New Book Alert: Mindscape by Voltaire Von Gogh; Fascinating, But Flawed No Nonsense Self-Help Book On Achieving One's Dreams in Entrepreneurship

 New Book Alert: Mindscape by Voltaire Von Gogh; Fascinating, But Flawed No Nonsense Self-Help Book On Achieving One's Dreams in Entrepreneurship

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Voltaire Von Gogh's book Mindscape is sort of what would happen if Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F$#@k were stuck in a blender and mixed together (aside from ruining a perfectly good blender by sticking books inside of it.). It has the tough love and sarcasm of Manson's book with the practical and far reaching advice of Covey's.

The results are a slightly uneven, but always helpful book about going over barriers and achieving one's dreams by becoming effective entrepreneurs.

The book offers a very realistic, almost conversation style to the writing. In The opening, Von Gogh asks who The Readers are and answers, "You are the 'common man.' But some wild fantasies and some shining dreams. Now you are just imagining and imagining what else could have been. Or you could have tuned up to be a very ambitious person. Kudos, you are like millions….You have dreams and problems. That's you. All have dreams and problems...No, there's not a single person who has either of those things."

This description sets the stage over what kind of book is in store for Readers of Mindscape. It's very plain spoken and no nonsense laying out exactly what problems that the Reader might have and how they can be resolved.

At times this no nonsense approach comes across like Von Gogh is a drill sergeant to a very large army. Von Gogh discusses how the word, Practicality, slowly killed dreams of childhood forcing us to become conformist adults. He writes, "Practical is another word for incapable. So, Sir, if you have forgotten your dreams, if you are just a living dead, if you have nothing to fight for in your life... I'm not interested in you." I could almost picture Von Gogh yelling "Alright maggots, you are going to live your dreams! Now drop and give me twenty!"

This tough love approach in self-help books could be difficult for some Readers. They may not make it to the good advice when they feel like they are being insulted. Others may enjoy this more realistic approach of someone who lights a fire under them to keep them moving. It depends on what one is looking for in advice. 

Once you get past the drill sergeant opening, there is some good solid advice that any Reader can follow, even ones who aren't going to be entrepreneurs. Advice like Dream Big ("Have dreams, large life, large people, large story. F%\k the world."), Begin ("The only thing that is stopping you is YOU!"), and Starting Small ("Put the seed in the soil. Water it. Wait. It will germinate. Take care of it, it will grow into a plant, add manure in soil, fulfill its needs.")

While the emphasis is on potential entrepreneurs, this advice is helpful for anyone who wants to find their dream job, pursue their artistic passions, or do other things that they have long held on the back burner.

Von Gogh focuses mostly on potential business owners and people who want to turn their interests into business success. He goes through the various stages and suggestions like Planning. Within Planning he breaks down other subjects like Defining Objectives, Developing Premises, Evaluating Paths, Analyzing Resources, Finalysing (sic) Methods, Writing Possible Outcomes, Solving Problems, Securing Additional Cooperation, Making Schedule, Framing Values, and Deciding the Start. 

He evenly distributes these steps recognizing their importance in starting one's own business. Each subject is emphasized in their own section. For example the section, Developing Premises, goes into great details about creating the foundation of a plan and analyzing the  initial objectives. Von Gogh writes that "The factors on which the development of your premises depend must include the full consciousness of your objective, your interests, and full set of skills."

Many of the advice that Von Gogh provides pertaining to one's own self image as well as getting along with others. One of the chapters is titled, "Be A Self-Motivated Person." In it, Von Gogh emphasizes that the Reader must seek motivation within themselves if they want to move ahead. He writes, "Do not seek motivation out there in the world, in videos, audios, or lectures. The dreams, the reasons are all yours. Grow motivations inside you. Have fervor all the time about all the things that you are doing. If you are losing motivation, if you are losing enthusiasm, it means that your dreams are not big enough or to don't imagine them frequently enough. Just having goals is not enough. Imagine them every day, every moment, if you want to have fervour, if you want to go on forever."

It is encouraging when a self-help author tells you not to trust self-help programs (even potentially their own) and reminds you that change must come from within. Ultimately, we are the authors of our own fate. 

A business can only work if the owner is willing to recognize the needs of their customers. To do that, the potential entrepreneur must build relations and network with those around them. Building relations requires the business owner to ask questions about others' needs, make people curious about them, share dreams, and add something new that they can offer and no one else can. Together, business owner and potential customer bring those discussions to common objectives and beliefs. 

