After reading the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with. your Family, I was eager to read Richard's other books. This book is very touching as it writes about the love from Richard to Kris, 3 years before he died in Dec 2006. I did not even knew Richard Carlson is dead until I read the cover of this book.
There are 2 parts to the book. One is the letter Richard wrote to Kris in 2003 for their 18th anniversary and the other is Kris's words about how she felt about Richard. The question it asked was "If you have an hour left to live, who would you call and what would you tell him or her?" Pondering about this question, Richard realised that he should tell Kris about he he felt about her as if he has only an hour to live. The letter was very touching and there are many lessons to be learnt from it. Kris then take the second part where she writes about the things Richard did and the feelings between both of them.
I was surprised as I finished the book in a session of about half an hour. It has only 53 pages, not counting the ending poem and the last pages for the reader to write what he or she wants to tell the other party if he has only an hour to live.
I am now looking forward to read his other books.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Present by Spencer Johnson
This is one of the short, to-the-point and fantastic books that I have read. It is short as it has only 103 pages, to-the-point because of its no-nonsense writing and fantastic due to its teachings. Its teachings are simple yet powerful.
The main content is about a story about the life of a man, whom has an old man as a mentor. The old man taught him about the Present, which is really living in the present, focusing on what one is doing and enjoying the things he or she is doing. It continued with while living in the present, one has to review the past to learn the mistakes made and to better the present. Then, to complete the picture, one has also to plan for the future in the present so that one can have a better future. Lastly, one must have a purpose in life, to better other people's life.
There are many phrases and sentences which have quite an impact to me. One being "Pain is the difference between what is, and what you want it to be." How true. What type of pain or how long your want the pain to be there is all dependent on yourself. This is just one of the numerous teachings from this book. I would recommend all to get hold of this book and read it.
The main content is about a story about the life of a man, whom has an old man as a mentor. The old man taught him about the Present, which is really living in the present, focusing on what one is doing and enjoying the things he or she is doing. It continued with while living in the present, one has to review the past to learn the mistakes made and to better the present. Then, to complete the picture, one has also to plan for the future in the present so that one can have a better future. Lastly, one must have a purpose in life, to better other people's life.
There are many phrases and sentences which have quite an impact to me. One being "Pain is the difference between what is, and what you want it to be." How true. What type of pain or how long your want the pain to be there is all dependent on yourself. This is just one of the numerous teachings from this book. I would recommend all to get hold of this book and read it.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Don't Sweat The Small Stuff With Your Family by Richard Carlson
I have been reading this book for 2-3 months already. As it is a made up of short articles of tips on how to have a peaceful and meaningful family life. Besides the Chicken Soup series, I feel that this is the superbly written and it has been beneficial to me. I am sure I will be reading this book again in the future.
There are 100 articles altogether. Some very interesting articles include listening to people, taking time to relax, keeping promises, never taking family for granted and even appreciating your in-laws. I am sure that most of us feel that all these topics are simple and "Of course I know!", but give it a try and you will find that it takes a lot of discipline and mind power to accomplish these actions.
The book is a very easy read with only 2-3 pages for each article. I will be looking out for his other Don't Sweat The Small Stuff series.
There are 100 articles altogether. Some very interesting articles include listening to people, taking time to relax, keeping promises, never taking family for granted and even appreciating your in-laws. I am sure that most of us feel that all these topics are simple and "Of course I know!", but give it a try and you will find that it takes a lot of discipline and mind power to accomplish these actions.
The book is a very easy read with only 2-3 pages for each article. I will be looking out for his other Don't Sweat The Small Stuff series.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
For One More Day By Mitch Albom
Though this book has nearly 200 pages, it took me a surprisingly short time to finish it. It has been a long time since I'm able to finish reading a book within 2 days. The last was when I was reading the Sci-fic DragonLance series more than 10 years back. Anyway, the flow is smooth and style used was a relaxed and easy for the reading.
Th author tells a true story about a man whom he met at a baseball field one day. He was a baseball player in the major league but has been down in between jobs for most of the recent years. The man is Charley "Chick" Benetto and has split with his wife and his daughter did not want him in her life and did not invite him to her wedding. He was devastated and wanted to kill himself.
