Tag Archives: Books

New Book–The Mentor Leader

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I’ve been reading this new book for the last few weeks called The Mentor Leader by Tony Dungy.  I know Cliff and Liam will know who Tony Dungy is as they are big NFL fans. Tony Dungy is a Super Bowl winning coach but is also known for his dedication to his players and his mentoring work. 

I was actually pretty excited to start this book as it’s a bit different from the regular success books I read because of the author’s background in athletics.  I’m also excited because I love reading books on mentorship as that’s the kind of business we are in. 

There is a great quote about half way through that I’ve heard in many other books but really stood out in this book.

“I think we all should be looking for ways to improve, ways to grow. Mentors can help us do that, and we, in turn can help others the same way.  Two of the greatest influences in our lives will be the people we associate with and the books or other media we read or watch. So, choose wisely.”

It really is true that you have to watch out who you associate with.  I’ve said it many times before on this blog and it applied when I was younger and my mother told me she didn’t want me hanging out with Billy down the street.  Billy, not his real name, wasn’t a very good kid, always in trouble with the law and his parents were not any better.  This isn’t a lie, I remember is plain as day, the whole family were in and out of jail.  So my association at that age really needed to be guarded and the same applies at tMentorLeaderhe age of 31.

Tony also talks about being a servant leader and references this quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve….You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

I know Lindsay and I always strive to be great servants to our fellow mankind.  It’s 100% because of our association why we are who we are today.  If just some of us can change and be more servants then the  world would be a much better place that’s for sure.  Instead we are mostly a society that thinks about ourselves first before others.  That needs to change.

I highly recommend this book if your into mentorship and success principals.

Leadership Training

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Today is day one of two where I’ve been asked to take part in internal Leadership Training where I work.  Something cool I found out is that Focus got an award for it’s internally developed leadership training program across Canada.  That’s pretty cool.

I’m all about personal development and bettering myself wherever possible and I was excited to take part in this leadership training.  I know it will not only help me in my job while I’m still there but it will also help me with my leadership in our business.  Just with today I’ve taken a few good nuggets out of the course that directly relate to what we are doing with our business. 

I found it quite interesting a lot of the stuff that was taught in our course today was the exact same stuff that we talk about with our business owners and what World Wide Group teaches.  Hmmm coincidence?  I think not, it’s called success principals and they can be applied to ANYTHING and ANY business.  So what we learn within WWDB with the books we read and the audio we listen to is nothing out of the ordinary, it’s stuff successful people do.  Leaders are readers and that’s proven with all successful business owners or entrepreneurs. 

On to Day 2 tomorrow.

Books

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I just picked up a new book called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge and as I started to read I stopped for a moment to take a count of how many books I’ve read this year. So far including this one it will be 8 books and I hope to pick one more up before the end of the year.  To be honest that’s the most books I’ve ever read in one year ever however pale in comparison to the amount of books that Cliff reads in one year.  I’ve been given some great recommendations by Cliff through the years but still in the amounts department I’ve never come close to what Cliff ploughs through.  I’m okay with that because I feel it’s quality over quantity and I’m not saying Cliff reads for quantity, he may just be a faster reader, I’m not.  Sometimes my mind will wander and then I’ve realized I’ve read 2 pages and don’t remember anything so I have to go back.

I think that’s one of the biggest things I struggle with reading and staying focused.  I often let my mind wander and it’s not because the book isn’t great, just I have other things on my mind or when I’m reading in a quite location my mind can actually think about other stuff and sorta becomes free.  However I find if I read with Lindsay right before bed that seems to set the right tone for a good reading atmosphere and also sets me up for success so that I can actually go to sleep.  With the whole mind wandering thing if I don’t focus it on something then I just can’t get to sleep, that’s a whole different story.

I have to say though, reading more has given me a whole lot of perspective on various things as I’ve read a different range of books however mostly all in the success and self-improvement areas.  I know our marriage has taken a drastic turn for the better after reading “The 5 Love Languages” and “Personality Tree”.  I’ve been able to understand my wife better in her personality and how to actually work with that personality and also with her love language and know why the things I do actually matter to her and make her all warm and fuzzy inside and likewise for her.  I’d say those two books would be the 1 of 2 that really impacted our lives since last November. 

The other book, the 2 of 2 would be “The Richest Man In Babylon”. This is the book that started off our whole debt crushing and set the stage to open our minds to tried and tested principals that have been around for thousands of years and allowed us to try some new ideas in getting rid of our debt.  If you’ve not read this book I highly recommend it.  It’s not the only reason why we started killing our debt but it was the one pivotal thing that set us off right.

All the other books I’ve read so far this year have been really great and I’ve appreciated every single one of them and taken a little bit from each one and applied it to my/our lives.   While I didn’t either a) understand or b) agree with everything in all the books the one thing its taught me is to have an open mind to new ideas and success principals.  There is a reason why they say “Leaders are Readers” and how you are a product of the books you read and the people you hang around with.  I’m excited to keep up the reading and will pass along any “gooders” I come across.

Books I’ve Read

 

Cover-SlightEdge household_gold
magic-of-thinking-big RichestManinBabylon
SuccessGlenBland everyone_communicates_few_connect1
5-love-languages wild_at_heart

New Book – Your Personality Tree

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So on the heels of finishing The Slight Edge I’m starting a new book.  Your Personality Tree.  You’ll see the link on the right to the book.

Little bit of a bigger book, has some Christian references in it however it still applies even if you are not Christian/Catholic etc…  I’m interested to read it, my wife just finished it and she enjoyed it.  Hopefully I will as well.

I will like I did before, give a quick little blurb on it.

Time to get reading!

The Slight Edge

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cover-slightedge

Are you a 5%'er?

Last night I finished “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson.  The link to the book is on the right.

This was the perfect first success book to read for me.  It just set you in the right frame of mind for anything you do, it doesn’t have to necessarily have to do with this business.  This book will help you in ALL aspects of your light to help put you on the right track.  Do you want to be in the 5% successful people group? Or do you want to be like 95% of people who are negative, losers, failures, “steady eddies”, or just the average joe.

 

 

There were a few things I took away from this book that really hit me:

  • Continuous Learning – Read just one chapter of an information-rich, inspiring book every day.  LIsten to fifteen minutes or a life-transforming CD or Podcast.  Take a course or seminar every few weeks or months.
  • Make the right choices that serve you.  Do those simple, seemingly insignificant things that forward your progress up the success curve.  You read good books.  You listen to motivating CDs/Podcasts. You hang around successful people who empower you.  This is what it takes to be a five percenter, a winner, a success.
  • Law of Association – this is a HUGE one and is simple to do.  If you want to be successful then hang around and associate with successful people.
    • Your income tends to equal the average of the incomes of your five best friends
    • Your level of health will tend to be about the average level of your five best friends
    • Your personal development will be at about the average level of personal development of your five best friends
    • Your relationships, financial health, attitudes, level of success in your career, and everything else about your life will tend to be very close to the average level of each of these conditions in your five closest friends and associates
  • Turning your dreams into reality is possible and there are 4 steps to making this happen, if you don’t do it, then it won’t happen
    • You MUST write it down, make it specific and give it a deadline
    • You MUST look at it every day
    • You MUST understand and pay the price
    • You MUST have a plan to start with

Now there are a lot of other things this book goes over and a lot of great advice as with any of these success books.  However these are the things I took away from the book which will make the biggest impact in my life.  I’ve already started to associate with successful people so I’m well on my way :)

Such a great book, I highly suggest getting it and reading it.  It’s a quick read and not 500 pages, so that’s a plus!  168 pages! Get on it!