Posted in Entrepreneurship

Coming Soon: Think and Grow Rich Audiobook

{{ Update: you can now get the audio book here: Think and Grow Rich Audio Book }}

Read, Think and Grow RichI have been reading my way through a number of classic motivational books and have recently read the grand-daddy of them all, Think and Grow Rich, by Napolean Hill. I recall seeing this particular book on my maternal grandfather’s bookshelf when I was young. I never gave it much thought because the title didn’t appeal to me, but I decided to read it a few months ago. I really wish I had read it 30 years ago.

I have decided to record Think and Grow Rich as an audiobook, using the original text, and provide it as a free download. I have several reasons for this:

  • Firstly, I believe this book is hugely important for those who read and apply the principles that Napolean Hill suggests.
  • Secondly, I believe this should be free, as in free speech and free beer. There are audiobook versions available with updated content, but they come at a cost. I believe that this should free and available to everyone who can access the Internet. The only way to do it is to read from the original text, which is in the public domain.
  • Finally, I want to get some experience in desktop recording and audio post-processing, for various podcasts that I am planning.

I will probably begin recording next week and hope to have this published by the end of the year. I will offer it here, as a free download. I will likely publish this on the Internet Archive and LibriVox as well, which will make it available to the largest audience possible. If you would like to be notified when it is available for download, go to our contact page and send us a note with your email address and I’ll be sure to send an email when it is available.

For those who are interested, here is my recording kit:

Hardware:

Software:

  • PromptCast – Open Source teleprompter
  • Audacity – Open Source audio recording, editing, and processing

Why a netbook? I am using a netbook primarily because it is portable, lightweight, handles audio recording perfectly, and I have one available for use. I plan to record while I travel, so I want a kit that I can carry in a small bag and take anywhere, without encumbering my daily laptop with the chore of recording.  The small profile of the netbook makes it easy to setup anywhere.  The microphone weighs more than the netbook! 😀

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** Update **

Due to some difficulties in recording while traveling, specifically ambient noise, as well as a couple of seasonal colds, it is taking me a bit longer to record this. I am looking at having this completed by January 21st, 2013, Martin Luther King day.

Naming a New Company

Lyon, France Train Station

Somewhere in Lyon, France, a company named Matrice owns the domain I want.

Matrice Consulting just celebrated our ten-year anniversary in August. Looking back, I found that one of the most difficult steps of starting a new company is creating a good name.  I formed my company name after watching a trailer for a movie; I merged my first and last names, added ‘Consulting’ to describe what we do, and voilà!  We had a name and an identity.  I have assisted in naming a couple of other companies and the decision process is difficult, and even more so when you consider Internet presence, social media, and domain names.  In this modern age, you have to consider all the following:

  • Is your name being used by another company, or is it similar enough to cause confusion? Believe it or not, we are not the only Matrice out there.  When I selected our name, we were the only Matrice Consulting, though there is a firm in Argentina that now shares our name.  A search of your state’s division of corporations is a good place to start.  Being sued for using a similar name or being a copycat is not a good way to start a new business.  I was helping develop a new name for a company and we came up with a great name, except that it was taken by a UK company, a very big company.  We scrapped that name in a hurry!
  • Can you secure a good domain name to complement our company?  We had to settle for matricellc.com , as matrice.com was already taken by a technology company in Lyon, France.  A long domain name is memorable, but long names are prone to misspellings and will make for long email addresses. Example:
  • Does your company name mean something else in another language, particularly a common languages in the U.S. such as Spanish or French?  Assento…that’s a nice name.  Too bad that it means ‘toilet seat’ in Portuguese.
  • Is your name memorable or ‘sticky’?
  • Does it make sense for your company?
  • Does it hold special meaning for you or your industry?
  • How will it be perceived in the public eye?
  • How does it sound when you say it?  Is it easily pronounced or mispronounced?  Honestly, Matrice was the best name I devised, but everybody mispronounces it: mattress and muh-TREESE are the most common pronunciations (its pronounced MAY-triss). Lesson learned.
  • I would recommend doing a focus group of trusted partners, friends and colleagues to try names.  Give them a few names and ask them to give critical feedback to help you find the best name for your company.

