5 comments about Creating Contagious Commitment: Applying the Tipping Point to Organizational Change.

1. In less than 200 pages, Dr. Shapiro provides an informative, engaging overview of change management concepts, principles and tactics. The inclusion of brief cases and summary graphics facilitate understanding and memorization of key points. As a management consultant and educator, I look forward to recommending this book to clients and students seeking practical information on making change work.



2. I heartily recommend this book to anyone seeking insight into the peculiarities of organizational/workplace change. It has helped me understand why so many workplace "initiatives" seem doomed to failure almost before they have been launched. More important, the author provides concrete examples of remedies to prevent these failures. The author's writing style is clear, jargon-free, and to the point. The examples she uses to illustrate her ideas are clearly stated, and interesting. I read this book after reading the "The Tipping Point" (forgot the author's name, sorry) and found this book to be an excellent companion piece. It beautifully illustrates how tipping point theory is not only relevent but directly applicable to the work place.



3. This is a 'must read' for anyone working with groups of people of any size in any organization. Great application for business, schools, churches, volunteers, anyone wanting to motivate people with a common goal, purpose, or vision.



4. You could sum all of this book's content in just one page, even one paragraph: Design processes on the basis of usability. Include in process design activities people who will use the process. If you don't convince people about the merits of a new process, they won't use it, worse they will sabotage it. Once the process catches momentum, it will spread quickly.
   
   Now, if you repeat this a thousand times with slightly different sentences, add a thousand "tipping point" phrases, a lot of tables and graphs of questionable use, voila, you have a book.
   
   It is a wonder to me how it got such a high rating.



5. Dr. Andrea Shapiro is a friend and colleague from the days when we were both employed by Nortel Networks, a telecommunications firm recognized for "delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, securing and protecting the world's most critical information."
   
   As I opened the pages of my newly acquired copy of "Creating Contagious Commitment" I was thrilled to see another friend, Helen Sims, provide testimony for this work.
   
   Andrea Shapiro's book: "Creating Contagious Commitment, Applying the Tipping Point to Organizational Change" provides valuable insight on how organizations can optimize their effectiveness through proved decision making.
   
   Dr. Shapiro provides a unique perspective to organizational change because while working for Nortel Networks we experienced only one constant force... change... Throughout many projects and initiatives, such as our global attempt to fine-tune the Supply Chain Management of Nortel, from Customers to suppliers, we learned first hand how to utilize the Tipping Point computer simulations, developed by Dr. Shapiro.
   
   Today, many of us still approach our jobs by utilizing the tools we developed, the strategies we learned to deal with the dynamics that underpin effective organizational change. Simply... best-in-class!

5 comments about New Insights on Covered Call Writing: The Powerful Technique That Enhances Return and Lowers Risk in Stock Investing.

1. an excellent guide to understanding covered call writing. as a retiree and never having written covered calls, i am convinced it is an opportunity for conservative investors offering potential returns competitive with stock ownership alone and better returns than those available on bonds. mr.lehman covers all aspects, from underlying stock selection, selecting good covered writes, web sites offering all sorts of data and even tax consequences as structured by IRS.



2. I liked this book and would recommend it to those interested in covered call writing. There are a few things to keep in mind while reading this book:
   
   1- McMillan is a very well established authority on option strategies, I remember reading his options books way back in 1984, when I was the local options specialist at Dean Witter. However, if you read his comments on covered call writing in his other books, he's much more guarded with his support than he is in this text.
   
   2- Nowhere in the book do the authors discuss the extreme increase in time and especially paperwork that is required to successfully implement this strategy. I've always thought of managing an equity portfolio as investing (mostly passive), managing covered call positions is more like work (trading takes lots of time and effort to do it right). That's OK, call writing also reduces risk and gives you a lot more control, but be prepared to invest a lot of your time.
   
   3- In my experience, most people really have a hard time with this strategy. Yes, it's easy to implement, but most dedicated options traders find this a bit too basic for their interests, and it ties up too much capital. Most equity investors have a hard time with the amount of work, loss of long-term capital gains impacts, tax reporting headaches and giving up some appreciation potential.
   
