The Six Minute Book Summary of Awesomely Simple by John Spence

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Executive Summary

Chapter 1 - Spence states that “having a clear, vivid, and compelling vision, the first principle of business success, is without question an essential component in building a successful company”(17). This statement could not be truer given the fact that any company or corporation that starts from the ground up MUST have a marketing plan. A marketing plan usually consists of a SWOT analysis and a mission statement. Spence goes into a little more depth, yet he simplifies the fundamentals on how to create vision, mission, purpose, core values, and guiding principles. However, many companies use different terminology for the same thing.

Chapter 2 – The future of any company is straightforwardly tied to the ability and people you have working with you. Throughout Spence’s experiences in the business world and hundreds upon thousands of research studies he has conducted “clearly demonstrate that no organization can survive unless one of their major strategies revolves around talent management” (37). Without the proper staff or group of individuals that do not show their talent or skill will directly lead to any company’s downfall.

Chapter 3 - Spence talks about the key skills for superior communication which can be expressed by seven key ideas, which include: body language, the four levels of listening (ignoring the other person, listening while distracted, focused listening, and deep listening), sensory modes, logic versus emotion, hot words, and dealing with conflict

Chapter 4 - Having a sense of urgency is one of the key determinants in most businesses today that strive for competitive advantage. Seizing opportunities when they present themselves is the key to one simple facet of business: speed equals success.

Chapter 5 -This chapter discusses the “Nine Steps to Ensure Disciplined Execution.”

Chapter 6 - The four key principles to any successful business are quite simple: show up on time, keep promises, be extremely polite, and give a little bit more than is expected of you

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know fromAwesomely Simple: Turning Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action

1.            Managers should adopt a clear, vivid, and compelling vision. By doing this managers have a much better chance of having a successful business.

2.            Managers should know what their values are for their organization. By knowing your core values one can efficiently adopt a successful business strategy.

3.            Managers should find the best people. By having the best people working for you who are the most qualified will give your corporation a competitive advantage.

4.            Managers should understand the simple formula of Talent X Culture = Profit. Having the top talent and a pleasant work culture a company can earn millions.

5.            Manager should adopt a great system of communication. By have a clear and concise communication with everyone involved in the company give the workers a clear understanding on what is going on and affecting them and the company.

6.            Managers should communicate on ANY basis. One must be brutally honest all the time when communicating whether it is good or bad. Do not “sugar-coat” communication.

7.            Having a sense of urgency put the manager’s company ahead of the game. Speed = Success!

8.            Having a disciplined execution in every task makes the company more focused and motivated. One must use the nine steps to ensure disciplined execution.

9.             Focusing completely on your customers is the hallmark of any successful business. Having strong customer focus is the “foundation of any successful company”

10.            The four key principles to any successful business are quite simple: show up on time, keep promises, be extremely polite, and give a little bit more than is expected of you. Adopting these principles in an organization will create a strong ethos.

Introduction
John Spence believes that every business should operate around a certain set of “awesomely simple” principles that all businesses should follow. Spence states that “the real challenge, and the foundation for lasting business success, is the consistent and disciplined application of just six principles, day in and day out, in every part of your organization” (3).

Those six principles are having a vivid vision, the best people, a robust communication, a sense of urgency, disciplined execution, and an extreme customer focus. If these six principles are focused on relentlessly, they will then form the foundation of a successful business. However, even though these principles may seem “simple,” Spence states that they are not “easy to implement” (4).

In marketing they have the “4 P’s,” which is product, price, place, and promotion, but in building a business they also have a set of “4 P’s.” Spence claims that the “4 P’s” to the foundation of a successful business are: Passion, Persistence, Practice, and Pattern Recognition. One must love their area of focus within a business; One must spend at least 7-10 years, or 100,000 man hours, to achieve area expertise; One must push themselves harder and harder by doing “deliberate practice;” Finally one must, after years of plenty of experience, start seeing patterns emerge and quickly decide what is the best path for the organization.
Chapter 1(Vivid Vision)
At the beginning of chapter one, Spence states that “having a clear, vivid, and compelling vision, the first principle of business success, is without question an essential component in building a successful company”(17). This statement could not be truer given the fact that any company or corporation that starts from the ground up MUST have a marketing plan. A marketing plan usually consists of a SWOT analysis and a mission statement. Spence goes into a little more depth, yet he simplifies the fundamentals on how to create vision, mission, purpose, core values, and guiding principles. However, many companies use different terminology for the same thing.

A vision statement is what an organization wants to become. For example: Subway wants to become the industry leader in foot long sub sandwiches. A mission statement describes what a certain new organization is all about. For example: Subway wants to provide exceptionally fresh meats and cheese that separate our business form other sandwich shops. A values statement is an outline of “core beliefs, behaviors, and commitments of an organization” (Spence 18). For example Subway’s core values could include, but not limited to: Compassion, Safety, Excellence, Freshness, Professional sandwich building, Sanitation.

“The four biggest issues for many business leaders are a lack of well-communicated vision, lack of courageous communication, toleration of mediocrity, and poor execution of key plans and ideas” (Spence 28).
Chapter 2(Best People)
The future of any company is straightforwardly tied to the ability and people you have working with you. Throughout Spence’s experiences in the business world and hundreds upon thousands of research studies he has conducted “clearly demonstrate that no organization can survive unless one of their major strategies revolves around talent management” (37). Without the proper staff or group of individuals that do not show their talent or skill will directly lead to any company’s downfall.

The simple formula for a business to succeed is “awesomely simple:” Talent X Culture = Profit. In order to figure out what encompasses talent, one must implement the “five c’s.” The five c’s consist of: competence, character, collaboration, communication, and commitment. In order to figure out what encompasses culture, one must focus on what attracts and motivates top talent. Culture is focused on meaning, respect, empowerment, transparency, and fun.
Chapter 3(Robust Communication)
One of the biggest problems in all businesses is a “lack of a clear and well-communicated vision and key strategies” (Spence 65). Some of the companies that John Spence has worked with that he has seen communicate well build a culture that is highly valued at certain aspects of communications such as: Honesty, which means that you tell the truth all the time whether it be good news or bad news; Empathy, means not only to be honest, but brutally honest and to shoot straight with people and do not “shoot them between the eyes”(Spence 67); Courage, means that companies have the courage to put rough topics on the table for discussion rather than letting a “bad thing” go away on its own; Safety must be promoted as a means that even though employees sometimes fear the thought of brining up bad news up at a meeting the manager or supervisor must make it clear that they will be safe. Intellectual Rigor comes into play when not only should the people and employees be safe, but also their ideas should come to light and the company’s culture becomes influenced by this. Finally, transparency is very important in that it is the trademark of a great organization. Companies that are transparent share as much information as they can with their stakeholders.

Spence also talks about the key skills for superior communication which can be expressed by seven key ideas, which include: body language, the four levels of listening (ignoring the other person, listening while distracted, focused listening, and deep listening), sensory modes, logic versus emotion, hot words, dealing with conflict, and the five stages of conflict (empathetic listening, I-statements, finding common ground, positive redirection, and no alternative).
Chapter 4(Sense of Urgency)
Having a sense of urgency is one of the key determinants in most businesses today that strive for competitive advantage. Seizing opportunities when they present themselves is the key to one simple facet of business: speed equals success. Sped in the business world is indicative to satisfying a customer’s “needs” because, as we all know, people are generally impatient and they want things ‘now!” Spence states that the key to an agile organization is “clear direction + free flow of information + fast decision making” (103).  Having a clear direction guide the business, free flow of information will communicate all decisions through the business, and a fast decision making give the business its sense of urgency.

