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<![CDATA[For Long, Healthy Natural Kinky and Curly Hair - Your Dry Hair Days Are Over! - Books]]>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:26:24 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley - BOOK REVIEW]]>Sat, 14 Nov 2015 07:59:12 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/oversubscribed-by-daniel-priestley-book-review

Rating: 5 / 5

Business and enterprise is a journey. It doesn’t matter which books you read, you will inevitably make mistakes; that’s part of the process.

If someone presents you with a full roadmap to achieving your dreams you can’t skip fundamental steps and still expect to get where you’re going.

Yes, you can take shortcuts by implementing some ideas and concepts in an innovative way so that you drive straight through some stumbling blocks but there are certain fundamental roads you cannot skip.

I feel all of Daniel’s concepts are actually easy to implement and don’t leave you asking a million more questions that you can’t answer yourself. Some of the successful people I follow seem to have gotten there by simply being in the right place at the right time without a system they can teach others to follow. Daniel Priestley isn’t one of those. This is why he’s used the same system to grow a few businesses. He’s a very impressive thinker.

Having a core team is one of his key suggestions.

I’ve been running my own business for over 3 years now and I’ve avoided employing people full-time because I thought it was a major hassle. I saw it as an inconvenience because I couldn’t be bothered to deal with employment legislation.

I’ve done a lot by leveraging third-party services such as contract manufacturers, fulfilment houses and freelancers and it’s paid off as the $202,000 made on Amazon USA proves, however, it’s becoming clear that further growth will require a team.

I finished listening to Oversubscribed and two weeks after taking stock of where my business has gone I’ve realised that I now own my job! My inbox fills up at an atrociously rapid rate which is great because it means something is working but it also means I have to take my laptop on every holiday.

I can work from anywhere in the world, I only work a few hours a day and indeed I hold inventory in the US and in the UK now so I am essentially a one-woman multinational with no full time employees – even I don’t work full-time hours **gasp**. But, what’s the point of carrying your job wherever you go?

A business should reach a point where you can go away for two weeks without checking your inbox at all with an expectation that things will still run smoothly in your absence.

These are some of my reflections since reading Oversubscribed and I’ll definitely have more on the second listen of the audiobook but I’ve also taken fundamental action. This week I viewed offices for the first time and I am about to start advertising for two roles. One of the roles has been filled before I’ve even committed to the office facilities.

A fellow Cambridge grad and friend believes in the work I’m doing so much he’s coming on-board. He’s an engineer with a completely different skill set to mine so it’s a perfect complement.

Ultimately, when you read Oversubscribed you will more than likely be inspired by different elements of the book to the ones that inspired me. It all depends on where you are in your business. Employing people is a huge step but when you hire people each person is not just a cost centre but also a revenue centre.

A small business with a limited budget has to spend money in the right way so hiring the right people upfront is key. After that you need to track your progress weekly if not daily to ensure you’re on the right path. Having completed Daniel Priestley’s Key Person of Influence program I continue to learn so much from him and the community he’s built. For that, I am grateful.

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]]><![CDATA[Americanah By Chimamanda Nogozi Adichie- BOOK REVIEW]]>Fri, 16 Jan 2015 05:50:38 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/americanah-by-chimamanda-nogozi-adichie-book-review

Rating: 4.75 / 5

It’s a very good read.

Frankly I got irritated by Ifemelu half way into the story when she made a comment about not liking “hearty” food because she was too judgmental of people that were different to her. I was like who doesn’t like hearty food? Mxiii – importantly, who looks down upon those that like hearty food?

Ifemelu the main protagonist in the book definitely considered herself to be a cut above the rest. That said, it was a story worthy of a read and had a Douglas Kennedy feel about it. He’s my favorite author.

I still prefer Half of a Yellow Sun that’s why I am rating this 4.75/5.00 rather than 5.00.

If you’re an African that has experienced moving to America for a prolonged period of time for work or education you will enjoy this book a lot more. My sister is one such person and she said she could totally relate to the experience.

I also appreciate and applaud Chimamanda for portraying Africans in a different light. As irritating as Ifemelu became with her quirks she generally embodied the diversity of African diaspora. The media frequently portrays us as backward or simple but that could not be farther from the truth; there are Africans that love “high culture” (art, classical music, etc.) just as there are many in the West who do not so I am very glad that Chimamanda added a different perspective.

