Since I work with authors, I have a lot of opportunities to read new books and often to give a gift to contribute to the success of a book launch.  I enjoy reading  a variety of books and am not afraid to read books by people whose perspective differs from my own.

How much time and energy do you put into your personal development each day? Do you read, study and improve yourself? If you are not currently doing so, I urge you to spend at least a few minutes each day reading a book or listening to a recording that empowers you to expand yourself.

Reading stories of people who raised themselves out of difficult situations and change lives everyday is one of my favorite passtimes. The book I review today

Kenneth Brown, author of LIFE: 6 Principles for Living In Freedom Everyday, lived his early life in poverty. Yet he had a dream of owning his own restaurant. Naturally, he did not effortlessly move from dream to fulfillment. He faced numerous challenges along the way. Only once he gained the right mindset and associations, a sense of vision and purpose for his life and took responsibility for his circumstances did he discover the meaning of freedom.

in LIFE, Kenneth Brown walks you through a journey of self discovery that will help you connect with what I would call your passion and he calls your calling. This is a book for those who appreciate a Christian perspective and/or who hold the belief that God directs your life.

He says in the book that when he first tried to borrow money from family to live his dream, the deal fell through because he used “earthly currency” and because he had not been made ready. After gaining skills working in McDonald and other restaurants, he discovered a passion for leadership and a clear sense of what God was calling him to do..

The guiding principles he talks about in the book are:

• Faith in God
• Vision  of success
• Purpose ordained by God
• Passion  and energy
• Ownership of your life and situation
• Associations that strengthen you

The book is written in a very friendly and accessible style. Kenneth uses some of his own stories, Biblical tales and stories of people he knows throughout the book.

If you feel a desire to understand God’s purpose for your life or you wish to deepen your faith, this book will definitely inspire you.

One of the great stories he tells is about the importance of your associations. He shares a time when he nervously started a horseback riding lesson. The instructions given to him reminded him of his wife. No, he does not liken her to a horse, but the instructions a rider gives a horse are like those of a good accountability partner. Sometimes you give a gentle direction with the reigns, and when you want the horse to go, you kick him in the stomach. While the contact does not hurt the horse, it gets him moving. That’s what Brown says his wife does for him at times.

One of my favorite stories is in the section on vision. Brown coached a businessman whose company was failing. While the man talked about wanting his employees to buy into his vision, and while he had created excellent training materials for them, his vision statement was not posted anywhere either in the manual or around the offices. How can anyone buy into a vision when they do not know what it is?

Brown shares an unfortunate truth in the book, which is that most people do not have a written vision statement or written goals. He created a simple yet powerful guiding vision statement for his restaurant. This single sentence stated the vision so clearly that all he had to do to demonstrate to an employee that they were not in alignment was to point and say, “Read the vision.”

I really appreciate Brown’s use of stories throughout LIFE. This isn’t surprising, since I’m definitely an advocate of connecting with people through storytelling. His stories poignantly guide you into an understanding of how to improve your life in the 6 arenas he covers in the book.

While there are no specific “exercises” in the book, there are many questions for you to consider and suggested actions you can take to raise yourself up in each of the 6 areas. You will find this book easy to read and powerfully pertinent.

Give yourself the gift of LIFE Tuesday, Jan. 26 and receive some life-changing gifts from Kenneth and his promotion partners right here..

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Yesterday, I laid out the first 3 steps that were outlined by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, a billion dollar internet company, in creating a world class company.

Today, I wanted to follow up with the other 4 steps he outlined, because I think this is truly business-building gold that he shared with us.

Step #4:Create a Powerful Vision

This is something you hear a lot of business coaches talk about, but it was interesting to hear this from a guy who has created literally hundreds of millions of dollars of profits and billions of dollars of sales.

Tony commented that “whatever you’re thinking .. THINK BIGGER”. This is powerful advice, because a critical problem most people have is that they never start thinking big enough to begin with. They set low standards, they set low goals, and they never achieve anywhere near their personal potential.

Tony’s attitude is somewhat like Donald Trump’s in this respect, who likes to say, “you’re going to think anyway .. so you might as well think big”.

No matter how you look at it, creating and holding a MASSIVE, exciting vision leads you to take more significant, committed steps, because we all want to be a part of something significant.

So how do you create a vision that’s compelling? Tony suggested asking the following question to help uncover what you are really trying to do .. “What will you be passionate about in 10 years from now, even if you never made a dime doing it?”

When you have a powerful, inspiring vision that connects to your passion, it’s incredible what happens – and such a vision rarely, if ever, has anything to do with money. As Tony commented, “chase the vision, not the money”.

If you find yourself doing something because your primary goal is money, that’s a big sign that you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Step #5:Build Relationships – Not Networks

This was great insight, because so many people focus on how many business cards they collect at a networking meeting, or how many contacts they have in their Outlook or contact database.

Tony’s view is that it doesn’t matter how many people you know or that you’ve met .. what matters most is how many people you connect with. He disagrees with the idea of “networking” as he thinks of that as a superficial process that doesn’t really bring you close to anyone.

Instead, he emphasized how important it is not to focus on quantity of relationships, but on the quality of the relationships you have. And one of his greatest insights was “be interested instead of interesting.”

Step #6:Build A World Class Team

As with most entrepreneurs who are successful, Tony acknowledged that the most important thing he’s done is set the culture of his company, and then brought in the right people to manage and grow the culture and vision.

He agreed with the classic thought of “hire slowly, fire quickly”, saying that one of the most damaging things you can have happen to a company is an employee who doesn’t fit, or is damaging to the culture.

He outlined the Zappos.com recruitment and training programs for new employees, which includes significant training time spent on culture and brand. He also mentioned a wild concept — during the training, they offer $2,000 to anyone who is willing to quit on the spot!

They’re looking for someone who’s not really committed and they know if someone’s willing to quit for $2,000, they’re not going to be around very long anyway.. best to flush them out at the beginning that find out later, after they’ve spent a bunch of money training them!

This is a great example of how differently Tony thinks in his business, and why he is so wildly successful with it.

Step #7:Think Long Term

This was one of the themes of everything that Tony talked about. He thinks about the long-term in his business, and specifically, what the lifetime value of a customer is. He outlined numerous stories of how they went so far above and beyond to make a customer happy, because they focus on doing whatever it takes to make a customer happy.

He details examples where customers have spent more than $60,000 with them online, and that everything that matters in a business that keeps customers is about the service.

You can’t just say you have good service, you literally have to show it and prove it every single day.

He emphasized there is “no get rich quick” out there, and that success takes time to achieve. Of course, I agree wholeheartedly with this premise, and this is exactly what I teach — there are no short cuts to success.

He then proceeded to tell us more about his company, which is headquartered in Las Vegas. He described how they offer free company tours to anyone in Las Vegas, and they even have a shuttle that will come and pick you up from your hotel for free to bring you to their offices so you can see what they’re about!

To say that Tony operates differently than almost EVERYONE out there is an understatement!

If you want to read more about Tony and Zappos.com, Fortune Magazine recently published a great article about him that you can see here.

Tony was the first speaker at the SANG event which was 3 days full of this kind of talent and insight. I’ll be sharing more of my notes with you over the next several days, so look for more to come soon!

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