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This year I have decided I would share some of my favorite books. These are books that I have read, re-read, studied, implemented and believe that they had made a true impact on my business and personal life.

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews

(From the authors website) In 1942 and 1943, German subs are dispatched to the Gulf of Mexico to sink U.S. vessels carrying goods and fuel. While taking a late-night walk, Helen Mason‚ widowed by the war‚ discovers the near-lifeless body of a German sailor. Enraged at the site of Josef Landermann’s uniform, Helen is prepared to leave him to die when an unusual phrase, faintly uttered, changes her mind.

In The Heart Mender, a small town must prepare itself for the worst the world has to offer, and Josef and Helen must reconcile their pasts to create a future. Andy Andrews once again provides a unique blend of historical fact and engaging fiction showing the power of forgiveness.

"Blending his unique style of historical accuracy with unparalleled storytelling,New York Times best-selling author Andy Andrews offers a tale of war, faith, and forgiveness illuminating the one principle that frees the human spirit." Barnes & Noble

"When Andy Andrews unburies the secrets under the wax myrtle tree, he unburies the heart of what makes us most human. This incredible story will resonate in every part of your life." Scott G. Halford National Meetings Chairman, National Speakers Association

The E-Myth Revisited Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

The book that started the turn-key revolution in small business. Originally published in 1981, and now in fifteen languages, The E-Myth became an instant, underground classic. In this revised and updated edition, small business consultant and author Michael Gerber dispels the myths about starting your own business. With a sharp business insight gained from years of experience, he points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Michael teaches you how to grow your business in a predictable, productive way that will enable you to truly control your own destiny. Yes, small businesses fail at an alarmingly high rate. But yours doesn't have to be one of them.

"Gerber loves to exhort people to develop powerful visions for their companies." -- Fortune

"Thanks to Gerber l have freed up over three hours a day, significantly increased my sales, more than doubled my bottom line, and been able to take my first vacation in four years." -- Trish Lind, T. Lind Graphics, St. Paul, Minnesota

"Without a doubt, the most important message for our company over thenext decade." -- The John Hancock Insurance Group

Decision Points by George W. Bush

In this candid and gripping account, President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his presidency and personal life.

George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor's mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time, we learn President Bush's perspective and insights on:

• His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith
• The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials
• His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
• His administration's counterterrorism programs, including the CIA's enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program
• Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis
• His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge
• His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
• The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust
• Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements

A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American history—and on the man at the center of events.

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

How can you join the ranks of America's wealthy (defined as people whose net worth is over one million dollars)? It's easy, say doctors Stanley and Danko, who have spent the last 20 years interviewing members of this elite club: you just have to follow seven simple rules. The first rule is, always live well below your means. The last rule is, choose your occupation wisely. You'll have to buy the book to find out the other five. It's only fair.

The authors' conclusions are commonsensical. But, as they point out, their prescription often flies in the face of what we think wealthy people should do. There are no pop stars or athletes in this book, but plenty of wall-board manufacturers--particularly ones who take cheap, infrequent vacations! Stanley and Danko mercilessly show how wealth takes sacrifice, discipline, and hard work, qualities that are positively discouraged by our high-consumption society. "You aren't what you drive," admonish the authors. Somewhere, Benjamin Franklin is smiling.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run. Review by Amazon.com

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine, and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking. The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to  his #1 best-selling Liar's Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times. Review by Amazon.com

Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming The Financial Myths That Are Destroying Your Prosperity by Garrett B. Gunderson

Our culture is riddled with destructive myths about money and prosperity that are severely limiting the power, creativity, and financial potential of individuals. In Killing Sacred Cows, Garrett B. Gunderson boldly exposes ingrained fallacies and misguided traditions in the world of personal finance. He presents a revolutionary perspective that can create unprecedented opportunity and wealth for thoughtful, mission-driven individuals.