Everyone should read this book as a good piece of literature but more so if you’ve experienced culture shock by moving from your homeland to “The West”.

Buy Americanah on Amazon.com or buy it on Amazon.co.uk.

]]><![CDATA[Five Days by Douglas Kennedy - BOOK REVIEW]]>Mon, 17 Nov 2014 10:12:59 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/five-days

Rating 3.5 / 5

You would be totally forgiven for thinking that I only ever read business books but fiction is one of my favourite things to read. I haven’t read a lot of fiction in the last two years because I was building my business up and definitely wanted to take advantage of all my free time to up my business knowledge.

I bought this book on kindle almost a year ago but wasn’t ensnared from the start so I stopped reading after the first chapter and had to restart reading it this time around.

I love Douglas Kennedy. He’s one of my favourite authors, however, this book is not one of his best. Firstly, because I hate simple love stories and the only thing propelling me through most of this book was the knowledge that this love story would get more complicated at some point. I love complex stories.

If anyone other than Douglas Kennedy had written this book I would not have finished it but I’m trying to maintain my record of having read every single one of his books – the majority of which are awesome.

Up until the 75-80% of the book I thought the simplicity of the love story very much mirrored a Mills and Boon. The only thing different was that it was well written and the vocabulary used was a few notches up. After that it did get very good and incorporated the kind of complication and drama that I like but I wish the ending was a bit different. I wish Richard had developed a pair of balls and that is all I am going to say to avoid the spoiling the story for you should you decide to read it.

Anyhow, despite my dissatisfaction with the end I have to agree that it was a better ending for a mature love story and anything else would have been too Mills & Boon.

]]><![CDATA[If You’re Not First, You’re Last by Grant Cardone – BOOK REVIEW]]>Tue, 11 Nov 2014 11:14:41 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/if-youre-not-first-youre-last-by-grant-cardone-book-review

Rating 4.5 / 5

My love affair with Grant Cardone continues. This is the second of his books that I have read and whilst it deserves a good rating, there needs to be at least a point differential between this book and Sell of Be Sold. But because he’s Grant, I gave him an extra 0.5 – just for being awesome!

The book was structured like a learning program with questions at the end to ensure you understood what had just been said and would implement the suggestions. I didn’t do the exercises as I was listening on the go but I took a few notes, as always:

Many people don’t finish things they start because:

They only made a small financial investment so they don’t feel as though they are wasting much by not taking action.
They don’t give themselves deadlines.
They don’t understand something that is being said in a program or disagree with it so much that they get separated from the plan or program that they have set.

A sure-fire way to ensure you never get to first place is to compare yourself to losers! That is, people that are less capable than you. You have to take massive action to succeed.

We’re socialized to be average, conformist and not to take grand actions. However, if you want above average success you need to:

Be unreasonable.
Take extreme action.
Be illogical, i.e. go against the logic of the masses.
Be contrarian – I love this statement because my husband is always saying to me, “Why are you so contrarian?” – I never had an answer to this except to say, I was contrarian before you married me and you still chose to! But now, I’ll add that, “Grant says contrarian is good.” – he’s already getting used to the “Grant says…” statements.

Grant went on to say, we’re not encouraged to do whatever it takes; society says don’t be too pushy, don’t be too aggressive – so this is what we do, we conform.

More notes:

Wow! The customer, especially in a recession.
It’s never about the price.
The second sale in a transaction is key, upsell!
Act hungry. Many people in the West have lost their ability to do this. I agree. It’s so rare to find people with fire in their belly. Real go-getters.
Aggressively and effectively market yourself. In a downturn UP your marketing budget.
Time x action = advancement / progress
Most of the middle class ARROGANTLY refuses to take any action that won’t lead to an immediate payment. However, making money usually involves a lot of necessary unpaid tasks before you hit “pay dirt” as Grant calls it. I love that phrase.
Poor people waste time, rich people buy it
Pack your day like a sardine, tight! Really pack it in.
It’s frequently not even about the product: Vincent Van Gogh one of the best artists of all time sold just ONE painting his entire life.
Don’t waste time dwelling on failures or successes; cry or celebrate then move on: FAST! There are more opportunities to be taken advantage of out there.

