Book Review: The Alchemist

When you think of spring break, what do you think of? For me, its usually lying on the beach. This year we chose to stay home, and do a few things here in Colorado. So rather than reading a traditional business book this week, I picked up a copy of The Alchemist by Paulo Choelho.

How I missed this book all of these years, I’ll never know. It’s a quick read, and a great story that teaches you about life.

One of my favorite quotes:

“To show you one of life’s simple lessons,” the alchemist answered. “When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”

I remember sitting in one of my very first seminars when we started our photography business. The speaker said, “I’m giving you the exact formula I’ve used for my business. Yet I know less than 5 percent of you will try any of this, much less all of it. Don’t be the 95 percent.”

I never forgot that quote. How could anyone not take advice from someone who is giving it freely? But it was true.

• Some of the information I simply wasn’t ready for.
• Some of the information didn’t apply to me yet.
• Some of the information I simply didn’t understand.

And so I too didn’t use the majority of what I learned.

The Alchemist walks you through the life of a shepherd who is on his quest to find his personal treasure. Unlike most people, he trusts his instincts, and continues on his journey. When he finds “treasure” on his journey, he doesn’t get sidetracked into believing he has what he needs. Instead, he continually puts things on hold until he achieved his goal, and finds his own personal treasure.

We all have our own personal treasure. Unfortunately life often gets in the way and we give up on our dreams. Even success isn’t the ultimate goal unless it’s what you’ve always dreamed of achieving.

This is a book to read again and again. I’ve added it to my daughter’s summer reading list. And I know I’ll be reading it again soon. Every read will have a different meaning. And isn’t that the point? We always need to be reminded that we can achieve our dreams if we stick to the plan.

Book Review: Barack, Inc. Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign

I’m a fast reader, and try to read several different books every week. With non-fiction and business books, I usually just skim them to get the overall idea. Occasionally I find one I really enjoy, stop and start reading page for page.

After hearing quite a bit about it, I picked up a new copy of Barack, Inc. Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk. And this is one of those books that is crammed with ideas and inspiration; one that I not only stopped to read fully, but have also read a couple of times in the past week.

It’s an easy read, with only 146 pages. The authors have split the book up into four chapters:

·    Success You Can Believe In and Emulate
·    Be Cool
·    Be Social
·    Be the Change

As you would expect from a book entitled Barack Inc, it is all about the campaign and how Barack utiltized various tools to go from a virtual unknown to the 44th President of the United States.

But what you might not expect is the pearls of wisdom on how you can change your own business for the better.

Read more

Book Review: Hot, Flat and Crowded

What does the future hold in store for us if we continue on the way we have in the past? What if we ignore the warning signs of global warming? What will happen as we continue to add billions of people to our current lifestyle trends?

That’s the premise behind Thomas L Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded. I’ve been looking forward to reading his latest release for quite awhile. I read The World Is Flat a couple of times in the past, and enjoy his writing style.

In Hot, Flat and Crowded, Friedman opened my eyes up to why our current path needs to change – and also opened up my eyes to ways we could do it.

The current reports all say we have a problem, and if we don’t fix it, we’re on a course for destruction. Friedman lays out how we got this way, and what will happen if we don’t make changes. He makes a number of great points that left me pondering for hours.

In his chapter “If It Isn’t Boring, It Isn’t Green”, Friedman talks about the impact we’re facing today with the automobile industry:

President George W Bush and his administration claimed that they were protecting American companies by not imposing tougher efficiency standards, such as those proposed for more efficient cooling by air conditioners or better mileage performance by American cars. It was an understandable reflex from an administration that considers itself business friendly. It was also dumb. When you are the most innovative country, with the best research universities, the best national laboratories, and the highest technological base, you should want higher standards – because your companies can meet them while weaker ones cannot.

People around the world have always looked up to Americans because we have the power and the ability to do anything. People like Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America to fulfill the dream of being able to do anything. But if we lower our standards, and make things easier, we allow others to catch up.

An interesting way of thinking.

It’s not about putting America on top – it’s about Americans sharing their knowledge and abilities to help achieve prosperity around the globe. As we wake up to the knowledge of what being green truly means, hopefully it will also put us on course to develop a new way of lifestyle that can easily be implemented throughout the world. The only true way of not failing is to take action.

A great read and one that should be required reading for all of today’s students, this will be on my daughter’s bedside table – as soon as I reread it myself.

Books on Demand

Have you ever gone into a bookstore, looking for a book that isn’t on their shelves? You inquire at the information desk, and they say they can order it for you.

At that point you have two choices: order from the bookstore and come back in a week to pick it up; or head home and order it online and wait for it to arrive in your mail.

What if you could have it on the spot? I found an article about a bookseller that’s doing just that. Blackwell’s is offering print-on-demand books while customers wait with their newest innovation – the Espresso Book Machine (EBM).

