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The Courage to Be Disliked  By  cover art

The Courage to Be Disliked

By: Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
Narrated by: Noah Galvin, Graeme Malcolm, January LaVoy
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Publisher's summary

The Courage to Be Disliked, already an enormous best seller in Asia with more than 3.5 million copies sold, demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be.

Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 20th-century psychology, The Courage to Be Disliked follows an illuminating conversation between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts, and the expectations of others. It's a way of thinking that is deeply liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that we and other people have placed on us. The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. This truly life-changing audiobook will help you declutter your mind of harmful thoughts and attitudes, helping you to make a lasting change, achieve real happiness, and find success.

©2018 Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga (P)2018 Simon & Schuster

Featured Article: The Audible Essentials—The Top 100 Well-Being Listens of All Time


We assembled our editors, scoured listener reviews, polled our most-trusted colleagues, and listened our ears off to bring you this list of 100 must-listen well-being titles on Audible. Whether you’re looking to get organized, stay motivated, find creative inspiration, or relieve stress, these audiobooks and podcasts are packed with insights from self-development and wellness experts to help you take the next step—or the first—in your personal journey.

What listeners say about The Courage to Be Disliked

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    5 out of 5 stars

Life Changing

I read a lot and listen to a lot of audiobooks, from classic literature to contemporary biographies, philosophy, psychology and the latest in non-fiction. Seldom do I find a book that surprises me. This one did. Though very familiar with the thoughts of Freud and Jung, I had never heard of their colleague Alfred Adler until I came across this book, interestingly enough through the recommendation of a guy I don’t like. The thoughts of Dr. Adler opened new possibilities and pointed to solutions of problems I have been grappling with for years. His original way of thinking and his method truly can change ones’ life. Even though the questioning young man in the audio version irritated me at times (maybe it was supposed to) the content is so good that I could not turn away. If you are interested in personal growth and how to better navigate the journey of life, allow yourself to get immersed in Adlerian thought through the voice of the philosopher. Chances are, it will change your life as it did mine.

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92 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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What an incredible book

Other reviewers aren’t exaggerating when they claim this book can change your life. I have just finished hearing it (the audiobook is a fabulous was to experience the conversation between the curious but frustrated youth and the wise and kind philosopher).
I already want to start it again from the beginning and I usually never do that with a book.
Buy it. Savour it. And start living it today. This isn’t self-help. This is true human wisdom.

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51 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • RR
  • 07-07-18

Good Ideas Delivered Inefficiently

I loved many of Adler's ideas but the Platonic dialogue device is a huge time-waster.

Also, the kid often struck me as an irritating brat. For instance, he kept shouting, "That's so hypocritical!" like it's the worst sin in the world but what he really seemed to mean was "contradictory." Maybe it was a translation problem.

Also, at times the old man's affection for the young boy he just met seemed a little creepy/pervy. Perhaps that's partly a performance problem and/or a cultural difference between Japan and America.

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39 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good read to clean up your internal thoughts

I'm going to focus on the narration and not the content itself (other reviews have done a great job). The elder/philosopher's message was clear and the narrator's performance fit with the message. The youngster's narration on the other hand was very forced and HORRIBLE to listen to. It almost wrecked the whole experience for me. The narrator tried too hard to sound "young" and "brash", that made for many cringe moments.

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32 people found this helpful

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drawing a definitive line between you and the rest

this great book will definitely help the listener/reader achieve own goals. it draws a very clear line between yourself and everyone else. this will help you and whoever around you to live in peace and harmony. eventually everyone around you will benefit from it. I can recommend it enough for anyone who wants to unravel the questions about life and who we are.

one thing about the audio is, after a while, I started to predict the dialouge and to be honest, I got a little irritated by the narrator's voice. just my two cents.

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32 people found this helpful

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Amazing!!

This book helped give language and a system to becoming more comfortable in your own skin. The idea that all of life is divided into tasks was very help to imagine. No need to try and complete any task that is not your own. This book talks about how “trauma” doesn’t exist. Don’t let that deter you. The lessons learned from that idea are helpful, but I don’t think I’ll be walking around telling myself or others “your trauma isn’t real” any time soon. It just helps to give power to the here and now. Overall great book! I will probably listen to it again just to make sure I remember everything.

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27 people found this helpful

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Fabulous. A must read!

Listened in almost one sitting. It is life changing. Complex concepts simply explained. Loved it.

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22 people found this helpful

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Oddly written with no real tangible strategies

This book was the worst book I've read in a long time. The dialogue between the student and philosopher was bizarre, repetitive, and not helpful. I would've preferred to learn about Adlerian psychology in a more straight-forward manner as opposed to how it is presented in this book. Stay far away!

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17 people found this helpful

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Great book in an excellent format

This is an incredible book that is digestible, understandable, and still profound. I've heard many of these ideas before but never attributed to Adler. The ideas in this book truly have the potential to change people's lives for the better and help them live a life of freedom without constraints of the past weighing them down and without living according to others' needs. Some people complained about the format but I found that it was a great way to express the ideas and also harkens back to Socrates/Plato dialogues that are the foundation of philosophy. A++

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12 people found this helpful

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Returned

I pride myself on being able to extract the cost of purchase via ideas, if not more from every book. There are some ideas worth exploring, however, so much of the narrative is confusing. The philosopher would say one thing then double back and refute his commentary. Honestly, it felt like another one of those propaganda books that inspires one to question themselves. I wanted to like it, but there are many reasons not to. Lastly, the editor or author needs to revise the layout it's all over the place. Hope you get something out of it, but I'm not their customer.

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10 people found this helpful