Book Review - The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO (Robin Sharma)

The Saint, the Surfer and the CEO (Robin Sharma) is another wonderful book by Robin Sharma. Continuing from his bestseller book, The Monk who sold his Ferrari, it is written in the form of a story, telling us to live true to our lives, to find out purpose in this world and live for this purpose.

My mind was blown away when I read it as it provides me more insights into how this world works and how limiting belief are inculcate into us, preventing us from achieving what our hearts desire from this life. Some of the lessons taught are how we should treat all happenings in our life, be it good or bad, how we see things through our eyes and mind, and what mindset should we have in order to create abundance in our lives. Interested to know the answers to these questions? Well grab the book now. You will find traces of materials that are found in other self-help material, for instance a deposit account for each relationship you create, projecting a vision with clarity (Law of Attraction) and many more. Grab the book because it will give you more insights into these materials.

I give it a 4.5 stars out of five. A great gift to anyone who love self-help books. Definitely worth much more than its price. What are you waiting for, go and grab it now, digest what is taught and take concrete steps to achieve your heart's desired dream and lifestyle!

Book Review - Buyology (Martin Lindstrom)

Buyology (Martin Lindstrom) is a book title that, together with the bright yellow cover, attracted my attention when I visited the bookstore.

Basically the book is about neural-marketing. No no don't worry, it does not mean once I read this book I am going to be a marketing guru. It does not bestow me the power to control what you buy. But it is a very insightful book to read.

Do you know that those ads that are meant to discourage smoking or anorexia is actually encouraging it? That because although cigarettes makers are banned from marketing but they have infiltrated into your life to encourage you to smoke without you noticing it? What has religion got to do with the best brand? Which sense should the ads appeal to to make a lasting impression?

You probably might have answer to one of these questions but would it not be great to know the answers to all of them? I know you would love to know the answer to all these questions. So go and grab the book.

This book open up my eyes a bit wider about neural marketing, although I have some pre-knowledge about neural marketing, especially the coke and popcorn experiment mentioned in the book. Sinister it may seem but I feel it is good to know about it.

It is the book for you, if you like psychology or marketing or both. Since I like both, I have benefited from and enjoyed the book immensely. I strongly recommend this book to those who want to be on the forefront of marketing or generally interested to know how humans behave.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. The only grip about the book is if only there are more diagrams to explain the concepts inside like symbol and which part of the brain it is refering to. A must-have book for any marketing personnel's library.

Robert Kiyosaki New Book and other New Book Releases-March 2009

These are some new books or soon to release books that I thought readers might be interested.

For fans of Robert Kiyosaki, he is about to release a new book on Real Estate Investment. From Amazon, this book is claimed as "the bible, of real estate advice and techniques every investor needs to navigate through the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens of the real estate market and come out on top." After further reading the Product Description, it seems to be a comprehensive book for Real Estate investors. Hope I can get a copy of it, read it and recommend to you readers, in this blog. For those who cannot wait, maybe you can reserve it in Amazon and have it shipped to you the second it is available.

Book Review - Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)

Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell) is a must read for people who are hungry for success. Are you one of them? The book tells us the following interesting stories.

1) Air Crashes are usually not a product of machine malfunction but the culture of the pilots.
2) Asians are better at maths than Westerners but there is a way for Westerners to overcome that.
3) How many QUALITY hours you need to put in to be successful
4) The fields that you choose to pursue your dreams is very important.

The book shows us the pattern to achieving success. It discuss how did Bill Gates, Steve Jobs become successful while others fall off from the track to success. How does the above story tells us about success? Well, grab the book and find out. Want to be on the Track to success? Well, do I need to say more?

I found the book an enjoyable and insightful book, similar to other books by Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point and Blink. I grab the book when it was on the shelf but only manage to squeeze the book into my schedule recently. What the book tells us about the track to success can be misinterpreted by many as phooey, but I personally feel that hidden inside, there really lies the secret to success, it will depend very much on the angle you look at discussion.

I give this a 4 out of 5 stars as it teaches the track to success. If you have loved his previous books, I strongly encouraged you to grab it.

Book Review - How Starbucks Saved My Life (Michael Gates Gill)

How Starbucks Saved My Life (Michael Gates Gill) tells a real life story of the author. A high flier who has everything planned for him and all he has to do is go with the flow until the dreaded 'R' word came, retrenchment. He has everything he wants materially but life takes a dive when he made several bad decisions and neglected his family. The retrenchment was the final nail in the coffin for him.

By some weird fate, he ended up working in Starbucks and realize how empty his life had been. He could not thoroughly enjoy his live although what he has is what other people have to work their butts off and still might not get it.

If you feel very 'empty' at your job, you cannot enjoy what life have to offer or you picture that your life should not be the way it is right now, then I strongly recommend this book to you. It should provide you with some inspiration and motivation to steer your life in the correct direction.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book so much so I could not stop reading it. The best thing is this book was given to me as a Christmas present. The title did caught my attention several times but I did not intend to buy it at all.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars because it is simple to read, plus the good contents inside. If you have thoroughly enjoyed reading Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, then you should pounced on this book and enjoy the fiction and lessons behind How Starbucks Saved My Life (Michael Gates Gill).

Book Review - Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom (Matthew Fraser & Soumitra Dutta)

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom (Matthew Fraser & Soumitra Dutta), the title of this book captured my attention when I was surfing around the bookshops websites in Singapore. Most of you who are familiar with Facebook, you would have thought that this book is probably written about how Facebook is affecting corporates and business. Well you are just about right.

If you are very familiar with Internet trends, you would have known the new buzzword and that is "Web 2.0". The whole book is talking about how technology of "Web 2.0" is affecting these areas, business, media, consumer markets, politics and many more. The great fight between power holders and gatekeepers vs consumers.

Some interesting stuff I read is that all along, someone has indirectly chosen the books I read and the music I listen to by deciding what books to publish and music to be sold. Well of course you might say that you have known this since you know this but do you know that inside this book it shares a fascinating fact that you might drop your specs (if you have one) when you read it. =)

I found this book insightful and covers a lot of areas. At first I find this book a bit dry because it talks about European History (yah I know, I still do not have any idea why it was mentioned, maybe other readers can shed some light on it). I was almost turned off by it and wanted to put the book down, but my curiousity of how Web 2.0 is affecting the world got the better of me and I continue reading. But the later part of the book is definitely an enjoyable read, so much so I do not want to put down the book. =)

For this book, I give it a 3.5 out of 5. I would have given 4 stars if not for the European History (nothing against it, just that I see any need to mention about it).

Book Review - Who Will Cry When You Die (Robin Sharma)

Who Will Cry When You Die (Robin Sharma) is a good book to read when you are traveling on public transport. Inside the book, it contains snippets that allow you to improve your lives, living a more fulfilling life.

What strikes me is the title of this book. For many book lovers of self-help books, you would realize that this title have some striking resemblance of certain content in Stephen Covey's 7th Habit of Highly Effective People. In the 7th Habit book, Stephen Covey ask us to imagine what our ideal funeral would be, what type of speech would our family members make, what is the strength of relationship we share with those making a speech in your ideal funeral. So when I saw this book, I immediately bought it off the shelves without consideration for the price. Haha! Impulse buying.

Anyway, I have no regret buying the book. Inside the book, it contains many short stories or actionable (and low costs) items where we can immediately implement it in our life and see immediate results.

I would recommend readers to buy the book and carry with it if you are taking the public transport, as all Singaporeans would know how long we have to wait for our public transport.

I give it 4 stars out of 5 for the many actionable items inside that can improve our lives. So what is your ideal funeral and Who will cry when you die?