Our financial lives are intimately connected to our societal contributions, and we must be financially free in order to achieve our fullest potential. Sadly, however, most people are held captive in their financial lives by misinformation, propaganda, and limited knowledge. Through well-reasoned arguments, unflinching logic, and revelatory insight, Gunderson defeats common cliches and faulty retirement planning advice to plainly demonstrate the following and much more:

401(k)s and the stock market are the most risky investments for most people and the gambling mindset they induce creates disastrous consequences.
Conventional retirement planning advice, products, strategies, and techniques expose you to significant danger of being unable to retire, or of running out of money prematurely if you do.
Building net worth is a recipe for creating a life of fear and poverty and how to escape that common trap.
Debt may not be what you think it is and why that matters to your prosperity.
'High risk equals high returns' is destructive dogma and how reducing risk can increase your returns.
Killing Sacred Cows is a must-read for brave individuals willing to question common assumptions and teachings, overcome the herd mentality, break through financial myths, and live a purposeful, passionate, and prosperous life. Review by Amazon.com

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

What is the secret of getting really good at something? How do we unlock it?

Journalist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle  visited nine of the world’s greatest talent hotbeds — tiny places that produce huge amounts of talent, from a small music camp in upstate New York to an elementary school in California to the baseball fields of the Caribbean.

He found that there’s a pattern common to all of them — certain methods of training, motivation, and coaching. This pattern, which has to do with the fundamental mechanisms through which the brain acquires skill, gives us a new way to think about talent — as well as new tools with which we can unlock our own talents and those of our kids.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

In this startlingly frank account of Buffett's life, Schroeder, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley—and hand picked by Buffett to be his biographer—strips away the mystery that has long cloaked the word's richest man to reveal a life and fortune erected around lucid and inspired business vision and unimaginable personal complexity. In a book that is dominated by unstinting descriptions of Buffett's appetites—for profit, women (particularly nurturing maternal types), food (Buffett maintained his and his family's weight by "dangling money")—it is refreshing that Schroeder keeps her tone free of judgment or awe; Buffett's plain-speaking suffuses the book and renders his public and private successes and failures wonderfully human and universal. Schroeder's sections detailing the genesis of Buffett's investment strategy, his early mentoring by Benjamin Graham (who imparted the memorable "cigar butt" scheme: purchasing discarded stocks and taking a final puff). Inspiring managerial advice abounds and competes with gossipy tidbits (the married Buffett's very public relationship with Washington Post editor Katherine Graham) in this rich, surprisingly affecting biography.- Editorial review by Publishers Weekly

Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Anything your mind can conceive and believe you can achieve. That is the philosophy of Napoleon Hill, author of the world’s #1 motivational book, Think and Grow Rich. Inspired by the lessons he learned while a protégé of Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill gives you the money-making secrets that earned Carnegie, and many of the world’s other most prominent people, unprecedented riches. Think and Grow Rich tells you what to do and how to do it. Apply Hill’s basic techniques to your life and you too can master the secret of enduring success.

Success is not an accident, it’s a habit. Think and Grow Rich is where that habit begins. Throughout this inspirational masterpiece, which has influenced men and women on every continent, Hill gives examples and detailed analysis of how hundreds of exceedingly wealthy people earned and maintained their fortunes.

Tax-Free Retirement by Patrick Kelly

Tax Free Retirement will show you how to avoid 9 common Financial Landmines, teach you how to generate tax-free retirement income, explain how to muultiply your IRA two or three fold for future generations and help you leave a lasting legacy beyond your wildest imagination. Review from Amazon.com

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

(From the authors website) With the countless distractions that come from every corner of modern life, it’s amazing that we’re ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary — freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better.

The Power of Less will show you how to:

* Break down any goal into manageable tasks
* Focus on only a few tasks at a time
* Create new and productive habits
* Hone your focus
* Increase your efficiency

1. Todd Midas on July 18, 2011 @ 4:47 PM

2. Kyle B. Carlton on September 8, 2011 @ 1:59 PM