economics-times

Jac Holzman has given us a gift with this book, right down to the paper he chose himeself to print it on. If you have any interest in the history of recorded music, the music business, and why we listen to the music we enjoy today, you absolutely must read this book. It's not only a fascinating account of how a major record label came to be, it's a fantastic insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the very quirky world of music business. If you love music and cherish the sounds of the fifties and sixties, from folk to blues, rock to psychedelia, and you haven't read this music giant's first hand account of making so much of it happen for you, you're doing yourself a major disservice. Thank you Jac and Gavan!

"FOLLOW THE MUSIC' is an essential addition to the bookshelves of public and campus libraries, and of everyone in, and around, today's "music industry". This is the musical history tour of Elektra Records, home to The Doors, Judy Collins, Bread, Queen, Tim Buckley, Carly Simon, LOVE, Theodore Bikel, The Incredible String Band, Harry Chapin, Paul Butterfield and dozens of other folk, folk/blues, blues/rock and hard rock acts. Co-author Jac Holzman was the founder and guiding light of this exquisite and unique record label, and he, along with many of his friends, family and associates tell the inside story of the creation and eventual success of Elektra, its classical sibling Nonesuch, along with insights into the artists and folk/pop/music/drug culture of the Fifties, Sixties and early Seventies. This is an extremely well-researched, at times humorous, sad, enlightening, technical and truthful treasure chest of an autobiography. Holzman presents himself a! s an extremely bright, lucid, tasteful and technically talented 'individual', qualities that have made him loved and respected by legions of label honchos, singer/songwriter legends and record album archivists/historians. One of the most entertaining, intelligent and insightful popular music history books of the year, if not the decade.

Once, in the MUSIC business, there were men and women in charge of labels who, with a combination of passion about great music,
and just the right amount of business acumen, were able to nurture the explosion of musical creativity in the 60s. Jac Holzman is just such a person.

The exciting and interesting story of Elektra records is told using an oral history approach; illuminating the story with a fascile balance of viewpoint.

I had never heard the full story of how Love and then, The Doors,
became labelmates at Elektra. There were moments in the telling of that particular story where I felt that I could almost reach out and touch the participants.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC is an entertaining, engrossing, sometimes funny-sometimes tragic account of one of the titans of American music and his lovechild; whose ability to follow his dream to it's fruition has enriched us all. Oh, if we could all be so blessed.

The recent failure of the modern music industry shows what happens when people who aren't committed to music and creativity are in positions of authority. Everything suffers; most of all, the music.

This book is great. Whenever I'm stumped for something new, and want to get out of our food rut, I open this book and always find something great.

Recipes are always a crowd pleaser, with compliments galore! Toss that Joy of Cooking and turn to this. Recipes aren't complicated and range from great Sea Bass to orange sorbet. YUM!

I have several cookbooks, but this one has the most stains in it by far, which is probably the best way to determine if a cookbook is any good. I turn to the Times cookbook when I want to make my old standbys, when I am trying something new or when I have company coming over. Of course, I was raised by a mother who used an older edition of this book as her main cookbook, so I may be a bit biased.

The cookbook has everything out there you need to start cooking. When I first started cooking, I was able to pick up this cookbook and start with almost no background. All the recipes turned out excellent. I particularly liked the chili recipes.

Last year, I mixed and matched these recipes with ones typed on index cards that I inherited from my grandmother and made a successful Thanksgiving dinner (which may be the ultimate praise for a cookbook).

One warning: recipes in this cookbook are not shortcuts. They will take a decent time to prepare. If I am in a hurry, I don't usually use this cookbook. If you never have much time to prepare a meal or do not enjoy cooking, this is probably not the book for you.

This is a very nice cookbook with tasty, easy to cook recipes involving ingredients that are commonly found.

It should be stated, however, that some directions are so simple that they lack clarity.

Also, many recipes involve usually alot of butter or cream, giving this book a noticably french sentiment.

