motivational

This website is about what is motivational interviewing, and also contains resources about motivational maps , motivational comments , and motivational climates .

Title : Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Author : Keith Ferrazzi
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Masterful Networking Tactics

Author Keith Ferrazzi is a master networker who claims that his Palm Pilot holds the names of 5,000 people who will take his phone calls. That's a powerful claim. Starting as a self-made man of humble origins, Ferrazzi developed his social network by helping people and by developing and mastering the techniques for networking. Here, he shares his methods. His light, engaging and entertaining story will motivate those who want to enhance their social and business friendships. The author advocates generosity as the key to success. That's a radical business concept, but he claims it works. It's certainly worth a try. We recommend this book to people who want to be more social, make friends and expand their business connections. It should also prove invaluable for those who are sick of sitting at home on Saturday nights.

Title : Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised
Author : Napoleon Hill
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : The Version of Think and Grow Rich to Rule Them All!

This is one book I always get something new out of with every subsequent reading, even if I only flip to a random page. All you have to do is decide what you want and like so many have discovered, this book will show you the steps to get it.

Ross Cornwell's version restores chunks of texts removed from the 60's Ballantine paperback ('The Secret' enthusiasts will be pleased with what they'll find). This version also provides extensive endnotes to deepen the understanding and appreciation of Dr. Hill's 20 year research into the science of success. Unlike footnotes in other editions, the endnotes also allow for uninterrupted reading of the main text.

Order multiple copies of this one because it'll wear out from use very quickly and consider any copy you lend out as a gift because I can't imagine there's any way they'll willingly return it back to you.

Title : S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On): The Straight-Talking Guide to Creating and Enjoying a Brilliant Life
Author : Paul McGee
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Does what it says on the tin!

How refreshing to read a 'motivational type' book that doesn't pretend that everything in the garden is rosey but one that takes an honest, humourous and practical look at how to get the most from our lives.The author's openess about his own everyday challenges gives the book an easy to identify with feel, whilst also providing some moments to pause and reflect. I have to say what drew to the book in the first place was it's title... superb!( For once I can read a book on the tube without feeling embarrassed by the title). In summary, it's readable, practical, realistic, humourous and inspirational...AND in the midst of the busy lives and hetic schedules that many of us lead, this won't take an age to read. I look forward to the next offering from the SUMO Guy!

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 : E-myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company
Author : Michael Gerber
Rating : 1 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Heavy going, heavy on psychobabble

If you're into overwrought emotional prose this ones for you.

I quote "without the passion of the soul, the mind creates an endless stream of empty suits, dreams without heart..."

or this gem

"a part of me is just afraid. that part of me feels like i'm jumping off a cliff, but in some strange way I also trust that I'll fall into something soft and safe"

After about 100 pages it starts turning into a business book again, but after wading through the cod philosphies at the start of the book I was actually angry at the author for putting me through some really badly written stuff, concerning a lady called sarah from 'all about pies' who'd lost her passion, apparently. I knew how she felt by this point in the book.

If you buy it read the real stuff at the end of the book, but really, don't encourage him.

To misquote the book I certainly felt like jumping off a cliff at times.
If only he'd have just stuck to the business. Why does everyone have to be a cod psychologist these days? Nuff said'