Books - The Catalyst of Passion and Change

I have read several books on wealth, self improvement, business development, and sales as well as industry specific books on technical writing and content management. Recently I have found that I am not interested in being entertained by fiction when I read so I read business and industry magazines to relax. Honestly, I'm surprised I sleep as well as I do considering how much information is swirling through my thoughts at all times, but this is what keeps me sane I believe.

Anyway, a concept I find that shows up in many books is the idea of diversification. We know it is possible to start a business with one product, but we also know if you are not growing your business and moving forward, you are dwindling and moving backwards. It is important that the growth of the business is based on implementing complementary products or services that help increase the offering or reach a different market. To diversify a product offering can help support the growth of a company.

On investments, wealth experts all talk about diversification. My grandmother had lived through the depression in the 30's. One thing she had learned and lived was that it is important that your money would not all be invested in the same place. When she passed away my mother had to close out several bank accounts as well as find all the stashes she had around her residence. This may not be the best way to become wealthy but we can probably say that it is a good way to insure you don't loose everything you have earned when a bank closes down because of sub-prime mortgages crash.

So here I am at the beginning of my diversification into investment. I am approaching this change like I do every other, I learn. For business I had attended many training classes, programs, online seminars, conferences, and I continue to read books, often several at a time. I have mentors, advisors, have received coaching, and I participate in a mastermind group to ensure I have support and feedback for all my questions. For my new life addition I have invested in education to help myself understand real estate the way an expert would, through The Trump Institute. I am attending investment groups, networking with experts and surrounding myself with like minded people.

I was enticed in this direction through the ideas I have learned in the books I have read over the years. And this is my beginning. Books are often the catalysts passions. I would like to share three of my favourite books on wealth.
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Books Worth Reading

• The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton - This book gives you the basics of the concept that anyone can be a millionaire if you are wise with your money. Found at Chapters and Amazon.
  
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker - If you read this book you need to go to the Millionaire's Mind Intensive Seminar. Buy the book and register for the weekend at this link. Use registration number 286519 so my friend Jackie, who gave me the opportunity to change my "wealth blueprint" can be rewarded.
  
• The One Minute Millionaire: the Enlightening Way to Wealth by Mark Victor Hansen - I've listened to this book several times. I like the idea that there is more than one way to make money, which helped change my mindset and start me on my path to diversification. Also found at Chapters and Amazon.
  

I hope you enjoy these books and your own transformation.

Be the Elephant - Steve Kaplan

This book is a fabulous follow-up to Bag the Elephant, also by Steve Kaplan. In this elephant book Kaplan talks about becoming the elephant we were targeting. He discusses, "why growth is not only desirable, but necessary." We started a good business and we need to map its growth, in which Kaplan points out the three essential factors for sustainable, successful growth. When you answer the question "Think you're ready to grow?" you are in for some real work. This is not a sit-down book, this is a "do-something book" and like running a business, there are rewards for doing it right. After all, as Kaplan notes, "To last, you have to grow" and we all know that to grow you have to be willing to put in some effort.

I got to page 23 "The Guts of the Model" and had to stop to identify some core functions of my company before I read on. The information required is detailed and getting it is not a small task. Yet, I kept thinking to myself, "this is a book I can go back to later. I know this, but I will estimate that." It still took quite a bit of time and I got through it but I know I could have been more specific with my answers.

I had 6 pages of notes and details about my company when I finished. Next I moved on to the risk analysis. In the chapter "What's the downside?" I reviewed and reveled the risks of running my business. Again this required some time to complete but I had a reward at the end because directly after this chapter is the assessment of the health of your company in the form of the Business Success Quotient (BSQ).

So, one-and-a-half months later I am finally doing my BSQ. Often I just shrug off this type of assessment as being too superficial, like the surveys in Cosmo, but I am still driven to see the results. In this case the assessment is clearly based on data and other key elements (like assumptions, risk, values, my personality, passion, and experience) that made the outcome a much truer, revealing look at my core business. Just so you know I am fairly competitive and I like to do well on these assessments, which may mean that the outcome is as expected or better than expected.

