A Book Review Of Johnny Wimbrey's "From The Hood To Doing Good"

"From The Hood To Doing Good" is Johnny Wimbrey's first book. In it he describes his formula for success for everybody who is dealing with their own personal HOOD - those "Hazardous Objects Of Destruction" in a person's life or that tend to frustrate his or her desire to do better. The way of escape is best summed up by the subtitle of the book, "From Adversity to Prosperity Through the Choices You Make."

Johnny Wimbrey emphasizes that it is YOU who must take responsibility for the way you think about yourself and for what you DO as a result. He draws on his own experiences to show how no matter what your situation in life, the way you think about it and act on those thoughts will make a huge impact on the results you see in your life.

Many of the inspirational quotations in the book are drawn from the Bible, testifying to Wimbrey's Christian faith, but others are from other traditions such as this one from the Buddha, which again emphasizes the theme of personal responsibility:

"It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways."

Because the way we think and speak is crucial to what manifests itself in our lives, Wimbrey emphasizes that we should always try to seek out the positive in negative situations, and avoid the negative influence of our so-called friends. In fact, best watch out that your friends are not really the foes of your goals. The most formidable foe that you have may be the inner-me enemy, your inner foe - the voice that tells you that you can't...

Do not listen! Do not let the enemy within hold you back or keep you focused on the bad stuff from the past; understand that you have the power to take control of your thoughts:

"Every individual holds the key to the God-given ability to consciously decide whether to master a situation or be mastered by it."

When it comes to talking about the mentality of success, Johnny Wimbrey is his own best witness. He describes how, according to usual social expectations, he would have been considered a very unlikely candidate for success:

"Society and statistics tell us that because I'm biracial, was born in the projects, lived on welfare, had an alcoholic for a father, and came from a single-parent home that I supposedly will never have any control of what ultimately determine my future."

But ultimately, it doesn't matter what society thinks as far as any individual is concerned. You must take responsibility for how YOU think about YOURSELF. As Les Brown, who wrote the Forward to this book, said,

"You don't have to let another person's opinion of you become your reality."

The message will be familiar to anybody who has seen Johnny Wimbrey at Success University gatherings, or on a streaming video presentation on the Success University students' website.

From The Hood To Doing Good gives you some of the flavour, but you really do need to see Johnny Wimbrey in action to appreciate what he is about.

His real strength, it seems to me, is rooted in his Biblical heritage - insights from the Bible flow into and add power to his naturally ebullient delivery. For example, when Johnny Wimbrey speaks about the all important need for "vision" he draws on the Prophecy of Habakkuk and the Book of Proverbs and says:

"I believe it is paramount to write your vision and make it plain, because where there is no vision, people perish."

Those words are powerful not only because of their strong biblical overtones, but also because they were forged in Johnny Wimbrey's early life in an environment where guns were plentiful and vision scarce.

While From The Hood To Doing Good will give you a flavour of the essential Johnny Wimbrey, he is at his best not on paper but on the podium where he can give full voice to the passion and the testimony that drives the message behind the Johnny Wimbrey success story.

Johnny Wimbrey's core message is powerful and inspiring. It is also disarming. He will tell you that he is no better than you, and that if he can succeed, so can you. His mission is to inspire the masses to believe in themselves and to achieve greatness in their lives too, and this message comes over loud, clear and quite convincingly in this slim but enjoyable and inspiring volume of a book.