The machine currently prints 40 pages per minute, but this is expected to double  later this year. Which means you can have an average business title in under five minutes.

How cool is that?

This isn’t meant to take over what a bookstore is currently offering – it will merely complement it by offering more titles than a bookstore can offer.

I can’t wait until we see this technology here…

Have you ever had a Meatball Sundae?

How many of you are fans of Seth Godin, raise your hand?

I’ve read a ton of his books, and love following his blog. I finally got a chance to read his newest book, Meatball Sundae.

If you haven’t heard of Godin, or his book, the name may throw you a bit. After all, what does a Meatball Sundae have to do with marketing?

First you have to think about what a meatball sundae actually is. It’s the result of combining two perfectly good items that don’t go together at all. You don’t end up with something new and fresh; you actually end up with a big, sloppy mess that has zero attraction to the general public.

In this case a meatball would be the basic staples – the things that traditional marketing could sell quite well. The topping would be the new marketing – MySpace, websites, blogs – all of the magic that makes the sundae irresistible.

Unfortunately, most businesses still live with the idea of producing the meatball. They produce a product and continue to market it in traditional ways, usually because they don’t understand New Marketing.

To succeed in today’s world, you have to break away from the traditional marketing, and learn to play in the brave, new marketplace.

Take for instance Godin’s Trend 14 – New Gatekeepers, No Gatekeepers. With old marketing, the only way to get “big” was to get in with the big guys. You did everything you could to be noticed by one of the biggest companies in the marketplace. Once you were found, your business was on easy street. Not so today. The big actually tend to struggle as they apply all of their big, corporate rules to the new marketplace.

Where else can a tiny company produce a short video with no ad budget, place it on YouTube, be found, and within  a few short months have the video viewed millions of times? Only in times of new marketing. Again, this is with zero ad budget – YouTube is free, and shooting an in-house video can cost next to nothing.

But with new marketing, you have to step outside of the traditional box, and be willing to try a few things. And if they don’t work, try a few more. Then keep what does work, and try some more.

New Marketing is changing all the time. The important thing is to learn what you can, give it a try, follow the advice of others, text, and start all over again.

If you’re looking for something to read on your next flight, or even to take to the beach (can you tell it’s almost spring break, and I’m ready for vacation?) give Meatball Sundae a try. It’s a quick read, and really can put some new ideas into place.

Book Review – The Automatic Millionaire

I just finished The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. I’ve read several of his other books, and decided it was time to read this one when I found it on the shelves of my local library.

The thing I enjoy about David’s writing style is how simple he makes things. He has a unique perspective of looking at finances, and relaying them in an easy to use fashion.

One of the biggest things I walked away with from this book is how to think rich, and how to share that knowledge with your children. He tells a story about a couple in their early 50’s ready to retire because of what their parents had taught them about money.

We Inherited Knowledge

is what the couple told David.

Basically, to retire rich at an early age, you need to:

1. Pay yourself first. Always put money away for yourself first before you pay the bills. Automate the process if possible.
2. Save a few dollars a day. They called it the cigarette factor – basically the latte factor – and you should eliminate one habit from your system, and use the money to pay yourself.
3. Buy a house and make two 1/2 payments every month instead of one big one. You pay off the house much quicker this way.
4. Don’t buy things on credit, minus your house. If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.

Pretty simple rules, and they make a lot of sense to me.

It’s a great book if your new to the whole finance/savings idea, or if you want a refresher on great ideas. (I never get bored reading similar items – I always pick up one or two new nuggets along the way!)

Lori

Book Review: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

I found a book last week on the New shelf in my library. The title – Leaving Microsoft to Change the World – intrigued me, so I checked it out.

The book is about the author’s life. John Wood worked at Microsoft during its heavy growth period, and ended up working in Asia the last part of his career. During one of his rare vacations, he ended up trekking in Nepal with a guide, and saw first hand how remote some villages are. Though the people had a strong desire to learn, the tools just weren’t readily available. So he pledged to the town he would return with books.

Room To Read was born.

Though it took another couple of years, he soon became disenchanted with working 20 hour days, and began putting his heart and soul into his mission of providing books and education to those that need it most.

To me, it’s amazing that you can educate a girl in one of these areas for a mere $250 a year. For $250, you can supply a girl with a bike to get to the school, a backpack filled with supplies, and tuition for the year’s worth of schooling. Amazing.

I’ve always been passionate about education, reading, and helping people achieve the most out of life. To me its very sad that in America, with everything available to us, not everyone in our population is graduating high school. Shouldn’t that just be a given here, since its our birth right?

I applaud people like John Wood who have dedicated their lives to attempting to educate the world’s population. Education is the key to survival. The more education we have, the more we question, and the more we can contribute to the population as a whole.

If you want to check out more on this wonderful cause, go to www.RoomToRead.org