That’s the title of my pal Larry Winget’s new book. The book, like Larry, is edgy, humorous and practical. Larry wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he isn’t a trust funder. He’s made and lost and made a fortune and he hosts the A&E reality show Big Spender, so he knows what he’s talking about. Read it if you’re in need of financial guidance or buy it for a friend or relative you love enough to tell the truth to. And although the writing style is in-your-face, it is the kind of book your teenager should read to bend the financial twig in the right direction. Larry tells it like it is. He might make you mad, but he won’t waste your time.
On page 112:

You can’t make money.

You can only earn money.

Larry says “Never again say ‘I need to make more money.’ You aren’t the Treasury Department and you don’t get to print it up when you need it. You have to earn it. That’s always where the money comes from. Instead say, ‘I need to earn more money.’”

[You can check out what other books I recommend at my Amazon aStore.]

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My friend and speaking colleague Randall Larsen has written a new book that promises to be most timely. I’ve not read it yet–it doesn’t come out until next month–but knowing Randall and his background, I’m betting it will be well worth checking out:

Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About Security to Protect You, Your Family and America (Grand Central Publishing).

Early reviews have been exceedingly positive, and I’m interested in any book that provides practical insights for protecting our families as well as our country.

You can read an interview with Randall in the September 3 issue of U.S. News & World Report.

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Communications expert Dianna Booher has written a terrific new book titled The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know. Dianna is a personal friends and the author of 42 previous books. She really knows her stuff.

This book has been twenty years in the making and will be a great addition to your business library. Dianna covers key topics like the characteristics of personal credibility, selling your ideas and expanding your influence, delivering bad news in sensitive situations and creating a culture of information sharing. These are all important topics for leaders, whether or not you have a title.

If you order on Wednesday, June 26, you’ll receive lots of value-added extras from many respected thought-leaders of the day. To take advantage of this offer, click here.

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I love books, and if you’re a regular reader of my blog, chances are you do, too.

Two friends have new books out that are excellent. The first is from Chris Widener, and it is called The Angel Inside. I liked it so much that I wrote the forward to the book. It is a parable that revolves around the sculpture The David and teaches the keys to bringing out inner greatness. The fictional story is a vehicle for both inspiration and insight into successful living.

The next book is Accelerate: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Business Momentum by Dan Coughlin. This is a great business book that is packed full of good ideas. This is a book you can open to any page and get a quick, useful idea. The writing is crisp and the ideas are fresh.

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According to Nielsen’s BookScan, You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader has once again made the business best seller list. Charting this week at #19, YDNT has appeared on the list of best selling, hardcover business books for 27 straight weeks now.

According to Nielsen, their BookScan service is intended to “provide weekly point-of-sale data with the highest possible degree of accuracy and integrity.”

We’d like to say thanks to all the readers, buyers and leaders (titled and not) who have contributed to the book’s early success!

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I just read Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. I’ve always been a fan of Don’s work and view him as a leading thinker on things internet-related. His new book does a good job of analyzing and synthesizing how collaboration and technology are changing not just how we do business but how we live.

I particularly liked a quote towards the end of the book by blogger and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow who said, “Blacksmiths weeping into their beer about their inability to sell horseshoes in the era of railroads doesn’t make horseshoes more popular. Blacksmiths learning how to become auto mechanics, on the other hand, puts food on their table.”

I grew up on a farm and spent the first years of my professional career in agribusiness. Many then felt family farming was an entitlement, which always puzzled me. What that usually meant was that some family farmers didn’t want to change the way they farmed to keep pace with technology and marketplace changes. To use Doctorow’s metaphor, they didn’t want to change how they farmed, but to have the government protect them so they could keep making horseshoes. My opinion, much disagreed with at the time and probably still, was that the move to save the family farm was more about saving a lifestyle than a business.

Getting comfortable and stuck doing what we’ve always done is a potential pitfall for all of us. Wikinomics gives some clues about what new skills the blacksmith might want to be learning.

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My friend Larry Winget has a new book out, “It’s Called Work for a Reason.” I not only recommend it, but I provided an endorsement for the dust jacket.

And I don’t agree with all of it. So why did I endorse it?

First, it’s a really good book. It challenges your thinking. It is funny. It has lots of great ideas in it. If I didn’t think you’d benefit from reading it, I sure wouldn’t recommend it.

I don’t agree with everything Larry says in the book (and I’ll let you conjecture about what I might disagree with). Do you agree with everything your best friend says? Your spouse? Your respected colleague?

Those of you who read my stuff and have heard me speak are familiar with this concept: On his or her best day, the smartest person isn’t all right and the wrongest person isn’t all wrong. That includes you and me. Discernment is the ability to tell what’s right and what’s wrong.

Heck, I doubt you agree with everything I say. At least I hope you don’t, because if my writing and rants don’t challenge your thinking a bit, I’m playing it too safe.

Getting people to think–you, me, your kids, your boss, your coworker, your wife, your husband–that’s a worthwhile goal for 2007.

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Dr. Tim Kimmel has written an excellent book called Raising Kids for True Greatness (W Publishing Group). In it, he lists the differences between success and greatness, and it applies to adults as well as children:

• Success looks inward; true greatness looks upward, then outward.
• Success is about my agenda; true greatness is about God’s agenda.
• Success accomodates selfishness; true greatness celebrates altruism.
• Success is about receiving; true greatness is about giving.
• Success worships what it sees in the mirror; true greatness grieves over what it sees through its windows.
• Success pays off for now; true greatness pays off forever.

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