Book Reviews

How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life
by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston

Let me begin by warning you not to be taken in by the title: men have as much to learn from this book as women. In fact, I can think of a number of males in leadership roles that I plan to recommend this book to.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to work with many remarkable women leaders. I know from personal experience that the talent, experience, creativity, tenacity, dedication, and outcomes of these woman in leadership roles have contributed tremendously to the success of so many outstanding organizations in every industry.

The book’s 368 pages are based on five remarkable years of proprietary research by co-authors Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston … both McKinsey & Company consultants. The authors establish the links between joy, happiness, and distinctive performance with the groundbreaking model of Centered Leadership.

A number of personal stories and related insights demonstrate the magic which occurs when you put the five elements of Centered Leadership—meaning, framing, connecting, engaging, and energizing—to work.

I especially enjoyed the interviews with top executives who have proven themselves under very competitive and challenging circumstances. They include:

• Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, who fired herself on Friday and re-emerged on Monday as the “new” turnaround CEO.
• Eileen Naughton, who lost her dream job but landed on her feet at Google to emerge as a formidable leader.
• Ruth Porat who successfully coped with personal and professional times at Morgan Stanley.

These interviews and others (Xerox’s Anne Mulcahy, former Quantas chairman Margaret Jackson, and orchestra leader Alondra de la Parra to name a few) provide both insight and inspiration to any potential or current leader facing today’s enormous challenges. It was indeed interesting to hear from some of the most accomplished women leaders in the world and enlightening to hear that they had their moments of crisis, self doubt and mistakes. They learned from these moments and used them to build their future.

I often get a personal “feel” for a book’s offering by browsing chapter titles. I found this particular offering intriguing in a number of chapter areas. Here’s a short sample of what to expect.

• It All Begins with Meaning
• Your Own Happiness Equation
• Start with Your Strengths
• Dreamcatcher
• Matter of Framing
• Your Organization as Family
• The Tapestry You Weave
• Make Your Own Luck
• Weathering the Heights
• Energy in Your Toolkit

Some chapters better apply to women starting out in their careers, while others focus on the seasoned female leader. How Remarkable Women Lead is a great read, with real insights and actionable ideas!

It’s both a roadmap as well as an accessible workbook into the mechanisms that govern the lives of women leaders.

How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Lifeis available from Amazon. The AchieveMax® company is an affiliate of Amazon.com.

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea
by Suzy Welch

Prior to reviewing this transformative new approach to decision making, let me tell you a little bit about the author. Many know her as the wife of former GE CEO Jack Welch and co-author, with her husband, of the number one bestseller Winning.

However, Suze Welch is a noted journalist, author, and speaker as well as a work-life columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. She also serves as an Executive in Residence at Babson College’s Center for Women’s Leadership and is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review.

While her concept is very simple, it is also a powerful philosophy and very practical guide to decision making in the realms of career, business, leadership, romance, health, friendship, marriage, and family.

Instead of acting on impulse or instinct alone, as so many of us often do, this guide to life management suggests we ask what impact a decision or action will have in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.

The process is clear, explicit, and distinct. In fact, when you’re facing a dilemma, all it takes to begin are three questions:

1. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 minutes?
2. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 months?
3. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 years?

Every time you use the process, you must start by posing your dilemma, crisis, or challenge in the form of a question. Should I buy a house right now or continue to rent for a while? Is it time for a new car or do I stick with my old ride for another year or two? Do I take that new job offer or play it safe?

The next stage of the process is data collection … in your head, on your computer, with pen and paper, or in conversation with someone you trust—whatever works best for you. Just make certain that you’re totally honest and exhaustive in answering each of the above questions.

To be clear, the first question means “right now”—a minute, a day or a week!

The second 10 represents a point in the forseeable future when the initial reaction to your decision has passed but the consequences continue to play out in ways you can reasonably predict. The third 10 stands for a time in the future that’s so far off that its particulars are entirely vague at the moment.

So, in short, the process is meant to suggest time frames along the lines of: “in the heat of the moment,” “somewhat later,” and “when all is said and done.”

And, finally, the last step of the process is analysis.

Take all of the information you collected in your data collection stage and compare it to your innermost values—your beliefs, goals, dreams, and needs.

In short, this part of the 10-10-10 process requires you to ask: “Knowing what I now know about all of my options and their consequences, which decision will best help me create a life of my own making?”

