Category Archives: best books

Choose to be brilliant at ‘One Thing;’ powerful lessons from Gary Keller

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Gary Keller really likes playing guitar, but it’s not his ‘big One Thing.’ (Photo by Mark Lankes)

You might think Gary Keller’s ‘One Thing’ is selling homes, or recruiting great real estate agents. He is, after all, the co-founder and chairman of Keller Williams Realty, which has 700 offices and has won the J.D. Power customer satisfaction top ratings for years.

Yet Keller is certain his greatest gifts are found elsewhere:  It’s teaching, whether by coaching or in the classroom at Baylor University. “My highest and best use is teaching. When I stray away and try to manage things, I”m not as effective,” said Keller, co-author of The One Thing, a new book about making outstanding choices.

When he was growing Keller Williams, he would go out at teach at community colleges and at the real estate schools. The people in his classes connected with him; “they either bought or sold real estate with me or they joined the company,” he recalled. He used his talent for teaching to grow his business into a behemoth.

These days, he is teaching through books and seminars and speaking. He wants to help people find their purpose, their “big One Thing.”

“Extraordinary results come from doing the right thing,” the one area where you truly excel, he said. That’s why he’s hired executives to lead Keller Williams since 1994.

My Quartz piece, gave three big lessons that anyone could learn from Keller and his new book, co-written by Jay Papasan. Here are three more that may resonate especially with creative types and writers who stop by here:

  1. Find your authentic voice.  Choose it so it works for your audience. “I write for my son,” said Keller. “I write everything for my son. …That’s how I get my authentic voice.” His son is 21, studying at the University of Georgia, and would not want a book filled with “hyperbole or sales pitches.”
  2. See the big picture and smaller pieces. This means understanding your life’s purpose and also your priorities for today and this week. We have to juggle multiple projects and several clients simultaneously. “We realize of course that there’s no such thing as One Thing,….It is a way of narrowing things down and making choices.  You can narrow down to what matters most,”  he said an interview.
  3. Ask yourself: How can your life really change the planet?  Said Keller: “Life is a question, and your choices are your answer.”  Choose the place where you will be extraordinary, where you will have thousands of believers and your bosses will find others to handle the less important tasks on your plate because they’re so impressed with your ‘One Thing.

“The smaller I make my life, the bigger it gets,” he said. Yet he has an amazing full life, with a business, a book, his wife, his guitars – those shown are in his office in Austin, Texas, and he has others at home, plus  dogs and charities – almost all  of them come from his eagerness to teach.

“Pick the one thing that your heart really soars with – it really gives you the greatest joy. Make that magnificent. It will make the greatest impact.”

 

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Good times, good reading

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Since I’m taking a short vacation, I won’t take time to write a post this week.

But I don’t want to leave my readers thirsty either, so I’m offering you a drink from some other delicious wells. Here are three articles that I found recently that are both good reads and great ideas for careers:

  1.  Embrace counter-intuitive creativity, and seek it in unlikely places and ways That is one of four and a half great ideas Vineet Nayar   found at Davos. Nayar, author of Employees First, Customers Second, shares all of them on Fortune.com (where I contribute regularly).
  2. Create insurance policies for your career. This LifeHacker piece offers some great suggestions on ways to protect yourself, from growing your network to learning to promote yourself without looking proud or sleazy.
  3.   In The Lost Art of Finishing, Kevin Chou, co-founder at Kabam, reminds us of something crucial. “What sticks with people is whether you did or didn’t finish the job when it mattered.”  His post on LinkedIn reminds us to “find an important task and own the outcome.”

For anyone who’s job hunting this year, Fortune magazine’s Best Places to Work lists and coverage provides a well-stocked pond for easier fishing.  It includes a list of companies with the most job openings and those with great benefits – plus more.

As for books that I’m enjoying, I’m part way through the excellent writing book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamotte and I’m also reading Give and Take by Adam M. Grant Ph.D., which is subtitled A Revolutionary Approach to Success. I have a couple of novels that I hope to dig into later this week.

 

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The wacky wisdom of Dr. Seuss

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We all can learn something from Horton (who stars in Horton Hears a Who), from The Lorax (starring in a new animated tree-loving movie)  - and from the silliness and fantastical creativity found in so many Dr. Seuss books.