While driving back to his hometown, he crashed and lying in the grasses, he found himself in his hometown with his mother. He was shocked as he buried his mother several years ago. He followed his mother to 3 places where his mother beautified 3 elderly women. It was at the end where Charley realised that this is not real and his ghost mother was trying to help him to get back to his life.
There are many pages where the author writes about incidents in Charley's life when his mother stood up for him or he did not stood up for his mother. Most of the stories were very touching.
In the end, Charley survived the crash and made his life better. He died 5 years later.
There are many lessons to be learnt especially regarding relationships in this book. It talks about parents love, siblings relationships, teenage love, marriage and the love of a sport.
Th author tells a true story about a man whom he met at a baseball field one day. He was a baseball player in the major league but has been down in between jobs for most of the recent years. The man is Charley "Chick" Benetto and has split with his wife and his daughter did not want him in her life and did not invite him to her wedding. He was devastated and wanted to kill himself.
While driving back to his hometown, he crashed and lying in the grasses, he found himself in his hometown with his mother. He was shocked as he buried his mother several years ago. He followed his mother to 3 places where his mother beautified 3 elderly women. It was at the end where Charley realised that this is not real and his ghost mother was trying to help him to get back to his life.
There are many pages where the author writes about incidents in Charley's life when his mother stood up for him or he did not stood up for his mother. Most of the stories were very touching.
In the end, Charley survived the crash and made his life better. He died 5 years later.
There are many lessons to be learnt especially regarding relationships in this book. It talks about parents love, siblings relationships, teenage love, marriage and the love of a sport.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Creating Wealth by Robert Allen
This book is about being able to retire in 10 years using Robert Allen's 7 principles of wealth. It took me 1.5 months to finish this book. Not that it is a difficult read, but its methods are interesting and I have not been having much time to read any books at all during this period of time. Nevertheless, I have been hoping to read a couple of Robert Allen's books and I'm glad to have finished this one.
Robert is the author who have been challenged to buy a piece of property with nothing down, and with only $100 as living expenses in 72 hours. In 57 hrs, he signed agreements to purchase not 1 but 7 properties with a total value of $722,715.
This book starts with some thinking foundations on how to develop a wealthy mindset, which is a 5 steps process, namely;
1) Set realistic goals and write them down,
2) Visualize your goal,
3) Affirm yourself,
4) Replace luck thinking with probability thinking and
5) Take action.
His 7 wealth principles are:
1) Don't count your dollars until they have passed through the strainers of taxes and inflation.
2) Make maximum use of your assets and sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value.
3) Don't diversify! Concentrate all of your eggs in the right basket.
4) Wealth seekers are always on the offensive, not on the defensive.
5) Money must multiply at wealth-producing rates of return.
6) Choose investments that are both powerful and stable.
7) Control is essential.
The main sections are able being able to buy properties at very little down and how to determine if the property is of the value that you would like to buy at. Various methods and factors are discussed and it would be very beneficial to an American. In Singapore, where I am a resident, it is not possible to buy a property with less than 10% down and most of the methods are unable to be practise here.
The last sections are about education and the mindset of people. I agree totally with Robert that we should always be learning in order to improve our financial intelligence. There is a part which I am extremely enlightened. He says that one should be an expert in creating wealth and the best way to become an expert is to write a book on that expertise. In order to write a book, one has to do research, train one's discipline and network with similar minded people. For me, an added advantage in writing a book is that it will also improve my writing skills.
This book ends with a chapter on 52 insight thoughts, ie quotes from famous and successful people.
This is a good book on real estate investment, though it does touch on other investments such a precious metals and collectibles (art and coins). Personally, i have learned quite a bit on how the American real estate works.
Robert is the author who have been challenged to buy a piece of property with nothing down, and with only $100 as living expenses in 72 hours. In 57 hrs, he signed agreements to purchase not 1 but 7 properties with a total value of $722,715.
This book starts with some thinking foundations on how to develop a wealthy mindset, which is a 5 steps process, namely;
1) Set realistic goals and write them down,
2) Visualize your goal,
3) Affirm yourself,
4) Replace luck thinking with probability thinking and
5) Take action.
