Self Development

Is it possible to purchase through the

Is it possible to purchase through the Amazon.co.uk website and pay in GB£. Your link takes you to the amazon.com site and i would need to pay in US$ and i do not have a US$ credit card?

Mark: Write the book! Then, sell me

Mark:

Write the book! Then, sell me 15 copies for me and my directs.

Keep on rockin'!

Jeff

Jeff- I hear you! I am working on

Jeff-

I hear you! I am working on it, I promise. Some interesting Manager Tools history: several years ago, this whole thing started because Mike said, "we gotta share this stuff with more people." Well, for a long time, because both Mike and I thought I was a good writer, we figured the right vehicle was text of some sort.

THEN we discovered that the reason we liked my writing is because I take my time and really agonize over it. It's the only area of my life that I know of where I've got some serious perfectionism going on.

It wasn't until podcasting gave us a more immediate vehicle for delivery that we really hit our stride. Frankly, we've said all this stuff so many times, talking about it seems easy.

So, the book is a little slower. Though the show notes are going to end up as the rough drafts of a few chapters, that's for sure.

I promise the manager tools community will know before everyone else when the book gets done!

Thanks for the encouragement and the pre-order - you're the first!

It's a privilege to serve you.

Mark

Could you please repeat the link to the

Could you please repeat the link to the web where are available podcast interesting and cited in your discussion ?
Thanks

What's the latest on the "Horstman

What's the latest on the "Horstman principles for middle manager sanity" book? (catchy subtitle, don't you think?) I'm with Waller: another dozen for me when it comes out! Keep up the great work!
Rob

Rob- Thanks for the reminder. I

Rob-

Thanks for the reminder. I swear I am working on it! I'm not crying, but it's the first time I've done it, so I'm not very good at it. I dread an editor making changes. I once had a senior government official (okay, very very senior) take a pen to one of the speeches I had written him, and I coughed. He looked at me with eyes raised and said, "what?" And I said, "well, mine's better." He won. (And he was right, too.)

Thank you for the encouragement. Were it not for these notes, I wouldn't be making the time.

Mark

Mark/Mike - Thanks. Your practical and

Mark/Mike - Thanks. Your practical and direct approach is both refreshing and enlightening. I really appreciate the site and the podcasts, even though I get caught up in them and have lost a little sleep since discovering them last week.
I really hope the book will come to fruition in the near future - I'd love to read it. I am just a lowly sales guy hoping to pick up nuggets to better my career. I haven't been to business school, have no direct reports and make less than $80k. So I am probably not a typical listener, but the casts have still been relevant and very useful. Thanks for all of your efforts.

-Troy

Troy- Thanks for the kind words.

Troy-

Thanks for the kind words. One of our unspoken goals is to "help" people lose sleep.

We're not really sure there IS a typical (in terms of demographics) listener, but you ARE an example of a member whom we consider critical. What would most organizations be like if BEFORE folks became managers, they learned what to do? Now THAT would be a great legacy for MT.

Glad you're with us!

Mark

What is the liklihood there'll be a

What is the liklihood there'll be a sales-oriented podcast any time soon? Sales management i.e...

Troy- We don't have a sales-specific

Troy-

We don't have a sales-specific cast in the near term queue. One thing I can suggest is to go visit some folks Mike and I know at The SalesRoundup Podcast. They have a regular cast focused completely on sales, and we like their stuff.

Someday we'll have one... but not this year.

Mark

Thanks so much. You guys are

Thanks so much. You guys are excellent.

On your recommendation I purchased Tom

On your recommendation I purchased Tom Friedman's ' The World is Flat'. It wasn't a hard decision having read ' The Lexus and the Olive Tree' and ' Longitudes and Attitudes'. You are absolutely spot on in calling it one of the best business books. It is particularly interesting if you are a parent with kids heading into the world of work in the next few years. It provides insights into the exciting future they will face.
The question I have for you is whether you think Corporate America is moving quickly enough to embrace the changes?

NAChapman- Glad you like TWIF. It's

NAChapman-

Glad you like TWIF. It's truly a classic.

Corporate America is hard to get a handle on overall on something like this. Some companies are leading the way, and some are stuck in the 19th century. The great thing about capitalism is that market forces will sort them out.

And, in America anyway, our history is not necessarily to adopt to macro trends the most quickly, but rather to be slow initially and then to significantly catch up. This is possible through the dynamism of available individual rewards and capital.

Whatever happens, it will be great fun to watch.

Mark

Just listened to this podcast today -

Just listened to this podcast today - did I hear this right: Mark reads 200 books a year?? That is truely amazing! Can I get 3 tips for reading faster? I don't watch TV, so I got that one covered from the podcast. I would love to be able to read 50 books a year. I do listen to a lot of books on tape, but hard to find management or IT books in this department other than some of the recent stuff. Also, 200 books is good amount of $$. Any suggestions for keeping the price down?

