For the first time in about a year, I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday buying a book and realized that bookstores – as we currently know them – are on their death bed.

As I stared blankly at the business section, I noticed some favorites and some new books. Most had an attractive title and compelling cover art. But something was missing:

Social proof.

I’ve read hundreds of books and know not to judge a book by its cover. Literally. It may have the most captivating inside flap, yet will leave you wishing for your time and money back.

Big-box bookstores, no matter how well staffed, will never have the ability to guide you into a buying decision the way Amazon or 800-CEO-Read does. I among most other book buyers, base 99.9% of the buying decision on reviews and chatter online for a book.

While yes, they could integrate some kiosks or what not into the store to read reviews, but at that point why leave the house? I can do that from the comfort of my couch and my iPhone’s Amazon app. And have the book on my doorstep the next day.

So What Is A Bookstore Owner To Do?

Over the upcoming years, I’m predicting a huge transition in the ways bookstores position themselves. Just as any other business must focus on a niche in a highly competitive market, bookstores will start segmenting themselves.

If a bookstore is to compete successfully against online stores, the staff and offerings must become extremely compelling. Someone should be able to walk into the store, rattle off a few favorite books to a well-read worker, and within minutes be happily walking out of the store with a book perfectly suited for their desires. If the bookstore can’t accomplish this, they will follow in the footsteps of Borders.

This past weekend I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and they had a great segment on a bookstore doing just that:

Pretty interesting huh?

How I’d do It

If I were to create a bookstore tomorrow I’d include the following:

• Less than 1,000 books in the store that at least one of the members of the staff have read and enjoyed.
• An online blog reviewing every book read by the staff.
• A book club to create a community of enthusiasts and brand advocates.
• Specials on new arrivals in exchange for reviews of the book.
• A membership database that tracks what books they’ve read with an algorithm to predict what books they may enjoy.

For the most part, this strategy isn’t rocket-science, but also it isn’t generally implemented. In my experience, even the corner bookstore tries to carry everything from Harry Potter & The Da Vinci Code to Rachel Ray’s Cookbook & Think and Grow Rich. There’s no focus with their offering… and ultimately, no appeal.

So the questions I pose to my fellow book readers:

What do you foresee happening to bookstores? How would you improve the customer experience? Would a mix between an online/offline community be a good fit?

When you reflect on your area of expertise or specialty, do you feel it has become pretty routine? I bet you do. And I bet a lot of your skills have become effortless.

How do you perceive your ability? If you’ve been doing it for a while, I bet you start feeling anyone can do it.

If so, do you feel it’s become easy? Or is it simple?

Ignore what your dictionary says for a moment…

Let’s define easy as achieved without effort. And simple as anyone can do it.

So, where am I going with this?

I was working with a client on her pricing structure today and realized a profound theme: most people think what they find easy isn’t worth charging for.

“How could I charge money for this, it’s simple?”

I’ve heard it many times before. People who are good at something will naturally feel it’s simple. But is it simple? Or has it, over time, become easy?

Think back to when you were first learning your specialty. You had no idea how to do it. We’ve all had a challenge: tying our shoes, driving a car, speaking in front of a crowd and so on… just remember back to the days before you didn’t know how to do it, was it easy then? Probably not. Instead, what makes something easy is your learned ability.

If you provide a service that sometimes from your point of view seems anyone can do it, most likely it’s not. And unfortunately, if you start to think your offering is simple, you’re bound to lose your edge, your tenacity and your drive to help others.

Remember, just as tying your shoes is now a no-brainer, your specialty may seem easy. But keep in mind that while it seems effortless for you, other’s still need your help.

People want your talent. Don’t be afraid to charge for it.

When building your business, unfamiliar events are bound to happen. There will come times that systems you’ve grown dependent on will let you down. It’s almost a guarantee.