His 7 wealth principles are:
1) Don't count your dollars until they have passed through the strainers of taxes and inflation.
2) Make maximum use of your assets and sacrifice to invest in things that go up in value.
3) Don't diversify! Concentrate all of your eggs in the right basket.
4) Wealth seekers are always on the offensive, not on the defensive.
5) Money must multiply at wealth-producing rates of return.
6) Choose investments that are both powerful and stable.
7) Control is essential.
The main sections are able being able to buy properties at very little down and how to determine if the property is of the value that you would like to buy at. Various methods and factors are discussed and it would be very beneficial to an American. In Singapore, where I am a resident, it is not possible to buy a property with less than 10% down and most of the methods are unable to be practise here.
The last sections are about education and the mindset of people. I agree totally with Robert that we should always be learning in order to improve our financial intelligence. There is a part which I am extremely enlightened. He says that one should be an expert in creating wealth and the best way to become an expert is to write a book on that expertise. In order to write a book, one has to do research, train one's discipline and network with similar minded people. For me, an added advantage in writing a book is that it will also improve my writing skills.
This book ends with a chapter on 52 insight thoughts, ie quotes from famous and successful people.
This is a good book on real estate investment, though it does touch on other investments such a precious metals and collectibles (art and coins). Personally, i have learned quite a bit on how the American real estate works.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Who Took My Money? By Robert Kiyosaki
I have not read Kiyosaki's books for quite a while as after reading a few, one tends to know that he keeps repeating the same theory; the Cashflow Quaduant. One of the reasons I bought this book was it was on sale and the sub-title interest me. It is "Why slow investors lose and fast money wins!". I am interested in what are considered slow investors and fast money to the rich.
In this book, there are the 5 steps in investing; 1) Earn/Create, 2) Manage, 3) Leverage, 4) Protect & 5) Exit.
Earning and creating are what our education system teaches us to do. We learn our profession to earn our keep. Managing our money is when one learn from his/her financial education, where he/she learns the difference between assets and liabilities. Leveraging other people's money to work for you is how we don't need "money to make money". The rich always "protect" their investing with some form of insurance. For example, they hedge their equity with options to minimize their loses if the market nosedives. And lastly, all brilliant investors ahve to have an exit strategy and this is considered the most important of all investing rules.
There is a chapter on reasons why some people can't be power investors. The 4 reasons are 1) The power of the word "can't", 2) The power of easy, 3) The rich make it easy to be poor & 4) Investing without guarantees. Very short chapter but I can see all my flaws in all 4 reasons. Hope to change them soon.
There are 3 major assets one hold as investments; business, real estate and paper assets. Kiyosaki believes that having all 3 assets classes has the best chance of making it rich
Kiyosaki's rich dad also taught him the 20-10-15 cycle. He says that the stock market dominates the investment market for 20 years and as the 20th year approaches, the possibility of a market crash increases. After the carsh, the stock market tends to stay down for 10 years. Every 5 years, there is some kind of major disaster.
Overall, I would say that though there are still repeated stuff in this book, there are still some worthwhile new stuff.
In this book, there are the 5 steps in investing; 1) Earn/Create, 2) Manage, 3) Leverage, 4) Protect & 5) Exit.
Earning and creating are what our education system teaches us to do. We learn our profession to earn our keep. Managing our money is when one learn from his/her financial education, where he/she learns the difference between assets and liabilities. Leveraging other people's money to work for you is how we don't need "money to make money". The rich always "protect" their investing with some form of insurance. For example, they hedge their equity with options to minimize their loses if the market nosedives. And lastly, all brilliant investors ahve to have an exit strategy and this is considered the most important of all investing rules.
There is a chapter on reasons why some people can't be power investors. The 4 reasons are 1) The power of the word "can't", 2) The power of easy, 3) The rich make it easy to be poor & 4) Investing without guarantees. Very short chapter but I can see all my flaws in all 4 reasons. Hope to change them soon.
There are 3 major assets one hold as investments; business, real estate and paper assets. Kiyosaki believes that having all 3 assets classes has the best chance of making it rich
Kiyosaki's rich dad also taught him the 20-10-15 cycle. He says that the stock market dominates the investment market for 20 years and as the 20th year approaches, the possibility of a market crash increases. After the carsh, the stock market tends to stay down for 10 years. Every 5 years, there is some kind of major disaster.
