Assessment:
Concept/Idea: Yomi Akinpelu's Blow the Cap Off Your Capability is a treasury of inspirational quotes, anecdotes, life advice, and positive coaching. The author offers readers a cornucopia of the uplifting aspects of self-improvement literature, focusing exclusively on a-ha! moments rather than a pragmatic program for creating change in one’s life. The result is a book that reads like a series of devotionals, an approach somewhat at odds with the title, which seems to promise a hands-on guidebook instead.
Prose: Akinpelu's prose is clear, lively, upbeat, and purposeful. In any given chapter, he'll reel cheerfully through numerous anecdotes, examples, and bursts of positive advice, always with an eye to a larger, chapter-specific scene. For example, the chapter "Imagination" opens with a quote from George Lucas, then offers anecdotes about Walt Disney and Thomas Edison, quotes from Schopenhauer and the book of Genesis, and then some thorough, engaging coaching directly from the author before some last thoughts quoted from Will Smith and Albert Einstein. Remarkably, this reads smoothly, with a strong flow of thoughts and a sense of excitement and enthusiasm.
Originality: Akinpelu's book is inspired, he acknowledges, from other works of motivational writing, especially renowned and beloved mantras and quotes. Readers will hear from James Cameron, then Franklin Roosevelt, then Warren Buffett, then Glen Campbell, and so on. What's original here is the author's spirited disquisitions on the quotes and his linking them together to other inspiring thoughts and anecdotes.
Execution: The book is presented as a "toolbox" with "practical ideas and wisdom," which suggests an approach more specialized and programmatic than the quite generalized text itself. Still, readers who recognize this work for what it is -- a collection of inspiring secular devotionals -- will likely find it to be a welcome resource.
Date Submitted: January 23, 2020
This is a life changing motivational book.
Filled with wealth of knowledge and wisdom of God.
It was my daily go-to throughout the month of January in order to plan and write my vision for the year.
Bought a copy for myself and family members.
I recommend it for everyone.
“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly” Sir Francis Bacon
Certainly the truth for this excellent book, it has become my reference and ancient wisdom book. Simple to read & motivates me to prompt action. Folake
This is what a book should be, a solution focused book. Page 35 Every obstacle has a limited life span...... Your problem is your promotion.
This book will speak to you whatever what you are going through, it points to solution. Thank you to the author for a refreshing write up.
Christopher Ademuwagun (VL Hertfordshire University, Forensic Mental Health Social Worker)
A great book from a great mind, this book will provoke you to fulfil your assignment here on earth.
Suffused with great quotes from great minds all through the ages, for instance “You are the same person today as you will
be in five years except for two things: the book you read and the people you meet.” Charlie ‘Tremendous’Jones
Paul Adisa