Personally, this happened to me a few days ago. My blackberry crashed. Kaput. D-E-A-D, dead. Worse yet, I had no other backup phone immediately available. And it just so happened that it died shortly after I gave a two-hour social media presentation to a large group of local business people – all potential clients. (In hindsight, I could have temporarily forwarded my number to my Skype account)

I was in hot water. I had learned the hard way that we must be cautious of technology – to tread lightly – as it can disappear at anytime. And believing my phone could never fail me, I didn’t have an alternative option.

The Lesson

Technology won’t always be available. It’s up to you and your team to anticipate and overcome technological obstacles. And it’s those businesses that can adapt who will keep their uptime and maintain their momentum.

Do you have any examples of this? And how did you overcome your tech-downfalls?

I, on the other hand, believe a restaurant can become an instant success if the following 10 rules are applied correctly:

Rule #1: Remarkable

Creating a restaurant that others talk about and willingly recommend to others is paramount for restaurant success. But yet this is easier said than done. Most places fall into the realm of boring, unattractive eating establishments.

So how does one create a remarkable restaurant? By obeying these following principles:

Rule #2: Simple but Delicious Menu

Bill Cosby said it best, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

All too often I see menus with page after page of unique food offerings. While this huge selection is great in theory. Most people don’t need that many choices. A dozen or less main courses are enough. Some meat, some vegetarian and that’s it. No one needs 15 styles of chicken at a steak house.

Moreover, when you offer everything under the sun, it becomes almost impossible to create amazing dishes with the absolute freshest ingredients. Instead, your signature arugula soup with goat cheese is going to sit in the warming pot, cooking itself into a slow burnt death. And it’s all because you have a slue of other mediocre offerings diluting people’s choices.

Rule #3: Seating

Restaurant revenues are directly related to how many people get through the door in a day.  And with margins so small in most cases, a successful restaurant must be able to serve as many as possible.

I’m not saying a cafeteria-style seating arrangement is necessary. But rather a smart, elegant yet expansive layout is essential for boosting profits.

Rule #4: Sign

As with food, presentation is everything. And having a 20-year-old sign with peeling paint, is not presenting your business in a positive manner.

Most off-the-street guests pick where to eat by what they see. Often by the number of cars in the parking lot, which is mostly out of your direct control, and by the sign. The nicer the sign, the more likely people will stop in for a bite to eat.

Rule #5: No-Frills Atmosphere

People looking to eat aren’t all to judgmental. Who cares if there isn’t a tablecloth? Or that the napkins are paper instead of the finest Egyptian cotton?

A table, chairs and interesting stuff on the walls is all most people need. Head to eBay for some used decorations and allposters.com for fake, yet elegant looking paintings.

Rule #6: Wait Staff Personality

No matter what else, the wait staff has to be memorable. Not ass-kissing nice. Memorable.

Creating a crew of fun-to-be-around workers is what will get folks coming back and guaranteeing positive recommendations to friends.

Besides the food, most people dining out are doing so for an experience. If they just wanted good food and a boring time, they would have ordered delivery.

Rule #7: Location and/or Parking

City locations must be near high foot traffic areas. Suburban and rural restaurants must have ample parking. Enough said.

Rule #8: Memorabilia

Besides the huge profit margins, memorabilia is a great way to increase your chances of success. Hundreds or thousands of people occasionally wearing your branded shirts and drinking out of logo’d glasses is amazingly effective marketing. Especially considering the fan paid you for the privilege of advertising your restaurant.

However, you must make sure the stuff is cool and unique. No one will wear an out-of-style t-shirt or buy a shot glass with a crappy sticker on it.

Rule #9: Social Media Presence

It once was the future of marketing. Now, it’s just marketing.

Get your brand active on Twitter & Facebook. Create specials on Foursquare. Post fun pictures and content to your blog. Do whatever it takes to create a loyal online community.

Rule #10: Sweat the Small Stuff, eg. Napkins

How many times have you been at a restaurant and had to ask for more napkins? Unless I’m the only one who can’t eat a salad, bread, main course and dessert without demolishing a single napkin, people need more than one napkin.

Having customers track down a worker to ask for things that should be readily available is the easiest way to annoy a patron.

