My Buy Essay

Archive for October, 2009

Did you ever wonder if some of those age old sayings about marketing are true? For instance, we’ve all heard “It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current customer.” But does anyone have any proof of that? That is exactly what a group of authors set out to do in Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business &ndash and Proven Tactics That Really Work. The authors, Timothy L. Keiningham, Terry G. Varva, Lerzan Aksoy, and Henri Wallard are all experts in consumer loyalty and use their wealth of knowledge to dispel common myths and offer insight into what really works.

The book chooses and interesting format &ndash the first six chapters are devoted to dismiss over fifty common ‘loyalty myths’ and the final two chapters are used to learning about why customers are loyal and how a loyalty program should be managed. Each of the ‘loyalty myths’ chapters contains several ‘myths’ grouped together by common themes, such as Loyalty Myths That Subvert Company Goals and Loyalty Myths Regarding Employees. The chapters both begin and end with an example pulled from industry that encompasses all of the myths mentioned in the chapter, with the actual myths discussed in the middle.

The authors spend a couple of pages banishing each of the fifty three myths. Some of the myths are things that we tend to take for granted, such as “Companies tend to know their customers,” while others like “share-of-wallet increases as customer lifetimes increase” would seem intuitively true. For each and every one, the authors use solid historical data to dispel the myth and show the negative business effects of believing it.

The final two chapters focus on seven ‘loyalty truths’ such as “Don’t manage for customer retention before you manage for customer selection” and “Customer loyalty and brand imagery are far from independent; you must manage them hand-in-hand.” The authors do a good job of going through how to build and measure a loyalty program around these ‘truths.’

The book is an extremely fast paced, entertaining read. Anyone reading the book with an open mind will agree with the authors’ solid reasoning. In particular, business owners, CEO’s, and anyone in marketing or consumer affairs will directly benefit by eliminating these ‘myths’ from their business and implementing the ‘truths.’ This book can have a very real impact on your company’s bottom line. Many businesses mindlessly pour money into customer loyalty programs without taking the steps outlined in this book. For some companies, a loyalty program doesn’t even make sense. For others, their program needs a significant overhaul. This book will help you identify where your business is and give you the tools to make improvements.

The only downside with the book is the shear number of myths. Many of the ‘myths’ blend together and readers would probably be more likely to retain the ‘myths’ if there were ten as opposed to fifty-three (similar to the seven ‘truths’). The amount of myths also doesn’t allow for the authors to go into quite as much detail as one would like for each ‘myth.’ There are several myths that aren’t so much dispelled in the paragraph or two devoted to it, but within the context of the entire chapter. It just seems like it would have made more sense to combine many of the myths.

Overall, Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business &ndash and Proven Tactics That Really Work is a tremendously entertaining and enlightening read. Anyone that has an interest in consumer loyalty will learn a great deal of directly applicable information that can save their company money and help differentiate them from the competition.

Looking for a heartwarming frolic through the life of a dog? John Grogan new bestselling book Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog delivers. This story of a young family making their way through life with the help of a neurotic dog will have you laughing out loud one moment, and then wiping a tear the next.

Maybe your thinking "I don’t like dogs… why would I want to read an entire book about one?" Let me confide with you: that is exactly what I thought when I picked Marley & Me off the shelf. I have never owned a dog, and don’t especially like my neighbor’s dog. I have no plans to ever own a pet dog… this book definitely served to solidify my determination never to own "man’s best friend".

However, whether or not you are a "dog person", there is still an awful lot to gain and enjoy while reading this book. The memories are so personal and heart-felt, at times you can completely forget Marley has anything to do with the book. But then he comes barreling back in the next paragraph, bringing humorous antics with every step.

The book starts with a young couple, John and Jenny, newly weds in Palm Beach, looking for some new challenge in life. They were deeply in love, with a great house, great careers, and not a care in the world. That lasts about 2 pages… that is until they bring Marley home. Little did they know that their lives would never be the same again.

