How To Get Out of Your Own Way

Earlier this week I finished Tyrese's book How to Get Out of Your Own Way. I was mulling over whether I should review it for this blog. After some encouragement from one of my fellow bloggers (Thanks Jeanette!) and some interesting tweets that came through about the book, I decided to take write a review.

First off, this is NOT an autobiography. It is promoted as such, but only the first chapter (where he talks about his childhood up to the point of the famous Coca-Cola commercial) is autobiographical. The rest of the book can be classified as self-help and/or advice.

On Twitter, Tyrese claims that he wrote the book by recording it to his iPhone. He then gave it to the ghostwriter so she could type what he said out. There is no way on God's green Earth that it happened like that. The book was too polished, to the point that it did not sound like him while you were reading it. Anyone who follows him on Twitter and has seen him on interviews would figure that out. I hope the ghostwritter got paid a lot of money.

Some of his advice on this book either sucked or didn't make much sense. For example, he was telling people to "wish depression away". He might have meant people who are sad sometimes. But some people can't wish depression away, which is why they seek help with a mental health professional. And the only time he suggests people seek help is when women find out that their man has been on the DL. Some of his dating advice came off confusing, almost to the point that Steve's advice made more sense. His advice and the constant talk of his ex-wife made me wonder how their relationship actually went. His advice on getting people out your life if they are not good for you is fine, but considering how he's supposedly cut off a lot of his family members rubbed me the wrong way.

But not all of his advice was bad. A lot of the motivational items he did have was good, as well as asking people to create a relationship with God. I also liked the advice he gave on the ways how to improve yourself, how not to self-sabotage and seek out mentors (his is Will Smith). Another thing I did like about the book was the tips he gave to motivate people how to get up and move into the direction they want their life to go. He was able to use personal experiences throughout the book to address his points.

To me this book was OK. It's not the best advice book I read, but it's not the worst either. If you want to read the book, please don't let my review stop you from doing so.