Posted by Elena del Valle on September 30, 2011
The Pursuit of Happiness book cover
Are wealthy people happier than poor and middle class people? Is a person’s state of happiness a reflection of his or her income? In other words, must income be tied to happiness? What is the relationship between the two? Is it more important to reduce misery or to improve a person’s emotional well being? Is well being tomorrow a good reason to sacrifice happiness today? Everyday people and veteran researchers continue to seek the answers to these questions, especially in the past decade.
This has prompted a burgeoning collaboration between economists and psychologists. Some countries have begun to examine and measure economic happiness issues and address their possible public policy implications. The Brazilian, British and French governments have established programs to measure happiness in relation to their country’s progress. From a big picture perspective this is a novel and controversial approach.
Should nations dedicate resources toward improving their citizens state of contentment or their economic well being? And in making those decisions is it better to focus on tomorrow’s or today’s welfare? Carol Graham, a researcher of “happiness economics” with a decade long track record, examines these issues in The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings Institution Press, $24.95), a 164-page hardcover book published this year.
The book is divided into five chapters: Happiness: A New Science, What We Mean by Happiness: A “Theory” of Agency and Well-Being, Happiness Around the World: What We Know, Adaptation and Other Puzzles, and GNH versus GNP?
Her international research and that of her colleagues has led her to what she calls the paradox of happy peasants and frustrated achievers, she explains in the first chapter. Around the globe she has found that poor people are on average less happy than wealthy people but very poor people often are very happy; poor people often say they are happier than the slightly wealthier among them and even the very rich.
In the absence of abject poverty (and in some cases excess wealth), health concerns, uncertainty, divorce, inflation and unemployment, it seems people across the world are amazingly resilient and adaptable; able to find a constant level of contentment (as defined by them in open ended survey responses), according to Graham.
She indicates that much evidence establishes that happy people are healthier and perform better in the labor market and may have a greater ability to lead purposeful lives than less happy people. Some happiness may be ideal, leading to contentment and purposefulness while too much happiness may lead to complacency, low performance at work.
Graham is a senior fellow in Global Economy and Development and Charles Robinson Chair in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. She is also College Park Professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Her previous books include Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires, and Happiness and Hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on September 23, 2011
It’s Not About You book cover
Photo: Higher Level Group
Bob Burg, sales executive, and John David Mann, who likes to write about business and leadership, co-authored The Go Giver and Go-Givers Sell More in the past. This week, their new book, It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business (Portfolio Penguin, $23.95), written as an inspirational fable designed to share wisdom about leadership and subtle influence, was published.
The 144-page softcover book is divided into 14 chapters: The Offer, The Question, The Top Floor, Influence, The Heart of the Operation, The Language of Strength, The Work, Being Muddy, Birth and Death, An Imprint on the Soul, Robbie, Chaos, The Speech, and The Chair; an end section with words of wisdom. An example is of those listed is “The best way to increase your influence is to give it away.”
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Posted by Elena del Valle on September 16, 2011
Fast Media, Media Fast book cover
In the United States, the average household consumes eight hours or more a day of television plus web surfing, texting, social media and email, according to a recently published book*. Thomas W. Cooper, Ph.D., a specialist in media and culture, thinks people today rely too much on outside influences they receive from media and marketing messages. He advises reconnecting with others and being aware of media overload. In his most recent book, *Fast Media, Media Fast: How to clear your mind and invigorate your life in an age of media overload* (Gaeta Press, $19.95), published this year, he discusses media responsibility.
The idea, he explains in the Introduction, is to be an active participant instead of a viewer; to be a creator rather than a consumer. By abstaining from consuming media he seeks a rebirth of sorts that may allow him to get in touch with his creative side again. He invites readers to consider the idea of a temporary media fast as he has been doing periodically since 1989. At the end of the fast he, and those readers who follow his example, can choose how much media to introduce back into his life, how often, of what kind, for what purpose and so on.
The 225-page paperback book is divided into ten chapters and four parts: Taking a Personal Media Fast or Diet, Learning from the Fast, Group Fasting and The Ultimate Choice. It also includes two appendices, Personal Fasting and Group Fasting.