As a ninety-seven pound Labrador retriever with more energy that an Alaskan oil rig, Marley’s entry into John and Jenny’s life is a whirlwind of disaster. Crashing through screen doors, destroying carpets, gouging drywall, eating jewelry are all in a day’s work for the pup. Yet through it all, the book points out the unconditional love Marley has for his family, and they have for him. Just as his ruinous powers appear endless, his love and loyalty know no bounds.

In this book John Grogan takes us along to some of Marley’s craziest adventures. The story of Marley being thrown out of obedience school is hilarious, mostly because of the hard nosed dog trainer who eventually has her pride fed to her by Marley in a silver doggy bowl. When Marley is cast in a local film production as the "typical family dog", we all cringe at what damage this dog can do. Sure enough, after a full day of filming a 15 second clip, the only thing Marley has accomplished is destroying the set and chewing through his leash.

One of the most memorable stories is that of the Grogan family going out on the town for a family dinner. With Marley in toe, they decide the Florida weather justifies eating outside on the patio of a ritzy restaurant. Marley is secured to the cast iron dining table, and drinks are served. However, when Marley spots another dog strutting down the road, he charges after, dragging the metal table with him, and clearing a wake several yards across. Needless to say, the family didn’t take Marley out on too many family dinners there after.

A big part of Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog actually has very little to do with the big animal. The book reads like a well written journal, describing the new couples excitement over their first pregnancy, and heartbreak over the subsequent miscarriage. John overcomes deep-rooted family concerns, while Jenny copes with serious depression. While the book is primarily a comical, laugh-a-minute adventure, it is definitely not without its sober moments. However, these honest and intent pages give Marley & Me the sole it needs to rise above other light-hearted tales.

Overall, Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog is an excellent book that can be enjoyed by all sorts of people (even cat lovers). The stories are funny and meaningful, the drama is heartwarming and sincere, and the dog is a complete mess. In the end, Marley reminds us all that life should be lived to its fullest, that we should love people unconditionally, and that shredded upholstery is a small price to pay for a life-long friend.

"No wonder it’s so hard to lose weight- our bodies are designed to keep weight on at all costs; it’s a matter of survival. It’s embedded in our DNA." In essence, we are designed to gain weight, expounds Mark Hyman, M.D. in his new bestselling book Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss. This books follows on the heels of his previous bestseller, UltraPrevention: The 6-Week Plan that Will Make You Healthy for Life that he coauthored and proves to be every bit as informative. Dr. Hyman, who has a passion for the cutting-edge science of Western medicine and alternative health for over 20 years, maintains that Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss is not just another of many weight loss books on the market. Rather, the book is your body’s owner’s manual for overall health. He distills his knowledge into a healthy lifestyle, which reduces the factors of a number of epidemic health problems and degenerative diseases currently plaguing us, while at the same time we also gain the positive side-effect of weight loss.

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss dives in by turning much of what we believe as conventional wisdom concerning weight loss on its head. Much of what we think we know about weight loss actually has been making us gain weight. As evidence, the book points to the fact that despite the $50 billion we spend on weight loss every year in America, whether it’s diet pills, programs or exercise routines, they all have a dismal success record. In fact, for every diet we go on, we end up gaining five pounds on average in the long run. Obesity is now overtaking smoking as the number one cause of preventable deaths with almost 70 percent of the adult population and one third of our children now overweight. Compounding the problem are the profitable foods the food industry pushes, entrenched pharmaceutical companies and our own government’s recommendations, especially when it comes to the "food pyramid" or low fat in our diets.