Overall, I would say that though there are still repeated stuff in this book, there are still some worthwhile new stuff.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
A Weekend with Warren Buffet and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures by Randy Cepuch
I must say that I expected much more from this book from the title. It says a WEEKEND with Warren Buffet. In the end, the contents of that encounter at Berkshire Hathaway AGM is <10% of the book. In this book, it describes the different AGMs that the author has been.
Though the Warren Buffet part was short, it was quite informative as to what happens in a Berkshire Hathaway AGM. If I could, I would definitely fly to Omaha for one of Warren Buffet's famous AGMs. This book basically has about 22 AGMs, ranging from small companies to big companies like Google, Wal Mart, Microsoft and a few others.
One thing i like is the last section of every AGM. The author has a "In a Nutshell" which is a summary of the AGM and he has four factors which he gives ratings from A+ to F. The four factors are a) Educational Value, b) Entertainment Value, c) Freebies and d) Food & Drink.
It's a very easy book to read as each company's AGM is described in about 8-20 pages.
Though the Warren Buffet part was short, it was quite informative as to what happens in a Berkshire Hathaway AGM. If I could, I would definitely fly to Omaha for one of Warren Buffet's famous AGMs. This book basically has about 22 AGMs, ranging from small companies to big companies like Google, Wal Mart, Microsoft and a few others.
One thing i like is the last section of every AGM. The author has a "In a Nutshell" which is a summary of the AGM and he has four factors which he gives ratings from A+ to F. The four factors are a) Educational Value, b) Entertainment Value, c) Freebies and d) Food & Drink.
It's a very easy book to read as each company's AGM is described in about 8-20 pages.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Next by Michael Crichton
I have read nearly all of Michael Crichton's books except those in his early days, such as Terminal Man and The Great Train Robbery(something like that). Actually, I did got hold of these 2 books but after reading a few pages, I skipped these 2 books as I don't find them as interesting as his later stories.
This is a pretty thick book of >400 pages. As usual, I find Michael Crichton's stories fascinating, yet conceptually realistic.
In this book, he wove his story web around genetic engineering : a genetic company desperate in genetic breakthroughs, a young researcher accidentally gave a "mature" gene to his brother and cured his drug addiction, a talking parrot, a talking orang utan, turtles that glow to keep away their predators. There are many commercially viable use of genetic engineering, though most of them are viewed by many as unethical. One brilliant use is to genetically alter the genes of fishes, such that they have company's advertisement displayed on their bodies. It is something like what they have done to Glo-Fish. The Glo-Fishes were given the luminous genes of jellyfishes.
One thing I did not like was that there are too many parties in the stories and the stories come in and out. Each party usually only occupied 2-5 pages and the scene will switch to another unrelated party. And in the end, somehow or rather, all the parties seemed to know each other or got to know each other. Some scenes were not rational, such as why was the famous Dr Bel... at the theme park and was so coincidentally killed by Brad Gordon.
I must say that the starting of the book was written very well, slowly taking the reader in to the world of genetic engineering. But as you go deeper(mid of book), one might get confused as to how these different people or animals fit in the story. They seemed to be a story by themselves. As the story comes to an end, the "bad" guys were too conveniently jailed, killed or dead by some mysterious illness.
Overall, I think the idea of this story is good. Michael Crichton's books, such as Jurrasic Park, Timeline, Congo and Sphere were terrific and spell-binding. This book, Next, as compared, is a bit rusty. The ending seems like a rush job.
This is a pretty thick book of >400 pages. As usual, I find Michael Crichton's stories fascinating, yet conceptually realistic.
In this book, he wove his story web around genetic engineering : a genetic company desperate in genetic breakthroughs, a young researcher accidentally gave a "mature" gene to his brother and cured his drug addiction, a talking parrot, a talking orang utan, turtles that glow to keep away their predators. There are many commercially viable use of genetic engineering, though most of them are viewed by many as unethical. One brilliant use is to genetically alter the genes of fishes, such that they have company's advertisement displayed on their bodies. It is something like what they have done to Glo-Fish. The Glo-Fishes were given the luminous genes of jellyfishes.
