Jack Canfield is a psychotherapist, educational consultant, trainer and writer. He is the co-author and CEO of the Chicken Soup for The Soul billion dollars company and it has been called by the Time Magazine "the publishing phenomenon of the decade".
His best-selling books include The Power of Focus, Aladdin Factor, Dare to Win and his latest success The Success Principles Book. From an underpaid teacher to a millionaire, he certainly has a thing or two to say about success and self made millions. One of those people who "walk the walking and talk the talking".

The book:
The edition I have has a red cover with, of course, the Aladdin lamp featured on the front cover. It has 293 pages dived into three chapters I will go over a little bit later. It is written in co-operation with Mark Victor Hansen, who is also the other co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul.

What does it promise?
"Anything is possible...if you only dare to ask. Personal Happiness. Creative Fulfillment. Professional Success. Freedom from fear -- and a new promise of joy that's yours for the asking."
"You'll learn not only how to ask for what you want, but how to ask and what to ask for. You'll discover the five barriers we all face in asking for what we want and how to overcome them...and you'll read about the seven characteristics of those who ask successfully."
"The Aladdin Factor is a practical guide for taking control of your life, realizing better business and personal relationships, having and giving more love, maximizing your talents and skills -- and enriching your lifestyle like never before."


Content:
The book starts with the author thanking all of those people that help them write this book and trust me... that's a lot of them, about three full pages, so many that you start to wonder if they actually did anything at all to write this book lol But more power to them for not taking the entire credit for it, a simple "thank you" can take you a long way.
The introduction is a story of Aladdin who is talking to the genie about the power of the lamp and of asking. It goes on explaining what it means to ask, what it can bring you and how most of us never think that all they should do to resolve their problems is to... yes, you guessed it, ask. (I should know lol).
The book itself it's divided in three chapters:
1. The Aladdin Factor
2. Release the genie
3. How to ask, whom to ask, what to ask

Chapters
1. The Aladdin Factor
This chapter goes over the five most important obstacles that keep you from asking: ignorance (not knowing what is possible and what is available, not knowing what we want and what we need, not knowing how to ask), limiting beliefs (very good explanation on what are those and how we got them), fear (of being rejected, of looking stupid, of being helpless, of humiliation and many, many others), low self esteem and pride. It's very explanatory which helps understanding much better why you are doing what you are doing and, most importantly, that you are not alone. You know all those little problems going on and on in our mind that we are afraid to even talk about? One of the greatest things for me was realizing that everybody else feels and is afraid of the same things I am! Talk about feeling part of a community! Welcome aboard, would you like to see our 12 steps program? What a relief, I wasn't the only weirdo in the world, there at least few other millions having the same fears as me.
The chapter goes on tempting you with a whole new idea... what if, just what if, you could dare to dream and ask what you want? What could you get? And he really is good at showing you the other side of the coin and how wonderful could it be if you would simply ask and get what you wanted. By the time I finished this part of the book I almost believed I can do anything :)
The last part of this chapter goes on telling us what people who are good at asking do to get what they want. This part describes what are the 7 characteristics those people have and for each one of them there is a real story shared by someone who accomplished something otherwise impossible by asking.

2. Release the genie
This chapter starts to go deeper into asking and getting what you want. It starts with the logical thing to do: making a list. Lists are very popular these days it seems. Want to go shopping? Make a list. Want to change career? Make a list. Want to get married? Make a list. Want to get divorced? Just do it, girl!
OK, so back to the list. Firstly, you need to make a list with 101 wishes and analyze exactly what is it that your really want from life. Simple as it sounds (we all KNOW we would want so many things if we could only dream) I actually discovered I had a really hard time coming out with 101 wishes and while I did come a very long way I still haven't managed to finish off my list. What it started as a pure fun, relaxing, let's see what I can come up with list turned into a very soul searching experience. Very useful actually, I highly recommend it. There are a series of exercises thru this chapter in discovering what you really want and, as always with Jack Canfield, lots and lots of real life stories shared by his clients and his readers (no wonder there is a three pages thank you note in the beginning). The last part of the chapter goes on into dealing with fear and all kinds of fear that are holding us back. There are exercises to establish what your fears are, what they really mean and how to overcome them. My favorite, as I am sure many of you will agree, is fear of rejection. I never ask anything because I'm afraid of being said no. The whole idea is... if they tell you no, what's the big deal? Did your life become worse because they said no? Well, no, you didn't have it before you asked and you still don't have it if they say no. Your life it's not worse, it's just the same. But if you ask enough people, someone somewhere along the line will eventually say YES! OK, so that is my favorite because I can relate to it so strongly but there are many more so whatever yours is you are bound to find it within.

3. How to ask, whom to ask, what to ask
The last chapter goes down to business. Enough of the theories just tell me what to do!
With this very important part of the book you will get some very good information and approaches such as: ask like you expect to receive, ask someone who is in the position to give you what you want, be very clear, ask with passion, ask creatively, give something to get something and everyone's favorite... ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask.
Now, where to ask? He goes on talking about asking at home, from your partner (yes, some more lists coming up), from your kids, school, work, the world and yourself. There are some very good examples on what to ask and how to ask it. The last part of the chapter while it concentrates on the part with what to ask is full of stories on what other people asked and how they got what they wanted. There are some very emotional stories in there and not once I found myself with tears in my eyes, but they are very powerful and inspirational.
The fact that the book has so many stories, in fact I think it has more real life stories then theory, has advantages and disadvantages. On one side you want to get more information than stories but on the other hand the stories are so powerful and inspirational that there were a lot of times I would find myself more convinced by the story then by the principle the story was illustrating.


Price:
You can find it on Amazon 8.99 pounds, but it's well worth it.

Personal notes:
I have found this book to be very inspirational. I even found stories that I can read to my kids and they love it, I like that I can send them a very powerful message thru a story they enjoy.
I am one of those people who are absolutely terrified to ask what they want, from various reasons. And while this book didn't miraculously change my life, it definitely made a difference. I practice and I take baby steps but the truth is... it did make a difference and that's all you can ask for.
Remember that the book it's just a tool you can use and ultimately YOU are the one that holds all the power. Nobody else can do it for you, not a person, not a book, not a class, nothing. You are in charge of your destiny and your life and when you take charge and accept responsibility of your life, everything will change.