In part I, Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss exposes seven hoary myths that make us unhealthy, gain weight and keep it on. First there is the Starvation Myth: Eating less and exercising more does not equal weight loss. Next is the Calorie Myth: All calories are created equal. Third is the Fat Myth. Eating fat makes you fat. Fourth is the Carb Myth. Eating a low carb or no carb diet will make you thin. Fifth is the Sumo Wrestler Myth: Skipping meals helps you lose weight. Sixth is the French Paradox Myth: The French are thin because they drink wine and eat butter, and last but not least is the Protector Myth: Government food policies and food industry regulations protect our health. Moreover, the book points out that the introduced man-made substances such as "trans-fats", which are found in nearly every processed and packaged food because they never spoil, are adding to our overall exploding health and weight problems over the past 30 years. This consumable plastic disrupts our metabolism by actually turning on a gene in your DNA, which slows metabolism causing you to gain weight. The book also discusses another danger to our health: the man-made supersugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup, which is used to sweeten almost everything these days including soft drinks. These supersugars quickly enter your bloodstream and trigger hormonal and chemical changes which induces insulin surges that tell your brain to eat more and your fat cells to store more fat.

If there are substances and foods that we eat that can trigger negative results, then surly there are ways to make us healthy and loose weight. Part II of Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss gives us the keys to turn on our metabolism and fat burning genes, turn off your weight gain genes, and program your body to lose weight automatically. The book takes this even further in part III by providing menus and recipes, along with exercise and lifestyle treatments designed to create healthy metabolism and overall health. This section of the book is designed so it can be customized to meet your unique genetic needs to optimally awaken your fat-burning DNA.

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss provides a vivid road map to navigate our way back to health and fitness. And in so doing we will be successful in our quest for long-term weight loss without counting calories, fat grams or carbs. We don’t have to starve ourselves; we simply need to eat in harmony with our genes.

Everyone loves to read other peoples success stories. It provides us with evidence that amazing things do happen to normal people. By learning what they did to succeed we come one step closer to success ourselves. Such is the case with the ten stories told in Net Entrepreneurs Only &ndash 10 Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of their Success by Gregory K. Ericksen and Ernst & Young.

Ericksen interviewed ten of the most successful entrepreneurs at the turn of the century and presents their stories with a unique but effective use of lengthy quotes from the entrepreneurs. The quotes leave you with a feeling of having actually interviewed the entrepreneur yourself rather than reading a story about them. Each story is about 20 pages long but reads more like 10 pages because of the big print and free flowing pace.

The 10 entrepreneurs chronicled in the book are Jay S. Walker (priceline.com), Mike McNulty and Mike Hagan (VerticalNet), Christina Jones (pcOrder), William Porter and Christos Cotsakos (E*Trade), Gregory K. Jones (uBid), Russell Horowitz (Go2Net), Ken Pasterna (Knight/Trimark), William Schrader (PSINet), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), and Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner (broadcast.com).

Each entrepreneur has a unique story of how and why they saw the internet as a viable place to start a business, and each had a different way of getting there, but after reading all ten stories you can see some common threads between these extremely successful net entrepreneurs. Although this book was written at a time when internet business success was substantially easier (the book was published in 2000), many of the core competencies that these entrepreneurs possess can be applied in any era to any industry.

Each is extremely passionate about what they do to the point that they inspire others around them to have the same passion. Each is not afraid to take a risk, regardless of whether or not other people disagree with it. Along with that, each knows that failure is inevitable when taking risks and understands that future success depends on the ability to learn from failure and move on.

Another interesting thing that was mentioned in three of the ten stories is the fear of being blindsided by an opponent that they can’t see coming. They all talk about the proverbial kid in his basement or garage that comes up with the technology that puts them out of business. When talking about Mark Cuban, Todd Wagner said:

“I know Mark worries, among other things, about the proverbial 12-year-old in the garage [coming up with technological breakthroughs] and us being blindsided.”

This commonality is particularly interesting, and I suspect it comes from the fact that many of these entrepreneurs WERE THAT KID and they fear the second coming of themselves more than anything else. They probably fear that this “kid” will have the same passion and determination that they once had, and that, more than anything else scares them.