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities,” said Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

In honor of his birthday, I present three quotes and three questions about the amazing and astounding author of The Circus McGurkus, Green Eggs and Ham and of course, The Cat in the Hat.

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed! Yes indeed. Yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three quarters percent guaranteed.”  – Dr. Seuss in O The Places You’ll Go!

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself Any direction you choose.” – Ibid.

“From there to here from here to there funny things are everywhere.” -One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish


  1. So where did Theodore Seuss Geisel get his fascination with rhymes? His mother helped  him to sleep with “chanting rhymes” recalled from her childhood – and he has credited her for her influence, according to his biographers on an official site.
  2. How did he get his start?  Though his father hoped he would become a university professor, he became a cartoonist . Geisel drew cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines, and advertisements for Standard Oil Co. During World War II, he helped create animated military training movies with a character called Private Snafu. 
  3.  Which of his books seems to spring from his childhood in Springfield, Mass.?  His first children’s book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street ,  is riddled with it, from the look-alike of one of its mayors to police officers riding red motorcycles.

Now here’s one for you to answer: What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book and what does it say to you?

I’ll leave you with this great quote from the dear doctor in Happy Birthday to You: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

If you’re looking for a Dr. Seuss story of redemption and hope, the animated move The Lorax debuts this weekend.

For more Dr. Seuss quotes for business and workplace, read Tracy Schutz’s post on 12Most. 

For still more Geisel quotes, check out these on GoodReads (source of one or two shared here).

 

 

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Book it: Give inspiration and ideas this holiday season

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As someone who seriously considered a career as a librarian or book shop owner, I adore books  – and their ability to inspire, uplift and inform.  So when I consider Christmas and Chanukah gift ideas, books are always on my mind.

This year with the jobless rate at 8.6 percent, career books seem like a good bet.  So I asked some exceptional career experts to recommend the best books for work, job search and leadership.  Many of their suggestions appear in my Glassdoor.com blog (out on Monday). The rest are offered up here, with the understanding that any book selection must be tailored to the recipient, their personality and situation.

Margaret Dikel created The Riley Guide to help university professionals and students with career information. It has grown exponentially since then. Here’s her book suggestions:

  • Well Connected: An Unconventional Approach to Building Genuine, Effective Business Relationships by Gordon S. Curtis with Greg Lewis.  It is true – who you know makes a huge difference in your career.  Gordon explores a variety of ways to tap a network for introductions and opportunities to present your credentials to decision-makers will move your job search or career ahead at a much faster rate than you ever thought possible.
  •  Knock ‘em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World by Martin Yate (2011, Adams Media).   A great alternative to “Parachute” by another well-regarded expert on job search and career planning.  His writing style is more casual, so it may be an easier read, but you still are pushed into much effort in your search.
  •  The Twitter Job Search Guide by Susan Britton Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan, and Deb Dib (2010, Jist).  Yes, there are opportunities in the world of 140 characters, and not just job postings. A network awaits if you know how to tap into it, and this is your guide to doing it the right way (and avoiding potential problems).

Kate Wendleton is president of the Five O’Clock Club in New York, a membership group that helps professionals and executives with career transitions. Her advice and insights are always first-rate, whether I’m interviewing her for Fortune or for a blog post. Her book picks include:

  • Your Great Business Idea:: the Truth About Making It Happen.  by Kate Wendleton. Make sure your business idea works – for your personality and with success in mind. Contains dozens of case studies showing how people made their decisions. Offers business strategies  for start-ups including the “One-Hour Business Plan” technique to help your test your ideas.
  • The Little Black Book of Success: Laws of Leadership for Black Women by Elaine Meryl Brown,  Marsha Haygood, Rhonda Joy McLean and Angela Burt-Murray. Said Wendleton: “It’s really for everyone – black, white and other, male and female. Extremely well written and full of nuggets for everyone.”

Phyllis Mufson, a career coach for 25 years, works from Philadelphia, is also an artist who makes and sells jewelry. She recommends:

  •  Leadership and Self Deception. Getting Out of the Box by Arbinger Institute. The Arbinger Institute offers seminars, videos and books to help organizations and individuals with problems springing from self-deception. Mufson calls this “a wonderful book on how people get in their own way, at work and in their personal lives. It is very clear about the mechanics of self-justification, the consequences, and how to set yourself free.”
  • Social Networking for Career Success: Using Online Tools to Create a Personal Brand by Miriam Salpeter – Social media is profoundly changing how people get and keep jobs, influence others, and build businesses and Mufson considers this book “very accessible and well-presented how to information.” It also was recommended by Riley in the Glassdoor.com post (link coming Monday afternoon).

