The Go-Giver: A Little Story About Power

by Bob Burg and John David Mann

Ok, a guy, we'll call him Joe (he really is called Joe) is struggling with being successful in his business and he wants the "secret to success"... isn't that what everyone wants! Well, he gets introduced to just the man to give him the answers in 5 easy steps! Yeah, you've heard that before, well, here they are:

1. The Law of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than      you take in payment.

2. The Law of Compensation: Your income is determined by how many people you serve and      how well you serve them.

3. The Law of Influence: Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other            people's interests first.

4. The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.

5. The Law of Receptivity: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

Now if he does these five things in five days he'll be a success... BINGO! He wins....

really, these are practices of ways to treat people that might just be reworded from scripture; do to others as you'd have them do to you, look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others, serve others before yourself. How can you argue with that? 

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

by Patrick Lencioni

 

The first half of the book is a short story contrasting two business owners and how they differ in running their same companies. Both are in the same business, have similar backgrounds, and for all practical purposes appear the same, however, one of the companies has content employees with low turnover, and continued growth, while the other is struggling to maintain it's top talent and keep business.

The second half of of the book goes into detail explaining the four principles Mr. Success used to make his company great to work for:

1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team

2. Create organizational clarity

3. Over-communicate organizational clarity

4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems

These are all things done from CEO down, beginning with hiring and new employee orientation. 

The Secret Scripture

by Sebastian Barry

Roseanne Clear (McNulty) is 100 years old and has spent the majority of her life in a mental institution that is now getting ready to be torn down. The new facility cannot hold as many patients so it is going about determining who to release, based on records.... but no one has the admitting records for Roseanne. There seems to be no reason why she is there, and now the search is on.... Let's just say her life was a mess! Most of this is discovered from her own personal journal written for her child. To me, a lot of her history smacks of The Scarlett Letter, in updated English, never the less it is an intriguing tragedy. 

The narration flips perspective between Roseanne and Dr. Green, the attending physician who is researching her case, so that between his findings and her diary you piece together her disastrous life. At times you wonder if she remembers things correctly, as his findings contradict her retelling, but all things settle in the end.

For me, the "surprise ending" came as no surprise, so I'd wonder if it was for others.