Click  Here  for  my  latest  personal  reading  recommendations

The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom
by Suze Orman
published by Crown Pub
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517707918/darrellstonesweb

When Suze Orman was 13 she watched her father dive into the flames of his burning take-out chicken shack in order to rescue his cash register. In that moment Orman learned that money was more important than life itself. And so it became her quest to be rich. But years later, when Orman became a wealthy broker with a huge investment firm, she was profoundly unhappy. What went wrong? She had not yet achieved financial freedom. In her nine-step program, Orman covers the ingredients to financial success--confronting our beliefs and fears, learning the nuts and bolts (and insiders secrets!) of savvy management, and finding the spiritual trust that leads to abundance.

Titan : The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
by Ron Chernow
Published by Random House
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679438084/darrellstonesweb

Ron Chernow, whose previous books have taken on the Morgan and Warburg financial empires, now turns his 
attention to the patriarch of the Rockefeller dynasty. John D. was history's first recorded billionaire 
and one of the most controversial public figures in America at the turn of the 20th century. Standard Oil
--which he always referred to as the result of financial "cooperation," never as a "cartel" or a 
"monopoly"--controlled at its peak nearly 90 percent of the United States oil industry. Rockefeller 
drew sharp criticism, as well as the attention of federal probes, for business practices like underpricing 
his competitors out of the market and bribing politicians to secure his dominant market share. 

While Chernow amply catalogs Rockefeller's misdeeds, he also presents the tycoon's human side. Making use 
of voluminous business correspondence, as well as rare transcripts of interviews conducted when 
Rockefeller was in his late 70s and early 80s, Chernow is able to present his subject's perspective on 
his own past, re-creating a figure who has come down to us as cold and unfeeling as a shrewd, dryly 
humorous man who had no inner misgivings about reconciling his devout religious convictions with his 
fiscal acquisitiveness. The story of John D. Rockefeller Sr. is, in many ways, the story of America 
between the Civil War and the First World War, and Chernow has told that story in magnificently 
fascinating depth and style.

The Roaring 2000s
by Harry S. Dent 
Published by Simon & Schuster
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684838184/darrellstonesweb

America's favorite optimist is at it again. Harry S. Dent Jr. is famous for his book, The Great Boom
Ahead. It was published in 1992 when the U.S. economy barely had a pulse, "downsizing" was in
vogue, and real wages were in decline. Nevertheless, Dent predicted that the U.S. would soon enjoy
explosive economic growth and a healthy rise in stock prices. He was widely ignored at the time,
especially by the news media, which always seem to prefer prophets of doom. 

Having been proven right, more or less, Dent is now back with a new book,The Roaring 2000's,
which argues that the best is yet to come. As before, his ideas are stimulating, although not entirely
convincing. Dent continues to believe that demography is destiny. The Great Boom Ahead foresaw
that aging baby boomers, the rat in the python of the population curve, would stimulate economic
growth as they arrived at middle age and acquired two of everything. Since Americans' spending
typically peaks around age 46, Dent predicts in The Roaring 2000's that boomers will continue to spur
growth for another 10 years.

Selling the Invisible : A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
by Harry Beckwith 
Warner Books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446520942/darrellstonesweb

The transformation from a manufacturing-based economy to one that's all about service has been well  documented. Today it's 
estimated that nearly 75 percent of Americans work in the service sector.   Instead of producing tangibles--automobiles, clothes, 
and tools--more and more of us are in the business of providing intangibles--health care, entertainment, tourism, legal services, and so on.
However, according to Harry Beckwith, most of these intangibles are still being marketed like products were 20 years ago. 

 In Selling the Invisible, Beckwith argues that what consumers are primarily interested in today are  not features, but relationships. 
Even companies who think that they sell only tangible products should rethink their approach to product development and 
marketing and sales. For example, when a customer buys a Saturn automobile, what they're really buying is not the car, but the 
way that Saturn does business. Beckwith provides an excellent forum for thinking differently about the nature of services 
and how they can be effectively marketed. If you're at all involved in marketing or sales, then Selling the Invisible is 
definitely worth a look. 