Von Gogh writes "Bring the discussion on the conclusion that you two must be together in order to achieve what you both want. Don't say it directly. Just put the idea in your mind. Tell that you have solutions to some of their problems and that they too have solutions to some of yours. And if you both work together, problems can be solved and both of you can achieve whatever you want. Just put this idea in their mind and let them think."

These chapters reveal that despite the bootstrap myth, no one really achieves success on their own. They depend on others to work for them, to work alongside them, to obtain their goods and services, to network with other, and to recommend them to others. It is important to build those relations and obtain a healthy network.

There are many themes that are prominent throughout the book. The most important one is found in the title: Mindscape. It is defined as "life is more or less about going through yourself." This ideal reminds the Reader that when they are feeling tired and stressed, and discouraged about their path, that they should sit, relax, and look at things from another perspective. Von Gogh writes "Don't just think outside the box. Think what to do with the box. Have many perspectives and look from each of them. What you see doesn't decide what you do. You can think differently. You really have a lot of choices more than the existing if you widen your mind, pause, and look at it from different perspective and just think."

This seems like a simple concept, but sometimes we get so caught up with our problems to the point that we are overwhelmed and want to give up. This chapter reminds us that solutions can be found if we think about them logically and analytically. The solutions can be found if we relax and look at new options.

While the book is honest in its advice for business owners, it is also honest in why start up businesses fail. In one chapter, Von Gogh examines the various reasons start up businesses fail. Among the top 20 reasons, found by Forbes Magazine, are: Product Mis-timed, Ignore Customers, Poor Marketing, Need/Lack Business Model, Poor Product, Pricing/Cost Issues, Get Out-Competed, Not the Right Tram, Ran Out of Cash, and No Market Needed.

Each reason is explained and summarized clearly. The reason "No Market Needed" reveals that start ups sometimes fail because their product isn't needed. If it's not needed, then it won't be sold. 

"This shows lack of research and lack of market understanding in founders. They don't know where the customers are heading, where they are suffering….If you don't know the current situation of the market and you aren't really solving a problem worth solving-You'll be kicked out of this world…..Test the your product, ask for reviews, do surveys, showcase it before bulk manufacturing, and observe results."

This chapter is good at not only explaining the reasons that start ups fail, but offers probable solutions for the Reader to avoid them and refine their business so they don't fall into these traps.

Entrepreneurship is an ongoing process that doesn't take a week or a month, or even a year to develop. The final section of Mindscape offers 54 activities enough for each week of the year to help the Reader continue to focus on their dreams and businesses. These suggestions include "Passion Makes Up Position", "Work Hard, Hard Like Hell," "Consider Confidence," and "Be Brave Enough."

Each week, the Reader is encouraged to practice and activity or think about some issue concerning their business. 

For example Week 16's theme is "Let Your Mind Run Free Through The World." It encourages entrepreneurs to get their minds off their business and don't limit their thoughts to that exact thing. 

Von Gogh writes "Spend this week in searching new things, doing new things, and skills. This is not a break from the general schedule, that is an addition to your general routine. It's like building a hilltop garden where you can wander while having a cup of coffee."

The weekly schedule allows the Reader to take apart the hard job of creating a new business piece by piece into smaller increments. These incremrmud in turn allow the Reader to focus on one thing at a time.

Mindscape is mostly a good self-help book but has flaws, particularly in tone and formatting. The overall tone is jarring to go from the tough love approach to the kind helper. The drill sergeant introduction can put Readers who are expecting the nice words off. Likewise, the Readers who relate to the introduction may find the rest of the book soft. A self-help book should find one specific tone of voice and stick with it. The author should find out what Readers that they want to read their advice and cater to them.

The formatting is also a bit troublesome, especially in some bold or bullet point sections. Many are not broken off into paragraphs giving the overall impression that the writing rambled on until a point is finally made.

A huge problem can be found in quotations. Many self-help books love to provide examples and quotes of people who triumphed or failed despite adversity. They subtly tell the Reader, "This happened to them, it could happen to you." Mindscape is no exception.

There are many inspirational quotes like J.R.R. Tolkien's "Not all the time those who wander are lost."

However, Von Gogh chooses one of the most awkward and ill informed books to quote from: Mein Kampf. It is not wise, to say the least, to quote Adolf Hitler when you are writing a book about potential business owners. There are many other people to choose from that are better examples than the genocidal dictator responsible for the deaths of six million people. People will not pay attention to what you are saying if they can't get past that name (unless the point that the author is trying to make is "don't be like Hitler.").

The changing tone, awkward formatting, and unfortunate quotes are problems to the book. But the overall structure presents some fascinating, no nonsense, common sense advice for Readers to make their own dreams come true.