A no nonsense and informative guide on protecting oneself both physical and mentally.
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras is co-host for the Bravo TV series Spy Games, and Criminal Justice & Criminology lecturer for the City University of New York. She reveals the underlying strategies she uses to continually achieve and protect herself in her new book, Becoming Bulletproof.
The book consists of three parts with eight chapters in the first part, and seven in each of the subsequent two. Part One focuses on protection. The first few chapters of this part speak to why we fear and how to harness power from fear. Can we make fear work effectively for us? The answer is yes!!
The remaining chapters of Part One draw on her experiences as a Secret Service agent. What do you think about when attending a social event? What do Secret Service agents think about? The answers are very different and Poumpouras gives specific instructions to physically protect yourself when out and about.
Part Two is about reading people. It is about using your instinct, identifying red flags and, of course, lies. The advice in this part is information-dense and would require concerted continual effort to implement in daily life. Nevertheless, as Part Two is a concise summary of many psychological behaviours to be wary of, it is incredibly useful as a framework, and you could research each topic further as desired.
Finally, Part Three is about putting it all together. Learn how to command respect, get attention (or not), build rapport and influence others. Evy gives gratitude to those presidents or leaders she served as an agent, outlining how they inadvertently taught the aforementioned skills to her through example. She suggests you learn the same way, by those who you aspire to be like.
Pompouras is a regular guest on the Today Show, NBC and CNN to discuss matters in relation to national security, crime and law enforcement. She is also as recipient of the Valor Award (the Secret Service’s highest honour) for her acts of heroism on September 11th, 2001. Her life journey make her an absolute authority on the topic of self-protection or as she calls it, Becoming Bulletproof.
Well worth the read.
Reviewed by Rebecca Wu
Distributed by: Allen & Unwin
Released: August 2020
RRP: $29.99
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