Books | I'm Just Sharing

4-Hour Work Week – Lifestyle Review

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Mar 26, 2011

I know what you’re thinking; two things in fact. One, didn’t you just see this picture a couple of days ago? Yes, you did. And two, if this is a post talking about a book then why not call it a book review instead of a life review? Hey, it’s me, so I have to do something a little bit different. After all, my buddy Marelisa just wrote on it as well, giving it a much different take than just a book review as well.

You know, one of the things about speed reading is that, when you’re doing it kind of for pleasure, you tend to stick with stuff that you’re specifically looking for and thus you’re normally happy with what you’re reading. If one is speed reading something they don’t like it won’t stick, and thus it becomes harder to speed read. I actually read half of 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss at Barnes & Noble many months ago and was really enthusiastic in what I’d read. The concept of finding ways to reduce one’s workload and stress load were very appealing to me. And I understood some of the concepts that could get me there. It was enough to get me to buy the book and read it more thoroughly.

Part of me is now wishing I hadn’t done that. The early concepts I got from the book are still valid, and yet I found myself not enjoying some other parts of the book as much, to the extent that at a certain point I started speed reading some of it again because I just wanted to get past extraneous stuff that I knew I didn’t care about.

First, let’s talk about what I liked in the book. I liked his concept of finding ways to free one’s time so they can do more of what they want to do, which in Ferriss’ case is travel. He set up many ways to get this done, from outsourcing some of the things he didn’t want to do to giving people working for him more power to make decisions for himself. What a life for someone with many interests.

I liked his talk about moving towards minimalism in many ways, including how he travels with luggage at less than 10 pounds; man, that would be sweet. I also enjoyed some of the “case studies” which he was able to include in this particular book because it’s updated and expanded with stories that weren’t available at the first printing, since obviously people hadn’t read his book yet.

And I liked him talking about not being available to everyone 24/7 and having some down time when you really need it. In relating some of this to my life, I rarely give out my cell number because I don’t want everyone being able to always reach me. If my phone rings in the car, I know it’s one of only 5 or 6 people. If I’m out of town, I might give it to a client I’m working with at the time, but I also know that once the assignment is over that’s one less person who’ll ever use that number again.

Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like about the book. I didn’t like that it concentrated so much on travel. Probably 20% of the book covers that topic, and that’s not the book I wanted to read. I thought that some of what I read was irresponsible. For instance, at one point he talks about how one of his plants ended up being closed while he was gone, yet he had fun doing this or that by being unable to be contacted. In other words, his fun was more important than all the jobs that were lost because he decided not to concentrate on an aspect of his business; that’s shameful and affected the lives of a lot of other people.

Tim Ferriss

I wasn’t crazy about the way he and some of his case study people outsourced certain things such that someone else took care of aspects of their personal lives and pulled them away from personal contact. For instance, he tells the story of giving an assignment to college students to reach 3 celebrities and get them to answer 3 questions within 24 hours. However, as a celebrity himself, he’d have never been available to be reached for any student that decided to reach out to him. Being in business and telling people to only check their email once a week for about an hour or their phones for the same amount of time kind of irks me. True, both can kill time, but if you’re in business you might just have to suck up some of that. Then again, he does have other people handling most of this stuff for him; how many of us could do that sort of thing as readily?

There’s also the advocating outsourcing everything at the cheapest price possible, which leads to him and others sending a lot of their business out of the country and really being kind of smug about it. Yeah, I’ll admit that one of the things that irks me a little bit is not using workers in one’s own country if the only difference in quality is price. That might be a minor sticking point, but it’s one I have so I thought I’d mention it.

To be fair on that last point, though, the concept of finding things one can outsource to someone else isn’t a bad one, even if it costs you a little bit of money. Something I absolutely hate is making cold calls of any form; I find reasons not to do it, preferring email or only wanting to talk to people from whom I know there’s already some kind of interest in what I have to talk to them about. Right now I’m contemplating hiring someone to handle a few hours of phone calls for me in one of my industries so I can work on something else. I already have an accountant that handles my bookkeeping and such, and I have a guy who cuts my grass, and let me just get one big contract and I’ll be outsourcing some other things that I not only don’t have time to do, but don’t want to do.

Where do I come down in the end? I think it’s a book many people still need to read because it does get one thinking about ways to make their lives simpler, even to possibly learn how to work it out with your employer so you can not only work from home, but potentially work while being mobile with the feeling that you’re actually sitting at home. True, I have some things I didn’t like, but overall this is a book that, if you’re looking to change your life in some fashion, you need to break down and read.

