​Rating: 5/5

An inspiring and practical read. I listened to most of this audiobook during a twelve-hour drive from Harare, Zimbabwe to Blantyre, Malawi.

My notes:

Daniel Priestley talks about how we all have an empire building brain, however, the empire brain can be shut down if the lower parts of the brain (reptile or monkey) are over stimulated. The reptile sees resources as very scarce so it's extremely selfish, guarded and doesn't want to share; it only sees what is there; it's very low in imagination. The monkey is good at repetitive work but is very easily distracted. The empire builder is empathic, creative, strategic, resourceful.

As one of his 10 challenges, he recommends walking around with GBP1,000 in cash at all times to adjust your views on what is a lot of money, to learn a degree of self-control and I suppose to discover other fears and emotions that go with carrying what most of us would consider to be a fairly hefty, even unsafe, amount of cash.

Take two people you want to get to know better out to lunch every week.

Cut news out. Keep a journal.

Always have 5 people on your team:

• A visionary
• A sales person
• A graphics person
• A Swiss Army knife (i.e. a jack of all trades)
• A mentor

Lean in! i.e. go for it, network aggressively, seek opportunities, visualise and believe in the vision!

Formula for success: luck, reputation and vitality

Ascending Transaction Model - ATM:

• Gifts
• Products for prospects
• Core products
• Logical next steps (charge a few thousand for these)

7 Maxims

1. You get what you pitch for and you are always pitching
2. Influence comes from output NOT confidence
3. Income follows assets (this has been ringing in my head almost daily since I read the book)
4. Get known by the success of your clients
5. You're in partnership with everyone that touches your business
6. Ideas are worthless - implementation is everything
7. Being imaginative is NOT being creative

I recommend you read this book for practical steps that will push your vision/business forward; here are links to its Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk page respectively:

Rating: 5/5

A thoroughly good read. Timeless. Practical.

The 7 Habits according to Mr Covey are:
INDEPENDENCE
     1. Be proactive - things don't just happen
     2. Begin with the end in mind
     3. Put first things first

INTERDEPENDENCE
     4. Think win-win
     5. Seek first to understand then to be understood
     6. Synergize

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
     7. Sharpen the saw

I liked the phrase, "The person who doesn't read is no better off than the person who can't read"

I also liked the story about the squirrel, duck, eagle & rabbit. They were all forced to take part in a relay that involved running, swimming, climbing up a tree and climbing down one. In the case of the duck, it swam fabulously but was very below average in other subjects so the teacher forced it to stop swimming and focus on the subjects it wasn't good at.

All the running caused the duck to develop calluses leading to a decline in its swimming ability but a slight improvement elsewhere.

I was inspired by what I thought was the moral of the story: society/school forces mediocrity; focus on what you are good at if you want to be truly amazing!

Sadly, Mr Covey died in 2012, I really would have loved to meet him.