Article first published as Book Review: 'Go for Your Gold: Risking It All in Pursuit of Your Dreams’ by Kieran Murry on Blogcritics.
January 21, 2015
Go for Your Gold!
Risking It All in Pursuit of Your Dreams
Kieran Murry
Aviva Publishing (2014)
ISBN: 9781940984575
New Book Offers a Gold Rush of Advice and Opportunities for Success
What does the California Gold Rush have to do with fulfilling your dreams? Chances are you don’t know the full story of the gold rush, so to find out, reading Kieran Murry’s new book Go for Your Gold! is a great place to start.
We’ve all heard of the California Gold Rush, but in this new book, Kieran Murry tells the gold rush story to illustrate the importance of going for your gold and never giving up. Of course, most of those who went searching for gold failed, but they gave up too easily. The same is true with most people in this world, but there are some of us who can go for our gold, and there’s a good chance if you read this book, it will be you.
There are a lot of naysayers in this world who don’t believe they can get anywhere. In fact, Kieran explains in the beginning of this book that there was a time in his life when he felt life was basically over for him. Divorced, separated from his child, and deeply depressed, he thought about ending it all, but then a spiritual experience changed everything for him.
Kieran goes on to tell the story of how he learned to go for his gold through a series of events he attended as well as advice he picked up from wonderful mentors and his own desire to succeed—even his fear of what might happen if he didn’t.
Throughout the book, I appreciated Kieran’s honesty and his slight jabs at himself. He isn’t afraid to admit his failings or to confess when he doesn’t understand something. One story he tells is about the difficulty he had in understanding context vs. content—a theme constantly discussed at one of the seminars he attended. I bring this point up because his whole book really hinges on the importance of context. Kieran asks us what context we want for our lives, and he makes us realize how our lives can be determined and changed by the context we place them in. As he himself states, “I believe it [context vs. content] is by far the most life-changing concept you’re going to discover in these pages.”
Going for your gold is never easy. In fact, it’s downright scary, but it’s also wonderfully rewarding. Kieran has been willing to risk everything for his dreams. He’s done that by being a serial entrepreneur, but not through selling products—he sells relationships. He is a firm believer in the power of networking and has created networking events that help people meet so they can learn how together they can mutually succeed. Among those events was “Kieranslist.com Coffee Club,” a simple coffee get-together on Friday mornings that grew to attendance of 100 people every week. He and his wife are also the founders of Ignite-U, a giant networking seminar held every fall in the Pacific Northwest.
Kieran also values the power of introductions, and he often fears what will happen if he doesn’t introduce people. As a case in point, he asks the reader how many people know who Bill Fernandez is. Most don’t, but Fernandez is the person who introduced the two founders of Apple—Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak—to each other. Think what would have been lost if that introduction wasn’t made.
Introducing people is just part of Kieran and his wife Sherri’s bigger concept of “throwing rocks” and seeing the ripple effect they will make. In fact, in writing this book, Kieran is throwing a big rock. I’m sure it will ripple to you and to many people you come into contact with and make this world a better place.
Throughout the book, Kieran not only encourages us but teaches us how to dream big. He provides thoughtful questions for us to ask ourselves, such as “What is the world counting on you for?” and he gives us steps for making our dreams become accomplishments that make the world better for everyone. One of my favorite phrases he uses to hammer home this point he takes from a good friend of his Klaudia, who came to America from Poland and realizes that here in America, “Oh, my God…I get to be whatever I want to be.” Kieran remind us that “Oh, my God...we all get to be whatever we want.”
So go for your gold and make the world a better place. As Kieran himself says, “Today in business, those who are successful are those who are willing to change their context—to identify and go after their dreams. They are willing to dream big; they are the modern day forty-niners. Successful people will face those who mock them from their living room couches, while they go out into the world and do the deal! This book is for the modern day forty-niner! Which group are you in?”
For more information about Kieran Murry and Go for Your Gold! visit www.GoforYourGold.com.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and award-winning author of The Best Place and Arthur’s Legacy
