5 comments about The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness.

1. This book is a wonderful book. I read it and purchased another for my son and son-in-law. Anyone who wants success in everyday communication with people in general or in business needs to read this, and live it.



2. I received this book quickly, read it quickly and was blessed by it quickly. I believe this book has been one of the best reads I've had in a while.



3. I have gained a lot of insight for daily living and dealing with people in business and relationships thru the book The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. This is not a religious book of do's and don'ts, it is a back to basic how-to book that should be curriculum in high schools throughout the world. If we all actually lived the advice given via Steven K Scott from the Book of Proverbs, life would be more enjoyable. The author gives 'before and after' examples of his own mistakes and the difference which came from living life with King Solomon as his role model. I am intending to have my 4 sons (17, 18, 20,21 yrs) read the book and then commit to a family study/discussion time. I firmly believe the principles will be of great value to them at the beginning of their careers and relationships. Thank you Mr. Scott!



4. The book was inspiring and informative. The words of the book inspire and challenge you to develop goals and set tasks for victory in every area of you life.



5. The book is very good. The part about how
   to handle criticism is superb. My college
   age son read it and bought his best friend
   a copy as a gift for graduation. They are both
   ambitious young men who are eager to succeed.
   Now, they are equipped to do just that!

5 comments about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

1. I own a signed Fireside First Edition (1989) of this book, and it is one of my prized possessions. The reader before me, someone I know must now be someone very important, had underlined the most important topics in this ever popular self-improvement text. As I read it, I can actually feel the impact these words had on so many other readers Worldwide. I see that the reader before me underlined "trust is the highest form of human motivation" and then I am amazed that years later, Covey publishes "The Speed of Trust." I take the words in text seriously, as I read that I "must get involved with training and development" and of course, the reader underlined this part as well.
   
   I am convinced that all leaders have read and mastered the skills in this book, and I also know that my book was read by one of those leaders. Me! Andrea Samadi, author of The Secret for Teens Revealed: How Parents, Teachers, and Teenagers Can Inspire Leadership and Transform Lives



2. I keep this book in my special library. I bought it to get organized and learned how to both organize my days and prioritize my personal life. This book emphasizes being effective by deciding what is important and what is not. I would recommend it those that just can't seem to figure out how to fit life into 24 hour days, and puts spirituality at the forefront.



3. "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say." ~ Emerson
   
   "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" is a book I'd heard about so many times I actually thought I'd already reviewed it. Once I realized the book was new to me I started reading it with very high expectations. From the start Stephen Covey seems to meander through a wide variety of loosely related topics. By page 77 I went to read all the one-star reviews because I needed a break and seemed to be bored. I agreed with many of the reviews but felt I should give the book another try so I kept on reading.
   
   The book became more interesting as Stephen Covey started to talk about being reactive vs. proactive. I did think that perhaps some people were offended by the thought of working on yourself instead of blaming others for your problems. I figured that might explain some of the negativity as some books work like a mirror to reveal your faults. The other complaint I have to agree with is that Stephen Covey has a very complex writing style. He also keeps referring to the same examples over and over again - the golden eggs and the goose is used so many times I lost count but felt irritated each time it was spoken of again. Once would have been fine and for some reason it just set me on edge each time I read about it. He also uses the word "paradigm" obsessively.
   
   In this book you will also learn a lot about his family's strengths and weaknesses. I'm not sure I would have told some of the stories in this book because they seemed too personal. He calls his sons "honey" in the book and that would seem more appropriate if he was talking about his wife. I always feel for a writer's families as they are exposed in a light I find unattractive.
   
   So what did I learn from this book? Here are the seven things I learned:
   
   1. Be Proactive
   2. Write a mission statement for my life
   3. Prioritize
   4. Seek mutual benefit in all human interactions
   5. Listen more and talk less
   6. Value difference
   7. Take care of body and soul - exercise, meditate, be an eternal learner, cultivate meaningful relationships
   
   I liked the ideas of using visualization to create success. The ideas about writing a mission statement for your life and being opportunity-minded seemed like good ideas. The quotes in the book are quite good and since I collect quotes I was happy to have found some new ones that were very meaningful.
   
   For the most part I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more successful especially in business. I think the ideas are good but for the most part felt that the book was overrated and at times rather irritating. I didn't feel good or "seasoned with love" while reading this book so I'm only giving it three stars.
   
   "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." ~ Albert Einstein
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



4. In browsing my book shelf I came upon and then found myself rereading this incredibly simple yet profound book. The principles and ideas Stephen writes about are truly ways to discover how to live your life as the person you want to be. I especially found the section where Stephen writes about how powerful unexamined attitudes and perceptions influence how I react toward situations and others. Once I started looking at my predetermined thoughts...those same situations became less mundane and irritating. My experiences became more authentic, meaningful and enjoyable instantaneously. Stephen writes of this as a "paradigm shift", where our attitudes and behaviors, left unexamined, shape how we feel and act in our life in mechanical patterns.
   
   Two authors that have also inspired and ignited my passion for living a magnificent life are Ariel & Shya Kane. The Kanes works: "Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment", "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life", "How to Create a Magical Relationship" and their internet radio show "Being Here" on Voiceamerica.com are all indispensable sources I turn to in supporting my well-being in all areas of my life. I highly recommend the Kanes and Stephen Covey classic, timeless book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."



5. Covey is a classic just as this book is. He's a true Guru. Just buy the book and work the plan. You will not go wrong. It's not a lot of "cheerleading" and motivational fluff. It's a plan of action from the first to the last page. If you follow it - your life will change.

5 comments about No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs.

1. This book is extremely useful and important and has a lot of thing to do with society.



2. In mid-nineteenth century England, poet William Blake indignantly portrayed poor children sneaking a peek from the windows of the factories where they slaved fifteen hours a day, to watch the rich and beautiful cavort in the meadows with their hounds and horses. In the United States of the 1920's, Socialists reveled in contrasting the plight of the downtrodden workers with the opulence of the Robber Barons who lived off their labor. Today, to someone sensitive to the plight of the world's poor, little could be more repugnant than the contrast between the vulgar consumerism of the masses in the advanced capitalist economies and the lowly condition of the destitute third world workers who sew their clothes and craft their sports gear.
   
   Naomi Klein is a prominent spokesperson for those disgusted with this contrast between rich masses in the developed countries and poor masses in the backward countries, the former benefitting obscenely from the low wages and poor working conditions of the latter who work sweatshops on their behalf. Klein wrote in a period when Nike, Wal-Mart, and other mega-corporations were under severe attack for oppressing their domestic and foreign workers. She and fellow activists had hoped this anti-corporate upsurge might turn into a full-fledged revolt that would dramatically improve the lot of low wage workers around the world.
   