Your answer to that question is your solution.

Sound simple? Not quite.

The author shares examples from her own life and the lives of many others who use the process, revealing how exploring the impact of our decision in multiple time frames invariably surfaces our unconscious agendas, fears, need and desires—and ultimately helps us identify and live according to our deepest goals and values.

In this revealing book, Suzy Welch explains the power of this transformative idea that can replace chaos with consistency, guilt with joy, and confusion with clarity!

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In
by Jim Collins

In working with our clients from coast to coast, I’ve discovered an interesting insight concerning author Jim Collins. Those who know of his body of work fall into two distinct categories:

1. Those who appreciate his research, admire his product and wait anxiously for his next release and …
2. Those who argue that he picks and chooses his data and that his content often runs counter to research on hundreds of companies, conducted over decades by dozens of scholars.

Either way you can’t argue that this noted author and devoted student of companies of all kinds can produce best sellers. As the author of the national bestseller Good to Great and coauthor of Built to Last, Collins’ work has been featured in Fortune, BusinessWeek, USA Today and the Harvard Business Review.

What I found very interesting in How The Mighty Fall was the fact that Collins chose to examine the decline of several companies which he hailed in his previous bestseller, Good to Great. While he obviously had nothing to do with the decline of such companies as Circuit City and Fannie Mae, which he previously praised, he could have easily chosen not to examine how they came to fall on hard times. Instead he decided to delve into exactly what happened as these companies strayed away from what once made them great.

Collins reveals that, in today’s financially perilous environment, decline can actually be avoided, detected, and reversed. The author and his research team spent more than four years on this research project and, in doing so, uncovered five stages of decline.

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

He describes each stage in detail, gives examples of companies in each, and points out that by understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

I’ve always found it interesting that, in the very same economy, a Best Buy can prosper while a Circuit City fades into oblivion, Wal-Mart continues to grow and profit while we question the longevity of Sears and Kmart, Southwest Airline achieves a profit while all of its competitors fall short. The author’s research will provide you with some valuable insight into this unusual phenomenon.

Collins points out that every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. However, that decline is largely self-inflicted and the path to recovery lies largely in the hands of the companies themselves.

You’ll find this 222 page work an easy and interesting read as we continue to witness major changes and challenges in the nation’s financial status. Looks like another winner for Jim Collins.

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Who’s Your Gladys?: How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan
by Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest

I have more than 3,400 books in my personal library. It’s quite obvious I’ve read my share of what’s been offered in book stores over the years. For our book reviews section, I’ve written 201 reviews of books which we feel might benefit our clients, blog subscribers, and readers.

Of the 201 reviews, 13 have thus far focused on customer service, and I can’t help but note that they all share a very common thread … “Customers are the backbone of ANY business.” Care of those customers should be of the utmost importance to any organization that hopes to prosper in today’s challenging and very competitive marketplace. That statement is so obvious that it’s almost reached a point of ad nauseam (a disgusting or ridiculous degree). If that is, indeed, true … why is it so difficult to find good customer service today?

Our co-authors both agree that when times are tough, it’s the companies with exceptional customer service that survive. They then proceed to provide their readers with a blueprint on how this is accomplished by some of the most diverse and successful companies in the nation.

They use a very unique approach to accomplish this task. Every successful book must have a “hook” if it hopes to hold the attention of the reader throughout the content they offer. These talented authors took no chances inasmuch as they provided several “hooks.”

The first “hook” is “Gladys”. You’re going to hear a lot about Gladys from cover to cover. She’s actually a combination of those people who represent a company’s most challenging client—the one who requires a high level of skill to manage. This person could be a man, woman, or child. They may be young or old … a long-time customer or first-time patron. We’ve all had to deal with this challenging person, and Gladys will probably never go away. This book will not only provide strategies to cope with Gladys but will show you how to turn “your Gladys” into a Raving Fan. Now that’s a transformation that certainly makes your effort worthwhile!

Here’s another powerful “hook.” While it’s quite obvious that our authors are both well-educated, experienced, and very accomplished, they choose to make their very valid points by providing real-life examples rather than their own opinions. They offer detailed case studies on how 10 very successful companies deal with their most challenging customers. Each of the case studies demonstrates a unique solution to relatively common customer service challenges. They interviewed front-line employees as well as leaders within each organization to discover how each has learned to deal with a variety of challenging circumstances in dealing with Gladys. This approach allows us, as readers, to learn from realistic successes and failures of real people in authentic circumstances.