Cooper is professor of Visual and Media Arts at Boston’s Emerson College. Before joining the faculty at Emerson, Cooper taught at Harvard University and University of Hawaii. He is also speechwriter for Jochen Zeitz, chief executive officer, Puma. Cooper, a resident of Swampscott, Massachusetts, is the author or co-author of six previous books and one hundred academic and professional articles on media ethics and related topics.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on September 9, 2011
Finance Without Fear book cover
Photos: Prosperous Communities, Inc.
William S. Hettinger, Ph.D., a consultant and educator, and John Dolan-Heitlinger, MBA, a consultant and business executive, believe the long term success of a business is tied directly to the owner’s and manager’s ability to understand where the money comes from and where it goes; that business acumen is not enough if the owner or person heading a business doesn’t understand the financial issues pertaining to his or her company. It is their belief that to control a business it is necessary to understand the numbers.
“You can fix practically any business problem but only if you first understand where your money comes from,” said Dolan-Heitlinger.
They outline what they consider essential financial knowledge for a business in Finance Without Fear: A Guide to Creating and Managing a Profitable Business, a 312-page softcover book published this year by the Institute for Finance & Entrepreneurship with a retail price of $25.95.
John Dolan-Heitlinger, MBA coauthor, Finance Without Fear
The book, they indicate in the Introduction, was written to explain the essential issues of finance and how to use finance as a tool to those starting or expanding a business, managers wishing to apply financial principles to their business, board members who want to broaden their knowledge of the finance of the business, and students.
“You may think finance is complicated and intimidating,” said Hettinger, “but it’s really not that difficult to understand. Not understanding financial statements leaves you open to being blindsided.”
The book is divided into 21 chapters and four main sections: Introduction, Financial Statements, Tools to Help You Make Money, and Building and Operating Your Business to Make Money.
William S. Hettinger, Ph.D., coauthor, Finance Without Fear
Hettinger is president of Prosperous Communities, a housing and economic development consultancy. He is the author of several other books including Living and Working in Paradise: Why Housing is Too Expensive and What Communities Can Do about It which analyzes the causes of housing market failure in resort communities.
Dolan-Heitlinger is the president of D-H & Associates Consulting, a business management and governance consultancy. He has been consultant, chief executive officer and senior executive for more than 25 years in diverse economic and demographic environments. Retired as a Coast Guard Reserve commander, Dolan-Heitlinger had commands and leadership positions in the homeland security and disaster response fields.
Both are principals at the Institute for Finance and Entrepreneurship which provides training and mentoring to small business owners.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on September 2, 2011
Latinnovating book cover
Photos: Gracefully Global Group
Graciela Tiscareno-Sato, owner, Gracefully Global Group believes some Latinos strive to create social and industrial innovation to reuse, preserve and conserve resources. The San Francisco resident, formerly a member of the U.S. Air Force, authored Latinnovating Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them (Gracefully Global Group, $25), a 211-page softcover book showcasing ten examples of Latino led innovation and entrepreneurship that in her opinion have escaped the attention of national media.
The idea behind the book is sustainability “as a foundation for 21 century survival and growth,” she explains in the Introduction. The book was born of the frustration Tiscareno-Sato felt at the opportunities she believes were missed by the media of identifying the efforts of everyday Latinos contributing to the green movement.
The book is divided into one section each for a Latino innovator in addition to Introduction and Final Thoughts chapters: Carmen Rad, Eco-friendly printing leader; Rodrigo Prudencio, Venture capitalist; Rosamaria Caballero-Stafford, Eco-consultant; Luis Rojas, Accountant turned solar developer; Sandra Artalejo, Fashion designer and queen of creative reuse; Dennis Salazar, Packaging industry thought leader; Humberto Rincon, Mechanical Engineer reducing consumption; Monica DeZulueta, Engineer reducing carbon footprints; Robert Zardeneta, Social justice leader transforming communities; and Frank Ramirez, Entrepreneur solving energy storage problems.
Graciela Tiscareno-Sato, author, Latinnovating
The chapters are the result of an initial questionnaire followed by individual interviews and research about each case study. It is her belief that Latinos follow an old cultural mandate to conserve and preserve natural resources.
