Like most companies there are people who come up with good ideas plus individuals who can actually put them into practice and this is frequently the case with people contemplating starting a mobile nightspot venture or just wanting to DJ in their local disco as well as pub.

In this article we will make clear the distinction between the concept as well as the valuable variables that can lead you to triumph with your business. You’ll expect to making a serious amount of cash from running a good dj business either by going out yourself as well as operating a mobile disco or by running a music entertainment agency that specialises in securing music acts as well as DJ’s and sending them out to clients on a fee basis – find out more about how to start a dj business with industry advice and top tips now available.

To start you’ll have to give over your own manpower to running the business as well as most of the time you will devote to cold calling prospective clients plus venues to find out if they require acts for forthcoming events like weddings, birthdays, bank holidays, national holidays and New Year. Do not be put off by calling or visiting 100 clients as well as solitary securing 1 or 2 contracts as an average percentage can be 2-3% triumph rate. Within the short term if you can secure an preliminary contract with a venue which will get you going plus provide you the self-belief to both develop your client base and if you can allways offer a decent service then word of mouth will bring you lots more business.

Some leading tips for a successful DJ business include:

1) Sit down and plan your small business approach and make sure you produce a genuine DJ Business Plan

2) Market your dj company with flyers as well as dj business cards which you’ll get printed locally or from a web-based source. Flyers as well as business cards represent a economical method of getting plenty of exposure for your business and shouldn’t be overlooked at any cost.

2) Appreciate the local market – contact other local nightspot or entertainment agencies to determine what they offer plus the amount they charge.

3) Endeavor to secure a quick preliminary contract with a venue so you can satisfy yourself that you have now launched the DJ company.

4) Be professional, Courteous and Polite and make sure you turn up at booked events at the exact time.

5) Money is extremely important so try for getting advanced deposit bookings and get the money upfront if at all possible.

6) Make sure your equipment is in working order as well as you have any necessary electrical equipment test certificates as required.

Most business people will tell you that 1/2 the triumph and health of their business is thru initial hard work but the residual 50% comes much faster and easier as word of mouth spreads about your business plus you continue building upon a genuine, reliable, trusty plus enviable reputation. OK, so we all know that running any business will not be a breeze but having said that almost all folks who begin a DJ business or entertainment agency actually enjoy the process and with this comes big rewards.

Next, don’t let your idea of starting a DJ business or entertainment agency fade away it is something you must act on. A good DJ business plan will aid your concentration on the long term goal. We are able to provide some great advice, tips and ideas as well as help on choosing the neccessary dj equipment for your needs.

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One-Sentence Summary: To be efficient, your mind must be crystal clear, like spring water; to get to that point you need to get rid of all the parasitic thoughts that permanently distract you, which you can accomplish by putting  everything that you want to, or must do into an external automated system, thus relieving your brain of the need to think – which it does badly, without directed prioritization and without consciously choosing the right moment.

By David Allen, 272 pages, published en 2001.

Summary and Book Report:

Let’s get right to the point: the GTD method is famous in the United States, it is a best seller and features in numerous web-based resources, whether in the form of articles to help you get things done  or software to go with it (there are over forty currently, for all platforms, and most are free!) I have also translated [into French] different articles on using it on my blog, Habitudes Zen, which allowed me to understand the method before reading the book.

The author, who has been a business management and productivity consultant for 20 years, begins by showing that the working world has evolved and that managers often have to multi-task to get several things done at once, and even if they could dedicate their whole life to it,  no doubt they would not have enough time to do things as well as they would prefer. What’s more, numerous organizations have had their internal boundaries eroded, and their effectiveness rest on endless collaboration and communications using different services – and you can no longer avoid any of the many mail services in use. Executives therefore generally need to multitask more than before. This evolution by organizations must necessarily come with new tools and new work approaches.

Imagine if you could do, if you could choose to focus completely on your tasks, without any interruptions, parasitic thoughts, daydreams and other sources of distraction, while remaining alert and in full possession of your faculties. Sound like a dream? It’s possible. David Allen recommends with his method something that martial arts practitioners call “mind like water,” or athletes call “in the zone”, a state of mind that is free from worry and totally focused on the goal you want to reach. You have no doubt already experienced it at times. Were you able to perform better, feel more satisfied with yourself and your accomplishments in that moment? David Allen recommends a system to make those moments the norm. Let’s see how.

Part One: The Art of Doing Things Well

• Chapter 1 : A New Practice for a New Reality

“Mind Like Water” is then the ideal state of mind for quiet and performance. But this state of mind is rare and we are more often stressed and distracted by multiple thing that break our concentration and scatter our efforts. Stress therefore comes from the many commitments that are given to us, and which we have not fulfilled, from “I must tidy up the garage” to “I must call Mike” to “I must finish the new marketing plan” to “I would like to visit Rome” to “I would like to spend more time with my family.” You probably have many more commitments than you think, as well as all the unresolved questions from the most important to the least important, constantly nagging at your mind and the source of much frustration and guilt.

Here is an exercise to see it more clearly: take a sheet of paper and write down the situation or project that you are thinking about the most in this moment. Then, describe in a single sentence how you would like the business to be completed. These can be very simple sentences like “Take a vacation in Spain” or “solve the situation with such and such a supplier.” Then, describe the first physical action necessary to move the situation forward. Quite simply. Do it now.

This could go something like the following:

• Spain. Take vacation in Spain. Turn on the computer and research to find a destination town.

or

• Car. Get the car serviced. Call the garage to make an appointment.

Have you done it? Great. How do you feel? If you are like most people, you will be feeling a little more confident, relaxed and focused, and you should be more motivated to go after the situation that you can barely think about right now.

