Business: How-to-be-a-success books all tend to cover much the same ground; there is, after all, very little new to say on the subject. Where they differ is in their ability to actually coax the reader to get off his or her backside and follow the recipe.
Can Bill Cullen's book change the lives of those who read it? For my money, the answer is yes. I found it a charming, down-to-earth guide to getting on in life, greatly enriched by Bill's own gripping rags-to-riches story - how he progressed from selling fruit as a boy on a stall in Moore Street to the pinnacle of success in Irish business.
I approached the book in a somewhat negative mood. Before I picked it up, I happened to hear Bill on radio talking about it. I was rather taken aback to hear a grown man haranguing half a million listeners with the message: "I am terrific!" However, when I got into the book, I saw that remark in context. This is what Bill says in front of his shaving mirror every morning; it is his private message to himself to encourage positive thinking, not the way he goes about selling himself to the outside world.
Like the rest of his recipe, it all makes good sense. However, though his approach may indeed be simple, it is by no means easy. Many will find some of his prescriptions hard to follow (only five hours' sleep a night, no wasting time watching television, no smoking, alcohol, drugs, red meat, sweet or fatty foods or dairy products). But then, in Bill Cullen's philosophy, no one lacking a hard core of determination deserves to succeed.
I like the breadth of his vision. Though he advocates working hard and long, he also argues that we should find time in our lives to do more than just work. Time on the job is balanced for him by time devoted to family, friends and the community; he insists that we also fit exercise, holidays and relaxation into our schedule.
I like too his absence of confrontation. Bill may be pushy, but he is certainly not aggressive. He is not one of those who suggest that to get on you have to walk over people. Instead, he stresses the importance of treating everyone well - whether they are customers, competitors, fellow workers or employees. He believes, and he is surely right, that in business you should apply the golden rule: do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you.
Much of what he urges comes out of my own hymn-book, so I am hardly likely to quarrel with it. Like me, he believes in the incredible power of the smile to open doors and smooth paths before you.
Like me, he believes that all success in business is ultimately driven by keeping the customer happy, and that you do that by always looking for a way to add value to what the customer buys. And he knows the importance of regarding selling as a lifetime relationship rather than a transitory opportunity to make a profit.
In fact, he goes further than I ever have by claiming that selling is the very heart of business. As he puts it: "No matter what business you are in, the product or service has to be sold". True enough, but even more to the point is his claim that whatever career you choose for yourself, you will be a far superior contributor if you have developed your selling skills. There is surely no experience that builds character faster than trying to persuade a reluctant customer, face-to-face.
But perhaps the best piece of advice in this book is of a more general kind. It comes early on, when Bill recalls the wise advice of his grandmother as he set out on his first job: "No matter what they give you to do, do it better than anyone else ever did it before". That is the motivation that really drives the successful, in any field: "Do it better!"
Feargal Quinn, an independent member of Seanad Éireann, is the founder of the Superquinn group
Golden Apples: Six Simple Steps to Success. By Bill Cullen. Hodder & Stoughton, 222pp. £10.99