   4- The 20 stock study described in the book is very misleading. For some reason the positions with 163 months of data show covered writing (CW) underperforming a buy-and-hold (B&H) strategy by about 700 basis points. I don't know if this is due to a flaw in the data or something to do with option premiums in the early years of the study. Data from comparing
   CW returns to BH returns for periods less than 163 months show identical returns between the two strategies. This is consistent with results from more rigorous academic studies, which generally show underperformance of covered writing of 30 to 50 basis points. This is also consistent with my own experience. This makes sense, since covered writing is slightly to moderately less risky than buy-and-hold investing, the returns should be similar or slightly lower.
   
   5- I was amused at the author's description of how he traded a client account. Frankly, trading in the way described is not a viable approach to investing. Covered call and cash backed put writing is best used to hedge and to reduce the volatility of returns. That's a whole different ballgame from the way the author traded the account in the book.
   
   The people who usually succeed with covered call writing tend to be really good percentage thinkers, very organized at tracking and analyzing investment results, and good with the basic record keeping. Those who thrive at it really love it, but it's not for everyone.
   
   I wish the book would have addressed these issues. Also, there is a lot more strategy involved in managing a covered write portfolio than was discussed in this book. To my mind, the subject was over-simplified here. I think the book also should have spent more time suggesting cash-backed put writing, which is the sister strategy (and has equivalent risk and returns) to covered call writing.
   
   Still, it's a very good book, and one I recommend without hesitation. I'm a big advocate of covered call writing and cash-backed put writing for those who are willing to take the plunge.
   
   I also highly recommend The Conservative Investor's Guide to Trading Options by Leroy Gross (with a forward also by Larry McMillan).



3. This book is an excellent primer on one of the safest form of the options game, at least from the perspective of the brokerage industry. So, if you're bored with watching your portfolio creep around at a few percent a day, you can write (sell) a call option for $100 on a $5000 investment (for example) and have a pretty good chance of keeping the 2% at the end of the month. Lehman and McMillan do an excellent job of providing return formulae and web resources for further research. But the question remains: do you really want to get into this? (I admit it's addictive). If you do you'll turn into your own stock churner. The brokerage fees aren't too bad if you use one of the discounters, but get ready to do some major capital gains calculations (profits from unexercised options are all short-term capital gains). Here's a hint: this is NOT the way Warren Buffet got rich.



4. As I view it, there are two key questions relating to any complex investment strategy:
   
   1) Why? Why should I pursue this strategy versus my current (probably simpler) strategy?
   2) How? If the proposed strategy is indeed worthwhile, how can/should I implement it?
   
   This book does a reasonably good job of answering the second question, with details on how options work, and a discussion of things like getting approval to trade them, tax issues and the like. I'd read some similar material elsewhere (including CBOE's own site), but this book pulls together a lot of disparate information, and filled in some holes in my own somewhat meager understanding of the mechanics of trading options.
   
   However, showing HOW to trade options is not very important, IMO, if one cannot show WHY one should trade them in the first place.
   
   The book jacket is not very encouraging in this light - mentioning that "Returns of 10 to 15 percent per year in conservative accounts - and as much as 20, 40, or 60 percent per year in more aggressive accounts - are possible". Of course, like most investors, I would be thrilled to get 60 percent annual returns, but experience and reading have taught me that those advocating investment strategies and making claims of that magnitude are to be taken with a BIIIIIIG grain of salt.
   
   Within the book itself, sky-high claims like the above are (fortunately) not emphasized. But basically, three rationales are presented for covered call writing:
   
   1) Ability to obtain superior returns through knowledge of the future direction of a particular stock (i.e. if you think/know Microsoft will go up/down in the next month, then do XYZ...)
   
   2) Ability to use more leverage (there is a long discussion of how different scenarios are treated from a margin perspective, with an emphasis on controlling larger blocks of stock/options for a given starting investment)
   
   3) Reduction of risk, possibly without significant reduction of return
   
   Personally, I think that markets are reasonably efficient, and that I lack and real ability to outpredict the market with regards to returns on specific stocks (once I normalize for various risk characteristics). So rationale 1 above holds no appeal to me.
   
