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“If you think an awkward response to a friend’s crisis will make them feel bad, then you should know that if you say nothing, they will likely feel worse. ”

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When someone you know is hurting, you want to let them know that you care. But many people don’t know what words to use—or are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Life can be scary, challenging, awful, and unfair at times; no one has a problem-free life. You are either going through a storm, entering a storm, or heading to the next storm. There is No Good Card for This is a great instructional guide on how to be there for your loved ones during trying times, what to say and do.

It can be tricky knowing the right thing to say or do during trying times for our family, friends, and loved ones but the major take away from reading the book is you have to try to listen to the grieving and at least say something when they lose someone, a simple text message saying “I am sorry” goes a long way and is often appreciated than not saying anything.

In There is No Good Card for This, empathy expert Dr. Kelsey Crowe and greeting card maverick Emily McDowell, blends well-researched, actionable advice with the no-nonsense humor and the signature illustration style of McDowell’s immensely popular Empathy Cards, to help you feel confident in connecting with anyone experiencing grief, loss, illness, or any other difficult situation.

This book is not chicken soup for the soul; it’s whiskey for the wounded.

Here are my favourite take aways from reading There Is No Good Card for This by Dr. Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell.

“Listening is like playing a sport or musical instrument in that you can get better and better with practice and persistence, but you will never achieve total mastery. Some may have more natural ability and some may have to try harder, but everyone can benefit from making the effort.

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The average person suffers from three delusions; we believe we are good drivers, good listeners, and think we have a good sense of humor. You’re Not Listening is a book in praise of listening and a lament that, as a culture, we seem to be losing our listening mojo.

Listening is more of a mindset than a checklist of dos and don’ts. It’s a very particular skill that develops over time by interacting with all kinds of people—without agenda or having aides there to jump in if the conversation goes anywhere unexpected or untoward.

Here are my favourite take-aways from reading, You’re Not Listening:

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Behind the Cloud is a great account of how Marc Benioff revolutionalized the software industry and pioneered cloud computing with his company salesforce.com. He shares 111 strategies, he used to build the company with the help of very talented individuals and partners.

Marc tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, 

Seize the opportunity in front of you. Imagine. Invent. Disrupt. Do good. I know that you must be passionate, unreasonable, and a little bit crazy to follow your own ideas and do things differently. But it’s worth it. Life grows relative to one’s investment in it. I promise you that by considering everyone’s success, you will see the return.”

Here are my favorite takeaways from reading, Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff:

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Call Me Ted is a great autobiography about the life of Media Mogul Ted Turner, the founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. The book is a no-holds-barred and vulnerable story of his life, his upbringing, lessons learned from his dad, Sister’s Death, Parent’s Divorce, and Father’s Suicide, his turbulent marriage life (3 Divorces), his business philosophy, becoming a billionaire, his boisterousness, his love for sailing, buying the Atlanta Braves among other inspiring stories.

“Son, you be sure to set your goals so high that you can’t possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. That way you’ll always have something ahead of you. I made the mistake of setting my goals too low and now I’m having a hard time coming up with new ones.”

Ted became one of the richest men in the world, the largest land owner in the United States, revolutionized the television business with the creation of TBS and CNN, became a champion sailor and winner of the America’s Cup, and took home a World Series championship trophy in 1995 as owner of the Atlanta Braves.

An innovative entrepreneur, outspoken nonconformist, and groundbreaking philanthropist, Ted Turner is truly a living legend, and now, for the first time, he reveals his personal story. From his difficult childhood to the successful launch of his media empire to the catastrophic AOL/Time Warner deal, Turner spares no details or feelings and takes the reader along on a wild and sometimes bumpy ride.

Here are my favourite take aways from reading, Call Me Ted by Ted Turner.

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Former Yale Professor, William Deresiewicz in his book Excellent Sheep delves into the issues facing the Ivy League admission process, the facade, the pressure on students to succeed, the American elites, and other thought-provoking insights on higher education. The book was inspired by an essay William wrote in the American Scholar: “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education.”

