5 comments about Investor's Business Daily Guide to the Markets.

1. This book is a *primer*, and as such will likely be neither the best nor the worst book you'll ever read on the subject of investing (fwiw, I actually found the content average, and the writing style a bit like summertime in the Sahara). For me though, the book earned its fourth "star" for a single--yet *really* important--reason: its connection to the IBD newspaper. For about $25, _Guide to the Markets_ explains much of its information using the same graphs and other formats as you'll find in the company's daily. *That* is a great deal considering that IBD is one of the best, if more expensive, investment tools available. For its ability to cheaply provide access to that very powerful tool, while also providing other occasional insights, _Guide to the Markets_ is a very good value. (It's nicely indexed enough to serve as a solid reference as well).



2. This book is actually half decent it isn't near as good as How to make money in stocks but it covers a lot of relevant information for newer investors.

   The chapters cover these wonderful topics:

   * Capitalism: What it is and why it works
   * The stock market: Primer on what stocks are and how the market works
   * Mutual funds
   * Options
   * Bonds
   * Futures market
   * Economics and economic indicators

   The book reminds me of Investing Smart however Guide to the Markets is at least 10 times better and covers more topics, not to mention the writers are much better than Dhun H. Sethna.

   I recommend this for beginning CAN SLIM investors.

   Reed Floren




3. This book is pure gold for investors who are just getting started in playing the market. Coupling this book with a subscription to Investor's Business Daily will help you make good decisions quickly and minimize the punishing losses that naive investors sometimes take. IBD does a good job of explaining technical issues in easy to understand language along with showing pertinent charts and graphs.



4. Even a novice could learn the working of western
   economics ( capitalistic ), the influence of Government
   intervention, the mechanics of the stock market, and
   the way to use the best investment paper today: Investor's
   Business Daily. Only criticism: you should have noted
   that the book is the same as the one published 10 years ago,
   and not a new edition!



5. This is one of the best books on the market for beginners. It contains all things that a beginner needs to know about what a stock is, how the stock market operates, capitalism, how free markets operate and much more. It explains how to really invest and trade for profit using valuations, technical stock movements and emotional factors. It also expands into the futures and bond markets and explains options and selling short. I found the chapter that tracked all the greatest performing sectors for each year over the last century very informative. This book is just packed full of information that you will learn from and be able to profit from in the markets. The only reason I did not give it five stars was due to it needing an update, it is a 10 year old book and I would like to see the last ten years added in to an updated version of this book.
   
   Also check out Jason Kelly's "Neatest little guide to stock market investing" for another great book for beginners.

5 comments about Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business.

1. Susi Pomerantz's Seal the DealSeal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business is an excellent resource for any small businesss coach, consultant or trainer who needs to go out and win work from clients.
   
   It's a combination of practical wisdom - a boatload of templates and processes for you to follow and/or adapt - combined with insight from transcripts of group coaching calls Pomerantz lead around this topic. You get a sense of real people expressing real issues - and then getting the practical, useful tools and resources you need to make progress.



2. Entrepreneurs looking for a way to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded marketplace have a new handbook, and it's needed by the many service professionals who soon realize that substantial industry expertise and impressive talent are simply not enough.
   
   In Seal the Deal, Suzi Pomerantz takes talented entrepreneurs behind the business-building curtain and gives them a formula for six-figure success. By teaching the reader how to use marketing, sales and networking in strategic concert, and how to weave individual success strategies into a comprehensive, proven success formula, Seal the Deal empowers entrepreneurs with a logical and manageable system for substantial growth.
   
   Jennifer Kalita The Home Office Parent: Raising Kids and Profits Under One Roof



3. This book is written specifically by a coach for life/business coaches and mental health therapists. It is so well written with details and techniques to support the actual sale when seeking new clients. As a coach, I see that Ms Pomerantz knows exactly what I need to have the courage and fortitude to make the calls I need to make to have the meetings I need to have in order to secure the clients I need for my business. I also appreciate the sample scripts and the worksheets provided to support me in designing my own scripts and process for 'sealing the deals'!!



4. This book has translated into a complete mindset shift for me!
   As soon as I had finished it, I wondered who to call. I picked up the phone to call a lead I thought I had lost 6 months ago. Thirty minutes later I had a deal!!! I would never have thought of calling that person again prior to reading Suzi's book.
   
