A Guide to the Good Life.  The ancient art of Stoic joy. William B. Irvine. 2009.  ISBN 9780195374612.   Tim Ferriss often talks about the Stoics and how it has given him a different view on life.  Irvine, a college philosophy instructor believes that one needs a philosophy of life to thread your way through our changing world.   He picked Stoicism and in this book,   goes through various other Greek  & Roman based philosophy.  Then he leads you through the most well known Stoics such as Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and others.   His choices are based on there still being records of their writings and stories for you to read.  For me this was an interesting area to learn about.   I kept hearing the words of my Father in the life lessons of the Stoics.  Not surprising as my Northern Scandinavian roots are bound up in working on what you can change or affect and not being too upset over things that you have little to no control over.  If this topic is interesting to you, this book is a good start.  Clearly written it can speak directly to you.  Stoic joy is achieving tranquility and we could all use some of that.

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Sales Management,  Simplified. The straight truth about getting exceptional results from your sales team.  Mike Weinberg. 2015. ISBN 978081443643.  Another home run from Weinberg.  Leading directly from New Sales, Simplified, his first book  the author has created one of the most useful sales management books today.   His basic premise is that there is still a need for focus on Sales 101 , the basics of good selling.  Yes there are many very useful tools out there, but they are in addition to good basic selling techniques.  He sees a coaching , leading role for sales managers and keeps saying  1 on 1 meetings and field sales calls are essential to great management.  Music to our ears. Concise, clearly written book that leads from the problems to solutions.  Every sales manager needs this book. (Most CEOs should read it too)

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WordPress Made Super Simple.  How anyone can build a professional looking website from scratch: Even a total beginner. Jack Davies & Sarah Wiley 2014.   This book does exactly what it proposes to do.  I have looked a few of these books this year and can not recommend this one too highly.  Like Jack  “just the facts ma’am”  Palance , the author does not stray very far from the essentials.  The first book to read on the subject IMHO.

The New Rules of Sales and Service.  How to use agile selling, real-time customer engagement, big data, content and storytelling to grow your business. David Meerman Scott. 2014. ISBN 9781118827857. The author is the expert on this stuff. I have reviewed several of his books and he always delivers exactly what you need.  I made so many highlights in this book that it seemed it would have be easier to just copy it all.  Great stuff , like

• more people have access to mobile phones than have access to toothbrushes.
• the marketing staff needs to be the buyer expert, not just the product expert.
• marketers become expert in persuading the audience of many , the salesperson  need to excel in persuading the individual buyers
• companies need to be educating the salespeople about the buying process.
• buyers operate in real-time
• salespeople need to be able to bring value to the discussion

He is all about the buyer and knowing the buyers journey.   He peppers the content liberally with real world examples that are true and sadly, too funny in that they still occur.   One of the better books for the beginner through to the expert , there is something for everyone in this book

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