   I am also not interested in increasing the leverage of my portfolio, and further, if I was, I think there are probably simpler/cheaper/more efficient means of doing so other than writing covered calls.
   
   That leaves rationale 3, which was what sparked my interest in reading this book. The author briefly discusses the BXM - an index created by the CBOE in conjunction with some research showing that a buy-write strategy (owning a broad index and mechanically writing calls against it) produces about the same return as owning the index itself, but does so with significantly less risk/volatility. But the authors' discussion of this research is short - about two and a half pages, and gives minimal or no mention of some important issues:
   
   1) The BXM strategy involves writing calls every month. This will create a variety of costs - brokerage fees, spread/transaction costs, taxes, and time. While these factors may affect any mechanical strategy (including indexing itself), they are likely to be much more severe for the BXM strategy.
   
   2) The BXM strategy is a backtested strategy. It's relatively easy to find strategies that would have outperformed the market in the past, given what we know now (Consider the MICROSO strategy - buy at IPO any stock that begins with the letters MICROSO), but one should approach such strategies with caution. It's much harder to identify and implement strategies that will work for the FUTURE, and that are in fact proven to do so over the subsequent decade or two.
   
   3) The market itself may have changed. Writing options is relatively more attractive if call premiums are high. It appears, based on evidence presented in this book and elsewhere that I've seen, that call premiums have generally been higher than they *should* have been (per Black-Scholes). This, in turn, has made call-writing more profitable than it otherwise might have been. But markets change over time, and it's quite possible that call premiums might trend downward (or may have already done so), towards, or conceivably even below, 'true value'. I don't know if this is the case, but it's something for a potential investor to be concerned about, and isn't well addressed in the book.
   
   The authors' also conduct their own study looking at writing options on a basket of individual stocks. While the results are interesting, the study is flawed - they emphasize tech stocks, and in their limited pool of 20 companies studied, one they've chosen is Microsoft, starting in 1988! At that time, I think, Microsoft was a relatively small company (it had only gone public in 1986), and it seems unlikely that someone selecting a portfolio of 20 (hopefully representative) companies to own and write options on would have chosen Microsoft. For what it's worth, the study finds that a covered call strategy on Microsoft underperforms buy and hold in absolute returns, which should hardly be surprising (writing covered calls means giving up some upside, and Microsoft had a LOT of upside during the time period covered), though there are other stocks in the study for which the strategy had better results. But the basic problem is that the stocks selected seem unlikely to have been representative of what a conservative to moderate investor would have chosen at the beginning of the study, and thus it's not really possible to draw broad conclusions.
   
   ====
   
   OK, moving on... The book is now a few years old, and thus misses some recent market changes. There are several funds that now implement buy-write strategies, making it much simpler for investors to access these strategies (I don't *think* the authors mention any of these funds, but it's possible I've forgotten a brief mention somewhere in the book). From my brief inspection of the results of some of these funds, they haven't done very well so far, which bodes ill for individual investors thinking they can implement such a strategy on their own.
   
   Anyways, I've devoted a lot of pixels to picking at the book. In my opinion, it fails to prove that the strategy it advocates is a good one. However, that doesn't mean that the strategy ISN'T good, only that the book fails to prove things one way or the other. But if you're convinced by other evidence that covered call writing is a good strategy, or if you simply want to take your chances (I don't advocate the latter), then the book does at least offer a good overview of the mechanics involved. That's why I give it 3 stars...



5. Very good book on covered call writing. Gives alot of of basic info for beginners, as well as advanced techniques as well.

5 comments about Guerrilla Marketing for Financial Advisors.

1. I have implemented several of the ideas in Grant's book and my practice is booming. I have prospects calling me! What more can I say?



2. I have read numerous publications on building a successful financial planning practice. This is one of the better ones out there. This book is not only great at showing you creative and different ways to market your services, but also helps you put together a business plan and marketing plan that focuses on marketing. Some of the suggestions are brilliant and will definately help set you apart from the "typical" advisor. This is a great book to have close-by, and one that should definately be reviewed when creating your annual marketing plan.