Winning Everyday
by Lou Holtz 
Published by Harperbusiness
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887309046/darrellstonesweb

 A master motivator who guided Notre Dame to the 1988 national college football championship, Lou   Holtz knows how to win 
big on and off the gridiron. For business leaders, for recent college graduates   struggling on their first job, or for just about anyone 
who wants to get ahead, Holtz devises a game   plan for success: dream, believe, and achieve. "Write down everything you hope to 
achieve in life,"   Holtz writes. "Then make sure you do something every day to realize one of your dreams. You are   going to 
encounter adversity but you will also ... take big, satisfying bites out of life."

How to Be a Star at Work : Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed
by Robert E. Kelley 
 Published by  Times Books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812926765/darrellstonesweb

For over a dozen years, Carnegie Mellon University instructor and corporate consultant Robert Kelley  has studied the difference 
between superior workplace performers and their average peers. After determining that such stars are made, not born, he identified 
the game plan many use to secure better jobs, higher pay, and top career opportunities. How to Be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough 
 Strategies You Need to Succeed describes these tactics--which he dubs initiative, networking,  self-management, perspective, 
followership, leadership, teamwork, organizational savvy, and show-and-tell--and explains how to incorporate them into real-life 
work situations. --Howard Rothman 

Contrarian Investment Strategies : 
The Next Generation : Beat the Market by Going Against the Crowd
by David N. Dreman 
Published by Simon & Schuster
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684813505/darrellstonesweb 

All stock-market investors embrace the motto "Buy low, sell high." Few act accordingly, however, for to do so would require that 
we go against the crowd, buying stocks that are out of favor and selling Wall Street's darlings. Powerful psychological forces 
prevent us from pursuing a contrarian investment strategy, although it consistently beats the market, according to David Dreman, 
a seasoned money manager and long-time columnist for Forbes magazine. One of the Street's best-known and most articulate 
contrarians, Dreman has updated his 1982 investment classic, Contrarian Investment  Strategies, using recent research on investor 
psychology. His revised book combines proven techniques for selecting undervalued stocks with fresh insights on how to defy, 
and thereby profit from, the popular fears or enthusiasms of the moment.

Raving Fans : A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
by Kenneth Blanchard, Sheldon M. Bowles, Ken Blanchard, Harvey MacKay 
William Morrow & Company 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688123163/darrellstonesweb

Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having 
satisfied customers isn't good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans.
This, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day -- in an extraordinary business book that will 
help everyone, in every kind of organization or business, deliver stunning  customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results.
Written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to 
define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature -- not 
just another program of the month. 

Unleashing the Killer App : Digital Strategies for Market Dominance
by Larry Downes, Chunka Mui, Nicholas Negroponte 
Pbulished by Harvard Business School Pr
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087584801X/darrellstonesweb

 You don't have to look far to see that technology is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, open  The Economist, scan the Wall 
Street Journal--you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry. In Unleashing the Killer App, 
authors Larry Downes and Chunka Mui look at the dynamics of technological change and its potential to create "killer apps." The 
authors describe a killer app as a product or service that "wind up displacing unrelated older offerings, destroying and re-creating 
industries far from their immediate use, and throwing into disarray the complex relationships between business partners, competitors, 
customers, and regulators of markets."  Examples of killer apps throughout history include the Welsh longbow, the pulley, the 
compass,  moveable type, and the Apple Macintosh. And today, with our increasingly networked economy (for example, the World 
Wide Web), killer apps are appearing all around us. 

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law, which states 
that the processing power of the CPU doubles every 18 months, and Metcalfe's Law, which observes that the value of a network 
increases dramatically with each node that's added to it. These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with 
each other and with their customers. To exploit these changes, the authors outline 12 points for designing a digital strategy to help
 you identify and create killer apps in your own organization. The book includes dozens of examples of how killer apps were 
discovered and implemented. 

Unleashing the Killer App provides an excellent framework for rethinking the nature of business in today's wired economy. No matter 
the size of your company or what it does--health care, publishing, or fast food--there's probably a killer app lurking somewhere. This 
book will help you find it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards 

Gung Ho! : Turn on the People in Any Organization
by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles, Ken Blanchard 
Publishe by  William Morrow & Company
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068815428X/darrellstonesweb

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, co-authors of the New York Times business bestseller Raving Fans, are back with Gung Ho!-an 
invaluable management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. 
Through the inspirational story of business leaders, the revolutionary technique of Gung Ho! is revealed in three simple, yet 
amazingly powerful principles:

The Spirit of the Squirrel: Practice worthwhile work
The Way of the Beaver: Be in control of achieving the goal
The Gift of the Goose: Cheer each other on

The Gorilla Game : An Investor's Guide to Picking Winners in High Technology
by Geoffrey A. Moore, Paul Johnson, Tom Kippola 
Published by Harperbusiness
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887308872/darrellstonesweb

Finding the next Microsoft has been the Holy Grail for many investors. However, anyone who has dabbled in technology stocks 
can't help but be dismayed at their extreme volatility--it's not unusual for tech stocks to gain or lose 10 to 20 percent in a single day.
 So how can you win in this market and find the next Cisco, Intel, or Oracle? The key to winning, says bestselling author Geoffrey 
Moore, is to play the "gorilla game." 