Now, if this little exercise has incited a positive reaction in you, ask yourself: What changed? What has made my outlook more positive? In effect, from a concrete point of view, the situation has scarcely improved. But you have defined the most favorable outcome for the situation and the fist action necessary to get there. All this from just two minutes’ thought. It is sufficient for you to clarify your commitments, and that is the source and the method of GTD to free the mind and become more effective. Actually, the mind becomes occupied with all things you would like to be different and how they are today if:

• You have not clarified your desired result
• You have not decided on the first action to take
• You have not made a note of the desired result and the required action using a trustworthy system.

As long as you haven’t done that, you are leaving your brain to worry about continuously attacking the problems that are worrying you, as long as you have neither organized nor abandoned them. Now, the brain is not really our most judicious friend when it comes to remembering what we have to do: it reminds us in general that we need to change the batteries in the flashlight when they are dead, but not when we are in the supermarket in the battery aisle! And it constantly prompts us with reminders about our commitments when we are busy with something else and can’t do anything about them. Isn’t this a huge waste of time and energy?

The GTD method allows us to free our brain from the need to think (inefficiently) about all our commitments. To do this we just have to:

1. Identify all the tasks we have to accomplish- now or later in the day – and integrate them into a coherent and reliable system.
2. Make decisions right now about every new task that comes up.

With a clear and unencumbered mind, you can work more efficiently and free of stress.

• Chapter 2: Getting Control of Your Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow 

There are five steps to take to manage our workload:

1. Collect the subjects that grab your attention

To rid your mind of all the little worries which it is clinging to, you must be sure that you have identified them all, and you must be certain that you can review the list whenever you need to.

This is a long, but necessary, step. You must identify all the incomplete tasks and put them in an inbox. That’s it. The inbox can take different shapes according to your preference, and it must accept thereafter all new tasks. It is of paramount importance, and as it’s name implies, it is the entry point into the whole system. It can be as simple as this:

Or it could be electronic. It doesn’t really matter as long as it automatically collects all the new tasks, whatever they are, mail, email, thoughts, projects…

2. Process the subjects of the content and determine what actions are required.
3. Organize concrete actions to be taken action

David Allen recommends a simple action flowchart to deal with and organize all the tasks in your inbox (dealing actions in blue, organization actions in green)

This operational flowchart will allow you to deal with any new task immediately by integrating it into your system. One rule which alone can multiply your efficiency: if a task needs less than two minutes to complete, do it immediately.

4. Review the actions and evaluate the options

Making a note on your calendar that you need to buy milk is a good thing, remembering that when you are at the store, is even better. That’s why it’s important to regularly review all your projects at once. David Allen recommends doing a systematic weekly review which allows you to step back and see what’s next.

5. Act in keeping with the options you select

It’s about taking the steps you mapped out keeping in mind 1) the context in which you find yourself, 2) your availability, 3) your energey level (how do you rate it out of 10? What level of energy does the task require), and 4) the priorities.

• Chapter 3 : Getting Projects Creatively Underway : The Five Phases of Project Planning

To sum up, in order to reach the state of “mind like water,” you must count on some key elements:

1. Clearly defined results, and the initial steps to get there
2. Reminders (memory-joggers) integrated into a dependable system that is regularly reviewed.

This is a horizontal approach, which does wonders once it is applied. Sometimes we need a more targeted and rigorous approach to get a project on track and find a solution: that’s a vertical approach.

Rather than using complex management systems for a project like a gantt chart, or software that only a handful of specialists can use properly, the author advocates a natural planning method that is simply what we use every day without thinking and which, according to him, is more effective. It’s what you would use, for example, to organize an outing to a restaurant with friends – a project which can be broken down into hundreds of simple actions which must be done in a certain order and which you do without thinking.

Natural planning can be broken down into five steps:

1. Define the reasons and principles. The question of “why” must not be avoided. Why do it? What is the end goal?
2. Represent the results. It is important to visualize the objective so that you can more easily focus on and be motivated to accomplish it.
3. Brainstorm. Once you know what result you are trying to achieve and why you are trying to achieve it, you must figure out the the “how.” Brainstorming this, using a mind map as a guide for example, allows you to calmly consider all the possible options.
4. Get organized. Once you have found ideas and actions, you must sort them, give them an order of importance and a chronological order, and  develop the details.
5. Determine which steps to take first. The rule we discussed above means that you never have to worry about gettting tasks accomplished.

Part Two: Practicing Productivity Without Stress

• Chapter 4 : Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space and Tools

Putting any method into action is a question of tricks. Even if you don’t completely apply the GTD method, you can glean many useful tricks from it. Tricks allow you to put certain actions on automatic pilot, by moving them from the intelligent part of you to the unintelligent part of you. For example, if you have brought some files home that you absolutely must take back to the office tomorrow, before you go to sleep put them at the front door, because you know that tomorrow morning you will not be completely awake and your mind will be in a daze. Using this trick, you will never have to remember the files, even if you are not completely awake.

David Allen gives us  numerous tricks in this chapter related to managing time and space. In particular, he never treats his desk as an inbox – as is too often the case with desks that all but disappear under the piles of documents – and he tidies up his work space in an efficient and organized way.

• Chapter 5 : Collection: Corralling Your “Stuff”
• Chapter 6 : Processing: Getting “In” to Empty
• Chapter 7 : Organizing: Setting Up The Right Buckets
• Chapter 8 : Reviewing: Keeping Your System Functional
• Chapter 9 : Doing: Making The Best Action Choices
• Chapter 10 : Getting Projects Under Control

In these six chapters, David Allen details the five steps in chapter 2 and the vertical approach. I will not list them here, just know that he truly lists in depth each stage and recommends numerous tools, tricks and methods to help us integrate GTD.

