Can MacInnis really help you?

In an attempt to break down and illustrate the most basic aspects of successful and efficient human interaction, Toronto-based author Lyman MacInnis penned How to Succeed in Anything by Really Trying.
As a career guru for the rich and famous, MacInnis certainly has the qualifications to dictate the proper means to obtain goals, and does so with a motivational twist.
Breaking down his lessons into chapters such as “win all your arguments, lose all your friends,” which teaches the mechanics of an argument from both your perspective and that of the other person arguing. MacInnis doesn’t as much let the reader in on tidbits of information to help people in these situations, but reinterprets what you already know about these situations. This allows readers to see the light on how to act properly, such as knowing when to put an argument down even when you know you are right, just to defuse a steamed co-worker.
He also ends every chapter with a to-do list and a list of things to remember – usually a couple of adages he has learned over the years like “opportunities are never missed; the ones that you don’t take advantage of, someone else will.”
And what makes this book worth its salt is the overlaying message laid out in the title; the only way to take advantage of what he tells you to do, is to really try, not just read the book and hope things change because you’ve added another self-help book to your canon of useless literature.
Of course, the familiar saying goes something like “self help books don’t work, because how can you help yourself if yourself sucks,” (if I may paraphrase Billy Bob Thorton).
MacInnis offers an organized framework of how to succeed while using accessible language – which is almost patronizing. Yet there is something cold underneath his methods to success, with his analytic approach to human interface and overly practical ways to avoid emotion. Success to MacInnis is a cold and beaten path, but despite this, the simplicity of How to Succeed allows for it to be taken in and applied with ease.