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 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. Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! "Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. Learn more about The Money Spot Program.
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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. Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! "Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. Learn more about The Money Spot Program. 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:
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:
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. Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! "Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. Learn more about The Money Spot Program. Rating: 3/5 I read this book so long ago that I don’t recall what it was about. As it happens, in early 2013 the book was pulled from bookshelves because Jonah Lehrer had made up some of the content – naughty boy! I still have access to it because I bought the audiobook in February 2013 just before it was pulled. The overall premise of the book was to provide a foundation for making good decisions. For instance: · Sometimes a complex decision is solved best by going on instinct · A simple problem may require more analysis What happens is that most people spend too much time analyzing seemingly complex issues when that level of analysis is not necessarily needed and too little time analyzing the seemingly simple. However, as a disgraced author who’s been found to be making things up in his book he’s lost a lot of authority and credibility for future books. Tut tut. Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! "Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness. Learn more about The Money Spot Program. Rating: 5/5 A very enjoyable read - this book was really about getting a better deal for yourself without being a "salesperson". I like Oren's idea of frames and I like his description of how Walmart's frame super collider will beta beat the best alpha! Oren's tips to become a frame supermaster - and by the way you will have to by the book to get what all this means: 1. Look out for beta traps that seek to control you. 2. Practice beta trap avoidance. 3. Identify and label frames that come at you:
5. Enact small acts of defiance with a soft touch so as not to ignite a cro response. 6. Don't force frame control, it should be fun. 7. Work with frame masters to get better Remember that local star power is "situational status" and is hence transferable to anyone that seizes that moment. Global power is fixed. A little more detail on Oren Klaff's Pitch Anything framework:
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.
Rating: 4/5 An interesting read. I purchased this book after seeing his YouTube interview with Marie Forleo. Jonah Berger talks about how things that go viral abide by some or all the below STEPPS. He's a fairly young guy, early 30s (32/33), but is doing extremely well. Being a lecturer doesn't hurt either as I assume he got his adoring students to review his book on Amazon thereby achieving over 200 reviews in a very short time-frame. I wish him every success. The STEPPS Social currency: we share things that make us look good Triggers: we share things because a memory has been triggered at an appropriate time Emotion: we share things that make us laugh, feel happy or very concerned Public: things that are built to show are built to grow, e.g. Movember Practical value: we share news that can be used Stories: we share good stories. I totally feel inspired by Jonah Berger's CV (read it and weep!), the guy must be working around the clock!
Rating: 5/5 I read this book after it was directly recommended to me by Roger Dooley. This was one of three books he recommended to me after I asked him for any book as good as his Brainfluence. The first two books were rather boring but this book completely met with my expectations. It's well researched and gives great insight into human behaviour. Some useful tips included:
OVERALL: BUY. Some of my notes may make sense to you but you'll definitely make sense of all of them once you've read the book.
Rating: 5/5 This is another timeless business classic. I have been wanting to read this book for years and I am so glad I eventuality got to it! I mostly listened to this audiobook when I was driving so my notes are sketchy, not nearly as comprehensive as usual. That said, here are some useful takeaways: On fate. "I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul." I love that line because it puts responsibility on the individual - not your parents, the Government, siblings or friends. As much as a support unit is important, understanding that you can control where your life goes inspires me to work harder. On desire. "Desire is the starting point of all achievement." Who can argue with that. What you visualise in your head, you can execute. No one thinks like you and only you can fulfill your vision or goal. "You don't just need an ordinary desire to succeed and progress but a keen, pulsating, definite desire." On visualisation. "Believe as though your desire is already a reality." This helps you to accomplish it. "Any subconscious thought which is repeatedly passed on to the mind is ultimately accepted by it... Faith is the only known antidote for failure." On making sacrifices. "You and you alone must decide whether the effort required to achieve the reward you desire is worth it." Think about that one. On worry. "Reach a blanket conclusion that nothing which life has to offer is worth the price of worry. With this decision comes poise and peace of mind." This suggestion was very important for me right now because I have been worrying far too much. On troubles. "Don't expect troubles because they have a habit of not disappointing." I love that! I liked Schwab's anti-greed principle. He believed that if you make a product cheap (steel in his case) more uses will be found for it leading to an ever-expanding market. That's profound. A couple of verses I enjoyed:
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By Heather Katsonga-WoodwardTime allowing, I love to read. If I read anything interesting, I will blog about it here. Categories
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