Part Three: Fundamental Principles and Their Power

• Chapter 11 : The Power of the Collection Habit

Applying the GTD method allows you not only to free your mind and be more efficient, but also has numerous positive repercussions in the long term, that the author has been able to observe in his 25 years of experience.

If the people around you notice that you systematically and efficiently honor the commitments that you undertake with them, they will have a special trust in you. Improving your efficiency therefore also improves the quality of your personal and professional relationships.

How do negative emotions get started, the ones that drain you of energy and allow you to sink into a state of anxiety or depression? Is it because you are working too much? No, you always have too much work and you know it. Think of everything that is in your inbox or your drawers? What is it about? Commitments that you made to yourself. Negative feelings that you experience are born of the simple fact that you do not respect these commitments. Even if you tuck this commitment into a corner of your mind, and you forget about it, your subconscious won’t forget, and will not let you be proud of yourself. These are the symptoms of a disintegrating self esteem. To fix it, you must make a conscious effort to choose one of three solutions, for every one of your commitments:

1. Don’t accept the commitment.
2. Respect the commitment.
3. Renegotiate the commitment.

Ah yes! You must know when to refuse or abandon commitments. You will be happier if you are less demanding with yourself. And less overwhelmed if you don’t have so many personal or professional obligations. Even if you don’t subscribe to this logic, stop accepting, as David Allen did a long time ago, an unimaginable amount of commitments for the sole reason of getting the approval of others. Think before you take on new ones. Here is an article to help you reflect on your current commitments and decide which of them you should give up.

Also, think about what a team would be like if everyone depended entirely on the others for organization and management.

When a boat is full of holes and you are spending time bailing out the water, you forget to steer it.

GTD allows you to plug the holes in organizations and teams so that you can direct them better.

• Chapter 12 : The Power of the Next Action Decision

“What is the first action?”

This question, when it is fundamental and systematic, incites new energy and productivity at the individual level and at the organizational level.

Whatever the task, the project to be accomplished, the idea to be formulated, ask yourself every day what is the first action to accomplish and define it. This forces you to think – often just a few minutes or less – and you can do wonders.

• Chapter 13 : The Power of Outcome Focusing

According to Stephen Snyder, holistic approach specialist, there are only two problems in life:

1. You know what you want, but you don’t know how to get it it.
2. You don’t know what you want.

There are only two solutions:

1. Realize it
2. Imagine it

Visualizing the outcome you wish for in a positive manner and focusing on it is an excellent way to stay motivated and of concentrating your efforts on the objective.

Book Critique:

GTD is, without a doubt, an excellent system that is complete and coherent, to deal with absolutely everything with a calm mind free from every parasitic thought. In theory at least.

The method is very well explained in detail, and gives many ideas to improve daily productivity – like deciding on the first action, doing everything that takes less than two minutes, not treating your desk as an inbox – before even applying the method. It is remarkable in its intelligence and practicality; it remains to be seen what its practical application brings, and if it is easy to install and keep up. I want to try it anyway, and I will give you a report on it in a few months from now.

I have already used a derivative of the method to tidy up my office and the result is remarkable: because before my desk was my inbox and it was periodically full of several piles of paper, it is currently as empty as it is relaxing.  In it I have my computer monitor, my phone, a pen holder, a note book and a “to do” file, which serves as my inbox for the moment. Nothing else. This simple fact gives me renewed energy and serenity every time I go into my office, and for the whole day, and it was extremely easy to do and to maintain. If the rest of the GTD method is like this, I don’t dare imagine the degree of efficiency and serenity that I can get to a few months from now. Stay tuned!

So I recommend it. This book is a must-read. And the simple fact that it took 7 years to be translated into French (published in 2008) shows to what degree the French are behind what is going on in the United States in business matters, and how important it is to read books on this subject directly in English.

Strong Points:

• Complete and coherent method
• Presented in a simple manner
• Intelligent and how-to friendly

Weak Points:

• In spite of the levels of altitude defined by the author, this method will not make you more intelligent or more conscious of what you really want: you could become more efficient at something that you hate doing.

My rating:

Have you read the book? How do you rate it?

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Read More Reviews about Getting Things Done on Amazon.

Resources:

There are numerous resources on the internet about GTD. You can start with:

• David Allen’s official Site 
• Wikiepedia Article on GTD
• The many software products that go with GTD

PMBA Challenge:

Cost of the Book:	€ 20.81
Total Cost of the Project:	€ 84.40
Number of Pages:	272
Total Number of Pages:	972
Reading Time:	4H
Time to Write this Article:	4H
Total Project Time:	30H 40

Buy this book on Amazon:

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One-Sentence Summary : To succeed in life you can’t just count on luck and circumstances; you must find hidden nuggets inside yourself rather than trapsing around the world in vain looking for them, have goals and desires and define them clearly, have an attitude that sets you up for success and love yourself, use your brain as a resource for reflection every day, understand that our rewards in life always correspond to the services we deliver, learn without ceasing and continue to grow, develop your vocabulary and mastery of language, leave the flock to act on your own, understand your value and the value of several tens of millions of euros, clearly define the amount of money you want to earn, economize or invest and save for your retirement, have a personal library that is rich and relevant, do your best every day and, one by one, accomplish the tasks that will lead you to be successful in your goals, specialize in something; then you will be in the top 5% of humanity who find themselves at the top of the success pyramid — whatever that is.