To illustrate the diversity of the case studies, the authors chose a moving company, a self-help organization, an airline, a polyethylene piping product supplier, a spa, an eyeglass distributor, a medical center, a high-end guitar manufacturer, a residential building business, and a television production studio. That kind of diversity alone proves that you simply can’t escape “Gladys” so you’d best focus on pleasing and transforming her!

The following “hooks” are frosting on the cake! The authors aren’t about to let you forget their valuable content. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find:

• Practical Points … a multi-page review of the critical points outlined within the previous chapter.
• Progress Checklist … a challenge to review those critical chapter points and rate yourself and/or organization on a scale from one to ten. After an honest appraisal, you’ll have an accurate snapshot of what areas to recognize and reward and what areas need enhancement.
• Lessons Learned … a list of critical questions as to how you can and will apply what you’ve learned from that chapter to your own daily situation. These questions are excellent for group discussions among your staff members.
• Answers … after you have discussed the previous questions, the authors provide additional thoughts to ponder for each of the questions.
• Who’s Your Gladys? … a closing chapter statement that can lead to further discussion of the chapter content as well as providing food for thought before you move on.

Upon completion of this pleasant and strongly informative read, you’re not going to walk away feeling as though you’ve been exposed to the typical customer service “fluff” which we’re all so familiar with. You’ll be armed with real-life, marketplace-tested, tips, tools, and strategies that will surely put a smile on the face of any Gladys you may have to deal with!

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask …: Building Your Business Using Consumer Generated Media
by Hilary JM Topper

I’ve never had the honor of being mistaken for a “techy” … nor will I be in the future. In fact, I’m probably as far from being a “techy” as one can possibly be.

About four years ago, I was invited to speak at a major conference for Realtors from several neighboring states. As is my usual behavior, I sat in on several of the break-out sessions in hopes of enhancing my knowledge base. One of the speakers informed the audience of a new technology that was growing very rapidly and would soon be known and used nationally to communicate among its millions of followers. It was called “Twitter,” and the rest is history.

Of course, with my limited knowledge of social media, “Twitter” fell into the same category as “MyFace” and “Spacebook” for me. Obviously, “Twitter” was the only one I could even pronounce properly! If only Hilary JM Topper had published her basic social media 101 book at that time! It would have solved a lot of problems for me and millions of others. However, don’t let me mislead you as the author has written this helpful guide for both non-technical and Internet-savvy readers.

In a mere 172 pages, Hilary provides some insight into a host of various web sites … many you have probably never heard of. She describes each site and, based on a great deal of research, shares the pros and cons of each as well as techniques to best tap the full potential of every site.

At the conclusion of each chapter, the author shares her personal insights in a short summary she calls “My 2 Cents.” I found these comments to be very helpful indeed.

If you’re looking for the fastest was to communicate your ideas today, you’d better be investigating in social media. In this revealing guide, the author will:

• Describe how to use social media sites, blogs, and microblogs.
• Review more than a dozen social networking sites.
• Provide an understanding of the importance of podcasts and video podcasts.
• Discuss what it means to “Go Viral.”
• Give suggestions for handling crisis situations via the Web.

Are you familiar with Brightkite.com, Bebo.com, FriendFeed.com, hi5.com, Identi.ca, koornk.com, Plaxo.com, Plurk.com, Spoke.com, Tumblr.com, Yammer.com, or YouAre.com? Well, you will be after finishing this useful guide, and you’ll more than likely be much more familiar with more common sites such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.

Get the most out of social networking, whether your goal is to cultivate an online following, build a business, reach new markets or find quick and useful information. This book will certainly assist you in meeting your needs.

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation
by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D.

Another “mini-book” (169 pages) hits the book store shelves … this one from Stephen C. Lundin, author of the bestseller FISH! which has been published in 34 languages. The author is a writer and filmmaker with a background in business, management, and education.

