Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins

This is certainly a very riveting story. Overall, I find tht the facts and claims in the story rather logical and coherent. However, I wish there could be an easier way of verifying them. (I could potentially do some internet research, but I think that it won't bring me much nearer to the truth.)

If I were to suspend my skepticism, the implications of this story is serious and scary. And depressing too - cos we appear so helpless against such nefarious and gargantuan capitalist machinery. Many of these companies have GDPs greater than my country!

Even if it were largely fictional, there are still lessons on greed and corruption that I can learn. My current desire for success may eventually bring me closer to decision points that could lead me life down paths where the temptations are strong. I do hope that my moral compass continues to point the right way and may I have to strength to choose to follow it then!

Screw it, Let's do it - Richard Branson

This was a very short and fast read. But it was a really awesome read nonetheless. It's a cross between a quick and dirty autobiography of Richard Branson and a summary of this thoughts on how he lived his life. The autobiography is inspiring and exciting to read (this guy has got real guts and brains!); the summary of life advice is simple but not easy to follow :)

Have listed out the key things that Branson feels we should follow when leading our lives. They are actually pretty much aligned with my own beliefs. However, acting on them (beyond just believing them) is the harder thing to do. And he has shown, with much credibility, that it can be done.

• Just do it
• Think yes, not no
• Challenge yrself
• Have goals
• Have fun
• Make a difference
• Stand on yr own feet
• Be loyal
• Live life to the full
• Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Feeling inspired!!

Drawings

See you at the top - Zig Ziglar

Bought this book quite a while ago but never got down to finishing it. Just read it last night and I guess it is true that there is indeed a time for everything - my brain was craving for such a book then. I gobbled it up and felt really satisfied at the end of it all.

This is one of those classic motivational books, which I am (unabashedly) a huge fan of. They are a fuel for my brain and soul, and often gives me new perspectives / ideas from the comfort of my own home while (this is the more impt part) giving me the boost to want to do more.

I think this is a book that I'll read time and time again to extract the motivation from. The main thing that I felt last night after reading the book was a sense of urgency. It came from this paragraph in the book which asked the reader to imagine having to go on a holiday for the rest of the week. With the acute knowledge that one only has one day left to do all the work for the rest of the week, one suddenly develops a new ability to prioritise aggressively and attack tasks with an unquenchable sense of urgency. Zig's advice is to live everyday like that.

Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch

This is the first book that marks my entry into the subject of marketing. Decided to choose this book after seeing the numerous good reviews. But more importantly, I have been subscribing to the Duct Tape Marketing blog for some time, and I thought that it was quite a good resource.

The contents in the book are extremely practical and easy to understand. The main audience that the book targets is small business owners - people who need marketing strategies that are simple yet effective. The overarching theme to the book is that marketing is "getting people, who have a specific need or problem, to know, like and trust you". I like this definition, which is straightforward but has much impact on many of the points that were highlighted later in the book.

Some ideas that I've picked up along the way:

• Alot of marketing is commonsense but such simple stuff often gets lost when one aims for the glitz that is associated with marketing that can be seen.
• Segmentation of the client development process to into: suspects, prospects, clients, repeat clients and champions, with different strategies for each group. Never really thought abt such a differentiation strategy before, but it makes perfect sense.
• Another simple fact, but very useful to keep in mind - there are two ways to increase sales: getting more new customers and selling more to yr current ones. As with the segmentation strategy above, these require rather different strategies.
• If you market well, sales is redundant.
  
• Several methods to generate referrals, which is a key in expanding yr customer base.
• Using stories to target yr PR / media channel as a marketing tool - how to use news releases, pitch letter and PR kits to engage the PR industry.
  
• How to do a two-step direct response ad - the first step aims to get the customer motivated enough to respond to yr ad, which signals a permission for the marketer to step in - the second is a more in-depth marketing process.

All in all, this was a good primer to the world of marketing which I had (up to this point) very little clue about. Having such knowledge is important if I want to run my own start-up in the future.