   In the second edition of No Logo, which appeared in 2002, she notes that "These struggles may seem slight in retrospect, but you can hardly blame us media merchants for believing that we were engaged in a crucial battle on behalf of oppressed people everywhere: every step we took sparked a new wave of apocalyptic panic from our conservative foes." (p. 110) This movement has now subsided, and much of No Logo is an analysis of what went wrong.
   
   Klein's main argument is that modern advertising is so powerful that it is capable of co-opting the anti-corporate movement and turning the aspirations of its supporters to it own advantage.
   
   "Our sworn enemies in the `mainstream'---to us a giant monolithic blob outside of our known university-affiliated enclaves--didn't fear and loathe us, but actual thought we were sort of interesting. Once we'd embarked on a search for new wells of cutting-edge imagery, our insistence on extreme sexual and racial identities make for great brand-content and niche- marketing strategies. (p. 111) Culture jamming, the attack on corporate logos in massive demonstrations of disaffected youth, enjoyed a vigorous presence in this period, Klein notes (p. 287), but its major themes were quickly adopted by the advertisers to sell more stuff. (p. 297). Nothing, it would seem, can dent the sophisticated façade of the taste-makers.
   
   Naomi Klein is a fine writer with a real social conscience. While she wears this conscience on her sleeve, she never lapses into a strident or sanctimonious style. She hasn't a clue to the real nature of the phenomena with which she is dealing, however. Her major thesis lacks even prima facie plausibility.
   
   This thesis starts with the important insight that the success of the modern consumer goods corporation depends on its brand name reputation and sales, and hence can leave the actual production of consumer goods to a myriad of out-sourced factories and workshops. "Successful corporations," Klein writes, "must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products." (p. 3) The reason such firms as Nike and Wal-Mart locate production in low-wage third-world sites is, to quote: "When the actual manufacturing process is so devalued, it stands to reason that the people doing the work of production are likely to be treated like detritus---the stuff left behind." (p. 197)
   
   There is little plausibility to this argument. Is it not reasonable that in earlier times firms produced goods in the home country because they had great regard for their workers. They did so because home-country workers provided lower unit labor costs. Contemporary firms locate internationally when they think they can make higher profits that way, not when they lose respect and regard for their domestic work force. Moreover, aside from a fringe of activists, consumers are generally not willing to pay significantly higher prices for goods in order to benefit third world factory workers. This is not because people are selfish, but rather because the low-wage workers who produce their clothes and shoes have little impact on the daily lives of consumers, and only the most concentrated political agitation can raise this impact, and then only for a short period of time.
   
   It is also doubtlessly true that even a sustained effort to raise the wages of sweatshop workers would have little effect on the rate of poverty in third-world countries. More effective by far would be by the World Trade Organization succeeding in lowering tariff barriers against the import of third-world agricultural products, and by socially progressive groups and governments subsidizing third-world movements for democracy, representative government, civil liberties, the right to unionize. Klein correctly notes in regard to her study of the struggle of Philippine workers: "Because the Workers' Assistance Center's chief mission is to empower workers to stand up for their rights, WAC organizers don't much like the idea of Westerners sweeping into the zone brandishing codes of conduct, with teams of well-meaning monitors trailing behind." (p. 439).
   
   Like many progressive supporters of the third world poor, Klein's instincts are anti-globalization and even anti-market. Commenting on a picture of economist Milton Friedman being assaulted by pie-wielding demonstrators, Klein identifies Friedman as "architect of the global corporate takeover," and asserts that he is getting "his just deserts." (260) Friedman's strident free-market rhetoric is of course quite over the top, but in fact, third world countries that have attempted to compete in the world market place rather than shelter themselves from it have done quite well, and the recipes of Klein et al. are, conversely, doomed to impotence and failure. The idea of offering sweatshop workers decent wages is a wonderful one, but suggesting that this might be a way to improve the lot of the poor in the world economy is ludicrous. Perhaps a country with mountainous oil revenues can play at sounding anti-capitalist (e.g., contemporary Venezuela), but the future of prosperity in virtually all poor countries depends on developing markets and state institutions that support markets in a synergistic and democratic manner. It is up to us to help them attain this, rather than feeling good about ourselves because we pay an extra few cents for "fair trade certified" coffee beans.



3. No Logo is a well researched book that documents many of the things that are wrong with our consumer culture. While "No Logo" is definatly worth your time Klein's argument has one reoccuring flaw. She draws links between different phenomenon without showing how they relate to each other.
   
   According to Klein the switch from advertisements focused on quality to appeals to emotion made the brand more important than the product. In order to more effectivly manage the brand companies began outsourcing the task of actually creating the product, often overseas.
   
   This is where Klein's argument comes apart due to causal relationships that are not satisfying. She blames the poor working conditions found in many third world factories on the culture of brand awareness itself. Rather than focusing on the very real economic and legal issues at play Klein chooses to focus on describing how people have attacked advertisements and other symbols.
   
   While individuals should be encouraged to be active in righting wrongs Klein's idea of constructive actions are laughable at best. Drawing mustaches on advertisements or bloacking traffic with impromptu street parties do nothing to help the plight of workers in the third world. Klein's prescriptions for change are perfect for those who want to feel as if they are making a difference without making actual sacrifices.



4. Great book,just loved how it made me see the things that were so much part of my life and that I wouldn't question.
   
   Now my views are different, I catch the logos, I catch the subtle messages, I catch the hidden messages that drive me into the consumer that I am, and understand better why, how and who is behind all of it.
   
   This book is well researched, and even if written almost ten years ago, not much has changed in the world of marketing and how we are tricked into buying the things we don't need from across the world.
   
   A great read.



5. I found this to be somewhat of a depressing book. I never really understood the full concept and ramifications of "branding." What you may think is a tiring sequence of commercials and have a more nefarious background. Naomi Klein paints a rather bad image of the corporations on how they exploit third world nations to their own gain. Free Enterprise zones sounds really good but usually end up being a place where corporations can skirt laws about unionizing, worker safty, and the environment.
   
   I remember reading the issues of the garmet industry 100 years ago and yet many of the same tactics are in play today. What is sad is the fact it can go on because the people wish to have their trinkets and cloths for the cheapest rate possible.
   
   I thought was interesting is the effort of branding and I don't know if it was a factor but to develop and defend a brand; it would make sense to shed production to "free enterprise zones" to where you can reduce your labor costs to .23 an hour. The savings allows for further marketing efforts.
   
   One thing that disappointed me was the truth of the efforts of the Kenyan marathon runners attempting cross country skiing. Rather then being people who thought "I would like to try this" it turns out to be nothing more then a marketing stunt by Nike.
   