Tiscareno-Sato was recognized by Latina Style Magazine as the San Francisco Bay Area Entrepreneur of the Year in May 2010. In November 2010, she was selected Entrepreneur of the Year at the Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund Gala in Washington D.C.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on August 26, 2011
Brand Atlas book cover
Photos: Dean & Blume PR
In Brand Atlas Branding Intelligence Made Visible (Wiley, $29.95), a 144-page hardcover book published this year, Alina Wheeler and Joel Katz outline the basic ideas they consider important for readers wishing to understand and make use of branding today. Their objectives in the book are to focus on what they consider the three essential areas to be conquered for those seeking to build their brand: understanding the marketplace and its trends, understanding brand basics and gaining access to the right methods and tools.
The book, filled with four-color pages, is divided into four main sections: Dynamics, Intelligence, Drive and Details. The concepts are outlined briefly, one per page, across from a four-color design page. The authors discuss topics such as global sourcing, word of mouth, open source, social networks, transparency, sustainability, Freeconomics (making a profit while offering free content), touchpoints, authenticity, and perception.
Wheeler, a branding consultant, authored Designing Brand Identity. She was advisory council member for The Dictionary of Brand. Katz, an information designer specializing in visualization of complex information, teaches at The University of the Arts and Philadelphia University.
Alina Wheeler, coauthor, Brand Atlas
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Posted by Elena del Valle on August 19, 2011
Nothing to Lose book cover
Photo: Higher Level Group
When Ryan Blair was a boy he suffered hardships and made bad choices that led to unfortunate results. As a young man his life took a better turn and eventually he became a self-made multimillionaire and serial entrepreneur. He established his first company, 24-7 Tech, when he was twenty-one years old, and has since created and actively invested in multiple start-ups.
More recently, as the head of ViSalus Sciences during the height of the 2008 recession he turned the company around from near failure to more than $10 million a month in only 15 months.
Blair recently shared some of his life and business experiences and opinions in Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur (Portfolio Hardcover, $25.95), a 214-page softcover book divided into eighteen chapters.
The author believes that people with nothing to lose have great potential. He is convinced that his street smarts and nothing-to-lose attitude account for his success in life.
“There is nothing more dangerous than someone with nothing to loose,” he says. “Just like an animal backed into a corner your survival instincts kick in.” In the Epilogue he also says that “No matter how successful you are, you have to take every last day and live it as if you had everything to gain.”
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Posted by Elena del Valle on August 12, 2011
Surviving Your Serengeti book cover
Photos: Wiley
A salesman and entrepreneur born in Kenya believes it makes sense for business people suffering in the down economy to seek inspiration from some of the better known animal species in East Africa’s Serengeti and their behaviors. He proposes seven skills today’s executives should learn from the plains animals who make a thousand mile seasonal journey fraught with challenges and danger.
In Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business and Life (Wiley,$21.95) Stefan Swanepoel outlines a fable of a beleaguered California business owner and his wife on a safari trip to the Serengeti. On their first night in a safari tented camp in Tanzania, they run into a college acquaintance of his who describes the skills of each of seven animals he has been observing in their natural habitat.
He believes the skills humans can emulate are based on the animals’ unique survival skills. The seven he highlights are: Wildebeests stand out for their endurance, lions for their strategic hunting abilities, crocodiles for their enterprising nature, cheetahs for their efficiency, giraffes for their grace under stress, mongooses for their risk taking, and elephants for their superior communication skills.
Stefan Wanepoel, author, Surviving Your Serengeti
The 176-page hardcover book is divided into nine chapters, an introduction, one to describe within the story each of the animal’s skills, and a final chapter where he wraps up the story and his concept as well as an Epilogue.
According to his bio, prior to writing the book, one of nineteen he has authored, Swanepoel ran a New York-based franchise network with 25,000 sales staff in 30 countries. A resident of California he has been president of seven companies and two nonprofit organizations.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on August 5, 2011
How to Protect Your Family’s Assets book cover
Photos: News and Experts
The average monthly costs of nursing home care in the United States are $6,470 (according to How to Protect Your Family’s Assets) and the American Association of Retired Persons estimates the median annual cost of a private nursing home room is $75,000. That is a lot of money for just about anyone except the very wealthy. As the country’s aging Baby Boomer population faces its future how will the millions of members of that generation deal with illness, nursing home issues and the related financial obligations they come with? Many, especially in these trouble economic times, feel unprepared to deal with retirement, the health issues that accompany old age, nursing homes and hospice care.