This is the book that will cahnge your life. After 25 years in the business world, I thought that I had read and seen them all...until now. This is the first book that empowered me to take Action. It's logical, no nonsense approach will propel you to your goal. This is not jsut for the entreprenuor or the CEO, it is for anyone who wants to be wildly successful and still be happy. After reading it, I changed my city, state, position and lifestyle, yet still work for the same corporation

I've been really impressed with this book. I'm almost done reading it and will definitely go back and read it a few more times, and refer to it often. Having just met with a business consultant who would charge $24K a year for similar-sounding coaching, I'm really impressed by how much sound, logical, but also simple and memorable/doable advice the author offers in this book. She makes tons of great, practical, straight-forward points, and it isn't just rah-rah stuff that you'll forget about shortly after you read it. Very good stuff. The author seems like someone who's walked her talk, too, which is always helpful. Great, and very business-oriented, as opposed to just personal growth/personal coaching-oriented, like Cheryl Richardson's stuff. (This book might be a great combination with one of Cheryl's books, too, for the complete package: self-help on a business and a personal level. Very congruent.)

If you feel that you work to hard and earn to little, this book is for you. Jennifer White shows you how to be more effective in whatever you do. When you become more effective--you will start earning more money-because your more effective, more valuable. Jennifer is one of the top coaches in the nation and it's not for no reason. Her methods are sound. Proven. They Work. Highly recommended.

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

I have read and followed financial, investment and business books for close to 30 years. Many are informative and some are brilliant. This book is one of the latter ones. I've been watching the cash flow industry develop for 10 years now, but this is the first time the entire industry is explained in one book by the founder of it. It's an added bonus that the book is thorough, entertaining, and easy to read.

THIS BOOK WAS A VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND, VERY PLEASANT TO READ OVER-VIEW OF THE CASH FLOW INDUSTRY AND ITS POTENTIAL TO EARN MONEY. ITS WRITTEN IN LANGUAGE THAT ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND, AND BE ABLE TO APPLY IN THE REAL WORLD. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE BOOK IS ACCURATE, COHESIVE, AND WRITTEN IN SUCH A WAY AS TO BE ENJOYABLE. TIME WELL SPENT. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE SEEKING A VIABLE, LUCRATIVE CAREER IN THE MONEY BUSINESS, OR ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE ALREADY IN THE BUSINESS WHO WANT TO REFRESH THEMSELVES AND EXPAND THEIR POTENTIAL. A MUST READ!!!

What I liked about this book is that Pino does not fill your head with needess pie in the sky pep talks. Pino seems to tell you what you need to know, give you information and phone numbers to help you get started then lets you go. I recomend this book if you would like to learn or at least begin learning about this subject.

Many people are stuck in a 8-5 JOB and want to start a busines but don't have the capital or time to do it. The author is honest and up front that you can become a millionaire through your own real estate investing business but it won't happen overnight. He takes you step by step on how you can get started with out a lot of risk, working on weekends and with very little money to get started.

What the author shares in this book works as he has successfully used the same material he teaches in the book to build his own real estate investing business. I first became acquainted with the author Mike Summey when I purchased the "Wealth And Empowerment Training" course from Carleton Sheets Training Institute. Mike did a lecture on one of the video's as he is one of Carleton's most successful students. During the lecture he showed slides of his properties and he explains in detail how he built his Real Estate Investing Empire. If you are serious about becoming financially independent buy the book!

Easily the best real estate investing book I've read. This is a no-nonsense, very practical look at how to buy single-family homes and rent them out. It's a page-turner, it doesn't get lost in the details yet is descriptive enough for people to get started. The authors' philosophy is to generate an income stream through renting your properties, and then use the properties as leverage for buying subsequent properties. They basically advocate NEVER selling them unless they're not profitable.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the sections on negotiating are excellent and should not be taken lightly. The techniques they describe were eye-opening, I was shocked at how they might be used, or used against me! To many, the section on negotating may even be more useful than the rest of the book.

To further motivate you to get started, the book includes 8 chapters at the end, each representing one week, that describe exactly what to do in your first 8 weeks of getting started. Very well written, i've already recommended this book to several others.

