cover image Grow a Pair: How to Stop Being a Victim and Take Back Your Life, Your Business, and Your Sanity

Grow a Pair: How to Stop Being a Victim and Take Back Your Life, Your Business, and Your Sanity

Larry Winget. Gotham, $17.50 (160p) ISBN 978-1-592-40846-7

The self-proclaimed “Pitbull of Personal Development” bares his Libertarian teeth to take a bite out of life in this unusual self-help tome. Winget (Your Kids Are Your Own Fault) rails against the American culture of entitlement and encourages readers to make life-changes based on “personal responsibility, accountability, confidence, and integrity.” In other words, “grow a pair.” His main beef is that society has been “castrated by... new age, smiley face, psychobabble,” resulting in a spineless population that feels it is “owed healthcare benefits” and is overly concerned with political correctness. Winget emboldens readers to blaze a path through life with a strong sense of purpose, self-possession, and the ability to learn from criticism and failure. To that end, he explains how to “grow a pair with your money,” in business, at home, and in society, while relating lessons from his own experiences—from working his way out of the recession to handling conflict with his wife and putting an obnoxious airplane passenger in his place. Winget’s bite is commensurate with his bark, and, though pit bulls used to be known as “Nanny Dogs,” this one seems to be only looking out for himself. Illus. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME Entertainment. (Sept. 16)