Some Good Reads...
Thursday, August 29, 2013
We wanted to share some book we've enjoyed recently (and some not so recently, but they're classics). Enjoy!
On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.
Designers know they're creative, but there are times when they have trouble being creative on demand. This book helps them master twelve exciting techniques that encourage the awareness, confidence and intuition they need to experience more consistent, fulfilling creativity.
Readers will learn how to awaken their creative subconscious by making a Tibetan mandala, achieve mental clarity with yoga or aromatherapy, improve their imaginations with color therapy and much, much more! Examples, statistics, case studies and extensive bibliographies are provided to support the validity of each technique.
Readers will also find dozens of fascinating insights and exercises that will supercharge their brains with creative energy.
To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of this extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.”
Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question and answer format to guide us. A word of mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.
With a little discipline, anyone can learn to inspire. Start With Why offers an unconventional perspective that explains WHY some people and organizations are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, most importantly, are able to repeat their success over and over. These are not the one hit wonders. These are the ones who change the course of industries or even society.
Because it's all based on how people think and act, this unique view of the world has application in big business and small business, in politics and non-profit. Though some people have a natural ability to start with WHY, this book offers compelling evidence that, with a little discipline, anyone can learn to do it.
This book has been a top-seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology for proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity. Celebrating its fifteenth year of helping people solve personal and professional problems, this special anniversary edition includes a new foreword and afterword written by Covey exploring the question of whether the 7 Habits are still relevant and answering some of the most common questions he has received over the past 15 years.
In 2002, Seth Godin asked a simple question that turned the business world upside down: What do Starbucks and JetBlue and Apple and Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that other companies don't? How did they confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind formerly tried-and-true brands?
Godin showed that the traditional Ps that marketers had used for decades to get their products noticed-pricing, promotion, publicity, packaging, etc.-weren't working anymore. Marketers were ignoring the most important P of all: the Purple Cow.
Cows, after you've seen one or two or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though... now that would be something. Godin defines a Purple Cow as anything phenomenal, counterintuitive, exciting... remarkable. Every day, consumers ignore a lot of brown cows, but you can bet they won't ignore a Purple Cow.
You can't paint your product or service purple after the fact. You have to be inherently purple or no one will talk about you. Godin urges you to emulate companies that are consistently remarkable in everything they do, which drives explosive word of mouth.
Purple Cow launched a movement to create products and services that are worth marketing in the first place. Now this expanded edition includes dozens of new examples from readers who've taken the message to heart.
Focus is simply about finding sanity in a digital age that has increased the urgency, frequency, intensity and ubiquity of the distractions in our life. It’s about finding focus for whatever you need: focusing on creating, on your inner voice, on finding stillness, on getting things done.
Generating new ideas is easy, it's executing that is hard. Whether it's an everyday problem or a bold new concept, you must transform vision into reality for an idea to have value.
In Making Ideas Happen, Behance founder Scott Belsky chronicles the process behind the legendary teams at Disney, IDEO, and Google — as well as individuals like John Maeda, Seth Godin, and Chris Anderson — to share tried-and-true methods for overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality.
All You Need Is A Good Idea! is filled with insights that are relevant, informal and practical, helping your colleagues learn to create the ideas they need to stand out in the marketplace, build market share, get publicity, appear larger than they really are and make their competition nervous…while actually having fun.
The Go Getter is the story of William Peck.He was a war veteran and amputee who will not be refused what he wants. Peck not only fights to find employment but continually proves himself more than competent at the many difficult test that are throw his way in the course of his early days with the Ricks Lumber Company...
On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.
Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon, as has the book he wrote based on
the same principles, celebrating the dreams we all strive to make realities.
Sadly, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008, but
his legacy will continue to inspire us all, for generations to come.
Designers know they're creative, but there are times when they have trouble being creative on demand. This book helps them master twelve exciting techniques that encourage the awareness, confidence and intuition they need to experience more consistent, fulfilling creativity.
Readers will learn how to awaken their creative subconscious by making a Tibetan mandala, achieve mental clarity with yoga or aromatherapy, improve their imaginations with color therapy and much, much more! Examples, statistics, case studies and extensive bibliographies are provided to support the validity of each technique.
Readers will also find dozens of fascinating insights and exercises that will supercharge their brains with creative energy.
To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of this extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.”
Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question and answer format to guide us. A word of mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.
With a little discipline, anyone can learn to inspire. Start With Why offers an unconventional perspective that explains WHY some people and organizations are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, most importantly, are able to repeat their success over and over. These are not the one hit wonders. These are the ones who change the course of industries or even society.
Because it's all based on how people think and act, this unique view of the world has application in big business and small business, in politics and non-profit. Though some people have a natural ability to start with WHY, this book offers compelling evidence that, with a little discipline, anyone can learn to do it.
This book has been a top-seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology for proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity. Celebrating its fifteenth year of helping people solve personal and professional problems, this special anniversary edition includes a new foreword and afterword written by Covey exploring the question of whether the 7 Habits are still relevant and answering some of the most common questions he has received over the past 15 years.
In 2002, Seth Godin asked a simple question that turned the business world upside down: What do Starbucks and JetBlue and Apple and Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that other companies don't? How did they confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind formerly tried-and-true brands?
Godin showed that the traditional Ps that marketers had used for decades to get their products noticed-pricing, promotion, publicity, packaging, etc.-weren't working anymore. Marketers were ignoring the most important P of all: the Purple Cow.
Cows, after you've seen one or two or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though... now that would be something. Godin defines a Purple Cow as anything phenomenal, counterintuitive, exciting... remarkable. Every day, consumers ignore a lot of brown cows, but you can bet they won't ignore a Purple Cow.
You can't paint your product or service purple after the fact. You have to be inherently purple or no one will talk about you. Godin urges you to emulate companies that are consistently remarkable in everything they do, which drives explosive word of mouth.
Purple Cow launched a movement to create products and services that are worth marketing in the first place. Now this expanded edition includes dozens of new examples from readers who've taken the message to heart.
Focus is simply about finding sanity in a digital age that has increased the urgency, frequency, intensity and ubiquity of the distractions in our life. It’s about finding focus for whatever you need: focusing on creating, on your inner voice, on finding stillness, on getting things done.
Generating new ideas is easy, it's executing that is hard. Whether it's an everyday problem or a bold new concept, you must transform vision into reality for an idea to have value.
In Making Ideas Happen, Behance founder Scott Belsky chronicles the process behind the legendary teams at Disney, IDEO, and Google — as well as individuals like John Maeda, Seth Godin, and Chris Anderson — to share tried-and-true methods for overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality.
All You Need Is A Good Idea! is filled with insights that are relevant, informal and practical, helping your colleagues learn to create the ideas they need to stand out in the marketplace, build market share, get publicity, appear larger than they really are and make their competition nervous…while actually having fun.
The Go Getter is the story of William Peck.He was a war veteran and amputee who will not be refused what he wants. Peck not only fights to find employment but continually proves himself more than competent at the many difficult test that are throw his way in the course of his early days with the Ricks Lumber Company...
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