By Earl Nightingale, 102 pages, published in 2007 (book) and in 1986 (audio cassette)

Summary and Book Report:

I am not going to write a biography – even a short one – for all the authors in my PMBA challenge, but Earl Nightingale seems to be a rather interesting personality, and atypical enough to warrant an exception:

Earl Nightingale is a famous orator in the United States, and an example of what self education can do for someone who starts out with plenty of things going against him. Born in 1921, raised by his mother who was left alone with his two brothers, he grew up in a poor Los Angeles suburb in the middle of the depression. Wishing to understand why some people are poor and miserable and others are not, and not finding anyone in his acquaintance who could answer, he began his quest for answers and knowledge in the local library, which would lead him particularly to a study of philosophy, psychology and the great religions for decades. After the war, during which he survived, with 12 marines, an attack on the battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor (1103 dead out of 1511 crew members), he worked in radio and created one of the first audio books, The Strangest Secret, which is a best seller and sold more than a million copies. He went on to found, with Lloyd Conant, the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, the first company to offer audio cassettes about personal development. He died in 1989.

Lead the field is a collection of advice about personal development, originally only offered in audio format. Fortunately, a book offering an exact transcription was recently published, which allowed me to read it and to offer you a review of it today – it is a lot harder for me to understand spoken English than written, and while audio books have undeniable advantages, such as being able to do other things while you read them, and use the time in transit or traveling for self improvement, I much prefer a good book when it comes to soaking up knowledge, reflecting and taking notes. I love to write post-it notes which I stick on the paragraphs that speak to me – difficult to do that with an audio CD.

In this book, which is enthusiastic and brimming with energy, Earl Nightingale insists on the fact that success in life is not due to luck and circumstances, but to principles based on good sense and habits that are easy to acquire on the condition that you practice them every day. I will paint you a panoramic, chapter by chapter:

• Introduction

Our daily environment is a merciless reflection of ourselves. Everyone we meet and come into contact with every day will always react in response to our attitude. And we can control this attitude, every morning when we start our day. If we are cheerful, happy and enjoy the miracle of life, others will return this cheerfulness and good humor. We will be the kind of person that others like to have around them. Test it: treat each person that you come in contact with as the most important person on earth. You will quickly see the difference that it creates.

• Acres of Diamonds

In the 19th century, an African farmer heard stories about the success of other farmers who had made millions by discovering diamond mines. Excited by the prospect, he sold his farm and took off in search of diamonds, a long and fruitless search that left him alone and penniless in the end. He threw himself into a river and drowned. The man who bought the farm noticed a blue and red shiny stone one day at the bottom of a brook, he picked it up and, finding it very pretty, he placed it on the mantle. Some days later, a visitor picked it up, went pale and told the farmer that the stone he had picked up was an enormous diamond. The farmer, astounded, told the visitor that his brook was full of stones like that. The farm that the first farmer had sold to go in search of diamonds, turned out to be one of the most productive diamond mines on the African continent. He had sold it for a mouthful of bread to search elsewhere for something that was in front of his nose. He would have known that had he taken the time to prepare himself and to learn what a diamond in the rough looks like.

What does that tell you? That we all have diamond fields, we only have to recognize them and exploit them. All you need is the patience and wisdom to explore intelligently and effectively the work you are already doing. Everything we do is rich with opportunity. But the opportunities don’t glow in the dark, are are not written on neon signs. In order to spot them you have to look with new eyes. All too often we don’t question what already exists because if millions of people are doing it, it must be the best way to do it. But it’s not the best way; its the average, ordinary way.

To put it into practice: Begin by taking an hour a day with a notebook to sketch out your work. Try to see with new eyes and examine all the ingredients. Opportunities are there – fields of diamonds.

• A Worthy Destination

The United states is overflowing with immigrants who come here to escape appalling conditions in their countries, who all started over from nothing with everything against them – without wealth, without knowing the language, without material possessions – and who have succeeded in a remarkably short amount of time. And this was a wonderful experience for them filled with happiness. Why? Because freedom is the most precious thing – and the most rare – on earth. By coming to the United States, they have been able to taste it and intoxicate themselves on something that is taken for granted by most Americans.

So it is with all our desires: once we have realized them, enjoying them on a daily basis becomes something we take for granted, and they lose a great deal of their interest and their magic. It is desire, more than realizing desire, that makes us happy. Children are happiest on Christmas morning when the wrapped presents await them under the tree than once the surprise and the suspense is over; we are happier going to the restaurant than coming home; happier when we are leaving on vacation than when we return. And we are happier when we are pursuing our goals relentlessly than when we have reached them.

Success is the progressive accomplishment of an objective that is worth the effort. Success lies in the journey towards the objective – the desire – rather than the objective itself – the accomplishment.

Don’t let’s waste our resources and our precious and limited time on useless objectives. Let’s define worthwhile objectives. According to Earl Nightingale, only 5% of the population succeed in attaining success that is out of the ordinary. For the rest, average is a good thing.

Therefore it is important to set worthwhile goals, and to set more once you reach them. Every day of our lives we should be engaged, advancing, and learning and looking out for higher heights from which to set out again. But in order to do so you must know what you want.

You will become whatever you think of yourself.

• Miracles of Your Mind

We are the only species on earth to be endowed with the power to shape our lives in accordance with images we see in our mind. Everything that has been done by humans is the result of following goals and objectives.

On a more individual level, everything we have – our work, our relationships with our family and others, our philosophy of life – is the result of the use we have put our mind to.

Now, scientists think that we use on average only 10% of our brain’s capacity. If everything you have accomplished up until now is thanks to only 10% of your brain, what do you think we could achieve if we were to use 20%?

