Book 31: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

I wanted to feel great about being immersed in this book - I found myself loving the first half, nodding along, and taking good pauses. The more into the text I got the more difficult my ability to keep up.

Mr. Tolle is no doubt quite brilliant.

The half that I enjoyed lays out enlightenment, dissection between mind and consciousness, and how Being has been written about in many forms for thousands of years. I especially enjoyed his description of psychological time - an illusion of past and future because these are two sides of memory, not reality. That all that every really is in reality is this very moment...no this second...this very second. Bizarre, no?

The Power of Now is to let go and let Being, be. This is a book that made me go, "hmm." More than a hundred times, I am still doing it. Read it.

Andrea

Book 30: Fierce Loyalty by Sarah Robinson

For only being 84 pages, this little number packs an awesome message about building community around purpose. Mrs. Robinson dissects not the how or why community building is powerful but what makes a community ... a community. Community creates fierce loyalty through belonging, predictable connection, and passion and pride. A community is brought together by common grounds of need, desire, and direction which creates an almost organic growth in masses.

Companies like Harley-Davidson and Ikea, and organizations such as TED are living examples of how community can create fierce loyalty. I am excited to merge this idea with my business - the components are there, we just need to harbor them. Stay tuned! Oh, and of course read it.

Andrea

Book 29: Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

Seeing as this followed one I wasn't too stoked over by Mr. Gladwell I was more than pleasantly surprised. How much so? Well, I LOVED this book. Loved it. Why? Because he demystifies everything about successful people that I have been reading and searching out. In one sentence - successful people are created, not born.

Created as in literally born at the right time but then inserted into prime opportunity, created through time dedicated to a particular mission or idea, and created through something as simple as how we communicate with one another.

Mr. Gladwell traces back how by the time Bill Gates exploded onto the scene he had spent his 8th-12th grade years and long nights on the campus of University of Washington playing on computers the size of your dining room table. This amounted to approximately 10,000 hours of practice. He traces back how Mozart may have started composing music at age 4 but his first great piece of work was not composed until he was 21, approximately 10,000 hours of practice later. How willing are you to dedicate 10,000 hours of practice to your passion?

Mr. Gladwell connects the history of how rice is harvested and why Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese are better at math. I won't detail it for you but it has to do with their history of working time per year dedication, surpassing other farming communities by as many as 1,000 hours per year or more.

His points about success makes me happy because I know that there is no such thing as luck, and here are 285 pages to back it up. Read it.

Andrea

Book 28: The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell

Another from my dusty bookshelf - the idea intrigued me thoroughly that there is a moment in an idea or concept where it tips and explodes. Mr. Gladwell explored ideas such as connectors, mavens, and salesman such as Paul Revere and Peter Jennings. He explores things like Sesame Street and Blues Clues and contexts like subway crime and the by-stander effect. I liked the book but didn't love it.

It is interesting that something as simple as cleaning the subway cars was the tipping point into dropping the New York City crime rate dramatically and how Paul Revere's 'popularity' is why when he rode in the night forewarning that the British were coming his impact created a natural call to arms.

All in all the book was a good read but I was looking for more of a 'butterfly effect' but perhaps real tipping points are not as dramatic as that. Read it.

Andrea

Book 27: Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Do not let the title of this book scare you into not reading it. A more appropriate title would have been, "Get More Living Out of Life" or some variation of that. Mr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon back in the day (1920's-1960's) and found something rather fascinating when he would change or alter someones appearance - they would emotionally change as well. He felt that it was his moral duty to be well versed in psychology to better prepare his patients for the emotional change that awaited the other side of their surgery.

The majority of his cases were patients who had experienced a traumatic accident or born deformity that had impacted them psychologically - taking away their enjoyment for life. For some the physical change brought about by plastic surgery was enough to bring their confidence selves back to the surface. For others though, they were convinced that the surgery had not even taken place and that their emotional scars were so deep nothing could remove their own stigma of who they perceived themselves to be.

He then goes on to explain his theories of failure mechanisms, success mechanisms, happiness, self-image, and self-confidence. Considering the book was published over 52 years ago I can't help but wonder if he is the father of modern processes for life fulfillment. I found myself immersed in his very basic ideas about perception and reality, hyper-consciousness, and how we hold ourselves back.

The majority of this book is echoed in the likes of Jim Rohn, Jack Canfield and Anthony Robbins among, I am sure, many others. I want to read it again. So clearly I recommend that you read it. 

Andrea

Book 26: The 7 Levels of Communication by Michael Maher

For any one who sells anything to anyone - read this book. Yet another book that tricked me into thinking via the title I was going to read about communication, well not exactly. The actual 7 levels Mr. Maher refers to are:

7. 1-on-1 meetings
6. Events and seminars
5. Phone Calls
4. Handwritten Notes
3. Email
2. Direct Mail
1. Advertising

Levels 1-3 are information zones.
Level 4 is the tipping point.
Levels 5-7 are influential zones.

By doing business from levels 4-7 alone, you can increase your active referral base and solely grow your business without spending a penny on ads or mail campaigns. I love it.

As a business owner you learn one lesson pretty quickly - cash is king. The more if it you can keep the better you are. And with 1-3% returns on most ad campaigns they are more of a liability than a wise investment.

The levels only account for 3 pages of the entire book - the other 164 pages are filled with strategies to implement the upper levels of influence. Want a quick sampling? Here it goes:

• Plan your day and block your time the night before
• Be ritualistic with your day, from start to end. Don't forget your affirmations and blessings book
• First thing in the morning call 10 people from your community of people, just to say hello
• Write Power notes every day and don't forget an actionable P.S.
• Get in front of your ambassadors monthly and turn friends into champions
• Memorize key questions for getting your community to think about sending you clients
• Give, give, give - your time, your listening ear, your genuine interest of others
• Use strategic success stories on your blog, social media, on post cards, and in your power notes

This is only a sampling - and to even decipher what it all means I highly recommend you read it. 

Andrea

P.S.

Drop me a note sometime, I am grateful you are here!

Book 25: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Richest Man in Babylon has been on my 'to read' list for far too long. I added it to my queue before I had it in my possession and had to continue putting it off - alas it finally arrived and quickly became my Sunday read.

If I had read this little number before Automatic Millionaire, The Millionaire Next Door, and many items by Jim Rohn I think its impact would have been more profound. However, without this book my previous reads would ceased to exist as they do.

Mr. Clason sets his story in Babylon, circa 8,000 years ago and in order to teach the reader 7 rules for wealth and financial freedom so simple and so useful they were even preached in this ancient world ... supposedly.

Rule #1: For every 10 pieces of silver, keep 1 for yourself (a.k.a. save 10% of your income)
Rule #2: Control thy expenditures (a.k.a. do not spend money you do not have)
Rule #3: Make thy gold multiply (a.k.a. compound your savings)
Rule #4: Guard thy treasures from loss (a.k.a. do not purchase liabilities)
Rule #5: Make thy dwelling a profitable place (a.k.a. purchase your home)
Rule #6: Insure a future income (a.k.a. take responsibility for your income when you can not longer work by saving for your retirement today)
Rule #7: Increase the ability to earn (a.k.a. you can not work more hours, but you can make yourself more valuable per hour)

A book 86 years old and still relevant. Read it.

Andrea