Review of Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Become a Master Closer with Straight Line Selling by Jordan Belfort

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Economics, Business

Intriguing Connections = 1) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 2) When Intelligence Goes Wrong, 

3) How Does Data Get Use, And Misused?,

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“Plain and simple, if your prospect doesn’t trust you, then there’s absolutely no way they are going to buy from you.  And, again, I don’t care how certain they are about your product; they still won’t buy from you.  In fact, if they’re that intent on purchasing your product, then they simply find someone else who sells the same thing – a salesperson they trust – and they will buy it from that salesperson instead.  It’s as simple as that.” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter 1: Cracking The Code For Sales And Influence, Page 19
 

“The simple fact is that we all want to deal with pros or experts, and we also want to deal with people who are sharp and on the ball, and who are enthusiastic about what they do.  Experts have a certain way of talking that literally commands respect.  They say things like “Listen, Bill, you need to trust me on this.  I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and I know exactly what you need.”” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter 3: The First Four Seconds, Page 62

 
“As previously mentioned, the technical term for this is state management.  |  In essence, when you’re managing your emotional state, you’re temporarily blocking out any troubling thoughts or emotions that might normally make you feel negative – thereby allowing yourself to maintain a positive state of mind.” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter, Page 81

Review

Is This An Overview?

The Straight Line System is a method of making sales.  There are five elements of the system.  1^st: The prospect needs to approve the product.  2^nd: The prospect needs to trust the person selling the product.  3^rd: The prospect needs to trust the company.  Someone who is trying to sell a product to a person who either does not trust the product, the seller, or the company, is wasting their time.  To increase the chances of a sale, is the 4^th element, the action threshold should be reduced.  5^th: amplify pain.  Prospects want to purchase products that they think will prevent greater pain.  The system is supported by how the salesperson presents themselves.  The salesperson needs to control their tonality, body language, and emotional state. 

 

Caveats?

While the benefits of the system are expressed, the consequences are not shared.  The claims being made about the methods are a rebranding of the consequences of using the system.  Demand and supply are rebranded as prospect’s approval of product.  Branding is rebranded as trust of salesperson and company.  Unethical means of obtaining sales is rebranded as ethical.  Pseudoscience and confirmation examples are rebranded as science.  Each rebranding provides favorable platitudes toward the author, as the author is trying to rebrand oneself.  There are short term benefits for salespeople who use the system that preys on the vulnerable, but there are long term consequences for society.

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Are the methods presented in the book ethical?

•What is the Straight Line System?

•To whom should a product be sold? 

•What is logical and emotional certainty? 

•What is an action threshold?

•What is a pain threshold?

•What happens in the first four seconds? 

•How to command respect?

•What is state management? 

Book Details

Edition:                   First North Star Way Hardcover Edition

Publisher:               North Way Star [Simon & Schuster]

Edition ISBN:         9781501164286

Pages to read:          247

Publication:             2017

1st Edition:              2017

Format:                    Hardcover 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          2

Overall          2

Review of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa E. B. Sledge

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = History, War

Book Club Event = Book List (01/03/2026)

Intriguing Connections = 1) War, 2) Biographies: Auto, Memoir, and Other Types, 

3) How Is Sovereignty Is Gained And Lost?, 

4) Get To Know The Peoples Of The World (Japan, United States of America), 

5) Why Conflict Occurs And How To Resolve Them?, 6) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 

7) What Defines A Culture? How To Belong To A Community?, 8) How Do Humans Age And Die?

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“The attitudes held toward the Japanese by noncombatants or even sailors or airmen often did not reflect the deep personal resentment felt by Marine infantrymen.  Official histories and memoirs of Marine infantrymen written after the war rarely reflect that hatred.  But at the time of battle, Marines felt it deeply, bitterly, and as certainly as danger itself.  To deny this hatred or make light of it would be as much a lie as to deny or make light of the esprit de corps or the intense patriotism felt by the Marines with whom I served in the Pacific.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 2: Preparation for Combat, Page 64

“Even though none of us had much appetite, we still had to eat.  A way to solve the fly problem was to eat after sunset or before sunrise when the insects were inactive.  Chow had to be unheated then, because no sterno tablets or other form of light could be used after dark.  It was sure to draw enemy sniper fire.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 6: Brave Men Lost, Page 166

“The new officers bore a heavy burden.  Not only were they going into combat with all its terrors and unknowns for the first time – conditions even the best of training couldn’t possibly duplicate – but they were untried officers.  Combat was the acid test.  Faced with heavy responsibilities and placed in a position of leadership amid hardened, seasoned Marine combat veterans in a proud, elite division like the First was a difficult situation and a terrific challenge for any young lieutenant.  No one I knew in the ranks envied them in the least.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 10: Into the Abyss, Page 241

Review

Is This An Overview?

An American soldier, a Marine, tells the story of the World War II experience fighting Japanese at Peleliu and Okinawa.  When the author joined the war, there were already veterans who had experienced fighting Japanese, and taught skills to counter Japanese tactics.  The skills had saved many lives, including the author’s, but no amount of preparations can compare to actual combat experience.  Each side had many losses. 