Would I select the name Matrice Consulting again, give what I’ve learned?  Probably not.  But I have applied these lessons in the other companies that I’ve helped name, including Hot Sun Labs (nutraceuticals), Equivalence Capital (commodities firm), and South Beach Exchange (e-commerce, retail).

Here are some interesting company names that I’ve come across lately:

  • oMoveo Labs – Design firm that has done some work for us; notice the name looks like a vehicle, which is complementary to the name
  • WooThemes – WordPress theme developer
  • Smashing Magazine – Web development online magazine
  • Fluency Media – Internet marketing firm

Book Review: A Message to Garcia – The Best Book You Have Never Read

Andrew Summers Rowan and General Garcia

Andrews Summers Rowan in the center, General Calixto García on the right.

I stumbled across an amazing story, A Message to Garcia, about 6 months ago, which sums up what we all should strive to be and should look for when hiring people.  This book is in the public domain, and I am including copies at the end of this review, based on the Project Gutenberg texts.

The book, which is really more of an essay, was written by Elbert Hubbard, an American writer and philosopher who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He wrote this story shortly after the end of the Spanish-American War, based on the actions of Andrew Summers Rowan.  During the war, Rowan was asked by his general to deliver a message from President McKinley to General Calixto García, leader of the Cuban resistance, who was hidden in the mountains in an unknown location.  Not asking how he was going to accomplish such a task, he took the message from his general, and without a word he set off and successfully delivered the message to Garcia.

The essay extols the virtues of Rowan as a desirable trait for all people.  Here is the crux of Hubbard’s message, as I see it:

The world needs people who can take a task and complete it, without question, complaint, or fuss.

Many of us are that person.  As managers, these are the person we want working on our teams.  As entrepreneurs, these are definitely the people we want for our startups.  Hubbard describes those who cannot take or follow through on orders as morally deformed or crippled.  He sympathisizes with the hard working person, who does their job without complaint, without stupid questions.  To quote Hubbard:

“His kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village—in every office, shop, store and factory.”

I am not going to try an analyze the book from head to tail here, because I would do an injustice to it.  The one thing that strikes me is that this book could have been written yesterday.  I believe it is as important a book as any I have read in years and should be required reading for every child, high school student, college student, worker, soldier, and citizen.  It is short enough to read in a few minutes and I very highly recommend it.  You can download or read the book here:

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I am forming an opinion lately that books do not need to be long, but rather short.  This was first brought to my attention while reading Seth Godin’s “The Dip”.  There are too many non-fiction books that have filler, because apparently some publishers charge for books by the pound.  There may be a prevailing thought that a short book does not carry as much perceived value as a long, large, heavy one.  This is why we end up abandoning books before finishing them, unless the content is very compelling.

I believe books need to be shorter, not longer.  I think that takes a great deal of time and thought to write a shorter book than it does a longer book.  To quote Cicero (also attributed to Blaise Pascal, Mark Twain, and others):

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

To quote my wife:

“Land the plane.”

Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek – A Different Take (Part 1 of 3)

SisyphusThe 4-Hour Workweek, a book by Timothy Ferriss, has been exhaustively praised and panned across the globe.  The book is part self-help, part DIY, part romanticism.  As of this writing, both the first and second editions have been reviewed on Amazon.com 2,333 times.  The ‘Expanded and Updated’ edition has an Amazon.com rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars.  I have chosen to write a review from the perspective of the independent consultant, business owner, and entrepreneur.  As a critical reviewer, I give the book 4 stars because of some inconsistencies and awkwardness in the book.  On a personal and professional level, I give this 5 stars because this book has proven to be very valuable to me and my company.

I will start with these questions:

  1. Is the book worth your time and money?  Yes, if you take just one of the recommended actions.
  2. Does the book add value to your work or personal life? Yes, if you apply one or more of the recommended actions.
  3. Is the book a panacea?  For a select few people, yes; for most people, no.