Finally, the placebo effect pretty much proves that what goes on in your mind can have REAL effects and consequences. Thoughts and beliefs massively impact outcomes. So the stories you tell yourself CAN and in fact, DO, become self-fulfilling.

The book concluded by stating that your financial situation is the sum total of the action you took yesterday. Indeed, I have been a firm believer in this kind of thinking for decades: I honestly believe my results at A-level and indeed in university were the sum total of dedication and hard work that I had put in since I was 11.

After a certain point, when we compare ourselves to someone and want to replicate their success don’t look at what they are doing now, look at what they were doing 10 years ago (or even further back) and start doing all that stuff too. Current actions simply reflect the cumulative effect of previous actions: big and small.

]]><![CDATA[The Way I see It by Alan Sugar – BOOK REVIEW]]>Fri, 17 Oct 2014 08:39:45 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/the-way-i-see-it-by-alan-sugar-book-review

Rating: 5/5

I actually started reading this book in Feb-2014 as Harry and I flew into India. I was due to be interviewed for The Apprentice and thought I needed to do a little research.

Whilst I don’t agree with all of Lord Sugar’s opinions I enjoyed his book. He is definitely very switched on and the book was 100% authentic. It stays true to the persona that he portrays. I personally don’t find him to be “mean” on The Apprentice, he is realistic. He doesn’t pussyfoot around and he doesn’t like nonsense. I am very much like that too.

Lord Sugar isn’t afraid to offend people. If he doesn’t like you, you will know about it. There’s no pretense with him; very few would dare to describe someone as “That nasally congested hag Janet Street-Porter”.

Some Amazon reviews I read prior to this purchase thought he sounded misogynistic, I beg to differ. If you’re a small business the points he raised about maternity leave etc. were very valid. Employees just don’t see things the same way because they have a limited idea of how money is earned. Their concept of credit risk, exposure and the costs of hiring and training is very limited; importantly, even if you understand that stuff in principle you can never fully understand the pain until you are actually running a business.

In the book, Lord Sugar goes through many of his thoughts including:

What he thinks should be done about petty crime and various state benefits
TV programs that he likes to watch, e.g. Have I Got News For You and Question Time – I don’t watch either
In his youth, when he was on a job he thought: “I realized this life wasn’t for me. I looked around at some of the people there, particularly the older ones, and realized that I didn’t want to end up like these robots, pushing a load of boring paper around.” – this very much mirrors my own experience with the type of people in banking.
I loved his dad’s reaction when he wanted to strike it out on his own: “My father looked at me as if I were mad. ‘What do you mean, you’re going to work for yourself? Who is going to pay you on Friday?’” lol
He doesn’t understand why pharmaceuticals can’t advertise in certain ways, which is crazy to me; he doesn’t want to understand it because that piece of regulation prevented him from monetizing an opportunity he saw. I totally agree that pharma needs strong regulation because there is such a thin boundary between developing products to help people and manipulating those same people to make extra money.
He finds it hard to lounge around and has a certain admiration for those who can sit around and do nothing guilt free. I feel the same although I know I wouldn’t really want to be one of those people except for one day every week. The guilt he feels from lounging around and I do too is very real. Even when I know I deserve a rest I can’t because somewhere in my subconscious something says, you didn’t work that hard, really, not as hard as many peasants in the developing world – keep working!

Some of his pearls of wisdom include:

