Life's Short. Live Better.

Dan Pink's "Drive"

I've read Dan Pink's latest book, "Drive". The book is about what motivates people today, and how things have changed. The concept of flow was introduced, as something many of us are missing in our lives now.

Our society is a always on, short-circut to blackberry/iPhone, connected to twitter, facebook and more. We have to fight to find blocks of creative focused time where real value is created, and a sense of well being is realized.

We lack these longer periods of time of uninterrupted work on a single concept or task. Computer programmers know that it takes a couple hours to get into a mode where the task becomes natural and our minds are free of clutter.

The most compelling part of the book for me was related to the concept of Type X behaviour and Type I behaviour. "Type X" represents a model of motivation based on extrinsic desires, such as money and tangible rewards. Pink calls this motivation 2.0. "Type I" represents an intrinsic motivation model based on inherent satisfaction of the activity itself. Pink coins this as motivation 3.0

He then goes into the various differences between the two, and the evolution of how more people are oriented towards motivation 3.0 today and that the behaviour is created, not 'born'. Why care? Type I employees are far more productive, happy and the companies they work in are far more successful. 

The book has some great insights about what employees and people want out of life today. Definitely worthwhile.

Steve Jobs Presentation Secrets

I just picked up a book by Carmine Gallo, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs" . Nancy Duarte recommended it in her blog.

I love the opening quote: "A person can have the greatest idea in the world -- completely different and novel --- but if that person can't convince enough other people, it doesn't matter" ---Gregory Berns I can relate to that quote.

The older I get the more I realize, ideas "are cheap".

Execution is everything. In order to execute great ideas, we need to be able to effectively communicate them to people. We need to be able to rally our employees and team. We need to get them passionate about what we want to do. We need to communicate our vision to our customers, clients and all stakeholders.

Easy to say, hard to do. The subtitle of the book is "How to be insanely great in front of any audience". That would sure help. 

Good Reads

Great book review site. 

Four, or Forty Hour Work Week?...or 50? or 60?

I bought Tim Ferriss's book, "4 hour Workweek" a few months ago. I didn't have a chance to read it until the holidays. Now the holidays have come and gone, and i've dug into it.

I've more skimmed it than anything. But what I've read, I really like. 

Here are the highlights:

• Take control of your life, and don't worry about what society or 'others' think.
• Outsource your life! Help is cheap, available and will free up your time. 
• Your dream lifestyle may not actually cost that much. Figure it out. 
• We live once, so get out there and MAKE IT HAPPEN! 
• Work to live. Don't live to work. (If you were born prior to 1965, this is really tough)
• Income on Autopilot. Who wouldn't admire this? Tim suggests "owing a business" rather than working in it. Easier said than done, but his tips certainly can help you get there.

Tim's got a "stop doing list" - a la Jim Collins.  I really like that. I used to check email too frequently, and I still struggle with distractions. Who doesn't?

I'm not sure that it's realistic for everyone to quit our day jobs and work 4 hours a week. However, put Tim's principals to work within your own realm and most of us will be happier, more effective and balanced - and probably wealthier. By wealthier, I mean more money, but far more importantly, more free time to spend doing what you want to do.

Predictably...Irrational

I've been reading Dan Ariely's book, Predictably Irrational. He's a behavioral economist, and has some fascinating theories regarding 'bias' the  such as "arbitrary coherence" and "the truth about relativity"

If you sell anything (who doesn't sell something, when it comes down to it?), this stuff is gold.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

I've been listening to Hot, Flat and Crowded while traveling for business. I like to consider myself as relatively informed regarding global climate change, demographics, exploding population & emerging nations new found wealth, and how those issues will affect our global community.

He relates very well the massive challenge the energy crisis has placed on the US, as well as the huge opportunity to solve it and benefit economically from clean sources of power.

Wow, the book is an eye opener. Here's a few fast facts which help communicate the problem the world has. 

• Global population is expected to grow from 6.5 to about 9 billion in 2050
• Approximately 14,000 new cars hit the road in China each day
• Just so the next 1 billion people can turn on a light bulb, 4 hours a day, we'll need the equivalent of 20 coal fired co-generation plants to power them
• Those 1 billion light bulbs weigh as much as 15,000 toyota prius's 
• Americans use an average of 32 times more energy than undeveloped nations   

 Also very interesting was his analysis of the First Law of Petropolitics and the effects inverse relationships with freedom and the price of oil, property rights and the price of oil - and more. 

A great read, or listen.

Virgin - Richard Branson on Successful Business

Sir Richard Branson has a new book called "Stripped Bare".  Here's a short video clip of him on his fundamentals for business, courtesy the Globe and Mail. I like his style, direct, simple no BS.

Made to Stick

I just returned from a vacation and read the book Made to Stick while away. It's written by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, both with interesting and different backgrounds.

The book is useful for everyone. It's about effective communication and getting your ideas, to 'stick'. Here are the six principals the brothers have outlined:

1. Simplicity or getting to the Core
2. Unexpectedness. It's primal. We we remember surprises.
3. Concreteness. Make the abstract real.
4. Credibility. We believe experts, and when we can 'try before we buy'
5. Emotions. Associate and idea with a feeling and we remember it.
6. Stories. We've been telling them for thousands of years and they are memorable.

The 'Curse of Knowledge' works against the six principals and we need to be aware that 'knowledge' can obscure effective communication.

'Made to Stick' makes my 'top ten' list of business books.

The World Isn't Flat... it's "Spiky"

Most of us have heard of the famous Thomas Friedman book, "The World is Flat" Convergence and globalization are making vast distances meaningless. A stark contrast, is Richard Florida's theory that the world is actually "Spiky"

Richard sets out compelling information about how the world's production, and population is converging into cities. He identifies about 40 "mega regions" which:

".... when 40 of these megas which account for less than a fifth of world population account for roughly two-thirds of economic activity and 85 percent of global innovation, something is going on."
-- Richard Florida

Richard's Blog

Best Business Books of All Time

The best business books of all time according to the  Financial times:

Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (1990)
The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker (1966)
Good to Great, by Jim Collins (2001)
The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clay Christensen (1997)
The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776)

Vote here!