Mr. Everit's Secret: What I Learned from the World's Richest Man

The title character of this soothingly crass self-help parable is an avuncular wheelbarrow-factory CEO who casually addresses God as""Hank."" Bert Everit's secret, a business-inflected mixture of positive thinking and fatalism, is that mindset determines reality. On the macroeconomic level, recessions are purely psychological, the fallout of irrational crises in consumer confidence that inhibit the exuberant circulation of money. On the microeconomic level, personal failure is the result of self-limiting""pygmy thoughts"" and the lack of a""wealth mentality,"" while even the lousiest jobs--as demonstrated by a joyously singing toll-booth clerk--can be made heavenly by a determinedly blissful attitude. Fortunately, if we have faith that""when you lighten up and follow your intuition you will be guided to where you need to be,"" the universe will shower its abundance--better jobs, houses, fabulous bequests from long-lost relatives--virtually in our laps. Cohen, a motivational guru and author (The Dragon Doesn't Live Here Anymore), demands little of readers, telling them that""ease is a more effective success attitude than struggle"" and that""there is always a next level of relaxation you can go to in any situation."" But when it comes to the ethics of monetary circulation--don't give money to beggars, who will just blow it on lottery tickets and booze, but do put that $250 sweater on your maxed-out credit card since""people who love and believe in themselves give themselves what makes them happy""--Mr. Everit's credo of guiltless self-indulgence shades into selfishness.