   Much of the book delves into Nike and Phil Knight. Basically he can be labeled as the poster child for sweat shops and branding.
   
   A surprising revelation was Kathie Lee Gifford and her act of contrition over the fiasco of her clothing line using sweat shops. She actively tried to to change things while the saintly Michael Jordan simply shrugged and said his job was shooting hopes and not politics when confronted with Nike's actions.
   
   I found the section about Shaq and Nike interesting. I remember when Shaq entered the scene and many thought he was the successor of Jordan for Nike. It turns out Shaq decided to develop his own brand and studied a little marketing and when Nike found he wasn't going to fall in line, they decided against him.
   
   I have often heard and argument in defense of sweat shops. Basically, they improve peoples lives by giving them options they would not have. After reading Klein's descriptions of "free enterprise zones" I don't understand how indentured poverty is better then poverty.
   
   The final chapter on culture jamming and the efforts of people to show the seedy sides of corporations was interesting and it gave a small sense of hope after reading the doom and gloom of the previous chapters. I used to think the WTO protesters were nothing more then anarchists who were just want to trash the area where ever they went. However, through Ms. Klein I have a different view point.
   
   All too often the phrase of power and corruption comes into to play. When great money is at hand the "moral" system changes to suit the needs of money. Often you hear the free market argument of if you don't like what the company does, go to the competitor. The problem is they are doing the same thing. When Nike fell from grace, the competitors rose to take it's place in the same actions.
   
   The chapter does make the case that the best way to make a company act in a "moral" standing they often like to portray is to bring attention and educate people to the ramifications of their purchases. It can be a powerful weapon as a quote in the book pointed out "It can take 100 years to build up a brand and 30 days to knock it down."
   
   There are many defenders for corporations but people should think about a comment in the book where it was said Nike thinks you are worthy to purchase their shoes but you are not worthy to make them.
   
   All in all this book is a "must read" no matter what side of the argument you stand. It is a well thought out and provocative to read.

5 comments about The Difference Maker: Making Your Attitude Your Greatest Asset.

1. I read this book and I enjoyed it so much that I purchase three more for some friends as a gift. This book really makes you evaluate yourself as a person and let you know that your attitude plays a very important role in our everyday lives.
   
   My first book from John C. Maxwell The Winning Attitude: Your Pathway to Personal Success was giving to as a gift.



2. John C. Maxwell has done it again...truly remarkable writer. His expertise and speaking from the heart truly is a blessing. All who read this book will definitely benefit in multitudinous ways beyond measure. This reading is truly a "difference maker." Keep it going!
   
   Blessings to all!



3. Monotony, marginally useful info and a condescending speaker.
   
   I purchased the audio version after reading the reviews here. The author seems condescending at times, the information is not terribly useful, and he keeps repeating "and that could be the difference maker" over and over. I could not take it anymore and thought to myself, "if he says that one more time in this chapter I am done with this". Of course he repeated it. I can't believe how many good reviews this has.



4. This book is going to show the difference maker which is your attitude. I have read a lot of book about the self development and the required skills but really this book has a big difference in enhancing the knowledge of attitude. As mentioned in the book the attitude is not everything but it is the difference maker in your life for everything. This book will really change your life for much better by only knowing only your attitude and modify your feeling to get what you are looking for very smoothly.



5. Easy and quick reading, a good "pick me up" and simple reminder that much of our success lies in our attitude. A couple of good anecdotal stories.

5 comments about The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable.

1. I have read or listened to a number of Patrick Lencioni's books. The fable format makes them entertaining, and the simple management principles ring true. I gave this four stars because it is eclipsed by another one of Pat's books that shares some of the principles and has a better story line to bring it home. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
   
   In the four obsessions book we learn that the secret of company success is
   1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
   2. Be very clear about your message/mission/values
   3. Over communicate your message/mission/values thoughout the org.
   4. Set up systems that reinforce this organization clarity.
   
   Of course that are more details with the above (which I have paraphrased).
   
   Pat adds a helpful review of the model at the end of the fable. I really recommend this book!!



2. Although The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable was published in 2000 it is still the very best companion to Jim Collins' Good to Great. Lencioni's parable illustrates better than any other book the simple but powerful principles of building and maintaining a cohesive leadership team, creating organizational clarity, the importance of over-communicating organizational clarity, and reinforcing that clarity through human systems. This is a book that I read every year. It is one of my most "marked-up" books (the front and back flyleaves are covered with notes and quotes). If you haven't picked this one up you've missed one of Lencioni's very best.



3. Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive is Patrick Lencioni's second book written in 2000, again it is a fiction as well as a management book. The readers would be eager to know the obsessions of that very successful person. CEO is supposed to be rational and sensible. It is curious to note that such a person could be obsessed with anything. In fact, on very important issues, we had better be obsessed rather than let them off the hook lightly.
   
   The story looks like a novel involving commercial spies. It is a tale of two companies, similar in the industry they were in, their niche, their strength, their customers, their size, their strategy. It is a matter of management style which made differences in their culture and organization health. The story evolves around a virus which attacked a company. It set off suspicion and created a crisis. The story told the strength of a cohesive team of good organization health and how it fought off the virus. The virus revealed the secret of the obsessions to the CEO of the rival company who thought otherwise. You will guess the ending about the future of these two companies.
   
   The interesting part is the virus, who is the VP of HR, kind of like a very capable EO specializing in our professional area. The problem with him was that he did not participate actively in discussions, was not willing to share his views, and not wholeheartedly merged with the management team. He liked to hide himself and revealed his opinion last, and in a non-committal way. He appears to me as having the attributes of some civil servants. The virus was exposed as not being able to align with the culture of the company. I wonder if this is a sin for civil servant for not being able to align with the culture of the government, or the department, or the grade.
   
   The thrust of the story is the obsessions. They are actually very simple and concern the organization culture, its core values, its identity, direction, strategy and objectives. The obsessions are how the CEO took these in mind and action. He was obsessed with being cohesive, being clear, over-communicating and reinforcing. These are the four disciplines to be upheld.
   
   1st discipline: Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team - We all know that it is desirable to have team members working happily together. But the obsession went a step further of letting team members know one another's unique strength and weakness, openly engaging in constructive ideological conflict, holding one another accountable for behaviours and actions, and committing to group decisions. As a result, the cohesive and healthy team was able to fight off the virus which tried to contaminate the team spirit.
   
   2nd discipline: Create organizational clarity - Writing up vision and mission statements is a common practice in setting up the identity of the company and its long term goal. It was trendy a few years ago and everyone did it. The CEO of the rival company said it was mentioned in Build to Last which all management people knew well and could readily recite. But these statements are just empty slogans only fit for display as decoration on the wall. The obsession is to make these organizational identity, culture, strategy and responsibilities very clear, that action plans could be formed without confusion based on them.
   
