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Getting What You Want: The 7 Principles of Rational Living
The author of Winning Through Intimidation and Looking Out for #1 shares his insights into achieving success in every area of life--from business and financial security to romance--by advocating the importance of such principles as Lower Your People Taxes, Commit to the Truth, and Refuse Free-Lunch Temptations. 50,000 first printing.
- GenresPersonal Development
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 22, 2023
This book was nothing but a big load of crap with some good sense added to it. Robert J Ringer implies that people succeed in life due to their own actions but does not take in account how the deck may be stacked against the disadvantaged. If it was so easy to follow a success book plan to be well off there would be more rich than poor folks. I once read his Winning through Intimidation book and enjoyed it but as I became more educated I realized that he is peddling motivational bull with right wing leanings toward Ayn Rand ideology. A less astute reader may buy into self help success books but if you delve deeper it all is garbage. What really raised my ire was how he regards wait staff as nasty if they don't give him special treatment when they have to hurry up to make their money. You can find more of this type of self help baloney on the Alux website if you are foolish enough.
March 30, 2020
Ever since I've read Looking Out for No. 1, I've always appreciated the works of Robert Ringer. He's acerbic like Mark Manson, but I believe he's more focused as a writer, and I appreciate it.
Getting What You Want is essentially a more mature Ringer coalescing his views in life. My deliberative personality likes his assessment on what makes a "happy" life because he doesn't offer an easy way out. A "happy" life must be strived for with rational thinking and decision-making. Axiomatic to its pursuit is the necessity to see truth: "if truth is the foundation of living a rational life, then the first and most important truth to accept is the reality that you are not immortal."
Corollary to this pursuit of truth, Ringer emphasizes that it is important to know one basic thing: There's no such thing as a free lunch. All actions have their corresponding consequences, and each one has its costs. Life is a never-ending series of trade-offs. Further, he advises to be brutally honest with yourself.
This honesty, however, must be coupled with a long-term pursuit of ethics: be civil to others, but possess integrity. The brutal honesty is an alarum against evil, and a buttress to one's conscience. I am to blame for most of my mistakes.
Another must-have for the man who pursues "happiness" is self-discipline. "Self-discipline is about restraining or regulating one's actions, repressing the instinct to act impulsively in favor of rational, long-term, oriented actions." To Ringer, a high-class person "merely does on a consistent basis what the majority of people know is right, but choose not to do."
Finally, one must understand that life is basically unfair. I'm academically capable, but absolute trash in athletics. Some evil goes unpunished. The trick is to realize that there is always good in bad, and bad in good: again, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
To summarize, a person who chases long-term happiness must:
1) Be a dogged pursuer of truth;
2) Try to be an ethical person (civility to others, integrity of oneself);
3) Be self-disciplined;
4) Understand that life is essentially unfair;
Once one internalizes these four points, one will act more instead of mope, and be eventually happier. :)
Getting What You Want is essentially a more mature Ringer coalescing his views in life. My deliberative personality likes his assessment on what makes a "happy" life because he doesn't offer an easy way out. A "happy" life must be strived for with rational thinking and decision-making. Axiomatic to its pursuit is the necessity to see truth: "if truth is the foundation of living a rational life, then the first and most important truth to accept is the reality that you are not immortal."
Corollary to this pursuit of truth, Ringer emphasizes that it is important to know one basic thing: There's no such thing as a free lunch. All actions have their corresponding consequences, and each one has its costs. Life is a never-ending series of trade-offs. Further, he advises to be brutally honest with yourself.
This honesty, however, must be coupled with a long-term pursuit of ethics: be civil to others, but possess integrity. The brutal honesty is an alarum against evil, and a buttress to one's conscience. I am to blame for most of my mistakes.
Another must-have for the man who pursues "happiness" is self-discipline. "Self-discipline is about restraining or regulating one's actions, repressing the instinct to act impulsively in favor of rational, long-term, oriented actions." To Ringer, a high-class person "merely does on a consistent basis what the majority of people know is right, but choose not to do."
Finally, one must understand that life is basically unfair. I'm academically capable, but absolute trash in athletics. Some evil goes unpunished. The trick is to realize that there is always good in bad, and bad in good: again, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
To summarize, a person who chases long-term happiness must:
1) Be a dogged pursuer of truth;
2) Try to be an ethical person (civility to others, integrity of oneself);
3) Be self-disciplined;
4) Understand that life is essentially unfair;
Once one internalizes these four points, one will act more instead of mope, and be eventually happier. :)
December 21, 2019
In order to get what you want, give others what they want.
List of principles:
1. Base your actions on truth.
2. Focus on value, not entitlement.
3. Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty and humility.
4. Avoid those who drain your personal resources.
5. Rid yourself of major encumbrances.
6. Develop the self-discipline to act on intellect rather than impulse.
7. Learn from bad breaks and move on.
List of principles:
1. Base your actions on truth.
2. Focus on value, not entitlement.
3. Make choices with civility, dignity, honesty and humility.
4. Avoid those who drain your personal resources.
5. Rid yourself of major encumbrances.
6. Develop the self-discipline to act on intellect rather than impulse.
7. Learn from bad breaks and move on.
October 12, 2017
Ok, I get it now. I enjoyed 'Winning Through Intimidation' and 'Looking Out for #1', so I thought 'why not buy the rest of Ringer's books and read them?' I read this one and 'Million Dollar Habits' at the same time, I found them both to be rearranged repeats of WTI and LOF#1 right down to the anecdotes. It's not a bad book and had I read it first, I'd probably be more excited. If you're deciding which of Ringer's books to read, pick WTI and one of the other three I've listed.
March 3, 2019
One of Robert Ringer's best books...it distills his life philosophy into seven basic principles. I like how he ties his personal experiences, interactions with people, and lessons learned from his life into the book. Some of these stories are funny.
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