   What worked very well for me?
   It is specific to consultants and coaches (I am a coach).
   I can very easily see myself in situation and therefore the format of a teleclass transcript worked very well for me. To give you an example, one morning when reading in the metro I caught myself answering to Jeremy (one of the participants of the teleclass in the book) that Suzi had given him the answer to his question two pages before....
   The advices she is giving are very practical and hands on.
   France could certainly use a french translation.
   Thank you so much Suzi, you made a difference to my business.



5. This book would have been really helpful early on in my career, but it's never too late to change mindsets about growing our businesses. Pomerantz has captured a unique style of conveying this extremely helpful business building advice - through teleclass format and conversation. I felt like I was in the room too, with questions waiting to be answered. What a great study. I highly recommend this as the text book for building business from the ground up. In other words, do it right the first time.
   Lee Smith
   Seattle, Washington
   Co-Author of Legacy Leadership: The Leader's Guide to Lasting Greatness

4 comments about Supplier Evaluation & Performance Excellence.

1. Through the years Supplier Performance Management has been much talked about but in reality few organizations have implemented a program which delivered meaningful reports and sustainable results. I remember in the late 1970's, when I was a young Quality Auditor at The Gates Rubber Co. I responsible for "Raw Material" quality and put in place a manual process and reporting system to look at acceptable material lots, timely delivery and prompt customer service that was marginally effective, not scaleable beyond a single site and only supported production materials. Thirty years later not much has changed albeit the introduction of technology that has potentially accelerated the delivery of meaningless and unactionable data ... until now.
   
   Sherry Gordon has written the first comprehensive guide for organizations to develop and implement a Supplier Evaluation and Performance Excellence program (hence the book title)that really works. She's produced a masterful "recipe" for success.
   
   Some of the practical features of the book includes:
   
   - How to structure a Supplier Performance Management project, including roles and responsibilities and senior management support
   
   - A complete project plan for an SPM implementation, including tasks, key decisions and challenges
   
   - A supplier segmentation model specifically for supplier evaluation, including types of performance information to use by supply base segment
   
   - Sources and types of supplier performance information for evaluating both direct and indirect suppliers
   
   - A process for developing supplier performance expectations
   
   - A hierarchy for developing a business measurement model
   
   - How to choose metrics that are meaningful to your organization
   
   - Pros and cons of different evaluation approaches
   
   - Suggested supplier evaluation processes
   
   - How to create a good supplier survey
   
   - How to conduct a supplier site visit
   
   - Specific tios on the "do's and don'ts" of giving supplier performance feedback
   
   - How to create a process for supply risk planning
   
   - How to develop a good supplier certification process
   
   - How to plan and run a successful supplier conference
   
   - How to conduct a successful supplier development process



2. Very well written, easy to read, practical and comprehensive survey of the art & science of supplier performance management and supplier assessment. If you are just learning about the topic, wanting to figure out how to drive more productive relationships with suppliers, implementing a new supplier performance management program or enhancing / re-architecting an existing program, this is an excellent resource. The author actually has experience in improving relationships between suppliers and customers and developing tools to automate the necessary processes She is very direct about the tradeoffs you must consider and the pitfalls you will face along the way. As we are in the process of designing and piloting a program, this was a very useful guide for validating our design and getting additional ideas to make it better. Highly recommended!



3. Ms.Gordon has done an excellent job of providing an interesting and readable, step-by-step analysis of what it takes to properly evaluate suppliers and drive them to perform optimally. She has certainly met her goal of providing a book "to help guide firms in this journey." She starts out by telling us how to sell the Supplier Performance Management initiative and then takes us through every step including what a customer company must do to obtain optimum value from this effort. She makes it very clear that this is a process, not a project or an event. One must understand this going in or be destined to fail. I wish I had this book to read years ago, but in reading it I find it validated what I had to learn through years of working the process.
   James Tarabori
   Director of Purchasing-
   North America
   Caterpillar Inc.



4. This book gives you everything you need to know about measuring supplier performance and driving toward excellence! The tools and methods it contains will provide value whether you're just getting started or you've already been at it a while. It's obvious that Sherry has lots of hands-on experience actually implementing this stuff. You won't get a lot of fluff here. Just good, solid instructions! And even though the title doesn't call this out as a "Lean" book, it fits right in with any Lean supplier development program.

5 comments about Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression.

1. THis book is simply outstanding. A must read for anybody that cares about their financial future. Well written, super informative, and exciting reading.