Moore's previous two books, Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado, are the bibles for many marketing professionals and 
product managers. In these books, Moore describes the life cycle common to the successful adoption of technology products and 
pinpoints moments in the cycle, for example "the chasm," the "bowling alley," and the "tornado," where products can either flourish 
or fade away. In The Gorilla Game, Moore takes these concepts, with the help of coauthors Paul Johnson and Tom Kippola, applies 
them to finding gorilla stocks--stocks that dominate their market niche. The book looks at how the market values technology stocks 
and provides case studies of markets where gorillas have been born. Moore and his coauthors put their ideas to the test in the final 
chapter and pick a portfolio of stocks that they believe have the potential to become winners in the gorilla game.  The result is a 
highly perceptive investment guide that anyone who's a fan of Moore's earlier work will find exciting and profitable.

Burn Rate : How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet
by Michael Wolff 
Published by Simon & Schuster
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684848813/darrellstonesweb

Journalist Michael Wolff is a recognized pioneer in the business of cyberspace, meaning he has been developing products and 
services for the online world since the dark ages of 1994. During the intervening years, however, not all the activities he engaged 
in, nor all the people he dealt with, left a pleasant taste in his mouth--although, to be sure, his cumulative adventures certainly have 
been very lucrative. In Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet, Wolff pulls few punches as he candidly and 
methodically recounts the single steps forward and multiple steps back that marked his experiences while trying to transform a 
fledgling print media enterprise into a towering New Media colossus. After developing a series of "NetGuide" books that proved 
hugely successful, he attempted to transfer the concept to a variety of online offshoots and in so doing connected with Wired 
magazine, Time-Warner's Pathfinder, the late Robert Maxwell's media empire, AOL, assorted venture capitalists, sundry competitors, 
and numerous would-be partners. Burn Rate is a fascinating tale that might best be characterized by the old adage that warns us to 
"be careful what we wish for, for we just might get it." --Howard Rothman 

Getting to Yes : Negotiating Agreement Without Giving in
by Roger Fisher, William Ury 
Published byPenguin USA 
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140157352/darrellstonesweb

In this new edition, two negotiation experts from Harvard offer a universally applicable method for
negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken--and without getting nasty.
Concise, step-by-step, proven strategies aid the reader in coming to mutually acceptable agreements in
any type of conflict. 

The One Minute Manager
by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson 
Published by Berkley Pub Group
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425098478/darrellstonesweb

A phenomenon when first published, the strategies of One Minute Management are as timely as ever,
and will remain so as long as job satisfaction, employee morale, and profit and productivity building are
top workplace priorities. For any manager striving to get the most from people, The One Minute
Manager is an indispensable success tool. --This text refers to the audio cassette edition of this title

A practical business guide for managers wanting to get the most from their employees introduces a
wide range of timely strategies to promote employee morale and job satisfaction and, in turn, heighten
profitability and productivity. Read by the authors. Book available. --This text refers to the audio
cassette edition of this title

Success Is a Choice : Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life
by Rick Pitino, Bill Reynolds 
Published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767901320/darrellstonesweb

Wildly successful hoops coach Rick Pitino takes a time-out from the rigors of the NBA to outline his
approach and techniques for motivating individuals. The paperback edition contains an all-new
foreword written since Pitino's departure from the Kentucky Wildcats and the 1997 national
championship season. His plan for excellence in all aspects of life, including sports and business, is
more than goal achievement; this is the guidebook for goal overachievement! Pitino presents 10
crucial steps for success, drawing examples from his 20-plus years in the basketball trenches to inspire
readers. 

The E-Myth Revisited : 
Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
by Michael E. Gerber 
Published by Harperbusiness
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887307280/darrellstonesweb

In a new and totally revised edition of his groundbreaking bestseller The E-Myth, Gerber completely
revolutionizes the idea of starting, growing, and maintaining a small business. 