This chapter also discusses the four levels of decision making. A level one decision is one that you own completely as the employee. Decision making at level one should be very easy without any general input from others and one should be confident and quick to make these decisions. Level two decisions making is one where you get some advice from the appropriate person in an organization. Level three decision making entails making decisions as a team where all members and/or parties have some form of input in the decision making process. Finally level four decisions is “my decision,” meaning that one will ask for thoughts and opinions from other members of the team or group, but ultimately the decision is yours and what you say is the final word.
Chapter 5 (Disciplined Execution)
 This chapter discusses the “Nine Steps to Ensure Disciplined Execution.” Step one involves visions and values which explains on where the organization is and how it will “behave” along the way to success. The second step is having a strategy, which is according to Spence, “one of the essential elements of creating a culture of disciplined execution” (133). Third step is commitment and this involves all the stakeholders be committed to success in all steps of the business process. Fourth step includes alignment and it talks about SMART goals setting. SMART is an acronym for making decisions: Specific, Measurable, Agreed On, Realistic, and Time Bound. Step five is having systems, these include: JIT, TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing. The Sixth step is communication of priorities and it involves communicating all visions to each member, stakeholder, or whomever is involved in the organization on why it is important to stay on track of the organizations goals. The seventh step is offering the proper support and training of individuals. Step eight involves adjustments and innovation, which mean to organization must be quick witted to adapt and overcome certain situations innovatively. Finally, step nine is reward and punishes, which means that rewards should be just as substantial that the disciplinary actions one takes in an organization.
Chapter 6 (Extreme Customer Focus)
The foundation of this chapter states that “great customer service is the foundation of building a truly great company” (Spence 166). One must focus intensely on the customers because that is the foundation of all businesses. Leaders of organizations should believe strongly that giving customers a exceptional experience while transacting business will lead to astonishing profitability. Employees should adopt an attitude to where they are “customer focused,” and those attitudes and behaviors should be rewarded on a consistent basis.

The four key principles to any successful business are quite simple: show up on time, keep promises, be extremely polite, and give a little bit more than is expected of you. Of course employees must show up on time, that is kind of an obvious gambit. Being extremely polite is another easily understandable concept because you don’t want your employees doing stupid things. Keeping promises is just a stand ethos that all companies and corporations should adopt for integrity purposes. AND giving more than what is expected of you will take you far. People that dot he bare minimum to succeed in life often find themselves with the bare minimum. Spence is as strong believer that you get out of life to what you put in it.
Conclusion
In conclusion this book covers plenty of ground on the area of business. By reading the book one can learn from its teachings, but it is another thing to not implement the book’s teachings. Spence is a very experienced business leader and advocate for business ethics. Spence has had a “two business book a week habit” for twenty years so he is a formidable expert because he has a “been-there-done-that” attitude.

By adopting the “awesomely simple” ideas a business can succeed if they just stick to the basics. The true definition of insanity is “doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.” Failing business must learn to adopt Spence’s teaching and implement them in order to become successful.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $ %, because:

I think John Spence is one of the most brilliant people around because of all of his experiences. He has had a two business book a week habit for nearly twenty years now. John Spence has turned countless organizations around and made failing businesses profitable again. Spence also has had many stakes in many companies and has been on numerous business advisory boards all over the world. Spence’s book turns very easy and simple concepts easily implementable.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1.            I would have not focused too much on the effectiveness audits. Again, I am only a student and this book was written to people who are in business.

2.            I would have had more diagrams and examples of what the author was talking about in some of the chapters. For example: he gives you formulas, but doesn’t do any calculation on it.

3.            I would have made a more understandable table in Chapter four (sense of urgency). Spence draws a “tree-like” diagram and I can’t understand it for the life of me.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1.            I realized that having core values and a strong mission statement really does make most business go far. It is a strong blueprint to start off a new business

2.            Having the best most qualified people will make any business go far. It’s is not about who you know, but what you know.

3.            If only we lived in a perfect world where our rewards systems in companies were just as strong as the disciplinarian systems.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1.            I will make sure to not do the bare minimum. You get out of life by what you put into it.

2.            I will make sure I will be the most qualified individual when going to apply for a job.

3.            By having strong ethics, good morals, and honest communication these, these things will take you far in life.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

“Can business success really be Awesomely Simple? The answer is an enthusiastic YES! if you apply John Spence’s lessons. Read this book. Have everyone in your organization read this book. Most important, apply its lessons, and you, too, can deliver amazing results.” (Randy G. Pennington)

“What if you could have the accumulated knowledge of 20 years of business consulting experience and 200 business books in the palm of your hand? That’s exactly what John Spence has done with “Awesomely Simple” (Anonymous)

Bibliography

Spence, John (2009).Awesomely Simple: Turning Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action,” please email bradley.andersen@selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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Written by David Wyld
Professor of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lost Books of The Bible

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In the  original version of the King James Bible and many other religious books, there was a section of scriptures called the Apocrypha, or the lost books of the bible. These missing books can be found in these bibles and books and many more:

   1568 The Bishops’ Bible
·  1610 Catholic Old Testament
·  1611 King James Bible
·  1615 King James Version Robert Barker at London, England

APOCRYPHA, that is, Books which are not to be esteemed like the Holy Scriptures, and yet which are useful and good to read.” (Luther Bible, 1534) were decided to be too personal to have true religious meaning for worshipers but the current book used by the Catholic Church, contains these scriptures and are used in reference commonly.

Yet, there are dozens of sites on the web who claim there was nothing removed from the bible. Maybe they should have done more research. This article will provide the facts but really, The following site provides such an eloquent explanation, I recommend you explore it slowly, paying special attention to the Translators Preface. With all the references and names used on the following site, it is easy to research and verify. The lost books of the bible Do exist.

http://www.thelostbooks.com/missing.htm

This site uses verifiable names, dates, and other proofs and it is astounding that so many claim it doesn’t exist. You can order the older version of the King Kames bible, which contains these books, on Amazon.com, New, .00 + shipping. Used, .01 + shipping. You can also read them or download for free, on the following sites:

http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/lost-books-of-the-bible.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/index.htm

So what are these lost books of the bible? These are stories written by those men who wrote the other books of the bible, but they are more personal and are therefore known as  canonical, by the Catholic Church. These missing bible books have been a controversy ever since.

  In 1880 the American Bible Society voted remove the “Apocrypha” or lost books, from the King James Version. These 14 Books [There are over 5,700 verses) of the Apocrypha had been part of the King James bible since 1611.
The Apocrypha books were voted on in 1880 by the American Bible Society, deciding to remove the 14 books that contain over 155,000 words in 168 chapters. It was roughly one fifth of the bible and they were officially removed from the English Printings of the King James Version in 1885 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, leaving 66 books.

Written by AngelaW

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Don?t Diet ? Dieting Can Cause Weight Gain!

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I was on the diet yo-yo trail too, for most of my adult life. Then I thought hard about what was going wrong. I’d go on a diet, lose weight, go off the diet and then put the weight back on, sometimes even more weight than I’d lost.

Going off the diet was the precursor to the weight gain, but I was sick of dieting. It was unnatural to be in starvation mode for long periods of time. I was also sick of being overweight too, though.

What to do? I read a few more diet books (I love reading books that tell me how to live my life). Then it hit me! My problem wasn’t being overweight. That was a symptom.

The problem was that I was living my life in a way that would never allow me to be slim for more than a few weeks at a time. I’d starve myself, following a ridiculous regime of food restrictions, and then I’d binge and get fatter again.

I thought about what naturally thin people do. They don’t eat vast amounts of food, they don’t have strange diets, and they don’t obsess about food. They might exercise a bit, but not always, and they enjoy their life.

I had certainly not been enjoying all of my life, not when I was dieting – I was too hungry most of the time to be enjoying myself. My family probably wasn’t enjoying it either.

I have now come up with a way to live that is enjoyable, healthy, and sustainable. That was the main problem with living the diet life – it wasn’t sustainable. I was so thrilled with the ongoing success of my new life I’ve started sharing my ideas about it all.

I am now living a life where no food is forbidden, and chocolate is certainly OK. The key is to eat enough to satisfy hunger, and then stop. It’s that simple. Too many people eat so much they’ve forgotten what hunger feels like.

It’s not hunger if your head tells you you’re hungry, it’s only hunger when your body tells you you’re hungry. So remember, your body knows hunger better than your head does – listen to your body!

Written by carolyncordon
Creative thinking writer

How to recognize which violence in Movies and Books are educational and which are plain violent

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Does society tolerant violence which is why violence is so prevalent? There is countless violence movies made available to the public. Some notable violent movies are Eden Lake, Saw, the Good Son, and a book: Crime and Punishment.

A book which has an interesting perspective on violence is Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The story is of an intellectual man, Raskolnikov, who is very poor and is tempted to rob money from the landlord. He succumbs to his temptation and commits murder. No one finds out about the murder but he psychologically suffers for his violence and crime or is mentally punished. On the other hand, another character, Sonya, is also very poor and in order to feed her family she submits herself to prostitution. She engages in a lowly job but does not really commit any crime. In this story, violence is a crime and is shown to be wrong no matter what the circumstances. Sonya’s example proves to be an alternative to crime. She serves as a model in contrast with the man to show that there is no excuse for violence. Thus, this is an educational book about violence.