2. Pros: "Conquer the Crash" by Robert R. Prechter Jr. is a very good book. I discovered this at the public library and went "WOW!". I bought a copy for myself and a friend. The author's data is pretty accurate and reliable. He goes through showing how the current market is very unstable and how it got there. He goes through the whole subject of depressions and recessions and shows through graphs that history of the ups and downs of the US economy. He gives really good data as why a crash is coming and it's pretty much not a question of "If" but "When". There are places where he gets rather promotional about his Elliott Wave Theories. However, it's not as bad compared with a lot of other books and there are just a few places that he gets on this bandwagon. He is very honest that he doesn't have all the answers. He provides resources and, in the latter part of the book, provides how to survive and prosper after the crash. Our best shot is to stay constantly on top of financial news that are behind the curtain. Yahoo and MSN ain't gonna cut it. If sites have RSS, then a good reader can be very handy. Picking up information and processing it quickly and accurately is a must.
   
   Cons: I gave this 4 stars so that you would be careful with what you take in when someone is predicting the future. This is really a Five-Star book. He makes his predictions based on previous information, a lot of that gathered from the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, these are not the same times as the 1930s. We will have the potential for nuclear armament and world war. We have a lot more people on the planet which creates a greater possibility for much more violence and we seem more psycho today than previous generations. As wars break out, diseases and famines are produced. Drinkable water is also a big concern. If you're older in age, medical care comes into play. A lack of medicines available is pretty much likely. As this next crash unfolds, governments could become much more totalitarian and confiscate everybody's wealth. The economy system will probably turn out to be radically different from the one of today as no one is going to want to repeat this crash ever again. There is also the possibility that the United States may not be the best place to be when everything is crashing down. There are many factors working within and without that seeks for her destruction. World governments and people around the world will want to pin the blame on American consumerism.
   I do have a complaint that alot of this is for people with alot of money. Not only with this book but with also other resources that I have. The dollar amounts they speak in is unbelievable to me. I only make $13 a hour - just enough to get by (things are high here) and just enough to survive. Surviving is really my only option. There is also the problem that there may not be any Internet for a vast amount of time (or only for government and defense) or a working phone system. If the bank that your money is in is very long-distance from where you are, you got a problem. It would be much safer if you're closer to your assets. The Great Depression is only appliable as a small scale model but I believe that this crash is going to be very different and for worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. God help us all.



3. page 129 - "one can imagine a scenario in which the fed, beginning soon after the onset of deflation, trades banknotes for portfolios of bad loans, replacing a sea of bad debt with an equal ocean of banknotes, thus smoothly monetizing all defaults in the system...". that's what happened when the fed recently bailed out some investment firms! it's prophetic. this guy is right on track, and it's about the ONLY book on amazon that is this accurate. ya know, there's a negative review on this book written by someone in florida - you should hunt it up. the negative reviewer pokes fun at this book's conclusion about the housing market. bet he's not laughing now!



4. ...and depression for at least the twenty years I've been watching him...does anybody EVER look at his success rate?...about twenty years ago he made something like a million dollars trading futures based -- so he claimed -- upon Elliott wave theory...he then invested that money entirely in treasury bills and started a stock market advisory newsletter...he has been significantly correct ONCE -- TWENTY YEARS ago...if you had followed his advice since then you would probably have gone broke...and he, himself, admits that he keeps his money in treasury securities and doesn't invest according to his own predictions...now, MAYBE he'll be correct again -- SOMEDAY...but do you really want to follow the advice of someone who's right -- MAYBE -- every twenty years?



5. I don't know where he is today but the author couldn't be more wrong in his predictions for 2002 or is he just off by 7 or 8 years ? Had he wrote this two years ago about 2008/2009 he would have be heralded as an economic prophet. Its completely uncanny that he describes, in the most precise detail, what 2008 looks like but, unfortunately for him, he is predicting todays scenario to happen in 2002/2003. It didn't of course. We not only did not experience a credit bubble but the 2001 Recession turned into a bull, quite the opposite of the authors prediction of a major depression. Of course he could excuse his error today by saying that he wasn't 100 % certain on the time frame, that he did mention a slight chance that it could happen later...at any time really, but such Delphic predictions are absolutely meaningless in their ambiguity. Even a stopped clock is right 2 times a day. I mean, eventually all stock markets along with our solar system get sucked into the sun in 2 billion years. In any event, the author does a great job in explaining the Fed and monetary phenomenon and policy but like pretty much anyone who tries to predict where its all going with technical analysis (ie graphical trend lines) we can see now that he fails and there is no reward for failure in economics. I must confess however that I am defiantly prejudiced against technical (graphical) market analysis as a predictor. I'd recommend this book out of a library for a educational read on the mechanics of money and banking, but not to buy. It's just too old and embarrassingly wrong at its predictions that can now be seen in hindsight.... but then again what an uncanny resemblance to the banking debacle of today ! If one could just add 6 or 7 years to the authors predictions it would be a world best seller to be sure !

