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Success Equations
Success Equations: A Path to Living an Emotionally Wealthy Life identifies the behavioral patterns that will lead readers into success in health, wealth, and lasting happiness. Those striving for success can follow certain formulas, cultivate them as virtues, and greatly increase their chances of living authentically wealthy lives. Most anyone can be rich; anyone can make money. However, not everyone, due to more negative patterns, can become “wealthy.” When people are wealthy, they have it all. With love, family, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health, and the financial resources to make all other areas of life that much more satisfying, people reach the kind of success they dream of having. There are no shortcuts to success, but Dr. Sherrie Campbell’s equations provide readers with the formulas they need to create the success they desire.
- GenresPsychology
262 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 5, 2024
TL;DR: SUFFERING BUILDS CHARACTER!
This is one of many self-help books that offers great advice, but ultimately blames people for their own lack of success. It focuses on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but I don’t get the impression the author did any amount of research on Maslow’s later work. I’d recommend Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman for a more comprehensive breakdown and dialogue on Maslow. Likewise, Brene Brown conveys the importance of empathy in leadership in a more… empathetic manner.
I was going through and absolutely terrible time when I started reading it in 2021. I wanted this book to help me, but some of the banalities seemed absolutely cruel. Skimming through again — yup. Still cruel. As in I can’t believe someone who studied psychology wrote it.
Page 196:
“We grow the most when we suffer”
NOPE. Suffering causes damage can can take years, decades, or a lifetime to repair, if it is repaired at all.
“We must come to trust we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in if we couldn’t handle it.” — I assume this comes from her faith, as she is heavy-handed in the references to God. But seriously, go tell this to a child living in a war zone, or to a parent who lost their child, or to a homeless person. I don’t expect every line to be universally applicable, but who are we trusting here? God? Entropy? The hegemony? I understand that some may find this sort of trite nonsense comforting. Good for them. I found it cruel.
“When we suffer, we grow in confidence and strengthen our levels of self-respect.”
NOPE. It would be one thing to say this about moving beyond suffering, but she says it about actual suffering — not once, but several times. Again, having suffered significantly shortly before reading this book, lines like this couldn’t be less useful. Replace “suffering” with “overcoming challenges” and this works fine. As written, I wonder who on earth she considers “suffering.” Someone else getting promoted? Missing your train before a job interview? Stubbing your toe?
Page 208:
“We can all survive the scarier times in life.”
NOPE. Everyone would die of old age if this were true. Some people (like the author, presumably) have better resources to face the “scarier times,” and those times may not be scary at all.
“Without suffering, you cannot develop wisdom. Heartbreaks sustain and define the depth and richness of your character.” — I know people who endured suffering and became insufferable. Looking at the aftermath of COVID, I see a lot of fractured relationships and a lot of people who have incorporated moronic conspiracy theories into their very identity. She doesn’t acknowledge logistical or mental difficulties in overcoming suffering. She assumes a level playing field.
NOPE. Let’s say one job candidate has all their debts paid by their parents and another is $50,000 in debt and couch surfing because they left an abusive relationship. If the first doesn’t get a job, no big deal. If the second doesn’t, they miss more student loan payments and tank their credit score, they lose the goodwill of their friends, they don’t have a place to shower before their next job interview.
But hey, wisdom! Depth and richness of character! So useful! Definitely preferable to having a stable life and not encountering any suffering.
Page 210:
“… making more money is an effective strategy for inspiring us to work hard … it is not wrong to work for money or to have making more money as a priority and important goal in our lives. We must remove the ‘guilt’ around money. It’s not bad to have it and have a lot of it.”
NOPE. This is just such an infuriating combination of the prosperity gospel and hustle culture.
Who the feels guilty about having money? Once I started making money, I enjoyed the hell out of it, partly because I can actually donate to causes I care about. But I have a job where this is possible. A lot of people work harder than I do in jobs that really don’t reward hard work. I’d love to meet the rich people who feel guilty about having money. Are they the ones who “donate” to their own charities?
I can’t believe I wrote this much. Anyway, other authors have covered the same material in far more depth. This book is all Instagram buzzwords:
Set goals! Work hard! Make money! Be generous! Meditate! Exercise! Be humble.! Be empathetic! Be giving! Suffering is good! You can rise above your suffering! You can be happy! In so doing, you will find God, God, God (not necessarily the Christian God but also definitely the Christian God) within and without.
