Category: eBooks

The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career
Whatever you may be thinking when you apply for a job today, you can be sure your prospective employer is thinking this: Can this person add value every hour, every day–more than a worker in India, a robot, or a computer could? Can he or she help my company adapt by not only doing the job today but also reinventing the job for tomorrow?

And can he or she adapt with all the change, so my company can adapt and export more into the fastest-growing global markets? In today’s hyper-connected world, more and more companies cannot and will not hire people who don’t fulfill those criteria. This is precisely why LinkedIn’s founder, Reid Garrett Hoffman, one of the premier starter-uppers in Silicon Valley–besides cofounding LinkedIn, he is on the board of Zynga, was an early investor in Facebook, and sits on the board of Mozilla–has written The Start-up of You, coauthored with Ben Casnocha.
Amazon.com Link

Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works
INSIDE APPLE reveals the secret systems, tactics and leadership strategies that allowed Steve Jobs and his company to churn out hit after hit and inspire a cult-like following for its products.

If Apple is Silicon Valley’s answer to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author will introduce readers to concepts like the “DRI” (Apple’s practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top 100 (an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs).
Amazon.com Link

Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything

Every week, millions more people sign up for Google+: Suddenly, it’s today’s hottest new social network. Google+ for Business reveals why Google+ offers business opportunities available nowhere else–and helps you grab those opportunities now, before your competitors do. Top social media professional speaker and business advisor Chris Brogan shows how to get great results fast, without wasting time–and without wasting a dime. Brogan guides you through using Google+ for promotion, customer service, community building, referrals, collaboration, and a whole lot more. You won’t just master innovative new tools like Circles and Hangouts: You’ll use them to generate more customers and more cash!
Amazon.com Link

Imagine: How Creativity Works

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?

From the best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.
Amazon.com Link

Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance

Jonathan Fields knows the risks-and potential power-of uncertainty. He gave up a six-figure income as a lawyer to make $12 an hour as a personal trainer. Then, married with a 3-month old baby, he signed a lease to launch a yoga center in the heart of New York City. . . the day before 9/11. But he survived, and along the way he developed a fresh approach to transforming uncertainty, risk of loss, and exposure to judgment into catalysts for innovation, creation, and achievement.

Properly understood and harnessed, fear and uncertainty can become fuel for creative genius rather than sources of pain, anxiety, and suffering. In business, art, and life, creating on a world-class level demands bold action and leaps of faith in the face of great uncertainty. But that uncertainty can lead to fear, anxiety, paralysis, and destruction. It can gut creativity and stifle innovation. It can keep you from taking the risks necessary to do great work and craft a deeply-rewarding life. And it can bring companies that rely on innovation grinding to a halt.
Amazon.com Link

Yesterday I started reading my 1st book in 2012. I am lending it for free from Amazon Prime for Kindle Fire (I will be writing about my Kindle Fire experience tomorrow).

I Was Blind But Now I See by James Altucher. This is Altucher’s 2nd book i read after How to Be the Luckiest Person Alive!

I am at 20% of the book, where James is sharing most of his blog posts in a different way. So far the book won’t make you nor a rich person if you are seeking for money, neither a 100% balanced person if you are seeking total happiness (as his blog title is “ideas for a world out of balance”), instead it will let you ask yourself questions, you might find answers to some and forget about the rest.

We’ve been brainwashed. We need to acknowledge this. We need to recognize who has been doing the brainwashing and work towards reversing its effects. Then, building from the core, we can learn who we really are, get success, wealth, and finally happiness. This book lays out the techniques to escape the zombie recruitment machine, expanding our personal frontiers, and finding the tools to build up the wealth of happiness inside.

Since I started reading James Altucher blog (which I found thru the Stocktwits network), there is no doubt and definitely the guy is clever, having his low moments, as well his successful ones, but for me and for now, he is still in the gray zone, i am not able to classify him in white or black list because of his controversial and argumentative ideas and writings.