Note: I am not in agreement with this statement by the author:  the fact that we are using 10% or less of our brain is a rehash of an old idea first presented by American psychologist William James in 1908 and does not really reflect what we know today about how the brain works. Look here and there for more information. I do, however, agree with the general idea: "we do not think enough."

Now, unfortunately, schools do not teach us to think, and it is by thinking that we will find creative solutions for how to make better use of our brain and its awesome power.

There is a simple way to make better use of our brain: every day, take a piece of paper, write at the top our primary objective, then write underneath all the ideas that come into our head to help up reach this goal. Do this for an hour. We can easily come up with about 20 ideas a day on paper. Some of these ideas won’t be feasible, or practical, but even if we only do this 5 days a week, 40 weeks a year, we will have 4,000 ideas at our disposal to help us reach our goals. And this will only have taken us 200 hours, out of 8,760. If we subtract about 2,920 hours for sleep, and about 1,645 hours for work, that leaves us 3,995 leisure hours. Never in the history of humanity have we had so much time to devote to things other than work. Using 5% of our supplemental free time to think could completely change our lives: a single big idea could revolutionize our work or our entire lives. One out of 4,000. Or 40,000 – one big idea every 10 years would be more than enough!

• Destiny in the Balance

Our rewards in life are always in accordance with the services we perform. It is a universal and general law, the law of cause and effect. Services include our thoughts, our work, our actions, our words.

Before looking for rewards, we must reflect upon our services and improve them. This law appears simple and yet it is, for the most part, misunderstood and ignored by all. There are so many people who lean against a mantle where the fire has gone out in a freezing room and say "Give me a light and I will put wood on the fire." People whine because they receive bad service or bad treatment – when the problem comes from their service to themselves, which is not worthy of the rewards they expect.

Rather than worrying about what the future will bring, we would be better off using our wasted energy to find and improve our services – to improve ourselves – by thinking of the best ways to do so. But so many people will do I don’t know what in this world, even resorting to crime, before they will THINK.

• Seed for Achievement

The seed for achievement is integrity. Integrity is honesty and truth, with others and with yourself. If we are at peace with ourselves, we cannot be false towards others. If our words carry integrity, our sleep will not be troubled and we will respected everywhere we go.

There is nothing we cannot accomplish if we live by this principle from the inside out. To be honest with oneself implies taking responsibility to use what we have to the utmost. And what we have, our under-utilized mind, our abilities, our talents and our time. These are our possessions, which we carry with us everywhere, which represent a huge fortune. It is the investment of this fortune which determines our return on investment. It is what makes us autonomous human beings, even though most people are not aware of this.

In order to respect our integrity, and be honest and true to ourselves, we must do our best in every circumstance, therefore. Life is  a piece of fertile land which is waiting for us to sow our seeds in it. It cannot return anything if you don’t plant it. 

• It’s Easier to Win

Only 5% of people succeed in reaching an unusual goal. These are the people that earn the highest salaries, who live in the best part of town, the most comfortable houses, have the best education, the good things of life, and make the greatest contribution to their communities. 

The average man, or average woman, grows up imitating their environment. They think like all their friends think. They  take the life they live for granted. Everyone they like is in the same group. They are in this group as well, and as long as they are not unusually motivated to leave it, they will become an indistinguishable member of it. They do this because it is natural to do it. The group’s objectives, or lack of objectives, become their own. It requires their minimum ability all the years of their life. It is not necessary, because all the industrialized countries are so rich and dynamic that the majority of people don’t need to shift into second or third gear to reach a decent standard of living.

No-one has ever told this young man or this young woman: "Look. There are two very different groups in our society. There are different layers in the socio-economic pyramid. Here is the 5% at the top of the pyramid. Now, this is what we call the middle class, and it is divided into two main groups. And at the bottom you find the lower class, those who, for innumerable reasons, need help from everyone else. Now, look: we are living here, at this level of the pyramid. It is neither the highest, nor the lowest in society. That is where I wanted to be, and your mother and I are perfectly happy here. And where do you want to be?"

Where do you want to be?

People who succeed follow an independent path. At some moment in their life they decide to leave the cocoon of their social group and set out on their own path. And it is easier to win there. There is less competition higher up.

Note : this description of the levels of society seems to me simplistic and relevant at the same time. It is clear that Earl Nightingale is interested in sociology. To learn more, I invite you to begin by researching the Wikipedia article on social classes.

• How Much Are You Worth

Every human life is priceless, but the tangible and intangible payments that we receive in life vary a great deal. We are all unique, but what are the services that we offer?

Think of yourself as a company. You are the president of the company, and you are responsible for its success or failure. You and the members of your family are shareholders in the company, and it is your responsibility to increase the value of the shares year after year. Your family has faith in you and invests a great deal in you, and it’s up to you to prove that their faith is justified.

A complicated company can be divided into four departments: 1) financial; 2) production; 2) sales; and 4) research. Take away one of these ingredients and the company is destined more or less to failure in the long run. Don’t neglect these four parameters for ourselves.

Research is the most commonly ignored operation. You would be surprised by the enormous number of people who stop learning once school is over. Other than company manuals and technical documentation, they read only a very small number of books of any real value. Well, knowledge is power.

• Let’s Talk About Money

Someone who has specialized skills in our society is worth more money than a person with basic skills that can be easily replaced. That doesn’t mean that he is more important from a strictly humanistic point of view, just that his services are better paid. A janitor is just as important from a human point of view as a neurosurgeon, but he is more easily replaced – anyone can be trained to clean floors in a few days or weeks – while a neurosurgeon has spent many years learning his profession, often at the price of great personal sacrifice and at great expense, and he cannot be easily replaced. Thus the neurosurgeon can earn more in a day that the janitor makes in a year.

