Author: Michael Ellsberg
Subjects: Success in Business; Practical Reason
Dewey Call Number: 650.1 E47E 2011
Number of Pages: 258 p.
Summary: At the back flap of the book, it says: “This book is your guide to developing practical success skills in the real world. Even if you’ve already gone through college, the most important skills weren’t in the curriculum-how to find great mentors, build a world-class network, learn real-world marketing and sales, make your work meaningful(and your meaning work), build the brand of you, master the art of bootstrapping, and more. Those are so-called success skills in the author’s words. The stories told in the book are successful ones made by those who don’t have college degrees. Each success skill is explained, taught, and exhibited by examples of those successful self-educated millionaires and billionaires. The importance of self-education is the primary point the author intends to “sell.”
My Read: I learned about this book from an article I came across from the Business Weekly Magazine’s website (www.businessweekly.com.tw) weeks ago. After reading this book, my feelings are mixed. Some nights, after closing the book, I would ponder upon the pages I perused and silently argue with the author. But sometimes, I had to accept what the author tried to sell and buy his ideas and words.
The part impressed me the most is the author’s view in the skill of success containing the following elements (p131):
1) The skill of marketing:
The best marketing is all about human connection on a genuine level (p115)
Marketing is all about listening to your audience (p125)
2) The skill of sales:
Sales is simply persuasive face-to-face communication (p129)
The tools are readily available to you. All you need is the will and drive. Learn how to sell by creating trusting relationship and everything else falls into Place (p150).
3) The skill of leadership:
Leadership boils down to the ability to change the hearts and minds of people.
It’s the skill of influence (p133).
Among the seven success skills the author sells, I would first buy “Build the brand of you.” What would make me a good librarian? This is a question I keep on asking myself ever since I became a librarian in the public library. Even before I read this book, the idea to build the brand of me already occupied my thought. Instinctively, as I left through the table content, this success skill caught my attention right away. Once I make up my mind have my hands, head, and heart on something, the pictures of the expected outcome are in my mind guiding me through possible and needed paths toward the target. Written resume only serves as reference for I, Mei-Wan, is the best walking resume, a brand you won’t ignore.
The second success skill appealing to me is the “Entrepreneurial mindset.” Most of us might hear the phrase before-the big picture, or the bigger picture. If attitude defines who you are then mindset is your brain, the master in charge. I really like the author’s saying of “If you want to help people, learn how to sell” (p143). To me, being a public librarian, not only do I have to serve the public, but I also have a social responsibility to fulfill. The best service, in my eye, is to educate the users. We don’t just fill their needs we introduce them what the public library has and tell them how to access the resources. In order to exercise my ideas and thoughts, I have to sell not only the services to the public, but also myself. What do I want to be? I have a dream: I want to be a librarian without boundary. There is this enterprise I would like to run and the product is ME. How kind of mindset does you possess? A question worth pondering, don’t you think so?
Through self-educating plus will and drive, one could achieve whatever one wants in her life. Being a public librarian, I totally agree the importance of self-education and the role it plays in a person’s success and sense of achievement. And public library is one of the best places connecting and bridging one to the path to success. Remember: information becomes knowledge and knowledge is transformed into wisdom.
It seems the author didn’t buy the value of formal education stating it’s a waste of time learning book smarts. Yet, to me, higher education is one’s buffering time to train oneself to be a better person. In addition to courses, projects, homework, and exams, there are plenty to learn from college life. For example, social skills from interacting with students and colleges faculties would have impact on one’s relationships. Books one reads, activities or clubs one gets involved, people one encounters on campus, all of these would influence one’s belief system and value of life. Success is not simply large number in one’s bank account, social status, or how powerful one is. Success and happiness are different things. One might be able to pursue success but happiness can’t be sought.
Happiness is YOU. The only person able to define happiness is YOU, the kind of happiness unique to YOU!!!
Possible Reads:
50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School--Charles Sykes
Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility—James Carse
How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything--Ken Robinson
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable--Seth Godin
SPIN Selling--Neil Rackham
No comments:
Post a Comment