Well, I got a rude awakening to the idea that I am running a healthy, sustainable business. I did not fall a little below the bottom level, I fell a lot below. In fact the exact working in Kaplan's book is "This is a very high-risk business and is not likely to work. You should seriously consider moving on to a different opportunity." All is not lost because it is possible change your scores by going back and putting in the 100% effort to complete the information as well as evaluating where the weaknesses are and shifting the business to make it stronger.

This was quite disheartening news and I will have to spend some time determining whether to evaluate and reassess or to move on. I have always been aware that something is not working right in my business and I have been struggling to find a way to identify it. This assessment just gave me the tools to see it more clearly. The very next day I am in the office of Mario Perek of Industry Canada. He has been in the medical device and biotech sector for well over two decades, which is the industry my company targets. In his own words he feels that "companies [in Canada] have to export. They cannot survive selling in Canada." It was definitely a different perspective than the rosy outlook painted by the industry. Although I do know that it is a difficult industry to flourish in I do believe there is a very healthy market for growth. So, should I spend time looking for that market or should I "move on" as Kaplan would say.

Well since this is a book report I will say that this is the end of Part 1. I am 65 pages into the book and I will read no further until I can make the first 64 pages valuable to my company, what ever that may be.

I do recommend reading this book and going through the exercises. I think it will help you determine where your strengths and weaknesses are and possibly change the direction of your business. By knowing this information you will give your company a strong base in which to support your elephant.

Steve Kaplan - The Difference Maker

Good to Great - Jim Collins

I have decided that I am not cheating when I listen to a book instead of reading it and that's what I have done with Good to Great. I consider this book a great 'listen' for the insight it gives into the core reasons why a business makes the transition from being 'Good' to becoming 'Great'.

Jim Collins starts by defining his 5 years of research, how they determined what good was, what great is and what factors were used to identify the companies that were in the study. This is not a book based on assumptions, this is the result of 5 years of research and the support and input from a group of associates and business leaders. It also is not based on a sampling of the great companies, it uses the entire set of businesses that fulfill the requirements of 15 years as a good company and 15 years consistently surpassing the market. Because of this long time frame there are surely other companies that are great, but they had to be clear on their requirements. It lends credibility to the assumptions they make about the findings on these companies.

Everything in this book and about these great companies revolves around the three circles. Knowing where your competencies, goals, and passions lay will take a company through to greatness. The basics of these three circles are:

1. What you can be the best in the world at and what you cannot be the best in the world at?
2. What drives your economic engine?
3. What you are passionate about?

Collins refers to these three circles throughout the book. I had to go back and listen to several chapters to find the definition of the three circles when I realized that I was going to need it to understand the concepts later on. This is one downfall of listening to a book, it is not easy or quick to scan for a specific word or concept.

Leadership
Although the team originally felt that leadership was not going to be a factor and set out their research to overlook this aspect of business, it turned out the response to their inquiries often lead to great leadership. This book defines a type of leader that is always (100% of the time) found in great companies. They defined this leader as possessing "Level 5 Leadership" skills. If you are a business owner or key leader in a good business (like the CEO) you should check out the attributes of the "Level 5" leader. If you were hoping to take your company to the next tier you will need to have these leadership skills in the leader that will be driving the company forward.

First Who, Then What
This chapter is about the people in your company. In every case the right person in the right position is a key factor in the quality and quantity of output for the company. Collins states that "if you feel the requirement to manage someone then you probably need a change. Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off." I think this clearly sums up the idea of having great associates working for your company.

