My Impressions: The 48 Laws of Power

I listened to the audio version of this through Overdrive.  Basically an app that links with local libraries (I got a library card).  I don’t have to pay for books this way, and the selection is actually pretty great.  The downside for me personally, is speech speed is just much slower than my reading speed.  Finishing a book around 9 hours vs. finishing a book around 3 hours…  Big difference.  But, since this is utilized during downtime (commute), then it’s not that bad at all.

The 48 Laws of Power 

There are a few reasons why I went through this book.  First, I confused it with another book.  I remembered another book about leadership that was in the format of “Laws”…  Thought it was this one.  Nope.  Second reason is, this is one of those books that keep on getting recommended by different people or on different lists.  It keeps on showing up!  So it had to be read at some point or another.  Other books on that list include Zero go One, Lean Startup, Why Hard Things are Hard…

The third reason I went through this book is to use this as an opportunity for my memory exercises.  I recently went through an online course that basically said, don’t be a person that reads through information really quickly but end up remembering nothing.  I feel like I am kind of in this mode right now.  The good thing is, most people are in the mode of reading through everything slowly, and still not remembering anything.  Though, majority of people simply just don’t read. 

I’m sure many people have read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, since it is one of the all-time best sellers.  My dad still has 3 copies on the bookshelf.  He made me read it when I was in middle school.  I had to have another discussion with him on it in college…  The truth is, how many people that read the book still remember what the 7 habits are?  I mean, there are ONLY 7 habits.  But…  Be truthful, most can’t remember them.  This is why the 48 Laws of Power is a great practice.  

My methodology of remembering this book.  There are 48 laws.  This is a great number because it is a multiple of 12.  So I use Chinese Zodiacs.  I link 4 laws with one animal, and create a story. So for the first four laws:

     1. Never outshine the master

     2. Beware of your friends

     3. Conceal your intentions

     4. Don’t say more than needed

The first animal of the Chinese Zodiac is Mouse.  Now creating a story with any mouse is kind of ridiculous, so it came down to Mickey or Master Splinter.  I remember in my childhood when I watched the TMNT cartoon, there was a scene where Master Splinter was still human, he was training with Shredder (?) under the same master.  They were trying to bow down, and Shredder stabbed a knife into Splinter’s shirt against the wall so he couldn’t bow (law 2).

So the story goes like this.  Master Splinter was betrayed be Shredder.  He got pissed, took out a concealed firearms and shot Shredder to pieces without saying one word.  This short two-line story helped me remember 4 laws just like that.  Good practice, and a lot of bragging rights if someone asks you about the 48 laws.

Impressions on the content itself

I think the book purposely has a tone of darkness and cynicism in it.  Though most of these principles can be rephrased in positive light, the market is already full of them.  I think there’s a lot of marketing reasons behind this.

The laws itself are interesting, they provide me a framework to think about a lot things.  There are a few coworkers that constantly do things and say things that sounds my internal radar BEEP BEEP BEEP constantly.  I don’t know why or what words to use to describe how they are fucking me, now I do.  They paint a rosy expectation, they make me do their work, and they take the credit (all are Laws of the book).  I do think a lot of the Laws work, but they don’t always have to be used so negatively.  The most important is, if you use them in such a cynical fashion, know that it will backfire on you like a bitch if others know what you are doing.  I don’t think you should play with fire if you’re covered in gasoline.  

Another book I’m currently reading, Driven – by Robert Herjavec from Shark tank, provides a lot of business insights.  I was able to map a lot of Robert’s insights into these power laws instead of having to try and remember every little piece of wisdom Robert throws out.  In terms of numbers though, some Laws are similar or variations of the same concept.  I do think it could be trimmed down to maybe 36 Laws of Power, which is still a cool number, and you can still use the Chinese Zodiac (or Western Horoscope) for memory practice.  

My Impressions: Barefoot Executive

I wanted a lighter read than all the Options Trading stuff.  This was a light read.  

In the book, she focused on 3 common mistakes for entrepreneurs:  

1. Chasing someone else’s dreams

2. Chasing too many rabbits

3. Chasing dollars

The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

I guess the most important here is the first one: Chasing someone else’s dreams. Usually, this statement is understood as if you’re not in business for yourself, then you are achieving what the boss tells you.  You are achieving his/her dreams instead of yours.  This is also what I thought about the statement for years.