If I had read this book when it was written I would certainly have recommended it to any young entrepreneur. However, years later I recommend it EVEN MORE. I think that it’s a must read for anyone looking to go into business or currently in business.

The thing that you can do now that you couldn’t do when the book was written is find out what’s happened to these entrepreneurs and their companies in the time that has passed since the book’s publication. One of the biggest joys of reading this book was trying to guess whether or not these companies still existed and whether or not the same entrepreneur was still running them.

Knowing that there was the dot-com boom and subsequent crash around that time, I figured there was less than a 50/50 chance that these businesses were still around. I’m not going to ruin the individual surprises, but there was a fairly vast array of directions that these companies and entrepreneurs went after the dot-com crash.

Some of the entrepreneurs we’ve all heard of (Mark Cuban), and some of the companies we know still exist and are very successful (eBay), but many the average reader won’t be familiar with. Doing the research to find out where they are today adds an extra dimension to the book that a reader wouldn’t have experienced if they read it when it came out.

Net Entrepreneurs Only &ndash 10 Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of their Success by Gregory K. Ericksen and Ernst & Young is an extremely interesting for anyone who enjoys a good success story. However, it’s truly inspiring if you are that entrepreneur who strives come up with the next innovating breakthrough that puts one of these ten entrepreneurs out of business.

Sure, advertising is easy if you’re Pepsi or Apple, but what if you don’t have millions of dollars to throw at TV and print ads? Any business owner out there looking to cut their marketing budget should look no further than Guerrilla Marketing for FREE &ndash Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson.

We’ve all heard examples of businesses that spend nothing on marketing and yet never seem to be lacking in customers (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts comes to mind), but how do they do it? On the first page of the book Levinson lets you know that it is possible to grow a business without spending a dollar on marketing, but that it takes a lot of energy and time. Each of the simple tactics the book discusses (there are 100) are deceptively simple and, according to Levinson, have proven track records.

All that you need to get started is a telephone, a computer, a printer, business cards, and access to the internet. After that you will not spend another dollar. Techniques range from the relatively obvious, such as “write a marketing plan” and “have a website”, to not-so-obvious things such as “establish a referral program” and “get involved in your community.”

Many of the tactics involve giving to receive. In addition to doing volunteer work in your community, Levinson suggests joining local networking groups, giving away your product for free to non-profit organizations and schools, and doing free presentations on your area of expertise to local organizations. Levinson’s tactics will not just help improve your bottom line, they’ll help you become a more altruistic entrepreneur.

If there’s one downside to the book, it’s that some of the techniques involving computers are outdated. For example, Levinson suggests advertising on free online classified sites. That may have worked years ago, but these days those sites are covered in spam and I doubt that any business would gain anything from listing on them. The book was written in 2003, so most of the techniques are still pretty valuable, but there’s just a few that stand out as infeasible in 2006.

When reading Guerrilla Marketing for FREE by Jay Conrad Levinson, I found myself constantly putting it down and jotting down ideas that could help supercharge my business. Levinson truly invokes your creative juices. And the best part is that all of the techniques cost you NOTHING. This is a no-brainer purchase for all entrepreneurs and small business owners.

We all know a Weasel. You know, that person that threatens to take down your organization by using every sleazy tactic in the book to advance their careers regardless of how it effects others. Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by entrepreneur Tim O’Leary takes a refreshing look at the different personalities we encounter and how to handle them.

The premise of the book is that essentially everyone fits into one of four personality groups &ndash Warrior, Worker, Whiner, or Weasel. O’Leary defines each as the following:

Warriors, who confront change, see possibilities, innovate and manage to win!

Workers, who deal with the ups, downs and challenges of everyday corporate life dependably, and who can reliably implement the change and direction established by the Warriors.

Whiners, who get through life by complaining about everything they do, who profess negativism and dissatisfaction wherever they go, and blaming others for their own shortcomings.