Confront the Brutal Facts
The brutal facts of business are the truths that we sometimes find hard to look at like: the failures we must diagnose, the market changes that could kill our company, the leadership roles that take us in the wrong direction, and the industry shifts that make us less competitive. The brutal fact is we need to take a good hard look at what it is that affects our company, confront the change, and accept it. Only by accepting that we can no longer sell without specific registrations, keep employees to work on products that are obsolete, accept that studies show our product is not well accepted, tolerated or useful can we move on to doing what will be good for the company.

Collins goes on to spell out that we need leader that accept that they do not know everything and they should admit it. Asking for help and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit of the company will make it stronger and more resilient. The alternative is to force ideas of change creating a "recipe for mediocrity". The best three practices he describes to overcome this trap is to admit "I don't know", look for the best answers and "conduct an autopsy without blame". These three practices scream "Great Company" to me.

The Hedgehog Concept
Collins starts with a tale of the constant struggle between the fox and the hedgehog. It is like a fairy tale but it clearly demonstrates that you must have a deep understanding of your three circles to be able to live the truth of them. Collins shares numerous examples of good companies that missed the mark and never make it to great. He also gives examples of great companies loosing their focus and dropping from their pedestal. He describes how the absence of this concept within those companies was the core reason why they failed to excel or maintain their greatness.

A Culture of Discipline
Collins describes the lack of discipline to stick to the three circles as "the cancer of mediocrity". Bureaucracy being a symptom of incompetence, which drives away the right people forcing a company to attract and keep only the wrong people. As stated in the "First Who then What" chapter you have to "Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off" if you want to create an environment where the company and the people can grow. To ensure superior performance create a culture of discipline that everyone will aspire to and nourish the "ethic of entrepreneurship".

Technology Accelerators
In this chapter the research is used to show over and over that technology is not the core reason a company succeeds to greatness. When CEO's were asked about technology use they would confess that it was often not even in the top three reasons why they felt they got to where they are. That said, all the great companies are technologically advanced, which showed that it is important but not a key reason.

When determining if technology was right for their companies the great companies would assess if it fit their hedgehog concept. If it did then they would find the most suitable product and way to implement, not necessarily the biggest and newest. If it did not match their hedgehog concept then they didn't implement the technology. They used technology as an accelerator of business not a key component, even when the technology was a key tool in parts of their products.

The Flywheel and The Doom Loop
In this chapter Collins gives us some great examples of a company that strayed way from the three circles and then came back. It is the dedication to the hedgehog concept and the three circles in everything the company does that allows the greatness to shine through. "The more an organization has the discipline to stay within its 3 circles the more it will attract opportunities for growth and contribution." It is just as important to know when to say "no" to an opportunity as it is to say "yes" to the right opportunity. Always focusing on the right opportunities will continue to bring the right opportunities in abundance.

Why be Great?
Finally Collins answers some questions about good to great posed to him. One of these questions asks "Why do I want to be great when I already have a good business". The question seems reasonable but the answer is revealing. What would you think if I were to tell you that Collins and his research group have proven that more effort is required to stay 'good' then to become 'great'? Why would you want to be 'good' when 'great' is easier. You'll have to read this one to understand why.

The One Minute Millionaire, The Enlightened Way to Wealth - Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

OK, I cheated a bit with this book. I picked it up on CD and listened to it on my way to client sites, but I can still tell you that this book is worth reading (or listening to).
The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen is a great way to think about your worth and your wealth, differently than you were brought up to think about it. The book is presented in three parts on three disks. Each disk has one part of the book and is delivered like two books, a Non-fiction audio book (for the engineer type learner) and a novel (to engage artists). The non-fiction part of this book is the "How To" with tips on everything from self-enlightenment to property investment. The other is a story about Michelle. Michelle's Story is so compelling, filled with emotion and empathy that I had to stop listening to it when going to my client's sites because I did not want to arrive with tears in my eyes. The authors take turns reading the two styles.
Hansen and Allen talk about the two key requirements to build wealth:

1. A commitment driven by desire and faith
   
2. The ability to take action.

They call this the Millionaire Map. They state that there are only four ways to create wealth.

