Just Go For It
Frances Gadbois and Jude Steele
Reviewed by Michelle Boucher-Ladd
There are incredible amounts of self-help books on the market these
days. From how to lose weight, how to be the perfect parent, how to get
the best job, how to do it yourself, you might find yourself needing
some help finding self-help. One book that really stands out in this
ever-weedier field is the blossom of a read, Just Go For It by Frances
Gadbois and Jude Steele.
These two very successful women tell the story of how they started
their own small seed of a business and helped it grow into a
multi-million dollar enterprise. Just Go For It is not written like a
self-help book and maybe that is what makes it so inspiring. It is the
simple story about two friends, who both really like jewelry and who
both really got passionate about making it. With interchanging chapters
alternating from Jude to Frances the reader gets a real feel for how
these two high energy people feed off each other’s creativity and just
go for it!
I liked reading this book so much because these two gals seemed
so familiar to me. Reading it was like having a great two hour
conversation with your best friend about everything that drives you
crazy and about everything that really inspires you. This is a story
about balancing motherhood with a career and how to do both without
guilt and how to cope with the guilt when one blows the other out of
balance. At times their story was really touching like when Frances
misses her daughter’s school play because she looses her wallet and
misses her flight, Again! She writes, “That was the beginning of a
whole new relationship with our children. And I realized it was all
about respect - respect for their time and feelings as much as for
ours.” I also loved Jude’s story about Rascal the Hamster needing
surgery and getting stuck in a wall just as she is about to leave on an
incredibly important business trip. This book has a wonderful sense of
humor and creates a really vivid picture of what these two women must
be like.
The only real self-help in this story comes in the Epilogue when they
have a list of inspirational quotes printed in poster form to hang in
their office. Some of the quotes are: Set Goals, Live beneath your
means and within your seams, Create your own opportunities, Keep you
promises, Expect good things to happen, Use Teamwork, and Just Go For
It! Mostly, this is just a success story about passion, inspiration,
balance, and friendship. It makes you want to go out and do something.