Leglessbird Reading guide

Mr. China: A Memoir (buy from Amazon) by Tim Clissold
Type: Business
Author: Tim Clissold
My rating: 5
Book introduction:
This is a memoir of an Englishman who felt really attached to China since late 1980s. He came to Beijing in 1990s to study Mandarin and travel around China. He saw the opportunity of bringing capital from Wall Street to China and started investing into a selected set of industry, hoping to dominate certain market through numerous Joint Venture in the early 1990s. That was the time when it was hard for businesses (SOEs state-own enterprises) to raise capital within China. Together with a successful Wall Street banker, they raised US$418 Million in a number of fund raising round. Soon they find that doing business in China is much harder than they thought, and their investments have started to go terribly wrong. This book is a recount of the various battles that they fought against the Chinese partners of their joing ventures.

My review:
Highly recommended for everyone who plans to work, invest, start business in China. China has changed since, but to read and learn about its past and how/why things have evolved in certain ways and what lessons did foreign investors learn through numerous failed JV are all highly insightful. The situation described in the books are so so so true, the attitude towards foreigners, the opportunity to grab money fast during an infant stage of development of a huge nation and the lack of respect of contracts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (buy from Amazon) by Malcolm Gladwell

Type: Business
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 5

Book introduction:
This book attempts to explain why some ideas or diseases spread like wild fire and some other ideas do not. The book introduces a concept to systematically look at how ideas, messages, viruses spread through the key characters.

- The connectors are people who are well connected, they simply love to get to know more people, they have a natural facsination in meeting everybody and genuinely find them interesting. The connectors can always find a common topic with almost everyone.
- The mavens are people who have a habit in knowing the fine details of all sorts of things like pricing, differences in products and love to help others and share what they know
- The salesmen are people who have the ability to convince others and engage a conversation and lead the other party to adapt the salesman's harmony and pace. They have a gifted talents to make others more agreeable

The book quoted various examples of products, viruses, historical events and explain how they fit in this connectors/mavens/salesmen concept. There are other very important factors too, such as stickiness of the message.

My review:
Finally got to read this book that has been recommended by a few friends and business associates. I think I fit in the description of the connectors and mavens, but need to work harder on the salesmanship.

If you are in a mass-market business, this is a must read. If you are simply amazed by how certain people are gifted in one of the aspect of the social skills, this is also a very interesting read.

Stand Out! Branding Strategies for Business Professionals (buy from Amazon) by Simon Vetter
Type: Business Self-improvement
Author: Simon Vetter
My rating: 2
Book introduction:
This book is about personal branding strategies for Business Professionals. Learning from the case studies of some of the world's most successful speakers, independent professionals.

My review:
Interesting collection of cases and invaluable lessons, I'm trying to incorporate these ideas in everyday life. It is sometimes not very obvious how you can do the same

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (buy from Amazon) by Malcolm Gladwell

Type: Business
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4
Book introduction:
This book talks about how snap judgement can be tremendous useful at times and at other times, we can be so stubborn about our first impression of something which is wrong. How we can rely more on our gut feeling reliably.

My review:
Another interesting book by Galdwell - author of Tipping point. I like the many concepts and experiment that he talks about in this book which tells us how we 'think' , or actually conclude or act without 'thinking' and our instincts are often right. But also when we have to make a decision in a hurry like in an emergency situation, how our intrinsic bias will affect our decision without being consciously awared that we have been affected. I no longer think about thinking the same way again.

The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World (buy from Amazon) by Peter Schwartz

Type: Business
Author:Peter Schwartz
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
A book that teaches people how to plan for future scenarios and position your accordingly, it illustrates its point by many real business examples.

My review:
This books talks about how to make major decisions by looking at different scenarios, the goal is not to score well if the best scenario pervail, but rather how you are do well in all cases.

The New Entrepreneurs : Making a Living--Making a Life Through Network Marketing (buy from Amazon) by Rene Reid Yarnell

Type: Business
Author: Rene Reid Yarnell
My rating: 3
Book introduction:
This book that talks about how to make a living out of a business concept call network marketing.

My review:
If you are into multi-level marketing, also known as network marketing, this book provides many cases and tips of how to conduct a successful business.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (buy from Amazon) by Sharon L. Lechter

Type: Business
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
My rating: 4

Posted by irene
Book introduction:
By comparing how rich dad and poor dad educates his kid, the author shows why rich people get richer and poor people struggle to survive. It points out some neutral human behaviours which restrict us to build our wealth.

My review:
The concepts are simple, but we always need to be aware of whether we're buying "assets" or 'liability" to our personal balance sheet. It is useful for financial planning.

How to Slay the Financial Dragon (buy from Amazon) by William A. Stanmeyer

Type: Business
Author: William A. Stanmeyer, J.D.
My rating: 4

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
This book talks about how most people are trapped in fighting a losing battle with the financial dragon. A dragon that if you chop off its head, 2 more pop up! How to go for the heart and kill it for good.
- Why so many people are failing but yet CONTINUE to do the same thing?
- What can be done differently?
- Why the government is useless in securing your retirement plan?
- How to build asset that generate cash-flow?

My review:
Another book by Stanmeyer that talks about how to break free from the financial burden with more interesting analogy and metaphor.

I particularly like the chapter calls "Think outside the prison", it is all about will! Once the will is there, you can achieve ANYTHING!

Rich Dad's Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming... and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It! (buy from Amazon) by Sharon L. Lechter
Type: Business
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
The full title of this book is Rich Dad's Prophecy, why the biggest stock market crash in history is still coming...
It talks about how people in our generation (gen x) is going bear the retirement cost of the Babyboomer generation because they were promised a "Defined Benefit" retirement scheme and we are given a very different scheme called "Defined contribution" and the cost is dear. How major corporations are suffering since 2000 onwards. Why most people are not prepared for this change and will not have sufficient fund to retire. In turns, they are going to make terrible mistakes in investment and will trigger a panic reaction sometime in the future and cause a major market crash.

My review:
Very revealing indeed. Predicting an inevitable trend that will hit us all very hard especially us the kids of babyboomer generation. It is terrifying that most people will not be able to survive in their retirement years and not realising it today so they can better prepared. The "Defined benefit" Vs "Defined contribution" analysis is most interesting, esp. after reading an article on how Ford the automobile manufacturer suffered a downgrade in credit rating because it's "defined benefit" pension fund for its enormous body of retired workers is severly under funded and that they must injected hundreds of millions of cash from its future profit to plug the hole and Ford is definitely not alone.

If you really want to get yourself prepared and sheild yourself from the big shock that is going to hit us, read this book and selectively adopt the advices in this book that are most suitable to you.

The Wave 4 Way to Building Your Downline (buy from Amazon) by Richard Poe
Type: Business
Author: Richard Poe
My rating: 3

Book introduction:
A book that cites multiple examples of how proper network marketing is conducted

My review:
Recommended to people who have just started doing network marketing business