"How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life" Book Review
Test One
How To Be A Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, written by Lilly Singh is a self- help book for those looking to make it as a âBawse.â The book is broken up into four parts, which have been divided into 50 short chapters: Master Your Mind, Hustle Harder, Make Heads Turn, Be A Unicorn. Each section is supposed to guide you towards being a Bawse and conquering life.
During the four days it took to finish reading this book, it took every ounce of energy in my body to not open up the laptop and type away like a businessman cat. However, I fought and fought and fought. While reading, I had so many thoughts, I just had to put them down on a piece of paper. However, having finished the book, I feel the utmost sense of indifference.
The book starts with a disclaimer:
âThis book is not a survival guide filled with hopeful thoughts, lucky charms, or fluffy quotes. There will be no secret schemes to a rewarding life found in these pages. Thatâs because success, happiness, and everything else that feels great in life have no escalators. There are only stairs. This book will be your personal trainer, guiding you up those stairs. Start stretching.â
It is apparent that Singh tries her hardest to stick to this disclaimer, âtryâ being a key term here. It is truly not a survival guide, but there are fluffy quotes. Singh picks up pieces of her own writing and blows them to full page sizes. Perhaps an attempt to create mini inspirational posters of sorts. Except very few of the quotes are actually quote worthy, bordering on cliche. She gives very little insight into the real Lilly Singh. She talks about some difficulties she has faced, but not enough to create any real substance for the book.
The book was clearly written for a very specific audience. It tried really hard to be appealing to all ages, but as a 24 year old, it seemed at times to be preachy and unoriginal. However, a 13-18 year old who is already a fan of Lilly Singh might find it charming.
That is not to say I donât like her any less than I did before. She is still a pretty decent human being who has obviously worked hard towards her success. However, this success is translated into entirely too many name droppings throughout the book.
This critique may be a bit superficial, but the photography in the books was aesthetically pleasing in the least. This might just be a publisher issue, but in the book Singh mentions that she is very hands- on in her creative process. So it is apparent that she had a lot of thoughts about the aesthetic of the book. She tries too hard to look like there is a sense of authority around her, however, she just ends up looking overly made up and unlike herself.
However, the book isnât entirely uninspirational. At the end of each section there are two pages of writing. The first page is a short epilogue about Singh suffering through some circumstances early on in her professional career. The second page is an epilogue about how those circumstances were turned on their head in the recent past/ present. These two pages go a long way to show the reality of life going from a failure to a Bawse. These two pages create a true sense of inspiration in the book.
There are some lessons in the book that are helpful as well.
Be the Dumbest: surround yourself with people who are way smarter than you. Have those people working towards your vision
Understand Priorities: The most important thing in the world to you, does not mean that much to another person. Itâs not personal, they just have different priorities.
Your Ex Wasnât Right For You: A book majorly about professional growth discussing a personal topic most non fiction seems to avoid talking about is rather refreshing.
The benefit of having started the new year with this book was that the book worked as a good alternative to weights. Each page is butter paper and about half the book is made up of pictures of herself and her own quotes. This all just seems like unnecessary weight.
In conclusion, I like the author a little bit more after having read the book, but it is apparent that this was written by someone who clearly should not be a writer. As a career move, itâs great. As a book, itâs not a good read. Itâs full of cliches, name drops, and self praise. I learned nothing, but I was reaffirmed in my prediction that I would feel indifferent at the end of it.