When I first began reading Barking up the Wrong Tree, I expected it to be a sort of

self-help book instructing readers on all the things we are doing wrong and what we should be

doing instead. While this is partially true, the book did give plenty of examples of assumptions

people wrongly make about how to be successful, it was not an instruction manual on life. There

was no step-by-step guide on how to achieve your goals and make your dreams come true.

Barker took a different approach to encouraging success and provided options to his audience.

He did not say what to do, but rather showed how certain choices and behaviors led to the

success of individuals. He did not instruct, but instead illuminated different ways to become

successful in order to allow people to make their own informed decisions.

One of the major strengths of this book was the unconventional approach the author took.

By showing how people with different characteristics achieved success, he made the book much

more interesting than simply telling his readers all the things they are doing wrong in their

approach to being successful; people are much more receptive to engaging stories than

beratement. Furthermore, by reinforcing the fact that everyone has different definitions of

success, this book became more relatable. Not everyone wants to become a world renowned

pianist or a war monger like Ghengis Khan, but most people do want to have fulfilling lives in

areas that interest them.

A weakness of this book that I could not help but notice throughout was how much it

considered the male perspective. Of course, the author is a male, so I would not expect him to

write as if he understood how womanhood affects daily life, but I would hope he may include the

viewpoints of other women. The very first story was about Ashlyn Blocker, a teenage girl who

doesn’t feel pain, but there was little else in the ways of gendered diversity. The information

about the male bicyclist, Navy SEAL, and baseball player was great, and I could find the
importance in them, but I do not see why the inspirational story of a woman would be any less

great. Also, most of the statistics Barker provided were about men. One of the few data points

about women was related to physical appearance and stated that “beautiful women bring in 4

percent more money” (Barker 177). Reading about how being more attractive could help

increase my earning potential is not necessarily the type of information I am looking for. The

reason I see this as a weakness of the book is because some of the advice given is much more

relevant to men because of how they are perceived. For example, the whole second chapter

regarding how niceness can be seen as a weakness feels irrelevant to me because women are

expected to be overly nice in almost all situations, so there is really no other choice for women in

the workplace.

One quote in the book that stood out to me came from chapter three about the importance

of grit and self-talk. In this section, Barker stated that “there’s no shortage of evidence that

stories rule our thinking and predict successes in many areas” (Barker 76). I took note of this

because it related to a conclusion that I drew in highschool. During my senior showcase, I was

required to talk about the research paper I wrote related to my internship at a law firm. In this

paper and presentation, I compared law to storytelling. Success for an attorney equates to telling

the most compelling narrative in order to prove a specific point. I did not really think about how

stories go beyond just novels and the field of law, but this quote made me consider it. It made me

realize that life is full of stories, both true and false, that entertain, give context, and inspire. This

chapter also goes on to discuss topics such as optimism and cognitive reappraisal which can be

much easier to achieve when looking at through the lens of storytelling. I have never considered

myself to be an optimistic person, in fact I typically think about everything that can go wrong in

a situation. Optimistic people often frustrate me because I see it as being feigned, but maybe that
is just the point. Even being fake positive can have benefits, so why not tell yourself a story to

change your outlook? Creating an encouraging narrative can be just as effective as truly

believing in yourself, and there is nothing wrong with internal white lies if they lead to positive

thinking.

The story of Paul Erdös was particularly interesting to me. This is because the famous

mathematician goes against almost all of the assumptions people would make of him. I typically

think of genius academics as reclusive and somewhat egocentric, but he was the complete

opposite. Although he could be difficult to deal with because of his near-addiction to math, he

seemed to love working with others and lacked the superiority complex that others in his position

might develop. He was extremely extroverted and eccentric, and it was estimated that “he

influenced over two hundred thousand mathematicians” (Barker 125). My biggest takeaway from

his story was that you do not have to fit into a certain mold to be successful. In fact, Erdös was

likely more productive as a result of his untraditional conduct. Additionally, this showed the

importance of networking. I am typically more introverted and prefer to work alone, but seeing

how collaboration benefited Erdös and hundreds of thousands of other people is incentive

enough to break free of my comfort zone for the sake of myself and others.

In all, I think Barker did accomplish what he set out to do with this book. It seemed that

his goal was to analyze the different contexts of and paths to success and incite change in his

audience. I can certainly see how this book fulfilled this goal and I finished it with many

takeaways myself. However, I do not know quite how much change I will actually make to my

life as a result of this. Many of the examples given in the book were extreme cases that I will

never experience in my life. I like to think that I would have enough grit to survive a huge fall on

the side of the mountain, but I also hope to never be in that situation. I also do not really want to
be a billionaire. My definition of success is not becoming exuberantly wealthy, so I do not want

to work as hard as someone who does have that definition. I would like to better myself in small

ways, like getting to know myself better, working on being more personable, and keying in on

factors to have ideal work-life balance, but I do not think I have the grit of a Navy SEAL, and I

do not think it is necessary for my lifestyle. This might make me seem unambitious, but I do not

see it that way. Barker talked about how certain actions set people apart and made them the top

or bottom one percent, but I am okay with not being either of these. Drastic changes to my life

feel like they would do more harm than good because I do not have dreams of being famous,

rich, or death-defying. In all, Barking up the Wrong Tree was did aid me in realizing my idea of

success and influencing me to put more work into areas I may be weak in, but it takes a certain

type of person to want to make large adjustments to their life, and no book, no matter how

informative or inspirational can inherently change the type of person you are.
 Works Cited

Barker, Eric. Barking up the Wrong Tree. HarperCollins Publishers, 2017,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/[SITE_ID]/detail.action?docID=30061772.