   3rd discipline: Over-communicate organizational clarity - Over-doing anything is an obsession. But for issues as important as the organizational clarity, there is no thrift in over-communicating them. The obsessed CEO conveyed messages on organization clarity repeatedly on every occasion, using simple language to eliminate confusion and inconsistency, using multiple media to meet different level of reception, and cascading the messages down the ranks until the message was heard by all.
   
   4th discipline: Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems - At the end of the day, it is human that preserve or undermine culture. The CEO was obsessed with sustaining the health of the organization by making sure that the human systems were used to reinforce organizational clarity. All staff were tested and reinforced of their alignment with the organizational culture through the recruitment process, performance management, rewards and recognition, and dismissal.
   
   We all claim that culture is hard to change. But the reality is that culture is also hard to maintain. When the CEO found a culture that was good for the company, he was obsessed to preserving it, or seen the other way round, obsessed to changing the behaviour of the staff to align with the culture. Or you may say that he was changing other cultures or sub-cultures to align with his culture. This is very hard to do, and it really takes an obsessed CEO to keep the company on the track.



4. Patrick Lencioni, utilizing his engaging fable-as-lesson writing style, covers his view of the four "Disciplines" of a healthy organization in "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive." The fable...and the "Model" underlying the fable...stresses the importance of clarity in a healthy organization.
   
   As in a number of Lencioni's other books, the simplicity of the framework covered in this book is stressed...as is the difficulty in actually implementing the framework.
   
   I found this book a worthwhile read due to its simplicity, its straightforward messages and its blending of a story with managerial ideas. Furthermore, I appreciated the fact that the principles espoused in the book are laid out in a manner that directly connects the managerial ideas to actions that can be taken within an organization.



5. I've previously read Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni. I really connect with his ability to tell an engaging story which communicates the point. He then spends the last third of this book describing the four principals and how to put them into practice within the organization.
   
   The four disciplines of a healthy organization are:
   
   1. Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team
   2. Create Organizational Clarity
   3. Over-Communicate Organizational Clarity
   4. Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems
   
   While there is a very big focus on executive teams and high level managers, this book can be used for leaders who are putting together smaller teams. The truth is that at every level of the organization there need to be teams who understand the values and are comfortable with each-other.
   
   I especially appreciated Patrick's explanation of how to define clarity and communicating vision and mission. I also appreciated his focus on how important a healthy organization is, even more important than higher revenue and large clients.
   
   I also appreciated that there were a few concrete examples provides as well as questions to help us define our own answers and to model our organization.
   
   This is definitely a great read for anyone who manages teams of people or defines the direction of an organization.

5 comments about Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs.

1. This straight-talking book is a great addition to any entrepreneur's bookshelf. When positioning a company or a product - or a candidate for public office, there are several rules to follow, among them: Who is your customer? What is important to your customer? And how does your service or product meet the "perceived" needs of your customer? The key words are "perceived needs." You must know what your customer is buying and why, and what they want to buy. You also need to know what they are not buying - and why. It's all about establishing authentic connections, or as Myers, Stull and Scott say, how we tell our buyer that we've solved their problems - so that they listen to what we have to say, buy our products or services, or vote for us. (The reviewer is author of two books:Personal Publicity Planner: A Guide to Marketing YOU and Top Cops: Profiles of Women in Command.)



2. This book is a must read for all entrepreneurs and their marketing department. If you're lucky enough to read this book before developing your business plan, you're going to benefit greatly. This book really helped our team dig at how we were developing and marketing our application and our business.
   
   The examples of the book are unique and interesting, supporting the entire premise. Perhaps the best feature of the book is that it can easily be used as a checklist for your company, your product or your service. This book must be purchased by you and must be read by your staff.



3. Great Book!! Your own personal opinion is irrelevant no matter what situation you are in. You can accomplish more than you've ever imagined in your personal and professional life by observing and listening to others and what they want. And whether it's right or wrong, let it go. Just give them what they want and the paybacks will come. This book is another great spin on the principles of Dale Carnegie.



4. I was lucky enough to be given a preview copy of a great new book by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott called Tuned In. I got the preview, but it is being published today. It was a very interesting experience to read this book, because I feel as though I understand the authors' perspectives so well already. But even though I know where the authors are coming from, I was still riveted by this book. They tell so many great stories that illustrate their big point, which is that you need to be willing to listen to what's going on around you to really produce a business breakthrough. I found myself sorry when the book ended, because the stories are so helpful in driving the philosophy home, and each story is interesting on its own merits.
   
   I am a big fan of David's, and if you read his last book, you would be too. So, I recognized David's voice in places throughout the book, especially when it explains how to detect the difference between tuned-in and tuned-out marketing.
   
   But I also recognize the voices of Craig and Phil, because I am a certified product manager from their company, Pragmatic Marketing. So when the book differentiates between listening to your customers and listening to your overall market, I hear them. When they tell you that you need to get out and talk to people to identify the ideas that will resonate, I remember hearing in class: "Nothing good ever happens in the office."
   
   So, nothing this book said really surprised me. And that's the real genius of the book. So often, a really great book says something that seems completely obvious--right after you hear it. This book is one of those.
   
   Well of course you need to talk to your whole market and not just your existing customers. Well sure you'd rather have real information on which to base your decisions than "gut feel." Certainly innovation for innovation's sake is doomed to failure.
   
   There are these kind of "Well, duh!" ideas on every page. But they are obvious only in retrospect. Most companies don't act as if these ideas are obvious--just the opposite.
   
   In my last book, I tried to help people take these approaches in Internet marketing. This book has a bigger agenda, where the authors help you see how to succeed in all the parts of an offering, from product development to marketing. And they succeed, both because of these blowhard-skewering truths and because they have a rich set of stories that put these ideas in action.
   
   I was fascinated by the case study for Zipcar, a business I was aware of but had never tried. The way they first identified the needs of city dwellers who occasionally need a car, but don't need the hassles of owning one, was an eye-opener for me. But I was even more surprised to hear about how they've targeted other groups to help them, ranging from politicians interested in telling a green story to landlords looking to add Zipcars as a differentiator against other rental properties.
   
   Zipcar is just one of dozens of stories that bring the Tuned In principles to life. If you've ever wondered why your company is stultified in its strategy, and why it strangles every successful product idea before it ever sees the light of day, read this book. It will challenge you to transform your company or leave it.
   
   [...]



5. "If it's so easy to understand and it makes so much sense, why don't more companies get tuned it?"
   
