About Course to Success: Everything You Need To Succeed Beyond School

What happens when you combine business, psychology and chicken parmigiana? The answer would be Course To Success, a new practical guide for business students in high school, college and university.

"Having graduated with a finance degree and lecturing business students since 1998, I always felt that most books were great, but they did not address students' concerns while in school," claims first time book author Ashkan Karbasfrooshan.

The Montreal writer has written hundreds of articles, interviewed a slew of celebrities and lectures at Concordia University and McGill University, so it comes as no surprise that the level of ambition this Vice President of Advertising and Public Relations for the popular website AskMen.com exhibits, is nothing short of extraordinary - he is an expert in his field.

Course To Success functions as a guide for, but not limited to, business students by assisting them through one of the most important periods, from registration to graduation.

He explains that "it provides as many sports and entertainment success stories as it does business ones, thus making it an easier read."

The book is fairly simple to read and can be completed in one uninterrupted sitting, but Karbasfrooshan more than just offers great stories or examples of success, like what that of technology tycoon/philanthropist Bill Gates, or boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

He goes further by touching on the social aspects of the academic experience. For example, he offers a good balance of moral and ethical advice. Karbasfrooshan gets frank about partying and drugs, mentioning how it can at times be detrimental to one's studies. In this day and age, it is also fitting that he stresses the importance of romantic and sexual relationships.

And considering most students learn to perfect the art of dialing for take-out, he recommends great tips of nutrition. Hence, the reason he added a simple and tasty chicken parmigiana recipe. "Throughout a three to four year degree, there will be a time when you need to cook something other than macaroni and cheese" he explains.

The multi-tasking writer compiles other interesting elements in the book. Aside from writing in a chronological arrangement, he also includes four interesting themes. He says that Plato's Principle of Specialization, Freud's division of Mind theory, the Chinese Yin-Yang and Gestalt psychology are used to encourage students "to look beyond what they study and embrace other disciplines."

Not only is Karbasfrooshan a columnist and interviewer, but he is a budding screenwriter. The screenplay, which he is in the process of writing, is described as a piece that, "strives to shed light on why some of the corporate scandals took place."

In addition, he has made a number of guests appearances on radio shows from all over the world including Montreal, Los Angeles, Australia, Ireland and England. After establishing a few weekly time slots as a regular, it was inevitable that he would land his own weekly radio show on the famous radio station, Team 990, which airs in mid-January 2003 on Saturdays from 3pm to 4pm.

"Personal projects are great to keep one busy and expand one's horizon," Karbasfrooshan says. One would think that all these projects might be too much for an individual to handle, but he insists that despite all these ventures, his main focus is his full time job at AskMen.com.

Get your copy here.

[ About The Book - The Four Pillars - Success Stories - Table of Contents - Introduction - Bibliography - Acknowledgments - About The Author ]
[ Readings and Engagements - Order Information ]