I recommend these books:

  •  Better by Mistake, The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong by Alina Tugend.  This book, by a New York Times contributor, explores all the ways mistakes can trip us up or build our intelligence and resilience, Technically this is not a career book, but its findings could be useful to your career and your ability to bounce back from a setback or big screw up.
  • The Adventures of Johnny Bunko / The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need by Daniel Pink. This book, told comic book style, is great for the 18- to 25-year old who’s just starting out. It offers advice including “make excellent mistakes” and “it’s not about you” and it’s one of only a handful of career books I wish I had written!
  • Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders. Sanders, who’s the author of one of my all-time favorite books Love Is the Killer App, writes about the wit and wisdom his grandma, Billye, gave him and how it guided him through his career at Yahoo and as a motivational speaker and consultant. This book may work especially well for anyone facing hard times or who needs some folksy encouragement and guidance.

To be sure there are many other great books available this year. If you’re looking for something more focused on spirituality, personal finances or wellness, check out the finalists in the Books for a Better Life award.  And if you’re finding too many books to give for the December holidays, consider offering some as a Valentine’s gift, including perhaps The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Ben Casnocha.

 

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Drive your career like a Ferrari CEO – with curiosity, passion and reading

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Marco Mattiacci was 29 and working for a consulting firm in London when a recruiter for Ferrari called, asking if he would join the storied automaker. For an Italian man, working at Ferrari represented one of two dream careers, he said. The other: the Italian national soccer team.

So he quickly accepted and was sent to South America for “an incredible opportunity” to bring the sexy two-seaters to Brazilians and Argentinians. “I had a decent knowledge of English and a decent knowledge of Spanish,” Mattiacci said. From that sales job, his career has raced forward. At 40, he has served as CEO of Ferrari North America for almost two years.  Recently, I was fortunate to interview him for a Fortune magazine piece on personal branding and careers; some outtakes and extras are offered here.

“There is definitely not a Coca-Cola formula to succeeding in life,” he told me. Still,  he has his own secret sauce: “I think curiosity is what makes the difference, and listening.”

His ideas for career success do not mandate driving a Ferrari, and as the father of three – a 2-year-old and newborn twins born Oct. 27 – he doesn’t tool around in one every day  either.  But Mattiacci does expect hard work and dedication. Here then are five approaches to make your career shine as brightly as a new red Ferrari, from Marco Mattiacci:

  1. Cultivate curiosity.   ” Your mind is always open. and your ears are open to listen,” he told me. Listen to a wide variety of people – including many  in fields very different from yours, such as the orchestra leaders and software industries. That creates cross fertilization. “The more you know, the more you understand: You don’t know that much,” he said. So read books and newspapers every day – including the New York Times and Foreign Affairs Review. ”I like to be challenged,” he said.
  2. Be open to opportunities.  “The best things in life arrive to you,” he said, comparing it to a surfer who watches and waits for just the right wave to ride. When it does, you must know you’re prepared and also prepare for a learning curve, Mattiacci said.

3. Grab international experience. It’s stimulating and helps you understand people unlike you. “We are an interconnected world. Have experience abroad,” he recommends.

4. Develop an entrepreneurial mindset.  “Be an entrepreneur in the way to manage your job,” he said. “Execution is fundamental” and so are the relationships with staff and customers.

5. Mix passion and humility.  Despite his success for Ferrari in China and Asian, he wakes up with the idea: “There is someone better than me that can aspire to take my job. ” He also sees the global market for cars and talent as “so competitive.” This forces him to work very hard, and to see ways to adapt and learn.  The passion piece is important because it creates momentum. “When you do things with passion, you do things 120 percent,” said Mattiacci.

Like Ferrari, he appreciates and embraces the idea that being highly selective, authentic and true to core values works for individual as well as automotive success

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Marco Mattiacci prefers books on business, history – especially ancient Rome and Greece – as well as biographies and personal improvement books. Here are a few he recommends:

·         The Rational Optimist By Matt Ridley

·         The Last Place on Earth  By Roland Huntford

·        Caesar’s Legion By Stephen Dando-Collins

·         The Ascent of Money By Niall Ferguson  (link goes to PBS two-hour program based on the book)

·         Memoiries D’Hadrien  By Marguerite Yourcenar (French tile of a book about a Roman emperor)

·         The Culture Code  By Clotaire Rapaille

 

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More great books to give grads

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If you missed the university graduation yet want to encourage the graduate, we have another shelf of great books to inspire and advise graduates.

