Finance

The American public is unaware about how the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy through the IMF and World Bank. The U.S. media has failed to explain to the American public how exactly the World Bank and IMF operate to economically control thrid-world countries. These two organizations actually promote the economic colonization of the third-world. Programs like CNN Pinnacle with Willow Bay provide misleading portrayals of World Bank leaders (i.e. JAMES WOLFENSOHN, PRESIDENT, WORLD BANK). This book fills the gap left by the news media. A very interesting and short read!

Do you want to become more effective and efficient or do you want to feel better and motivated? The problem with so many self help books these days is that the allow a person to simply feel nice and motivated for a little while. These companies don't make money by solving the problems that impede your success, they make money by patching them. This book was nice, but I was looking for something to help people I care about actually become more effective, I find so few books accomplish this. Here is my best advice to people who are tired of patching and want to start enjoying the tasks that lead to success... I believe that you can enjoy everything that you do to meet your goals. I'm going to recommend a book that does not talk cute to you, it does not provide the kind of sappy success stories which at times can seem exaggerated at best such as Hyrum's book. It's a toolbox, a user's manual for your brain. The trick is that you have to spend sometime and apply the tools. When I first was given this stuff by a friend of mine, I thought he had lost it but the stuff works amazingly well. Introduction to NLP by O'connor and Seymore, when you read it, it's not going to tell you what to do to fix your life, it's going to provide you with tools. Here is what you can do with the tools... Allow your actions become congruent with your values, belief, purpose, whatever. I'm not religious myself but I imagine this can make things a little easier. It discusses "congruency" in a clear concise fashion that will be motivating in itself it's called the Dilt's model I believe. Essentially, if you understand what you want (may require some introspection, you maybe surprised how much we can learn by having a little internal dialog with ourselves) and measure all aspects of it's value relative to you, make some goals, short term, mid term and long term. Simple so far? Okay, to begin everyday, spend time planning your day in a way that reflects your values, i.e. your goals. Every time your doing something, anything, understand why your doing it, why it has value. This book will teach you to "anchor" your goal and it's attached value that it has, to everything you do, down to your valuable leisure time and taking out the trash. Done consistently over a period of time, and this may allow you to reframe the way you think about your opportunities to accomplish your goals how easy it is to "feel good" about your daily routine. Once you do this, which may require you step a little outside your comfort zone, you may find how easy it is to begin to be proactive in all aspects of your life leading ultimately to personal success. As far as the 10 natural laws book goes, it maybe worth while to some, I enjoyed the warm fuzzy teachings in the first 7 chapters of 10, Hyrum seems like such a nice guy I hate to criticize but I mean, he wrote a book, so hear goes...

Hyrum is fairly self absorbed and has lost touch with the outside world, his focus is overly concerned with convincing the reader that he has impacted others with his stories that only a few of these are very useful. I do admit that I really liked some of his stories before he began to fall off the deep end later in the book. The book has an underlying religious agenda which can be a great motivator for so many people that it seems appropriate and unobtrusive until he starts taking up large amount of one page space for scripture and devotes an entire chapter toward altruistic behavior. I suppose this wouldn't be offensive if I didn't feel that the author was a lot less than honest with his stories. I will never knock a person to exaggerate or fib to get a point across and motivate people, it's not my style, but none the less the author has good intent. I am concerned however that some of the authors stories seem very unrealistic especially when describing social interaction and in one example, the high school class incident for those of you who have read, showed a lack of respect, understanding, and a clear prejudice with respect to the students who have problems. The weirdest part is when you ponder what type of person would fabricate this type of story. Anyway, that stuff is mostly in the end of the book and up to that point he does an excellent job of framing the reader on things such as "time robbers". An excellent way to view the things that get in your way of spending your time in the way you planned. As long as you buy this book knowing that you will never reference it for time management, it's a nice motivational read to provide fish for a day, if your done with these pep talk books and want solution, maybe you want to give the NLP route a try. Just a thought.

I used to think that Hyrum W. Smith was a rough and tumble, hard line executive type whose first and only lust was the bottom line.

I was so wrong.

This is a pleasant book with a conversational tone, along the lines of Dale Carnegie. I wish my other books were so simple, and were plainly written and plainly taught. Shakespeare mentions "Simple truth miscalled simplicity," (Sonnet 66) and that "Brevity is the soul of wit." (Hamlet, Act 2, sc. ii), and Mr. Smith demonstrates his ability, again and again, to plainly teach the ten natural laws.