From a guest’s perspective, think the entire dining process through. Are there any speed bumps along the way? I bet simple solutions can be found for every hurdle.

Bonus – Rule #11: Create Motive for Free Press

Adam Richman of Man vs. Food fame would agree with me on this one. Eating contests, ginormous meals and other clever marketing tactics can be an easy way to gain free press and coverage.

Conclusion

I’ve always wanted to own a bar/restaurant. But cannot foresee me doing so anytime soon. So the above ten rules are my secrets for how I’d create a successful restaurant.

Not a restaurant owner? Forward this post to your favorite eating-place. I’d imagine they will enjoy reading this.

If you’re in a profession where first impressions matter. Which is every profession. You must be aware that people are judgmental. And while most people wouldn’t admit it. Subconsciously, they are.

So what does this mean for you?

It means you must be aware of one of the most crucial aspects of your wardrobe…

Your shoes.

This may seem a petty after-thought or possibly even counterintuitive. But it isn’t.

Why Your Shoes Matter

Next time you’re face-to-face with a new acquaintance, watch their eyes. Eventually during the conversation their gaze will drift to the floor. And guess what’s down there? Yup, your tattered, ugly 4-year-old shoes. While yes your beloved shoes fit like a glove and they hold sentimental value ever since you traveled through five countries with them. But the other parties in your conversation don’t know these things. They just know your shoes are ugly as shit. Excuse my French. But it needs to be said.

I run into too many sales people trying to earn my business by pledging their superior quality and utmost attention to detail, yet they wear the ugliest shoes. It seems common sense to me, nevertheless, countless business people fail to understand this simple concept; dress to impress.

However, to be accurate, this is much more common a problem with men. Most women, at least the ones in my life, LOVE their shoes. But don’t get me started on that subject…

To Summarize

Go to Zappos and buy some new shoes. It’s an investment worth making.

A few months back, I had the fortunate opportunity to be invited to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun with one of my old college buddies. Not one to say no, I took him up on the offer. To summarize the experience in one word: amazing.

While it was nice to be there and partake in all the events, I couldn’t help but be entranced by their business model. Within 12 hours of my arrival I had already eaten many plates of sushi, drank countless blended drinks and pretty much cleaned out the pre-stocked fridge in our room. How can a business sustain this clear over indulgence of someone like me? I’m assuming amazing budgeting and math skills as well as a strong understanding of consumer psychology. But is that it?

Demand for Inclusivity

The most remarkable concept of the all-inclusive model is how effectively the value-add entices guests. Through conversing with fellow guests, people generally enjoyed not caring about what they did or what it cost. They loved that everything on the trip was included with that little wristband.

This was analogous to other freebies I’ve seen people go through hell and high water to receive, e.g. free lunches for training seminars, free pens and t-shirts during product launches, etc.

How I Suspect That Resort Makes Money

No different than an all-you-can-eat buffet but on a much larger scale, the money is made through the relatively high percentage of guests who do not consume their fair share of the free stuff. For example, a group of 6 (3 guys 3 girls) checks in for 5 days. Of the six, not everyone will have more than small meals, a few drinks and not much more. Even with those who order more than they can consume, the hotel is still better off. Put in gambling terms, the house always wins.

Ultimately, an all-inclusive resort boils down to the fact guests are unknowingly and indirectly paying an obsessive amount for each meal and drink. But the remarkable reality is that it doesn’t matter if they realize it. From my observations the majority of guests did not consider or care that they were not fully capitalizing or consuming their rightful share of the included pie.

What is your take on their mindset?

Reinforcement of the Value-Add

Knowing that this model is oftentimes sustainable and profitable, it greatly reinforces the value-add business model. Not only does it clearly illustrate the demand for “free stuff.” But it displays the importance of adopting some form of value-add into your product or service offering.

Put in other words, throwing in a bunch of items at no-charge can help you raise your rates while directly adding a warm and fuzzy feeling to your customers and clients.

What’s your take on this?

