THE INVISIBLE PATH TO SUCCESS:
Seven Steps to Understanding and Managing
The Unseen Forces shaping Your Life by Robert Scheinfeld
If you've ever wondered why self-help techniques don't work for you
(such as meditation, self-talk, or even the seven habits of highly-effective
people), you'll appreciate this book. After two decades designing and
facilitating self-help programs, Scheinfeld wondered *why* so many
people don't get the results they expect. The answer is in this book.
So are the answers to many other questions, like how to get through
difficult times, how to bring good people into your life, how to build
a career that matches your spirit. Scheinfeld finds his answers by looking
beyond surface events to their underlying causes. He brings these concepts
to life using simple language and modern metaphors such as the Internet
and the movies. The end result is an elegant, practical process for directing
our life experiences and steering ourselves along a personal path to
success.
Scheinfeld's book, written months ago, describes a world in which we're
all stars in movies of our own making. He uses the metaphor of a motion
picture to describe a life process where we all get to write the script,
but we don't always get to call the shots. He uses the Internet as a
metaphor for an information network where producers send out casting
calls.
Scheinfeld begins "The Invisible Path to Success" with
a very unusual premise. A 23-year designer and facilitator of self-
help programs, the author explains exactly why these programs don't
work for most people and, even when they do work, why the benefits
don't last. Most self-help courses, says Scheinfeld, leave people blaming
themselves when they don't achieve the health, wealth, and romantic
success promised.
Scheinfeld helps readers understand the unseen forces that shape our
lives. He explains how we unconsciously attract problems into our lives,
and how to handle the set-backs that inevitably come. Using modern metaphors
like the Internet and
the movies, Scheinfeld describes a simple but elegant process for directing
our life experiences and steering ourselves along a personal path to
success.
FIRST IN THIRST:
How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat
into a Cultural Phenomenon
by Darren Rovell
Published by AMACOM
ISBN 0-8144-7299-0, 256 pages, hardcover, $21.95
Available through this site or directly from the publisher: http://www.amanet.org
Before America even knew what "deep-down body thirst" was, four University of Florida scientists had invented something to quench it.
Remember the Cola Wars, with Coke and Pepsi battling it out year after year for supremacy in the soft drink market? Or what about the Burger Wars, the legendary slugfests between McDonald's and Burger King?
Then of course, there were the Sports Drink Wars. If you blinked, you might have missed them, because Gatorade has swiftly and decisively fended off every would-be rival. Although a few other brands hold slim market shares, the fact is that Gatorade single-handedly created the sports drink industry 40 years ago and has absolutely ruled it ever since.
But Gatorade is more than just a triumph of branding. First, it's a trusted product that has been scientifically proven to do what it claims to do.
Second, Gatorade is an enthralling story, brought to life in bright color and sharp detail in First In Thirst. Author Darren Rovell, a skilled, objective, and passionate journalist, chronicles every astonishing milestone of the company's history.
With unprecedented access to the inventors, the marketers, the analysts and observers, and key company figures past and present, Rovell recounts the sweat-drenched University of Florida football practices, the first (unpalatable) prototypes, and the commercial and financial interest that quickly took hold following the drink's first on-field successes. Then came the advertising, sponsorships, product placements (many of them fortuitous), and finally the two milestones that cemented Gatorade's iconic status once and for all -- the ubiquitous Gatorade bath and the Michael Jordan "Be Like Mike" endorsement deal.
With refreshing candor, First In Thirst also offers an inside look at the negotiations, battles, lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions, product strategies, lucky breaks, and even the missteps (there have not been many) that have attended Gatorade's reign as the 800-pound gorilla of the sports-drink scene. Rovell places the reader inside labs and brainstorming sessions, at board meetings and ad shoots, on the sidelines and in the dugouts, even in the winner's circle at NASCAR events -- where Gatorade manages maximum exposure even at tracks whose official sponsors include chief rival POWERade.
The book identifies the nine Gatorade Rules, business principles that have helped Gatorade become one of the most dominant brands ever. By adhering to these principles, businesses in other industries may achieve greater brand recognition and market share.
Long before America knew what "deep-down body thirst" was, a team of university scientists had already invented something to quench it. First In Thirst is the story of the product and the company, and of America's fascination with the one and only Gatorade.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Given its prominence and brand equity, it's amazing we've had to wait until now to read the story about the domination of Gatorade. Darren Rovell will quench your thirst by deftly weaving the tale from its humble beginnings to its extraordinary market share and iconic brand status."