   "Tuned In" by Craif Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott is a book on how to create the "resonator", the product that sells itself. Or (quoted from the book);
   
   "The perfect solution to a specific problem"
   
   "A product or service that people want to buy without being coerced"
   
   "An offering that establishes a real and direct connection to what your market values most"
   
   "An idea that people immediately understand has value to them, even if they have never heard of your company or its products and services"
   
   The book describes the six steps of creating the resonator
   
   Contents
   
   Chapter 1: Why Didn't We Think of That?
   
   Chapter 2: Tuned Out... and Just Guessing
   
   Chapter 3: Get Tuned In
   
   Chapter 4: Step 1: Find Unresolved Problems
   
   Chapter 5: Step 2: Understand Buyer Personas
   
   Chapter 6: Step 3: Quantify the Impact
   
   Chapter 7: Step 4: Create Breakthrough Experiences
   
   Chapter 8: Step 5: Articulate Powerful Ideas
   
   Chapter 9: Step 6: Establish Authentic Connections
   
   Chapter 10: Cultivate a Tuned In Culture
   
   Chapter 11: Unleash Your Resonator
   
   ...
   
   Let's compare "Tuned In" to the ideal business book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.
   
   Ease of Understanding: 9/10: This book is very structured and it's very hard to NOT understand. The concepts are not complicated. They are straight to the point with great examples all over the book.
   
   Distinction: 5/10: The concept of this book is another "customer-centric innovation". There are hundreds of this kind of book on the shelf already. However, the way the authors present the concept with clear and concise examples is refreshing. This concept of the book is identical to others: just better.
   
   Practicality: 8/10: The six steps (plus what should be done before and after the steps) are simple enough to follow no matter what industry you are in. The authors showed examples ranging from the ice-cream shop to the comedian to Apple to the presidential election! The various examples with simple yet solid steps will make you think that you can do it.
   
   Credibility: 8/10: The vivid examples, again, "resonate" well with the concepts and steps. You can't really deny the proven concept, customer-centric innovation. It's so simple that make you think "There's no reason I shouldn't believe this."
   
   Insight: 6/10: The real substance of the book is how it connects the concepts to examples. You will not find deep analysis or research in a particular subject. Moreover, this book tries hard not to bore you. Once the excitement in the topic fades, the authors move onto another topic.
   
   Reading Experience: 7/10: Reading "Tuned In" is enjoyable. You'll read the contents of the books about how to create a "resonator" and you'll think "Now..... How are you trying to convince me?" Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott will then give you simple explanations and excellent examples.
   
   Overall: 7.2/10: As I mentioned far too many times already that the examples of this book are excellent. The six steps to create the "resonator" are very easy to apply. If you are swimming in the ocean of books on innovation and could not find a good book that you can get your team or yourself rolling right away. This example-driven practical book on customer-centric innovation is tuned in for you.

5 comments about Working with Emotional Intelligence.

1. Daniel Goleman encountered many leaders of industry emphasizing the importance of emotional intelligence rather than technical expertise in excelling in their respective businesses. It is through his findings that he decided to write Working With Emotion Intelligence. In this book Goleman emphasizes that emotional intelligence is what makes one excel.
   Increasingly organizations are becoming larger and more team oriented, thus being able to work in teams well and effectively is one of the most important skills to have in the work environment. A good manager will be able to get the best talents out of the group. Golemans book examines the changing work environment and the personal qualities that are of importance. The qualities listed are initiative, empathy, adaptability, and persuasiveness.
   The traits that make great leaders are described in detail in the book. Goleman emphasizes high self confidence in leading people is essential to create a more productive work environment. Empathy is an ability that helps leaders in how to approach an individual by sensing what others feel. Empathy serves as a cohesive tool, which allows for effective communication amongst individuals.
   Working With Emotional Intelligence is a great book for anybody interested in learning more about emotional intelligence and its uses in the work place. Daniel Goleman lists the parts of emotional intelligence and describes their use while providing illuminating examples. With the current explosive growth of information, no single individual can have enough knowledge to successfully compete in today's extremely competitive and rapidly changing environment. It is because of this that emotional intelligence is crucial to excel in organizations today. People that work well in teams have a key advantage. Emotional competencies can be learned, by reading this book you will be able to gain knowledge on these emotional competencies and put them to use in your daily life and career.



2. I would give this book no more than 3 stars. The Reader puts you to sleep. The reason I only gave it 2 stars is because Disc 9 belongs to a totally different book. Chapers 40 to 40 something being read by a british woman. I did not get the entire book. Be rest assured I will be returning the item for a full refund or a complete book. Thank you.



3. The whole idea about Emotional Intelligence is appealing and I actually buy it. But the just keeps telling stories after stories of how emotional intelligence is important, how most companies/people/training guides overlook it. The book never talks about how to actually develop emotional intelligence. The book is so incredibly repetitive and lacking any useful content that I am surprised how an intelligent person like Daniel Goleman could have thought of publishing it.
   
   Let me tell you the gist of how to develop emotional intelligence (based on this book and several others):
   
   - The part of brain dealing with emotional intelligence learns by practise/repetition. You cant unlearn an old habit or learn a new one by just thinking about it conceptually.
   - Therefore to develop emotional intelligence, you have to train your mind repetitively.
   - The re-wiring of a habit in your brain happens at the instant when an event occurs that triggers a habit and you react to that event in a different way than you are habitual of doing. By repeating this over and over, your brain will learn the new habit. There are numerous self-help books out there which will create exercises for you to follow in your daily routine so that you can repeatedly apply the new habits you want to learn. But these methods are very slow simply because the number of iterations required to re-wire the brain will require a long time to happen.
   - If you want to change your habits fast, you can use certain meditation techniques. Some of them are more useful than others. A very potent technique is Vipassana meditation. Due to the way you use your brain while doing this meditation, the re-wiring happens very fast.
   
   I do not want to explain this in detail here because:
   1. This is a book review and the space is not enough :)
   2. I am talking from my personal experience.
   3. people usually like to read proofs for such claims. I am not an expert on meditation, nor a neuro-scientist. But I have practised Vipassana and it has given me great results.
   
   So all that I will say is: you heard from me that Vipassana meditation is useful. Go do your own research find out what it is. Try it out. If you understand it, and apply it for a while, most likely you will start observing changes in your life very quickly (within weeks). If it actually benefits you, then accept it. Otherwise its just something you tried. If nothing else, you will atleast have learned a stress-reduction technique.
   
