Chapman, asking him questions.In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that, when you're actually in front of people, you never ask them the questions that matter. So maybe this book is better than mentorship, who knows.Some other favourite parts of this book are the exercises. I'm a big fan of getting homework from books, and some of these made me stop and think in ways I had not done before. When he asks you to make lists of things, do so, because you'll notice that ideas emerge as it happens.So buying this book is a no-brainer. It's ten dollars, which is about how much I spent on my latte + blueberry cake thing I just got at Starbucks as I read it. When I think about all the stuff I could spend $10 on, this book is at the top of the list.