“You should expect to get success by drawing on a wealth of experience”
"Experience, consistency and hard work pay off”
“Entrepreneurial spirit does lie buried in the subconscious of many people, and it takes day-to-day opportunities and experience in business for it to actually flourish”
“First of all, you need to spot an opportunity and turn it to your advantage”
“You mustn’t be complacent”
“You need to learn to recognize the dodgy people out there who don’t have the same principles as you in life or in business’
“You have to master the art of presentation and salesmanship”
“Do what you’re best at”
“You have to have some kind of daily discipline in your work life.”
“The same stuff at the same price but presented in another way can suddenly start selling.”
“If you have partners, they have to bring something to the party”
“Keep control of your costs and know exactly where you are going and how you are doing.”
“I set myself targets”
“The principle of regularly checking how you’re doing is an important one”
“Unless you face up to the fact that you’ve got to have something special, you are going to fail and be bitterly disappointed in the marketplace.”
“Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work, and show a dogged determination not to give up if things aren’t going well.”
“Always assume that every motorist on the road is a lunatic.” – I love this because when my dad was teaching me how to drive he pointed to an “L” plate on a car and said, “Heather, what does that mean?” I said, “Learner”; he said, “No, it means Lunatic, when you see one of those stay away!”
“It’s the simple principle that, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”
“I conclude by saying again that it is you and only you – no one else. You know what to do, otherwise you should not be in business. It’s just down to hard work, discipline and determination, combined with your knowledge and experience of your sector.”

]]><![CDATA[Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone - BOOK REVIEW]]>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:23:47 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/sell-or-be-sold-by-grant-cardone-book-review

Rating: 5/5

This is possibly the book I enjoyed reading the most in 2014. It made me feel pumped and introduced me to pig latin.

Grant Cardone has a strong personality and strong opinions and they definitely come through in the book.

My notes:

You will see laziness when you fail. You get lazy because you are afraid of failing again.
America is a country of one uppers.
Whatever business you’re in, first and foremost you are in the people business.
Always agree with the customer.
People believe what they see more than what they hear;show, don’t tell.
Rich people buy time. Poor people waste it.
Work your powerbase. That is, friends, family, fans and existing customers.
Meals, e.g. lunch time are opportunities to sell. Don’t waste time eating with colleagues – you can’t sell to them. Go out and eat with customers.
Be seen where your ideal client is.
If you aren’t where you want to be in life you need to work every angle, you need to work every minute and you need to seize every opportunity: you owe it to your family, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your future.
There is no treasure greater than a great attitude and there is no way to get a great treasure without it.
You are a product of everything you surround yourself with: TV, news, people, etc.
Obscurity is a bigger problem than being broke.
Anything lots of people do can’t be good for you!
He thinks most people indulge themselves in far too much leisure – they ain’t done ickday all week and then when Sunday comes they say,“The good book says I should rest.”As far as Grant Cardone is concerned, he believes God did that because he built the whole world between Monday and Saturday so he was entitled – what have you done?!

I loved the bit where he’s analyzing how much time there is in a day to spend working (I paraphrase): if I spend 2 hours with my kids, 1 hour with my wife, that’s 3 hours with my family; plus 7 hours in bed – what does that leave me? 14 hours. Wait am I doing this right, yep, that’s right that leaves me exactly 14 hours to do what? Grow my bidness!

Grant Cardone just made the word bidness cool for me because he’s cool and he uses it.

I was a little lost when he used the words itchbay, ickday, itshay but it later transpired they were b*tch, d*ck and sh*t in pig latin. It sounds a lot more acceptable in in pig latin.

In summary, I love Grant Cardone and I would definitely do one of his sales programs.

]]><![CDATA[Start with Why by Simon Sinek - BOOK REVIEW]]>Fri, 15 Aug 2014 07:40:43 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/start-with-why-by-simon-sinek-book-review

Rating: 3.9 / 5

A good listen.

Achievement vs. Success

Apparently every year, 40 to 50 business owners sit and talk about “stuff” at a Gathering of Titans on MIT’s campus. They don’t necessarily talk shop but about things pertaining to the bigger picture of life and business.

Simon Sinek attended one of these talks. When asked, “How many of you have achieved your financial goals?” 80% of hands went up. However, when asked , “How many of you feel successful?” Far fewer hands went up.

Many of these great leaders knew what they did and how they did it but they no longer knew why they were doing it.

Simon Sinek defines:

Achievement: as something you reach and attain – it is tangible and quantifiable; but
Success: is a feeling or state of being – it can’t be measured in specific terms.

Achievement occurs when you pursue and reach something and a feeling of success comes when you are clear about why you wanted to attain that thing in the first place.

I like this story because I could relate to it. I learnt very early in my career as an investment banker that financial achievements frequently didn’t lead to a feel of overall success in life.