3. This book offers no marketing tactics. It stresses honesty and friends. THANKS GUYS...That helps. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY! I can sum up the entire book in this next two sentences. "Our real marketing thoughts will be in our next book. This book is basically a teaser (like a movie preview), with no information and an exciting title."



4. I am an experienced Investment Advisor and thought that this book was an excellent read. I really enjoy how it provided many real-life examples and not just theory.
   
   A beginner would also find this book useful.



5. Good ideas for someone to think of if you want to start a business or already have one.

1 comments about A Bluestocking Guide: Economics.

1. Easy to understand what many think is a complicated subject, because it SEEMED complicated in my traditional Econ. books! Good for Jr. High to Adult in my opinion.

5 comments about Online Investing Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools (Hacks).

1. It seems like everyone is involved in investing in some form or another. While I always felt like I should be investing too, it was never clear to me how to begin this process. After all, it's my money. How can I be sure I'm investing in something that will provide some sort of reasonable return? This book is an excellent resource in answering some of those questions and putting the new investor on the right track.
   
   This book is written in the same format as the other "hacks" series by O'Reilly. This format is very easy to read, and the format makes it very easy to find answers. Rather then having to read the book from cover to cover, the reader can pick out topics they are dealing with, read the answer, and move on. Since many of the people interesting in a book of this nature will likely have little time, the book's format works to its advantage.
   
   The book begins with some basic introduction to the stock market and tips for selecting appropriate stocks or mutual funds. The whole middle section of the book deals with data analysis. The author discusses how to understand a company's balance sheet (e.g. what that P/E ratio means), how to spot companies in financial trouble, how to pick a good stock, and even how to trade. There is also a good discussion on minimizing the effect of taxes on your little return on investment.
   
   The author even goes further and gets into a discussion on financial planning. In addition to discussing debt reduction, the author also talks about IRA plans and different strategies for saving for your child's education expenses. I think my favorite part of this book was the discussion on different education savings plans. The author discusses the ins and outs (as well as tax consequences) of each of the plans, and provides some examples illustrating the fact that it's better to start saving earlier than later.
   
   This is an excellent book, not just for its investing advice, but also for its sound financial planning. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in increasing their wealth, saving for a rainy day, or simply saving for future financial goals.



2. Online Investing Hacks is an excellent introduction to the world of investment. Though the title does contain the word 'Online', I would say that the general information the book provides on investing is not limited to the online realm.
   
   Overall, I was very happy with the book, and found it incredibly useful. Though I do have several investments (401K, some stock, mutual funds etc) I would hardly consider myself an authority on the subject. This book provided very detailed explanations and tips on various forms of investment, from CD's to Index funds, and everything in between. While the experienced investor might not glean much from reading this book, anyone just getting started will find it an excellent reference, and resource.
   
   The format of the book is similar to the other books in the 100 * Hacks series published by O'Reilly. There are exactly 100 hacks, or topics, which are spread across 9 chapters. Each one is an individual entity and can be read and understood without reliance on any of the other hacks.
   
   One minor annoyance I had with the book is that it is geared toward those of you who, for some reason or another, run Microsoft's Windows OS, or have access to Microsoft Excel. Luckily, of the Excel examples that I played with, Open Office's Calc program handled them with minimal tweaking.
   
   I can easily recommend this book to anyone who wants to invest, but is unsure of what to invest in, or needs some tips on making the most of preexisting investments. Those of you who enjoy research and building your own stats and graphs will also find parts of this book rather intriguing, as it covers data acquisition and manipulation with Excel in great detail. It will make an excellent addition to my reference shelf, and I have a feeling it will be well thumbed through in a very short time.



3. Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore (O'Reilly) is one of those books that can pay for itself in short order, as well as over and over.
   