One thing I did not like was that there are too many parties in the stories and the stories come in and out. Each party usually only occupied 2-5 pages and the scene will switch to another unrelated party. And in the end, somehow or rather, all the parties seemed to know each other or got to know each other. Some scenes were not rational, such as why was the famous Dr Bel... at the theme park and was so coincidentally killed by Brad Gordon.
I must say that the starting of the book was written very well, slowly taking the reader in to the world of genetic engineering. But as you go deeper(mid of book), one might get confused as to how these different people or animals fit in the story. They seemed to be a story by themselves. As the story comes to an end, the "bad" guys were too conveniently jailed, killed or dead by some mysterious illness.
Overall, I think the idea of this story is good. Michael Crichton's books, such as Jurrasic Park, Timeline, Congo and Sphere were terrific and spell-binding. This book, Next, as compared, is a bit rusty. The ending seems like a rush job.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Something to Smile About by Zig Ziglar
This book is about encouragement and inspirations for life's ups and downs. It is very similar to the Chicken Soup series. There are many short stories which are only 2 pages long . Each story has a small quote and at the end, there is usually a small joke which I enjoyed.
There are many powerful and interesting stories and many lessons to learn from. One of the better books I have read. Very inspirational, yet also providing some humour.
There are many powerful and interesting stories and many lessons to learn from. One of the better books I have read. Very inspirational, yet also providing some humour.
A New Religion? H+ by Edward De Bono
Edward de Bono is a well renowned author in the field of creative thinking and is the best selling author of Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats. I have attended a Six Thinking Hats course and found it to be very intriging and interesting. So when I saw this book on sale, I bought it without any hestitation.
In this book, Edward de Bono aims to create a culture in the world to have positive thinking and to do good deeds. H+ stands for Human, Happiness, Humour, Help, Hope and Health. In each section, these 6 elements are elaborated.
It is emphasized that most religions focus on the negative aspects, ie avoiding sins and what we should not do. In H+, the emphasis is entirely on the positive actions. It is a way of life and he termed it as "woligion" to cover "a way of life religion". He also coins the term "pons" which are positive actions.
He has set up a "HQ" on this project and hopes to have similar like-minded people forming groups to help others and have a positive impact to the world. He has also set up helpdesks, recommending fines for those who do not do enough pons, signals which indicate that you are within this H+ community.
This book is one of the easiest book to read. Only 93 pages and each page has only about 100words. Edward de Bono goes straight to the point and his intention is really good for the world. The only minor concern I see is that some people will feel that he is indeed trying to form some sort of a cult globally through this book. Overall, I feel good reading this book.
In this book, Edward de Bono aims to create a culture in the world to have positive thinking and to do good deeds. H+ stands for Human, Happiness, Humour, Help, Hope and Health. In each section, these 6 elements are elaborated.
It is emphasized that most religions focus on the negative aspects, ie avoiding sins and what we should not do. In H+, the emphasis is entirely on the positive actions. It is a way of life and he termed it as "woligion" to cover "a way of life religion". He also coins the term "pons" which are positive actions.
He has set up a "HQ" on this project and hopes to have similar like-minded people forming groups to help others and have a positive impact to the world. He has also set up helpdesks, recommending fines for those who do not do enough pons, signals which indicate that you are within this H+ community.
This book is one of the easiest book to read. Only 93 pages and each page has only about 100words. Edward de Bono goes straight to the point and his intention is really good for the world. The only minor concern I see is that some people will feel that he is indeed trying to form some sort of a cult globally through this book. Overall, I feel good reading this book.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Improving Your Management Skills by Rodney Overton
The author has many case studies and famous leaders' management styles in this book which makes this book as good as reading the biographies of those leaders. With only 153 pages and easily read fonts, this book is a easy read.
The 3 main skills are Management Skills, Human Resource Skills and Marketing Skills. In management skills, it started off with a good definition of what is a good manager and the leadership qualities of a leader. Today, many businesses have to make radical changes to the way they manage to survive. The steps to implement changes, the risk to manage, the strategies involving human resource, service and lastly on benchmarking are elaborated under management skills chapter.
