Category Archives: Good Business

Good Business

Lazy Man’s Way to Riches by Richard Gilly Nixon

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Update: Looks like someone found the workbook! Contact walrusbooks(AT)yahoo(DOT)com [-b 4/14/2007]

Warning: The additional workbook is nowhere to be found. [-b 1/26/2007]

The Lazy Man's Way to RichesThe Lazy Man’s Way to Riches – a neat little audio book. It has a lot of the ideas that Think And Grow Rich and Rich Dad, Poor Dad have in them. What really makes this guy stand out is that he explains that procrastination means more work. Not doing something that needs to get done drains as much energy as actually doing it, except it drains it for longer without results. Another cool idea was the type of people you’re surrounded with and how to build your company (not just in the business sense) to be beneficial. This is a lot like Napoleon Hill’s mastermind idea.

The thing that really stands out is the last part of the book about online products: e-books and such. While the ad campaign section isn’t exactly new news, one should considers that for its time, and even now, it’s a fantastic and thorough explanation. He covers e-zines and e-books and mailing lists and gives lots of fantastic ideas.

While I’d still recommend Rich Dad, Poor Dad as the wake-up book, the latter online business part of Richard Gilly Nixon’s The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches is worth listening to. I wonder what Joe Karbo’s original was like.

[Edit:] Warning: The site at the end of the book is either too hard to find or no longer valid… The book is worth listening too, but it’s a bummer the promised section isn’t readily available. – Thanks Gigi!
If anyone knows how to get there, please pass on how. Thanks. -b


Good Business

Beans

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Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad Beans, a very cute and to the point story about an already successful business owner trying to figure out what’s missing. The interesting thing about this story is that the guy asking for help already has everything in place. It’s pretty cool to hear about how a stewardess couple gets its business going and truly lives doing something they’re passionate about (the wife retired, but still helps out). In the end, the consultant brings out the framework of the four P’s: passion, people, personal and product, and tells Jack how they apply to his business. What’s neat about this book is that it’s told as a story rather than in concepts. It’s not super deep or super long, but it has some nice simple insights. The parts with the consultant feedback were alright, but I found the parts about Jack the most interesting and educational–and I think that’s what the authors intended.

I made the decision and officially started yesterday. Can you guess what I chose?

Good Business, Growth Books, Leadership

Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning

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Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of MeaningI thought Good Business was just another business book. Not that I don’t like business books, but this one is far more. The way the author describes working environments that foster flow and the way he discusses responsibility and purpose. He breaks it down so clearly. I want to go out and get the print version and take notes from it. It’s so clear and so powerful.

What is flow? Flow is when you’re vibing, it’s a period of time when you’re working at your maximum capacity. It’s when time gets distorted and you completely forget about yourself. You have clear goals and you become the task you’re accomplishing. The amount of flow time in one’s life corresponds with a feeling of purpose, happiness, and well-being. The author talks about strategies of bringing flow into the workplace, but also, toward the end of the pack, talks about choosing a life and career or business that’ll foster such time. He covers all sorts of topics like time allocation, family and work, and has so many insightful quotes. This is one of the few books on tape, that I’ll probably listen to twice.

Another really neat part of his work deals with complexity. He combines evolution, physics, biology, religion, and purpose and weaves through metaphoric threads to prove the need for growth in our lives. Building up step by step, he really creates a work of art, a very powerful one. This is definitely no regular business book. This is a book about living a meaningful life.

The most important concept I got from it so far, and there are many to choose from, is that in order to live a meaningful existence one must do something that’s enjoyable and complex enough to challenge, and at the same time it must benefit mankind. It’s that simple (broken down in far better detail in the book): find something challenging that you love and that helps people. If you make a bad choice, get stuck, and start losing energy, try something else. Find what you love, not what you’re not good at and not what’s too easy. Choose a fun challenge that’ll help others and help you.