   Chapter list: Screening Investments; Hacking Excel for Financial Analysis; Collecting Financial Data; Analyzing Company Fundamentals; Technical Analysis; Executing Trades; Investing in Mutual Funds; Managing Your Portfolio; Financial Planning; Index
   
   I worked at Enron from 1998 through 2001, and spent plenty of time during that dot.com era following my stock portfolio. I watched my Enron stock value go from incredible value to a point where it cost more to sell the stock than it was worth. I won a few bets (face it, that's what they were) on a few dot.coms and lost many more. What could have been an incredible nest egg, isn't. This book would have been a lifesaver if I had read and paid attention to it a few years ago. Biafore shows you how you can analyze and invest wisely using a variety of tools available to everyone.
   
   If you're an Excel user, you'll find it an invaluable tool for analysis. She'll show you how you can use it to create financial charts (#13), calculate compound annual rates of growth (#26), and use rational values to buy and sell wisely (#36). #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis (using Enron as an example) would have literally saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars had I known about it. Even if you don't care about the investing tips, the hack on downloading data via Excel web queries (#7) was something I didn't know how to do (or that you could even do it!). The book has a little something for everyone.
   
   As with all Hacks titles, you probably won't be interested in every single item. Some may not be applicable to your situation or may be too complex for what you care to handle. But all it would take is one hack to work out and change your investing for this book to pay huge dividends. If you do your own investing, you owe it to yourself to get this book.



4. I've been trading for over twenty years, including a period as a floor trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. Even with that experience there are tips and tricks in this book I found useful to the point where I employ them daily. To be complete as a reviewer I will say there is a lot of pretty basic stuff from my point of view, but still well worth reviewing since some of it I had forgotten.
   
   Well written, easy reading, well organized



5. This book is clearly written and user friendly. Biafore gives links to information sources, making it easy for the reader to get more information on each of the hacks. These links alone are worth the price of the book.

2 comments about The World Is Your Oyster: The Guide to Finding Great Investments Around the Globe.

1. If we look at America and our own clouded financial future as a nation with problems such as, the dollar falling in value, mounting national debt, a disappearing manufacturing base and the continued worsening of the mortgage industry then looking for direct investments in foreign stock markets maybe the best way to diversify your portfolio and protect your wealth.
   
   "The World Is Your Oyster" by Jeff Opdyke is a nice clear introductory guide to the world of international investing. If you are looking for a get rich quick guide then this is not your book. The author introduces nothing dramatically new in the field of investing but what Mr.Opdyke does well is to break down his on personal experiences in finding international investment opportunities that the average investor will understand and learn from.
   
   His book consisted of 7 chapters and they take you through the nuts and bolts of setting up foreign brokerage accounts to trade on foreign stock exchanges, considering currency fluctuations when investing overseas and how to do your homework when searching for great stocks overseas. One of the most interesting chapters in the book explores the growth of China. But to be honest one chapter does not do the subject matter justice to fully express the potential growth and the complexities of this awakening giant.
   
   All in all, Mr. Opdyke does a good job at introducing the investor who has very little exposures to foreign markets. To the experienced international investor you many not learn anything new but this book is not targeted at this audience "The World Is Your Oyster," has taken away some of the mystery of direct foreign investing and I will be definitely looking at investment opportunities overseas very soon.



2. This book was a disappointment. The subject is of great interest. Opdyke's approach, however, appears to have been to surround a list of foreign securities brokers with a weak volume about investing. Moreover, he demonstrates a lack of understanding of fundamental tax issues and, therefore, misinforms his readers to their potential detriment.

5 comments about Private Mortgage Investing: How to Earn 12% or More on Your Savings, Investments, IRA Accounts and Personal Equity--A Complete Resource Guide with 100s ....Secrets From the Experts Who Do It Every Day.

1. Clark and Tabacchi have created a masterpiece of an educational and supportive tool that should become a desk reference for any investor from amateur through industry mogul. By providing the reader with an organized and easy to understand manual on the otherwise opaque investing industry, Clark & Tabacchi display their expertise in this subject matter by guiding the beginning investor through the processes of choice from traditional savings through stocks and bonds on to the lucrative market of Mortgage Investing.
   The explanation of the reasoning behind the private mortgage industry that tells you why you would want to find yourself in this industry gets the juices flowing and interests peaked. Your journey includes a thorough exposure to strategies of Mortgage Investing, this resource is a must have companion.