Some of them show up in my short Washington Post article this weekend – recommended by a bookseller at Politics & Prose in D.C.  among others. Others show up here, recommended by Nicola Rooney, owner of another independent book store in Ann Arbor, and by Martha Finney, a former journalist and author. A couple come from the Books for a Better Life Award, given annually to exceptional self-help and motivational titles.

Finney, a former business writer now writes books such as “Rebound / A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss ” and “HR from the Heart / Inspiring Stories and Strategies …..” Finney also runs team-building workshops and speaks and consults on employee engagement.

Self-Reliance and Other Essays, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The  American philosopher tells us that it’s necessary to think for ourselves and not abandon our sense of right and wrong, especially facing external, societal pressures to take the easy route. “Although he lived and wrote in the 19th Century, his thoughts about independence and individualism are as relevant and inspiring today as they were when the ink was still fresh.”

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children, by John Wood. This wonderful story shows the power an individual has to make a difference to millions of strangers, with more than a little bit of help from his friends. Said Finney: “If I were to give this book to a new graduate, I hope its lessons would inspire my young friend to stay hopeful, energetic, observant, grateful, and passionate about the world.”

Find Your Calling, Love Your Life, by Martha I. Finney and Deborah Dasch.  This is a hopeful, inspiring collection of interviews with ordinary Americans who discovered who they are and their place in the world through adventures in finding their right life’s work. Although out of print, Finney is kindly offering a free ebook. Request a copy from her: martha@marthafinney.com.

The Books for a Better Life awards, given annually by the the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s New York Chapter, include several worth considering. These winners are from this year’s awards and include book descriptions culled from Amazon.com and various book reviews:

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, Random House, won in the inspirational memoir category. It tells the story of a medical student who flees the horrors of war-gorn Africa and arrives with $200 and delivers groceries to well-to-do New Yorkers. The New York Times called the book “one of the truly stunning books…this year.”

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives By Nicholas A. Christakis M.D. and James H. Fowler won the psychology award. Book describes the science of our connections – and how they spread happiness, weight gain and political views.

Nicola Rooney owner of Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor is a former engineer who says her choices “reflect my analytical tendencies. Choosing a career is too important to leave just to touchy feely.” Her choices:
Discover What You’re best At by Linda Gale, Fireside Books. The premise: You enjoy doing things you are good at, so for a happy career, pick one that matches your skills.  The book sets out several tests to pinpoint your skill set, then using the reults guide in the back, it groups the type of career path that utilizes those skills. For anyone who is uncertain which direction to take, this book give some great pointers and may broaden your outlook into new areas.

What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles,  Ten Speed Press. Now in its 40th year, still probably the best, most practical, proven method for organizing your job search. It’s useful for new job seekers, as well as mid career job shifts.  The book is updated every year to reflect the current job market, but is solidly based on experience and covers much more than just resume writing and interview techniques. (Elmer aside: See my Washington Post interview with Bolles from a year ago for a sampling of his  search strategies thinking.)

Do What You Are:  Discover the Perfect Career for You through the Secrets of Personality Type. By Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron  Little Brown  This one counterbalances the first one,with its focus on the good match between your temperament and your job equaling a rewarding outcome.  The book explains Personality Types, using the Myers-Briggs system.  Myers -Briggs tests are conducted by professionals, but the ideas in the book are valuable in general for instilling some structure into planning your career.  It offers suggestions on career paths likely to suit your personality.

I will suggest a few books myself, and serve up a few more suggestions from my experts, in my third post on inspiring graduates books that will be posted by Wednesday.

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My thanks to Martha Finney and Nicola Rooney for their contributions to this blog. I am friendly with both of them, but have no business relationships. Nor do I earn anything from the sale of any of these books.

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Great books for grads; give them a little education on work and life

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Graduates this year are leaving commencement and entering a work world that has challenges and opportunities, holes and hopefulness, continuity and lots of change.