Books | 20 Comments

Don’t Ask – Book Review

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 10, 2011

I figured that since I’m pimping stuff today I might as well finally get around to talking about our friend Beverly Mahone’s new book Don’t Ask, And I Won’t Have To Lie. It comes with another subtitle as well, ’50 is the new 30 and other tall tales’.

At just under 80 pages the book is a very easy and entertaining read. Bev talks about her own “lie” and how it almost cost her life because she wasn’t telling her physician the whole story on how she felt and if she’d been taking care of herself. That started her exploring this concept of lying and the intricacies about it.

The strangest things she talks about are the lies we tend to tell ourselves when we should know better. Things like ‘I don’t smoke much’ or ‘I know I exercise a lot’ when we don’t necessarily do those things. I like to say how good I am often enough when it comes to eating patterns, yet when I was taking time to write down everything I put in my mouth I realized that I do have a tendency here and there to snack a bit here and there, which adds up over the course of a day.

The last quarter of the book consists of a liar’s daily survey you might think to do on yourself, which of course I didn’t do because I don’t want to know. lol It also consists of responses to a survey she conducted that yield some interesting responses here and there, answering questions such as “Your girlfriend’s husband makes some inappropriate comments to you while drinking at a party you’re all attending.” What do you do? Nope, I’m not revealing the answers; it’s on you to buy the book and read it.

Oh yeah, two things for clarification. One, the book is slanted more towards women than men, but there’s enough for men to go around. And two, yours truly is quoted in the book on page 43, where I said: “I have no problem with lies of omission, as I don’t believe everyone needs to know everything.” Ah fame; you’re right on the cusp of my grasp!

Books | 12 Comments

My First Book Review!

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 27, 2010

I wrote my first book in 2003. I wrote my first ebook in 2008. I’ve had lots of people read my first book, and only got a few testimonials. I haven’t had as many people read the ebook, but those that did gave me a testimonial I could use.

Well, now I feel as though I’ve arrived; I finally got my first real review! Our buddy Sire reviewed my ebook Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool, which is in the top spot there on the left. I really appreciate it, and I have nothing else to say except thanks to him.

You know, I’ve reviewed some books here and there myself, and not on this blog. Just like what I did with Sire, other people have sent me things that I’ve reviewed. I want to kind of return the favor that Sire’s given me, so I’d like to show and link to those things I’ve reviewed overall, whether it was a book or not, to share some love.

First, there’s a motivational movie called The Opus that was kind of a follow up to the movie The Secret, which I reviewed here.

Next, there was a book on leadership called Wisdom of the Flying Pig that was sent to me, along with a stuffed pig with wings; talk about a way to market something.

This one wasn’t quite a real review, but I talked about the movie Happy Feet because I found a way it correlated with leadership principles, while also loving the movie as much as any movie I’ve ever seen. By the way, I’m still kind of freaked out that Brittany Murphy is deceased at such a young age, and as she was one of the primary singers in this movie, I thought I’d share this scene, which is kind of long but I think it’s just great stuff:

I received another book in the mail that I read and reviewed as well, this time on credit cards. The book is called The Skinny On… Credit Cards, and I interviewed it for my finance blog.

The final thing I’ve reviewed like this is the Harry Potter series, which I love so much that over the past couple of weeks, for whatever reason, I keep watching all of these movies over and over. Yeah, I’m a grown man, and yet I can hardly wait for the final two movies. This isn’t a kid’s story at this point, and if the movies can come somewhat close to how the last book went they’ll be the biggest thing this summer and next summer. By the way, I read the stupidest review of the books and series I’ve ever seen. One of the things the writer complained about is that the stories were “so British”; uhhh, the setting happens to be in Britain after all!

Oh yeah, I also reviewed the Risley ebook Six Figure Blueprint a few days ago as well, but I figured y’all probably remembered that one.

And there you go. Of course we all know why I’m putting a Harry Potter product at the bottom now, right?

Books | 15 Comments

Embrace The Lead

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 19, 2008

I must be the worst promoter in the world. I just realized that I’ve never really talked about one book that’s more special to me than any other book I’ve ever come into contact with.

That would be a book called Embrace The Lead – Strategies for Management in the 21st Century. Why is this book so special? Because I wrote it; yup, I’m a published author. Of course, I’ve mentioned it briefly in the past, especially when I wrote a post on how to publish a book. See, it’s self published, but I have an ISBN number, which means I’m considered as much of a publisher as the big boys, and thus I could sell my book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble if I so chose to.

