It’s All Right Here. Life and affairs organizer. Mark Gavagan. 2007. ISBN 9780980005608. This is a serious subject and one many do not do well on. It is a document that answers the question, “What if something happened to you and/or your spouse tonite? Would those you love have all the critical information they need? The author has gone to quite some trouble putting this book/binder together. I was particularly interested in the section on private business, and found it to be thorough and useful.

From the website (which is where you buy this book) .

http://www.affairsorganizer.com/index_2.html

Topics Include: Real estate, investments, insurance, retirement plans, benefits, hidden valuables, advisors (lawyer, accountant, etc.) important keys, allocation of personal items, living wills, organ donation, final arrangements, information about storage units, safes and safe deposit boxes, detailed pet care instructions, critical information about privately-owned businesses, and much more.

Intended Audience: Everyone, including young parents preparing their first wills and making initial life insurance purchases, up through seniors concerned about retirement, finances, estate planning and issues surrounding possible incapacity and loss of life.

About the Author: Mark Gavagan, a Business/Economics graduate of Utica College, has a broad background in business and financial services. His career includes more than sixteen years as an equity trader, registered representative, entrepreneur, writer, and Fortune 100 company manager. Mark lives in northern New Jersey. He’s married and has two daughters.

Document & Key Storage Features:

> 5 heavy duty, clear, acid-free, 3-hole punched sleeves. Total capacity = 100+ pages

> Key storage is similar to above, but with 9 individual pockets and cutom label tags for copies of important keys

> Standard 3-ring binder has plenty of additional room for 3-hole punched statements, documents, etc.

Website has more examples. Good $49 investment in my opinion.

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Myself and Other More Important Matters . Charles Handy. 2008. ISBN 9780814401736. Charles Handy is considered the English Peter Drucker. He founded the London Business School, the first business school in the UK. He has had an extensive and varied career in the private and public sector as well as in some time in the spiritual vs secular life. His words to MBA candidates and graduates ring very true believing as he does that DO is much more important than IQ. A very easy reading and flowing book, Handy is a good writer, which one could trace back to his being a Classicist. I would suggest this as a thought provoking book when you have the time and inclination to ponder your life. On life after death, ” Well I did not give much thought to the world before I came into it, so why should I bother about it when I am gone? .” Good gift book from Father to Son.

The Go-Giver. A little story about a powerful business idea. Bob Burg & John David Mann.. 2007 ISBN 9781591842002. A business fable that is quite powerful . The fable follows a go getter sales guy as he finds the path to riches is quite a different way than he imagined. In our experience this fable is quite true as it is built around five laws of giving. The more you give, the more you get.

Law 1. The Law of Value; Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payments. In our business, we hear from clients “guys are worth twice as much as we pay you”.

Law 2. The Law of Compensation; Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. In our experience this has proved out with the Word of Mouth business we get.

Law 3. The Law of Influence; Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interest first. I have had many clients say things like , “you treat my business like it is more important than your own”.

Law 4. The Law of Authenticity; The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. That is all we have

Law 5. The Law of Receptivity; The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. Our clients are constantly introducing us to their business friends  that might need us.

This is a great read, and you can get through it quite quickly. Very enjoyable and I think useful to us all.

The Art of Possibility. Transforming professional and personal life. Rosamund and Ben Zander. 2000. ISBN 9780142001103. Garr Reynolds in Presentation Zen recommended this book. It is a very useful and well written little book. Their web site , The Art of Possibility gives good background. Ben Zander is the long time conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and Rosamund is well respected change management professional. The book gives us very key insights into how to better understand our daily life and make something out of it all. Eg . Ben gives his music students an A at the beginning of each semester, but the students have to write an essay at the same time as if it was the end of term where they have to explain what they did to earn an A mark. I found each page had another insight for me and it was delight to go through the book. (Thank goodness TV is such an intellectual wasteland, else I would never get through all the great books being sent my way.) If you are into personal growth and development I would say this is a library keeper.

The Complete Turtle Trader. The legend, the lessons, the results. Michael W. Covel. 2007. ISBN 9780061241703. As it says on the flyleaf, “If you want to understand the real world of trading, read this book” . The book reads like a novel since Covel is a clear, concise writer with a personable style.

I learned a lot of the background needed to understand where this famous trend following system came from, as Covel is an excellent researcher. I was unaware that Richard Dennis decided to run a training school to prove that great traders (Turtles) can be taught. (Nurture vs nature). Covel provides a clear description of the Rules to the Turtles. Proof that these rules work is the included career track records of very wealthy people who followed the Rules.

I loved Charlie Munger’s ( Warren Buffets No 2 guy) quote, ” In my whole life I have known no wise people over a broad subject matter area who didn’t read all the time - none, zero.”

Lesson learned on entrepreneurs. Nancy Upton and Don Sexton , of Baylor University pinpointed nine traits of those who become fabulously wealthy entrepreneurs:

1. Nonconformists - lower need to conform indicating self-reliance
2. Emotionally aloof- not necessarily cold to others, but can be oblivious
3. Sky divers - lower concern for physical harm, but does change with age
4. Risk takers - more comfortable taking it
5. Socially adroit - more persuasive
6. Autonomous - higher need for independence
7. Change seekers - like novel approaches. This is different than 99% of all other people
8. Energetic - higher need / or ability to work longer
9. Self-sufficient - don’t need as much sympathy or reassurance, but they still need to form networks so self-sufficiency need not be taken to extremes.

If you have any interest in doing the work needed to make the big money trading, this is the book for you . Perhaps like me you are interested but would prefer to be able to find a trader that shares your philosophy who will do the work, then you need this book. Or perhaps you just like to read about people making scads of money trading and like Charlie Munger says, you read/learn all the time.

Presentation Zen. Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery. Garr Reynolds. 2008. ISBN 9780321525659. This picks up from Turfte’s “Beautiful Evidence” book and more so. If you give presentations at all you need this book. It is so far the best book on Powerpoint (Keynote) I have read. The ideas are not just talked about, you walk through how to do it with plenty of before and after pictures. A very graphical and stunning book. If you have ever felt that your audience was just not getting your message, or you understand why Steve Jobs out presents Bill Gates, or you appreciate the Guy Kawasaki style, then this is the book for you. Buy it, read and use it and do not lend it!

Fun with Food and Fermented Beverages. Ashley Walkley. 2008. ISBN 9781427628770. Once again Dear Reader we are giving you just the facts to live your life to the fullest. Just how many times a week do you turn to your significant other and say ” Gee I hope this bottle of Old Washboard Red goes well with the meatloaf?” Well fear not, this is the book for all you struggling with pairing food with wine, beer and Scotch.

All kidding aside, I read this book riding the luxurious Skytrain home tonite and found that this is a winner! Of course it is , its written by an Aussie! Straight down the middle, pragmatic, no varnish on it and just exactly what you need to know, for any kind of food with any cuisine. Would that other authors made their topics so easy, enticing and digestible. Buy it, it’s good for you plus you will impress your friends and enemies! You may not find it at Chapters/Amazon but you can get it directly at info@aewassociatesinc.com.   his website 

Tell Ashley Reg sent you! (Argentina is now 5.5 days away!)

Savvy Networking. 118 fast & effective tips for business success. Andea R. Nierenberg. 2007. ISBN 9781933102443. This is a thin little book that is full of dynamite suggestions. So much good business sense here. It would be useful for companies to hand these out in bulk for new hires to read and then quiz them on it. From meeting folks, to salesmanship through to customer service this lady has something for everyone. Quit reading about it and go buy it!