The totally revised edition of a groundbreaking bestseller, first published in 1986, provides information
and guidance in starting and maintaining a small business or franchise in the 1990s. By the author of
Power Point. Original. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour. 

A completely revised edition of the groundbreaking bestseller that provides the key ingredients to
developing a prosperous small business venture.

The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848
by Niall Ferguson, Neil Ferguson
0670857688  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670857688/darrellstonesweb

This is a tale of how another family whose name would become synonymous with wealth rose
from obscurity--in this case, from Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto. The Napoleonic wars gave these inventors
of the international bond market their big opportunity, as the Rothschilds provided cash to the Duke of
Wellington's army, simultaneously making a bundle off of exchange-rate transactions, bond-price
speculations, and commissions.

They also profited by financing the stabilization of Europe's conservative monarchies when those wars
ended. From £500,000 in 1818, Rothschild capital rose to £4,330,333 in 1828--about 14 times the resources
of the family's nearest competitor, Baring Brothers. Ferguson ''brings vitality to a series of compelling
issues, ranging from the Rothschilds' staunch Judaism to their intrafamily marriages,'' found
reviewer Joseph Mandel.

Gain
by Richard Powers
Farrar Straus & Giroux; ISBN: 0374159963
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374159963/darrellstonesweb

Richard Powers made his debut in 1985 with Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, a brilliant
and almost unbelievably brainy meditation on what he calls "our tortured century." Since then he has
produced four more novels, showcasing his mastery of genetics, art history, computer science,
theology, aesthetics, and a host of other pointy-headed fields. The author's range--and the
meticulous music of his prose, which suggests a considerably less zany Thomas Pynchon--is
mind-boggling. Yet his subject remains fairly constant: the acceleration, and consequent
dehumanization, of contemporary life.

In Gain, Powers puts our modernity through the wringer once again. This time, though, he points the
finger at one villain in particular: rampant, American-style capitalism, as exemplified by a
conglomerate called Clare International. His novel, it should be said, is no piece of agitprop, but an
intricate lamination of two separate stories. On one hand, Powers describes the rise (and fall and
rise) of the Clare empire, beginning in its mercantile infancy: "That family flocked to commerce like
finches to morning. They clung to the watery edge of existence: ports, always ports. They thrived in
tidal pools, half salt, half sweet." The author's Clare-eyed narrative amounts to a pocket history of
corporate America, and a marvelously entertaining one. Lest we get too enamored of this success
story, though, Powers introduces a second, countervailing tale, in which a 42-year-old resident of
Lacewood, Illinois, is stricken with ovarian cancer. Lacewood happens to be the headquarters of
Clare's North American Agricultural Products Division, and lo and behold, it seems that chemical
wastes from the plant may be the source of Laura Bodey's illness. The analogy between corporate
and cancerous proliferation is pointed--too pointed, perhaps. But no other recent novelist has written
so knowingly, and with such splendid indignation, about capitalism and its discontents.

I'd Like the World to Buy a Coke;
The Life & Leadership of Roberto Goizueta
by David Greising
John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471345946 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471345946/darrellstonesweb

A true-life business tale is the subject of David Greising's I'd Like the World to Buy a Coke: The Life and Leadership of Roberto Goizueta (Wiley). BUSINESS WEEK's former Atlanta bureau chief describes the rise and reign of the Cuban-expatriate chemical engineer who, 26 years after going to work for Coca-Cola Co., overcame long odds to claim that company's top job.

During his first months in office, Goizueta drew up the plan that would set the company's course for the next 17 years. He placed his imprint everywhere, demanding a new discipline from his Managers and dumping businesses that didn't fit his vision for Coke. Over the decades, he stumbled--with a foray into moviemaking and with the disastrous new recipe for Coca-Cola. But it was in the ''Coca-Colonization'' of markets from Eastern Europe to Asia that GoIzueta made his mark. By the time of his death in 1997, the company had tripled in size and taken control of half of the globe's soft-drink market.

