Yes Man by Danny Wallace

Yes Man
Danny Wallace

A book recommended by my two sisters. They were raving about it and told me that it is a must-read.

It is mainly about Danny, the author, saying "yes" to everything. This "boy-project" of his was a consequence of his realization that he has been living his life quite negatively. Due this, he has missed out on things and deemed that he hasn't been living his life.

The first few chapters were boring. And the following chapters~ some were boring, some were funny and some were okay. There were some parts that I know were supposed to be funny like when he went to Netherlands to claim the prize he won in a lottery he never even joined, but I just found it irksome. His optimism was too overboard that it's bordering on stupidity. But the Albert Hejin bit was funny.

All in all, the book's okay. It was entertaining but I find some parts of it dragging. This book was based on the real-life boy-project of the author and I was really amused when I turned to the last two pages and saw pictures and memorabilia of his adventure. The Stonehenge picture was really funny. However, there were also some lessons I got from the book. Here are some lines from the book...

"I suppose in some ways all this is about confronting fears. People sometimes go through their lives having fears and never realizing they can be removed in just a few minutes, forever. People are always saying no to things, aren't they? They're frightened of change, used to routine, used to doing things in a certain way. Like, the people who take risks in business are the people who don't fear change, and ultimately they're the most successful."

"It's kind of a fear of the unknown, in your case. It's a negative form of thinking. People do miss out on so much by instantly and unthinkingly saying no... They don't realize they're putting a real limitation on their lives..."

"It's important to have time to figure out what you want to do. Because there are key points in life, times when one decision will affect the next twenty years of your life. And only then will you have the freedom to make another choice, which could affect the next twenty years."

Maybe this book is really, really good but I think I was expecting too much that it fell short of my expectations. However, even if I didn't find this book really really funny as what my sisters told me, at least I learned a lesson. There were some realizations made and I hope I could act on it as soon as possible.