2. This book is straightforward and gives you a tremendous amount of information about investing in private mortgages. Unlike a lot of books of the investment genre, it does not try to sell you on services provided by the authors. In fact, I wish the book had a bit more reference material for making contacts to get started with this type of investing.



3. Clark's book covers the basics that any investor will need to know, including why to choose private mortgage investing (and what your other options are) and how to go about doing it. It covers all of the different aspects of mortgages such as fees, interest rates, and even has handy tables to help you out. The appendices are the best feature as they have all the forms you will need as well as a comprehensive glossary (very useful!). This book covers everything you need to know to succeed, but were too scared to ask about. It even has case studies and examples explained with real numbers that help tie the whole thing together. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to start earning money with private mortgage investments.



4. This is a very helpful book on the topic of hard money loans. It also touches on investing in discount notes. Even an experienced investor will find some helpful nuggets of information in this book. This book not only showed me the way to safely invest & build personal wealth, but it gave me insight as a mortgage broker looking to place my clients with hard money loans. I called and spoke with co-author Matt Tabacchi recently, and he is still in business with 4 branch offices...I may even place some of my money with him to lend in Florida.
   
   



5. This is an excellent first book on the subject of private mortgage lending.
   
   If you have no idea if what private mortgage lending is about, it has enough detail for you to understand what the business is about and how to get started.
   
   In my opinion, it does not spend enough time explaining the "Gotchas". It has plenty of information to get you started but not enough to keep you out of trouble.
   
   If you are interested in engaging in this business as a lender, by all means buy this book first, but when you have read it two or three times, be aware that you need to know a lot more about troubled borrowers, real estate inspections and appraisals, real estate title problems, bankruptcy, and local forclosure laws and procedures before you start lending your own money.

5 comments about Futures 101 : An Introduction to Commodity Trading (2000 Edition).

1. Neophytes will not find a better explanation of the futures market. How it works, what it is, terms and what they mean. The guy has a gift for explaining what could be confusing in a very straight forward manner that will also stick in your head. You learn more than you think.
   
   I do find the typewriter look to the text annoying. Which is why it is only 4 stars.
   
   And this is a book for someone knowing little or nothing about the futures or commodity markets. But it will get you up to speed very quickly and painlessly.



2. Excellent service. My book arrived on time and in excellent shape, just as described on the site.



3. I received the 1997 edition, NOT the 2000...therefore my comments are based on the earlier edition. I enjoyed the book as it is a very easy read and could more appropriately be titled 'Futures 100: An Orientation', as the author does exactly what he promises to do and that is to introduce the reader to the world of Futures. I read it in one day and would recommend it to anyone who is eager to learn about Futures. Waldron does provide a couple of interesting examples of success in trading, but more knowledge should be ascertained. He also offer additional resources to assist the reader with their journey for more information regarding concepts, research and trading.
   
   I would recommend this reading if your only interpretation of Futures are multiple tomorrows :-)



4. This book is a FANTASTIC first book to read about commodities trading. Will it show you how to develop a Chart? NO. Will it teach you how to feel a market? NO. Will it give you the skills to begin trading as a beginner, paper trading or otherwise? NO. But what it will do, and it is a fantastic book for this... It will give the reader, especially a novice/beginner or a person who is interested in exploring "commodities" trading a good base of knowledge, in a simple and uncomplicated way. It will make clear what trading is, what are the ground rules, how it works in theory, and what you will need to do and emulate, to see any success in this complex and interesting field. I have purchased this book 7 or 8 times for several of my friends who 'want to know' what commodities trading is. The explanation of leverage, the concepts of 'longs and shorts' the idea of selling something (going short) is complex to the everyday person. Most people cannot imagine you can sell something (going short) without actually having something, and then buying later to fill your short. My wife is very smart, but she had "never knew" you could do such a thing. So, if you want to 'get the idea' of what commodities trading is, buy this book. It will not overwhelm you, but will help you understand enough (like putting your toe in the water of the pool) to determine if you want to jump in, or just wade in, or if you would rather find something 'less risky'.