Lundin unveils the next big trend in business—innovation as a tool of personal success. I can’t think of a better time to focus on obtaining the many valuable benefits of such a powerful resource. Within these pages, readers will learn about innovation and how companies and people can innovate more. The author’s belief is that innovation and creativity can be learned, and there are certain things that can be done to enhance creativity. Learn how to tap into your power of innovation and then unleash it in every member of your organization. You’ll learn how to recognize and deal with the four basic challenges that must be overcome in order to enhance your innovation edge:

1. Doubts, Fears, and Distractions (fraidy cats never innovate).
2. Being Normal (stop being normal—make your own rules).
3. Failure (embrace it—it’s the only way to learn).
4. Foster Creativity (don’t be a control freak).

Lundin then describes the Nine Lives of Innovation, each of which is a step toward realizing your inner CAT and becoming a fully contributing member of an innovative organization.

1. Create an Innovation Friendly Environment.
2. Always Be Prepared.
3. Know That Innovation Isn’t Normal.
4. Welcome Physical Provocation.
5. Enjoy Social Provocation.
6. Promote Intellectual Provocation.
7. Put Failure Into Perspective.
8. Fail Early and Fail Well.
9. Understand Natural Energy.

The author also demonstrates his own creativity by utilizing additional learning tools such as:

• CAT Nip—an activity that provokes your thinking or tests your newfound CAT skills.
• CAT Pause (paws, get it?)—A break in the action that creates a space for reflection.
• CAT’S Eye View—A real life example used to illustrate a point.

CATS is full of simple yet profound information and anecdotes that can be used to spark the curiosity and creativity within every employee and, thus, inspire innovative approaches to ordinary situations.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Peaks and Valleys: Making Good and Bad Times Work for You-at Work and in Life
by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Here we find another of those very popular “mini-books” (103 pages) aimed at those readers craving a powerful message via a short read. Who better to grant that request than author Spencer Johnson, who did exactly that in Who Moved the Cheese, The Present, and his solid contributions to the One Minute Manager series? More than 46 million copies of Spencer Johnson’s books are in print worldwide in more than 47 languages.

The timing couldn’t be better for this story. If you’re a person who has been trying to survive or just make it during these tough times, this narrative may just provide that valuable clarity that you need right now.

This tale focuses on a man who is struggling in his life. A friend tells him a story about another man in a similar situation. He lives unhappily in a valley until he meets an old man who lives on a peak. That meeting changes his work and life forever.

Initially, the young man has no idea he is talking with one of the most peaceful and successful people in the world. However, through a series of conversations and experiences, the young man learns that peaks and valleys are all a part of life. The key to living a richer life is how you perceive and address the peaks and valleys and what you learn while you are traversing the peaks and valleys.

He realizes he can use the old man’s remarkable principles and practical tools in good times and bad times to make a difference in his life. As a result he becomes more calm and successful and takes more control of his life.

While the messages may be somewhat basic, they are indeed powerful if properly applied. For instance:

• “You can have fewer bad times when you appreciate and manage your good times wisely.”
• “The pain in a valley can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring.”
• “The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently.”

Understand and apply this wisdom to successfully navigate the peaks and valleys of your life at work and at home. Recognize and utilize the positive that is so often hidden in the bad times. Appreciate and capitalize on your good times. This book will provide you with the clarity to do just that.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Monkey Business: 7 Laws of the Jungle for Becoming the Best of the Bunch
by Sandy Wight, Mick Hager, and Steve Tyink

Here we have another of the numerous “mini-books” adorning book store shelves today. Three experienced consultants have combined their experience, talent and creativity to fill a mere 114 pages with a light-hearted approach to the serious business of engaging customers and employees in a mutually beneficial relationship.

What I found intriguing was the fact that they managed to accumulate, in so few pages, so many basic rules, lessons, ideas, principles and strategies for creating the optimum customer service environment—most of which are not being used by the majority of today’s organizations.

The jungle provides a clever metaphor of today’s business climate and that theme is astutely carried out from cover to cover.

You’ll discover the profound power of “Monkey See-Monkey Do” as well as the 7 Laws of the Jungle for Becoming the Best of the Bunch.

1. Establish Your Rock.
2. Create Your Value Vine.
3. Live the Exclamation Factor!
4. Set Your Customer Connection Points.
5. MMFI (Make Me Feel Important).
6. Take Full Responsibility for Our Customers.
7. Use the Energy Advantage!

Utilizing the magic of analogy and fantasy, the authors have created a guidebook on customer service that will captivate readers from start to finish.