The authors correctly convince you that the terms of the deal are often as important, or more important, than the selling price. This is because you can still get a good return on investment (ROI) even if you pay more than the asking price. Then, to me, the only weakness in this book relates to financing homes in very expensive markets. The authors advocate only buying houses within a 10-mile radius of where you live. Sure, if you have so-so credit and little money, you can probably scrape up financing for homes in the $50000-$100000 range. But what if you're like me, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where 1300 sq foot homes in decent neighborhoods can go for $300-400k? This is a VERY high barrier for entry. This becomes laughable when the authors describe an example where they bought a 12000 sq foot manufacturing facility for $200k, and the challenges they faced with making this facility profitable when rented. I'm not sure that any amount of creative financing will be able to help some people in markets like this.

Most importantly I like the fact that the authors had the sense to write in short easy to understand chapters. While the book touches on the vast complexities of real estate investing and negotiating they do it in a way you can understand. I'm always skeptically of books that are printed in a yellow cover with the words weekend and millionaire in the title, but trust me (a person you never met) that the small investment of the purchase price and time to read it are worth your time (We've all blown money on worst things than this).

The One Minute Manager's symbol- a one-minute readout from the face of a modern digital watch- is intended to remind each of us to take a minute out of our day to look into the faces of the people we manage. And to realize that they are our most important resources. The Monkey Manager's symbol- a harried manager overwhelmed by a deskful of problems- is intended to remind us to constantly discipline ourselves to invest our time on the most vital aspects of management rather than dilute our effectiveness by "doing more efficiently those things that shouldn't be done in the first place." What follows is a story about a harried manager who worked long, hard hours, yet never quite seemed to get caught up with all the work he had to do. He learned about monkey management and how not to take initiative away from his people so they can care for and feed their own "monkeys." In the process, he learned to be more effective in dealing with his own manager and the demands of his organization. The performance of his department drastically improved as did the prospects for his career. The authors hope is that you will use what you learn in this book to make a difference in your life and the lives of the people you interact with at work, and at home.

This book does a great job of helping people focus on their own work.

Many people in an organization focus on managing the boss rather than doing their own job. What better way to manage the boss than to constantly seek her/his guidance on everything? Then, the boss can be flattered that you want his/her help, and will also take the blame if anything goes wrong. Insecure bosses like to be involved, so that fewer "errors" occur.

This wonderful book points out that no one can learn without making errors. Also, if you and your subordinate are doing the same job, one of you is superfluous. A common source of stalled thinking in this area is focusing on the fact that you, as manager, can do the job better and faster than you can teach the task or job to someone. What managers fail to realize is that someone closer to the source of the problem should be able to come up with a better solution. Also, the time taken to teach someone else to do the task is usually much less over a year or two than the time taken to help someone learn the task.

The key problem is that we all like to fall back on doing what we are comfortable with and are good at rather than new challenges where we are not so competent. Banish that feeling!

This book gives you lots of practical ideas for how to respond to efforts by your subordinates and colleagues to delegate their work and responsibility to you. You will learn how to see them coming and to keep the monkey where it belongs: with them.

If you find that you are pressed for time, this book is an important source of ideas to free up your life to have less stress while you and your organization both accomplish more.

Good luck with taking care of your monkey business! It's an important step toward developing an irresistible growth enterprise.

Buy the book or better yet listen to the tape then watch the change in your attitude Monday morning.

A good meter for a manager to know if he has too many monkeys is by comparing e-mail inbaskets, since that is where so many of us spend much of our time nowadays. My own is usually over 300 items while my staff's is usually under 20. I thought about each of these as a monkey and then also thought back over all the one-on-one conversations I had had with each of them (7 people). In most cases, it was usually left that I would do something next, and that fits in perfectly with this book. True to the book and the tape, I spend countless hours to catch up, only to fall further behind.

The book is pretty good, but the tape is far superior. There are two tapes; the first one is a speech by Bill Oncken Jr, and he is just a fantastic story-teller. He really brings to life the story of the manager whose staff is all waiting on him, the stress he feels, and the revelation that hits him when he sees them golfing when he goes in on the weekend. Of course this is all written before the days of e-mail, but it still works. You can feel the energy in his voice rising as he turns his life around and puts all the monkeys back where they belong, and the final line where he gets the whole audience to shout "HOW'S IT GOING?!" to the new monkey-owner is a great ending.