Here, Carrie adds a slight twist into the statement.  Instead of “taking orders,” she says don’t follow the same path as others because you’re jealous/envious or whatever.  For example, a lot of people are creating apps on the phone and making a killing.  You may go into business to create an app and sell it to the world.  You are not “working for someone else.”  But the problem with this thing is, maybe you have no experience at all in making apps.  Instead of leveraging your current strengths, you are stepping into a domain which you need to go through 100% learning curves in multiple areas.  

And truthfully, that does sound kind of ridiculous right?  You think you are going to do something better with 0 experience when everybody in the game already has been doing it longer than you?  Not impossible, definitely.  But…  Why not leverage your current strengths and double down what you’re already good at?  

And here are a few inspiring quotes in the book:

A lot of you are too busy being busy.  The difference between business and busyness is the “I” and the “y” (why).

Done trumps perfection, every time.

People will spend more money to solve their problem and to fix pain than they will for prevention, pleasure, or privilege.  E.g. selling weight loss will always outsell wellness.  (The opposite is also true, if you can bring yourself to pay/prevent ahead of time, you will save tons down the line)

My Impressions: How to keep people from pushing your buttons

This is a tool book for keeping people from pushing your buttons.  Since I’m an Asian Male, I definitely have temper issues.  I want to blame it to both genetics and upbringing.  But then again, I want to be my own man and be a better man.  Often times I identify closely with fictional character Sameen from the TV show, Person of Interest – self diagnosed with Axis II Personality Disorder, basically means I rarely feel anything except for anger.  Graduated college/MBA, happy?  Nothing.  Parents didn’t come to either ceremony, sad?  Nothing.  Got a job, happy?  Nothing.  Got laid off, sad?  ANGER!!

So I got this book because: 1. It was on sale for 1.99, and 2. I wanted to fix my anger issues. The book claims it is not a “think positive quickie,” but rather a tool book to teach you a specific skillset against people pressing your buttons.

How To Keep People From Pushing Your Buttons

There are exercises that I believe are helpful to developing this skill.  You have to really do it like any exercise book to actually improve the skill.  I’m in the opinion that most people fail at improvement is because they think they “know it” once they “understand it.”  I’m on the side of, “If you don’t live it, you don’t know it.”  Being financially responsible or eating healthy is not rocket science.   Most people “know it.”  But they don’t live it.  If that’s the case, then, do you really know it?  If you bought a TV for 300 and a sound system for 500, would you hand a check for 2,000?  No. 
300 + 500 = 800.  It sounds dumb enough.  You know the math.  You live what you know.  Then why don’t you live other things you know?  

Anyway, my understanding of meditation is very limited.  But to me, the skills in this book are a breakdown of steps on how to meditate.  Instead of just being all zen-like or sleeping while sitting, you try to find internal peace. 

     Separate your thoughts from you. 

     Look at yourself from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at your reactions from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at your feelings from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at how ridiculous you reacted.  Then don’t do that. 

Like any skill, this takes conscious effort and practice to develop.  

The book gives a solid 4-step framework tool to use anytime you feel like your buttons are being pushed.  Just these two days, I had a few instances: Dumb ass on the road making me furious, speculating options making me anxious, and some regretful mistakes I keep on thinking about.  I walked through the steps.  I feel less jumpy.  I guess the most important piece is having a very specific tool instead of trying to wing it and calm yourself down.  

In addition, the last few chapter of the book actually goes through very specific examples that are very relevant and very real for everyday life.  How to deal with the boss, with a spouse, with kids, job interview…etc.  It’s a good template to get started on.  I’d recommend it.  

My Impressions: Volatility Trading

Can’t remember where I read reviews on this book, and apparently it was one of the must read books on trading options.  Going through the contents, what appealed to me most was there was a section on Kelly Criterion (which I used a variation of when I was card counting).  I still think card counters are the best bankroll management people compared to average traders, poker players, and investors.  This is because to be a successful card counter, each one of us probably played hundreds of thousands of hands to get to “the long term.” During this long and lonely road, most of us probably experienced “3 standard deviations” to the left.  Basically this is a grueling time where we question the meaning of life and our existence and if it’s statistically possible to lose so much for so long.  