So they may need extra guidance on establishing their careers and navigating the complexities of being the new kid in a company that laid off one in five workers just months earlier. Or they may take a job they don’t really like, just to land safely. (The acceptance rate rose sharply among college graduates this year, and one fourth of them have jobs waiting for them, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.)

If you know a graduate and are wondering what to give her or him, I’ve asked some creative and smart people who love books to recommend their best picks for young adults. The books are a mix of career, business and life titles – some old and some new. And the blog post comes in two part, with a second helping of ideas including some of my choices.

The selections and  commentary come directly from my respected colleagues and from an independent bookstore in Ann Arbor that I appreciate. I hope they will prove valuable for high school and college graduates, though they are aimed primarily at the university departures.

Here then are the great books for grads, part 1:

Barbara J. Winter, author of Making a Living Without a Job and a woman who leads seminars on being “joyfully jobless” also calls herself a “passionate reader” and intrepid traveler. Barbara Winter’s picks:

1. ROADTRIP NATION by Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard. The book began with a conversation between two college friends who realized they had very few ideas about career options. They set off on a cross-country trip to interview people doing unique and interesting things and along the way got excited about their own futures.

2.  A WHOLE NEW MIND by Daniel H. Pink is subtitled Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Pink makes a strong case for preparing for the future by learning to think like a creative innovator. And he shows us how to do that.

3. MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE by Bill Strickland is the inspiring and astonishing story of the author’s courage to dream bigger and make his Pittsburgh ghetto a better place to live. Along the way, he impacts thousands of lives by helping others do the same. He shows us that a nurturing environment can erase years of bad lessons.  (I heartily recommend this one too.)

4 .College grads will  find plenty of encouragement in a new book called DELIVERING HAPPINESS by Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos. It’s an inside look at how this Harvard grad become a successful entrepreneur and inspiration to employees.

Jim Pawlak has a varied background: He worked for Ford Motor Credit for a decade, then wrote about job search and careers for several newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, where I helped him launch his writing career. He still writes Biz Books for newspapers including the Dallas Morning News. Pawlak’s picks:

5.  101 THINGS  I LEARNED IN BUSINESS SCHOOL by Michael Pries, Grand Central Publishing, $15.  It’s Business Basics 101 – ideal for the liberal arts grads who haven’t taken business courses.  Good guide to understanding how business does business.

6. FULL THROTTLE: 122 STRATEGIES TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR PERFORMANCE AT WORK by Greg Steinberg, John Wiley & Sons, $22.95.  Find your passion.  Create your path.  Make the committment.  Enjoy your journey.

7. MOJO – HOW TO GET IT, HOW TO KEEP IT by Marshall Goldsmith, Hyperion Books, $26.99. When you’ve got your mojo working, you’re in the make-it-happen zone.  You push boundaries.  Without mojo, you remain in your let-it-happen comfort or danger zone.

Rachel Pastiva, manager of Crazy Wisdom, an independent bookseller and tea room in downtown  Ann Arbor, is surrounded by books on subjects ranging from natural health to world religions to careers. Her  Crazy Wisdom recommendations for grads:

8. DIY U: EDUPUNKS, EDUPRENEURS AND THE COMING TRANSFORMATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION by Anya Kamentz. Not a light read by any means, this book is a serious look at the cost of higher education and why it needs to change. I  recommend this book as a gift to high school graduates or any graduate considering further education. It’s a good primer on higher education in the United States that will inspire students to actively contemplate what they want from their future.

9. GUARDIANS OF BEING words by Eckhart Tolle and art by Patrick McDonnell. While  this is a great gift book for anyone, t will particularly resonate with animal lovers and dog lovers. Whimsically illustrated by the creator of the comic strip Mutts, this book reminds us how to live in the moment. This is Pastiva’s personal favorite. This is not a book to read once! Each reading of this beautiful book offers new insight and inspiration.

10. YOU MAJORED IN WHAT? MAPPING YOUR PATH FROM CHAOS TO CAREER by Katharine Brooks, ED.D. This is a great title for students graduating college who are looking for guidance on what career path to pursue. Unlike any other book on careers, this book helps the reader map out his/her unique path by assessing not only education, but life experiences and other interests.

A big thanks to Crazy Wisdom and Rachel Pastiva, Jim Pawlak and Barbara Winter for generously sharing their time and wisdom. While I’m friendly with all three and actively support independent booksellers, I have no business relationship with any of them or in mentioning any of these books.

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