5. I read through the book in about 2 days, but it can be read in one sitting if you have the time. As some of the other commenters have stated, this book will not teach you how to trade. However I would not trade without reading this book first. Richard Waldron has done a wonderful job in explaining something as complex as futures trading to the person of average intelligence like myself.
   
   The Hillary Clinton chapter is worth reading, he states how he was not a Hillary Clinton fan, but after researching her 1000 to 100k in cattle futures he sees that the media was trying to smear her. She did nothing illegal.

5 comments about God Wants You to Be Rich: How and Why Everyone Can Enjoy Material and Spiritual Wealth in Our Abundant World.

1. This book is PHENOMENAL, and I'm no rookie when it comes to reading this type of material. You name the author, I've gotten at least a piece of him/her: Kiyosaki, Robbins, Hansen, Hill, Carnegie, Orman, Schwartz.

   "God wants you to be rich" is PHENOMENAL, and I can't wait to track down everything else he's written. So far, the title has been completely misleading in that I was expecting something ENTIRELY different. Then again "economic theory and how it'll change" is hardly an interesting title.

   Did I mention that this book is PHENOMENAL, and that it's REALLY PROPHETIC?? This is a pre-internet book, and yet it discusses how technology changes the world and the economy. No matter WHAT the title suggests, this book is NOT AT ALL what you'd expect. This book is entirely engaging; he writes with enough examples so you know EXACTLY what he means, and each one of them is FASCINATING.
   PLEASE do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK- it'll COMPLETELY change the way you see the economic world- ESPECIALLY if you're completely UNINTERESTED in it!




2. I haven't decided whether or not the title of this book is making it more saleable or not. I had a totally different idea about what this book would be about because of the title, and since I hadn't read anything else by Pilzer at the time, I was skeptical.
   THIS BOOK IS PHENOMENALLY FASCINATING.
   Again, the title is extremely misleading, and after asking the author about it, he said that his publisher gave it that title. Of course, the title of "Why economics are like they are" might be more appropriate, but it is in no way indicative of how PHENOMENALLY FASCINATING this book is.
   I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that the title made me buy the book, and was happily deceived by it. One of my top favorites ever, and you'll note that I read ALOT. PLEASE read this book- it will make you INFINITELY more informed.



3. Yes, God does want you to be rich, but please avoid Judas' fate. He was mislead by his desire/attachment to wealth and as a result he betrayed Jesus. When he realized he had been used by well intentioned religious leaders, he killed himself. Beware of your own motive for riches. And yes, God has blessed me with wealth.



4. I have listened to a great many people talk about the poverty of people and portraying themselves as the saviors of the have-nots. It always made me feel like I was from another planet because their rhetoric did not make sense at all. These people think that robbing one group of people Marxist style and give it to another would some how bring an end to poverty. Driven by envy they have convinced millions to think that their lack was caused by the ingenuity and industriousness of others who recognized the benefits of a free market economy which Karl Marx dubbed Capitalism.
   
   Now I am back on earth because Paul Zane Pilzer debunked the poverty myth and confirmed my thoughts on the subject. It gives an excellent account of what is causing the never ending cycle of poverty. It is not ingenuity nor is it capitalism. Poverty is caused by the lack of faith and the continued indoctrination that government is responsible for peoples well being. I love the title because faith is the force that moves you to make things happen. The following excerpt says it all.
   
   "In his last great book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy the economist Joseph Schumpeter predicted that capitalism would eventually self-destruct because the people displaced by advancing technology would democratically vote in a socialist form of government."
   
   "The word "economics" comes from the Greek word oikonomia meaning the "management of a household." While today "economics" has come to mean the study of business and government issues by professional academics, the real economists in our society are the ones who practice economics--the hundreds of millions of people seeking to economically manage their own households or lives every day."
   
   And when it comes to continually proving Schumpeter wrong in what he regarded as his great triumph, there is nothing more important than the role that now befalls you, the real economist, the reader of this book--the role to continually teach every member of our society how and why we live in a world of abundance, and how and why God wants every one of us to be rich. God bless you."
   