Money managers, traders, poker players “go bust” a lot easier than card counters. They take it lighter too.  They either leave the game (fired, bankruptcy, quit), or start a new bankroll.  Going bust a few times isn’t that big a deal for these non-card counters.  This is even more so if the money isn’t theirs.  Card counters grind a lot harder, so we guard our money a lot closer.  I don’t see myself making 100k trades a year, or even my whole life.  But I can easily play 200k hands of blackjack in a few months.  This is probably also why it’s hard to tell if someone is a good trader, because even after 10 years, they probably haven’t made 200k trades.  The sample is too small, luck plays a huge favor. 

Volatility Trading

Now asides from bankroll management, the main thought the book gave me was how trading is portrayed as the polar opposite of entrepreneurship. 

One home run.  In entrepreneurship, you only need to hit it once and you’re set.  One homerun, it doesn’t matter how many failures you’ve had prior.  However, people generally seem risk averse in trading/investing.  There seems to be a huge preference of taking small steady profits (and potential large downfalls) selling net short options instead of evaluating the game mathematically.  Instead of one homerun to make it, money people trade one strike out to lose it all (again – shitty bankroll management even if they played a positive expected value game). 

Ignorance could be bliss in entrepreneurship.  Many successful entrepreneurs admitted to saying they wouldn’t have started their business if they really knew how hard it was (check Guy Kawasaki).  Overconfidence was mentioned in the book as one of the top major thinking errors.  In entrepreneurship, a lot of successful people defied all odds to become successful.  Overconfidence helps.  On the long and suffering journey of entrepreneurship, being constantly optimistic and confident helps to stubbornly move forward towards success.  The society is a better place because of them.  The rest of us also gain value from their creation.  However, in trading, overconfidence leads to you blowing up your bankroll.  Then you’re broke or fired.  In trading, there is no collateral benefit for you being cocky.  The society does not gain. 

If my opinion mattered, I believe the minimum quality all traders should have is be a net-positive blackjack player after 500 hours (100 hands / hour) without replenishing bankroll.  Playing that much with real personal money, a little something dies inside and a little something else is born.  But then again, wtf do I know about trading?  

My Impressions: The Financial Times on Options

I’ve been trying to read a lot of books on Options.  Since Options is such a complicated topic, it’s really hard to learn about it from “one book” because the depth and technicality of the subject varies greatly across different books.

Usually there are books that give the basics, and pump out a lot of “strategies” -> Or basically ways to mix and match buying/selling call/put options.  To me, these types of books are generally boring.  Once you know your ABC’s, these fancy names aren’t really that special… Candors / butterflies / something bear / something bull / something spread…  Meh.  

The other extreme are books that get super technical with all the formulas and unless you’re a math major…  Good luck…

Financial Times Guide to Options: The Plain & Simple Guide to Successful Strategies, 2nd ed. (Financial Times Guides)

This book is neither, nor in the middle.  Although this book gives strategies for traders to contemplate on and gets technical on certain aspects about hedging Greeks… To me, it feels more like a, “Here are my thoughts on the market as a whole after many years of trading, don’t do stupid stuff such as XYZ.”  Because of this tone, it feels like you’re reading a book written by a human rather than a robot.    

Some key stupid stuff to not do include:

     Don’t take a net short position

     Know why your strategy is working (and why it not)

     Markets change (strategies should follow)

     Keep the bell curve in mind

I don’t think I ended up using any specific strategies mentioned in the book. However, based on new information I learned, I actually came up with new ideas and looked at new places such as the VIX and XIV.  

Check it out. Pretty cool book. Slightly different flavor than the other books on the market.

My Impressions: Two Awesome Hours

I bought the book because I needed something not as “heavy” to read.  This was around 150 pages of content, so I thought it would be a good quick break for me.  

Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done

Instead of cramming more hours into a day and trying to optimize the efficiency of everything you do, the author suggest focusing on the broader/macro picture and making 2 hours really effective.  The five main strategies are:

     1. Consciously recognizing your decision points

     2. Manage mental energy (emotions)

     3. Stop fighting distractions

     4. Leverage mind-body connection

     5. Make your workspace work for you.  

Strategy 2 was fascinating to me in particular.  The book goes into how certain emotions are a lot more useful in specific situations.  And if we channel the right emotions to the right situation.  Looking at recent events of my own life, lots seem apply.