On the other hand, the movie Eden Lake is about a couple who goes into the woods to enjoy themselves but is attacked by a local group of violent teenagers. They play a game of cat and mouse where the woman is hunted down for kill, after her boyfriend is tortured and murdered. After she desperately escapes the woods and the grasp of the teenagers, she collapses on the property of some local adults. These adults turn out to be the friends and family of the violent teenagers.  While trying to escape she killed one kid and one teenager from the group. The parents do not care what happened and they blame it all on her because she is an adult and they are “kids”. Many die and nothing gets solved. The violent movie has no meaning.  A couple is killed for no good reason. Plainly they die because they were in the wrong place.  The parents are violent and thus, the kids are violent. What message does this violent movie bring? Is it to not travel to unfamiliar places or to stay out of the woods?  This leads to the question of should parents punish their child when he does wrong? If these kids learned violence from the parents then are who is to blame? Are there enough educational movies to show that violence is bad and enough clinics to help kids learn the correct way?

There is an educational movie that depicts the right way parents should deal with children who are violent. In the movie, The Good Son, the son is jealous of his younger sister and the new boy who comes to live with them. First he kills his baby brother, then his baby sister and then tries to get rid of the new boy who knows of the evil son’s evil nature. Mark or the psychopath son also tries to kill his mother who is starting to doubt her son. The new boy tells the evil boy’s mother and she at first does not believe it. Clues led her to suspect what the new boy says is true. In the end when face with a hard decision in which she can only save one child either her own son or the nephew, she chooses the nephew. Although the movie has a violent aspect to it, the mother chooses the correct way which is to save the one that is not violent or deserves to a chance to live even though it means letting go of her son.

Yet, while there are educational movies of violence like “the Good Son”, there are far more movies depicting plain violence such as the Saw Series. The violent “Saw” movie is very popular that it is already a trilogy but it does not seem to end there. The end of the movie hinges on the release of fourth part. The series does not carry deep meaning or depict justice showing the bad guys getting caught by the good guys. Instead its main imagery is plain violent, gruesome, and cruel. The movie shows many violent images of people getting tortured by traps and kills each other to remain alive. They have to hurt themselves to survive or hurt others. What is the purpose of violent movies like this? Why does society tolerate these movies and allow it to be produced again to become into a popular series?

Another movie which takes a psychological angle to violence is “The Uninvited”. A girl, Anna, kills her father’s girlfriend blaming her father’s girlfriend for the death of her mother and sister. The movie is shown in a way in which you do not find out that she is the killer until the end and that all along she knew what she was doing. Yes, the her father cheated with the nurse while her mother is sick in bed and after her mother dies, this same nurse becomes the girlfriend and almost her stepmother. However, Anna is only placed in the mental institution and ultimately achieved her goals with no consequences.  What message would this send to other children? Should not a movie like this which depicts young children being violent show a cry for society to look into the matter of the prevalence of violence in society and that there is too much tolerance of violence?

Violent movies without an educational message only beget more violence.  People will learn from these meaningless violent movies thinking that it is fine to be violent.  There are more and more movies depicting children as violent.  The movies:  “Saw,”  “The Uninvited,” and “Eden Lake,” shows that there is a need for institutions to address the issue of violence and show that violence is wrong and will be punished. There should be more help for those who are suffering in violent families so that they will not follow in the same footsteps.

There is so much to do to try to fight violence but the effort will be worth it. The reason why violence is so prevalent and violent movies are so popular is because society tolerates violence. There is a huge difference between horror movies and violent movies. The distinction between them should be made clearer. Whereas horror movies aim at depicting fantasy scenarios and have some meaning to it, violent movies target on being gruesome and show imageries that should not be shown. There is no lesson to be learned and justice does not prevail. Mainly, the violent imageries and acts to depict for the enjoyment and violence should not be encouraged this way.

Society successfully tolerates and promotes violence so it should also be able to successfully do the opposite and promote the intolerance of violence so that violence will stop being prevalent. Recognizing the problem is the first step. Society needs to try and resolve the issue of violence. Only then is there hope violence will decrease and we will live in a safer environment and all our educational history will be used for better means than to create violent movies that show people harming others for no good reason.

Sources:

Crime and Punishment

The Good Son (film) The Uninvited

Written by blueage168

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How to Write a Good Book Review in a History Course

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If you’re like me, the book review assignment can be surprisingly difficult, at least to do well. And unfortunately, if you’re doing this for a fourth- or even a third-year class, you may actually be subjected to a standard that professors themselves often don’t bother meeting. The dirty little secret of the historical profession, which you’ll quickly get a sense of as you read book reviews in peer-reviewed historical journals, are that book reviews are often done sloppily and lazily, even by professional historians. The real credit comes from writing books and articles, not reviewing them. But, you’ve still got to write one, so you may as well do it well. Here’s how:

Read the book – You can get away with not reading a book for class discussion. However, you can’t get away with not reading one for the book review. If you don’t put in the time upfront, then you’ll have two choices for hastily slapping together a book review the night before: either you’ll have to crib off of already published book reviews by other historians (which is technically plagiarism, if you’re not citing your sources appropriately), or you’ll be writing a summary of the book rather than a review. Which leads to my second point:

Analyze – don’t summarize. The assignment is to write a review of the book: not a summary of it. Summarizing is easier, of course, and badly written reviews (even published badly written reviews) often do a lot of summarizing for this reason. But remember that you are going to be graded based on your ability to look at the book critically and identify its strengths and weaknesses. So it’s less important to write about what’s in the book than about what you think about the book. Several things in particular must be discussed.

There is one exception to this: all good book reviews in history identify the main argument, or arguments of a book — or, alternatively, they strongly criticize a book that doesn’t have a main argument. This is not the same as running through the book chapter by chapter and summarizing each in turn. If the book has a main theme or a main point, it should be in the introduction. It may not be an obvious point, but the first and most important task of a book review is to understand what the author said out to argue in his or her book, and to neatly capture that argument for the reader of your own review.

Identify a Strength(s) and a Weakness(es). Ultimately, the point of a book review (a real book review, not just an assignment) is to tell readers whether or not it’s worth reading the book, and why. If you ever end up writing a review for the New York Review of Books, that will be the standard you have to meet. In this case, focus on explaining why the book was successful in what the author tried to accomplish, as well as why it failed. If the tone of your review is positive, then the strengths should outweigh the weaknesses. If the tone of your review is negative, then the reverse is true. However, there is no perfect book — and at the same time, there is no book with no positive feature whatever. Imagine that the author is going to read your review: you don’t have to be uncritical, but you do have to be fair.

Identify the Historical Context. At the undergraduate level, this is the most difficult part of writing a good book review in history — and at the graduate level, some students over-indulge so excessively that the book review becomes a lofty exercise in name-dropping. In both cases, however, it is essential to explain how this book relates to other relatively recent and influential histories on the same subject. As a general rule, there have always been at least some such books: academic history is large enough that there are virtually no truly empty fields.

Again, consider the theoretical purpose of a book review: readers will want to know how this new work relates to something they are likely to be already familiar with, or may even have on their bookshelf. In this case, you will simply be trying to convince your professor that you are familiar with more of the literature than the single book in front of you, but the end result should be the same. You should try to demonstrate, as much as possible, that you are aware of whether this author has made an entirely new argument on a novel subject, or whether they are simply repeating what a legion of historians has already said before them.

Written by AndrewVogt

Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! Looking for a good book to enjoy the last days of summer with? Keep on watching for my must-read on ClevverTV. Hello everyone – I’m Joslyn Davis for ClevverTV, a must-read for all you book-worms out there. In fact, even if you’re not a huge reader, you should still check this one out. I just flew through it myself. So, the book is called “I Am Number Four,” and if you’re already a ClevverTV watcher then you likely know that a movie version of this page-turner is being shot right now. As we all know though, the book is always a bit different that the movie, and I suggest that you hop on the “I Am Number Four” bandwagon asap. The book tells the tale of an alien who comes to earth as a young child with his also alien guardian. Flash forward several years and now the young alien and his body-guard are existing under the guise of a teenager and his dad. They are forced to move around non-stop, as they are constantly being hunted by the Mogadorian monsters who initially forced them out of their home planet to begin with. Essentially, the main character, who is number 4, and goes by the name of John in the book, has all your normal teen problems, except he has to always be on the look-out for trouble. Throughout the book, John starts to develop his legacies, which are more or less what we’d think of as super powers. John’s super-human abilities are one of the coolest parts of the book. Also really cool is the whole number …

Book Censorship in Public School Systems: Dangorous Territory?

