Russell Simmons – Do You!
This week brings the release of Russell Simmons’ self help guide Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success. The NY Times’ Harry Hurt III says:
Unfortunately, most of “Do You!” consists of hackneyed material you could just as well do without. With the exception of the moderately defiant “Spit truth to power,” the other 11 laws are familiar bromides that read like page filler churned up by Madison Avenue book packagers. They include: “Have a vision and stick with it,” “Never give less than your best,” “Surround yourself with the right people,” “There are no failures, only quitters” and “Successful people stay open to change.”
But, wait, Harry, Donald Trump['s secretary] wrote the foreward! And there’s nothing hackneyed about his approach to life.
Simmons is working with Literate National Atlanta on literacy/pr events in the Atlanta area.
Update:
I was just checking out YouTube in case Russell had a video about the book. Didn’t find anything but I did find the following appearance on Fox News last year:
Here Mr. Simmons is talking about success as a mindset and he gives the example of poor people who say they’re starving but, really, they’re overweight!
You know, it’s a shame to see Russell’s lack of knowledge about health issues and the fact that overweight poor people are typically malnourished because high calorie, low quality foods are cheaper:
As a rule, processed foods are more “energy dense” than fresh foods: they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which makes them both less filling and more fattening. These particular calories also happen to be the least healthful ones in the marketplace, which is why we call the foods that contain them “junk.” Drewnowski concluded that the rules of the food game in America are organized in such a way that if you are eating on a budget, the most rational economic strategy is to eat badly — and get fat.
Please, Mr. Simmons, let’s stop the madness, learn about the true state of poor people and stop trafficking in classist, oppressive cliches for self-promotional purposes, shall we?
Update:
This discussion about hip hop lyrics is also giving Russell Simmons lots of chances to get his book some promotion on shows like the O’Reilly Pit, which I hear is rather popular for some weird reason.
I couldn’t actually stand to watch this clip but the promo starts the appearance and that’s what’s important here.
phh
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