Therefore, what we earn is related to what we can give and what is asked. But how much do you want to earn?

There are two steps to reach the level of income that we want:

1. Decide how much money we really want, the exact amount.
2. Once you have made the decision, you must forget about money and concentrate on improving what we are doing and the services we offer.

• One Thing You Can’t Hide

Knowledge intelligently applied is power, and everyone needs knowledge – and in this information age, to an unprecedented degree  in the history of humanity. A person’s degree of ignorance will determine his place in the world. Everyone is born ignorant, and must, for a moment, live in ignorance, but all those who remain ignorant can only blame themselves.

People who are the top 5% of the pyramid are those who know the most. They have a better command of the language and send their children to the best schools than most of the population. This might seem surprising, but a correlation exists between the quality of your spoken language, and the number of words you know, with your social and economic success. Actually a good command of the language is an asset in every aspect of your life; language immediately reveals certain things about us, and notably our socio-cultural level and where we belong on the social pyramid. Language indicates the social status to which we belong.

 Reader’s Digest published an article by Blake Clarke entitleld "Words can work wonders for you," in which he reports on a scientific study of 350,000 people showing a surprising correlation between vocabulary levels and richness of language and economic and social success. So it is important to develop your vocabulary and to use language that is varied, accurate and relevant.

Note : I was not able to find this article, but it seems that Reader’s Digest has published numerous versions – at least 8 – of this book (which is not actually an article) from 1972 to 1985. It seems that the book has been re-edited since the 80s. Look here and there for more information.

In any case, it seems obvious to me that the choice of words and their richness are important to effective communication. I am getting a lot out of batting around this old idea, taught in various courses around world – often by NLP practitioners who look no further than the end of their nose – according to which words only account for 7% of a conversation (followed by 38% for your voice, and 55% for gestures and facial expressions.) These figures come from a study in the 70s by Albert Mehrabian, an American psychologist. He explains, in one sentence on his web page touting the merits of his book "Silent Messages — A Wealth of Information About Nonverbal Communication (Body Language)", that "Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable." What seems to be more important, in fact, is the coherence between words, voice and gestures. To learn more, I invite you to read this PDF "Impact of non verbal communication on commercial relationships" (French) I will quote the most interesting passage on this subject:

However Mehrabian’s numbers have been called "exaggerated and suspect," by non verbal language specialists such as Judee Burgoon, David Buller and Gill Woodall. The saying: "it’s not what you say that counts; it’s the way that you say it" is a half truth, according to these specialists. Their analysis of over 100 studies showed that Mehrabian’s research minimizes the importance of words. The relative impact of non verbal and verbal language depends on the context of the meeting. In reality, the degree of persuasion necessary considerably influences the impact of the two different types of language in one’s delivery. For example, when it is an important presentation (argument, conference..) the distribution of impact sources is reversed. Body language goes from 55% to 32%, tone of voice from 38% to 15% and the message (words) goes from 7% to 53% of the impact.

Therefore, it is important to develop your knowledge in the general area that naturally interests us. We are all interested in something. Read books to learn more about that subject area, but also for fun. Begin a systematic study in your field of interest.

Finally, a personal quality library is essential for success.

• Today’s Greatest Adventure

A life is made up of days which become weeks, months, and years. Let’s reduce that to the least common denominator: one day, and finally one task in that day.

This day is a brick which you use to build your house. Sometimes we see a builder start to build a wall, brick by brick, and we think of the amount of work left for him to do. And then one day, some weeks or some months later,  a whole house is standing in the place where the builder was working.

Thus it is in our lives: if we place each of our stones successfully, we will be able to build a magnificent tower. To get in the habit of success, the only thing to do is succeed in the little tasks that we assign ourselves each day.

Try out this idea that was purchased for $25.00: "Every day, write down on a piece of paper 6 important tasks for that day. Then rate them in order of importance. Then do them, one by one. If you don’t get to the last ones, let it be because you would not have been able to do it at all."

This method will allow you to stop worrying about tomorrow. You can relax happy in the knowledge that successful tasks means successful days and that makes a successful life.

• The Person on the White Horse

It is important that we are the leaders in our own lives, and also that our services are so important and irreplaceable that others come to us for them. For that, we must specialize and become believable in a specific area of our work. Become a vital part of the organization which we are in.

Book Critique:

Lead the field is a collection of  extremely relevant advice for succeeding in life, as you can see from this summary. It lacks the spirited system of a Personal Development for Smart People, but I think you can say that of all books since the release of Steve Pavlina’s little book. 

The majority of the advice is practical, easy to apply and has the potential to change our lives. I think that I will start with the main advice in chapter Miracles of Your Mind and put my ideas down on paper, every day of the week. Several years ago, I learned to play the guitar by getting up half an hour earlier every day, I think that I will do the same thing now, to think and have ideas.

Finally, this book is absolutely excellent, with very few weak points – Earl Nightingale touts his other audio products a bit too much for my taste, and he makes one mistake about the level of brain function – but an enormous number of strong points. A must read.

Strong Points:

• A lot of practical, relevant and easy to use advice.
• "Written" very simply

Weak Points::

• A little too much advertising on the company’s audio products.

My rating :

Have you read the book? How do you rate it?

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One Sentence Summary : Our society does not put enough emphasis on our strengths, yet knowing and developing them is extremely important for our success and our happiness; Strengths Finder 2.0 lets you discover precisely what they are and work on them to help you become a better you.

by Tom Rath, 175 pages, published in 2007.

Summary and Book Report :

This book is not like other books. First, you are probably only going to read a little bit of it. Then, because it lets you take a psychology test on line that is going to figure out your five predominant strengths from 34 possible strengths, and give you 10 actions for each of these strengths to allow you to exercise it and develop it to its full potential.