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Nowadays, there is a growing controversy over reading censorship in public school curricula, particularly in secondary education levels. This isn’t an extremely recent phenomenon, but it does seem to have become more recognized. Being someone who was secondary education teacher in the public school system, this is an issue I had to face.

I’ve always been aware of the fact that books are banned, but as a student in the public school system, I never experienced it personally, or at least I wasn’t aware of it. However, the controversy of the witchcraft in the Harry Potter series within the last several years then brought it to my attention.

My basic argument is that there should be much less censorship, and if something is to be censored, I think that the reasons should be analyzed thoroughly. I fear that certain texts are being banned for frivolous reasons, and even false reasons at that. I understand that certain texts that are meant for certain reading levels, and giving a seventh grader a text meant for a twelfth grader might not be acceptable simply because it might be above his or her level of comprehension for the content.

I also understand there are authorities responsible for the students’ educational well being and that not everyone can agree on what is suitable for the curriculum. For this reason, book banning and censorship is a sticky issue. Because all humans are biased in some ways, and incapable of being completely objective in their beliefs, it is hard to decided what it is appropriate and what is not.

According to Banned Books by the Numbers, the total number of book challenges received by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1990-2000 was 6,364. In 2001, it was 448. The next year, 2002, it was 515. In 2003, the number dropped to 458, and in 2004, it was back up with 547. Out of those, 737 of those challenges were based on violence, 1,607 were based on sexually explicit material, and 1,427 were based on offensive language.

John Micklos Jr, author of It Can Happen to You, although censorship is an issue in other countries as well, it’s considered more of a hot topic in the US. Finland, as an example, rarely has book censorship and countries that used to comprise the former Soviet Union now have access to books that were previously banned for years. According to Micklos, the US’ top three reasons for banning were the three “S words”: sex, swearing and Satanism.

Craig Lancto, author of Banned Books, said that because the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that school board denying students access to ideas with which the school board disagrees is unconstitutional, many challenges are based upon sexual explicitness or objectionable language and/or themes.

Helen F. Flowers, author of Inquiring Students Want to Know: Who Tries to Ban Books and Why?, said that in classes she’s talked to, the major questions are , “Who should decide what students read and what standards should be applied?” as well as “The First Amendment says nothing about the freedom to read. How can it be said that the First Amendment protects the right to read?” She said that the “basic argument before the Court was that the right to read a book is implicit in Freedom of Speech…and that the First Amendment protected all forms of speech, including books which deal with unpopular and controversial topics.”

There have been many arguments made for the censorship of certain books, many that I’ve heard for myself in previous years, corruption of the young readers is the most basic. To delve down deeper into it, this may include the sexual explicitness some books are said to contain because some fear this may cause premarital sex, sexual perverseness, or homosexuality. The objectionable language some contain is feared to cause general immorality, whatever that may include. Violence may turn the young and influential students into criminals. Questioning of religion in certain texts may turn the students into Satanists, may be linked to communism, and it may corrupt their family values.

Lancto said when visiting a website about the frequently banned The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, he found it being described as “the book preferred nine times out of ten often by whackos, serial killers, and disgruntled teenagers”, as well as allegations that this book had influenced Mark Chapman to kill John Lennon.

What’s interesting about that is nobody seems to have defined what is considered sexually explicit, or what language is considered offensive. The reason for which a particular book is banned in one location may not be the same reason it was banned in another location, and it depends upon the agenda of challenger.

Flowers said, “Every time I spoke to a class about the freedom to read I emphasized that parents have the right to decide what their children may read, but that no parent has the right to decide what other parents’ children may read. Students always wanted to know why particular books had been challenged. In many instances, students had read these books and understood that graphic sex scenes or vulgar language are offensive to some people. They had seldom been aware of some of the other common reasons for challenges, such as nontraditional lifestyles, conflict between children and parents, use of nonstandard English, portrayal of women in nontraditional roles, depiction of the occult, magic, witchcraft, and negative portrayals of parents, persons in authority, or American traditions. The list can go on and on. As I told the students, “Everything offends somebody; everybody is offended by something.”

Flower’s last statement is one of the main reasons I feel that book banning and censorship can be so dangerous in the larger context. If everything that offended someone became banned, then there simply wouldn’t be anything left.

Certain books that have been under fire are ones that make the biggest difference in one’s life. Many books that have been my favorites throughout my school years have turned up on banned book lists, including The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Blubber, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, A Day No Pigs Would Die, among others. A few of these books are still yet my favorite books of all time, and I feel that literature such as these, even ones meant for a much younger audience, can make better people, and by that mean I think they can raise awareness and tolerance, as well as teaching life lessons.

Judy Blume, who to me is the author of some of the most harmless books, has five books on the 100 most frequently challenged list, according to Banned by the Numbers.

Herbert Foerstel, author of Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries, said that Blume’s books tend to be targeted because of their “true-to-life descriptions of the common fears and modest triumphs of adolescent girls”. Blume herself remembers a time after she’d written Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. A woman called and asked her if she was the author, to which Blume said yes. The woman called her a communist and hung up. Blume said that at the time she was personally hurt, but now she realizes “that this is something much bigger than any kind of personal attack on any one of us.”

According to Foerstel, Blume said that book banning had been going on for a long time, but in the 1980s after the election of Reagan, it grew. She said that she felt lucky that she’d written all of those books that are now being challenged before the controversy got worse.

She stated, “Aside from the phone call I mentioned, I really had no early contact with any of the book banners. They weren’t yet organized the way they are now. The major censorship groups that now exist didn’t exist then….Today it is organized in a way that is much more dangerous. I feel badly for the children because it sends a message to them that there is something wrong with reading, that we don’t want them to read this book because there’s something in it that we don’t want them to know.”

I myself, being someone who read Judy Blume books in my own adolescence, am horrified at the reasons those books are banned. As a sixth grader, when I read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I found the book to be easy to relate to, entertaining and reassuring. The supposed communist qualities it contains must’ve floated over my young, inexperienced, pony-tailed head. On any note, I doubt they really existed in the first place. If my own memory serves me correctly, the main character, Margaret, prays to God that she may be blessed with breasts and her menstrual cycle like some of her classmates. God apparently doesn’t answer her prayers right away because she remains the same skinny little girl that she was before, and so as a result, she questions God as to whether he was listening to her, or even that he exists. Seeing as communism in many minds is associated with godlessness, this was the closest to communism as I could remember in that book.

When Blume was asked if it took courage for her to write candidly about topics such as menstruation which weren’t previous covered in books for that age level, she replied, “It was not courage. It was naivety. I had absolutely no idea that I was writing a controversial book. There was nothing in it that wasn’t part of my sixth grade experience.”

As a possible future educator, I personally don’t feel the need to shelter my potential students from what is known as a normal sixth-grade experience.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret wasn’t the only book that was challenged for it’s communist qualities (among other reasons). Lancto said that George Orwell’s Animal Farm rates among the most censored books. It was banned from a Florida school in 1987 and in a Georgia school from 1979-1982 for it’s political theories. It was been frequently challenged by New York State because a 1968 survey stated that Orwell was a communist. In 1963, it was challenged in Wisconsin only because it contained the phrase “masses will revolt”. I find it ironic that another book by Orwell, 1984, discusses a society in which censorship rules. I’m sure the phrase “masses will revolt” would be banned in the Big Brother society as well. I’m sure Orwell knew what he was doing when he wrote all about it.

There are also many cases in which books are banned because of religious issues, usually that they are labeled as blasphemous or anti-Christian. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret also fell into that category. Lancto, from Banned Books, discussed how Lois Lowry’s The Giver, written in 1993 and winner of the Newberry Medal, is on the ALA’s list of 100 most frequently challenged books. It has been charged with using offensive language, being violent, and being sexually explicit. Lancto said that University of Pittsburgh student Justin Chalker said that he once overheard a substitute librarian call The Giver blasphemous, and Chalker said that he concluded that “removing the book was a pretense to serve other means, those of control and conformity which, ironically, are deftly addressed in Lowry’s book”. He also said that doing so is not protecting the children, but instead is stunting their social growth and manipulating them. He said, “By constricting the breadth of education, especially exposure to controversial literature, the…community hindered the student’s ability to address and understand real world issues.”