1. Why is this book worth my time and money?  

First, the book takes about 3 hours to read.  Cut out 3 hours of television and it costs you nothing.  Second, it costs $12.99 in digital format (Kindle), $22 for hardcover (full price), and $12.00 for paperback (full prices). Everyone should be able to extract at least $22 worth of information from this book.  Look at it from a financial perspective:

How much is 1 hour of your time worth?  $25, $50, $100, $200?  I know exactly how much my time is worth, considering that I bill at an hourly rate.  I  can say that I have saved at least 5 hours per week by utilizing various parts of the Definition, Elimination, and Automation sections.  For people who bill at an hourly rate, 1 hour is real money.  If this book enables me to bill just 1 more hour to a client, then my money was well spent.

2. Why does this book add value to my work and personal life?

By implementing some of the time saving tips, I have been able to gain more time with my family.  I start my day with purpose and when I leave my office for the day, I am able to do so with a clear mind, knowing that I accomplished everything that I needed to accomplish.  I have a clear vision for what needs to be done the next day, but it does not consume or even enter my thoughts when I am done for the day.  My office is 8 steps from my kitchen, but when my work is done for the day, it is as effective as having an office 8 miles away.

3. Is the book a panacea?

The book is not a panacea or cure-all for most people, because it takes a special kind of person to be able to jump into the life that Ferriss proposes.  I believe that there are only a handful, hundreds, maybe a few thousand, who can truly take this and run with it, implementing it all the way.  For the rest of us, we have to be satisfied with the fact that we do not want to implement this life, but can take some valuable, real-world lessons from this book and use them.  Some of us love our work. Some of us are out there doing things that are changing or saving the world.  This book helps us to do it better, faster, and more efficiently.  It helps us focus our efforts and multiply our time.  It helps us find wealth in other areas, such as family time and relationship building.  This is not a get-rich-quick guide, in the traditional sense of wealth.  As we like to say, ‘your mileage may vary’ (YMMV).

Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek – A Different Take (Part 2 of 3)

Riley Freeman from The BoondocksA Word to the Haters

Riley: “There he goes again! Hatin’!”

Granddad: “Boy! Stop Hatin’!”

Boondocks, Season 1 Episode 11 – Let’s Nab Oprah

 I am not sure what some of the people who read this book were expecting.  This is what some of the people on Amazon.com have to say in their reviews:

  • “A con artist with a motivational speech”
  • “His shameless self-promotion and braggadicious (sic) style is second only to the undisputed champion of the genre, Donald Trump.”
  • “The whole book is about how to become a sleazy snake-oil salesman in the modern internet era.”
  • “A con man who needs to be taken down”

Yes, the book is painful to read at times.  Ferriss mixes up his message sometimes, which makes him come across as a charlatan and brings his sincerity and integrity into question.  He is from the school of Dan S. Kennedy, which is all about tireless, persistent promotion.  But he is honest, to a fault, which is something that is missed by his harshest critics.  Timothy Ferriss isn’t perfect and sometimes his message is confusing.  Here are some of the problems the people who hate (yes hate) this book seem to have:

  • They had a hard time extracting anything useful from the book, which is unfortunate;
  • They did not approach his concepts with an open mind;
  • They confuse the meaning of ‘rich’, or to use Ferriss’ term ‘New Rich’, to mean monetary wealth;
  • They see only a common con-artist;
  • They believe that self-promotion is a bad thing.

The message is very much about living a richer life with less material wealth.  Timothy Ferriss is a hustler, not a con-artist.  So is Jay-Z and so am I, though they are both much better at it than I am. We are out there working, finding the opportunities, and seeing what works and what does not.   If Ferriss really wanted to, he could exploit this book much in the same way that Steven Covey and many others have with their successful books, holding seminars, giving lectures, etc. and charges thousands of dollars to do so.  I know I would.  He gave the public a manual and challenged people to apply it.