The author, a Director of the Gallup Poll company, begins by presenting his vision for personal development: for him, it’s better to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. Yet our society in general puts the emphasis on what it takes to overcome our weaknesses, which according to him, is an enormous waste of time and energy.

According to Tom Rath, if we don’t work in a sector or domaine that allows us to use our strengths, it is likely that we:

• Don’t enjoy going to work
• Have more negative than positive interactions with our coworkers
• Don’t treat our customers very well
• Tell our friends that our lot in life is not very interesting
• Do less on a daily basis
• Have fewer positive and creative moments in our life

Tom Rath tells us that he thinks it is stupid to focus on our weaknesses rather than our strengths. For him, the result is the product of a simple equation: talent x work = results. Using a scale of 1 to 5, let’s suppose that you are working feverishly in an area in which you are naturally mediocre. The result will be 2 x 5 = 10. Now, if you work hard, but not pushing yourself too hard, in an area in which you are naturally gifted, the result will be 5 x 4 = 20.

Thus, the American saying "You can be anything you want to be, if you work hard enough" is bad advice. Not everyone can become an NBA star or a football star, even if they work really hard. The success of American basketball star, Michael Jordan is the product of an innate talent and working with a passion. His talents were particularly well adapted to basketball: when he wanted to turn to golf, that was another story…

But in order to work on your strengths, you must first identify them.

The objective of the book, which is above all an entry key to the online questionnaire which compares our responses to a base of 10 million people who have replied and who have been analyzed, is to determine our strengths (of this 10 million, we are assured that approximately 7 million of them have not had the chance to work or to concentrate on what they do best).

So you read the first 30 pages of the book, move on to the online questionnaire in about 40 minutes, then you can get the results: the practice pages for each of your strengths, described in the book in a static way, just like they were in version 1, and in an interactive way in the PDF, which is automatically generated, which is to say that the description of each of your strengths will be influenced by your other four strengths, which therefore gives a very personalized report. Each strength is accompanied by ten suggested actions to develop it, and advice to interact with someone who is gifted with a certain strength, which you may or may not possess yourself.

Book Critique:

Of all the psychology tests of this type that I have taken, Strengths Finder seems to me to be the most relevant and it especially gave me precise and concrete information which immediately changed my way of perceiving certain things and my way of doing certain things.

My 5 strengths are:

• Learner (Ability to learn)
• Ideation (Ability to conceptualize)
• Intellection (Ability to understand)
• Input (Ability to accumulate knowledge)
• Significance (A great capacity for leadership, ambition, to help or influence others)

These 5 strengths seemed to me to be extremely relevant given what I am doing.

Broadly speaking, the outcome of this is that I am someone with an important ability for learning and memorization. What’s more, I am then able to link this knowledge together to better understand it and to pull out concepts from it that help me in my ambitions. Further, the act of learning, is in itself very important to me, not only what I learn.

This book made me aware that what I was taking for ordinary characteristics of my personality are in fact the strengths that I should work on. Or rather, I realized with unprecedented clarity that these aspects are strengths that only need to be worked and reworked.

I read this book three or four months ago, and out of my research to find a project that allowed me to use my strengths came, in part, the idea for this crazy challenge. I also realized (and this is part of my Learner and Input strengths) that I read really fast compared with most readers and I retain and understand what I read very well.

I have read an average of 50 books a year for years (I kept an accurate count this year and I am at 34 in this 41st week of the year) on a variety of subjects. This has allowed me to cultivate a solid knowledge base.

But when I considered all my strengths, this act of reading about various subject areas seemed like poor training for a group of muscles: what would happen if I combined all my strengths and used them to focus on a single goal, to read only books grouped under a general subject, in order to multiply the effects of my Ideation and Intellection strengths, rather than spread them out?

One of my reasons for taking on this project was to answer this question

In order to show you the level of detail in the test, here, by way of example, is the point about my Ideation strength:

• Ideation

People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Instinctively, you might handle whatever tasks come your way in the course of the day. Mind-numbing routines, processes, paperwork, or production lines sometimes bore you. On the other hand, you may thrive in environments where you must deal with unexpected requests, unanticipated problems, or changing priorities. Being somewhat flexible, you might enjoy creating solutions as needs arise.

Perhaps you think a bit better and accomplish a bit more when your ability to respond to situations on a moment’s notice is acknowledged, used, and appreciated. By nature, you have a rich vocabulary upon which to draw. The words you choose often expand and challenge your listeners’ or readers’ thinking.

Because of your strengths, you favor conversations where information, facts, or data are considered objectively — that is, emotions do not distort the truth.

You pose questions, evaluate answers, and figure out how things work. Reducing an idea, theory, or process to its most basic parts provides you with many insights. You are likely to archive — that is, preserve — your discoveries so you can use them later.

It’s very likely that you usually contribute more innovative ideas to group discussions than most people do. You actually help strangers, newcomers, or outsiders feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. You welcome their fresh ideas. Why? They often stimulate everyone’s thinking, including your own. Chances are good that you relish conversations with people whose vocabulary is as sophisticated as their thinking.

Discussing philosophies, theories, or concepts is exhilarating. You do not have to translate this or that word or explain the basic points of a complex thought. You love to ask questions and be readily understood. As engaged as you are in the dialogue, you still make a point of pulling together insights so you can use this knowledge later.