 

The Americans and Japanese had mutually recriminating hatred of each other.  Each had killed those they deemed friends and family, causing each to commit atrocious acts on their enemy.  Killing did not end during intense combat, but continued at night.  Staying alive depended on trust that others would perform their duty, and even then, that was not enough.  Soldiers also needed to survive the harsh local environmental conditions, and allies who held different views on what transpired. 

 

Caveats?

As this is a personal account of World War II experiences in Japan, there is a lack of information on the rest of the war.  This is not a political or strategic analysis of the war.  To understand the events in context to the rest of the war, would require more research.

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Why was America fighting Japan?

•How was Japan resisting America forces?

•Why were atomic bombs dropped on Japan?

•What were thoughts regarding taking prisoners? 

•How were the soldiers trained?

•What was the mental health of those in conflict zones?

•How did soldiers manage to eat?

•How did combat on Peleliu end?

•How were civilians treated?

•What happened when the views of leaders and combatants differed? 

•How did the soldiers survive nights? 

•Who got decorations? 

•What happened in Okinawa? 

•How did the war end? 

Book Details

Foreword Author:   Walter S. McIlhenny

Introduction Author:  Victor Davis Hanson

Foreword To Part I Author: John A. Crown

Foreword To Part II Author: Thomas J. Stanely  

Edition:                   2007 Presido Press Mass Market Edition

Publisher:               Presidio Press [Random House]

Edition ISBN:         9780307549587

Pages to read:          333

Publication:             2007

1st Edition:              1981

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          2

Overall          3

Review of Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Economic Development

Book Club Event = Book List (12/27/2025)

Intriguing Connections = 1) How To Allocate Resources?, 2) The Impact of Inequality, 

3) Capitalism, Socialism, their Alternatives and Critiques, 4) Learning Economics: Basic to Advanced, 5) What Goes Into An Economic Crisis?, 6) How Is Sovereignty Is Gained And Lost?, 

7) The Motive, Method, Ideology, and Consequences of Intervention, 8) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 9) Why Conflict Occurs And How To Resolve Them?, 

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“Expansion of freedom is viewed, in this approach, both as the primary end and as the principal means of development.  Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.  The removal of substantial unfreedoms, it is argued here, is constitutive of development.” – Amartya Sen, Preface, Page Number 14

“Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states.  Despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers – perhaps even the majority – of people.” – Amartya Sen, Introduction, Page 21

 

“If we have reasons to want more wealth, we have to ask: What precisely are these reasons, how do they work, on what are they contingent and what are the things we can “do” with more wealth?  In fact, we generally have excellent reasons for wanting more income or wealth.  This is not because income and wealth are desirable for their own sake, but because, typically, they are admirable general-purpose means for having more freedom to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value.” – Amartya Sen, Chapter 1, Page 31

Review

Is This An Overview?

Wealth is a means of obtaining what a person wants.  Freedoms are a reward for the efforts in obtaining wealth.  Wealth is meaningless without the freedom of choice and opportunity to use the wealth, to exercise one’s agency.  Freedoms enable people to use their capabilities, which improve personal and collective outcomes. 

 

Development is a process of expanding freedoms that people have, by removing unfreedoms.  Unfreedoms are poverty, tyranny, low economic opportunities, social deprivation, neglected public facilities, and intolerance of repressive states.  Various states have restricted political liberty, with the claim that that the restrictions were for economic development.  But there is more evidence of economic development within politically inclusive systems. 

 

How Do Markets And Government Affect Society?

Markets and governments can enrich or harm human lives.  Statecraft provides social support, public regulations.  Markets provide opportunities for freedom to exchange products, gifts, are a method of how people interact.  Rejection of labor markets, causes people to be in bondage and captivity.  Arbitrary restrictions on markets leads to deprivations of economic opportunities. 

 

Economic unfreedom brings social unfreedom.  Social or political unfreedom brings economic unfreedom. 

 

What Freedoms?

The freedoms focused on are political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

 

Political freedoms are about the ability to disagree with state officials.  Economic facilities are the ability to use economic resources.  Social opportunities are access to public infrastructure.  Transparency guarantees provide for equitable governance.  Protective security are the social safety nets for preventing abject misery.

 

Caveats?

Can be difficult to read.  The examples are varied and numerous, but would take more research to understand each. 

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Why provide freedoms when developing the economy?

•What are the freedoms?

•What are the limits to freedoms?

•What are unfreedoms? 

•What is the role markets?

•What is the role of statecraft? 

•What is agency?  

•What is the purpose for wealth?

•How does politics and economics affect each other? 

•Why do politicians repress people? 

•What are the roles of freedom?

•What are the instrumental freedoms?

•What are theories of justice? 

•What is utilitarianism? 

•How does poverty deprive capabilities? 

•What is the effect of democracy? 

Book Details

Edition:                   Vintage Books Edition

Publisher:               Vintage [Penguin Random House]

Edition ISBN:         9780307874290

Pages to read:          279

Publication:             2011

1st Edition:              1999

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    3

Content          3

Overall          3