Competing on Internet Time :
Lessons from Netscape and Its Battle With Microsoft
by Michael A. Cusumano, David B. Yoffie
Free Press; ISBN: 0684853191 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684853191/darrellstonesweb

No other business rivalry has captured the public imagination quite like the one between Netscape
and Microsoft. And for good reason. It pits the world's richest corporation against a relatively recent
startup. The implications of this battle--for everything from electronic commerce to network
communications--extend well into the next millennium. Competing on Internet Time, by Michael A.
Cusumano and David B. Yoffie, is the definitive blow-by-blow analysis of Netscape's battle with
Microsoft, starting with the founding of Netscape in 1994 through the summer of 1998, just as
Microsoft was about to enter the courtroom with the Justice department over its alleged
monopolistic practices.

Based on a series of interviews with Netscape employees and others, Competing on Internet Time
is more than a breathless corporate biography. Rather, the authors draw lessons from the mistakes
and victories that both Netscape and Microsoft have suffered and enjoyed in their war for 'Net
turf--in terms of browsers, server software, and portal space. The authors come up with some
surprising conclusions. For example, in examining the competitive strategies of both companies,
Cusumano and Yoffie conclude that Microsoft, more than Netscape, exhibited what they call a "judo
flexibility." Here they point to Microsoft's now famous December 7, 1995 Internet Day
announcement of the company's embrace-and-extend strategy and its subsequent sacrifice of MSN
in a deal with AOL--prime examples of how Microsoft redefined the battle in a way that avoided a
direct confrontation with Netscape but nevertheless placed them center stage in the fight for Internet
mindshare. The authors also go into fascinating detail about how each company operates--from the
hiring of staffers to the conception, development, and marketing of products.

Prosperity; The Coming Twenty-Year Boom and What It Means to You
by Bob Davis, David Wessel
Times Books; ISBN: 0812932005 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812932005/darrellstonesweb

Most predictions about the how the American economy will fair over the next 20 years are pretty
bleak. The rush to globalization will force jobs to cheaper labor markets in Indonesia and China.
Steel and auto workers, who once commanded top-dollar wages, will have no choice but to flip
burgers at McDonald's. Gains in productivity will only benefit the rich, and only those involved in the
information and technology sectors of the economy can look forward to maintaining today's standard
of living--everyone else will slip over the edge. And so the predictions go on.... Authors Bob Davis
and David Wessel offer a counterweight to this gloom and doom in their new book Prosperity.

Davis and Wessel, both journalists at the Wall Street Journal, contend that we are on the edge of a
huge economic boom that will be fueled by three trends: high technology; the reeducation of the
American work force; and globalization. They argue that gains in productivity, long promised by the
computer revolution, but never delivered on, will finally kick in causing a surge of innovation and new
opportunities not seen since the widespread growth and acceptance of electricity at the turn of the
century. Community colleges will help to bridge the wide gap between educated and less educated
workers. And finally, globalization will create new jobs and provide low-cost goods to consumers.

The Corrosion of Character :
The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism
by Richard Sennett
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393046788 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393046788/darrellstonesweb

In the brave new world of the "flexible" corporation, Richard Sennett observes, workers at all levels
are regarded as wholly disposable, and they have responded in kind, ceasing to think in terms of any
long-term relationship with the organizations they work for. This, he argues, has tremendous negative
consequences for workers' emotional and psychological well-being. Even in menial jobs, we extract
much of our self-image from the idea of a "career"--a life narrative rendered intelligible by specific
loyalties, which is to some degree self-invented but also in some respects predictable. Innovations
like "flextime" and bureaucratic "de-layering" seem to promise more freedom to define one's career,
but in fact they create jobs in which there's less freedom than ever to be had. The Corrosion of
Character is a short, anecdotal book, and while one might wish that it included a discussion of the
social and psychological costs of the sheer increase of work time in the average worker's week,
Sennett has created a pithy, disturbing picture of the cost of the corporate world's much-vaunted
new efficiencies. --Richard Farr

The Weightless World : Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy
by Diane Coyle, Dianne Coyle
MIT Press; ISBN: 0262032597 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262032597/darrellstonesweb

The Weightless World is the first book to map an economic world that has been turned upside down
by digital technology and global business. How will our careers, businesses, and governments change
in a world where bytes are the only currency and where the goods that shape our lives - global
financial transactions, computer code, and cyberspace commerce - literally have no weight?
Addressing such problems as economic inequity and unemployment, Diane Coyle calls on individuals
and governments to develop a new politics of weightlessness so that the economic benefits can be
shared fairly. She proposes the creation of a "radical center" as the way to a new era of human
creativity and economic prosperity.