Tony Robbins Asks Why We Do What We Do

Join the discussion of this video on TED.com

Seth Godin on Standing Out

Join the discussion of this video on TED.com

Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man

Join the discussion of this video on TED.com

Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce

Join the discussion of this video on TED.com

Alexis Ohanian: How to Make a Splash in Social Media

Join the discussion of this video on TED.com

There you go! Five great TED talks to inspire, motivate and further develop yourself as an extraordinary entrepreneur. I hope you enjoyed these videos!

The Best Lists for Entrepreneurs

There is a ton of information out there for entrepreneurs. And I love using StumbleUpon to find the latest and greatest articles. Every now and again I find a great list filled with links and other resources for various subjects. Below are some of the best lists for entrepreneurs I have recently bookmarked. Enjoy!

Technology & Automation

65 Indispensable Websites for Business Owners

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Web 2.0: Top 25 Applications to Grow Your Business

71 Technologies & Resources to Help Simplify An Entrepreneur’s Life

101 Useful Resources for Online Entrepreneurs

25 Free Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity

100 Financial Calculators Every Entrepreneur Needs

40 Social Networking Sites Specifically for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, and Startups

20 Places to Find a Top Notch Virtual Assistant

Entrepreneurial & Personal Development

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

85 Absolutely Free Online Business Classes

Top 100 Personal Development Blogs

50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills

50+ Free Resources for Writers, Bloggers, And Other Freelancers

Top 100+ Personal Finance Blogs

100 Ways to Be a Better Entrepreneur

25 Things I Learned About Business from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”

42 Questions Every Freelancer Should Ask Their Clients

The Top Entrepreneurs of the Last 100 Years

Marketing

160 Creative and Inspiring Print Ads

100+ Internet Marketing Resources for Entrepreneurs

30+ Places To Find Creative Commons Media

14 Tools to Legally Spy On Your Competition

Top 100 Fonts

Cool Business Card Designs Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Lifestyle

50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do

100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter

The 90 Best Lifehacks of 2009: The Year in Review

30+ Pieces of Inspiring, Funny and Interesting Advice

Top 100 List: Health Websites You Can Trust

18 Great Cooking Resources

80+ Green Sites: Green Living Toolbox

100 Ways to Save The Environment

There you have it! A huge list of lists. I hope you find a ton of helpful information to further your lifestyle as an entrepreneur. If there are other lists you think should be on this post let me know in the comment section… And if you enjoyed this list, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Have a great day!

As entrepreneurs we sometimes find ourselves living much different lives than the rest of the world. An 80-hour workweek may be followed by an 8-hour week by a 60-hour week. We may find ourselves out grocery shopping at 1 PM when others are busily working. Or, if you are like me, happily working at 3 AM when others are sleeping.

We entrepreneurs play by our own rules because we want to. Sometimes, however, we want to escape it all – to simplify and forget the work for work’s sake trap we may occasionally find ourselves in. Ultimately, isn’t this the true reason we left the 9-5? With the continuous improvements in technology, freeing up time has become much easier to achieve.

Having the ability to work anywhere, anytime and on any computer is an amazing advantage for entrepreneurs. Personally, I do not miss having to head to the office daily, travel to most meetings or spend hours on paperwork.

Well I have put a ton of research into this and have found an extensive list of websites, software & other resources for simplifying your life – hopefully. In order to help a wide range of entrepreneurial styles, I made sure to include both lesser-known resources as well as some of the much more popular options.

Personalized Home Pages

1. iGoogle – You can add almost anything to your home page; weather reports, calendar & to-do list, rss feeds, Gmail, maps, site specific search forms, etc… And it’s linked to your Google account, so your settings follow you from computer to computer!

2. My Yahoo! – Similar to iGoogle

3. Pageflakes – Again another personalized dashboard

4. Netvibes – One more for your choosing!

5. Jimmyr – Aggregation page of a ton of technology, news & entertainment sites

Document Management & OCR

6. Evernote – I love this OCR software. Take a picture, scan, web clip, PDF, even hand written memo and Evernote will convert it to a searchable text document. It works! Better yet, they provide Blackberry & iPhone apps for mobile use. Highly recommended!