Anxiety and readiness are physiologically the same.  Next time when you are performing or public speaking, if you feel nervous, change that mindset to “I’m ready.”  Beyonce says she’s always nervous before a great performance.  I was nervous in my recent Karate belt test.  Apparently I messed up a karate-form and didn’t even realize.  If I primed myself to think “I’m ready” instead of “I’m nervous,” maybe the outcome could have been different.

Sadness makes us less trusthworthy.  If you’re buying a house or a car and the sales person is painting a fancy picture of you owning all this awesomeness…  Think of your dead childhood dog that got ran over by a car or something.  When someone’s pumping me up, I just think of all the people that fucked me over – e.g. laid me off, cheated on me, stole credit…etc.  All of a sudden I’m not so trusting.   Someone else submitted an offer?  Yeah bullshit.  My offer is off the table if any of the other sales rep calls me back and gives me what I asked for.  Whoever calls first gets it. 

Anger is helpful when we need a push on taking a risk.  For example if you want to risk current sales by increasing price, or go sky diving with your buddies…  The emotion helps in situations that are not pleasant to begin with.  Recently I’m planning to make huge binary bets in the options market.  If I am wrong (or if I am right, but it doesn’t work out), I would lose A LOT of money.  The same token, if it does work out…  Then I’m a huge step closer to financial freedom.  I am so excited thinking about it.  I want to do it.  But as the time comes closer…  I’m having doubts. I’m kind of scared.  I don’t know if I can actually stomach the loss… 

Then, these days I have meetings with a manager that belittles everybody and talks down to everybody…  Shows up late to meetings, high-jacks the meeting, makes me feel stupid and useless, barks out orders, and leaves.   I felt physically sick being in the same room as this manager.  I wanted to quit my job (and I don’t even report to this person).  That’s how bad it was.  I was so hungry.  FUCK THIS.  WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?  It was YOUR fault on the first place for sitting on this damn thing for four fucking months.  Took 0 action even with my weekly reminders.  Then someone CCs your boss (not me) and you get all upset because you didn’t do your job.  Fuck you and your bullshit!  I can’t stand any of this shit.  If my options bet work out, then I won’t have to.  Fucker. 

So yeah…  Anger helps push to certain risk taking behavior…  We’ll see how that turns out soon enough. 

You can help me by buying a lot of airline stocks and pushing them up.  Thanks!

My Impressions: Made in USA (Sam Walton)

I think it was Tai that was spamming/scamming my youtube or something that made me aware of this book.  He basically said, if you want to be an entrepreneur, how could you not know/read about the man who made Walmart.  I guess that was a convincing argument. 

I had this book on my wishlist for a while, then one day my BookBub daily e-mail alert had this book on sale for $1.99…  So I bought it…  Buying a lot of books…

Sam Walton: Made In America

I don’t think this book was inspiring in an entrepreneurial way.  However, what is really interesting is to read the story of Walmart from its early days – how it was operated, the beliefs, the struggles, the strategy…  That baby Walmart is a very different one than the one I grew up and knew about.  Seeing how the tides have turned, seeing how the culture is different now compared to then…  Very fascinating and very interesting. 

The most interesting for me was seeing the relationship between Walmart and P&G change over time.  From the beginning of the book, P&G didn’t care about Walmart.  After Walmart increased in size, the two became good business partners near the end of the book.  Even later than in the book, one of my college professors was describing a negotiation deal on operating efficiency between Walmart and P&G.  Walmart expects its suppliers to have margin improvements and economies of scale.  So after a certain amount of time, they will come, sit you down, and give you a new (lower) price.  And there’s nothing you can do about it besides nod and say thanks.  Who knows, I wasn’t there.  But even with exaggeration, seeing this relationship take a complete 180 shift is also thought provoking for me.  And fun fact: P&G sells more product to Walmart than to all of Japan…

And finally, I’ll end with a quote from the book with Sam Walton commenting about how 76 of the top 100 discount stores in 1976 went out of business:

It all boils down to not taking care of their customers, not minding their stores, not having folks in their stores with good attitudes, and that was because they never really even tried to take care of their own people.  If you want the people in the stores to take care of the customers, you have to make sure you’re taking care of the people in the stores.  That’s the most important single ingredient of Wal-Mart’s success. 

Does that still apply to the Walmart today?

