Every now and then I’ll open my e-mail to find a personal note from an author who is a regular reader of one of my blogs or the book reviews I do here on Small Business Trends.

This is how I came across “Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career From Good to Great.” Rick Smith, the author, contacted me.  He asked if I was interested in reviewing his book and sent me an autographed copy.

Rick Smith is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, which has been sold into 13 languages. But before any of that, he was just an average, regular guy. And the book is his insight into how average, regular, relatively risk-averse people have found that magic spot that propelled their careers into the bliss many of us are seeking.

Leap is a fun read. I think it’s because Rick doesn’t write this book from some lofty “know-it-all” position of what it takes to be successful. He writes a little about his personal experience inasmuch as his own success shocked and surprised him.

There is something very