7. NetDocuments – An online document management system ideal for small offices. Haven’t tried it yet but will definitely give it a shot at my real estate office.

8. Google Docs – Great alternative to the overpriced (in my opinion) Microsoft Office suite

9. Cometdocs – Converts a wide variety of files – online! No software needed!

10. HTML to PDF – Great option for easily saving or emailing entire web pages. Converts any page into a PDF.

Data Storage & File Back-Up

11. Dropbox – The online backup system I use. A folder is created on the computer and any file saved into that folder is automatically saved online.

12. Mozy – I haven’t used this one but it seems to be the most popular online backup option.

13. Sugarsync – Another popular backup option. They have a mobile solution available which makes this option pretty attractive.

14. Box.net – Excellent solution for group collaboration & sharing of files. And it works with Salesforce CRM!

15. Amazon S3 – Great storage option for hosting files for web output. Mostly designed for developers, but it can be beneficial to bloggers for hosting pictures and files to prevent overloading the blog’s server.

Software Suites

16. Zoho – An extensive selection of online productivity tools.

17. Netsuite – A seemingly very robust set of online software. Haven’t tried it but seems decent.

18. Google Pack – Most of Google’s software available for download. More focused for Windows users.

Project Management & Collaboration Tools

19. Basecamp – A very popular project management software offering by 37signals. If you haven’t heard of it or used the trial, do it now!

20. Backpack – Another offering by the folks at 37signals. It helps your team share and collaborate with extreme ease.

21. The Trac Project - A Wiki-style project collaboration service.

22. PBworks – Another online collaboration offering. The interface is nice & clean.

23. activeCollab – Yet another project management / online collaboration tool.

24. Zoho Projects – One more project management option. This time from ZOHO.

25. Google Wave – It’s in beta form right now with an invitation only to work out bugs. (I think its a maneuver to create scarcity, similar to when they introduced Gmail) Anyway, I was lucky enough to be invited a while back and I see great potential with it. Right now, however, I feel it’s ineffective without widespread adoption.

Remote Presentations, IM & Video Conferencing

26. WebEx – A video conferencing system owned by Cisco. Since I’m a fan of almost everything Cisco (although they may be a little pricey), I recommend this for corporate use.

27. GoToMeeting – It seems every webinar I’ve been involved with has used this software. I have mixed reviews on it. I’m not sure if it has been the Internet connection or what, but almost every meeting has been interrupted with dropped audio or another complication. However, they must be doing something right if they are still being used on a broad scale.

28. Dimdim – An alternative to the above two options. Worth a try.

29.  Campfire – Another high quality product from 37signals. It’s a robust instant messaging platform with specific group capabilities. The ability to archive discussions is a nice feature.

30. Skype for Business - This service has saved me so much time, money & head aches since I adopted it last year. I can call pretty much anywhere in the world from my iPhone with only a wifi connection. More importantly, its business features and video conferencing is extremely handy for my remote employees. With their recent improvements in call quality, this is a must. Highly recommended!

Contact Manager & CRM

31. Highrise - Yet another amazing product from 37signals. Track your leads, manage contacts and monitor deals all through an online software offering.

32. Plaxo - A great system to keep track of everything going on with your contacts.

33. Mozilla Thunderbird - With its open source framework and subsequent plethora of add-ons, Thunderbird is not only an excellent email client but a great contact manager as well.

34. Salesforce.com – If you are serious about tracking your sales pipeline and managing your contacts, this is your software. Its enterprise level software is available on a per user basis, allowing any business the ability to adopt the system.

35. Microsoft Outlook w/ Contact Manager – Outlook is clearly the most popular option for email. With this upgraded version, you have the ability to track your contacts. I wouldn’t use it since there are much better options on this list, but to each its own I guess.

36. Zoho CRM – Another option for your customer relationship management needs. This time from Zoho.

37. NetSuite - I’m not too familiar with this CRM option, but from their website it looks to be a robust enterprise level system for tracking your customer.