Thoughts?

Yes, I read 200 books a year. To be

Yes, I read 200 books a year. To be candid, I never thought it was a big deal until I mentioned it in a speech several years ago, and got inundated with questions like yours.

I do have some suggestions, but they aren't specific to reading faster.

1. TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISION.

2. Decide to read that many books a year. It's very helpful to know that you have a couple of days to finish. This helped my speed. I skipped some sections that seemed unnecessary - this was VERY hard for me.

3. It doesn't hurt to be a fast reader, and there are some comments about this in a thread called "Reading Skills" in the General category in our Discussion Forums. I did a test (it's easy - just time yourself and count) and I am a very fast reader, I admit, though I HATED speed reading.

http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=82

3. Have a book or books with you always. I travel with several, even on short trips. When Sony's e-reader comes out, I will buy, in hopes that my purchase will stimulate content providers to port them over. This will stop the FRUSTRATION of having no unread books with me because I couldn't carry any more.

4. Read at work at lunch. Take an hour, get away from your desk, and read.

5. READ EVERY NIGHT.

6. Turn off your TV. :-))

7. NEVER use books on tape. WAY TOO SLOW. I resisted podcasting initially because of my BOT experience, until I realized that I could distill an entire book's worth of knowledge into 30 minutes if I focused on WHAT TO DO. So, I'm not against learning this way, but not a whole book. (And I'll hide a surprise here for you: good luck trying to find other podcasts that are as rich in value as ours is. I keep trying, and find most (all so far) to be incredibly light on utility and FULL of irrelevant chatter.)

If you're thinking BOT is good for commuting, fair... but you won't get to 200 books that way, nor probably 50. Use commuting for staying in touch with people - get on the phone. (I have no commute, but this is what I did when I did drive to work.)

8. Read quickly initially, and then re-read if you feel so compelled.

Regarding price...USE YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Full disclosure: I do not. I live in a small town, and they don't easily get the business books I want. My brother Walt in Charlotte uses his all the time, and saves a great deal of money. I think this is very smart if it will work for you. You are losing NOTHING by waiting on a book... the vast majority of managers DO NOT READ.

Books and reading are my hobby, so I spend a lot of money on them, I admit. A LOT. I don't like cars, I don't have nice "things" in my life beyond a really good laptop and an expensive phone - Treo 700p - which is so helpful to my life I'd give up my car before I gave up my phone.

Amazon likes me a LOT. And I write them all off, too...

And I hate to say it, but remember that I also read the Wall Street Journal every day, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review (which is slow going but an absolute delight every time).

"The man who can read and doesn't is indistinguishable from the man who can't."

It's a privilege.

Mark

Mark you wrote >I do have some

Mark

you wrote

>I do have some suggestions, but they aren’t specific to reading faster.

>1. TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISION.

>2. Decide to read that many books a year. It’s very helpful to know that you have a couple of days to finish. This helped my speed. I skipped some sections that seemed unnecessary - this was VERY hard for me.

May I add a step 1a

write the book

sorry this is a bit on the late side

I've been working through a backlog of podcasts MT first MT subscribers later

thanks for the most insightful media I've ever come across

-Ian

Ian- Thanks for the great note! We

Ian-

Thanks for the great note! We try very hard to be insightful.

I promise, I'm writing the book. I'll be giving monthly updates on the site.

Mark

My wife and I have learned a tremendous

My wife and I have learned a tremendous amount about our communication style(s) through listening to these DISC podcasts. I'm a "C" and she's an "I". Keep up the good work! Just listened to the anniversary podcast and am interested in the DISC tool and the interviewer kit!

-Kevin

--
Even a blind squirrel occasionally stumbles over a nut.

Kevin- Ahhh, marital communications!

Kevin-

Ahhh, marital communications! Just remember, DiSC only gets you 25% of the way there in a marriage. Love is the answer at home.

Thanks for the kind words. We really love doing all this for everyone.

Mark

Mark Do you know when the subscription

Mark
Do you know when the subscription service will become available and how do we register please

Good example of a reading regimen

Here is an excellent example of someone who has a plan for what he reads: 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/21/screening-the-news/ 

Your choices might vary (although the WSJ is non-optional!) but the discipline and intentionality is spot on.  

John Hack

HBR Book Mentioned

Is the "red" HBR Book mentioned in the show part of the "HBR's Must-Reads Library Set" ?

http://hbr.org/product/hbr-s-must-reads-library-set/an/5735BN-BUN-ENG

Sincerely,
Chris
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