-- David Stern, Commissioner, National Basketball Association
"Without Darren Rovell's First In Thirst, how would I know there was once a Gatorade called 'ESPN the Flavor'? At last I understand how Chris Berman and Stuart Scott race through exhausting highlight packages without becoming dehydrated."
-- Bob Costas, Broadcaster, NBC and HBO
"The story of Gatorade's wild success was just waiting to be told, and Darren Rovell is the perfect person to tell it. First In Thirst is a business book and a marketing book and a zeitgeist book, but most of all it's just a terrific book to read."
-- Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics
"First In Thirst chronicles why Gatorade has become the 'oral imperative' for athletes just like spinach was for Popeye."
-- Joseph R. Castiglione, Director, Intercollegiate Athletics, University of Oklahoma
"Well dump a bucket of green juice over my head! What a great insider's look at the building of a brand that people believe in."
-- Seth Godin, author, All Marketers Are Liars
"Being first, picking a shocking name and using liberal quantities of PR are the three rules of brand building. Darren Rovell tells the fascinating story of one brand that did all three exceptionally well."
-- Al Ries and Laura Ries, co-authors, The Origin of Brands
ROVE EXPOSED:
How Bush's Brain Fooled America
by James Moore & Wayne Slater
Published by WILEY
ISBN 0-471-78708-6, 6" x 9", 225 pages, paperback, $12.95
Available through this site or directly from the publisher: http://www.wiley.com
Who is Karl Rove and how did he acquire so much political power? What motivates someone to use one of the most powerful offices in the country to intimidate political enemies and possibly leak the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame?
This fascinating book pieces together the puzzle of Rove's extraordinary political life through personal interviews with Rove himself as well as revealing stories from friends and foes alike. James Moore and Wayne Slater take you on a fast-paced ride that uncovers both the masterful skills and secret machinations of the President's chief political strategist.
THE SUCCESSFUL LANDLORD:
How to Make Money Without Making Yourself Nuts By Ken Roth
Published by AMACOM
How to stay in control and "in the black" as
a landlord.
Much more goes into the leasing of property than just placing an ad
in the newspaper and collecting rent. The Successful Landlord presents
readers with need-to-know information, from finding good tenants to managing
the ongoing tenant-landlord relationship.
Combining a commonsense approach with must-have information, the book
gives first-time and veteran landlords smart strategies for:
performing background and credit checks
setting rent levels
drawing up a lease
maintaining the property and avoiding damage
establishing policies for pets, furnishings, security, and utilities
advertising available space
working with property managers
dealing with problem tenants and disputes
and much more
The Successful Landlord offers a beautiful balance between
theory (the law) and practice (the deadbeat tenant). Even though the
author is an attorney, he's more focused on plain spoken, practical,
common sense advice than trying to write every imaginable problem into
a lease agreement. The book is loaded with vivid case histories from
dozens of rental situations that will help you expect the unexpected
and prepare accordingly.
Packed with forms for leases, letters, and other legal documents, The
Successful Landlord gives readers the knowledge and tools to
become successful, high-income landlords.
RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be? by Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
with Elizabeth Anne Stephenson
Published by Cliff
Street Books
A Division of HarperCollins Publishers
An Age Reduction Program that Can Make You Live and Feel
Up to 26 Years Younger
Until now, preventative medicine has not been
very successful in motivating healthy choices. We all know that eating
a diet low in saturated fats, taking vitamins and exercising are
good for us, but most people don't adopt healthy habits until after
a major health trauma has occurred. For example, fewer than 15% of
Americans get adequate amounts of exercise, even though more than 90%
of those surveyed say that exercise is important to health. That's
why Michael Roizen, M.D. created RealAge -- a revolutionary, scientifically
valid age reduction plan that not only explains WHY and HOW each behavior
affects your health, but how many years of each activity can actually
add or detract from your life!
People of the same calendar age are
very often different ages biologically. That is, some of us age faster
than others. RealAge is an estimation of age based on your biological
condition, not chronological years. Thus if your chronological age
is 50 but your RealAge is 45, it means that you are in the same shape
physiologically as the average 45 year-old. While your chronological
age is fixed, your biological age may be years older -- or younger
-- depending on how you treat your body.