The second tape is Ken Blanchard delivering the rest of the material, and while he's entertaining, it's not nearly as good as Oncken's "day-in-the-life" tale. He ties the material back to the One-Minute Manager, and touches on some psychological issues.

They also stress that this isn't just an exercise in delegating and taking work off the manager's hand, it is just as important as a developmental process for the subordinate.

As a side-note, it's interesting that there is no mention anywhere in the book of Spencer Johnson, the co-author of the original book The One Minute Manager, who invented the system. In all the author biographies and Thank-You's, he is never mentioned, I wonder if he and Blanchard had a parting of company. And the book itself makes almost no mention at all about what One-Minute Manager is all about, it seems just a way to put a popular title to a book about monkey management,
although I think this monkey manual is the better book.

You'll not be wasting your time by reading this book! (Pun intended) Unlike many other time management books this one has a real focus meeting a real need. Dave understands sales people and so has written with empathy with all types of sales people from road warriors to the high-flyers. In my international Top Gun Sales Academy courses I recommend participants to get this book as it will quite simply help them sell more which, again quite simply, will make them more money in less time.

Dave Kahle is one of the best writers on selling skills on the country. While there have been enumerable books written on time management, this is the best one I've seen on time management techniques that are of direct and immediate value to someone in sales. Best of all, while most people read books on time management, few ever put the information to work...Dave makes it simple enough that readers are much more likely to implement his suggestions. Highly recommended!

This book is a powerful tool. There are many tools out there that profess to help you to set and achieve your goals, however, they lose credibility when it comes to planning and putting the plan into action. This book actually contains executable steps that, when followed, provide the missing link to the execution of your plan. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. Get it and then get on with it. You will be glad.

When I first saw this book, my heart did not exactly skip a beat. Another book about (and worse, BY!) 2 American entrepreneurs selling computer mice? Haven't publishers had enough of all these human interest business stories that all share the same beginnings and endings?

I decided to give the book a go anyway since it was a gift from a friend. Surprisingly, I was unable to put it down. Even though I am an Asian doing my MBA in Europe, I believe the experiences of the authors hold true for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

And what experiences! I won't give the story away (go to mousedriver.com and look at their Insider newsletter for a summary of some of their tales),but DO consider this book to get an idea of what it means to passionately believe in a product, get that product to the market -- and how to deal with all the obstacles in the way while preserving your sanity and bank balances.

If, like me, you have thoughts about being an entrepreneur but are not sure of what to start being passionate about, read this book and "Just Drive It" ! The marketing slogan for the MouseDriver (that's what these guys are trying to sell, a mouse that is shaped like a golf club) is certainly effective shorthand for all those who have always THOUGHT about being their own boss but have have not dared to fall out of their 8 to 8 routines (Worry about the landing later:-)

MouseDriver Chronicles is a true, compelling story that deserves a wider audience. I now understand why my friend (who gave me the book) actually went on to help publish it. Happy AND educational endings, anyone?

Ok, so here's the deal. I currently manage about $20MM in retail business for a manufacturer, and have been contemplating whether to pursue an MBA (read Wharton) or start a company. This book provided a pretty no-pretense look at starting a product-based company. In many cases the author's MBA's weren't that valuable (their words, not mine). Ultimately, this book served to help demystify the process of starting a company. While not a "how-to" book, I can say that it has been one of the most beneficial books in providing 1) a realistic view of the start-up process, and 2) a realistic view on the benefit of an MBA in starting a company. My own personal conclusion is that industry experience seems to count for far more than an MBA (assuming, of course, and undergrad in Business Mgmt or business knowledge from experience).

Thanks, guys, for daring to share your victories, setbacks, and experiences with us in a transparent and unpretentious manner. I can't tell you how beneficial this book has been in my own decision to take the plunge.

