This is a two-fold self-help book. It looks to improve the reader's self esteem and ultimately their financial situation. The book assumes the main reason the individual may be underearning is due to lack of belief in their abilities. ( )

The content's not really that bad: it combines the therapeutic past-excavation and "I am a money magnet!" affirmations of a book like [b:Secrets of the Millionaire Mind|785092|Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth|T. Harv Eker|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178324957s/785092.jpg|771090], the cheerleading of [b:Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway|653396|Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway|Susan Jeffers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293587188s/653396.jpg|2067235], and the practical advice of inventorying, tracking spending, and investing wisely from [b:Your Money or Your Life|78428|Your Money or Your Life Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence|Joe Dominguez|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170943850s/78428.jpg|1509321]. It doesn't have much to say to those of us uncertain about what kind of work to do in the first place, but there's only so many problems someone else's book can solve for you without your involvement.

The writing is clumsy and often sloppy—about the only thing consistently clear was that the phrase "Overcoming Underearning" must always be followed by a ™ symbol. I couldn't be bothered to collect examples of the clumsiness or sloppiness, because who pays attention to writing in this kind of book?

The worst thing about it is the design: overbusy, with pull-quotes, highlights, exercises in boxes (sometimes white, sometimes shaded; sometimes within a page of text, sometimes on their own), and at least three other kinds of typographic irruption which make it hard to follow the main argument. It's a typographic nightmare. The main text is in Goudy Old Style: OK. But chapter titles and subheads are in an ugly '70s-via-'90s faux Art Nouveau geometrical sans serif, made unreadable in the chapter titles by tight tracking. The exercises are in a readable rationalist sans, but way too tiny (7 point? 6?) and bold as though to make up for it. The pull quotes are in Rockwell Bold, shaded about 70% as though to cut the impact of the bold.

The design is credited to Ellen Cipriano; I imagine it was a challenge, since Barbara Stanny clearly turned in stacks of handouts and PowerPoint printouts for her Overcoming Underearning™ workshop/seminar thing along with the text, and the editor probably threw up her hands at the mess and decided not to even try to integrate it properly. But still: these typographic "solutions" solve only the problem of getting all the crap on the page somehow; they don't do anything to contribute to the organization and comprehension of the information. ( )

This book examines women's mental blocks about valuing themselves in the workplace (and life in general) and provides an action plan for overcoming their tendency to undervalue their skills and abilities in the marketplace. I certainly can't claim that this turned my life around, but I've got health complications in my life that make working at all challenging. I consider this a very solid self-help book regarding career and money and keep it on the shelf to re-read to straighten myself out when I feel I'm getting off the path to improving my professional and financial life. I highly recommend it to anyone (male or female), who can't figure out why they're not making more money (especially if they're doing the same thing as others who make lots) and/or who feel twinges of guilt about asking for money in return for their services. ( )