3 comments about Food Booth, The Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to the Food Concession Business.

1. I bought this book from the author when I was thinking about starting my own concession business to supplement my income. This is an awesome book. It give clear explanations of how to start a business, what you need to consider, make your plan and then how to implement your plan. The book probably saved me hours and hours of trying to find information on my own and did it all in an easy to read format. I would highly recommend it for anyone even thinking of possibly starting their own food business. The information is invaluable.



2. I purchased this book for my parents who are reaching retirement, thinking that it would help occupy their time and give them some extra cash; i ended up keeping it for myself and had to purchase another copy!
   
   This book is loaded with information in an easy to read format. The author does an excellent job of making complex points understandable and covering ideas that i wouldn't have given much thought to. By the end of the book i felt like i was ready to start my own booth and i even laughed many times throughout the book, the author's writing made me feel like i was sitting across from her and she was telling me all the secrets of the trade.
   
   I have purchased my first trailer and hope to be up and running by April. Thanks Barb Fitzgerald!



3. I have spent many many nights the last year trying to find information on starting a concession stand.I got more information in one evening reading this book than I had the last year searching the net.Very easy to read and understand.Goes into details most without this book will overlook untill its too late.Vey fast shipping, ordered on Saturday morning and it was on my doorstep Monday morning.
   Thanks,
   Jeremy Harris & family
   Gentryville, Indiana

5 comments about 11 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About Selling Your Business.

1. Even after reading it, I don't know how the authors provided such a comprehensive tutorial so concisely. This one will surprise you. It goes beyond the basics of valuing your business, seeking buyers, and negotiating, to include really sound advice on some of the less obvious strategies involved in a successful sale.



2. This short book is packed with practical, useful advice. The insights come from 2 gentlemen who have not only been there and done that, but they've written the book and share what you must do to successfully sell your business. They've managed to condense a weighty subject into just the essentials you need to know.



3. Carlos and I didn't realize until after we were listed on Amazon how SHORT 31 pages of content looks compared to other books. In truth, we struggled for a long time rewriting the book to be shorter. We work with business owners, and understand that they typically don't want to wade through a lot of fluff to get to the point. I'm glad to see that some of our readers realize that you can say a lot if you pick your words carefully.



4. I highly recommend this book for any forward-thinking business owner who wants to optimize his/her results in the selling process. In working with thousands of successful entrepreneurs, I can't imagine any of them embarking on such an important event without taking the time to self-educate with this book's practical insights. Dini's and Zubillaga's expertise on the subject is presented in a quick-read, useful manner that is worth every penny.



5. I consult with a lot of small business owners and read this to improve my ability to give them broad guidance on the things they s/b thinking about prior to selling their business. Then I realized it made more sense to give them a copy of the book so I bought a bunch of them and have been handing them out since. My clients have all found the book to be of great value.

1 comments about The Stock Investor's Pocket Calculator: A Quick Guide to All the Formulas and Ratios You Need to Invest Like a Pro.

1. Any consumer investing in the stock market and any library catering to such patrons needs Michael C. Thomsett's The Stock Investor's Pocket Calculator: it makes the math behind equity investing simple, offering over 100 ratios and formulas broken down into easy steps and presented in simple English for the non-mathematician. Readers will learn the formulas the pros use, and can then apply them for quick and accurate results.

5 comments about The Motley Fool Investment Workbook (Motley Fool Books).

1. This book is great, really ... how many investment books (especially for us novices) actually impart useful knowledge to the reader while also making him/her laugh? That's what keeps the reader reading, rather than drowning in a sea of completely dry text (pretty much any other book) they are instead led to the next page out of enjoyment.



2. This is the investment workbook which goes along with The Motley Fool Investment Guide. However you do not need the Motley Fool Investment Guide to use this book.