My Impressions: Street Smarts

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been a super fan of Jim Rogers.  As for other legendary investors, I never felt a connection…  Not sure why this is.  But it doesn’t really matter, I guess. 

So, this book is the first book I got from the library.  It felt like I was spending too much money on books…  So, I finally decided to go to the library!   The awesome thing is, there is this new software called OverDrive that works with libraries in the Pittsburgh region.  I can borrow an audio book “online”…  I don’t even have to go out to borrow books.  

Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets

Going through an audio book is a lot slower than reading (maybe 2x slower).  Sometimes if the voiceover is monotone, it adds risk to the drive…  But, what can I say.  It’s more productive than not listening during “mandatory drive time.”  I calculated my weekly commute is about 6 hours -> about the same time to finish an average audio book.  This can help me achieve my annual goal of reading 1 book a week without even reading…  Feels kind of like cheating…

Anyway, about this book.  I thought I’ve read a lot on business/investing/stocks already.  However, the perspectives in this book are very humbling.  My eyes opened a bit more, my perspectives broadened a bit more.  I enjoyed the read

In this book, Jim Rogers is BOLD.  He calls people out (by name) and make bold statements regarding their incompetence.  We are generally taught to keep or polarizing thoughts to ourselves…  And no matter what, don’t leave negative comments in writing…  Don’t send out e-mails if you aren’t ready for the world to see…  High respect on how yuge Jimmy’s balls are.   

Then finally on a side note…  The sky is falling…

http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rogers-worst-crash-lifetime-coming-2017-6

My Impressions: Traction

Entrepreneur friend recommended to me a while back. 

19 channels listed right off the top.  Then channels itself isn’t so interesting.  I’m sure if you spend some time googling and brainstorming, you can figure them out.  Things such as targeting blogs, SEM/SEO, e-mail marketing, content marketing, business development, trade shows…etc. 

Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

What is really interesting is the methodology to find these channels and the commentary and insights of what to focus on.  I feel like I violated all of these.  But had I read this book before I started the tea venture, I’m not sure I could’ve avoided it.  The experience would be more of a déjà vu than being able to avoid the mistake.  Which kind of sucks.  Two of these points stand out.  1. Test and fail fast, 2. Don’t scale. 

Testing and Failing Fast

Because of the advancement of technology and all the fancy quant stuff going on, it seems like the way strategy execution isn’t as rigid as 20 years ago.  In fact, adaptability probably matters more than stubbornly executing a strategy.  Years ago, you mapped out a plan, and executed carefully.  Seems like now a day, as long as you constantly adapt and adjust, you’ll eventually find where the traction is and then just follow the money. 

Even now I’m still torn between the two schools of thoughts.  Do you have a “core” and a “strategy”?  Or you just say yes to everybody and find so where the most people say yes to?  The other way to look at it, do you want to be stubborn or not have a backbone to standup for what you believe in?

Currently, I am leaning towards a character in a manga (Kurogane) I really like.  The translation basically goes something like, “Humans should not be so egotistical to think how they can win.  Instead, just win first.” 

Don’t Scale

This probably goes against a lot of business/MBA/entrepreneur training.  When I start modelling out a business idea, there is always some sort of end game in mind.  If this process can be sustainable and scalable.  But the idea here from Paul Graham’s essay is basically don’t worry about that yet.  MJ DeMarco (author) also mentions something similar – don’t try to pull a Tim Ferris 4-hour-work-week.  It got many people fired. 

First and foremost, INSOURCE.  There are a few reasons for this.  Through insourcing, you learn a lot.  A lot of situations become real and not work anymore.  Through insourcing, you build a certain moat (or competitive advantage).  Jack Ma gave a speech once on how technology can be copied so easily these days.  How do you stay ahead?  Jack Ma’s response was, “You can copy my products, but you cannot copy my blood sweat and tears.”  Through pushing tough roads, you become tougher.  You’ve figured out how to walk certain tough paths that others haven’t.  You know how to manage your own (and your team’s) emotions.  You’re already a survivor. 

Outsourcing and scaling should be viable and you shouldn’t dismiss this idea right off the top.  But at the beginning, focus on being worthy of needing to scale.  I think.   