As schools shift focus from the humanities to “practical” subjects like economics, students are losing the ability to think independently. It is essential, says Deresiewicz, that college be a time for self-discovery, when students can establish their own values and measures of success in order to forge their own paths. He features quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and offering clear solutions on how to fix it.

“The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.”

Here are my favourite take-aways from reading, Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz:

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According to Author and Entrepreneur Daniel Priestley in his very insightful book, Entrepreneur Revolution: How to Develop Your Entrepreneurial Mindset and Start a Business that Works, the age of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs is beckoning, the days of the industrial age and worker is gradually coming to an end. The book shares great insights on embracing an entrepreneurial mindset, the factors speeding up the entrepreneurial revolution, and ways to be a part of the revolution.

The slow dinosaurs of the industrial age are being outpaced by fast-moving start-ups, ambitious small businesses and technological innovators. 

“An entrepreneur is simply someone who spots an opportunity and acts to make it into a commercial success.”

We often exaggerate yesterday, overestimate tomorrow and underestimate today.

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In Today Matters, John C. Maxwell shares 12 decisions and disciplines – he calls the daily dozen that can be learned and mastered by anyone to achieve success. A lot of us exaggerate yesterday, overestimate tomorrow, and we underestimate today. According to John, Today Matters, and it is the most important day you will ever experience. The Secret of your success is determined by what you daily.

Here are my favourite takeaways from reading, Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success.

Today is the only time you have. It’s too late for yesterday. And you can’t depend on tomorrow. That’s why today matters.

The past always appears more certain than it was, and that makes the future feel more uncertain—and therefore frightening—than ever.

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From terror attacks to collapsing economies, from painkiller epidemics to mass gun violence and poisonous toys from China, our list of fears seems to be exploding. Yet we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Why are we so worried?

The Science of Fear is an introduction to the new brain science of risk, dissecting the fears that misguide and manipulate us every day. Award-winning journalist Dan Gardner demonstrates how irrational fear springs from the ways humans miscalculate risks based on our hunter-gatherer brains

Here are my favourite take-aways from reading, The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain by Daniel Gardner.

It’s not the companies’ responsibility to make you happy. It’s your job to find and create career happiness for yourself.

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Author and Career Coach, Kanika Tolver shares innovative ways to brand, market, and sell yourself into jobs that promote work-life balance, fair compensation, and continuous career development. Career Rehab focuses on assisting career transformations for students, professionals, and retirees.  In Career Rehab: Rebuild Your Personal Brand and Rethink the Way You Work, Kanika shares various research, success stories, interviews, and case studies on personal branding and re-invention.

Here are my favourite takeaways from reading: Career Rehab: Rebuild Your Personal Brand and Rethink the Way You Work.

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In Motivation Manifesto, high-performance coach and trainer Brendon Burchard reveals that the main motive of humankind is the pursuit of greater Personal Freedom. We desire the grand liberties of choice—time freedom, emotional freedom, social freedom, financial freedom, spiritual freedom. Only two enemies stand in our way: an external enemy, defined as the social oppression of who we are by the mediocre masses, and an internal enemy, a sort of self-oppression caused by our own doubt and fear. 

The Motivation Manifesto is a pulsing, articulate, ferocious call to claim our personal power.

The Author identified three sets of people we should be wary of on our path to greatness and freedom:  The Worriers,  The Weakling, and The Wicked.  He highlighted some of our limiting behaviours such as fear, Loss Pain vs anticipation of hardship. Life Roles: Observer, Director, Guardian, Warrior, Lover, and Leader.