Human Resource Skills talks about the manager's personality. What personalities are good or bad? Then, it went on about retaining talents, communication and learning, coaching, managing stress and how fitness of staff can increase productivity and morale in the company.
Marketing Skills are the skills needed to market a product or service. The chapter shows the factors influencing the consumer and the marketing basics for a business.
The last chapter is all about case studies, which includes Jack Welch of GE.
This is a good read which is suitable for beginner in the junior management level.
The 3 main skills are Management Skills, Human Resource Skills and Marketing Skills. In management skills, it started off with a good definition of what is a good manager and the leadership qualities of a leader. Today, many businesses have to make radical changes to the way they manage to survive. The steps to implement changes, the risk to manage, the strategies involving human resource, service and lastly on benchmarking are elaborated under management skills chapter.
Human Resource Skills talks about the manager's personality. What personalities are good or bad? Then, it went on about retaining talents, communication and learning, coaching, managing stress and how fitness of staff can increase productivity and morale in the company.
Marketing Skills are the skills needed to market a product or service. The chapter shows the factors influencing the consumer and the marketing basics for a business.
The last chapter is all about case studies, which includes Jack Welch of GE.
This is a good read which is suitable for beginner in the junior management level.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Managing Quality - Ned Hamson and Amy Zuckerman
As I am tasked to ensure the quality standards in my department are in compliance with the ISO, I have always wanted to read some literature so that I can find ideas on how to improve the department's quality. But never did as the "quality" books are so thick and difficult to read. When i saw this book, I immediate bought it. Primarily, it's a small book and is only 130 pages. Makes it handy to carry and easy to read between travels.
This book is good for one who just started out in the quality field. It explains what is quality, how quality was "borned", how and why the ISO standards started and evloved and the 3 main people who started the quality movement; Philip B. Crosby, W. Edward Deming and Joseph M. Juran. It gives a brief history on ISO 9000 and the adaptation of it by the Americans so as to match the sales of the Japanese automotive industry.
The authors gives some pointers as to evaluate if a company is serious in going for the ISO certification. It ended with some basic steps on starting a ISO quality system. There is a chapter with 4 case studies, which I found more interesting. The 3rd case study which described Solectron was inspiring. As Lucent Technologies, Solectron's customer was not satisfied with the no. of defects, the team used the Kaizen process for a week and the results are 1) 46% productivity improvement, 2) 33% reduction in amount of floor space needed for the activity and 50% reduction in the incident of rejects. All these were acheived in a week!
Overall, this book is good for a beginner in qualtiy.
This book is good for one who just started out in the quality field. It explains what is quality, how quality was "borned", how and why the ISO standards started and evloved and the 3 main people who started the quality movement; Philip B. Crosby, W. Edward Deming and Joseph M. Juran. It gives a brief history on ISO 9000 and the adaptation of it by the Americans so as to match the sales of the Japanese automotive industry.
The authors gives some pointers as to evaluate if a company is serious in going for the ISO certification. It ended with some basic steps on starting a ISO quality system. There is a chapter with 4 case studies, which I found more interesting. The 3rd case study which described Solectron was inspiring. As Lucent Technologies, Solectron's customer was not satisfied with the no. of defects, the team used the Kaizen process for a week and the results are 1) 46% productivity improvement, 2) 33% reduction in amount of floor space needed for the activity and 50% reduction in the incident of rejects. All these were acheived in a week!
Overall, this book is good for a beginner in qualtiy.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker
This has to be one of the best self help / investment books I have read. At just about 200 pages, it is structured in a systematic manner in explaining how the rich and poor differ, either in their thinking or their actions.
Everyone has a money blueprint and it determines if you are going to be rich. Your money blueprint was influenced by 1) Verbal Programming, 2) Modeling and 3) Specific Incidents.
The author then went on to spell out the 17 wealth files which are the differences between the rich and the poor.
There are many lessons I have learnt from this book and the 2 most important ones are:
a) Action speaks louder than words and one must act to succeed.
b) Think positively and big
There are many wealth principles in this book that are strike-on on why the poor remains poor and of course why the rich get richer.
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