• Investments - stocks, bonds, funds, etc.
  
• Real estate
• Business - marketing product or service
• Internet

Part One
In Part One the authors talk about the 24 -principles of wealth (or Aha's as they refer to them). These are all inspirational, enlightening views of ourselves and our environment. Some of the Aha's covered are things like "Words Transform". Remember your mother telling you "if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all". Well this elaborates on the notion that negative thought and words produce negative results. Another Aha "Clarity is Power" describes how to use your goals to get you to where you want to go. They attribute a success philosopher named Neville for this thought:

• "Don’t think of your goals, think from you goals"

For the entire list of the 24 principles visit:

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/downloads/misc/24AhaPrintouts.pdf

At the end of Part One they open the story of Michelle and how she looses everything: her husband, her house, her job and her kids all because of a car accident. It takes us through her emotions of disbelief and frustration and into a world of powerlessness. We are left contemplating the parallel between the 24 principles and Michelle's situation. Her situation and her negative reaction to her circumstances really emphasize the power of the 24 principles in a inverse way. We see what happens when we don't apply the principles.

Part Two
In Part Two the authors talk about the team. This team is part of the lever required to create wealth. A team should consist of 2 or more people with a common purpose and they state that, "Attitude is critical and can make or break your success." Use their H.O.T.S. Survey when building a team to discover your strengths and those of your team members.

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/tools/hots.asp

H.O.T.S. defines people as four different categories of workers: people that look for solutions, strategies, problems, or results, known as the Hares, the Owls, the Tortoise, and the Squirrels. The four types of workers are needed to have a well rounded team. A tortoise as an example brings attributes like the ability to "make sure a concept is thought through and how it can be improved and implemented". I am a Tortus according to the H.O.T.S. survey and when I read the full description it pretty much describes the qualities I would bring to a team.
Part Two of Michelle's Story continues on in her life, if you can call it that. She is a broken women, spending most of her time blaming her situation on everyone and everything else. She is of course not responsible for the accident that precipitated her current situation, but she was responsible for letting her insurance laps. When she meets Sam, a woman that takes on a mentoring role in Michelle's life, she starts to change. With her desire to reclaim her children and her faith in her abilities Sam helps propel Michelle forward into action. Michelle's first task was to build a team of people as dedicated and driven to getting to a goal as she was, and she succeeds.

Part Three
In part three of the book the authors describe the details for many different models of creating wealth including how to purchase real estate using OPM (Other Peoples Money). Some of the models are quite complex and I found I had to listen to it a couple of times to understand how they arrived at the final values, but the ideas are simply brilliant.
On this CD they conclude Michelle's story with the final tally of her wealth and where her money comes from. It is unbelievable to think that someone could make $600 000 with no money for a down payment or $250 000 in a few minutes giving away a free book, but this is the concept that lead to the creation of The One Minute Millionaire.

I love this book, both for the engineer in me and for the artist. There are plenty of reasons (at least a million) to read or listen to this book and lots of resources on their website to take advantage of.
Enjoy

• www.oneminutemillionaire.com/

High Trust Selling, Make More Money in Less Time with Less Stress - Todd Duncan

Overview

Mr. Duncan writes a great "how to" book on becoming a better sales person by becoming a better relationship person. The lessons, tips, ideas, suggestions, and advice are all valid and resonate with the truth of how strong trusting relationships impact how and who we will deal with. Mr. Duncan promises that by applying the fourteen 'Laws' described in the book "your sales business will do more than merely improve-it will explode."

It is definitely a mental shift away from cold calling and into a relationship building process that will increase your income while decreasing the time you spend earning it. The more valuable benefit is the increase in quality of life which is what brought Mr. Duncan to pursue this avenue in the first place.

The Laws

Each 'Law' is a chapter that defines sales in a way that helps us grow and change the way we view sales, our clients, our products, our approach, and ourselves.

