The Library of America

The Library of America
Given what is going on in America at this time, I'm wondering if "ethics" is a part of any business course? If not, it should be, along with mandatory repeats of certain courses/readings in order to stay in business . . . particularly any that handle others' money.

Along with inclusion in business courses, perhaps selections could be required reading by politicans, newcomers to America, anyone seeking citizenship, everyone in prison. Too many people have forgotten why this nation was forged: The Land of the Free; The Home of the Brave.

How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
Ken Fisher with Lara Hoffmans

How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud

Nearly every financial scam, including Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, could have easily been detected and avoided.
Fisher’s New York Times best seller, How to Smell a Rat, presents five simple signs that can alert you to possible scams and help insulate you against financial fraud.

How to Smell a Rat is an informative look at recent and historic examples of fraudsters, how they operated, and how their scams could have been avoided. Fisher highlights provides his readers with an insider’s view on how to spot financial disasters so you won’t become involved with them. Investors continue to be swindled; learn how to protect yourself from financial fraud.

The Selfish Gene:
30th Anniversary Edition, with a new Introduction by the Author, Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author
Richard Dawkins
In the event you doubt that people might be ruled by genetics, I'll make the proposition here that throughout history many (too many) people have been/are "managed" by their selfish genes. Perhaps a read of Richard Dawkins' books would shed light on such people. I will also note here that current research indicates that you can, in fact, change your DNA, so there actually is help for "these people."

Dancing Naked in the Mind Field
Kary Mullis
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

"Kary Mullis may be our quirkiest Nobel laureate. In this entertaining romp through diverse fields of inquiry, he displays the openmindness, eccentricity, brilliance and general curmudgeonliness that make him the colorful character he is . . .

"One of the most mind-stretching and inspirational books I've read for a long time. It is also very funny, and I hope that— before it gets banned—myriads of copies infiltrate all the legislatures, colleges, and high schools of the United States.

Dancing Naked in the Mind Field
Kary Mullis
In 1983, during a drive from La Jolla to Northern California's Anderson Valley, scientist (and surfer) Kary Mullis was thinking about replication of DNA. During that drive he invented Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which enables researchers to produce millions of copies of a specific DNA sequence in approximately two hours. This automated process bypasses the need to use bacteria for amplifying DNA.

Why is this book so valuable to me and to you? Well, it IS written by a scientist and is completely understandable and extremely witty. (Read through to the quote below, please, to get an idea of this unique brain.)

But more important, Mullis, then a well-regarded scientist, initially doubted his own discovery. He presented his theory to various scientists who took little note. His premise seemed too easy to him. He stayed with it and on December 16, 1983, he pulled his experiment out of the refrigerator.

"There, just where it should have been, was a tiny little black band . . . It meant that I was going to be famous. I remember the date. It was the birthday of Cynthia, my former wife from Kansas City, who had encouraged me to write fiction and bore us two fine sons. I had strayed from Cynthia eventually . . . When I was sad for any other reason, I would also grieve for Cynthia. There is a general place in your brain, I think, reserved for "melancholy of relationships past." It grows and prospers as life progresses, forcing you finally, against your better judgment, to listen to country music."

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science and Everyday Life, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

The "World Wide Web network" is his basis for network analysis; he extended his findings to other possible real-world networks (cellular-proteins, diseases, network of actors at Hollywood, terrorist networks, web of scientists linked with co-authorship, collaborative web behind economy, etc.).

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science and Everyday Life
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Published 2003
The author offers overviews on different networking details and a general progressing view about network analysis, all of which is written in a language non-scientists can understand. He relates this to everyday life in that in Chapter 4: Small Worlds, Barabasi relates the Strength of Weak Ties theory of Granovetter that in finding a job "our weak social ties are more important than our cherished strong friendships."

To me, this ties in with everyday interactions, genetic research, DNA, metaphysics, etc., thus I find it a valuable work.

Success Magazine
What Achievers Read

Success Magazine : What Achievers Read

First published in 1891, this highly respected publication has been led by several renowned personal development authors and editors, including Jack Canfield's personal mentor, W. Clement Stone. (Jack Canfield is featured in the August 2009 issue of Success magazine along with Michael J. Fox. Good company!)

Success is the only newsstand magazine that includes a bonus DualDisc (CD and DVD in one) in every issue.

To Flash or Not to Flash. Web Marketing: New Methods = $$"
Web Marketing: New Methods - $$
Dianne Levy
90 pages; Revised May, 2009
ISBN13: 978-0-9822768-2-2
Click here for more on the book

Stats, practical advice, how-to, etc. Basically everything the author could think of that proved financially viable in a small office:

The marketing techniques used in this book during 2008 were so successful that a real estate agent''s ad budget was cut by 35%, yet sales were $3.6 million over the previous year and the company had its highest income in its history. As this was being written, the company owners were cruising the Mediterranean!