Skip it. Or if you want to read it, message me and I’ll mail it to you.
This is one of many self-help books that offers great advice, but ultimately blames people for their own lack of success. It focuses on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but I don’t get the impression the author did any amount of research on Maslow’s later work. I’d recommend Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman for a more comprehensive breakdown and dialogue on Maslow. Likewise, Brene Brown conveys the importance of empathy in leadership in a more… empathetic manner.
I was going through and absolutely terrible time when I started reading it in 2021. I wanted this book to help me, but some of the banalities seemed absolutely cruel. Skimming through again — yup. Still cruel. As in I can’t believe someone who studied psychology wrote it.
Page 196:
“We grow the most when we suffer”
NOPE. Suffering causes damage can can take years, decades, or a lifetime to repair, if it is repaired at all.
“We must come to trust we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in if we couldn’t handle it.” — I assume this comes from her faith, as she is heavy-handed in the references to God. But seriously, go tell this to a child living in a war zone, or to a parent who lost their child, or to a homeless person. I don’t expect every line to be universally applicable, but who are we trusting here? God? Entropy? The hegemony? I understand that some may find this sort of trite nonsense comforting. Good for them. I found it cruel.
“When we suffer, we grow in confidence and strengthen our levels of self-respect.”
NOPE. It would be one thing to say this about moving beyond suffering, but she says it about actual suffering — not once, but several times. Again, having suffered significantly shortly before reading this book, lines like this couldn’t be less useful. Replace “suffering” with “overcoming challenges” and this works fine. As written, I wonder who on earth she considers “suffering.” Someone else getting promoted? Missing your train before a job interview? Stubbing your toe?
Page 208:
“We can all survive the scarier times in life.”
NOPE. Everyone would die of old age if this were true. Some people (like the author, presumably) have better resources to face the “scarier times,” and those times may not be scary at all.
“Without suffering, you cannot develop wisdom. Heartbreaks sustain and define the depth and richness of your character.” — I know people who endured suffering and became insufferable. Looking at the aftermath of COVID, I see a lot of fractured relationships and a lot of people who have incorporated moronic conspiracy theories into their very identity. She doesn’t acknowledge logistical or mental difficulties in overcoming suffering. She assumes a level playing field.
NOPE. Let’s say one job candidate has all their debts paid by their parents and another is $50,000 in debt and couch surfing because they left an abusive relationship. If the first doesn’t get a job, no big deal. If the second doesn’t, they miss more student loan payments and tank their credit score, they lose the goodwill of their friends, they don’t have a place to shower before their next job interview.
But hey, wisdom! Depth and richness of character! So useful! Definitely preferable to having a stable life and not encountering any suffering.
Page 210:
“… making more money is an effective strategy for inspiring us to work hard … it is not wrong to work for money or to have making more money as a priority and important goal in our lives. We must remove the ‘guilt’ around money. It’s not bad to have it and have a lot of it.”
NOPE. This is just such an infuriating combination of the prosperity gospel and hustle culture.
Who the feels guilty about having money? Once I started making money, I enjoyed the hell out of it, partly because I can actually donate to causes I care about. But I have a job where this is possible. A lot of people work harder than I do in jobs that really don’t reward hard work. I’d love to meet the rich people who feel guilty about having money. Are they the ones who “donate” to their own charities?
I can’t believe I wrote this much. Anyway, other authors have covered the same material in far more depth. This book is all Instagram buzzwords:
Set goals! Work hard! Make money! Be generous! Meditate! Exercise! Be humble.! Be empathetic! Be giving! Suffering is good! You can rise above your suffering! You can be happy! In so doing, you will find God, God, God (not necessarily the Christian God but also definitely the Christian God) within and without.
Skip it. Or if you want to read it, message me and I’ll mail it to you.
November 21, 2025
excellent
This is a really good book, I’ve read it twice. I enjoy any book that expands mindset. I recommend any of Sherrie Campbell books.
This is a really good book, I’ve read it twice. I enjoy any book that expands mindset. I recommend any of Sherrie Campbell books.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews