The Aladdin Factor Still Inspires - Book Review

Sixteen years ago, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen wrote The Aladdin Factor and self-development professionals applauded. Canfield and Hansen wrote that anything was possible. All we had to do was ask.The problem as they explained it, was that people didn't know how to ask. Many of them didn't even know what to ask for. "Some of us are so numbed that we are simply unaware of our natural yearnings and desires. We no longer know what we really want." (page 7).The authors examined this problem from many perspectives and used stories and humor to drive home all of their points. Before they got into the practical "how to" information, they wrote about what they felt were the five barriers to asking; the main reasons that we don't ask for what we want.This material is described on pages 7 - 33 and it lays the groundwork for the rest of the book. They cover how to ask at home, at school, at work; how to ask yourself and how to ask for spiritual help.I believe that these five ar
eas are timeless and are what gives this book its relevancy for today and for years to come despite its 1995 publishing date.There were times during my adolescence when I was terrified to ask. Math class was agonizing. I honestly don't remember why I was afraid to open my mouth and ask for help, but there it was. I didn't want to have my friends think I was dumb.Years later, now a teacher and not a student, I recognized that terrified look on the faces of my students. And, they were not going to ask me for help because they didn't want their friends to think they were dumb. Remembering how I suffered and having just read The Aladdin Factor for the first time, I stopped what we were doing in class.I told them that we weren't going forward until everyone in the room "got it." And then I asked, "What needs to happen so that all of you get this?" My comment and my question had taken their fear away. We'd come to terms with whatever it was they weren't understanding, digging in o
ur heels and figuring out a way that 30 adolescent minds could wrap their brain around an idea.What I refused to do was to let their reluctance about asking get in the way of their learning. And so, I came up with the question that I believed they needed to answer; the question that allowed us to acknowledge their fear and then to get past it.Reading this book will give you the same language tools that I was able to use with my students. Knowing the right questions and, more importantly, how to ask them can be found inside this book. Imagine how your life might be different if you knew with a certainty that anything you wanted could be yours simply be knowing how to ask for it!Put The Aladdin Factor in the right hands and we could have world peace. Wouldn't that be something?

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