The 9 Declarations of the Motivation Manifesto

  1. Meet Life with Full Presence and Power
  2. Reclaim your Agenda
  3. Defeat your Demons
  4. Advance with Abandon
  5. Practice Joy and Gratitude
  6. Do not break Integrity
  7. Amplify Love
  8. Inspire Greatness
  9. Slow Time

Here are my favourite takeaways from reading “The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard”

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Reluctant entrepreneurship is based on the idea that you can start out slowly and proceed cautiously. You do your research and develop your business plan. And you keep your day job while you work on your side business at night and on weekends.

A reluctant entrepreneur is somebody who keeps his day job while he gets his ideal job going in the evenings and on weekends. He is willing to take the initiative to start his own business. But he’s not willing to quit his current job and lose the income. The compromise he accepts is that he will have to work 60 to 90 hours a week for several years before he can either abandon his great idea or fire his boss.

Here are my favourite take-aways from reading, The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams Into Profits by Michael Masterson

“If you want your life experience to be bright, choose to contribute.”

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Life’s Golden Ticket by Brendon Burchard is a great book that is in an allegory format. The story teaches many life lessons, such as overcoming our fears, living life on our terms, and making a difference in the world. It is a book that I highly recommend; the storyline might not be easy to follow with the multiple characters and scenes, but it contains many messages for navigating life.

What if you were handed a golden ticket that could magically start your life anew?

That question is at the heart of Life’s Golden Ticket. Brendon Burchard tells the story of a man who is so trapped in the prison of his past that he cannot see the possibilities, the choices, and the gifts before him. To soothe his fiancee Mary, clinging to life in a hospital bed, the man takes the envelope she offers and heads to an old, abandoned amusement park that she begs him to visit.

To his surprise, when he steps through the rusted entrance gates, the park magically comes to life. Guided by the wise groundskeeper Henry, the man will encounter park employees, answer difficult questions, overcome obstacles, listen to lessons from those wiser than he, and take a hard look at himself.

At the end of his journey, the man opens Mary’s mysterious envelope. Inside is a golden ticket — the final phase in turning his tragic life’s story of loss and regret into a triumphant tale of love and redemption.

Here are my favourite takeaways from reading Life’s Golden Ticket by Brendon Burchard:

A human life is really nothing more than a collection of minutes, hours, and days. These are the building materials. And it’s left strictly up to us to determine the kind and size of structure we build.

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Success is a matter of sticking to a set of commonsense principles anyone can master. In Lead the Field Earl Nightingale explains these guidelines: the magic word in life is ATTITUDE. It determines your actions, as well as the actions of others. It tells the world what you expect from it. When you accept responsibility for your attitude, you accept responsibility for your entire life.

Success or failure as a human being is not a matter of luck, or circumstance, or fate, or the breaks, or who you know – or any of the other tiresome, old myths and clichés by which the ignorant tend to excuse themselves. It’s a matter of following a common sense paradigm of rules – guidelines anyone can follow.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” – Earl Nightingale. 

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In his seminal book on goal setting, Author and Motivational Speaker Brian Tracy shares twenty-one principles of goal setting and goal achieving – he says: “There are no unrealistic goals; there are merely unrealistic deadlines.” A goal is a dream with a deadline, and if you do not set the goals, you can not magically achieve it. Goals by Brian Tracy is one of the few books I have read at least five times as goal setting is a continuous, lifelong process.

The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Here are my favorite takeaways from reading, Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought by Brian Tracy:

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Blue Ocean Strategy is a book published in 2004 written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne are Professors of Strategy at INSEAD, one of the world’s top business schools, and co-directors of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute in Fontainebleau, France.

The Blue Ocean Strategy is one of the most impactful business book have ever read, my first reading was around 2010, and have since read the book more than 3 times, and it keeps resonating each time. Blue ocean strategy breaks from the stranglehold of competition. At the book’s core is the notion of a shift from competing to creating new market space, making the competition irrelevant.

Blue ocean strategy challenges companies to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Instead of dividing up existing—and often shrinking—demand and benchmarking competitors, blue ocean strategy is about growing demand and breaking away from the competition.

Here are my favourite take-aways from reading, Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne: