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My dad asked me to read this to discuss in the context of his IT startup. This book, though overly verbose and idealistic, has some great core ideas. It could have been 1/3 its length. Here are the take-away concepts: -Small businesses fail because successful technicians are drawn to technician work and neglect the "business" work. -Run your business like you are creating a franchise: Define every job and document every process.
1 like 3 repins
This was very influential on me. As a field guy, I still have a hard time processing everything that comes at me, but the processes outlined in this book help me keep my head above water.
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Here's the whole concept: traditional marketing techniques are expensive and don't work any more... at all. The only way to market effectively now is to make the product itself remarkable so that people will spread the word. As usual with Godin, he takes a good idea that is often true and stretches it to build a case that it is ALWAYS true. Though it is probably exaggerated, the core concept is a very good one, though I'm still trying to figure out how it applies to my product. If you've read this, ping me. I'd love to talk about it
2 likes 1 repin
A little over rated. I'm surprised that this made it to WSJ's top ten business books. It had some good insights for balancing your life while pursuing "a dream", but I spent most of the book wondering if he was really qualified to write a book on the subject. While the author certainly has a better job than he did previously, I'm not convinced that he has attained a "dream job" and the path he had to follow is very different than anything I would have to do. Furthermore, I found his casual, silly style distracting. I'd rather have an abridged version that cuts out his humorous asides that I could read in half the time. I'd give it 3/5 just because it makes me evaluate how I am using my time.
5 likes
The book defines a strength as a natural talent that is enhanced with learned skills and experience. It was helpful to me to break up the specific components of a strength. The premise of the book is that the only strengths that a person CAN excel at are the strengths that are founded on natural talent. The author argues that a successful career will allow a person to develop their talents into strengths. The main objective of the book is to provide the reader with a short list of his/her dominant strengths to provide direction in the person's career. The strengths are identified by completing an online personality test that is activated with a 16 character code from a sealed page inside the book. The book then spends ~8 pages looking at each of 30 possible strengths giving examples of ways to use the strength in a successful career. In college I took a few personality tests to try to choose a career path. With each personality test I took (before this one) I found a consistent flaw: the results could be swayed by what you wanted the results to be. Other personality tests will frequently pose a question and then provide two possible answers; one of which indicates creative thinking, the other of which indicates analytical thinking. The characteristic of this test, however, is that the possible responses are never opposites. In many cases both answers COULD be a good response, and the test-taker is required to choose the response that fits better. The result for me was a short list of strengths that accurately describe me in terms that I hadn't considered before.
5 likes 4 repins
A fantastic reference with a misleading title. I resisted this book for years because of its shallow title. The book is actually entirely about being sincere and going out of your way to make other people's lives better. The book would be better titled "How to Make the World a Better Place and Better Your Life in the Meantime". Like a great sermon, it's mostly nothing new, but a very good reminder. Since reading this book, I find myself committed as never before to befriending EVERYONE I encounter.
1 repin
This book is ten years old, yet doesn't seem dated at all. The main concept is that a person's mind can only keep track of two or AT MOST three competitors in a given category. If you're not one of the top two, get out of that category and go fight a less crowded fight, or start a new category. The value of this book for me was in seeing how difficult it is to win with "me-too" features or by trying to be better than a competitor when competing on their strengths. It has inspired me to do things my way (which is something I'm pretty good at.)
2 likes
This book is ten years old, yet doesn't seem dated at all. The main concept is that a person's mind can only keep track of two or AT MOST three competitors in a given category. If you're not one of the top two, get out of that category and go fight a less crowded fight, or start a new category. The value of this book for me was in seeing how difficult it is to win with "me-too" features or by trying to be better than a competitor when competing on their strengths. It has inspired me to do things my way (which is something I'm pretty good at.)
3 likes 1 repin
I thought that Tim's approach over simplifies life a little, but it's still worth a read. The main concept is that we will get ahead in life by being a love cat, which is to say that we should connect with people emotionally and help them solve their problems. Tim spends several chapters evangelizing the need to read A LOT. While I agree with him that there is a lot of value in books, he then suggests that we use book prescriptions as the main fix to other people's problems. Although I read a lot, and my views are affected by books, I can't imagine myself quoting a book when a new friend describes tough time that he or she is going through. It's a quick read and has some good practical advice on becoming better connected with the people that you work with.
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I thought that Tim's approach over simplifies life a little, but it's still worth a read. The main concept is that we will get ahead in life by being a love cat, which is to say that we should connect with people emotionally and help them solve their problems. Tim spends several chapters evangelizing the need to read A LOT. While I agree with him that there is a lot of value in books, he then suggests that we use book prescriptions as the main fix to other people's problems. Although I read a lot, and my views are affected by books, I can't imagine myself quoting a book when a new friend describes tough time that he or she is going through. It's a quick read and has some good practical advice on becoming better connected with the people that you work with.
2 likes 2 repins
Way cool little book. Definitely worth the 35 minutes it took to read it. The author (the creator of CD Baby) has a completely different perspective on how to be successful than I have seen in other books on entrepreneurship. He tells his story of creating a startup on the side that became more successful than he had ever hoped it would be. He saw tremendous growth and trounced all of his original goals by staying true to some very bohemian standards. I'm always interested in hearing from people that have ACTUALLY done it, rather than the people that became famous by writing influential books or giving speeches about other people's businesses.
6 likes 3 repins
$25 for hard copy. (Twenty of which is donated to fight malaria.) Sixty essays from influential authors.
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$25.00