Notably, simple alternations
in your daily activities can stave off the biological aging process
that makes old age feel "old." RealAge
lets you calculate your rate of aging by assigning a value to current
health choices. By adopting the suggestions in Dr. Roizen's breakthrough
book, you can slow the rate of aging and sometimes even reverse it --
by up to 26 years!
Dr. Roizen calculates RealAge by using the economic
concept of Net Present Value. Using this theory, Dr. Roizen determines
a "mortality risk" factor that places a years younger value
on present day health choices like wearing seatbelts or taking vitamins.
RealAge converts the associated risks of behaviors into a single currency
-- the rate of aging. Some behaviors make us older, some make us younger.
RealAge shows just how much of a difference each choice makes.
To find
out your RealAge, Dr. Roizen has designed a RealAge survey of more
than 125 health related questions that can be taken online through
http://www.RealAge.com or through the book. The survey provides you
with a starting point in assessing your RealAge and in developing an
age reduction plan. Tailored to each individual, this plan can be as
simple as incorporating some of the 44 "quick fixes" Dr. Roizen provides, like flossing
your teeth or taking vitamins, to more challenging goals like quitting
smoking or developing an exercise routine. Drawing from more than 25,000
medical studies, RealAge provides a multitude of health suggestions to
lower your age, such as:
The two most important factors to reducing
your RealAge: Taking charge of arterial aging and protecting your
immune system. For example, keeping your total cholesterol level
below 240 mg/dl and having your "healthy" cholesterol level
at 40 above can reduce your RealAge by 3.7 years.
Environmental Hazards: The world
is a dangerous place! By measuring risk factor in regards to
smoking, air pollution, transportation safety, and the areas of sex
and drugs, you can evaluate how these activities affect the aging
process. As an example, heavy exposure to secondhand smoke can age
you almost 7 years!
Vitamins: Dr. Roizen details how certain vitamins such an
antioxidants, calcium, Vitamin D and folic acid retard the
aging process. For instance, Dr. Roizen has determined that getting
the RealAge optimum dose of Vitamin C can make a 55 year old woman
2.2 years younger or a woman of 70, 2.6 years younger!
Simple But Overlooked
Health Habits to Staying Young: Daily routines affect your RealAge
in dramatic ways. Dr. Roizen evaluates how such tasks as getting
enough sleep, eating breakfast, and keeping your vaccinations up
to date affect how you age. Seven hours of sleep a night for women
and eight hours for men can make your RealAge three years younger.
Through
RealAge, Dr. Roizen illustrates that behavioral choices make a huge
difference in the rate of aging. Simple tasks such as keeping your
blood pressure in check, taking aspirin each day, and eating a low-fat
diet can lower your RealAge significantly. By conscientiously lowering
your RealAge, you are buying time to do more and be more, to enjoy
the life you've always wanted. Simply put, RealAge, by Michael Roizen,
M.D., can make you live younger -- for many years to come!
MY SOUL SAID TO ME:
An Unlikely Journey
Behind the Walls of Justice by Robert E. Roberts, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.S.W.
Published by Health Communications, Inc.
So there Rusty and I were, behind
locked doors, in a circle with fifty male prisoners. As soon as our
requested three minutes of silence were over, Billy, a prisoner who
was sitting next to my colleague, Rusty, turned to him, got right
in his face and demanded, "What the
f- you doin' here - you come here to f- with our minds?" Billy was
not much bigger than Rusty, but he was solid muscle. The expression
on his face was serious and focused. "They payin' you to be here? How
much they payin' you? Wisely, Rusty carefully and calmly answered his
questions with a brief "Yes," and, "Not much."
Such was the tone at Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana,
on day-one of Bob Robert's first workshop. Here, as part of his doctoral
dissertation, he would apply the community building model of his mentor
Dr. Scott Peck to a group of fifty prisoners, nearly all African American,
and chosen at random by a lottery system. Meeting weekly, and intended
to last three years, the workshops progressed. Men who had lived together
for years, barely exchanging words, began to converse meaningfully with
each other. Visitations increased from loved ones and friends, and a
considerable decrease in violence within the group of prisoners occurred
as well. When tested, the average reading scores of the community improved
an entire grade level every seven weeks.
In My Soul Said To Me: An Unlikely Journey Behind the Walls of Justice, Bob
Roberts documents every leg of this unlikely journey straight through to
the eventual sabotage and demise of the program he implemented in Jackson.