   I like that this book gets you down in dirty into the actual analysis of companies, they have you analyse P/E ratios, P/S ratios, growth rates etc... Howver I don't like that the answers are written write next to the question. (Kind of defeats the whole purpose.) I also think its ok to have some humor in a book but this one is overloaded with silly questions from the Fools.

   Unless you want to have a book to just for filling in the blanks I recommend not buying this book. I think one of the other Motley Fool books such as their "Investment Guide" or "You have more than you think" would be worth it instead.

   Reed Floren




3. I bought this book after reading several other financial books by Peter Lynch, Roger Lowenstein, Arthur Levitt and John Murphy. I thought I'd add the Gardners to my variety of authors. While the concept that these other authors teach is great, the Gardners actually put the concept into action. They take you step by step through financial statements and number crunching. It is an excellent learning tool.



4. Half the battle of investing is actually **writing** down your personal finances. It's **much** too easy to pick up an investing book, read the material, understand it -- and do nothing. The TMF workbook succeeds in both providing easy to understand personal finance and financial advice to the new investor, and a workbook, so that the reader can actually apply what he learned. The book ends with two solid investing strategies: fundamental investing, which looks at the company and its balance sheet; and mechanical investing, through a variant of the Dow Dogs. One of the secrets to investing is to find a strategy that you feel most comfortable with, and the TMF Workbook will provide a number of options for **you** to find which is the best for **your** personal finances.



5. I ordered this book for my sister who has just started to invest. I gave her my old "You have more than you think" by David and Tom Gardner, (1990's) and thought this would be a nice accompaniment. I skimmed through it after receiving it, and upon closer examination, got hooked! The Gardner brothers have done it again. This book goes from the beginner (my sister) to the experienced novice (myself) clear up to the expert (where I want to be).
   
   This book has helped me see that, although I thought I was doing all the right things, there are changes I need to make (in the way that I think, as well as my record keeping) in order to make the next step of my financial goal obtainable.
   
   Be prepared to work, as a couple of the projects are tedious as well as challenging (one chapter I had to re-read), but with the ever-present Gardner humor you are encouraged every step of the way.
   
   I have since ordered another copy for my sister.

5 comments about Tiger Traits: 9 Success Secrets You Can Discover From Tiger Woods to Be a Business Champion.

1. One of the staples in the business - motivation literature is the use of sports and sports heroes to illustrate a set of constructive traits the author shares with you. Here, Nate Booth has written a book that motivates the reader by illustrating the nine principles he provides in the book (and a tenth bonus principle online) through the life and career of the phenomenal golfer, Tiger Woods. The author is clear that Tiger has NOTHING to do with the book, does not endorse it, and is in no way affiliated with him. I guess this disclaimer is necessary in this age of total marketing, branding, and so forth. However, if you go to your bookstore and look at all the books based on the lives of various people without their endorsement, you could fill many shelves.
   
   The main focus of the book, as I read it, is about taking control of your life by finding out what you are truly good at (the author provides you with some sound ways to tell), to develop a compelling dream around that talent, to get the right role models - teachers - supporters who will help you along the path, being confident, getting the right mental models, talk through actions, continually improve, be likeable (as an aside, while Tiger is famous and charismatic, I am not sure he is necessarily likeable nor am I sure he is concerned about it), and giving back.
   
   Booth provides a post nine-hole (nine-principle) cool down where he summarizes of what he was trying to teach through the book and hopes the reader has learned. He also offers some recommended reading.
   
   The book is NOT only about Tiger. Booth provides some excellent quotes from all kinds of past greats, from Aristotle, Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Walt Disney, and even Jiminy Cricket (and many others). I enjoyed these brief quotations a great deal.
   
   If you enjoy motivational reading and are interested in Tiger Woods, this is a book for you.



2. Nate Booth's Tiger Traits has a wonderful way of exposing the tiger inside each of us. Even better, Nate takes on the role of a seasoned, professional caddy and shows each of us how to play the championship course of life. As anyone who plays the game of golf will tell you, there's more than one set of tees to play from. After reading and applying Nate's observations, I will feel much more confident playing the game of life from the championship tees.
   
   When Nate writes about discovering one's natural talents, he gives us clear direction on what we should look for. When it comes to our individual weaknesses, he shows us how to manage them with honor.
   
   While many may buy this book because of its reference to Tiger, I recommend this book because it gives all of us a better chance to tap into the natural and developed gifts of the author, Nate Booth.
   
