motivational

This website is about motivational theories, and also contains resources about motivational theory , motivational enhancement therapy , and motivational therapy .

Title : Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Author : Robert Cialdini
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Invest in Influence

I first read an excerpt of Dr Cialdini's book in a Harvard Business Review article and it was one of the few times I actually bought the book on the same day. The six universal principles of influence and persuasion are superb in their brevity and ability to work in a wide variety of situations. With Dr Cialdini backing up his writings with 50 years of social science research (not to mention his own 3 year investment of time to learn the trade secrets of many organisations, both private sector and public sector) it makes learning and using the principles of persuasion systematic and not dependant on being 'a born sales person or natural influencer'. A fantastic read with plenty of anecdotes (backed up by research) and uses. If you buy one book on the subject of Influence and Persuasion - make it this one!. Also, for reader's interest the book has been translated into a two-day workshop on how to best utilise the 6 principles of influence and persuasion and are run by Dr Cialdini's outfit called Influence At Work - they have a US and UK presence. Good reading!

Title : The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Author : Stephen R Covey
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Well read Bestseller

After the Bible, no other single book has shaped my leadership mentality and disciplines like this one by Covey. I first read it in 1991 and his recommendations brought it all together for me. Success in effective living begins with Private Victory (Be Proactive, Begin with the end in mind, Put first things first) then moves on to Public Victory (Think Win-Win, Seek first to understand...then to be understood, Synergize), and finally back into personal effectiveness by Sharpening the Saw. These concepts are essential to weeding through all the fluff of the information age. This book also contains fantastic practical advice on living out one's priorities ("Exercise integrity at the moment of choice") and teamwork ("Defend those who are absent").

Title : Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Author : Robert Cialdini
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Excellent content somewhat marred by impractical conclusions

3rd edition/publication (2007), Collins Business Essentials, 320 pages (of which 280 pages for actual book)

Influence is another of the twenty books Charlie Munger recommends in the second edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack. Its content is excellent (and sometimes even hair-raisingly remarkable - as when he shows that media reporting of suicides actually causes more of them via the social proof bias) but I think Cialdini could have done a much better job of turning the research evidence into useful/practical advice. (The same problem manifests itself in Gilbert's book `Stumbling on Happiness' - though Cialdini's is the better book.)

I was discussing this book with a friend who had also read it and I thought he put it very well: Cialdini is one of those clever people who is not very wise. That is also why Poor Charlie's Almanack is so good and unusual: Munger is both clever and has deliberately attempted to distil a lifetime's worth of reading over a broad subject matter area into practical advice on how to live a successful/useful life.

In particular, Cialdini shows us clearly that a significant number of our psychological biases work completely unconsciously. (By that I mean it can be demonstrated that a certain bias has affected a group of individual's actions/conclusions whilst they strenuously deny they have paid any attention to or are even totally unaware of the biasing factor.) For example, Cialdini quotes one study where "men who saw a new-car ad that included a seductive young woman model rated the car as faster, more appealing, more expensive-looking, and better designed than did men who saw the same ad without the model. Yet when asked later, the men refused to believe that the presence of the young woman had influenced their judgements."

He then goes on to suggest various complicated ways to try to monitor ourselves to see if we are being affected by some of these biases - in order that we can attempt to limit the damage from faulty decisions (often in situations deliberately set up to cause our faulty decisions to be detrimental to us and advantageous to some other). For example, he highlights the "extreme caution" needed in auction situations where one encounters the "devilish construction of scarcity plus rivalry" - and suggests that we watch ourselves for signs of arousal so that we can stop short.

Well, I think Munger and his partner Warren Buffett have a much more practical and simpler way of dealing with that problem, based on the wisdom of the rustic that Munger likes to quote: "all I want to know is where I'm going to die so can avoid going there." The whole thrust of Cialdini's book is that these biases are often unconscious and are in any case often very strong (and usually much stronger that we believe/expect) - which is another way of saying you're unlikely to have good results fighting against them.

Much better to simply bypass the problem where possible and do as Buffett does and refuse to get involved in auction situations. Using rules like this, to paraphrase Munger on a different subject (tax shelters): if you always avoid auction situations you might miss out on the odd good deal, but overall your life is likely to be better.

This is also why I consider Taleb (Fooled by Randomness) to be much wiser than Cialdini: he understands that being aware of biases doesn't make them go away. You need tricks and methods to live successfully with them.

I also think the advice in Cialdini's epilogue is very poor. He suggests that we rise up to fight people/organisations who misuse our psychological biases for their own ends: "In short, we should be willing to use boycott, threat, confrontation, censure, tirade, nearly anything, to retaliate."

This is crazy advice: the effort and time required to do it would leave little for anything else and would also guarantee a miserable life focussed on negativity. It also shows Cialdini's lack of familiarity with good training principles (an excellent book on the subject is Karen Pryor's `Don't Shoot The Dog'). Plenty of research now shows that positive reinforcement (rewarding behaviour you like) is at least as effective as negative reinforcement and much more so than punishment. It also has the huge benefit of leading to a much more pleasant life.

However, even with those caveats (essentially that you have to do your own thinking about how to cope with the biases that Cialdini does an excellent job of laying out) it is still a very useful book.

Title : Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised
Author : Napoleon Hill
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : What matters is reading on!

I heard of this book in `Rich Dad, Poor Dad' by KIYOSAKI for the first time. I came to realize that this book has been considered as sort of a Bible in terms of getting rich, when I checked the `customer reviews' on the website of Amazon. So I decided to give it a try.

Indeed, this book may be an eye-opener for those who just wish to become rich without thinking twice. However, frankly speaking, the so-called "secrets" as follows in this book are nothing new at all for me and maybe for you as well. Having said that, even you've already known the `secrets', this book will definitely inspire you if you read on page by page. It provides you with an opportunity to converse with yourself, by which you may become a person with deep conviction of getting rich. That's the power of this book.
1) Discipline
2) Dedication/persistence
3) Hardwork/determination
4) Practice practice practice
5) Confidence
6) Ambition along with personality

Again, the `secrets' in this book are simple. What matters to you is the process of reading on.

Title : The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide
Author : Sean Covey
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A truly wicked book...

I picked up this book merely because I had heard a lot about the seven habits of highly effective people. I don't think I really expected to learn anything from it. I guess I was, and still am really, the archetypal know it all teenager who doesn't need any help with anything. However, this book shows you life strategies that really do work. Some of the things in it are so simple that you wonder why you never thought like that before. This is a great book for teenagers, because we are often probably more likely to listen to a book than to a person.