Also challenged for religious issues, the increasingly popular Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling, which was mentioned earlier, has been banned around the country for it’s saturation of wizardry, witchcraft and other magic. As we all know, any of the Harry Potter series were not the first to introduce such things. Lancto says that the first example of a book containing witchcraft was the Bible, and he also mentions other non-banned texts such as the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and other instances such as The Wizard of Oz or Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I would have to agree. Throughout my life I’ve encountered many books (and also television programs, for that matter), which have contained wizardry and/or witchcraft. The Sword and the Stone comes to mind, in which a wizard named Merlin exists who exercises all sorts of magical powers. When it comes to creative stories of magic being persecuted because of just that, then imagination itself may be a crime. Behind these stories of tales of friendship, love and loyalty, all of which I feel override the supposed glorification of witchcraft and other “blasphemous qualities”.

Foerstel, bringing up another example of religious issues in banning, mentioned a case in 1986, at Graves County High School in the state of Kentucky. A sixteen-year old boy came home and informed his mother he was asked to read a book about reincarnation. She concluded the book, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, was an example of “secular humanism”. The mother, Mrs. Hill, at first accepted the assignment of a new book, but changed her mind when she decided the other students needed protection from the dangerous content of As I Lay Dying. It was said that the book was “the kind of book you’d pick up in a backways place and read”. Many passages from the book were criticized. One passages, coming from the son of a dying woman was, “If there is a God, what the hell is he for?” The book also contained words like “bastard”, “goddamn” and “son of a bitch”, which the board members labeled as unchristian and therefore they were trash and filth. Mrs. Hill called her actions “the hand of God working in a few people” because she wanted to protect the children from such “blasphemy”.

First of all, I find this disturbing because of the our nation’s supposed upheld belief in freedom of religion. If books are being banned because they aren’t upholding Christian beliefs, then where does that fall in under the Constitution?

Lancto also discusses that the themes of books are sometimes challenged because they are simply misinterpreted. He recalled Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal, which sparked an outrage because readers weren’t able to transcend the literal meaning. He said that a pacifist minister made the suggestion to “raise Irish babies to feed the wealthy British”, and there as a storm of protestors who took him literally and therefore ended up challenging the very book itself.

For some time now, I’ve wondered if that just isn’t the underlying case in the majority of book challenges. Sure, sexually explicit material and objectionable language may not seem appropriate for young students, but I think the issue lies within how others interpret what these so-called objectionable scenes may mean or represent. I cannot judge people for misunderstanding something because we all do it, but I find that deliberately robbing students of their education because of a mistake is unforgivable.

Lancto also brought up an interesting twist in banning, which I’d never encountered. He said that there were cases in the past where parents would object to books that promote racial and/or social equality because they want to preserve the superiority they’d instilled in their children. An example is To Kill A Mockingbird and with this particular book there are still cases in which this happens. I find this worrisome because then it turns into a mystery of whom to trust when it comes to these important issues.

On that same note, there are also cases of book challenges in which the challengers didn’t even read the particular book in question. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an example. Lancto said that there have been numerous challenges because it contains issues with community values, because it was deemed too frank and revealing for students, and also because it contains “four-letter words and other undesirable content.” The particular challenge based on the “four-letter words” was unsuccessful because the board couldn’t find the particular “four-letter words” mentioned and it was proven that the challenger had never actually read it after all.

In the article Banned Books, Diane Ravitch is quoted as saying in her new book The Language Police; How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, “Pressure from people opposed to having young people exposed to things that might disturb or challenge anyone has led to an appalling dumbing down of textbooks”.

These things that might disturb or challenge anyone are labeled as “bias”. However, nowadays “bias” means “anything in a test item that might cause any student to be distracted or upset”. According to that definition, literally anything may be considered “bias”.

Lancto also brings up fairy tales, which many would consider safe territory. However, Digital Library reports that two schools in the state California banned Little Red Riding Hood because the fact that Little Red Riding Hood herself carries cake and wine to her grandmother condones the use of alcohol by minors. Even Shel Silverstein’s poems, which are generally thought of as creative, whimsical and even silly, aren’t safe. Where the Sidewalk Ends was accused of “undermining parental, school and religious authority, as if reading silly poems will incite children to mutiny”.

Censorship is especially tricky because some may not realize what else they are censoring besides the bad things they see. Lancto says people from both ends of the spectrum demand that publishers shield children from ideas, words and other content that contain what they deem the ‘wrong’ models for living. I would have to agree that it’s a wrong assumption to think that by limiting what children read, they can change society to reflect their worldview. It’s a problem because “we are systematically failing to introduce the younger generation to the writers who might enlarge their imaginations, enrich their emotional lives, and challenge their settled ways of thinking.”

Moreover, such censorship may gives children the wrong ideas about the books they are shielded from. As in the case of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is said that the “most unfortunate result of banning these books is not that millions of youngsters will miss the boys’ antics and the chance to vicariously enjoy the boys’ freedom, nor that they will be deprived of an American treasure and excluded from understanding an allusion to getting someone to whitewash your picket fence. The real tragedy is that they will remember Mark Twain as a racist, instead of experiencing Jim’s goodness and Huck’s attitude toward Jim…”

It has been said that if there is a place for so-called “disturbing” books, then it’s in the class with a teacher who will guide students and help them understand these books” in context, identify satire and metaphor, and help make sense of the work.” Otherwise, the challenges for these “disturbing books deny the opportunity for critical inquiry”.

As for parents, I think it’s their own naivety that results in some book challenges. An example would be sexual content. It seems that some parents have this belief that their children know nothing about sex, and that they never think of it. Lancto discussed this as well when he said that some books have credibility with young readers because they use language and scenes that “reflect how kids talk and what they think about.” It is thought that young readers such as teens are much more likely to take such content in strike and those kinds of books assures them that they are in fact normal.

I feel that censorship has been carried too far. Judy Blume once said that adults are now being suspicious of the books that kids enjoy. It saddens me to think that younger readers are being persecuted for reading what may possibly be changing their lives for the better. Like Helen Flowers said earlier, “Everything offends somebody; everybody is offended by something.” If we are to continue basing what is banned and what is not banned on what simply offends someone, eventually there may be very little if anything at all left for our eager-to-learn readers in the future.

Works Cited

“Banned Books by the Numbers.” Publishers Weekly 252.38 (2005).

Flowers, Helen. F. “Inquiring Students Want to Know: Who Tries to Ban Books and Why?” Book Report 13.5 (1995).

Foerstel, Herbert N. Banned in the U.S.A. : A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Westport: Praeger, 2002.

Lancto, Craig. “Banned Book.” World & I 18.9 (2003): 01-17.

Micklos Jr., John. “It Can Happen to You.” Reading Today 13.1 (1995).

Written by TobiasLuciaStarr
Freelance Writer

select: More Religious Books Articles

Using Facebook To Promote Your Book

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If you have ever had any doubts regarding the value of social networking for free book promotion, think about the vast number of artists who have used the internet to promote their work and their success.  And of course, we all know that, “nothing succeeds like success”  Building a Facebook fanbase can help spread the word about your work and generate sales like crazy, so take a moment to review some of the following suggestions for using Facebook to enhance your promotion efforts. 

About Facebook:

Facebook is constantly evolving, so if you choose to use it, be sure to regularly monitor your pages to be sure that the information displayed is accurate.

Pages are free and customizable and allow you to use html, Flash, and some specially tailored applications to your pages.

Once your page is built and you have begun to add applications, you can add both friends and “fans”, and you can send unlimited e-blasts, so that they will know about your book, release date(s), appearances, contests, etc.

“Fans” of your page cannot invite others, they can only “share” your page with their friends through their Page or News Feed.

All of the marketing tools (called Applications) on Facebook are free to registered users, and you should take advantage of all of them, beginning with your Profile Page. 

This is the page that you have the most control over, so logically, this is where you will begin to “brand” yourself.  Use the Personal Info, Work, Info, Photos, Links, and other applications to connect with other reader and writer friends.