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE 
by Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard 
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0399144463  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399144463/darrellstonesweb

With Who Moved My Cheese? Dr. Spencer Johnson realizes the need for finding the language and
tools to deal with change--an issue that makes all of us nervous and uncomfortable. Most people are
fearful of change because they don't believe they have any control over how or when it happens to
them. Since change happens either to the individual or by the individual, Spencer Johnson shows us
that what matters most is the attitude we have about change. With the approach of the year 2000,
most work environments are finally recognizing the urgent need to get their computers and other
business systems up to speed and able to deal with unprecedented change. What businesses are only
just beginning to realize is that this is not enough: we need to help people get ready, too. Spencer
Johnson has created his new book to do just that. The coauthor of the multimillion bestseller The
One Minute Manager has written a deceptively simple story with a dramatically important message
that can radically alter the way we cope with change. Who Moved My Cheese? allows for common
themes to become topics for discussion and individual interpretation. Who Moved My Cheese?
takes the fear and anxiety out of managing the future and shows people a simple way to successfully
deal with the changing times, providing them with a method for moving ahead with their work and
lives safely and effectively. 

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
by Harvey Mackey 
Ballantine Books (Trd); ISBN: 0345432959  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345432959/darrellstonesweb

Inspirational business speaker, popular newspaper columnist, and bestselling author Harvey Mackay
has been "moonlighting" for 40 years as president of Mackay Envelope Corporation, an $85 million
company that produces more than 17 million envelopes a day. With the help of imagery derived from
this industry, he's now dispensing a new batch of lessons on life and business in Pushing the
Envelope: All the Way to the Top. Its five sections--cleverly titled "How to Be A #10," "Licking
the Competition," "How I Pushed the Envelope," "The Flap on Management," and "Going First
Class"--offer practical advice on such topics as hiring, motivating, training, producing, and
negotiating. Each short and highly focused chapter deals with one specific idea and concludes with a
pithy aphorism dubbed Mackay's Moral, such as "There's much more to winning than finishing first"
and "In negotiations, as in poker, a superior hand can be beaten by superior knowledge of your
opponents." Interweaving experiences from a diverse lot including Sylvester Stallone, Ulysses S.
Grant, Will Rogers, and Star Wars' Yoda with anecdotes drawn from his own career, Mackay
presents a litany of solid suggestions that will prove as useful as they are fun to read. 
--Howard  Rothman 

HOW TO BECOME CEO 
by Jeffrey J. Fox, Jeffery J. Fox) 
 Hyperion Press; ISBN: 0786864370  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786864370/darrellstonesweb

Most books about career advancement are either weighty examinations about success in the
workplace (e.g., How to Be a Star at Work and Working with Emotional Intelligence) or
flippant, humorous takes on surviving the countless inanities of modern work life (e.g., Working
Wounded). Jeffrey Fox's book, How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any
Organization is neither. Instead, Fox presents 75 commonsense rules about successfully conducting
your career.
Rules like "Know Everybody by Their First Name" and "No Goals No Glory" may seem obvious;
others, such as "Don't Take Work Home from the Office" or "Don't Have a Drink with the Gang"
 may not. Each is accompanied by page or two of succinct and thought-provoking explanation. For
example, for rule 27, "Don't Hide an Elephant," Fox writes, "Big problems always surface. If they
have been hidden, even unintentionally, the negative fallout is always worse. The 'hiders' always get
burned, regardless of complicity. The 'discoverers' always are safe, regardless of complicity." Wise
and to the point, How to Become CEO will help just about anybody's career, whether you want to
become CEO or not. --Harry C. Edwards 

THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA 
by Clayton M. Christensen 
Harvard Business School Pr; ISBN: 0875845851  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875845851/darrellstonesweb

What do the Honda Supercub, Intel's 8088 processor, and hydraulic excavators have in common?
They are all examples of disruptive technologies that helped to redefine the competitive landscape of
their respective markets. These products did not come about as the result of successful companies
carrying out sound business practices in established markets. In The Innovator's Dilemma, author
Clayton M. Christensen shows how these and other products cut into the low end of the
marketplace and eventually evolved to displace high-end competitors and their reigning technologies.

