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Higher taxes and more governmental control: A Liberal Supermajority - WSJ

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Oprah read Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind and it rocked her world.  She gave a copy to everyone on her staff at Harpo Studios.  She also gave 4,500 copies to the graduating class of Stanford when she delivered the commencement speech a few months ago.  And she recently interviewed Dan Pink to discuss the book.  Dan stated that it was his “favorite interview.  Ever.”  Well worth the time.

Watch the interview.  Read the book.  Rock your world.

And then check out Johnny Bunko, too.

Filed under: 50 Books, Reading by Michael
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As you know, the U.S. financial markets are in a tailspin as a result of the failure or potential failure of numerous investment banks.  As of this writing, congressional leaders have worked out a $700 billion plan with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to help save the banks–and the economy.  Congress will vote on the measure this week to authorize distribution of the funds to the Treasury.  Will it work?  Confidence in the plan will be reflected in the markets the next several days and weeks, so watch the Dow and S&P 500.

For a clear and relatively simple explanation of the mess and some critical commentary on the plan, see Richard Posner’s thoughts and those of his colleague Gary Becker.  The two are highly-regarded professors of law and economics (respectively) at the University of Chicago.  On the other hand, investor Warren Buffet expresses a great deal of confidence in Henry Paulson.  Again, watch the markets to see how this shakes out.

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The other day I posted stats published in the latest FastCompany indicating that a majority of employees change jobs because of bad bosses, not necessarily bad companies.  While discussing this with a colleague, he wondered if employees would remain at bad/mediocre organizations if they had good bosses.  Interesting twist.  

What do you think?

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The latest issue of BusinessWeek has a small feature on marketer Seth Godin.  I’m a fan of his books and read his blog entries daily.

If you’re not familiar with Seth, try the article as a start and then subscribe to the blog.  If you’re a really rabid fan, you’ll probably want the action figure.  I’m hoping to get one for Christmas.  Or something.

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October 16 is National Boss’ Day so don’t forget a card.  Some of us have very good bosses–I count myself among the fortunate/blessed.  Many, however, don’t.  The October 2008 issue of FastCompany cites a 2008 Yahoo survey, indicating:

43% of Americans don’t like their bosses’ management styles, while 55% agree that “people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.”

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From a guest post by Tim Clark at Get Rich Slowly:

…entrepreneurship is about you helping other people to achieve their goals.

This is obvious when you think about it. Business is all about satisfying customers, right? Well, to satisfy customers, you need to help them save money, solve annoying problems, experience more satisfaction or pleasure, or earn a better living.

Put simply, in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must help other people.

Read the rest.  Bunko lesson #3: it’s not about you.

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While reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, I kept thinking of two other books on success I’d read recently:

• Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky, and Rich by Richard St. John
• Good to Great by Jim Collins

Jim Collins took an empirical look at organizations to see what they did to become successful while Richard St. John conducted hundreds of interviews with successful people to determine what factors led to their success.  Both are highly recommended.

I’ve put together a document that attempts to relate the characteristics/lessons of these three books to identify common points (download a PDF).  

If I were forced to narrow it down to just two characteristics, I’d say 1) do what you do best (strengths) and 2) work really hard (persistence).

I’m curious to know what others think on this.  Are there any changes you’d make to the diagram?  What other “success” books have you read that could be added to the comparison?

Related posts:

Bunko Brunch Recap
Recommended Reading for Business Communication Students 

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Last week I wrote about the DIY Bunko Brunch that we recently hosted at LCC.  Turns out ours was the first one–who knew?

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After reading Dan Pink’s remarkable little book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko last spring, I began to share its ideas with my students (business administration majors at Lincoln Christian College).  I’d shared the book with a colleague or two as well and enjoyed some interesting discussion over it.

So when Dan Pink offered to send out free copies of the book to anyone willing to host a “DIY Bunko Breakfast”–an opportunity to read and discuss the book–I raised my hand: “sign me up!”

The books arrived and though I initially thought I’d give them to students, I chose to give them to colleagues instead.  It seemed best, initially, to get these ideas circulating among those who would have conversations with and influence the students on campus.  Armed then with a little background about the book and the DIY Bunko Breakfast story, I invited six colleagues to read Johnny Bunko.  All were delighted with the idea and, two weeks after distributing the books, we met yesterday to have our Bunko Breakfast (which, for us, turned out to be a Bunko Brunch).

The reading group included faculty, staff, and administrators:

• Dr. Tom Tanner, VP of Academics
• Karen Diefendorf, College Academic Dean
• Brian Mills, VP of Student Development
• Caryn Collins, Women’s Residence Hall Director
• Candra Landers, Coordinator of Service Learning
• Rob Maupin, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies

We all agreed that the six lessons were valuable and spent time trying to “read between the lines” of the sparse text and raise more questions: 

• If there’s no plan (or road map), is there at least a compass?  
• Does persistence *trump* talent, or does it develop it?  
• In our media-obsessed culture, does charisma trump talent and persistence?  
• What is the role of character?
• Is a willingness to be taught a precondition for learning the six lessons (cf. Proverbs 2.1-11)?
• Will college students, who haven’t had the opportunity to work for a time, have enough context to “get” the book?

Given the context of our own organization–namely, a theologically-informed academic institution–we saw many parallels between Johnny’s lessons and those provided in Scripture (esp. the role of serving others, persevering, working within one’s areas of giftedness, etc.).  Dr. Tanner observed that Diana, Johnny’s career advisor, provides a supernatural influence in Johnny’s life.  Indeed, just as the Biblical narrative indicates that God sometimes “breaks in” from the outside to communicate with people, we wondered if Johnny could have learned his lessons as effectively without Diana’s assistance and authority.

A few of us now plan to read the book with groups of students to gauge their response.  Brian in particular is interested in test-marketing Johnny Bunko with students to see if it might be useful as a text for a freshman orientation class next year.  In fact, he recently used the “persistence trumps talent” lesson when speaking to a group of freshmen.

Cheers to Dan Pink for providing us with an opportunity to have this conversation, and thanks to those who participated in it yesterday.  Get yourself a copy of The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and let me know what you think.

Related posts:

Review of Johnny Bunko: A Presentation

Recommended Reading for Business Communication Students

Dan Pink Discusses Johnny Bunko in Chicago

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