My Impressions: Zero to One

There are a few books that constantly hit my radar.  There are articles that recommend certain books.  My friends recommend me certain books.  Even Amazon’s algorithm recommends me… Among all these recommendations, some books keep on popping up, and this is one of them.  I don’t know why it took me a few years to finally get down to reading it, and why it took me so long to finish it. 

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

The idea of Zero to One is that, the breakthrough or the creation / first step is so much harder than scaling.  This reminds me of my recent dilemma, if you’re selling something…  0 sales the first 3 months, 6 months, or a year…  That first sale is infinitely more than all the prior 0-sale-months.  Once you hit 1, you can start having a baseline to measure progress and scale.  But before you sell 1 unit, you never know if anybody actually cares for your stuff or you just didn’t reach enough people.  Even 1 sale out of 1 million exposures/sales calls is infinitely more than 0 sales out of 10.   

In terms of technology and startups, once someone made the first mobile phone…  Suddenly everybody else can and does and scales.  Once someone does something difficult, like running a mile in 4 minutes (that was once thought impossible) or climbing Mt. Everest, then everybody else starts doing it really soon.  

There was an important discussion on whether or not successful people are “lucky” or self-made. The classical comparison is if anybody can beat the stock market?  

If you get 1 million people to flip a coin, around 500k people will flip heads.  

     2^nd round, around 250k. 

     3^rd round, 125k.

     4^th round, 62.5k.

     5^th round, 31.25k.

     6^th round, 15.65k.

     ……………..By the 20^th round, you will have one person that flipped heads 20 times in a row and beat out all the competition.  He could write books and book speaking engagements on how to flip heads.  Is it skill?  Did he practice?  Was it luck?  Was it just an expected occurrence from very large numbers?  He probably honestly thought he had the skill to toss heads like a professional when in reality his technique is insignificant cause to the outcome.

I’ve given this a lot of thought and don’t have a lot of conclusion.  Maybe there is more than just being “lucky” to succeed, though I think luck matters.  Some people will say Bill Gates and Warren Buffet won the gene pool lotto to be born in such smart/wealthy families with all the support they grew up with.  But going a step further, wouldn’t being born with the trait of working hard or the ability to see the next thing a kind of luck?  What about being born the “drive” to do something?  Some people are naturally not very driven.  Is it their fault for not trying?  Maybe they were born with lazy genes and they can’t fight it.  Is that luck?

I don’t know.  But say we don’t get the philosophical.  Broad term, I think the most important thing is we focus on what we can control and impact that as much as we can.  The rest will take care of itself (or not).  We will either have succeeded, or died without regret (or, less regret).  

I’ve had back pains for 10 years now?  It sucks.  A lot.  

I’ve read many books and tried many different exercise/rehab programs.  

I’ve gone to doctors. 

I’ve gone to miracle healers.  

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back: Natural Posture Solutions for Pain in the Back, Neck, Shoulder, Hip, Knee, and Foot

I came across this book while listening to a podcast from http://www.everydayacupuncturepodcast.com/ and I thought it was interesting. Oh, and everyday acupuncture is a pretty cool site. A way to live healthier... Instead of constantly trashing your body...

The book basically provides a guide on how you should sleep, sit, stand, and walk. The postures should be the core of how you move. There are many pictures to demonstrate how modern humans sit/stand/walk compared to how we “should.”  

These fundamental shapes actually ties in with all the other programs (except for one qi gong one…) I have gone through.  While all the other books and videos teach “routines,” this book breaks out the fundamental principles of these exercises and stretches.  After reading the book, I am now very conscious and self-aware of my posture.  Compared to previously I would just think if I am sitting “straight” or not, now I have very detailed awareness on how each part of my body should be aligned.  

My pain is definitely alleviated with these postures and I feel more relaxed.  However, I’ve had this problem for 10 years…  So I don’t know if I can ever be “cured” or “healed.”  Even if I can be saved, I don’t think it is realistic to expect reversal to being “normal” in 3 – 6 months of rehab after 10 years of abuse.   So…  Can’t really comment if “it works.”  It definitely helps though.  

If someday I eliminate my back pain, maybe I’ll post an update…

My Impressions: Nutrition Facts

I bought this book because it was on discount on Amazon for $1.99.  

This is one of those books that the content matches the title closely.  Many books don’t do that anymore because they want attention-grabbing/selling headlines.