Keep It Real – if you are not interested in associating your identity with your page and leave a lot of blank spaces, you will not generate the traffic your want for your book(s).

People using Facebook tend to “cruise” their friends’ pages, looking at others and often extending friend requests, translating into a ton of traffic to your Profile page – and views of your book.

Start a Facebook Group.  Building a Group will give you a meeting place for readers, partners, and friends to come together around your book. 

Groups come with boards and are perfect for posting discussions, videos, photos, and other links.  Messages and news updates can be sent directly to member inboxes.

Groups are free, and you can create as many as you want.

Group members can invite friends to join your Group, using a built-in invitation feature.

Your Group name will show up on all member profile pages for as long as they remain in your Group.  Because profile pages are highly trafficked, this Group name link can generate tons of traffic for your Group page.

Group owners have the ability to e-blast messages to group members.  Currently, you can blast up to 1,500 messages at a time.  The down side of this feature is that if your Group is super popular, you will have to spend a fair amount of time avoiding spammers.

FacebookApplications can be used to promote and support all of you book sales efforts.  Among the ones that you will find most useful are:

Events– used to promote and manage marketing events like book releases, contests, and/or public appearances, this application also helps keep track of invitations, invitees, and RSVPs.
Marketplace– this is basically a classified listing service. You can post an ad to buy or sell a product (like your book) in any of your networks for free.  Postings in multiple networks will cost you one dollar per listing.  And again, Facebook aggressively guards against spamming.  Spammers will have their accounts deleted and their ads removed.
Messages– This is like email, but offers no way to search, sort, filter, or prioritize messages.  Senders can message anyone, even if you have no other connection with that person, but be aware that Facebook has a high degree of spam protection.  If you use your account to send messages to large numbers of users that you have no connection with, Facebook’s automated anti-spam systems will shut down your account.
Share– This application lets you promote any Group, Event, Photo, Link, or other Application you come across on anyone else’s page by showing it in the Posted Items list on your profile page, or by sending it directly to your friends’ Inbox. 
Networks– These are Group pages for everyone involved in an Educational, Work, or Geographic network.  Anyone can post Comments and Events here.  Be careful to avoid making all of your posts singularly focused – it will be considered spamming.  If you post pictures, don’t only post your book, you holding your book, your book sitting on a chair, you sitting on a chair holding your book, you in a blue shirt holding your book …  You get the idea.
Mini Feed – When Facebook users join your group, leave messages on your message boards, RSVP to your event, become fans of your page, or share your photos, Facebook will automatically add a feed item to the user’s Mini Feed. That feed item will be displayed for all to see, in a prominent location on the user’s Profile page.
News Feed– This application picks up where the Mini Feed leaves off.   News Feed takes up a large portion of the login landing page, and collects each user’s friends’ Mini Feeds into a stream of Recent News – displaying each Mini Feed on hundreds of pages.

Written by Fitwryter
Contemprary Romance Novelist

How To Write Book Reviews

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The best advice is to jump immediately into media res, Latin for ‘the middle of things’. Of course, you can see the introduction as a kind of invitation, a little ranting is permissible here if you don’t get carried away by it.

You set the tone of your article, the readers get to know what to expect in the following text. Some How to . . . books tell you to ‘put some humour in‘. Where should it come from? Either you’ve got it or you haven’t. If you’re a dry customer, write in a dry way, at least you’re genuine, and then, there’re also non-humourous readers about, maybe they’re grateful for the way you write and enjoy not having to endure artificial merriment.

In order to lead your readers into the book review you can tell them how the book has come into your possession, this can make for a funny or absurd paragraph. Or you can start with a short summary of a review you’ve disliked and can promise to set things straight in yours. Another possibility is to describe what the book has done to you in a positive or negative way, describe your rapture or your disillusion, from there you can go on to prove that the sensation you’ve experienced is the only logical one. In case you suffer from writer‘s block, you can write the introduction later, maybe it’ll come naturally when the rest of the review has been written.

Some reviewers use subheadings and print them in a special way to draw the readers’ attention to them: THE AUTHOR, THE PLOT, THE STYLE. I don‘t like this much, if you do this, your text doesn‘t flow smoothly but is interrupted repeatedly. The important thing, however, is that your review has a structure and you don’t jump around and back and forth. A book review should deal with the author, the plot and the style, the order in which you do this is up to you.

Let’s begin with the author. You don’t know anything about him/her, you just read the book and saw the name for the first time and therefore can’t write anything? It’s not forbidden to use the internet, you can even state where you‘ve found the info. Rewrite what you find so that it fits stylistically into your review.

Story or plot? What’s the difference? E. M. Forster explained it in his book ‘Aspects of the Novel’ “We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. ‘The king died and then the queen died’, is a story. ‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief’, is a plot…If it is in a story we say ‘and then?’ If it is in a plot we ask ‘why?’ It’s up to you if you want to tell your readers the story or the plot. How much should you tell? Better be short, don‘t write too much about the plot and never, ever, give away the ending! Concentrate on the ideas, on what the book is really about and give your readers your personal opinion.

You can use quotations if you feel that the author’s words are more precise than your paraphrase, but don’t overdo it.

What is there to say about the style of a book? Style has to do with choice of words and sentence structure. Is there a lot of direct speech or do descriptions predominate? Does the author use the first or the third person perspective, are the protagonists characterised directly or indirectly? Is the book an easy read, ‘one of the kind you leave behind you on a plane‘, or must you concentrate to understand its meaning? I for one am interested in such details.

When you’ve come to the end of your review, don’t finish abruptly, a conclusive sentence rounds it off. State again your appraisal or damnation, if you’ve argued logically the reader will now understand your point of view.

Written by MALU
I’m a German teacher of English and Italian and live in Germany.

Career paths to take with an education degree

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EDUCATION DEGREE IS KNOWLEDGE

There are various career paths followed by many individuals from the knowledge they gain from different sources. They achieve knowledge to obtain a job or make a career from their elders generally. The other way is to get a kind of knowledge from educational institutions. One among them is an education degree’ with a language most appropriately English and other subjects of arts and science. This degree generally does not encourage professionalism like practicing engineering or medicine.

CAREER PATH IS SKILL

You have acquired the degree in education after a few years of collegiate study. Now, you need to think about as many career paths as possible with this education degree. You need to sharpen the knowledge and convert it into a skill for the selected career.

CAREER PATHS ARE MANY

There are many career pathways that are available and some could be created with the essence of the subject.

English language is to write well, speak well and teach well.

1. Write well to become a writer.
You can take up the career path of a journalist. When you can adopt this principle, you will become a writer. You can write social need based articles and publish in daily news papers and weekly magazines.

2. You should be in a position to write educational books and guides for the students belonging to higher education in schools. You can write educational books on English prose, poetry, grammar and essays, non-detailed stories and novels.

3. If you are born with a special talent, you will become a lyrics writer and a poet too. You can write lyrics for television serial dramas and songs for cinemas.

4. You will start publishing of articles
in news papers, e-books on line and printed books offline for distributing them in book stores. You will help the web designers in bringing out good contents for their sites.

5. You will become copy writer for advertisements. You can start writing catch words, phrases, and slogans for creating advertisements in radios, televisions posters, banners, hoardings and news papers.

6. Speak well to become a school teacher. You will take up the noble career path of a teacher. It is a great service to the mankind and his perpetual in civilizing them and creating an atmosphere for their life on earth.

7. Speak well and practice further to become a public speaker or an orator in forums. You can take up any kind of job related with public speaking. You can be a political speaker, literary orator, and spiritual preacher.

8. You will become an interview conductor in television and radio and as well act as a host in performing events. A good speaker could take a career path of an executive manager of sales and marketing
in a big company too.

OPPORTUNITIES MANY

These are all opportunities one can create with the education degree or the knowledge obtained from the education degree college. He should settle with the most suitable prospective
among all the opportunities available now. The need is to sharpen his skill towards the career he prefers to carry on.

Written by pnkguru

The Six Minute Book Summary of The Book, Rich Dad?s Prophecy, by Robert T. Kiyosaki With Sharon L. Lechter

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This book is about a guy named Robert whose best friend’s dad went through life teaching Robert and his son everything they need to know about being financially set. Rich dad, as he is referred to in the book, predicts that there is going to be the biggest stock market crash in history, so he is preparing Robert and his son to be ready for when it happens. Rich dad is a very successful investor and he is very knowledgeable. He not only wants to teach Robert how to be a successful investor but he also wants to help him build the right character, to be a warrior.

