6/10

Elevator Pitch – A call for Washington to stop playing games and lead. Written in 2007.

Overall: This might be the most interesting book that I won’t ever recommend to anyone. There are some great stories and lessons to learn from his obviously very interesting career and relationships. It is an extremely political book, so if you are at all a fan of George W, then you will be offended. Majorly. I was a little disappointed by how much time he spent bashing people.

That said, it was very interesting, and had it moments of grandeur. I didn’t have any favorite quotes, but the whole conversation about whether or not capitalism/democracy  is actually working, and his trips to Cuba to spend time with Castro were my favorites. Very interesting to hear a man of his stature  tell the story of his very casual, yet impacting conversations with the former leader of the closest communist country to our own.

Not a bad summer read, which is what is was for me. Not sure that it will be what you are looking for, but if you like political, and you like listening to old men talk about the way it was, and they way it should be, then this is about as good as it gets.

9/10

Jason Fried & David Hansson

Disclaimer :: I finished this book a few weeks ago but haven’t written a blog review yet because I can’t figure a way to do a better job describing this book than FAST COMPANY did in this blog. (Of course it does help to have the original images from the authors, but whatever…)

Favorite Quotes:

“Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.”

& this this & this

Enjoy!

Overall Rating : 9 out of 10

Elevator Summary: This book contains secrets and tips for anyone starting, running or working in a small business. It is a must read for those people. Quick, full of insight, and pretty entertaining.

Favorite quotes:

“Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people.”

“4 things you need to remember to be an entrepreneur:

1. Your sales have to exceed your expenses.
2. Collect your bills
3. Take care of your customers
4. Take care of your people (employees)”

If you still aren’t convinced to read this book, then you are just crazy. If you have a passion in life, and want to achieve it, this book in a no brainer. Easy weekend read, and will dramatically simplify your thought process of most important “swings” of your day. The author is the famous Ken Blanchard of “Creating Raving Fans” as well as many other great books.

Please buy this book and read it. It will change your business…

Live a remarkable life. Live a life with epic and amazing scenes. Live a life that people would want to make a movie about… That is the main thought of this Donald Miller book – “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.”

BUT, don’t do it to have some great small talk at a bar or your next interview. Don’t do it to impress a girl, and most of all, don’t do it so that you feel better about yourself.

Live a beautiful life so that you don’t miss out on the story that God is writing with your life. Don’t sit on the couch and miss the conversation he wants you to have with that certain someone. Don’t just watch a great movie but try to live it out.

In true Donald form, this book is inspiring, but I would hate for people to read it and miss the reason to live a great story. It is to Honor and Glorify God that we should read more and watch less TV; and travel more and sit at home less; invest in people more and play less video games.

If you do it for yourself, then it isn’t honorable. Just selfish…

*Thanks to Jordan Lloyd for the copy of this book, his friendship, and for his investment in my life… Check him out on twitter…

What Shane Hipps does in this book is talk about how the printing press and the photograph have basically brought about the biggest changes in the world by the way we process information, and ultimately how we think about things.

The challenge in this book is this, the message for your company, product, or church have to be strategically shaped to work in the medium that you a using. You can’t simplify your communication plan with a “same message, different medium” approach, because each medium has a dramatic change upon your message. The medium itself is apart of that message.

More strategy and more targeted communication and planning is needed to reach your audience. It isn’t easy anymore. Rise to the challenge.