Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Made to Stick - Concrete Ideas

Posted by Matt | Posted in | Posted on 10:12 PM

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The current book I am reading is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I am only about half way through the book but I wanted to make a post based on what I have gleamed so far. The book is interesting but the concepts seem simple but not obvious. Most of the concepts to this point are around how stories are constructed that make people remember stories.




The point that I found very interesting and useful for me was the concrete idea. This is one of the most simple and most overlooked concepts I have read about in a long time. I have just completed the first year of an MBA program that ended with a Finance class. You could tell that the teacher was smart but could not get the ideas across in class. I thought that the class was going to revolt after the first couple of weeks. Most people realized it was not going to change and just accepted it. People struggled and I was fairly frustrated myself. Then he instituted a project that the class had to go and figure out the weighted cost of capital for their own company. This was finally something concrete that was close to home for all of us. All the sudden people started learning something! Because of a concrete idea they could latch onto. I learned more from that project than hours of teaching or problems. As I looked back on most of the classes we took the concepts I remember and will take away are concrete examples that I could relate to. I will give another update when I finish the book.



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The 4-Hour Work Week - A Must Read

Posted by Matt | Posted in , | Posted on 12:59 AM

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I was recently introduced to the book The 4-Hour Work Week. The warning I recieved was you just need to keep reading through the first 20% of the book. I went and downloaded an audiobook of this to listen to on the way to work. My first impression was this guy was out there and this was not something a normal person would do. How could you? This is not how the world works? But I kept with it and the book is really amazing. You can take the concepts as far as you would like or are comfortable with.

The author Timothy Ferris lives a great lifestyle of living life by creating an income flow that can be managed on a minimal basis yet provides enough to do some of the most amazing things in the world. This book fits well with my current delima of what to do in life. His advice is to find a way to live life and not wait until retirement to do the things you want to. He has foreseen all the excuses and eliminates them. He also does a great job at giving a step by step guide to developing all the pieces necessary. This is truely a book written by someone who has done this.

The ideas I have grasped on to are the outsourcing and automating a business. I currently run an eBay business but I know that it could run 100x smoother if I spent some time makeing it that way. I spend bunches of time to get it back in shape. I am going to experiment with outsourcing at work this quarter. He give details on what outsourcers in India and China will do - basically anything they do not need to be physcially present they can do. I am going to see where I can get some leverage out of this for report design, spreadsheet work and research. Based on the sucess I will expand this to further businesses or my personal life.

I think that anyone should read this book. If you go to a job each day and are saving for tomorrow then this is a must read. The only requirement is to have an open mind and explore the possibilities. Timothy might disagree with this but you can take as many of these items to apply as you feel comfortable with. They have created a great website that has lots of additonal resources. Hint - you have to have the book to get the full use out of the site.

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WHAT'S UP WITH THE NAME?

Posted by Matt | Posted in | Posted on 8:14 PM

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Ok - so what is up with the name. There are a ton of blogs out there and every simple name was taken. This is a combination of two books I have read in the past year that have had an impact on me. The first book is the Monk and the Riddle - The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur. This book is fairly simple and straight forward. Do something you like and are passionate about. The story is about a guy starting a funneral company on the internet. He originally had an passion about the idea and wanted to do it for more than money. Over time he could just see $ signs and not the original idea.




The second is a book but I really heard Kevin Carroll speak in Portland about 6 months ago. The book is called The Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. The idea is for you do follow what you love and it will lead you on your path through life. Kevin has an amazing personal story to tell. His journy to get where he is today is encouraging and enlightening. Kevin writes a blog http://www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com/ and runs a consulting practice.


The theme of these books are to do what you love and it will lead you on your journey. I have been working in accounting for 7 years and am at a crossroads in my career. I have much more to offer than working in accounting and I have a strong desire to do more. I love to lead and love the challenge of business. I like creativity and solving problems. That is limited to some degree in accounting. So this blog is for fun and for me to explore many items as I try and find out what I want to do in the next stage of my life.

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