On Corporate Ethos

In stating the general values of a good Southwest Airlines CEO, I loved the quote from Howard Putnam who said, “I’m not paying 5 bucks for a coffee; and what the heck is a Frappuccino anyway?” when Sinek suggested they take a break for a Starbucks.

It isn’t that he was cheap but he simply didn’t attach much value to a hot a drink and no matter how wealthy he was he wasn’t going to pay for one, he was “an every man”. I respect that.

On Money

Money is never a cause, it’s always a result. I loved that quote too because I elaborate on a similar principle in the “Success” section of The Money Spot™ program.

]]><![CDATA[Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout - BOOK REVIEW]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2014 05:44:38 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/positioning-by-al-ries-jack-trout-book-review

Rating: 3.75/5

This was an interesting read but not very memorable without notes. The only note I made was:

Out of mind, out of business. I guess this is enough because all I have to ask myself every day is, what has my business done today to stay at the top of customers’ and fans’ minds.

Overall, the idea and concept of “positioning” suggested that a product has to be positioned in the market so that, to a customer’s mind, you are somewhere along a hierarchy: e.g. the budget brand, the premium brand, the cool brand that you want people to see you ‘supporting’, the sexy brand, the glamorous brand etc.

Position yourself as being the FIRST & BEST at something. No one remembers the 2nd place product.

There is a great slideshow on SlideShare.net by Sameer Mathur elaborating the concept of positioning.

What I love about the positioning concept is that it too emphasizes that we have moved beyond buying products especially in the developed world. It describes the 1950s as the “product era” – an era when you focused entirely on product features and benefits and the current time as the era for strategizing and focusing on “position”.

The book had a range of interesting case studies too that I enjoyed listening to.

]]><![CDATA[Brands & Branding By Rita Clifton - BOOK REVIEW]]>Sun, 15 Jun 2014 08:04:30 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/brands-branding-by-rita-clifton-book-review

Rating: 3.5 / 5

For the most part I found this book a little disappointing because it was overly focused on big businesses (fortune 500) as well as what I would call traditional models of creating a brand.

The book was a compilation of thoughts from a range of authors. My notes included:

Reasons People Buy Products:

Top of mind purchase – because they have heard of the brand and when they think of buying product x, brand y immediately pops into their mind.
Preference – because they have used the product before and prefer it over other brands that they have tried regardless of price.
Aided by research on the net – because they have googled the product, read up on it and like what they have found.
Aesthetics – because they like the way the product looks and/or feels.
Peace of mind – because they are comfortable that if something goes wrong a bigger or better known brand will compensate them to protect their reputation.

If you don’t have a brand you have no way to create mass consumer loyalty.

There are low levels of trust in large companies but high levels of trust in specific brands.

Customer spend, customer retention and customer willingness to recommend a product are correlated with the strength of the relationship between the customer and the brand.

Relationship Strength with a customer grows if you:

Deliver your promise
Respect them
Are open and honest
The customer has a long-term emotional attachment
Have aligned values with the customer and mutual respect

Ultimately, consistency leads to trust.

I did finish the book so it was worth finishing but to be honest I didn’t learn as much from it as I had hoped.

]]><![CDATA[The One Thing - The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan]]>Wed, 14 May 2014 21:03:00 GMThttps://www.nenonatural.com/books/the-one-thing-the-surprisingly-simple-truth-behind-extraordinary-results-by-gary-keller-and-jay-papasan

Rating: 5/5

This is one of the best books that I have read this year so far. It puts a fresh spin on a lot of ideas I have already thought about and is very well laid out.

I could have made tonnes of notes as I listened to the book but I was usually running on a treadmill so it wasn't possible to do so, here are a few things I did manage to make a note of:

You don't need more discipline, you just need to direct it better.

In fact, you don't need discipline in order to get something done. You need the habit of doing that thing and just enough discipline to form the habit.

Habits have been empirically shown to take an average of 66 days to form but can take as little as 18 days and as many as 200 days depending on the complexity of the habit one is trying to form.

Success is about doing the right thing NOT about doing everything right.

Yes, you can multi-task but no one can actually multi-task well!

Will power. Those who can master it and are happy with delayed gratification achieve better results in life (see Walter Mischel study).

Efficiency is doing the right thing, effectiveness is doing the thing right.

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