Personal Growth

In the first chapter “The Law of the Iceberg", Mr. Duncan describes how a good foundation gives us stability in our relationships. To determine our foundation he walks us through a short exercise to define our purpose at work by answering the questions "What's important to me about being successful".

He builds an excellent understanding of why this foundation is so important in the second chapter "The Law of the Summit", when he talks about our perception of failure and success. He decants the thought that, "You need more than a capacity for psyching yourself up. You need to be inspired at your core." This is so true and he makes you feel it with the stories of personal and professional failure that he faced in his own life.

"The Law of the Shareholder" defines the characteristics of an owner or CEO. As a high trust sales person you must take responsibility for your relationship with your clients and this means that you are alone in charge of your client's experience, not your assistant or your boss. To take on this type of responsibility, especially if you work for someone else, is difficult, but once past the "it’s not my company" mentality into a "these are my clients" we start to see the value of investing in our position. This kind of investment will not necessarily require more time, but most likely dollars and definitely passion. Mr. Duncan lists 10 key investments you can make in our future:

1. Invest in your relationships with those you love
2. Invest in a long-term personal-development program
3. Invest in a sales coach
4. Invest in a competent right-hand assistant
5. Invest in your personal image
6. Invest in a personal financial plan
7. Invest time in an exercise program
8. Invest in a client-retention program
9. Invest in a library
10. Invest in technology
    

When I read these it was like getting permission to do the things I knew should be done but was afraid to pursue because it was not work that was "in my business". It is very true the more we invest in ourselves the more we will get out of ourselves and we may all fundamentally understand this but still we ignore our health, pass on the contact management software, stop learning, and thus stop growing.

The Business Foundation

The next four chapters ("The Law of the Ladder", "The law of Leverage, "The Law of the Hourglass", and "The Law of the Broom") talk about how to establish a strong business foundation. He lays the groundwork for defining our High Trust Plan by having us thoroughly investigate "The Core Four", which consist of a life plan, a business plan, a time plan, and a client plan.

An effective sales strategy uses "The Core Four" and applies a three-level leverage approach to reach these goals (personal leverage, associate leverage, and professional leverage).

The Law of the Hourglass and the Broom both deal with the effective way to manage time. If you have ever had a sales coach, or any coach at all, you will have no doubt run into many of these ideas and exercises in the past, (like time blocking). These exercises are so valuable, that it is worth the time to revisit them regularly to ensure we have not forgotten.

Sales Processes

In these next five chapters (“The Law of the Dress Rehearsal”, “The Law of the Bull’s-Eye”, “The Law of the Scale”, “The Law of Courtship”, and “The Law of the Hook”) Mr. Duncan compares the sales relationship to a marriage and the process of getting there as a great performance. It takes a great deal of practice and dedication to put on a world-class performance. Our best performances should not go wasted on prospects that are not our core target. He helps us define our target or bull’s-eye so that we are performing to the people that want to watch. Mr. Duncan says, “It doesn’t matter how many prospects you see. It matters how you see the right prospects.” It’s easier to sell when we are talking to the right person from the start. Follow his advice to reduce the number of prospects and focus solely on the ones that will bring us the exact match to our core service or product offering.

Mr Duncan details how to create the scripts we need and how to practice these scripts to ensure we earn our prospects trust. By rehearsing a well scripted interview, which includes knowing how to address objections we captivate our audience so that they will continue to listen, ask questions, and then buy from us.

This process will save us money, time, and anxiety as we build our businesses.

The High Trust Relationship

In these last two chapters (“The Law of Incubation”, and “The Law of the Encore”) Mr. Duncan encourages us to give back to our clients. Like any good relationship, trust is won and keep because there is value, even when there is no request to purchase. Incubate the trust that was earned by implementing a genuine customer service process to continue to see the relationship grow. The cost of a good customer service program will result in more purchasing and more referrals from our clients to other prospects. Mr. Duncan quotes some statistics on the indirect cost of poor service, which I think we have all seen, and it can be devastating to a company. If we are genuine about wanting to give good service and we make a mistake then Mr. Duncan advises to apologize in a meaningful way and he demonstrates this through several stories of good and bad service.