The twenty bucks invested in this book may be the best start-up investment you can make. By the way, they really do reply if you email them. I received replies from both John & Kyle within a few days of asking for their input. God bless.

Having stumbled accross this book amidst the deluge that is my local book store, i soon realised that i had stumbled accross something very inspirational indeed. As a Business school graduate myself, i was entering this game with a somewhat over-confident approach to business startup! Boy oh boy has this read tought me a thing or three! I don't want to rabble on and on about how good the book is, but i would just like to add one thing. The experiences of John and Kyle (the entrepreneurs) have brought me back down to earth and have re-ignited my creative spark as i am now thinking of ways to avoid getting myself in the dificult situations they often found themselves in . Also of ways i could get in similar positive situations they found themselves in. Oh, just go and buy it, steal it, borrow it from your friend or find a way to get your hands on it-entrepreneurs you will not regret it!

This book heavily emphasizes planning and prioritizing and also offers tips on how to stave off procrastination. There are a few anecdotes about business managers and housewives that, for me, just fill pages, but overall, this is a clearly-written, useful book that offers effective techniques.

I believe that it is very hard to find a book which is more important than this book. This book is a must for anyone in any field who wants to achieve much more than s/he did before reading it. It may be not but is very close to the bible of time and life management. Being too far away from ideas inside this book, you will be very hard to achieve anything in your life. The time you read it will be paid off several times. Its ideas are worth reviewing several times.

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life is, perhaps, the best book on time management ever written. It does not waste your time but gets right to the point. You must establish SMART (specific, measurable, achieveable, related/relevant, and time framed) goals for yourself and then prioritize them using Lakein's A/C system. "A" goals are the most important to you and you must plan on spending 80% of your time to achieve them. "C" goals (TV, lawn care, shopping, etc.) are the place where most people "waste" their lives and spend 80% of their time. This ratio must be reversed, according to Lakein.

He would agree with e.e. cummings that "To be nobody but yourself in a world that is night and day trying to make you just like everybody else means to fight the hardest fight any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." Once we have set goals that utilize our unique talents and abilities, we will have the will power and determination to do the work necessary to achieve them.

To accomplish our goals Lakein recommends that we make a daily "to do" list and always start with "A's," not "C's." Most of our time is spent working harder on things that don't matter. We may be efficient, but Lakein suggests that our goal is to do what matters most and become effective. "Work smarter, not harder" is the mantra he wants us to repeat and couple that saying with his last piece of advice --"Do it now."

Stick your finger into this small book and any page you hit will have wise words to put into action. Learning comes from daily practice and developing habits that "put first things first," taken from Stephen Covey's best seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People -- also recommended is Covey's fine book on effective living appropriately titled First Things First.

Rarely has a book that costs so little paid such rich dividends. You won't be disappointed.

Improper Home-Based Business This scheme purports to offer tax "relief" but in reality is illegal tax avoidance. The promoters of this scheme claim that individual taxpayers can deduct most, or all, of their personal expenses as business expenses by setting up a bogus home-based business. But the tax code firmly establishes that a clear business purpose and profit motive must exist in order to generate and claim allowable business expenses. This [issue] has been around for years, but the IRS continues to see activity in this area.

Sandy has finally done it! This is the only simple and easy to understand Tax Strategy Planning book in America. Sandy has taken a very dry subject and brought it to life in a way that teaches and entertains at the same time. Sandy also backs up all of his strategies with laws, court cases, IRS rulling, etc. This is a must read for ANYONE who is a business owner, self-employed, sub contractor, home based business owner etc. We feel that this information is so vital that we give this book to all of our clients. Sandy is helping Americans keep more of what they make, and teaching people to use the strategies of the rich. I recommend this book to anyone who is a business owner.

My husband and I read and re-read this book several times and we were amazed at the wealth of information for the average small business owner that is contained between the covers.His humorous anecdotes throughout the book make for easy and pleasurable reading Not only did Sandy Botkin make this a very informative book but he showed us how to implement legally many of his very worthwhile tax saving ideas. We recomend this book highly. Elaine Payson