Personal-finance

I really enjoyed the book. It is a a no-nonsense, common sense approach to leadership, time management, communication skills, strategic planning, etc. When I was studying for my 6th year in Administration and Supervision (a required education degree for CT administrators), many of these topics were discussed.

This book applies to ALL who desire refining their leadership, business, and professional skills. The market expands well beyond the medical profession. Perhaps The 12-Minute MBA for Doctors should have been called The 12-Minute MBA for Professionals. Actually, when Charles Johnson and Andy Thibault write the sequels, they can be entitled The 12-Minute MBA for ________. Educators, Engineers, Attorneys, etc. There is a market for those books. I am sending this review and my personal recommendation to all members of the CT Council of Language Teachers for their dissemination to World Language teachers in CT. I look forward to reading the sequels myself!

Carol A. Kearns
Vice-President / President-Elect CT Council of Language Teachers
National Vice-President La Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica

Self-help manuals rarely impact professions other than their targeted audiences. "The 12-Minute MBA for Doctors," however, shatters that myth by providing practical skills for any novice trying to survive in today's chaotic business world.

You don't have to be a medical professional to benefit from this fluent and provocative book. Anyone who doesn't know how to negotiate a lease, hire staff or deal with an insurance company will learn how to build a successful business.

Written by two Litchfield, Connecticut friends and neighbors, "The 12-Minute MBA for Doctors" is a lively collaboration between Charles Johnson and Andy Thibault. Johnson's firm, Medical Education Training Associates of Woodbury, Connecticut, helps doctors, bankers and other professionals run their businesses.

A couple of years ago, Johnson delivered a 12-minute talk before the Society for University Surgeons in New Orleans. After several colleagues asked for help running their businesses, one of them suggested Johnson call his program "The 12-Minute MBA for Doctors." A book was born.

Thibault, a columnist for The Connecticut Law Tribune, is an award-winning feature writer and nationally known investigative reporter.

Together, Johnson and Thibault provide punchy insights in eight chapters on such practical business skills as persuasive communication, team building and conflict resolution. One section in the chapter on communication is applicable to the home front as well as the business world.

Johnson asks: "What are the first three answers you hear from your significant other when you get home. For most people, it's three words - fine, fine, chicken. Why is that? Simple. The questions you asked were probably: How was your day? How are the kids? What's for dinner?" Not exactly great conversation starters.

"After I spent a day with one of my sales managers," Johnson continues, "I was invited to his house for dinner. We talked about a strategy before we went home. We walked in the door and he says hello to his wife. He says, 'Tell me about your day.' She started to say, "Fine," but then she heard his question.'Well, the kids and I went shopping and we went to the park and we played on the swing, and.' He could actually hear information she was imparting and was able to give her positive feedback."

This is just one communication example of trying to persuade people with your people power instead of your position power. Communication, the book notes, is one of the five components of a successful team, along with leadership, defined roles, clear objectives and trust. Specific chapters deal with negotiating skills, interviewing and hiring skills, understanding financial issues, strategic and tactical planning, teamwork and leadership.

As Johnson and Thibault detail, surgeons are still trained like blacksmiths. Although they are at the pinnacle of their profession, they tend to know little about business - after four years of college, four years of medical school and then five more years of residency and fellowship education. They are turned loose in their early to mid-30s and expected to run a business that is not run by their peers.

Today, health care is run more and more by business people - not doctors. Hospital administrators tend to be business people. Insurance companies have everything to do with the running of health care today. Yet the highly skilled physician, untrained in management and economic matters, has to deal on an everyday basis with people who run business. How does he get his business started and survive?

The answers are in this book. But readers from many other disciplines will benefit significantly from any 12-minute helping of this management primer.

(Richard McGowan, former White House correspondent for the New York Daily News, retired from government service after
serving as spokesman for the federal Office of Personnel Management. He resides in Wicomico, Va. and lectures on the
modern presidency at universities.)

I ordered this book last week and I read it in one sitting. I have a dozen other home management books and I was very pleased to find some new ideas in this book. I'm not an overly religious person so I had some doubts about how much I'd get out of the book but I was very pleased with the suggestions. Some of the organizational strategies for meal planning are excellent and I'm using them now. They're very helpful. This book is the second most useful book on home mangement I've read. I do prefer Kathy Peel's Home Manager based on the sheer number of valuable management tips, like the hit list. Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more organized. It's an easy read and it's saved me a few hours already!

I love this book. I am pretty organized as it is but it just puts things into perspective and way you should be organized. Being organized does take alot of stress of your life. It is truly amazing!

I read this book the summer of 2000. In January of 2001 I am teaching an organization class and this book was a part of the inspiration for me to organize my life in all aspects, then go on to teach others these principles with a GOD foundation. This book is great, I suggest that it is read with an "open mind" and be inspired by GOD to be impacted. It is a great source to get organized.

This book was pleasant to read. It will serve as a positive and inspiring read for those times when the job gets me down. I have even posted quips and quotes from the pages on and around my desk at work. I'm sure you will be inspired as much as I was with this simple but effective book.

This was a helpful book with lots of good questions and financially sound answers.

The author writes like a hustler who is trying to con you into believing he is something he isn't. From the quality of the information in this book, the author certainly seems to understand mortgage. Yet, the street-wise tone of the author actually curbs his own credibility. He uses phrases such as "Avoid the bang of a bursting balloon","How to borrow jumbo amounts without paying jumbo rates", and "[author] simplifies complicated math...[and] make sure your loan rep is being honest with you". Such lingo belongs in an infomercial. Beyond his own hoopla, the book does contain valuable information. Just don't buy into his own hype.

You won't be disappointed with this book. It really covers the territory--everything from qualifying tips to government programs to seller financing to saving big dollars. Before I read this book I didn't know a an ARM from a leg. Now I can talk mortgage talk with any lender and not feel like I'm prime meat for the wolves. Really gives the lowdown on all types of financing alternatives and how not to get caught by the fine print. Thoroughly shows how to pay off your loan faster and save tens of thousands of dollars. Nuff said. This knowledge will pay back a thousand times the cost of the book.

I previously read Eldred's book,Investing In Real Estate.It's the best,comprehensive, and most sensible guide to investing that you'll find (read the reviews for youself). Likewise, this book on financing goes way beyond the other authors that I have read. (Sidenote: I cannot figure out what the Seattle reviewer is talking about, Mortgage Secrets deals exclusively with the ins and outs of financing techniques, saving money, cutting mortgage costs,and building equity faster. This book says nothing about using high leverage to get rich in real estate. As to infomercial hype, Eldred actually lambasts these gurus and warns how their "techniques" can lead the gullible to financial ruin. He even cautions strongly against home equity loans.) If you want to learn your financing options as well as the "tricks of the trade", you won't find a better book than this one. Although I'm in the business, I liked this book because a much more educated borrower gives us true professionals a stong advantage over our competition. Read Mortgage Secrets, then work with a broker who follows the insights that Eldred reveals. I'll make more money and you will get a better deal.