   PS: If you find it absolutely useless, I feel sorry for you. Please dont sue me. :-)



4. Working with emotional intelligence is a landmark book in that when it came out it made the first strong case for how emotional intelligence operates and work and why it's so important to have it. The information linking emotional intelligence to job performance is fascinating. The only place the book falls short is it's a bit outdated and it doesn't provide a lot of how you do it. For that I prefer The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book which just came out a couple of years ago and it's very how you do it focused including an online test that comes with the book and measures your EQ.



5. I like Goleman's work and find his classifications of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and social skills) to be very valuable in treatment and coaching. Some of my better counseling sessions discuss these areas. The studies noted in the book help in understanding the ideas presented. One of my top ten favorite concepts in treatment and coaching. Buy it!

5 comments about Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations.

1. As Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel explain at the beginning of their book, there are two main currents of thinking among those who opine on the wisdom of foreign aid: the "poverty trap" view, which holds that aid must be injected to end a vicious cycle in which inability to save leads to disaster in lean years, and the view that more such aid is simply sending good money after bad, straight into the hands of corrupt officials to be funneled away or otherwise wasted. Fisman and Miguel aim to look at corruption and violence in developing countries to determine how prevalent such evils are, how they are caused, and how they can be prevented--and, therefore, what the best way, non-ideologically-speaking, of raising up poor nations might be.
   
   The funny thing about corruption is that it tends to exist out of sight--at least, out of sight of official statistics and public measurements. No one reports the bribes he takes on his income tax returns. So Fisman and Miguel have to come up with creative means of measuring corruption of various types, and this is the most fun part of their book. Economic Gangsters is completely accessible to the general reader, with virtually no economic jargon or concepts more difficult than "incentives matter," but it perfectly captures the exciting, puzzle-solving nature of this kind of academic research.
   
   Fisman and Miguel's biggest, and most important, suggestion is the basic one that foreign aid and other solutions to developing-nation poverty be studied and implemented in an evidence-based manner. Without experimental data it's very difficult to determine whether a particular program is actually effective or not (or cost-effective or not). Randomized trials, like those carried out for developing medicines, are rare in the field of poverty reduction. But sometimes they are carried out. For example, local democratic control of public works projects is often touted as an antidote to corruption and skimming of funds. But in Indonesia a test was conducted to compare road building under local control, the thread of a federal audit, and no corruption prevention. Local control did little better than the control group, while those projects that were audited involved significantly less stolen money.
   
   The authors adhere to their intention to remain non-ideological, and their interest is clearly in going where the evidence leads them. Unfortunately, large-scale economic experiments are often impossible and unethical, so some things can never be tested. But those interested in solutions that actually work should use what information they can. Economic Gangsters provides some of that information, and an interesting look at how to find it. It also tells some great stories about the incentives economic gangsters respond to, the strange circumstances that sometimes create these incentives, and how governments and other groups can play with them to aim for better outcomes.



2. Eight years ago, as I crossed the Uganda-Kenya border, I was sequestered in a shack, interrogated, threatened with prison, and ultimately required to pay a bribe by border guards. After that harrowing experience, I returned to my hotel and recounted the story to the first friendly face I saw: my sympathetic colleague Ted Miguel. Ted and his colleague Ray spent the succeeding years studying violence and corruption in poor countries; and this sweet book is the latest fruit of those labors.
   
   What can economics tell us about corruption and violence around the world? More, perhaps, than you'd expect. Ray and Ted use surprise changes in a dictator's health to measure the value of political connections in Indonesia, rainfall to capture the effect of recessions on violence in Africa, and tricks in the trade data to reveal smuggling. (That's not to mention the parking tickets - Chapter Four.) They present their clever research in surprisingly clear English, and they draw on the related research of other economists as well. They really know how to tell a story: I was captivated by the opening recounting of Kenyan author Ngugi's woes and delighted by the creative policy making of Antanas Mockus, mayor of Bogota.
   
   It's hard not to compare popular economics books today to Freakonomics: Gangsters has the advantages of Ted and Ray's witty, pleasant voice, more of a thematic focus, and none of the self-adulation that took away some Freakonomics' shine.
   
   Despite the focus on corruption and violence, ultimately the book is presenting a miscellany of work that is related but isn't (and perhaps cannot be) circumscribed into a larger theory. Occasionally I found myself wishing a central theory like you find in Malcolm Gladwell's books. But then again, those theories usually aren't convincing for exactly the reason that Ted and Ray don't have one: they are careful and big, broad theories are not. I really enjoyed the clear policy recommendation of Rapid Conflict Prevention Support in Chapter 6, and I look forward to more clear recommendations in the next book. Again, Ted and Ray are careful and tend not to recommend policies that don't have clear evidence to stand on. Not all scholars are comfortable laying out strong recommendations on limited evidence; two books by scholars who are more comfortable are The Bottom Billion and The End of Poverty. (As I recall, that's also the self-definition given by an economic hit man!) The main policy recommendation, ultimately, is more evidence-based policy making, particularly randomized trials of development programs (but with a healthy view of the realistic scope for these kinds of trials).
   
   This book won't just show you that economists can be clever (although it will show you that): It shows that economics, cleverly applied, can illuminate some of the most intractable development problems of our time. I strongly recommend it. And if you don't trust me, Publishers Weekly said that in this "surprisingly spry" read, "fascinating insights abound" [1]. Take it from both of us and learn something.
   
   [1] Publishers Weekly, 6 October 2008.



3. A few years back, economists Ray Fisman (Columbia University) and Edward Miguel (University of California, Berkeley) caught the attention of the global media and the United Nations with their study of diplomats' unpaid parking tickets. At the time, diplomatic immunity allowed representatives to the international body to park in violation of city traffic codes, racking up fines. Fisman and Miguel looked at the list of traffic violations for UN plates over several years. They found that diplomats from some nations such as Canada and Ireland behaved themselves, parking lawfully and paying any tickets, while others such as Kuwait and Chad exploited their power, sometimes in ostentatious ways. Why? The ticket behavior, the economists suggested, is a proxy indicator for the intersection of culture and corruption.
   
   Now, in their recently published book, Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations, Fisman and Miguel extend their corruption lens to the problems of conflict and development. They look for economic causes of conflict such as water scarcity or food crises to help explain everything from civil wars to witch trials. They ask whether more money or better governance is the key to economic growth for Africa, concluding that--although corruption and economic abuse is a key challenge to development--it won't really be possible to answer the big questions of the field until there is better quality, more scientific evaluation of the results of aid projects.
   
   Economic Gangsters is a pleasurable and fast read, written for a popular audience who may or may not know the context of the work. For development specialists familiar with the writings of Jeffrey Sachs, William Easterly, and Paul Collier, the broad contents of the book will be familiar. As other reviewers pointed out, there is also a certain sense in which discussions of warlords and blood diamonds brush up against diplomats' parking tickets or randomized sampling without connections between the topics ever being delineated. On the whole, however, Fisman and Miguel's presentation feels fresh and dynamic. Even seasoned development practitioners are likely finish with a few new ideas inspired by the book's creative approach to cross-pollinating approaches and examples.
   