Weasels, who lurk everywhere and threaten your career and life-goals through their own deception and insecurity and who spread these feelings quickly throughout the organization.

The book is designed to help you recognize what group you fit into, give you the necessary tools to get to the group you want to be in, and learn how to effectively deal with people in each group. The book really does a great job of forcing you to truthfully analyze yourself. O’Leary warns you that you might not like what you find, but also is quick to point reinforce that you are in control and that you can make the changes in your life to fit into the group that you desire.

Even more interesting (and fun) is visualizing the people you know and placing them into their appropriate categories. We have all encountered a Whiner or Weasel and it helps to know what makes them tick and how to effectively deal with them so that they don’t negatively impact your life. O’Leary uses the analogy to the common cold &ndash you can’t completely eliminate Weasels from your life but you can take precautions to limit the frequency in which they enter your life and the damage that they do while they’re a part of it.

O’Leary uses a mixes light-hearted humor with a fiercely intense attitude to combine a business book and a self-help book in an exciting fashion. One chapter might focus on a self-analysis, the next might be about personal stories from O’Leary’s experiences, and the next about management. The book is well over 200 pages but reads at the speed of a book that’s half that. I often found myself reading several chapters in a sitting, which is a testament to the writers’ ability to hold readers interest. If there’s a downside (and it’s not much of one), it’s that O’Leary is so brutally honest that it may rub some people wrong, especially those who fall into the Whiner and Weasel groups.

Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by Tim O’Leary is a must read for every entrepreneur, business owner, manager, and worker wishing to learn more about themselves, take advantage of their best traits, and protect themselves from those who could sabotage their career.

World History is a long and complex topic. Though many accomplished authors such as Bill Bryson and H. G. Wells have attempted to condense history into a single book, very few have succeeded. There is just too much of it. Attempts to boil down the last 10,000 years have resulted in either superficial books with very little depth, or great textbook like tombs too inaccessible for the casual reader.

Happily, A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage succeeds where others have failed. Standage’s book does this by sacrificing the breadth of every possible topic for an impressive depth and focus. Instead of trying to sum up the complete history of man, this book spotlights a single topic, in this case beverages, and then takes the reader on a journey through time to see how his topic interweaves the past. Standage is a delightful writer, mixing his light hearted style with exceptional historical savvy not just on the topic of drinks, but throughout.

Despite my now positive opinion of this book, I have to confess that when I first picked up A History of the World in 6 Glasses, I did not expect to enjoy it. Not only am I skeptical of any book claiming to sum up the antiquity of man in 300 pages or less, but I myself do not drink any of the 6 beverages this book discusses. As such, learning the history of these drinks did not sound immediately appealing. However, what I quickly learned is that this book is not a history of 6 drinks, but rather just as the title states, a history of the world, told through the story of 6 drinks. As the book points out in the introduction, second only to air, liquid is the most vital substance to man’s survival. The availability of water and other drinking sources have “constrained and guided humankind’s progress” and “have continued to shape human history”. Throughout time, beverages have done more than quenched our thirst; they have been used as currencies, medicines, and in religious rites. They have served as symbols of wealth and power, as well as tools to appease the poor and downtrodden.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses is broken down into six sections, one for each drink, the first of which is beer. Man’s first civilizations where founded on surplus cereal production, much of which was brewed. Ancient day beers were high in vitamin B, a vitamin previously only obtained through meat. This allowed the population to focus their nutrition efforts more and more on cereals, effectively ushering in the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Additionally, because early beers were boiled (to convert more starch into sugars), the beer was significantly safer to drink than water. This significant improvement in lifestyle “freed a small fraction of the population from the need to work in the fields, and made possible the emergence of specialist priest, administrators, scribes, and craftsmen.” Not only did beer nourish man’s first civilizations, but in many ways, made them entirely possible.