Conclusion

This book is a MUST read and not just for the sales person in a company. It covers everything about sales that is important to the sales professional that wants to excel in their business and live a quality life. I honestly believe that if a company wants to give the best service, have the best clients, provide the best product, and operate as a world-class corporation that every person in a management, sales, and customer support position should read and understand this book . Todd Duncan really defines everything required to build the most successful sales relationship possible.

Count me in.

Belinda, The Political and Private Life of Belinda Stronach (Don Martin)

So how does a young single mother of two, with no university education and no political experience bring 130 000 new voting party members into politics, help establish a new political party, and be the touchstone for improving Canadian politics in a way not seen since Pierre Elliott Trudeau days? Why money of course and an undaunted determination to see everything she starts through to the end.

This book is an interesting read for a business owner. Here is someone that is in line to inherit one of Canada’s largest corporations. So what could a business owner learn from an heiress?

Belinda Stronach requires no investors and no MBA to one day inhabit the throne of the Magna Empire. She has not always been the ‘heir apparent’. In fact her father’s expectation of her success was to become a good mother and homemaker. What happened, you may ask, to enlighten Frank Stronach so that he would encourage and support Belinda in her rise to power both politically and corporately?

Belinda was a teenager of the eighties, ‘poofy’ hair, tight jeans, and bush parties, does that sound familiar at all? Her teenage life in the public school system was unremarkable. Besides the fact that her family was very wealthy, Belinda was a very average teenager. She walked the halls of the public secondary school with a group of close friends, many of whom are still close with her today. As an academic, her grades where only nominally above average, certainly not what you would expect from the CEO of Magna International. Yet, she possesses a persistence to do things she was not expected to do and go places that her father had only reserved for the male gender.

Belinda is a world class go-getter and also daddy’s litter girl. If she wanted something she would have it but not in the fashion of a spoiled child. Belinda is described in this book and by others as fearless, generous, compassionate, confident, connected, and an exemplary mother and yet she is also described as “rich, a divorcee, spoiled, a socialite, linked to Clinton, running on a whim, buying the leadership…”.

When she realized that the leadership of the newly formed Conservative Party, which she had worked hard to help consolidate, was going to go uncontested to Steven Harper, she decided to throw her hat in the ring. According to those who understood how the electorate worked, she could not win. But, she did not do this on a whim. This candidacy took months of preparation and consultation to decide if it was even worth the effort. Could she pull together a team in time to effectively persuade the membership of the party to elect her as their new leader?

Public speaking was something she had little experience at; some would say a prerequisite for the leader of a country. She could not and would not even attempt to speak French, a leadership downfall in a bilingual country. She knew little or nothing about the issues of the day and of those issues she did know about she had no opinion. It was a long shot, she nearly pulled it off but the race to the election date was full of disappointments and failures on her and her team’s part.

She did win a seat for the Conservative Party under Steven Harper, but was denied over and over any key role in the party. This book makes out Steven as a paranoid monarch, always watching over his shoulder for Belinda, whom he knows is out to take his throne. When she realizes she can no longer support the views of the party she did the unthinkable, at least in Peter MacKay’s mind, she crossed the floor, abandoning their party and their relationship.

Even after all this she had taken her second election in the Newmarket-Aurora riding by a huge margin over the first election changing the riding from a Conservative to a Liberal held riding. It was the only loss of a Conservative seat in Canada and she did it big with the sixth highest voter turnout.

This book is full of anomalies between the “haves” and “have not’s”, the “can’t do” and the “doers” the “academics” and the “self-taught” and they are all playing on the same field. It makes me feel I can play there too because I have lots of what they have and some of what they don’t.

A good read.