Books and Courses Archives – Page 3 of 4

24 Mar 2010

“Do What I Did and Get Rich” Books

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:56:57-06:00March 24th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I picked up a book recently about how now is the time to cash in on your passion; how to use social media to promote your personal brand.

Essentially the premise of the book is:

Pretty much everyone should quit their job,
Discover your passion and blog (text, video or audio) about it, no matter what the passion is,
Build your personal brand through social networking site,
Work hard and hustle,
Opportunities and cash will start rolling in due to the magic of the Internet, and
If I did it, so can you, "I guarantee it".

Everyone can make a great living doing this? Guaranteed? What a […]

10 Mar 2010

Fe Fi Fo Scrum – I Smell the Blood of a Best Practices Man

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:21-06:00March 10th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Software Development|

It is the time of year when gardeners start seeding plants indoors. Beans, Jack and giants suddenly popped into my head. (BTW, if you hire a landscaper, gardening is a waterfall process. If you do it yourself it is more an agile and iterative process. Things are always changing and you are never done.)

In "Succeeding with Agile" by Mike Cohn he states:

"Although team members should always look to share with one another their newly discovered good ways of working, they should resist the urge to codify them into a set of best practices."

Best practices imply perfection; a destination. Agile […]

7 Mar 2010

Being Indispensable and Type A Employees

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:57:35-06:00March 7th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

I just finished reading "Linchpin – Are You Indispensable" by Seth Godin. In the book he encourages you to make a difference in what you do, treat your work as an art, connect with people, get things done, and be the best you can be. The world is changing quickly and people who merely show up (cogs), are going to be marginalized. So be indispensable.

I just started reading another book called "Who – The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. I tripped across this one through the magic of Amazon. The premise of […]

9 Feb 2010

Entrepreneurs, Creation and Enlightenment

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:58:37-06:00February 9th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

A couple of quotes from "E-Myth Mastery" by Michael Gerber that I found interesting:

"Entrepreneurship is, first of all, the power to create.

But creation is not something you do.

Creation is something that is done through you."

and

"Your job is not to become an entrepreneur. It is not to create.

Your job is to commit to the process of becoming an entrepreneur and then to practice what entrepreneurs do so that entrepreneurship can find you when you've practiced enough to be ready.

Commitment and practice."

What is not stated here is how long? That is because the […]

11 Jan 2010

Great Idea Equals a Great Business

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:18:59-06:00January 11th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Apparently this is a bit of a myth. Sure some companies were founded on great ideas and become very successful.

I think this feeds into our desire to find the quick fix.

Great idea. Build a great strategy. Start a company. Instant wealth.

In 99.99% of the cases "instant" is actually many years in the making; kind of like the odds of winning the lottery.

In "Built to Last" by Jim Collins, they dispel this myth.

"Why? Because the great-idea approach shifts your attention from seeing the company as the ultimate creation."

Essentially, you focus on the product and not the […]

31 Dec 2009

Why Not Be Great?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:16-06:00December 31st, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

It is funny how the closing of a year brings reflection on the past… and a fleeting commitment to fix all the things you weren't happy with.

Sure, getting rid of some destructive bad habits is a good thing. But is spending your time dwelling on your mistakes and trying to fix your non-talents (weaknesses) the way to go?

In "First, Break all the Rules…" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, their research basically determined that you should focus on your talents and figure out ways to minimize the impact of your non-talents.

This is based on the science […]

29 Dec 2009

Sales – Greatness Versus Failure

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:21-06:00December 29th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation, Sales|

What makes one salesperson great and another fail?

We often think greatness is the opposite of failure. That if we look at why people fail and do the opposite we will succeed. Perhaps this is because it seems logical… the easy solution. Maybe the opposite of greatness (or failure) is merely average. Maybe greatness and failure are merely variations on each other.

This is discussed in "First, Break all the Rules… " by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

"By studying the best salespeople, great managers have learned that the best, just like the worst, suffer call reluctance. Apparently the best […]

14 Dec 2009

Blue Oceans, Red Oceans and Small Ponds

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:19:52-06:00December 14th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

I just recently finished reading Blue Ocean Strategy. I found the book to be quite informative with a lot of good concepts that can be put into practical application. In the book they talked about the convergence of competition in the bloody red oceans and the need to create blue oceans of value innovation to break out of the red ocean into the uncontested markets of the blue ocean (read bigger profits).

One premise of the book is that there a sort of formula (a process and tools) that can be applied to create blue oceans in a low risk fashion; sort […]

27 Nov 2009

Information Overload – Blink

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:16-06:00November 27th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation, Technology|

Your brain processes things at two levels: conscious and subconscious (not unconscious).

Conscious thought demands information, cost and benefit analysis, pros and cons. We demand more information. But more information does not equal understanding. Understanding vast amounts of information is very difficult. You can still draw the wrong conclusion, especially under stress.

Worst of all, decisions take a lot longer to make. What if we make a mistake? If I just had a little more information I could make a risk free decision. Analysis paralysis. You can also make a wrong conclusion and stick to it because that is what all the […]

20 Nov 2009

Great Leadership and Management

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:20:20-06:00November 20th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

The age old discussion around what is the difference between great leaders and managers continues.

Marcus Buckingham in "The One Thing You Need to Know" sheds a little light on this.

Great managers are focused on maximizing the performance of the people they manage by developing talent. Great managers are catalysts… speed up the reaction between each employee's talents and the company's goals. They are motivated by helping people grow.

Great leaders rally people to a better future. The focus on the future and the drive to accomplish something new/better is what drives a leader.

Some people have both traits […]