Live Truly

I’ve been listening to Brian Tracy for the past few weeks. The guy is fantastic. He’s quoted almost every other success coach I’ve read. His books make very strong points and asks very powerful questions:
-The differences between a winner and a loser is: clarity and responsibility.
-If you could be guaranteed success in field, what field would you choose? If you had ten million dollars, what would you do for a living?
-If you aren’t willing to pay the price to becoming the best in your field you should get out as soon as possible. You’re wasting your time.
-In order to succeed there are only two things you need to do: pay the price and pay it in full

His time management tips are amazing. I especially love the one about procrastinating on what’s not important. It’s such a powerful tool. I also like the whole “eat that frog” idea and the focusing techniques. Aside from Rich Dad, Poor Dad (which isn’t really a coaching book as much as an eye opener) I think this is fastest impact couching program I’ve listened too.

He also gave some really good tips about time and money. I really like the one about figuring out what you get paid per hour and what you would like to get paid and raising the value of your hourly contributions to that. I also like the one about taking a month to delay making any big spending decision.

Speaking of which, I might have made a mistake, but it’s a “mistake” that lets me listen to these tapes. =)

The Psychology of Achievement: Develop the Top Achiever’s Mindset
Million Dollar Habits: Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income
Master Strategies for Higher Achievement : Set Your Goals and Reach Them - Fast!

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith is my first marketing book (outside of search engine marketing). It has a lot to offer. A few of its many new concepts:

Better strive for “excellent” rather than “best” - people don’t believe “best”
If you want to sell… raise the price - you’ll have to listen to the cd for the full explanation
Give one compelling reason - don’t try to satisfy everyone, focus on ONE good thing (fantastic example with an airline)
Keep people informed of your work - if you don’t want your clients to forget or regret, keep them in the loop
You owe your clients - they risk giving you work, they risk their reputations on you, and they think you owe them, and they’re right
Keep your promises modest and clear - try promising a report by 1pm and delivering it by 11am
Brands “replace” warranties - in services there’s no product to return, but people want a to know they’re going to get a good service and the closest thing to this is the brand

This week was pretty crazy. To be exact, an offer from the dream workplace place and the promise of pay negotiations at my current place. On one hand I have a chance to work in a fantastic environment, surrounded by hundreds of people my age who are enjoying what they do, I save forty minutes on a commute, get free meals and all sorts of cool perks, the ability to get home before late at night, with my job left at the job, and a decent wage. On the other hand I have a chance to grow as a programmer, carry more responsibility, help build a new company, work on a very promising, interesting, new product, and see firsthand what it takes to build a business, and most importantly help the team. On one hand I think my boss is among the most interesting, intelligent, and inspirational people I’ve ever met, and I feel indebted towards him for giving me a chance to learn and grow there. On the other hand, I wonder if I’m growing in the right direction; all my friends who work at the other place (I actually have quite a few), have time and energy for pursuing other dreams. This is a problem, it’d be better to devote all your time (including work hours) into pursuing your dream, but I’m scared that I’m not getting anywhere closer to pinning it down yet. Decisions decisions.

SalesDogs (or Sales Dogs?) is another book that rocks. Also by Blair Singer. I’m not in sales, and have never been in sales, but after reading the book, I got all excited about it anyway. It made me want to go out and try my hand at it. I like how the book breaks down different kinds of people (or dogs) and its attitude. Instead of fixing what you suck at, it says get good at your natural skills, then start picking up skills from others. Its a neat flip of an approach. Some other cool things in the book are attitudes toward trying, rejections, getting started, and getting things done. I think this is a really good book to follow Rich Dad, Poor Dad or the Rich Dad Cashflow Quadrant book with. It gives a kind of path to someone that wants to move to the right side of the quadrant but isn’t sure how, and it does so realistically too. One of the interesting things it mentions is that it’s worth the time to stay at a certain place to build knowledge of the territory and learn all the skills and build the necessary authority and networks. It says that in choosing a company to work for, one should choose it for the training and knowledge that one will receive. It also gives a progression from selling products for someone and building the skills and knowledge, to opening a franchise and selling the product or service yourself, to eventually selling the franchise and learning to sell franchises. Very neat, optimistic, more realistic and clear. After reading this book I really started to wonder about my whole actuary endeavor. It got me all excited about sales and made me more eager to try real estate. The SOA exam is in mid February. I still plan to pass it, but as far as work goes, big surprise (sarcasm) now I’m thinking about another field. Next book: something about getting started in real estate.