Nutrition Facts: The Truth About Food

So in a way, the book reads in a dull way.  Goes through the carbs, the fats, the proteins, the different time of minerals and vitamins…  No story book for sure.  

Midway, the author reviews a variety of “popular diets” and rates them on a health level and a weight-loss effectiveness level.  These diets include vegetarian, DASH, Mediterranean, ketogenic, weight watchers, paleo, Atkins…etc.  

Chapter 5 is a list of common ailments and what to eat to help with those situations including allergies, kidney stones, insomnia, headaches…

Basically like an encyclopedia.  You can look up any vitamin or mineral you want and find out what it’s good for, the daily recommended amount…etc.  

I guess the most important is the conclusion.  “Perhaps what is needed is a return to simpler nutrition, when it wasn’t necessary to read labels to know what was in your food; or, if you did, the ingredients were easily pronounced and understood.” The simpler way of nutrition is to eat real food, and eat colorful food.  

After coming full circle to the book, the main thought for me is still: common sense is not so common.  Either that, or, we are just ignorant to the damage we do to ourselves.  We all know smoking is bad, we do it anyway.  I don’t think anybody would argue smoking is good for our health.  The same goes with all the fizzy beverages, the daily 20 oz venti coffee loaded with fat and sugar, the processed foods that come on boxes and cans with never expiring artificial ingredients.  Does it take a genius in our world to know that fast food can’t be healthy no matter how much cabbage they add to your burger?  A vegetarian doesn’t mean you “eat clean” if you’re loading yourself with cheese pizzas and nacho chips.  Don’t hide behind a “healthy diet” while cheating yourself on execution…

Tea is cheaper and healthier than coffee/alcohol/soda…  Rarely in this world do we have something that’s cheaper and the same time better for you anymore?   Even better than that, water is free!

You are what you eat.  You are what you think.  You are what you do.  

My Impressions: Content Machine

This book was recommended by an entrepreneur friend…  Since he also an entrepreneur, his advice holds slightly more weight when I ask for advice.  Thus, bumped other books back a bit…  Plus, I’m really thinking of putting more content anyway. 

Forward by Neil Patel…  This dude been spamming my fb feed with his online course.  Seems like the world is only so big. 

Content Machine: Use Content Marketing to Build a 7-figure Business With Zero Advertising

There is funny (or emotional or witty) marketing copy, and there is marketing that sells.  Here, if you are content marketing, there should be an end game of some sort.  The difference between a blogger and a content marketer here is one just assumes the job is to create content while the other knows the job is really to market a business.  

Sadly based on the “10 Characteristics of a High-Growth Business” evaluation…  I run a shitty business… 

The book provides a few metrics to measure against and targets to strive for.  There are also a few ways to brainstorm how to find/create your content and the different personality approaches you could try to find a fit.  

All in all though, seems like the main points are:

          1. This is a very long exercise…  You have to just take that leap of faith

          2. Be part of the 5% that actually get things done

          3. Give give give

So in a way…  My next steps will be working on content and AdWords.  There are things I did when I lost 40 pounds and I think would be beneficial to others if I shared it.  A few weeks ago when my friend Sophia asked me if I spent all the money we made at a trade show on dinner to thank everybody for helping out…  Yes…  I told her profitability means nothing right now.  Of course everybody hopes to make money.  But this project was more about learning, experiencing, giving, finding a creative outlet, and “owning” responsibility.  

I think everybody should start a business.  Experience all the high’s and low’s.  Mostly the low’s.  Understand what it’s like on the other side.  It makes you a lot more humble and appreciate life a lot more…  And if you’re successful, then you can pay it forward and help the next person that wants to be help.  I can’t help people in running a business yet…  But I can help with losing weight and living a healthier life style!

My Impressions: Triggers

This is a self-improvement book.  I originally thought it was a sales book, like how to write marketing ad copy to trigger consumers to buy.  Completely off.  This is a book about how our surroundings triggers us to make certain calls and behave certain way.  We are less aware of how much we really are “ourselves” and not our “environment.”  

Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be

This book.  Is awesome.  At least I think so.  

One reason I believe I like this book so much because it is a self-improvement book with tools aimed specifically with my personality type.  I don’t see this working for everybody because of different levels of discipline and how turned on people get from playing with spreadsheets.  

Right off top, I love how the book started:

“It’s common sense.  I didn’t read anything here that I don’t already know.”