Rich dad calls Robert out on the mismanagement of his business and makes him understand he is not running the business the way it should be. Robert takes rich dads advice and takes all the necessary actions to fix what he had messed up on. Robert has a lot of time to try and figure out who he is as a person and what he wants out of his life. He refuses to be an employee for anyone so he knows he has to educate himself to be able to move on. During this time, rich dad teaches Robert about ERISA, defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, and how to build a financial ark to weather the perfect storm that is soon to come. Rich dad also talks about how the government is pushing the problems they have now onto the next generation to deal with which is only going to make things worse. Medicare is adding to the problem as well.

Rich dad explains to Robert that there are four types of people, there are employees, self-employed or small business owners, big business owners, and investors. He also mentions that there are three different classes of people. There is rich, middle class, and poor and rich dad explains what each class invests their time and efforts in which makes them the class that they are. All this information just makes Robert realize even more that he wants more for himself because he wants to be in the rich class as an investor or business owner. He realizes that he needs to be academically, professionally, and financially educated as well as invest his time and efforts into everything that the three classes invest their time in so he can ultimately reach the rich class. After six months of Robert facing the real world after the loss of his business, he finally is getting back on his feet and working with different business partners and even helped out at his old company for a little while. Now rich dad is stressing to Robert the things he needs to do to build his financial ark. The book ends with rich dad telling Robert about the goals he should strive to follow and how to handle himself while putting his ark together.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Rich Dad’s Prophecy

Below is a list of lessons learned by the author that I feel all managers can profit from by knowing. This list may seem like common sense but many people seem to overlook these things, this list is directly quoted from the book:

Friends do not always make good business partners.

A company can be profitable and still be in serious financial trouble.

It’s the little things, like not having enough thread that can stop the whole business.

People do not always pay their bills, which means you cannot always pay your bills. People do not like when you do not pay them.

Patents and trademarks are important aspects of a successful business.

Loyalty can be fleeting.

It is essential to have accurate financial records and accounting.

You need a strong management team and a strong team of professional consultants such as lawyers and accountants.

It costs a lot of money to build a business.

It’s not the lack of money that kills a business. It’s more the lack of business experience and lack of personal integrity.

FULL SUMMARY

A Change in the Law… A Change in the Future

            The book begins with the author, Robert Kiyosaki, and “rich dad” talking about the success of Robert’s business. It seems as Robert is doing well with his business until rich dad looks at Robert’s financial statements. Rich dad is very unhappy with what he sees because he realizes that Robert actually owes his employees money and is in debt. Yes, Robert’s company may be getting sales orders but if there is no money coming in to pay for the resources needed to complete these orders then where is the success in that. Robert blames it on not getting collections on any of his receivables. The accounts are 120 days passed due and not much is being done to collect on them. This makes rich dad pretty furious and he explains to Robert the importance of being a responsible business owner and how he is being a thief by not paying his employees while he is driving around in nice cars and wearing fancy suits pretending everything is okay. Robert eventually owns up to the mismanagement of his business after being lectured to by rich dad in his office for a few hours. Robert takes what rich dad says into consideration and begins to truly take care of business. He goes back to his company and has a meeting with his partners about what needs to be done to start making things right. Beginning with a heart-to-heart and ending in a heated argument, the decision is made. Robert and his partners will no longer own their business. He starts making an effort to collect money from the people that owed him and for the ones who did not pay, he sent them off to the collection agency to take care of. Robert takes what money he received and pays as many of his employees and investors as he can, explains to them the situation, apologizes, and takes this as a hard earned lesson.

The Law that Changed the World

Rich dad and Robert go out to lunch and examine all the business executives and important people who are in the restaurant as well. Rich dad tells Robert how all of these so-called successful businessmen will end up with nothing because they are too caught up with what is going on right now instead of worrying about what is going to happen when they want to retire. Robert is confused as of why, so rich dad explains ERISA, which stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA made 401ks possible and was passed to help protect employees’ retirement money from abuse by their business owners. An employer has to match whatever the employee puts into their 401k, but it ended up benefiting employers more so because the dollar amount employers had to contribute to their employees was now significantly reduced and not to mention, if the employee didn’t contribute anything at all then neither does the employer. Going back to the executives in the restaurant is what rich dad was trying to explain to Robert, that all of those business people would rather have more money in their checks now and weren’t educated on the facets of ERISA. Rich dad then went into explaining the difference between Defined Benefit plans and Defined Contribution plans and how ERISA is going to cause a transition from DB to DC plans, He also said that so many people are unaware of this difference and that by all of these people being financially uneducated is what’s going to cause the biggest stock market crash in history.

DB plan- A retirement plan that defined the benefit or the dollar amount a retired person would receive. It is based on the number of years an employee worked for a company and when they retired they would receive a certain amount every single month from the company.

DC plan- A retirement plan that is defined by the contribution. A worker’s retirement is only as good as the contribution, if there is any at all.

Are You Ready to Face the Real World?

            Robert is trying to find himself and how he wants to live his life from this point on. He talks to a lot of people and realizes most people want that “safety” in their job and would rather be miserable in a secure well-paying job then risk not having the security or financial means. This is very understandable to Robert but that is not how he is thinking he wants his life to be. He has nothing right now due to the loss of his company and everything he once had. Robert’s real dad tried to offer him what little he could but Robert refused to accept any of it because his dad didn’t have much either and would soon be out of money as well. Robert then decided he did not want to end up like his dad so he decided to go back to school and become educated in what most people do not study. After so long of not having a job and sometimes not even being able to eat, Robert received a phone call from an old friend about a management-level job that paid well, had great benefits, a big expense account, and promise for advancement. Robert was ecstatic, he went to the many interviews and was one of the three remaining candidates the company had selected. Instead of feeling good Robert began feeling really bad inside, he was thinking I am just like my dad. Robert didn’t want to be interviewing for any job, he did not want to be an “employee” to any one.

The Nightmare Begins

The Enron scandal is covered in this chapter, it talks about the different magazine articles about the incident of who’s pointing fingers at who, and how and why it happened. The booms and busts of the stock market are briefly discussed as well as a statement made by Warren Buffett, who is reportedly America’s richest and smartest investor, he says that “Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those that know what they’re doing”. Warren isn’t saying that you shouldn’t diversify, he just doesn’t, and if you are financially educated you understand why. This book is constantly making the point of how important financial education is. Rich dad firmly believes that the main reason we will have the biggest stock market crash in history is from the lack of financial education in people. Another scary thought rich dad brings up to Robert is how so many people are can become a financial planner or financial advisor just by a two-week course that gives them a certification. He said there are very few financial advisors that actually know what they are talking about and went to a real school to learn every aspect about it. Most of these financial advisors that receive their two-week certification are just trying to sell the products of the firm they are working for, have no clue what they are talking about, and do not care what you financial future holds.

What Are Your Financial Assumptions?

Robert dedicates this chapter to the term “assume”, we all know what happens when we assume things and Robert is just trying to stress that you must never assume anything in life, whether financially or in general. Always ask questions, even to yourself. He talks about different circumstances that occurred because he assumed things. He mentions how some so-called financial planners tell you to do this, that, and the other with your money without even finding out more about you and your financial past, or whether you have any knowledge about finance to begin with. Rich dad refers to these financial planners giving you this generic advice as “fast-food financial planning.” So make sure you do not assume the person you are listening to to decide your financial future knows what they are talking about. Find a trusted source, and just because it may be a huge firm doesn’t necessarily mean they know what they are doing or that they care.

Just Because You Invest Does Not Mean You Are an Investor

Rich dad felt one of the biggest flaws in ERISA was that it forced people who are not investors to invest. These people think just because they invest money in something they are an investor, but a true investor actually receives money on a regular basis from their investment. Rich dad believes there are four types of people: an employee, a self-employed or small business owner, a big business owner, and an investor. Robert mentions three real reasons why rich dad saw the coming of the biggest stock market crash in history, which are the fact that there will be a market sell-off caused by baby boomers converting to cash, the cost of living and medical costs will go up, and the number of fools will increase.