At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products
keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and
become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their
attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no
matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing. Succinct and clearly written, The
Innovator's Dilemma is an important book that belongs on every manager's bookshelf. Highly
recommended. --Harry C. Edwards 

THE JOY OF WORK 
by Scott Adams 
Harpercollins; ISBN: 0887308716  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887308716/darrellstonesweb

Scott Adams's latest work is not a collection of Dilbert cartoons (though recycled strips are liberally
sprinkled throughout); it's a dialogue between the man and his fans disguised as a tongue-in-cheek
guide to surviving the corporate life. There are chapters on "Office Pranks," "Surviving Meetings,"
and "Managing Your Co-Workers," with enough weird stories and practical jokes to make any
middle manager nervous, especially as many of the tricks and tips come from e-mails sent to Adams
by his fans (one tip: never let anyone else use your computer). If these messages are any indication,
the creative tide has turned, and now the corporate world is following Dilbert's lead. In the office
blocks of America, life is imitating art imitating life, creating a pleasantly postmodern working
environment. The final chapter of The Joy of Work, "Handling Criticism," includes a response to
Norman Solomon's The Trouble with Dilbert, which accuses Adams of selling out and supporting
the corporate hierarchy that he claims to satirize. Adams's response is thorough and convincing, with
just enough nastiness (jokes about Solomon's hair, for example) to demonstrate that although Dilbert
may not have a mouth, he certainly has teeth. --Simon Leake 

THE 48 LAWS OF POWER
by Joost Elffers, Robert Greene
Viking Pr; ISBN: 0670881465  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670881465/darrellstonesweb

"Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of
perspective," writes Robert Greene. Mastery of one's emotions and the arts of deception and
indirection are, he goes on to assert, essential. The 48 laws outlined in this book "have a simple
premise: certain actions always increase one's power ... while others decrease it and even ruin us."

The laws cull their principles from many great schemers--and scheming instructors--throughout
history, from Sun-Tzu to Talleyrand, from Casanova to con man Yellow Kid Weil. They are
straightforward in their amoral simplicity: "Get others to do the work for you, but always take the
credit," or "Discover each man's thumbscrew." Each chapter provides examples of the consequences
of observance or transgression of the law, along with "keys to power," potential "reversals" (where
the converse of the law might also be useful), and a single paragraph cleverly laid out to suggest an
image (such as the aforementioned thumbscrew); the margins are filled with illustrative quotations.
Practitioners of one-upmanship have been given a new, comprehensive training manual, as
up-to-date as it is timeless. 

DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF AT WORK
 by Richard Carlson 
Hyperion (Adult Trd Pap); ISBN: 0786883367  
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786883367/darrellstonesweb

 In his trademark warm, appealing style, Richard Carlson tells readers how to interact more
peaceably and joyfully with colleagues, clients, and bosses. He offers effective tips that will ease
stress in the workplace and lead to a happier home life. Inspirational and practical, this book
will be a godsend to the millions who loved Carlson's previous books.

Your First Year in Network Marketing:
Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams!
by Mark Yarnell, Rene Reid Yarnell 
Published by Prima Publishing
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761512195/darrellstonesweb

To listen to its proponents, network (or multilevel) marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bread:
top performers earn $1 million a month, reside in alluring places like Aspen and Kauai, and still find
quality time to happily raise children and lovingly cement spousal relationships. Contending that those
who fail to make it that far are ill prepared for the initial challenges they face, Mark Yarnell and Rene
Reid Yarnell--married network marketers who are among the industry's leaders, as well as members
of a University of Illinois faculty that teaches the only college-certified course on the subject in the
U.S.--have written Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience
Success, and Achieve Your Dreams! to convey both advice and inspiration to newcomers. Peppered
with personal anecdotes that bring their recommendations to life, the two offer logical strategies for
overcoming rookie obstacles and kick starting a career. Individual chapters explore issues such as
battling rejection, avoiding depression, handling prospects, supervising recruits, and managing time.
Each concludes with a comprehensive summary, but save it for later reference and don't skip the
preceding narrative, or you risk missing the book's considerable motivational component. --Howard
Rothman 

Network marketing's continuing boom attracts millions of people. But too many beginners, daunted by
initial obstacles, give up in those first twelve, crucial months. This, the ultimate beginner's guide from
two of the industry's best-known and most successful people, will help neophytes not just survive, but
thrive! Also includes strategies for transitioning to network marketing from other professions. 

This book offers practical survival tactics needed during that critical, first year in multilevel marketing,
and beyond. Chapters include how to deal with rejection, how to recruit, how to avoid over-managing
one's downline, having realistic expectations, remaining focused, staying enthusiastic, and conducting
in-home meetings.