Top 10 leadership lessons

Yes, I'm quoting from someone else here, didn't come up with them myself :)

These are Terry Starbucker's top 10 leadership lessons .... I'm in the midst of trying to brush up my knowledge about sales and marketing, but can't help but got excited when I read this. It really syncs with some of my fundamental beliefs!

1. Practice “Full Spectrum” management, where high performers get the recognition they deserve, AND underperformers either get coached or let go.
2. Teach instead of just tell, by using repetition, consistency, plain English, common sense, and best of all, rolling up the sleeves and showing them how it’s done.
3. Be an Enabler, not a Disabler, because if we can’t entrust someone with proper responsibilities commensurate with the job description, we simply shouldn’t hire them.
4. Develop a Zen-like mantra of goals that permeate the minds of all your teammates, and watch great stuff happen.
5. Avoid inertia at all costs - or risk heading in the wrong direction. Provide the needed acceleration to propel a business forward, always.
6. Trust the facts, for if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. As John Adams said, they are indeed “stubborn things”
7. Understand that words alone don’t make the leader- proper presentation, attitude, inflection, cadence and structure are musts to inspire to action.
8. Exhibit a blend of will and humility - we push hard knowing we don’t have all the answers, with a sense of decency, fairness and mindfulness.
9. Know “the secret of work” for their team - the passion, the cause, and the fun that results.
10. Be able to mix it up and do the unexpected, like break out in song at a staff meeting. Put in a memorable hook to go with your message.

The 2-minute addiction

It first started out as a strategy I learnt from reading books on productivity and Getting Things Done. Th strategy is encompassed in a simple rule. For tasks that can be completed under 2 minutes, do them immediately. For tasks that take longer, classify them into folders for execution later. It worked wonderfully! Using my email inbox as a testing ground, I frequently managed to keep to the zero-item-in-inbox target.

However, I realise that this strategy does have its perverse effects! I'm starting to procrastinate on the tasks that take longer to complete, drawing comfort from the act of filing them into well-organised folders (which SHOULD not be a substitute for executing the task!) while pursuing the satisfaction that I get from completing 2 minute tasks.

At this rate, I'll reach my deathbed being the dude who has achived millions of 2 minute tasks but nothing big. Haha.

I think I'll have to change my strategy so that I devote more time to thinking longer and deeper on things that matter. These things may have outcomes that take longer to realise, but I guess I'll just have to get my instant kicks from other sources instead :)

Nudge - Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

A pretty good read! This book can be broadly cut into two parts. The first part explains in pretty layman terms the idea behind "libertarian paternalism", while the second part goes in depth about how this idea can be applied across a range of issues, from healthcare, saving the planet, to even marriages.

Will just touch on what the authors refer to as libertarian paternalism, and what an understanding of this issue will allow us to do about it. The line of logic goes something like this:

1. In a perfect world, all humans are rational and can make economic decisions accurately. In such a world, free market will ensure that humans optimise their choices and any increase in the complexity (or simply, number) of choices, is beneficial to humans.
2. However, in the real world, humans are really bad at making such rational economic choices, due to the following "interferences" - tending towards rules of thumb (anchoring, availability, representativeness, overconfidence in one's abilities, larger aversion to loss than gain, bias towards status quo, laziness, following the herd, or simply being overwhelmed by the complexity of the decision.
3. In such a situation, the Government can step in to influence humans at moments, when they are irrational or slightly weak, towards decisions that are beneficial to them without actually forcibly removing options from the table. e.g. giving citizens a large range of healthcare plans to choose from but gently influencing them to pick a better choice. This is known as "libertarian paternalism", which at times seems pretty oxymoronic, I must admit.
   
4. Such a framework that influences the behavior of the decision maker makes use of the very "interferences" that could potentially cause the human to make a wrong choice in the first place, but applies it for the good of the human. This framework is known as "choice architecture".

I think the ideas behind this book is extremely useful in policy-making, especially in areas where a mandatory option is politically unfeasible, and/or if there is clearly a "better" solution that the human should take. (The authors go through lengths to defend their point of view towards the end of the book, and I must say that they did quite a good job!) The applications towards sales and marketing is significant, as far as I can see.