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February 13
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Emma
gave  to:
Unveiling the Heart of Your Business
by
Mark Silver
bookshelves:
biz-marketing-money,
new-agey
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my rating:
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read in January, 2007
Emma said:
"I haven't been able to get into this book. I think it's probably the perfect match for some people, but I found it hard to get past the font faux-pas (comic sans! 5 different font faces!) and the hefty price tag. I felt resentful reading a book that ...more
I haven't been able to get into this book. I think it's probably the perfect match for some people, but I found it hard to get past the font faux-pas (comic sans! 5 different font faces!) and the hefty price tag. I felt resentful reading a book that costs $80 when it looks like it hasn't been in the hands of a professional typographer.
But, well, I am a designer/font snob. And, I have never understood the whole "sell a book for $80" thing. Books should cost $20. I can't help it, that's what seems right to me.
I also felt I was getting an overdose of "spiritual journey" metaphors and "spiritual secrets" for my taste. Spirituality, to me, is about deep and abiding truths. But I think they are often best communicated in plain and simple language that anyone can access. I guess it felt a little...schmaltzy.
I also resist the structure. I don't want to adopt Sufism. I already have a spiritual practice and framework. I want a book that will deepen that, not make me adopt a whole new thing that feels awkward to me.
I think the audience for this book is people who aren't naturally business people. For instance, in Chapter 11 he writes "How much time do you spend each week with your finances? If you are like most small business owners, the answer is probably somewhere between zero and "I had to spend 30 minutes paying the bills-thanks God that's over with"."
Um...no. I'm not like that at all. I like doing my accounting every week - it's fun. And I would never dream of neglecting it. It's the lifeblood of my business. Why on earth would someone be in business for themselves if they didn't like accounting? I guess the whole idea of that baffles me.
It feels like Mark wants to lead the reader down a very specific path. This might work for people who are his exact target audience and want to walk down that exact path, but for an outlier like me, it didn't hit the spot.
There is probably a lot I could learn from this book if I could get into reading it - but I'd have to skip and ignore a lot (and somehow get used to the font issue) and I haven't been motivated to do that.
I do appreciate that he put a lot of information and effort into it. The resources in the back and the private website area that comes with it are a gold mine. And for the right person, it's probably a great fit. Like an older hippie type person who doesn't get/like business at all and doesn't have a heightened awareness of production values.(less)
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February 12
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Emma
gave  to:
Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives (Paperback)
by
Michael Newton
bookshelves:
new-agey
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my rating:
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read in October, 2008
Emma said:
"So this guy regresses people, not to their past lives, but to the time *in-between* their last life and this life. To see what that's all about. And he's collected all these cases to piece together this map of how all this life stuff works.
...more
So this guy regresses people, not to their past lives, but to the time *in-between* their last life and this life. To see what that's all about. And he's collected all these cases to piece together this map of how all this life stuff works.
It's a little off-putting at first because it's so detailed that it sometimes seems like a giant bureaucracy, with the levels and the advancement of souls and various departments with various functions. But two things: he'll specifically ask the person "uh, this is starting to sound like a giant bureaucracy" and they'll scowl and say "no, no, you don't get it." I think it's a) these accounts come filtered through the human incarnation currently sitting in his room and b) we just don't have a lot of models for organization that is organic, non-sucky, and actually works on this planet. That is, facilitates growth instead of restricting and regulating freedom.
So yeah. Fascinating.(less)
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Emma
read and liked
Don's
review of The Tipping Point:
"there were only a couple interesting points. mostly it felt like "wow! look at this very popular thing! before it happened, this other thing happened. there might be a cause and effect there!"
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Emma
read and liked
Wayne's
review of Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping:
"Rather disappointing -- it reads like a book length sales brochure for Envirosell, the company the author founded. Every page follows the same formula: A foolish retailer was doing this. I told him to do this. He did, and he is now more virile, has a...more
Rather disappointing -- it reads like a book length sales brochure for Envirosell, the company the author founded. Every page follows the same formula: A foolish retailer was doing this. I told him to do this. He did, and he is now more virile, has a better looking wife, has more money than he could imagine, and he thanks me daily.
This gets old. A few fun tricks of retailing are buried here and there, but the book should be subtitled: How to Get Rich Using Common Sense. (less)
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Emma
gave to:
E-Newsletters That Work, The Small Business Owner's Guide To Creating, Writing and Managing An Effective Electronic Newsletter (Paperback)
by
Michael J. Katz
bookshelves:
biz-marketing-money
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my rating:
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read in January, 2006
Emma said:
"Straightforward and practical guide to e-newsletters. Short digestible chunks of info, both on content and technical considerations.
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Emma
gave to:
Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity (Paperback)
by
Stacey Hall
bookshelves:
biz-marketing-money,
new-agey
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my rating:
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read in January, 2005
Emma said:
"I will say right off that I only read the first four chapters. But they absolutely changed how I saw marketing. Things just clicked.
The lighthouse metaphor is brilliant. It goes like this: lighthouses don't run up and down the shore tryi...more
I will say right off that I only read the first four chapters. But they absolutely changed how I saw marketing. Things just clicked.
The lighthouse metaphor is brilliant. It goes like this: lighthouses don't run up and down the shore trying to be everything to everyone. They stay in one spot so their customers (ships) know they are there and can see them as a beacon of light. They do their job and they do it well. They don't try to also be a thousand other things. This is a fundamental branding lesson. You want to be a lighthouse.
And it's something a lot of small business owners need to learn. Stop trying to please everyone who might be able to pay you something to do something. Focus on your perfect customers - the ones you will be the best fit for, and who will be the best fit for you. Therein lies the path to greatest profit and happiness.(less)
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February 11
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Emma
gave to:
Growing a Business (Paperback)
by
Paul Hawken
bookshelves:
biz-marketing-money
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my rating:
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read in January, 2007
Emma said:
"I found a lot of what he writes to be obvious (but maybe it's not to other people).
If you think that running a business is impossibly complicated or something you could never do, or that you have to have tons of capital to start one, read...more
I found a lot of what he writes to be obvious (but maybe it's not to other people).
If you think that running a business is impossibly complicated or something you could never do, or that you have to have tons of capital to start one, reading this will put those kinds of fallacies in perspective.
Yes, you can do it. People who build businesses are just people, they don't have special powers. They just want to build a business and learn what they need to know to do it. You don't need tons of money - in fact, he makes a good point which is that most businesses are worse off with too much money than too little, because they don't gain wisdom about how to spend it. Witness the dot-com bubble start-ups that were floating in dough but never became profitable. It's like how trust fund kids often don't learn how to manage their money.
So, if you want to start a business, and don't have your own common sense about it, then this is probably a good book for you.
Mostly it confirmed stuff that I already knew though, and he was successful at something that I don't entirely want to be that successful at. I don't really want a big business - I have no interest in being the next Patagonia. I started my business to make a living and I'm happy to have it grow very slowly. So it wasn't like, the most fascinating book to me. But it could be for you. It's definitely honest and genuine which I liked.
(less)
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Emma
gave to:
Rich Woman: A Book on Investing for Women - Because I Hate Being Told What to Do! (Paperback)
by
Kim Kiyosaki
bookshelves:
biz-marketing-money
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my rating:
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read in January, 2006
Emma said:
"Some good points about how you have to figure out your own motivation in pursuing wealth to actually get motivated to do the substantial inner and outer work required to make it happen.
However, the awful editing seriously detracts from it...more
Some good points about how you have to figure out your own motivation in pursuing wealth to actually get motivated to do the substantial inner and outer work required to make it happen.
However, the awful editing seriously detracts from its readability.(less)
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