I don’t like writing negative reviews but this one didn’t work for me. It felt very preachy and came off with a point of view that just rubbed me the wrong way.

In "Rewrite Your Rules," founder and CEO of Blavity Inc. Morgan DeBaun fuels a world where hustle culture is out, intentional living is in and we all work smarter and not harder. DeBaun works from a three-part framework:

Master Yourself
Master Your Method
Master Your Growth

With Master Yourself, DeBaun takes us through a journey of aligning our actions with our deepest values. With Master Your Method, we begin building a formidable system to transform the timeline of our most ambitious goals to bring them to life. Finally, Master Your Growth empowers us to develop a mindset to handle any challenge.

Essentially, DeBaun is encouraging budding entrepreneur's and corporate climbers to lean into a more purpose-driven existence with action-centered advice and inspiration, corporate tough talk, and tangible accountability.

DeBaun builds this success on six pillars - money, freedom, stability, relationships, passions, and wellness. Offering ample tangible action steps and diagrams, DeBaun weaves together a corporate tapestry of inspiration and perspiration to help us build a journey to success involving, as the title would imply, less time and more freedom.

"Rewrite Your Rules" is ideal for corporate up-and-comers and early career entrepreneurs and CEOs while it's less likely to resonate with rank and file employees and established corporate leaders who've likely already established a personal leadership style that works.

A couple challenges I had with "Rewrite Your Rules" -

1) It seems like a good amount of these lessons were learned after DeBaun was successful. By the time she was practicing them, Blavity was well established and DeBaun was quite successful. So, for her, it was less about the "journey to success" and more about building a more satisfying and successful career as a corporate leader.

2) While DeBaun acknowledges her upbringing (ie, daughter of a successful physician), I'd have appreciated some reference to adapting this material to those who start with less.

3) A couple times, it seemed like "groundbreaking" was a bit familiar. For example, a section on weaving together work and life (not balance - integration) feels very Steve Jobs without referencing Jobs.

These are minor quibbles, really, for a book that offers clarity and tangible action steps for becoming healthier, happier, and more successful business leaders and entrepreneurs. For those on the way up or desiring to get that way, "Rewrite Your Rules" will prove to be a valuable resource for the journey to success or creating a healthier success.

Morgan DeBaun is the founder/CEO of Blavity and the author of "Rewrite Your Rules: The Journey to Success in Less Time with More Freedom." In this book, DeBaun helps her readers to "design a fulfilling life and career without succumbing to the relentless hustle culture and the success metrics of others." In this book, DeBaun asserts that you must know your purpose in order to be successful. Your reason for working, living, and everything else will always be more profitable if you know your purpose. This, according to DeBaun, is then called the purpose principle. That principle is the whole foundation for what you do, upon which is built the following six pillars: money, freedom, stability, relationships, passions, and wellness. DeBaun then goes on to define each pillar.

I found this book to be very helpful, particularly the diagrams. I thought this was a fairly easy read and would be good for any woman who is looking to make more of her life. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Good thoughts on how to redefine success in life, especially for an overwhelmed younger audience of readers.

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

If you're burning out in pursuit of success, DeBaun offers insights and strategies to take control of your emotional, vocational, and personal well-being.

I found this one a bit young for me: I'm secure in my calling and career, have a stable marriage with a we-love-to-work partner, and our kids are grown up. So we have nowhere to climb and nothing to prove.

That said, this would have been useful earlier. So ... if you're in the throes of career adjustments, entrepreneurship, or advancement in your working life, you'll find some sound advice here. Recommended for those who are thriving at work and dying inside, for those who want to be more intentional in life and career, and for those who would benefit from cautions as you start climbing the ladder at work.