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The Courage to Be Happy

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

The sequel to the mega-selling international phenomenon The Courage to Be Disliked.

This audiobook is a compass.

Navigate and discover

along your path

the courage to be happy.

The Courage to Be Happy presents profound insights into living life courageously and finding happiness along the way. It has already sold more than a million copies in Japan and is a sequel to The Courage to Be Disliked, which has changed lives across the globe as an international best-selling sensation.

As in The Courage to Be Disliked, we follow a Socratic dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher believes that the key to a life of happiness and fulfilment is offered to us by the theories of Alfred Adler, a forgotten giant of 19th-century psychology who has long been overshadowed by his two contemporaries, Freud and Jung. The young man is full of doubt that life can be genuinely improved by simply changing his thinking. Patiently, the philosopher explains the essence of Adler's 'psychology of courage', taking the young man through the mental steps necessary to achieve it, and demonstrating to the young man and to us the changes this psychology will bring to the way we live our lives.

This is a work that is truly life-changing in its power and universally applicable in its scope.

©2019 Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio

What listeners say about The Courage to Be Happy

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Irritating Youth Voice

Whiny, the voice of the youth got under my skin and distracted from the message. Such a shame the narrators of the first book were not used again.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

annoying student voice actor should do something else

seriously most annoying voice actor. made me cringe. proof there is no God. my ears are ringing.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Youth narration is not good!

The first book narration was great, but unfortunately in this one the narration of youth is not good , it's sometimes unnecessarily loud and disturbing.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very good

I enjoyed the story and sentiment to convey the message except some of the responses from the young man were very harsh and the tone was grating for me and almost too aggressive. But it showed the philosopher to be very tolerant so I guess that was the point. Still recommend this book however.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great followed up from their first book

One of the most obvious reason that I gave 3 stars for performance it is because youth’s narration. They have to carry on their continuation with the previous narrators. He got so angry for no reason. It is really hard to listen… disappointing ….

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

philosophical ease

ease of follow and interaction. nicely narrated. planned well and follows good line to understand

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

worst voice possible.

this book would have been better served having Andy dick saying WHAMMO over and over instead of the young man with the annoying fake Disney voice. loved the first book. hated this. could not get past 30 minutes.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good content but the youth actor hard to connect

The first book was brilliant and easy to listen to, even with the same actor reading the role of both the philosopher and the youth. I cringed so many times while listening to the youth in this book as the character comes across as being rude and disrespectful. I presume the character of the youth is the one we are supposed to be relating to, and I found that difficult because of the tone of their voice.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The voice makes good book impossible to listen to

I loved the first book in this series and was really looking forward to this follow-up. I read the reviews complaining the new voice for the youth was so off-putting people couldn't finish it, and I still wanted to listen to it because of the content.

I persevered through gritted teeth, as again the philosopher's explanations are accessible and illuminating, but by an hour or two in I was arguing out loud with the youth, telling him to stop being so damn insolent and smug; it genuinely felt like listening to an abusive conversation and I couldn't bear it. I understand the irony of this, that me feeling any kind of anger or desire to reprimand the youth is exactly what Adlerian theory is attempting to diffuse, which is why I pushed through for so long – that maybe it's very intentionally a lesson for listeners.

I don't know if it's the actor's interpretation of the text, or if the text is genuinely written with that tone, but it's far too aggressive and emotional, especially for an essentially neutral philosophical theory.

I stuck with it until halfway, listening only for about 20mins a day so that I could tolerate the voice, but it's so distracting (AKA insufferable) that it overshadows the content and diminishes it's value. I've "returned" the audio version and will continue reading the text in ebook form, as the actual content (at least the philosopher's side of the conversation) is still very interesting, and does supplement the first book with fresh insight.

My recommendation: if you enjoyed the first book, you'll likely get value from this one, but don't risk listening to the audio version.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great content, awful voice narration.

Read this one in a hard copy or ebook. Brilliant book but awful narration, the “youth” character’s voice is jarring which detracts from the helpful content.

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