What is a family to do? K. Gabriel Heiser, J.D. believes those who prepare in advance and learn about the issues they will have to deal with deserve to take advantage of government programs and protections such as Medicaid. He has specialized on estate planning and Medicaid eligibility planning, trusts, estates, gifts, and related tax issues, since graduating from Boston University School of Law in 1983. The mistake a lot of people make is thinking that they can’t qualify for Medicaid, according to Heiser who is author of How to Protect Your Family’s Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs: Medicaid Secrets (Phylius Press, $47).
“Many feel that because they own a home or have some assets that they can’t qualify for Medicaid help with their nursing home and doctor’s bills,” he said. “The truth is there are a variety of assets people can own and still qualify. It’s just a matter of knowing the rules, and making a plan to meet those requirements.”
The 281-page softcover book first published in 2007 and reprinted annually through 2010 is bright red with big green, white and brown letters. It is divided into nineteen chapters: Introduction, What Is Medicaid?, What Is Covered by Medicaid?, Applying for Benefits, Medicaid Qualification Rules, Income Qualification Rules, Asset Qualification Rules, Transferring Assets, Trusts, Strategies to Qualify, The Home: Planning Ideas, Annuities, Promissory Notes, Transfer Strategies, Post-Eligibility Issues, Estate Recovery, Case Studies, Veterans Pension: How It Works, and Veterans Pension: Planning Techniques; and an appendix.
Heiser strongly urges readers to rely on the counsel of a professional and use his book to be informed and prepare questions for the professionals who assist them. All the “secrets” and tips he shares, he explains, are legal and ethical.
K. Gabriel Heiser, author, How to Protect Your Family’s Assets
“There are so many other rules that can benefit those who aren’t sure they’ll have enough when the time comes,” said Heiser. “The key is to plan now and act now. These laws exist for your protection, and avoiding the discussion and the planning necessary to take care of the potential complications just because it is an unpleasant topic will only result in a more unpleasant conversation when you realize you’re not ready when the worst happens. That can be a very expensive dilemma. Peace of mind right now, however, won’t cost a dime, and could save you hundreds of thousands of dimes later.”
Click to buy How to Protect Your Family’s Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs (5th edition)
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Posted by Elena del Valle on July 29, 2011
The Gift of Success and Happiness book cover
Photos: Skyhorse Publishing
Are you happy? Are you successful? How do you measure success? Does happiness accompany success? Chip Sawicki, an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University, and Vernon Roberts, a leadership facilitator, believe they have the answers to these questions.
In The Gift of Success and Happiness Transforming Your Life Through Business Processing Principles (Skyhorse Publishing, $16.95), a 240-page softcover book published in May of this year, the two men discuss their ideas on how an ambitious person might achieve personal happiness and professional success. They believe it is possible to have both without sacrificing one in favor of the other. They also believe that finding happiness is in each person’s hands and the result of the decisions he or she makes.
Chip Sawicki, author, The Gift of Success and Happiness
Financial success results when people set and meet ambitious goals for themselves; happiness is the result of setting reasonable expectations that are fulfilled regularly; and it is necessary to contribute to the community in order to feel satisfied, they say in the Preface. According to them, making all these interconnected goals a reality requires planning; and, in the same way that executives in successful companies make plans to reach their goals people need to make plans to meet their interconnected goals and find well rounded happiness.
Vernon Roberts, contributor, The Gift of Success and Happiness
The book is divided into 14 chapters and three main parts, Primary Sources of Stress, The Core Elements of Life, and What Gives Our Lives Depth. In the book, the authors offer step-by-step plans that can be personalized for each major shift in a person’s life, such as: suggestions for a clear structure to balance success and happiness, self-evaluation worksheets, suggestions to develop the most important elements in a person’s life, ways to avoid unnecessary stress resulting from social, financial, and time management issues, and business ideas for productive decisions.
Prior to his position at Wake Forest University Sawicki was chief financial officer of the Texas Rangers and Stars sports teams and after that he was a stay-at-home dad. Roberts, founder of Evoke Learning & Performance, is a coach and performance consultant.
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