Anyway, let me talk a little bit about my book. It’s a book on leadership and management, and in it I discuss the state of business, employees, and management in today’s working environment. Let’s face the fact that no one is buying the old story about your place of employment being a “family” anymore. The challenges for employers thus has gotten tougher. But it was always relatively tough to begin with, because one thing companies almost never invest in is leadership and management training for their managers and supervisors. Everyone has reported to someone without the skills for the role, even if they had supreme skills to do the task at hand. In today’s world, bad managers have it even harder because today’s employees aren’t going to stick around in fear of not being able to get another job. Even now, in a bad economy, most employees will look for something else and be gone in a heartbreak because they know they can’t trust companies anymore. And without managers who are also good leaders, there’s nothing encouraging them to stay.

So, in the book I talk about today’s employees; why managers may be like they are; give a breakdown on different employee types; and discuss tips on criteria for becoming a good manager. For anyone who is in a leadership position at their company, or for anyone who’s thinking about it, this book is for you, from someone who’s been there. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention before that I also do leadership and management training, as well as executive coaching? Why yes, in my post on About pages, which was one of my most popular posts at the time.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more about my book Embrace The Lead – Strategies for Management in the 21st Century, click on the link to see more, including some testimonials. I also sell it in two versions; the ebook, and the soft cover, which, if you ask me nicely, I’ll even autograph for you when I send it to you. Now, how many other folks are you going to be reading today who’ve written a full book, and not just an ebook?

Books | 9 Comments

How To Memorize Anything

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 17, 2008

Well, of all things, my wife got me into this one, so I’m sharing it with you. As we’re getting older, we’re both finding ourselves sometimes forgetting some of the smaller things. I used to never forget almost anything, until I turned 28, when I started taking on more and more responsibilities as my career began to take off. She’s pretty sharp herself. But, hey, it comes along with getting older, as you’re still trying to accumulate as much information as before, but your mind has to allow for you to forget other things, and often it’s current stuff, such as “why did I go to the kitchen?”

Anyway, while at work on Friday, she downloaded some report off the internet and sent it to herself here at home. Then she sent it on to me and asked me to take a look through it. It’s called The Shocking Truth About Your Memory, and it’s basically a 16-page report written by a guy named Sten Anderson who talks about memory issues, then gives some tips on how to work on those issues.

Now, the good thing is that he doesn’t give you lots of physiologic information as to why your memory is failing, although I did read a news story on why we forget things. Instead, he points out some things that I hate to admit are true, telling mini stories to highlight the topic, and yeah, there’s a lot of fluff until you get to the meat, but it’s entertaining stuff.

Finally he gets to what he says are 12 questions that will start you on your way to having a better memory when it comes to facts. I’m only going to give you the first three, because I have an ulterior motive here; of course you knew that already. Anyway, here are the first three questions:

1. Where did it come from?

w. What caused it?

3. What history or record has it?

Now, I don’t know if that’s enough of a teaser, but it’s all you’re getting from me. Here’s the deal. You see that this report, The Shocking Truth About Your Memory, is a link. It links to one of those pages that asks you for your name and email address. It’s connected to Clickbank, and of course that means this is my Clickbank link. The report is free, so it won’t cost you anything, but the truth is that I’ve yet to ever have anyone click on one of my Clickbank links; at least I’ve never seen a statistic saying anyone has ever clicked on one. Because it’s free, I don’t mind asking you, if you’re even a little bit interested, in clicking on the link.

I’ll even tell you this much; the reason the report is free is because Andersen is hoping you’ll be enticed enough to purchase, by clicking another link within the report, his full ebook on the subject, or the ebook and 4-hour audio files. My wife was ready to click on it, but, since she already clicked on it at work, I can’t get a piece of it anymore. But that’s not the issue here. I need to see if this bad boy will work, if Clickbank is really recording clicks, and, I’m really curious to see if I earn anything off this bad boy if someone clicks on the links. I’ve been reading lately that some people have been saying Clickbank hasn’t been recording all their clicks, so I’d like to see for myself. And, as I said, I wouldn’t ask for it if it weren’t free.

So, take a chance, use your second email address, click on The Shocking Truth About Your Memory link, and request the report. You’ll be helping me test something, it costs you nothing, and who knows, you just might learn a thing or two. Thanks!