Ideas for action :

• Seek a career in which you will be given credit for and paid for your ideas, such as marketing, advertising, journalism, design, or new product development.
• You are likely to get bored quickly, so make some small changes in your work or home life. Experiment. Play mental games with yourself. All of these will help keep you stimulated.
• Finish your thoughts and ideas before communicating them. Lacking your Ideation talents, others might not be able to "join the dots" of an interesting but incomplete idea and thus might dismiss it.
• Not all your ideas will be equally practical or serviceable. Learn to edit your ideas, or find a trusted friend or colleague who can "proof" your ideas and identify potential pitfalls.
• Understand the fuel for your Ideation talents: When do you get your best ideas? When you’re talking with people? When you’re reading? When you’re simply listening or observing? Take note of the circumstances that seem to produce your best ideas, and recreate them.
• Schedule time to read, because the ideas and experiences of others can become your raw material for new ideas. Schedule time to think, because thinking energizes you.
• You are a natural fit with research and development; you appreciate the mindset of visionaries and dreamers. Spend time with imaginative peers, and sit in on their brainstorming sessions.
• Partner with someone with strong Analytical talents. This person will question you and challenge you, therefore strengthening your ideas.
• Sometimes you lose others’ interest because they cannot follow your abstract and conceptual thinking style. Make your ideas more concrete by drawing pictures, using analogies or metaphors, or simply explaining your concepts step by step.
• Feed your Ideation talents by gathering knowledge. Study fields and industries different from your own. Apply ideas from outside, and link disparate ideas to generate new ones

I personally find therefore that Strengths Finder is an extremely relevant and interesting book, that can be read in a remarkably short time and that can none the less change your life by making you aware with uncanny accuracy of your strengths, which you can transform with some work

Strong points:

• Concise
• Relevant
• Test results finely tuned to you personally
• Gives you 50 concrete actions to improve yourself, that you can put into practice from day one.

Weak points:

• It’s possible that not everyone will find the results relevant, whether because it questions what you believe about yourself, whether because the test is wrong, whether you were not in a good mood, etc. I offered this book to one of my employees and he told me that he found the results somewhat "classic." But that’s a common complaint with numerous psychology tests.

So how do you like your job? Do you think you are able to use your talents? If you have read this book, what are your strengths? Take the survey and give it your review in the comments !

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My score :

Have you read this book? How do you rate it?

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One Sentence Summary: Reading fast is a professional and personal asset, it is possible to improve your reading speed significantly by using various techniques and methods, like the use of guides (cards, fingers, pens…) or skimming, scanning and skipping … and plenty of others.

by Abby Marks Beale, 200 pages, published in 2001.

Summary and Book Report:

The first book of my personal challenge! It’s the first one on the PMBA list because it will supposedly increase our reading speed significantly. I am already a good reader with an average of 400 words per minute and a retention rate of almost 90%.

The author ranks readers in the following way:

But do you know your reading speed? I can offer you a way to measure it: click on the "start" button below, and read the rest of this article at your normal reading speed. When you are done, click the "stop" button at the end of the article.

This book made me realize that everyone reads at a different speed. I made 17 of my friends take the test (yes, really), here are the results:

As you can see, there are two important groups : one group of average readers with 200 to 250 wpm, and another group of good or excellent readers with more than 300 wpm. This survey was only done on a small sample, but it demonstrates that there is a large variation in reading speed between different people.

Obviously, and this is where the author begins, reading fast is an asset in life, and perhaps even more so if you are a student; in the same amount of time, a reader with 400 wpm can read two books and his buddy with 200 wpm can only read one. You can easily imagine what a difference that can make at the end of a single school year.

And even after graduation, there are so many situations -  apart from books – where knowing how to read quickly and grasp essential knowledge is an asset: if you need to read a report, or a magazine, or documents, or brochures or whatever else whether for work or for personal reasons.

At work, you will get the edge over a slower reader by accumulating more knowledge when preparing a meeting, for example (again, you will need to correctly process the knowledge you get), and in your personal life by saving time every time you read, allowing you to stay informed, or to relax more.

The book is supposed to increase your reading speed. It is divided into 10 chapters, designed to be read in as many days (but you can obviously read it faster, as I did),  all built around a comparison with driving a racing car.

The recommended techniques can be divided primarily into five different categories:

• Challenge the ideas and concepts, which were valid when you learned to read, but no longer apply, to read every word, that you shouldn’t use your fingers or anything else to guide you, etc. This is the main theme of chapter 1.
• Guides: Every chapter teaches a new one. The idea is to guide your eyes with something. This might be your fingers, a business card, a piece of paper, etc. This allows you to force your eyes to go where you want them to, and at the speed you want.
• Everything that has to do with concentration, with your environment, and to the reasons why you are reading. Asking yourself simply "what am I expecting from this book? What do I want to find out? What am I going to do with this new knowledge? " allows you to choose and retain more easily what is important.
• Adapt to what you are reading and the content: you don’t read a novel, a newspaper or a technical manual in the same way.
• The techniques allow you to determine what not to read: skim, scan and skip.

Every chapter recommends a text for you to determine your reading speed and your retention rate. This allows you to track your progress.

Book Critique:

Strong Points:

• Makes you understand that different people have different reading speeds.
• Makes you understand clearly the importance of knowing how to read fast and well (with a good retention rate).
• Provides numerous techniques: everyone needs to figure out which ones suit them and work well for them.
• Every chapter includes a test to measure your progress.

Weak Points:

• The techniques, methods and tricks become repetitive throughout the chapters.
• I don’t think a good or excellent reader will significantly improve their reading speed with this book.

Elapsed Time:

What is your reading speed? Answer to the poll and Share your comments with us!

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My rating :(for good or excellent readers)

(for average or slow readers)

Read more reviews about 10 Days to Faster Reading on Amazon.

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