In fact, the tone of this book is almost grandfatherly.

The book is divided into two halves, the first half dealing with your time, the second half dealing with your life.

The first laws are (Don't get mad-you could Xerox these from a library copy!):

1.You control your life by controlling your time.
2.Your governing values are the foundation of personal fulfillment.
3.When your daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner peace.
4.To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
5.Daily planning leverages time through increased focus.

The laws regarding controlling your life are:

6.Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.
7.You satisfy needs when your beliefs are line with reality.
8.Negative behaviors are overcome by changing incorrect beliefs.
9.Your self-esteem must ultimately come from within.
10. Give more, and you'll have more.

I think that the central principles are first, controlling your life and not being controlled, and second there is an objective reality, despite all the braying and bleating of the relativists. The issue, then is one of organizing and prioritizing, and not just being a forty-year old teenager living from stimulation to stimulation.

As has been observed, this book is geared for the big business executive, but I have found that I can adapt the principles to my less busy and less hectic life. That may be another underlying factor: wanting to want something. You must want the principles to work for them to be effective. "Stick-to-itiveness" I think is the word.

There has also been comment about the values and the similarities of this book to other books, specifically Covey's "Seven Habits." It shouldn't be surprising, since all the arrows of moral laws hit one target. We do not have a male and a female law of gravitation, and the electrons do not drive on the wrong side of the road in the UK. We are all talking about the same thing. C. S. Lewis in "The Abolition of Man," traces the similarity of moral laws across many cultures and time. True, manifestations and understanding of truth may differ; it is all fundamentally the same. You can do math by Roman numerals, but Arabic numerals are far easier.

Moreover, Franklin and Covey merged a few years ago, so the two books have really become one in the hands of the company.

As to the hidden agenda, what can I say? If you are smart enough to spot any hidden agenda, then you are also smart enough to know how to avoid any entanglements.

As always, the hardest part of any self-help book is the implementation of the ideas.

This book by Hyrum W. Smith would be equally at home in the business or self-help section of a bookstore. Its message is as applicable to a CEO of a large company as it is to a recent high school graduate. Smith liberally peppers the book with anecdotes. These amusing stories provide interesting breaks from the instructional tone he uses in describing the ten natural laws for managing your time and your life. They also help put his abstract concepts - like the Franklin Reality Model and Personal Productivity Pyramid - into an easier-to-understand context. The stories illustrate the concepts of the book in terms everyone can understand. We [...] recommend this useful book to executives who want to learn more about managing their time effectively.

I bought this book yesterday and I am taking it back today. I am pretty new to investing (maybe 10 trades in all) and even I found errors and misleading statements right from the start. For example, this book describes both bonds and blue chip stocks as investments that will never lose value, which is absolutely not true.

Here are some other misleading quotes:

"Stocks by default provide higher returns than mutual funds since management fees are not levied on stock owners." In reality, many mutual funds actually exceed the returns of particular stocks, even when the management fees are taken into consideration.

"If your stock is worth more now than what you paid for it, then you have realized a capital gain." In fact, you have not realized anything until you actually sell the stock at its increased value.

In both of these examples, I think I understand what the author was getting at, but the statements are so misleading or vague that they seem dangerous, especially for beginners. And the book is chock-full of these statements. A book if this kind seems like such a great idea, it's too bad this one tried but failed to deliver what the beginner probably really needs.

The best part of this book is it's simplicity. The author was able to put aside enough of the technical jargon that most brokers love to repeat after each other to intimidate us artistically inclined creatures.

Another aspect I love is how concise and to the point everything is in this book. It was capable of clearing away the mystery of investing. My attitude has changed from a Las Vegas casino view of the stock market to one of respect for the market.

I went ahead and opened an account with an online broker, followed some basic principles and am doing okay. No, I'm not a tycoon. I just invest a little at a time for the long haul.

In a word, this book provides enough horse sense to get you started on the road to understanding investments.

This book has all the basics you need to know about the stock market, from options to IPOs. It is indeed a great book for beginners, especially if you don't know much about all the investment terms. However, if you look for actual stock plays and case studies, look for another book.