   The book is available in print and in Amazon's Kindle e-reader format. The digital version suffers from occasional print type errors (for instance, writing budget as bud-get), but the charts and tables thankfully appear crisp and clear on the Kindle screen. I read in Kindle format and would be pleased to do so again.
   
   Economic Gangsters deserves to be widely read. The authors' tone is friendly and simple, approachable even. This is important, given the complexity and high stakes of the issues at hand. Indeed, the economics of conflict and corruption need to be more widely understood if donor countries' policy making is going to be improved. Yet, one finishes reading this book on the topics of war, poverty, suffering, crime, and interventionist failure feeling not overwhelmed, but rather empowered--equipped with intellectual tools for making the world better, little by little.



4. [Originally published at my blog, [...]
   
   I read this book recently. The authors (Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel) are development economists at big schools (Columbia and UC Berkeley; Ted's in the econ department, but I see him and his RAs all the time), and they've written this book to give laymen some insight into the research we (economists) do and how that research can be used to advance development around the world.
   
   Ray and Ted have structured their book around academic papers that they and their colleagues have written, omitting the tedious math and econometrics and adding explanations, stories and context to the questions at hand.
   
   Relative to an economic textbook, this book is much more accessible and intuitive; relative to other development books (Easterly's Elusive Quest for Growth, Scott's Seeing Like a State, and even Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hitman), this book is, uh, boring and overly didactic.
   
   Yeah, sorry.*
   
   Perhaps I am a jaded reader -- I've read about 2/3rds of the papers behind the book, and I've been "doing" development economics for 5-15 years (depending on who you ask) -- but the book only grabbed my interest a few times, e.g., the mayor of Bogota who used mimes to shame those breaking traffic laws. Put differently, I can think of better ways to spend your time.**
   
   For those of you interested in the contents, here's a preview, chapter by chapter:
   
   1) Economic development is impeded by corruption.
   2) You can measure a company's political importance by watching its stock price when the corrupt dictator (Suharto in Indonesia) gets sick.***
   3) You can detect corruption in the discrepancy between figures of the exporting country and importing country (e.g., Hong Kong to China). Distorted tariff and trade rules encourage corruption.
   4) Some cultures are more corrupt than others. Ray and Ted discuss their brilliant paper, which showed that diplomats to the UN in NYC obeyed parking laws in rough proportion to their corruption at home (and attitudes towards the US) -- despite having the same immunity from prosecution. (I'm guessing that this paper was their book proposal.)
   5) No water, no peace -- conflict rises when water supplies fall.**** Global warming will make this worse. Ray and Ted overlook an important problem in this chapter. They claim that the Rich world will not do too bad with climate change, but they forgot the adverse impact of a sick environment on quality of life.
   6) When people are starving, they look for ways to reduce the demand for food. One way to do this is by finding and killing "witches". One way to stop the massacre of old women and children accused of witchcraft is to provide insurance against such risks, i.e., drought relief.
   7) Countries can recover from war pretty quickly, but it's harder to recover from civil war or when ex-militants are left in unemployed groups. Vietnam succeeded; Iraq is failing.
   8) Randomized trials (one village gets a new program, another "control" village is left alone) are a good way to evaluate anti-poverty programs.*****
   
   Bottom Line: Anyone REALLY interested in development economics (but who is not an economist) should read this book. Everyone else should keep reading and debating at economics blogs :)
   
   -------------------------------------
   
   * And who am I, a lowly postdoc without a book to his name, to question the output of two superstar professors? Just me, folks...
   
   ** Listen to this great podcast [...], in which Richard Epstein discusses inequality and happiness.
   
   *** Read this paper [...] to really understand how a developing country moves from the "Natural State" to the "Open Access Order."
   
   **** Check out the updated Environment and Security Water Conflict Chronology" [...] from Peter Gleick's Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security (yes, that's the full name). It's pretty exhaustive, but it's also pretty inclusive (it includes incidents when one person is attacked, "perhaps" over water...)
   
   
   ***** I'm still amazed that a PhD student (Ben Olken) was given [...] to study corruption in Indonesian road building. Holy Cow! That's enough to fund 200 "normal" PhD research projects!



5. I enjoyed this book and I think the research is compelling. Aside from a chapter in the middle of the book that veers inexplicably into Bush-bashing, Economic Gangsters is well written and very accessible. It is clearly written to introduce their ideas to readers who may have little or no experience with economics and there is little math or mathematical theory involved. I managed to breeze through it in about a week of before-bed reading.

5 comments about Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers.

1. Every woman should read this book. The assessment gives you a starting point and you won't need to read every page...just those that apply. Everything else is a bonus. I swear! The material will enlighten you and stick with you years after you've read it. Practice will make it stick. I've given this book as gifts. Even if you are not ready to apply yourself to practice, just recognizing how you are perceived is worth it. Buy this book and read it today! It's not about becoming an overachieving "B" and man hater; it's about learning to play the game.



2. I use this book all the time in my life leadership coaching with women whether they work in corporations or they're entrepreneurs because for women to succeed anywhere they have to grow to overcome their own self-limiting behaviors and beliefs.
   
   What I love about this book is how clearly the 101 mistakes are organized under 7 broad areas. I am not big on quizzes because they often stop at only giving information. That is not the case here. Instead the author has created a quiz that very easily identifies and ranks an individual woman's 7 areas from strong to weak. Then once a woman identifies the two or three areas she's weakest she can read the chapters and further focus in on which of the mistakes she makes. The coaching tips and simple exercises at the end of each mistake support practice and self-improvement.
   
   Every time I've used this quiz with clients they have benefited from the clarity and direction. This is one of the best thought out and useful books for self-employed women, managers and executives I have ever seen or used. To step up as leaders of their lives women must get to know and change self-defeating behaviors. Nice Girls can help get them started.
   
   [...]



3. As a father of two toddler daughters, I read Dr. Frankel's book to open my mind to ways I could avoid instilling in them unhelpful behaviors. I found a well thought out list of workable suggestions focussed mostly on a few central topics - better communication and ways to play "the game" without merely adopting behaviors typical to men. This book does not make judgments about how the business world operates mainly according to historically male behavior. Rather, it focuses on how to work within this world without changing who you are.
   
   Some of the suggestions were definitely simplistic ("have a firm handshake") while others were more involved (defining your "personal brand" and promoting it to others). Mostly they were common sense business tactics and strategies for self marketing that one could find in countless business self-help books. Indeed, I found several helpful suggestions that I felt were applicable to myself. Overall, much of the advice could have been pulled from a bigger picture course for men and women on how to interact more effectively in the workplace.
   
