The Prosperous Peasant by Tim Clark and Mark Cunningham, subtitled “Five Secrets of Fortune and Fulfillment from the Samurai's Temple School,” is a pretty easy read with a straightforward story centered around traditional Japanese life that doesn't overshadow the points of the book.
I won't give all five points away but one of the five secrets struck a chord: Know Your Gift. Know what brings value to your relationships. Know what you can use to differentiate yourself in a good way. This could be good negotiating skills, clarity of thought, creativity that comes from an oblique perspective, or the ability to out-work everyone else day after day.
This and the other four secrets are obvious once you read them; they're really not secrets at all. They seem to be secrets because few people actually do them. Good advice works only if it's followed. The secrets have the same “duh” factor as common personal finance advice. Spend less than you earn isn't complicated, and it's not a mystery, but those who actually follow this advice do well, and lots of people don't do it and they don't do well (or they pay for it for a long time).
I'm not a scholar of 16th-century Japan but (again) the neat thing about this book is that the background adds to the teaching points of the story in a nice way. I enjoyed The Prosperous Peasant and I appreciate the chance to review it.