To enhance your experience, you’ll discover useful and unique tips and tools in the form of sidebars on most every page. They’ve been arranged in four categories:

• Monkey Wisdom – (66)
• Monkey Magic – (14)
• Monkey Instinct – (10)
• Monkey Speak – (15)

Join a special spider monkey, Leader, on his journey through the jungle, and you’ll learn along with him how to create an enduring, relationship-driven, service-focused, customer-centered, profitable organization.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It (50 Classics)
by Tom Butler-Bowdon

I’ve already reviewed the acclaimed trilogy written by this particular author. You might want to revisit those three reviews as they are certainly very valuable resources that should be kept at arm’s length of your personal office and/or home library. Simply click on the following links for these reviews:

• 50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life
• 50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work and Life from 50 Landmark Books
• 50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose

The author now follows up those terrific resources with 50 Prosperity Classics. I should again alert you to the fact that you more than likely will not find these titles on the shelves of your local book store but can certainly order them very easily from your favorite store or online from Amazon.com.

This fourth book focuses on the great works on wealth, entrepreneurship, personal finance, investing, economics and philanthropy, providing guidance and encouragement to develop the millionaire mindset, become a wealth creator, make wise investment decisions and―once you’ve made it―give a little back.

Butler-Bowdon follows the same reader-friendly format here that was so successful in his trilogy. I’ll explain that template here and then share the individual content under each title. Each classic has its own chapter which is reasonably short and to the point while extremely revealing. The first page of each chapter begins with a few notable quotes from the classic followed by a feature titled “In a nutshell.” This profile summarizes the entire classic in one or two sentences followed by another interesting feature, “In a similar vein,” which lists several other classics that address the same subject. Thus far–one page.

The author then offers the main idea, context, and impact of the book itself followed by a short, interesting biography of the author.

The author has organized his content into four elements for easier access to this reader-friendly material.

• Attract It: Master the inner game of wealth and abundance with books such as Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling The Secret, Charles Fillmore’s Prosperity, Napoleon Hill’s The Master Key to Riches.
• Create It: Learn from the secrets and strategies of wealth creators such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Conrad Hilton, Anita Roddick and Donald Trump.
• Manage It: Discover the nuts and bolts of personal finance and investing such as Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor, Suze Orman’s Women and Money, Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Revisited and Peter Lynch’s One Up on Wall Street.
• Share It: Understand the flow of wealth and how to give something back with inspiration from Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth, Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism and Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money.

This book is loaded with wisdom in the form of interesting quotes from some of the greatest minds in this area.

The book concludes with five pages of “Prosperity Principles” and recommendations for 50 additional prosperity classics.

You may also want to check out the author’s website at www.butler-bowdon.com.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell

The author of #1 international bestsellers The Tipping Point and Blink is a staff writer for The New Yorker and was formerly a business and science reporter at the Washington Post. Malcolm Gladwell’s one of the very few authors kind enough to consider his readers by offering a definition of his chosen title in the first paragraph of the book. I’ll do the same for you in my second paragraph.

Out-li-er \ noun 1. something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body 2. a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.

After reading several chapters, I found myself identifying outliers as those men and women with skills, talent, and drive who do things out of the ordinary. We’ve all known someone like this from school, work, church or the neighborhood. We knew them—we just didn’t always understand them or how they managed to reach such levels of performance so effortlessly. It left us wondering why some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential?

Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t appear in their cribs as aggressive life changers ready to take on and conquer the challenges of the world as we know it.

The author claims: “They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”

In this book the author continues to do what he does best—illuminating secret patterns behind everyday phenomena. He does so while sharing examples from every aspect of our lives.

He examines the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, building the convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”

He asks the question: What makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Read this book if you’d like to learn:

• Why most pro hockey players were born in January.
• How many hours of practice it takes to master a skill (10,000 hours).
• How a pilot’s culture impacts his/her crash record.
• What Bill Gates, the Beatles and Mozart had in common.
• Why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York.
• How a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math.
• The reasons for school achievement gaps.

Malcolm Gladwell expounds on how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential.

Like his previous work, Outliers is a thought-provoking, category-defying book. It is also available in audio form read by the author.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

Harry K. Jones is a professional, motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed keynote presentations, seminars, and consulting services. Harry has appeared all over North America addressing topics such as change, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork and time management for a number of industries, including education, financial, government, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.