Looking for a Great Graduation Gift?

Got What It Takes? Successful People Reveal How They Made It To The Top
Bill Boggs
306 pages
Collins
An Imprint of
HarperCollins, Publishers

The path to earning a diploma often proves full of unexpected and life shaping developments. Sometimes it's the people prospective graduates encounter that set them on their career path. Others find their way through reflection on cumulative experiences, a work-study job, a summer internship, or reading a moving essay in English 101. Yet as they stand at threshold of a new beginning, many graduates wonder if they've got what it takes to pursue and realize personal and professional success.

Emmy Award winning television host, Bill Boggs ventures to address these concerns in his book Got What It Takes? Successful People Reveal How They Made It To The Top. While relating what he learned through interviews with forty-four celebrities, entrepreneurs and other luminaries, Boggs offers a wide-ranging set of guidelines for those in search of personal as well as professional success. The variety of personalities and industries presented by Boggs provide what amount to blueprints, which the attentive can discern, follow and tailor to meet their individual needs and aspirations. If a reader desires to pursue a career in television Matt Lauer, Joy Behar and Bill O'Reilly discuss their paths to becoming hosts on popular shows produced by major networks. Anna Quindlen shares how her career as a writer grew out of her need to express herself and her desire to be noticed. She tells Boggs, "I wanted to be a star."

The book begins with a list of brief biographies to familiarize readers with the background and work of each of the people featured in the book. Each themed chapter begins by listing the names of the people who are "talking" about the theme of a given chapter. Featured personalities' names are also printed in bold at the beginning of the sections during which they speak. For example, Anna Quindlen and Bill O'Reilly are listed among those quoted in the chapter titled," Confront Fear, Insecurity and Other Inner Demons." Quotes are interspersed throughout the text and each chapter features "End Notes," additional quotes to reinforce the theme of the chapter. Boggs also includes appropriate pieces, anecdotal bits from his interviews, in between his commentary and relating the success stories of the people he interviews. The way some of these anecdotes are positioned can be a distraction. They often fall in awkward places interrupting the flow of the text.

Although they take a bit of work, once a reader becomes comfortable with them, these features also make the book very easy to use. This bears repeating, the book's guidelines and contents lend themselves to application. If a reader needs a bit of inspiration regarding self-confidence, they can turn to the end of Chapter 7, "Cultivate Self-Confidence," to read quotes from successful CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Christie Hefner and fashion entrepreneur, Diane Von Furstenberg. If the reader plans to pursue a career in the cosmetics industry, they simply seek out the sections featuring Bobbi Brown. By following the threads of this printed roundtable, readers can learn to develop a plan, a work ethic and find their passion; they discover how to plot their own course to success.