“True, but I’ll bet that you read plenty here that you don’t already do.”

This is a core philosophy I live by: You don’t know it if you don’t live it.  

Few main points I loveeee:

1. Ego depletion

This is a term coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister.  Basically, how small, daily decisions throughout the day distract and wear us out.  We end up not being able to make solid/accurate decisions.  

This is the same reason why Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and even Obama wear the same thing all the time: Not to waste brainpower, saving that power for important decisions.  The article could be found here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/10/05/steve-jobs-always-dressed-exactly-the-same-heres-who-else-does/

This is also the same reason I pre-plan my week by using Habitica.com.  I wake up in the morning, and I go to war with my To Do List.  I don’t think about what I’m going to do, or debate if I should do it.  I just do it.  It saves a lot of energy.  Prior to habitica, I would spend 3-4 hours debating a task.  Now I’m done with most of the list in 3-4 hours.  

When we have structure, we don’t have to make as many choices; we just follow the plan.

2. Tracking Tool

Basically list important questions to you (be very truthful).  Ask yourself each day starting with, “Did I do my best to…” and rate yourself.  For example,

Did I do my best to say something nice to mom today?

Did I do my best to control my alcohol consumption today?

Rate yourself every day, track this every week.  The constant reminder and the qualitative reflection “Did I do my best to” will either push you to change, or give up the goal.  I think either outcome is better than constant depletion of energy and wishing the change away.  

This makes us take a hard look at ourselves, quoting the book: “When the questions begin with “Did I do my best to…” the feeling is even worse.  We have to admit that we didn’t even try to do what we know we should have done.” 

3. Professional at Work / Amateur at Home

More often than not, we are more professional at work than at home.  Or least I am.  My parents are.  My wife is.  We “let loose” when we go home.  We hold ourselves to a lower standard when interacting with our loved ones.  We think they understand.  We think we should show them “our real and true” selves.

This was a constant struggle I had for years.  Mostly because I have a horrible temper.  

There was a specific case regarding this in the book that struck a chord with me: So you think your family deserves you being an amateur at home?

I really like this book.  It identified many problems and struggles I had, many of which I wanted to change but didn’t really know how to…  Besides “try harder.”  It introduced a simple tool to use…  I spent the last week pondering and making the tool tracker for my use.  

I aim to better.  Be the person I want to be.  I’m taking on smoking, drinking, exercising, anger management…  Let’s see if I consciously give up or I can make some change!

I’m still edumacating on the Google AdWords space.  This is one of the other books I bought to read for the flight back in March.  Didn’t read it until 10 days ago…  I guess I was very optimistic on how much and how fast I would read.

Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Words, 2nd Edition: How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes 

So, Google is basically just a super huge advertising company with a lot of expensive hobbies.  To be a pro at AdWords probably requires being good at advertisement and marketing in general.  That’s one of the downsides and my main complaint of this book.   I’m being sold throughout reading the book. 

          ·        In the pre-face, I’m being directed to another website for “bonus” material worth “$85” dollars, in exchange for my e-mail and address

          ·        Chapter 1, selling me on his other book 80/20 Sales and Marketing

          ·        Chapter 2, selling me on their facebook ad book…

          ·        Chapter 3 provides another link to a tool to check if google display or google adwords is better for my business.  Right below that, asks for my name and e-mail again for a “free analysis”…

Now, after the grueling first 5 chapter or so, maybe I got numbed enough to the constant bombardment of marketing material – and I could finally start to see the value of the content.  Half way through the book, I started really enjoying the book.  There are both strategic and tactical aspects for anybody to start implementing AdWords.  There are guidelines on what to measure and how to measure them. 

The last quarter of the book, I would even say the tone became very motivational and inspiring.  Giving small online business owners another push to try, some success stories to look up to… 

Marketing and advertisement is a bit like investment.  Feels like I’m constantly throwing money in the ocean, not knowing if there’s ever a return.  So far, there isn’t.  So far, I’m discouraged.  But I do plan to implement strategies in this book and give AdWords another shot.  It’d be nice to eventually figure out a money-making-campaign…  At that point you will “know” how to make money instead of guessing and speculating what might make money.  However, also at that point, it would be crossing a line where you won’t be able to enjoy the pain and depression from facing the unknown anymore.