   In Dr. Frankel's book this information is obviously presented from a woman's perspective. She states in the first pages of the book that not all points will apply to any one person, that the way to use the book is to select those behaviors that are the biggest hindrances to the reader's advancement and then follow her advice to change those behaviors. She makes an attempt not to suggest women act like men, but rather "quit bein' a girl".
   
   The tone can sometimes feel condescending which will be off-putting to some readers, but if one looks past this there is a range of good advice covering many topics. Dr. Frankel's frequent use of anecdotes from her consulting career serves to make the book readable without feeling like a textbook or list of action items.
   
   I believe many women would find this book helpful in identifying and modifying behavior that is giving others the wrong impression of who they are or even masking their true capabilities. Men, too, can find new ways to understand women's behavior and hopefully achieve greater communication through that understanding. As a father I feel more aware of some things to focus on or avoid as I raise my daughters. This book will not feel useful to everyone, but for those who approach it with an open mind it can provide new insight into business relationships between the sexes.



4. I hadn't realized just how many things I was doing on a daily basis that were keeping me from acheiving my full potential at work. Some things in this book applied to me, others did not, but I have learned what I have been doing that is holding me back from moving forward at work and am working on changing those bad habits. A MUST READ for every professional woman.



5. Nice girls dont get the corner office is a big corner of negativity. If you want to feel aweful just give this CD a listen. Lois Frankel put me to sleep. She sounds like the the unseen teacher in the charlie brown series. "Mistake number 6854984742 dont pick your nose the board room...wah wah wah." Terrible. Dont waste your money. Try Tom Hopkins advanced sales survival training CD#2 hilarious, uplifting and helpful to all.

5 comments about Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism.

1. Professor Yunus' book pales in comparison to his Banker to the Poor - this current book is light on action and heavy on rhetoric. It does tell a story about how he was able to create a social enterprise - using his connections as a Nobel Prize winner and book author.
   
   It does not give any type of action plan on how the typical person could arrange a social business or even more their company more toward a social function. I was disappointed as it was more a book of opinions and far-flung ideas about how to create institutions like social stock markets, etc., and little about how to actionably help the poor.
   
   In all, an interesting book, but mostly due to Yunus' writing style and easy of telling stories. It contains some short history but not enough action. I highly prefer C.K. Prahalad's Fortune at the Bottom of The Pyramid for more direct guidance on how this has been done.



2. Yunus has written a frank and straightforward description of a vision of a different and better world. The best part is that his theory has experience and people to back it up--not just dreams. It challenges the American views of community and commerce but I found that to be a source of hope in our crumbling economy. I believe it's best read if you are interested and invested in seeing society grow up.



3. The cover is the same you see in the picture. However it's removable paper cover, meaning it's not the original book. Someone got the original book, made thousands of cookies in a blue cover book, and added this beautiful removable paper cover to it.
   
   The bootom line is I bought thinking it was the original book, but it wasn't. However, the text is the same, so I'm going to enjoy it anyway!



4. I've just finished reading the book from Muhammad Yunus - the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, and I cannot give it less than 5 stars. It is an inspiring book that can touch your heart and motivate you to fight against poverty. At the same time, it did not quite match my expectations in terms of content, so I'd like to make clear in this review what you should and should not expect from this great book.
   
   First of all, Muhammad Yunus presents his vision of the social business. It is a powerful idea based on challenging the assumption of one-dimensional human beings that aim at maximizing profit. This concept lies at the core of established economic theories, and supports the current notion of the business that should maximize value for its shareholders. The social business is totally dedicated to solving social or environmental problems. It is different from charities or NGO's as it does not generate losses, and it's different from profit-maximizing businesses as it does not pay dividend.
   
   Furthermore, the author gives an account of real social businesses that he has created. It starts with Grameen Bank, the microcredit organization providing banking services to the poor people from Bangladesh, including beggars. Grameen Bank is a huge success story, and its model has been reapplied in numerous countries. Another example is Grameen-Danone yoghurt factory that aims at improving the diet of poor Bangladeshi children. It's been recently opened as a joint venture between the Danone corporation and Grameen Bank, and it follows the social business model as described by Yunus.
   
   Finally, the reader is confronted with a vision of the world where poverty can only be seen in museums. I would compare this part of the book to a manifesto that describes the building blocks of a new world where social business can flourish, the environmental problems are resolved by mutual consensus between nations, and the information and communication technologies help the developing nations to participate in and benefit from the globalized market.
   
   It is important to note what you should not expect from this book. It definitely isn't an instruction, or a how-to guide for creating a social business. It isn't a science book either - instead of presenting sound models and theories, the author focuses on his vision and experience, and the book is an account of real-life stories and examples.
   
   The value of Creating a World Without Poverty lies in the inspiration it provides, in fascinating real-life examples of the author's journey to eliminate poverty in his country. It may sometimes sound like a science-fiction vision, but the example of Grameen Bank shows that nothing described in this book is impossible. It's a must-read.



5. I became familiar with Social Enterprise when I did a Google search "how to change the world" on Friday evening 7.13.07. I am a thoroughly enthusiastic person, but I don't know that I have ever been so electrified as I was when I made the incredible discovery that all the ideas I had had for years, and all the energies I was investing to make a difference, had a home in Social Enterprise, and I had found that I am a Social Entrepreneur! I KNEW I wasn't just idealistic or crazy, but that I was on to some very powerful ideas, and finding the world of Social Enterprise has been extremely validating and invigorating for me. Following a discussion on the future of capitalism with some good friends of mine in Austin, the next morning I was in Whole Foods and came across this book with the subtitle: Social Business & The Future of Capitalism. Of course I was more than familiar with Yunus, and was aware of this book even, but hadn't yet picked it up. As a follow up to my discussion with Matthew & Ruthie, I decided to buy the book. WOW. I don't know what trends of thinking you have in the channels of your mind, but I have been affirmed over and over and thrilled to see and know, as Yunus continues to un-pack for me, and to put in to very grasp-able wording, what I myself see for the future! It's kinda fun to know that my thinking is so parallel to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.....anyway, for me, this has been a GEM of a book. I highly recommend it to you as well. If you are traveling down this way of Social Enterprise, as far as I am concerned, we should be reading and learning all that we can so that we can best help others. Even if we are "only" encouraged in what we already know- isn't that empowering???? But I think you just can't help but pick up something- and I think this would also be a great book to introduce someone to this way of thinking. I have more than several friends that I want to share this book with - perhaps Matthew & Ruthie for starters!