800-CEO-READ Blog

Jack Covert Selects - The 11th Element

The 11th Element: The Key to Unlocking Your Master Blueprint for Wealth and Success by Robert Scheinfeld; John Wiley & Sons, 256 pages, $24.95, October 2003, ISBN 0471444138

When I picked up my copy of the 11th Element, I thought I was in for a course on the chemistry of success. Turns out, the 11th Element is less about thinking scientifically and more about applying faith and ideas of mysticism to gaining wealth and success. I found this to be an interesting concept since it really made me change my thinking process. Like most people who have a business to take care of, I often get caught up in numbers, facts, and figures. About a third of the way through this book, I remembered how much more there really is. As the author, Robert Scheinfeld, says:

“My intention in writing this book is to open the doorway that connects the visible with the invisible, the seen with the unseen, the known with the mysterious. Albert Einstein also said, ‘the most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.’”

Your guide on the path to wealth and success is actually your inner self, your Inner CEO. Who is constantly “tapping into the invisible information that is beyond your conscious awareness,” and “is working to help us from behind the scenes,” says Scheinfeld.

Another useful idea this book touches on is the importance of using the resources around you. This book gives a good explanation on the importance of paying attention to the some of the more simple things in life, like a glance from across the room. Sometimes when life gets hectic small things get over looked, those are often the most important. The ideas presented in 11th Element make some of the more abstract ideas in life seem clear.

As readers of my past reviews will understand, this is an unusual kind of book for me to review. As you also know, I don't do reviews on books I don't like. This book has a staying power that surprised and impressed me.

Jack Covert Selects - Who Really Matters

Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege and Success by Art Kleiner, Currency/Doubleday, 250 Pages, $29.95 Hardcover, October 2003, ISBN 0385484488

The subtitle of this book was what caught my eye, along with the incredible resume of Art Kleiner. After all, he helped write The Whole Earth Catalog and The Fifth Discipline series. I have been on this planet long enough to experienced exactly what Kleiner is talking about in this book “…the energy propelling every organization is the desire to satisfy an internal core group of people,” and he shows why understanding the expectations of this group is the key to success. Kleiner explains that core groups differ from organization to organization. They are often the most senior people but not necessarily. Now that is all nice and good, but what does it do for me? Kleiner has a paragraph which I think both gives you an idea of how you should deal with this issue and what a breezy fun writer he is:

“Your challenge is not to protest against the Core Group’s existence, but to become more conscious of the dynamics of your particular organization, until you can see clearly the choices you have: to find a route into the Core Group yourself (if that’s possible and it fits your own temperament); to leave for a different organization in which you feel more fulfilled; to start an organization of your own (and thus create your own Core Group); or to build an effective career as a transactional employee, taking advantage of the myriad ways in which working for an organization can improve your life and work.”

What I especially like about this paragraph is that it contains useful information you don’t normally see from thinkers like Kliener. He is actually getting to the nitty gritty of what you can do when you look at the world through enlightened eyes.

Folks, this is the best kind of business book. It brings to light something that you have seen but didn’t recognize. It shows you how to use this information for your own good. And, all of this is done with incredible scholarship. To put the cherry on top, it is actually fun to read (I usually have a hard time saying that about most business books). Read this book, learn and enjoy.

Jack Covert Selects - Upward Bound

Upward Bound: 9 Original Accounts of How Business Leaders Reach Their Summits by Michael Useem, Jerry Useem and Paul Asel, Crown Business, 250 Pages, $24.00 Hardcover, October 2003, ISBN 1400050480

Michael Useem has written two books about leadership that I really liked. His son, a senior writer for Fortune, has joined him along with Paul Asel, a VC investor and an advisor to start-up businesses, in writing this new book. They have compiled nine fascinating and scary stories that relate mountain climbing, business leadership and management. It was surprising to me the number of business leaders who are climbers. For example, Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman and Publisher of the New York Times, describes himself as “a rank amateur adventurist” in the foreword. But I think Sulzberger explains very well why climbing and business can be looked at together. He states:

“Dramas that may take months or years to play out in business can come to fruition in days, hours, or minutes, when you take on the planet’s greatest climbing challenges. It’s in this very compactness of that time that essential leadership lessons most easily can be seen, dissected, debated, and understood by those of us who may never see the view from the top of K2, or even from its base.”

Each of the nine writers discusses experiences they had and how those experiences relate to the business world. It really works because of what Sulzberger states above: “Everything is so compacted and intense.” It is about life and death and it relates perfectly to the business world. Also, I must say, that Jim Collins’ section is great, he is a fantastic storyteller. This guy has to write a novel. If you don’t believe me, go into your local bookseller and start reading from page 38, and tell me you were bored reading his story. The other eight stories are also very much worth your time. Good stuff.

Jack Covert Selects - Take Back Your Time

Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America edited by John de Graaf, Berrett-Koehler Publications, 270 pages, $14.95, July 2003, ISBN 1576752453

“Time poverty” is something experienced by all of us. With the high demands of our fast-paced lives, there seems to be little time to relax. According to this “official handbook” for Take Back Your Time Day, more free time is the solution to the stress of being overworked. Through the advice and research of “academics, activists, physicians, and journalists” the argument is made for a movement toward less working hours and more free time. As John de Graaf says in the introduction:

“Americans work more than the citizens of any other industrialized country. Our work days are longer, and our vacations are disappearing…we are caught up in patterns of life that force us to pay an enormous price in terms of our health, our families and communities, and the earth itself. Countries like Norway, the Netherlands, France and Germany have shown that shorter work time and a balanced life is possible and that it can actually be good for business. In fact, most of them are more productive per worker hour than we are!”

A reason that we do work so much is that “we’ve taken gains in productivity in the form of more stuff rather than more time.”