Wine, the next beverage in the book, played a major role in the flourishing Greek and Roman cultures. As wine did not originate from the Mediterranean, the Greek’s desire for this drink opened up vast seaborne trade, which spread their philosophy, politics, science and literature far and wide, and still underpins modern Western thought. A History of the World in 6 Glasses points out how these advancements originated and grew at formal Greek drinking parties, called symposia. The Romans, who absorbed much of Greek culture, continued the strong use of wine. As the book notes, if you trace the wine drinking areas of the world on a map, you will find you have traced the Roman empire at its height.

After a thousand years of hibernation, Western civilization was awakened by the rediscovery of ancient knowledge, long safeguarded in the Arab world. However, in an attempt to circumvent this Arab monopoly, European monarchs launched massive fleets into the sea. This age of exploration was greatly enhanced by the Arab knowledge of distillation, which made a whole new range of drinks possible. A History of the World in 6 Glasses describes how these condensed forms of alcohol (namely Brandy, Whiskey and Rum) were so popular, especially in the new American colonies, that “they played a key role in the establishment of the United States.”

The fourth beverage presented in this book is coffee. Because of its sharpening effect on the mind, coffee quickly became the drink of intellect and industry. Replacing taverns as the sophisticated meeting place, the coffeehouse “led to the establishment of scientific societies and financial institutions, the founding of newspapers, and provided fertile ground for revolutionary thought, particularly in France.” A History of the World in 6 Glasses goes on to recount the intricate effect coffeehouses had on Victorian culture, going so far as to dedicate an entire chapter to what the book calls “The Coffeehouse Internet”.

Even though the inception of tea date back many thousands of years, it didn’t take hold upon western culture until the mid-seventeenth century. Once established as England’s national drink, the importing of tea from first China and then India led to trade and industrialization on an unprecedented scale. A History of the World in 6 Glasses describes the immense power of the British East India Company, which “generated more revenue than the British government and ruled over far more people”, wielding more power than any other corporation in history. This imbalance of power had an enormous, far-reaching effect on British foreign policy, and ultimately contributed to the independence of the United States.

Like most of the drinks discussed in A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Coca-Cola was originally devised as a medical drink. More than any other product, Coca-Cola has stood as the symbol of America’s “vibrant consumer capitalism”. Rather than shrink at the challenge, Coca-Cola took full advantage of the challenging times it found itself in, gaining ground through the depression, and then traveling alongside our soldiers into WWII, becoming a global phenomenon. According to the book, Coca-Cola still accounts for “around 30 percent of all liquid consumption” today.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses makes it clear that the history of mankind is a history of our consumption. Whether we are drinking “liquid bread” in Mesopotamia, pondering revolution in a Coffeehouse in Paris, or throwing tea leafs into the ocean in Boston, these drinks have had a profound impact on who we are. As Standage says in the introduction to his book “They survive in our homes today as living reminders of bygone eras, fluid testaments to the forces that shaped the modern world. Uncover their origins, and you may never look at your favorite drink in quite the same way again.” I highly recommend this book to anyone thirsty for knowledge about the world around them… or even if they’re just thirsty for a good drink.

The key to successfully starting any business is a good business plan. In his ebook, “Business Plan Secrets Revealed,” Mike Elia walks you through the business plan process step-by-step: from gathering the evidence you’ll use to build your plan to delivering your plan to qualified investors.

His book provides the basic information you need to write a business plan. But its real focus is revealing how to communicate your plan to investors and convince them that your business is their best investment choice.

When I first opened Business Plan Secrets Revealed, my heart sank. You see, I had promised Mike I would read his book completely before writing a review. And Business Plan Secrets Revealed is no ordinary ebook with one sentence paragraphs, large fonts and hefty margins. It’s crammed full of information!

But as I began to read, I was pleasantly surprised. Mike’s writing style is engaging and practical, and his explanations simplify difficult concepts. Throughout the book, I felt as though a friend was sitting with me on the back porch, matter-of-factly explaining exactly how to do something. It’s the kind of simple practicality that you can achieve only when you fully understand a subject.