This step-by-step guide will show you how you can put money in the bank AND take a vacation to exotic locales. We have recently used the same techniques for a day spa and for a tour company; both have seen increased traffic for their services through eMarketing. The world is online; learn how to reach them.

Dianne Levy is a small business consultant and media-marketing professional of broad experience. She worked in a variety of roles at the San Francisco Chronicle, VideoText (the first foray into public-access information systems—precursor to the internet), and New York Times companies. She is also a photographer, a licensed real estate agent, earned an ePro marketing certification from the National Association of Realtors® and is has just received Small Business Administration NxLeveL certification.

Brilliant, creative, impressive, uncomplicated and even fun. Psychologist Cramer and advertising industry leader Wasiak walk readers through constructive introspection to positive change in areas like power, influence, and the future. Beautiful photos, attractive sidebars, and color-highlighted text. This is a fine book for those of us who haven't developed our personal strength, who have not taken a stand on our beliefs, and more. Exercises include "list five strengths you always have with you."

This short paperback (160 pages) has a 4.5 star rating (out of a possible 5) with readers. From the back cover: How do some people consistently transform their ideas into actions and achievements while others dream, think, and plan, but actually accomplish little? Answer: Self-Discipline! Follow the system in this book and you will achieve more self-discipline in your work life, your personal life, and any other area of your life. You'll learn to apply simple techniques that will benefit you for a lifetime. All you need is the desire to improve. This system will do the rest.

Jack Canfield has been a "hero" of mine ever since I read his story of how "Chicken Soup for the Soul" got started—a collaboration with Mark Victor Hansen that was conceived with a financial goal in mind . . . which they achieved. I haven't read the Chicken Soup series, but I do read his success books, i.e. this one, "The Aladdin Factor," "Key to Living the Law of Attraction" and "The Power of Focus."

A practical hands-on manual designed to educate marketers and business owners on extending brands, generating leads and engaging customers using online strategies and social media for online marketing. Social media has quickly moved from the periphery of marketing into the forefront, but this is a new and quickly-evolving field and there are few established formulas for success.

Forbes Video Business Visionary Series interviewed Stephen Covey, who discusses his newest book about trust. Covey quotes Warren Buffet as saying "it takes years to build up a reputation, but only five seconds to destroy it." Covey reviews behaviors that establish trust: right wrongs, talk straight, respect others, create transparency, confront reality, demonstrate loyalty, clarify expectations, be accountable, listen and extend trust. Covey offers performance checks and plans; critics generally feel that the book isn't well written albeit worth reading.

This is the first of three tapes to come from a PBS series. It is a fine compilation of thought provking ideas from the world's great(est) thinkers. Edited by Deepak Chopra, it features Steven Covey, David Whyte, Marianne Williamson, Thomas Moore, and Bernie Siegel, along with Deepak Chopra. They addressed the mind-body connection and shared ideas on harnessing inner power.

Originally published in 1995 and still relevant. McWilliams' points out the danger of living day-to-day with negative thoughts, how useless they are in anyone's life, and how they can lead to dis-ease (philosopher Alan Watt's version of "disease"). Copies of McWilliam's book and "What You Think of Me is None of My Business" (below) were on my desk for years in plain view as a means to keep conversations in a constructive vein . . . it worked. I actually never read either, but the titles have stuck with me and pulled me through many times that might have otherwise been rough going.

The title makes so much sense, I never completely read the book. Most of us care very much about what people think of us, whether we admit it or not. However, there really isn't much you can do about what anyone else thinks. So strive to be a good person and hope for the best. If someone is seriously negatively opinionated about you or anything, simply move on. There are billions of people in this world; it is quite easy to find people that share your values.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Dr. Shunryu Suzuki
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

How does anyone get through life without at least a smattering of Zen philosophy? I first read Dr. Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" at age 25, it has been on my bookshelf ever since, and it is considered one of the great modern Zen classics. How simple life could be if we didn't try to complicate everything through judgment, seeking answers when there aren't any, being angry (unless you harness it to make peaceful change), or being stuck in the past and/or worrying about the future. There is no point. Everything is. Or, in today's idioms: It is what it is—which was voted by USA as the "#1 cliche of 2004 and which has been considered a defeatest attitude. THAT misses the point.

Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
Glenn Beck

Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
While I don't agree with a significant part of Beck's controversial premises (such as the right to bear arms), he is, at times, on track. He claims that his core values are personal responsibility, private charity, right to life, freedom of religion, low debt, limited government, and family as the cornerstone of society. He positions much of this strangely, but I can't disagree with the basic ideaology; perhaps the U.S. would be in better shape if more people held those principles.

Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine

Glenn Beck's Common Sense:
The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" in 1776 to encourage his fellow citizens to take control of Ammerica's future and, by doing so, ensuring her freedom. Beck, a nationally syndicated radio and Fox News host, revisits Paine's treatise with the purpose of galvanizing Americans to see past government's easy solutions.