   Instead of beating the same old poverty of the people drum the saviors of the have-nots need to read this book and give up the antiquated mindset that is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Poverty begets poverty but God wants all his children to be rich not just some...go for Yankee ingenuity!
   
   God Wants You to Be Rich: How and Why Everyone Can Enjoy Material and Spiritual Wealth in Our Abundant World



5. The author wrote an interesting book on economics and technology long ago. It was published in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Then he became a tiresome and annoying fundamentalist. Since then he has written nothing worth reading. A friend gave me his copy of this title after losing interest in it by the third chapter. I managed to read the entire book on a plane ride. Unfortunately, it was the only reading material I had.
   
   If god wants you to be rich, it appears that he hates 95% of humanity because it's poor.
   
   Don't waste your time and money on this tiresome religious propaganda.
   
   Here's a far better alternative: Randy Gage's Why You're Dumb, Sick, and Broke.

5 comments about PM Crash Course, Premier Edition: A Crash Course in Real-World Project Management.

1. This book is pretty much as advertised, offering advice and real world tools that project managers can use on current projects to improve their probability of success. I've always liked Rita's straightforward and engaging style of writing, and this book is true to form for her. I keep this book on the shelf in my office and use it often as a reference. Also, as a coach and mentor for other project managers at my company, I have purchased at least a dozen additional copies of this book over time and handed them out as teaching tools. As the previous reviewer states, if all project managers used even one technique from this book, the world would be a much better place.
   
   I do disagree on one point the previous reviewer made, however. I thought Neal Whitten's "No Nonsense Advice" book was relatively boring and uninformative. I've seen Neal speak, and his approach is very stale--like Dr. Phil without the personality--and his book is written in about the same tone. You can only be told "treat others as you would like to be treated" so many times before you look for something a bit more meaty. To me, PM Crash Course is meat, while Neal's book is merely a side salad.



2. Rita Mulcahey is one of the leading training providers in the project management profession, not to mention one of the most engaging lecturers. The book shares these features: engaging, interesting, full of information, and a good companion if you are planning on taking a PM test any time soon. Several of my staff members have benefited from the effectiveness of her programs.
   
   If you are a semi-skilled project manager who has not yet taken the PMI Certifiying exam, or who doesn't want to wade through the encyclopedic and difficult PM Body of Knowledge, then this is a very good, very easy to read overview of pretty much everything that a high-speed project manager would want to know and do.
   
   However, in my initial impression, I would assume that a "crash course" is intended for someone who does NOT have the required skills and needs to get some results in a hurry.
   
   What this book is not, is a useful guidebook for someone who is getting started in the role of project manager. It is just too complete. The new PM will despair, and those who resist PM as "overhead" will have plenty of new evidence. Mulcahey makes the point over and over that PM is about planning ahead in order to avoid failure down the road, when corrective action is expensive. This is absolutely true, yet it may be lost on a neophyte PM or their process-resistant manager who will see project management processes as just another straw on the camel's back. But who other than a new PM would _need_ a crash course as opposed to the more deliberate and thorough training that an experienced PM would need?
   
   Short version of the PMBOK - definitely.
   Review book for trained PMs - definitely. I will probably be buying some for my office for this very purpose.
   "Crash course" for people unfamiliar with the practice of project management: this baby's too hot for you to handle. Remember, the project managers you see succeeding around you are trained professionals.



3. I think this book is well written, especially once you get past the first couple of chapters. At first, I felt as though I was really being spoken down to as though I was uneducated, but by the end of the book, it easily explains many of the necessities of project management. good book.



4. This book is an easy read and puts project management into manageable segments (what every project manager wants!)...



5. I would recommend Rita's books to anyone who's seriously going for a PMP certification or who wants to continue PMP certification. 'Crash Course' is for the novice. However, it is a practical, up to date, informational study in a condensed overview of the PMPBOK methodology. Everyone has their favorites but I've found Rita's team most effective in disecting this methodology. You'll make the right choice with 'Crash Course' if you're looking for a guide to wet your appetite and give you a true introduction to the field of Project Management as it pertains not only to the PMBOK but also reality.