Everyone Needs to Become an Investor

Rich dad tries to explain to his employees the importance of investing, especially for their retirement but none of them really seem interested. Robert is confused by this so rich dad explains how they are more worried about their checks being bigger now then wanting to take some out each paycheck for their 401k. Rich dad talks about the three classes of people and what each class “invests” their time and interest in and why that makes them part of that class. Rich dad also explains the three different types of education being, academic education, financial education, and professional education. He feels it is extremely important to be educated in all three.

The Cause of the Problem

The cause of the problem is all of the symptoms combined that will lead to the coming stock market crash. Symptoms such as ERISA, Enron, social security problems and Medicare. It talks about how bad off the social security system is, and that when it comes to my generation needing it, it most likely won’t be there even though we constantly contribute to it. ERISA is passing the problem on to the next generation. Every new generation gets punished for the old generation, so the problem is just getting worse and worse. It talks about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and how America might be the next Argentina. Argentina used to be a rich industrial powerhouse but within a few years it became a poor, debt-ridden, bankrupt nation with a weak currency. It is a possibility that this could happen to American in 20-30 years unless Americans are willing to face the problem honestly and allow people and business to solve the problem once and for all instead of pushing it on to the next generation to deal with.

The Perfect Storm

The movie The Perfect Storm was used to compare the beginning of the coming of our perfect financial storm starting in the year 2000. Rich dad was watching certain changes occur that he felt will help fuel the perfect storm. These changes were that millions will be left destitute in old age, medical care will get even more expensive, terrorism will increase, Japan, currently the world’s second largest economy, is on the brink of financial collapse and depression, China will become the world’s largest economy, the world population will continue to age, Wall Street is obsolete, and big corporations are losing the public trust and failing. Rich dad also talks to Robert about the “chicken coop”, that people inside of the chicken coop want a secure job, a steady paycheck, great benefits and a secure retirement. Life outside of the chicken coop is strong, optimistic, vibrant, and filled with more opportunity than ever before. Living outside the coop is not settling for less, you are your own boss and you make things happen for yourself.

How Do You Build an Ark?

Rich dad said, “Everyone has the ability to build a financial ark to survive and flourish in the future. But you must invest time in your financial education to build an ark with a solid foundation.” You must decide how big you want your ark to be and you need to seriously commit to increasing your financial education. Savers are losers and you are not going to get nothing more than a life preserver out of that. When you want to build a big ark, a rich ark, you need to be knowledgeable in every financial aspect and you need to stay on top of all of your financial statements and billing.

Controls of Building Your Ark

The most important control of all is to take control over yourself and how you manage your money. If you can do that, you can build a rich ark and capitalize wisely. You must also be able to control your emotions. Warren Buffett often says, “If you cannot control your emotions you cannot control your money.” Rich dad has a similar statement, “Money is an emotional subject. If you cannot control your emotions, your emotions will control your money.” Education will reduce your fear thus making your more confident and patient so your fears about money and investing will start to disappear. You need to keep control over your excuses, because according to rich dad, “excuses are the words coming from the loser in you.” Your vision should be determined and optimistic, decide what you want for your future and make all the necessary changes to make it happen, simply put. Keep control over your advisors, as mentioned before you have to absolutely trust them. Remember you are the captain of your ark so, ultimately the decision is yours. Manage your time wisely. Invest in becoming an investor. Rich dad can’t stress enough the absolute need for financial education. Invest some of your time finding the long and short term reasons why you want to learn something, invest some time in learning the technical knowledge required to achieve your goals, and invest some time learning via real life trial and error.

            Rich dad suggests that as captain of your ark you need to follow these goals: always make sure you keep your word, keep an open mind and your ears tuned for change, learn to read financial statements, use technology, watch for bigness (when mutual fund companies, real estate, and careers become to big, they are about to decline or be replaced by something or someone new), watch for changes in the law, watch for inflation, and pay close attention to government’s handling of its social programs.

VIDEO  LOUNGE

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIpkMDj5Hvc&feature=related

This video is of Robert Kiyosaki himself explaining the four points that business owners and investors need to live by. That is to have a good partner, make sure price equals value because you don’t want to buy high and sell low, be financially educated and financially stable, and make sure you manage all of your decisions wisely. A weakness in any of these points can be detrimental to all of the points as a whole.

PERSONAL INSIGHTS

I think the author is one of the most brilliant people around because he had some truly insightful information that kept me intrigued. Reading this book was a wake up call that seriously makes me want to get financially educated and start preparing my “ark” so I have safety from the “storm” and for my retirement. I know things are getting worse and I know a lot of people aren’t concerned like they should be. Rich dad and Robert made some extremely good points that are now drilled into my head and I trust what they have mentioned because they are both very successful and well off.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

I would have given a more detailed way of how to start preparing your financial ark.

I would have explained a way to start your own business on limited financial means.

I would have provided my opinion on what I think would be the best investment.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

I now realize even more how the government is screwing us over and making the problem worse for the next generation.

I think differently about finance now because I realize it is imperative to become financially educated if you want to be able to retire.

I think differently about financial advisors because I question how much they really know and whether or not they are just using some sales pitch.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

This book has encouraged me to want to be a business owner and learn how to invest. I don’t want to be a person inside of the chicken coop. I want to be my own boss and have money coming in from several different investments.

This book has made me want to stay on top of changes in the law that could affect my job and my financial future.

This book has encouraged me to invest in a DC plan if my future employment offers it until I am able to own my own business.

Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

From Publishers Weekly

“When the first baby boomers celebrate their 70th birthdays in 2016, according to rich dad (the author’s financial mentor and father of his boyhood chum), a massive stock market crash will ensue. Joining half a dozen popular Rich Dad books, this volume continues Kiyosaki’s eloquent yet simple survival instructions to investors present and future. Kiyosaki’s wealth stems from lessons learned at rich dad’s balance sheets, and here he deftly illustrates those complex financial truths. He encourages readers-many of whom suffer from what he sees as the dismal lack of financial education in the school system-to understand factors such as ERISA, the investor-unfriendly retirement law for which rich dad vilified the government, and the overabundance of “white bread” financial advice for the masses. Wall Street has nothing to gain by smartening up investors, Kiyosaki warns, so it’s up to people to educate themselves. Those convinced that reading financial statements is an activity solely for the sophisticated and the moneyed will be reassured by Kiyosaki’s analogies-Noah’s ark is a primary one-as he colorfully covers a host of investing esoterica and scrutinizes details every investor should recognize. “Investing time when I had no time and investing money when I had very little money is what made me rich,” he says.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.”

“Rich Dad’s Prophecy is most certainly a must read book for anyone who has money invested, especially in 401 (k) plans. While some of the information in RDP is similar to Kiyosaki’s earlier books, the pension, retirement and 401 (k) is fresh, startling and hopefully alarming to anyone who plans on investing their money between now and 2016. 2016 is the year when the bulk of the baby boomers will be forced to liquidate their retirement funds. When this happens, a major stock market crash is expected (no kidding!) that surpass the bear market from 2000 to 2002.

Another problem is what kind of money will current savers have in their 401 (k)s? For example, before going into self employment, I worked in a local office for one of the top 6 banks in the USA and had been putting all I could into my 401 (k) savings plan. Despite this being one of the “Big 6″ Banks, matching by the bank was about average (and any matching reflected in reduced wages), options to invest in were pathetically weak and the bank would match us only with shares of Bank One stock.

After reading RDP and going into self employment, I rolled my 401 (k) into a self directed IRA with a brokerage firm. I now choose my investments between stocks, mutual funds and bonds or even Tax Liens, Discounted Mortgages and Real Estate. I’m in control, not my employer.

The only real benefit of a 401 (k) is the borrowing provision which unfortunately too many so called financial experts discourage. And after the Enron issue, who wants to have that much money in company stock?

Kiyosaki is alerting people and none too soon. I am certain that all of the one star reviews are from brokers, financial planners and benefits directors from companies that hope that you blindly follow their advice even it means not having anything for retirement. I cannot emphasize the importance of reading RDP and more importantly, following the advice. To repeat, Rich Dad’s Prophecy is definitely A MUST READ!”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editorial Reviews. Publisher’s Weekly. http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dads-Prophecy-Coming-Yourself/dp/0446530867

Volatyier. Eric. Reviews on Rich Dad’s Prophecy. http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dads-Prophecy-Coming-Yourself/dp/0446530867 28 Oct. 2003.

CONTACT INFORMATION

To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Rich Dad’s Prophecy, please email Jessica.erceg@selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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Written by David Wyld
Professor of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University