Fortunately, although the author has us despairing for the Dixon prisoners
left behind whom we grow to understand and care about, Roberts is inspired
to further his work by starting what would become the country's only privately
operated prisoner re-entry program funded by the Department of Justice
and the most successful one of its kind.
What began as an experiment that benefited a few hundred prisoners in
Louisiana grew into Project Return in New Orleans, a program affiliated
with Tulane Medical Center's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Since its inception, Project Return has helped break the cycles of addiction,
crime and violence of over 2,500 former offenders reducing their probability
of returning to prison from 3 in 4 to 1 in 4.
Two significant elements of the
work Roberts practiced in his original program and carries on at Project
Return involve grief work and African studies. For the first time in
their lives, participants enter a safe environment for unloading emotional
burdens they have carried for years, burdens that have weighed them
down with guilt, shame, and grief because there has been no place to
lay them, no one to acknowledge their suffering, no vessel strong enough
to contain their rage. From this process, participants cultivate an
environment of "extraordinary respect" for each other rekindling in
them the flames of dignity, courage, determination, and destiny.
Exploring the darkest terrain of violence and human suffering, and the
brightest regions of redemption, human dignity and hope, My Soul
Said to Me will change forever your view of criminal justice, your
appreciation of deep relationships and freedom, and your ability to determine
your own future. It is a story of deceit and honesty, cowardice and courage,
prejudice and acceptance. Most importantly, it is the story of the power
of friendship and the ability that lies within each of us to create beauty
in the world through commitment, determination, and the understanding that
all of our souls came here for a reason.
"...this worthwhile, important book
offers a bright, optimistic window onto the often horrific conditions
that still exist in prisons today." --Publishers Weekly, February 2003
"I was privileged to participate in
the community circle of Project Return once, and I grasped immediately
the source for its success -- community. This story is a refreshing testimony
but it's also a roadmap to community and healing. And, most importantly,
it's a bright and gleaming sign of possibility that will inspire others
to create ways to reach out and include the 'least of these' which our
society tends to throw away." -- Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking
"This is a passionate, sobering story
that paradoxically brings hope into dark places of the American psyche." -- Robert Bly, author of Iron John
"This book tells of one man's courage
[and] challenges the courage of us readers to face our passive complicity
that perpetuates the system." -- James Hillman, author, The Soul's Code
"My Soul Said to Me is a dramatic
story of both personal and social transformation." -- Robert Moore, author, The Archetype of Initiation
"It takes boldness, determination
and an acute sense of service to the world in pain to do what Bob Roberts
has done. His journey speaks to all souls who have heard the call to
live at the edge courageously and sacrificially." -- Malidoma Somé, author, Of Water and the Spirit
"Bob Roberts' story is both incredibly
moving and inspiring. His healing model is both effective and replicable.
It goes right to the heart of the matter. A must read for anyone interested
in prison reform and human potential." -- Richard Gere, actor and activist
"This book chronicles a unique journey
which has been successful in its goal of giving guidance and hope to
hundreds of ex-convicts, leading many to productive lives and reducing
the rate of recidivism. It is a truly inspiring story." -- David C. Treen, former Governor of Louisiana
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE:
Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax by Sheldon Richman
Published by The Future of Freedom Foundation
The IRS is the most feared government agency in America.
Why does it exist and why is it integral
to the operation of the government as we have come to know it? "As
we have come to know it" - there's
the rub. The income tax wasn't integral to anything the Founders of this
country had in mind and it wasn't integral to anything they designed.
Sheldon Richman shows where the income
tax and the IRS camefrom, and recounts not only how they came to be but
why. He traces the constitutional difficulties
relating to direct and indirect taxes. He deals with the moral difficulties
of justice in taxation. And he investigates
just where the idea for "progressivity" came
from: who would promote such an idea, and what's the ethical justification
for forcing you to pay a larger portion of your income in taxes when
you get a raise or find a better job?
All taxation is objectionable,
Richman says, but special evils and abuses accompany the income
tax. What makes Richman's analysis different from others is that he
shows that those special evils are not accidental, something that can
be eliminated just by putting the right people in charge or by offering
a few reforms here and there. They are intrinsic to the purpose for which
the IRS and the income tax exist.
And that's why he proposes that the whole
thing just be repealed.