   In closing, I bought a copy of Tiger Traits for each of our five grown sons. It's a club I want in each of their bags.
   
   Ralph Williams
   Bottom Line University
   Colleyville, TX



3. Written by success coach Nate Booth, Tiger Traits: 9 Success Secrets You Can Discover from Tiger Woods to be a Business Champion is a unique guide to business and life lessons that anyone can learn from golf prodigy Tiger Woods. From "Identify and Develop Natural Talents" to "Be Confident", "Let Actions Do the Talking", "Be Likeable", and "Be Grateful, Give Back", each of the nine positive character factors is scrutinized at length, its benefits analyzed and illuminated through real-world examples. An excellent motivational and self-improvement guide sure to especially resonate with professional golf buffs.



4. Tiger Traits provides such powerful success secrets that I will be buying 6 more copies to share with my two sons and four closest friends. Nate has written an easy to follow "recipe for success", which is inspiring for all ages!
   
   Neil Wood
   author: The Magic of Working Smarter



5. Dear Dr. Booth:
   
   My name is Damien R. Euell, I'm 23 years young, and I wanted to just say "thank you" for your book, Tiger Traits. About a week ago I was cruising through the local Barnes & Noble book store and for some reason I was "drawn" to your book. Almost that 6th sense-- energy-- gut feeling that you get.
   
   I've read a handful of self development books and this is by far my favorite read. Tiger Traits is a very simple, very applicable, and very true to its creed. Like most entrepreneurs, and young at that, I am continuously searching for that extra edge in mental development that will help me along the way. The stronger I am, the more I can offer to our family business. Warren Buffett says, "always finish the day a little smarter, if you're not, you're making a huge mistake."
   
   Last year I moved down from Denver, Colorado to Katy, Texas to start working with the family business, Euell Energy Resources (www.euellenergy.com). We've been diligently working to rebuild the company; backlash from Enron almost caused bankruptcy. My father has instilled in me the values of never giving up, and to dream big dreams (Trumps version of thinking big). I'm excited about where we're going to end up.
   
   Again, thank you for compiling all of the information, knowledge, and advice into one amazing book. Have a great week.
   
   
   Best Regards,
   
   
   Damien R. Euell

2 comments about You're Nothing but a Number - Why achieving great credit scores should be on your list of wealth building strategies.

1. Finally a book about credit reports and credit scores written by someone from INSIDE the credit industry rather than by someone simply researching the industry. If I read one more book about sending dispute letters to the credit bureaus I was going to puke!! The book is loaded with stuff that I didn't know and have never read in any other book, blog or website before. At first I thought $24.95 was a little pricy but it was totally worth it. In the foreword it says "this book wasn't written by a guy who knows a guy who knows the story. It was written by the guy who helped write the story." Ain't that the truth. Just to make sure he wasn't full of it, I did a search on his last name and he's quoted in like tons of national press articles. Good book.



2. Hello, this is John Ulzheimer and I wrote this book.
   
   For those of you who have purchased it, you can and should consider it an investment in your financial future. Why? Because having great credit reports and credit scores is the best way to keep more of your hard earned money at home, where it belongs.
   
   A little background...
   
   I actually started writing this book in 1997 after I left Equifax. The original title was going to be "Inside the Walls." I had about 30 pages finished when I realized that any book about credit needed to have a significant dedication to credit scoring. I had just taken my new job at Fair Isaac (FICO) and I decided to put the book on hold until I was well versed on the subject of credit scoring.
   
   When I left Fair Isaac in late 2004, I started re-writing the book from scratch. I finished it in early 2007. What you have is a 10-year labor of love and insight into the inner workings of the credit industry. I certainly hope you enjoy it and I hope you can leverage what you learn into better credit health and all that it entails.
   
   Why is this book different...
   
   This book is NOT about credit repair and it's not a bunch of quotes and research results. This book was written by an industry veteran (still in the industry) and it's all about learning how the system works so that you can function better within it. It's not about how to fool the credit reporting and credit scoring systems.
   
   If you're trying to figure out how to beat FICO or have accurate (but negative) information removed from your credit reports under false pretenses then do NOT buy this book because it's not for you. If you are ready to learn how to EARN better credit using lessons that will last a life time and can be handed down to your children and their children then this is the book for you.
   
   Enjoy!!
   
   John