Just Finished Reading Start by Jon Acuff

Start's full title is Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters...after recently reading Jon Acuff's 2017 book Finish and since he referred to his earlier 2013 book a number of times in it...sometimes critically...it intrigued me enough to check it out myself.  It's all about self-motivation and how people can get hold of their purpose(s) in life and set out on the narrow road to "awesome" as opposed to the "average" path the vast majority of people take.  Start is loaded with all kinds of advice, as well as discussing the various stages to achieving mastery in an area: learning, editing, harvesting, and then guiding.  He says that we should be cognizant of the various irrational fears and notions obstructing us from setting out on accomplishing our goals and immediately write them down whenever we think of them.  He tends to be very numbers-oriented in his approach, drawing upon his personal experiences as a "success" in social media, blogging, and publishing...using the numbers of his followers and sales as a yardstick to that perceived success.  That emphasis to me was a little too self-centered and limited: many of us don't give a whit about that sort of thing, but we still have our own individual dreams.  In comparing the two Acuff books Start and Finish, I felt that the latter was much more profound and realistic, reflecting positively on the author's developing maturity and deeper understanding of the subject matter...if you read only one book, read Finish!  In Start I also grew increasingly irritated at Acuff's fawning compliments of financial advice media mogul Dave Ramsey, for whom he once worked and who greatly facilitated his career.  Although I agree that Ramsey has some sound ideas of personal money management, he was a pandemic-denying anti-masker when he had the opportunity with his radio show to contribute to the public's heath interests during this pandemic...I wonder what Acuff's take on Covid has been?  In Start, Jon Acuff stresses that there is no shortcut to mastery of a field...it takes hard, hard work as well as the need to put other things on the sideline and not spread one's self out too thinly or act like a jerk to others...not exactly stuff that was new to me.  It's not a bad book per se, but it doesn't hold a candle to his later work...and you can get plenty of inspiration (and sounder advice) for starting projects from Finish.  Acuff has written other books as well, his 2015 release Do Over to be my next reading project from him...