How much will that cost and what would
it mean to Americans and their liberty? Richman argues that there are
no real costs - only bene-fits - to returning
to the American people the billions the income tax takes from them every
year. Getting rid of the income tax is a critical step toward expanding
and restoring our liberties.
An afterword discusses the latest batch
of reforms: they turn out to be more window dressing. They couldn't have
been otherwise, says Richman, and he tells you why.
Sheldon Richman says the income tax makes
you poorer; reading his discussion of it will make you richer.
POST-RAPTURE RADIO:
Lost Writings from a Failed Revolution by Russell Rathbun Published by Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley
(ISBN: 0-7879-7393-9, 208 pages, hardcover, $21.95)
Available from this site or directly from the publisher: http://www.josseybass.com/
"Hilarious, passionate, infuriating,
revealing, alarming, perplexing, illuminating. In short, apocalyptic.
And definitely required reading for anyone seeking a faithful Christianity
in the heart of the American Empire."
-- Andy Crouch, columnist, Christianity Today
"Once in a while a book reaches
out from the page, grabs me by the scruff of the neck, and says something
so pithy, so smart, and irreverently funny that I almost bust a gut
laughing. That's what Post-Rapture
Radio did to me on several occasions. The fact is, sometimes
satire is the best way for us to see our own foibles, and this book is
a wonderful antidote to much that ails the church. It's A Confederacy
of Dunces for Christians."
-- Tony Jones, author, The Sacred Way
"Soren Kierkegaard said that people
held in the grip of an illusion cannot be directly reasoned with. One
must assault them with appealing but apparently absurd stories and
even contradictions in the desperate hope that indirect communication
can accomplish what direct communication cannot. Russell Rathbun may
be Kierkegaard's great-grandson or something. If you have no illusions,
you don't need to read this. Otherwise..."
-- Brian McLaren, pastor, author, A New Kind of Christian.
"Funny and thought-provoking. It
challenges the way one thinks about the gospel of Jesus Christ and
the church in his name."
-- Gordon Cano, singer and songwriter, Violent Femmes
"There are times when the tongue-in-cheek
can become a light in the mind -- when 'off the wall' becomes the plank
of reality. Richard Lamblove was a driven crusader in his last-ditch
stand against the shallowly fervent. I feel the fury of his fugitively
scribbling his final battle plan on the remnants of cereal boxes and
scraps of cardboard. Alas, were it not for Russell Rathbun, we would
not know of these lost writings nor feel the loss of great truth to
the forces of evangelical glitz."
-- Calvin Miller, author, Hunger for the Holy and Loving God Closeup;
professor, Beeson Divinity School
In Post-Rapture Radio,
our faithful narrator finds a mysterious box containing the sermons
and journal entries of a genuine, unvarnished American character the
Reverend Richard Lamblove. The little-known Lamblove tried and failed
to revolutionize contemporary Christian culture. As his journal entries,
cereal box scribblings, and random notes written on paper scraps reveal,
Lamblove sees contemporary culture as shallow, overly individualistic,
and consumed with the kind of status measured by money, power, and
celebrity. And American Evangelicalism -- which has been integrated
into the culture as a whole -- has similar failings. Reverend Lamblove
vanished without a trace, but Russell Rathbun has "compiled" his papers
into a compelling critique of contemporary faith; an antidote to faith-as-usual
and a wakeup call for Christians to genuinely respond to the gospel.
About the Book PUTT'S LAW AND THE SUCCESSFUL TECHNOCRAT:
How to Win in the Information Age
by Archibald Putt
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISBN 0-471-71422-4, 171 pages, illus., hardcover, $24.95
Available through this site or directly from the publisher: http://www.wiley.com or phone 1-800-225-5945
Putt's Law:Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Written by an industry leader in R&D management, this title examines the above law by following the (often humorous) business development of both types of individuals in a Research and Development setting. By examining their performance, the book provides practical advise on how to succeed in the technology industry.
The author, using a pseudonym, details how to survive and thrive in the world of technology. The book follows the fictional business careers of two vastly different individuals in industry. By comparing and contrasting their amusing experiences, business styles, successes, and failures, the author comprises a series of laws to guide readers through the difficult world of technology corporations. Bright, lively, and very funny, Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat uses satire to highlight the author's deep understanding of the real world of technology.
Originally published in 1981, Putt's Law has become widely know and quoted in technology circles. The mysterious identity of the author is the subject of much scrutiny and debate.
Author Profiles