Another way many of the contributors in this book suggest to simplify life is to take a stand against over-consumption. A move away from “financial values and toward life values” could result in less of a struggle to succeed in the material world, and therefore, more free time, as less money would need to be made. Throughout the book the authors list numerous ways these changes can be made and how “the patterns of culture can be rethought.”

One of my favorite things about this book is that it doesn’t just beg the question, it examines the origins of overwork and its impact through history. It concludes by offering several possible solutions that include action on the level of personal choice and in public policy. This book is for anyone who has felt the burden of making ends meet while trying to care for a family and still trying find time to relax. This is the ultimate road map to finding ways to make more time, and to change the future of how this country will handle productivity.

Jack Covert Selects - Mind Your Own Business

Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick’s Guide to Business, Leadership and Life by Sidney Harman, Currency/Doubleday, 200 pages, $24.95 Hardcover, October 2003, ISBN 0385509596

Who is Sidney Harman and why, for goodness sake, do I need to read his book? Sidney Harman is the Harman of Harman/Kardon. He is the executive chairman of Harman International Industries, an almost $2billion corporation that still makes sound but in a much larger way.

What Sidney Harman does in his book is expound on leadership: what it takes to be a good CEO. He also talks about finance, negotiation, business and life. He presents a decidedly contrary view. For example, when talking about executives:

“I am tormented by the executive who thinks that it is his job merely to report on the moment, the problem, or the disaster. I call such folks “weathermen.” The executive’s job is not to note that it is storming and then throw up his hands. It is his job to recognize the nature of the problem and develop a solution…When criticizing a weatherman, I have sometimes been assured that “the fellow isn’t ideal, but he is what we have, and that is better than nothing.” I don’t buy that view. It entrenches incompetence and deceives the manager into thinking that he has the issue under some control, however less than ideal, the job is getting done. Removing that incompetent person concentrates the attention and makes vivid the need. Yes, it requires extra time and effort, but in the end it carries the promise of the right person in the job. There are many times when no one is better than the wrong someone.”

Every page of the book has treasures like that. You may not agree with him but your creative juices will flow. He brings so much to this book because he is eighty-five years old and he has also won and lost numerous battles getting where he currently is. You will read a maverick’s guide like you haven’t read in quite awhile. In fact, I think this is the perfect book to give as a gift.

Jack Covert Selects - Meaningful Marketing

Meaningful Marketing: Selling More with Less Effort by Doug Hall with Jeffrey Stamp, Ph.D., Betterway Publications, 224 Pages, $24.99 Price, October 2003, ISBN 155870681X

I don’t think I have ever started out one of my reviews by calling an author a crazy man. But, I am going to call Doug Hall a crazy man (crazy like a fox—not crazy like a loon)! A couple of years ago, I met Doug at a book convention where he was promoting his book Jump-Start Your Business Brain. He is one of the most dynamic and intense people I have ever met, known for his “Eureka! Ranch,” Doug is regarded as one of America’s Top Business Innovation Experts.

Now folks, I am not a fan of the word “meaningful” so when I saw the title of the manuscript, I was concerned. As usual, my initial reaction was wrong. Just look at the way he shows how “meaningfulness” is important in the business world:

“Srully Blotnick documented the opportunity for significant personal profits from the pursuit of Meaningfulness. He studied the careers of 1,500 business school graduates from 1960 to 1980. At graduation, 1,245 of the students were categorized as being focused on making money. 255 of the graduates were focused on perusing something that was personally Meaningful to them. Twenty years later, there were 101 millionaires. One came from the first group. 100 from the second.” Isn’t that incredible?

Then, Hall goes on to apply meaningfulness to the field of marketing. One of the real treasures of this book is its lay out. The left side of the page “is data-proven truth, distilled into a single sentence at the top of the page,” he has 100 of them. On the right side of the page are practical ideas. I am talking about the kind of practical ideas that you will wear out at least two highlighters marking the points that apply to you. There are over 400 of them. For example: 103. Education Starts with “Why should I listen to you?” 104. The Second Question: “What’s in it for me?” 105. The Third question: “Why should I believe you?” “The balance of the page provides an overview of the supporting research.”

Folks this book is exactly what you are looking for when you need some ideas and you want to sell more with less investment of time, money and resources.

Jack Covert Selects - Bang!

Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World by Linda Kaplan Thaler, Robin Koval, Delia Marshall, Doubleday, 256 pages, $24.95, October 21, 2003, ISBN 0385508166

The world of marketing has always seemed like it was full of magic. Where do these adwizards come up with stuff? According to Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of the group behind ads like “a Kodak moment” and “AFLAC,” great advertising campaigns come from a “Big Bang.” A Big Bang is an idea that often stems from an “apparently random event…but is often so outrageous that it bucks conventional wisdom and steals the spotlight,” says Kaplan Thaler. So why does your business need a Big Bang? The authors say that:

“A Big Bang is designed to make a brand explode onto the marketplace virtually overnight…it cuts through the clutter and gets people to sit up and take notice…because in a sea of sameness, an idea that is too different, too polarizing, and too illogical will not go unnoticed…They force you to have a point of view about them…They are the six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room.”

Since people see over three thousand messages everyday, it is important to be different enough to get your message through. The key is to break convention and “embrace the idea that the most illogical course of action is of the most logical thing to do.”

The authors of this book take you through their lives and careers by high lighting times when a Big Bang worked for them in unexpected ways in and out of advertising. They discuss they’re creative approach to office life and how they’ve created a cauldron of activity. In 256 pages they manage to explain what a good idea is, how to create one, and where it can be applied. This is a good resource for creating an idea-generating environment that will be more productive and will improve morale at the same time.