Mike’s clear understanding of business planning concepts results from experience spanning more than 20 years. Mike helps business owners buy, sell and finance their businesses. He has overseen manufacturing and sales locations in more than nine countries. He is a CPA, holds a Masters in Business Administration, and has served as Chief Financial Officer of two publicly held companies.

Business Plan Secrets Revealed starts with tips for collecting and organizing the information you’ll need. From the beginning, Mike concentrates on overcoming your biggest single challenge–bridging the investor confidence gap. In the chapter “Show Me the Numbers,” Mike provides some of the clearest explanations of business financial statements that I’ve ever read If concepts like stockholders’ equity or statements of cash flow make your eyes glaze over, then your salvation has arrived.

Later chapters of Business Plan Secrets Revealed really deliver on Mike’s promise to help you communicate your business plan effectively. There are complete instructions on writing your business plan, including how to get your plan opened and read, and how to avoid nine common writing mistakes. He explains how choosing the right design can make your business plan easier to read. Mike wraps things up by telling you how to prepare for critical face-to-face time with investors, including developing a 60-second, to-the-point, verbal pitch for your business. Tips on finding investors and a resources section complete the book.

I must admit that several times as I was reading, I would ask myself, “Do I really need this much business plan?” This is not a fill-in-the-blanks-and-print-it-out business plan solution. But then I realized–if I’m serious about succeeding, then I do need to know as much as possible about my business up front. Before I’ve started spending money. Before I put myself on the line out in the market.

By the way, I did make it through the whole book. And I confirmed that Mike delivers what he promises on the title page: he teaches you how to quickly gather evidence, build a case for your business, and write a readable plan that attracts investors and makes your business the most appealing investment choice. Even if you already own other business planning resources, I highly recommend Business Plan Secrets Revealed.

Almost everyone has been fired from a job, and just about everyone has a story to go along with it. Annabelle Gurwitch, the actor and screen writer, decided to capitalize on this fact by compiling and editing a collection of humorous "down-sizing" stories in her book Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed. After being fired by the media icon (and consequently her idol) Woody Allen, Annabelle decided to take her story to the publishers- along with several other tales from well known actors and media personal, including Bill Maher, Tim Allen, Tate Donovan (actor and director in The O.C.), Harry Shearer (actor in This is Spinal Tap), Dana Gould (writer for The Simpsons), Bob Saget and more.

The book is divided into five chapters: The Job So Terrible You Can Only Hope to Be Fired, The Firing You Didn’t See Coming, The Time You Deserved to be Fired, The Time Getting Fired Leads You to Something Better, and The Time You Had to Fire Yourself. Each chapter is as witty as the last, and will keep you reading and laughing through till the next. And with over a dozen "tales of the canned" in each chapter, you will have plenty of laughing to enjoy.

Many of the true stories found in this book are so funny, they will have you laughing out loud. The story of Paul Feig (director of Arrested Development and The Office) losing his Ronald McDonald gig because of a magical comparison between a rubber chicken and Chicken McNuggets he made to a group of school kids while wearing the clown suit will probably remain with me for the rest of my life. In another favorite story, Jeff Garlin (actor in Curb Your Enthusiasm) explains how he was fired for throwing a bowl of Fruity-Pebbles at a hotel wall… and all just because they stuck. Larry Charles (writer for Senifeld) reminds us that Taxi companies should never offer employment to a teen-age kid who has just acquired his license that very day; wrecking his cab before he even got it out of the parking lot. Stories like these are worth the price of this book alone.

To round each story off, the book also includes "Fired Facts": brief and amusing factoids about being fired, and the workplace in general. For example: "Increased risk of heart attack faced by employer firing an employee in the week after wielding the ax: 100%". What a great way to end your career – with your former boss in the hospital!

While Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed is entertaining (being fired with the line "Take that hanger off your head, you idiot!" may be the best thing that has ever happened to me), it completely fails to connect with the reader. Each story falls into one of two major camps: meaningless high school jobs that no one regrets losing, and glamorous Hollywood jobs that, while interesting, are entirely foreign to the average reader.

In the introduction to this book, Annabelle Gurwitch concludes "So you were fired. Welcome to the club. We’ve been waiting for you." However, this book fails to present any "club" you or I are ever likely to be a member of. While almost anyone can related with being fired from a job, the stories in this book are quite different from any workplace axing I have experienced. And unless you have felt the horror of losing a job because your character was shot in the last episode, you will probably be unable to relate as well.

If you are looking for a light, entertaining read to get you through the work week, I would recommend Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized & Dismissed. Though the book will probably not help you reminisce about jobs long past, that may be for the best. What better way to forget about your own "down-sizing" experiences that to hear the stories of a celebrity with their head on the chopping block.

There seems to be no lack of the number of books written about personality traits, talents and how to more effectively manage personnel to the advantage of the organization. However, Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the book First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, now provide managers with a positive approach to help identify and utilize strengths of individuals to the benefit of the organization in their bestselling Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book maintains that this unique, positive approach of focusing on strengths is far more effective in achieving success than eliminating weaknesses, given that we all have inherent strengths and natural weaknesses no matter what positions we might have. For example, the book points out, it does not matter if you are Bill Gates or Tiger Woods. True, these are individuals with tremendous talents that have made them well known in their respective fields, but they also have weaknesses that play into the mix. It would seem our brains are programmed by nature from early childhood, no matter how good our nurture, to start being selective in a few key areas. It is as nature intended it to be. Without being selective, and allowing many of the billions of connections we are born with to lapse into disrepair, we would become dysfunctional with information overload. Therefore, it is understandable that with sufficient practice, while we might be able to learn different tasks well, we will never be great in these areas unless we have a natural innate talent for them.

Unfortunately, most of us do not have a good sense of our talents, let alone the ability to effectively use our strengths to our advantage. Rather, most of us spend our lives becoming all too aware of our weaknesses and spend our time trying to deal with our flaws, while neglecting our innate talents. However, most original and potentially most revealing, to address this problem, Now, Discover Your Strengths provides access to a web-based interactive questionnaire, developed by the Gallup Organization, that quickly identifies your top 5 (out of a total of 34) positive “personality themes”, such as: Achiever, Deliberative, Harmony, Empathy and so forth that you might naturally posses. The book goes on to elaborate how each of the 34 unique themes can be identified, complete with individual profiles describing how each might act and what each might “sound like.” As each sees the world through their own strengths filter, it is easy to have friction between different individuals within the same department or organization, because we all see the world, and how it should look, so differently. While one may hear what someone else is saying, they may not be able to assimilate it into their own world effectively. This is why partners or advisors are often so effective, as they ad balance to the limits of others. One word of caution however: do not buy this book used if you intend to take the preference test. There is a unique, one-time code that comes with each copy of Now, Discover Your Strengths, which is absolutely necessary in order to access the website’s resources. The book has limited value without the ability to take the online test. However, the test alone is well worth the price of the entire book just by itself. With this resource, you will better understand how to build a “strengths-based organization” by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

With an estimated 8 out of 10 people in this country not really in a position to capitalize on their strengths and talents, chances are most of us could benefit from reading this book. As most of us fail to capitalize on our strengths, it is not surprising that most departments in any company, no matter the size of the organization, are not operating at even par performance. The risk doing nothing is costly- not only in lost productivity, but in job satisfaction, employee retention and absenteeism and so on. This groundbreaking, resourceful book is easy to read in short concise chapters. Along with the associated preference test, Now, Discover Your Strengths, is a positive cost effective solution in resolving problems, and helping each employee achieve his or her full potential. This is must read for managers and office teams who want a win-win solution in improving their own departments, as well as the lives of those who work for them.