Get Your S*#@ Together
A Practical and Humorous Guide to Growing Up
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Some day mom or dad will tell you to move out or you
will decide on your own to move out.
Either way, someday you will have to be self-sufficient and you don’t
want to fall flat on your face and have to move back in with Mommy and Daddy,
rely on someone else’s money, accept handouts or live off the government. No matter what hardships you may face in the
future, you should be resilient enough to bounce back from rough times and take
care of yourself, without having to call up your parents or anyone else to bail
you out. It’s called growing up and
being an adult.
Those who rely on other people’s money or resources
hold themselves down. Whenever someone
else is taking care of you, there is a cap to your potential. Try getting ahead while on food stamps – you
can’t. All food stamps do is sustain a
poor, yet livable, situation. Although
it may be comforting to know that your family or a check from the government
will help you get by, that’s all it will allow you to do-- just get you by. The helping hand you take advantage or the
tit you suck on will never elevate you further in life. It only holds you back from achieving a
better life.
So, let’s define phrases like, “living comfortably,”
or “a better life.” Those words mean
many different things to many different people. In this book, it simply means what I have just described – living
on your own, without the help of others, not worrying about how you’re going to
pay your bills and have enough left over for the little things that give you
pleasure in life. After reading this
book, you will not end up in a bar at age 30, drunk and mumbling to yourself,
where did my life go wrong? I have read
articles stating anywhere from fourteen to twenty percent of Americans are in
poverty. This book prepares you so that
you will never have any worries of becoming or remaining part of that
statistic, ever.
The book is divided in to two sections, the attitude
and behaviors that promote a successful future while still having young and
stupid fun and the order of priorities every young person should have while
constructing their adult life.
When it comes to attitude, I simply spell out the
right and wrong attitude to have. For
the purposes of this book, it makes no sense to regurgitate inspirational
passages. There is simply just a right
and wrong attitude to have. I’ll
illustrate why a certain attitude won’t get you where you want to go in life
and how the right attitude will.
The second part of the first section that deals with
behavior describes balancing the lifestyle of a young, wild and crazy kid to a
responsible young adult. It spells out
the consequences of some actions and separates what are called “mistakes,”
versus just being young. I am not a
prude by no means, but again, there are correct and incorrect choices that need
to be made that will indirectly affect how successful you are in life, one year
or even ten years from now.
The second section of this book introduces a concept
called the Pyramid of Priorities which gathers all of the important things a
young person needs to have and do and prioritizes them in the most logical
order to ensure success. You will be
lead through the process of deciding on a career, gaining education or training
after high school, obtaining practical experience and then starting a
career. This section will also help you
in managing your career as a person just starting out, which is completely
different from a person with a few years work experience. It will also assist you with the timing and
do’s and don’ts of making your first large financial commitments, a car and a
place of your own. The last chapter and
priority in the Pyramid will talk about the importance of starting a retirement
plan and what kinds there are to choose from.
Sound like a lot?
Well, yes and no. If you have
enough sense to read this book, you’re probably already correctly doing some of
what you’re read about. And, a
comfortable life and bright future is achievable once you put the information
from the first few chapters in to practice, the rest (and last few chapters)
just fall into place. You’ll be
amazed! Therefore, I can not stress
enough the importance of what you are about to begin reading. What is defined as “correct” or the “right”
thing to do, is your prescription for a healthy and prosperous life. Even though some of the medicine you’re
about to receive may be hard to swallow, it will most certainly prevent you
from ending up in a dead end job with no future. It will prevent you from becoming a late bloomer and getting your
shit together in your thirties. More
importantly, it will prevent from becoming a statistic, in poverty, without any
hope for financial recovery.
Consider each chapter of this book a building block
to a wonderful future with which you can be satisfied. You will become more aware and sensitive
toward your attitude and lifestyle. You
will be better able to determine which career is right for you and will get
some sound advice if you decide to take the highway to higher education. You will also learn how to prioritize your
life in such a way that will guarantee you financial stability and success in
whatever you do. And guess what?
Formats Book Details There are many resources available that cover these
topics; however, there are three things that make this book unique. First, the author started
writing this book when he was 19 and completed the first draft when he was 24. The content is derived from first hand,
recent experiences and lessons learned by a peer who became successful at a
very early age. Second, all
of the most important topics and issues affecting the outcome of young adults’
future are brought together under one cover. This book covers having the right attitude, lifestyle, hot to
decide on a career, gain the education you need, obtaining experience, starting
a career, buying a reliable car, moving out of your parent’s house, and
finally, starting a retirement plan. The
end result is a pre-requisite for every young person who is just beginning to
put his or her life together. It serves
as the “Cliff Notes,” for all other career and life planning resources
available. Third, the
advice and guidance in this book is not written it typical “self-help
language.” The content is blunt and
sometimes down right crude, but it speaks the language of young adults. Upon graduating from Greenway High School in 1992,
Douglas Thoene attended Glendale Community College for two years on a
President’s Scholarship. He received a
BS in Business Administration in 1996 from Northern Arizona University (NAU). During his last year in college, Douglas began
working in Marketing for Marriott, NAU’s food service provider. After graduation, he transferred as a
Marketing Assistant with Marriott to a larger university. He later transferred over to Marriott’s
hotel division where he worked as a Sales Manager for Residence Inn. Working his way up in the hotel
industry. Douglas became General
Manager for a Hampton Inn with 150 rooms by the age of 25. By age 27, Douglas launched his own hospitality
consulting agency and is now managing a full service hotel, restaurant and bar
with Best Western. When he’s not
consulting other hotel companies, he’s consulting young adults between the ages
of 16 and 26 on building a successful future.
Now , all of his straight shooting, practical and humorous good advice
on growing up and becoming a successful young adult is written down for you to
read in his first book, Get Your S*#@t Together.
About the Book
About the Author