Time Management & Tracking

38. RescueTime – This is software that you install onto your computer for tracking your time on specific applications. You can analyze where you are spending (or wasting) your time and in essence help create a more productive day. Check the website out, it could be extremely helpful in some cases.

39. iClockr – Great for Freelancers or any one looking to track time spent on a job. I use it on occasion but I think it is Mac-only software.

40. Zoho Planner - An online planner from Zoho.

41. Google Calendar - Yet another great product from Google. It’s nice having the option of checking appointments and to-do lists on any computer.

Invoicing

42. Fresh Books – A great online option for invoicing.

43. Blinksale – Another online option for sending invoices. This is a great choice for anyone looking for complete control over the look of the invoice. They offer templates and the ability to customize the look with CSS.

44. Less Accounting – One more invoicing option. It links with some of the 37signals software mentioned above.

Personal Finance

** I may be overly cautious but I’ve always been wary of giving out my banking info to a third party. There are many options online for tracking your finances but these two are the only options I’d stick with **

45. Quicken Online – Track all your accounts at once from the online dashboard. I haven’t tried this but I have used other Quicken products and know they produce high quality software.

46. Mint.com – This is the service I swear by. Unfortunately, not all banks are in their system yet (such as my local bank… come on River Valley!). It’s free because they offer unobtrusive advertisements as “ways to save,” which is kind of an oxymoron since they are usually ads for credit cards and such.

Social Media

47. Ping.fm – Post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and dozens of other social media websites all at once! Huge time saver!

Access Your POP3 Emails Anywhere

48. Gmail – This popular free email offering goes above and beyond with the ability to add your pop3 email support.

49. Mozilla Thunderbird Portable Edition – Great solution for road warriors. Install Thunderbird on a USB flash drive for free. ‘nuf said, go get it!

RSS Readers

50. Google Reader – My favorite option for my feeds.

51. Newsgator - A popular news reader with many offerings: FeedDemon for Windows | NetNewsWire for Mac | NetNewsWire for iPhone | NewsGator Go! for Mobile | NewsGator Inbox for Outlook

52. Bloglines – Another solid choice for RSS feeds.

53. Blogbridge - An open source option.

Remote Computer Access

54. LogMeIn – A robust option for remotely accessing PC’s, Macs & smart phones. I’ve only played around with it for a few minutes but seems to be well worth a try.

55. GoToMyPC - A very popular option for accessing your computer remotely. The Mac version is in beta.

56. Remote Desktop 3 – A Mac specific option for remote computer usage.

Keyboard Shortcuts

57. Windows

58. Mac

59. Mozilla Firefox

60. Gmail

Other Helpful Internet Tools

61. Instant Domain Search – Anyone who has searched for a domain name knows the process is extremely clumsy. This website instantly shows if the .com, .net & .org is available. As a bonus, they include a link to GoDaddy with an automatically applied coupon to save around 25% on the purchase.

62. DNZoom – Helpful platform for managing domain names with multiple registrars. I would say it’s better than GoDaddy’s dashboard only if you have different registrars or if you don’t use GoDaddy. If you are like me however, stick with registering and managing at GoDaddy.

63. Google Dashboard – Monitor all of your Google products on one handy page.

Shopping

64. Amazon Prime – I would bet that there is no faster method of buying something online than with Amazon’s one-click feature. Random impulse buys are getting pretty expensive for me, but I do save a bunch of time. And more importantly I don’t have to deal with the hassles of department stores and malls. Also, the reviews are helpful when deciding on what to buy.

65. Google Products – Great way to quickly find cheap prices at respectable shops. If the name looks unfamiliar you probably remember it as Froogle.

66. Bing Shopping – Similar to Google Products, you can search quickly for products. Also, it’s hands down the best way to save money on purchases thanks to Bing CashBack.

Travel

67. Kayak – Search hundreds of travel sites (i.e. Expedia, Hotels.com & Priceline) at once and compare results. I actually found this one from a TV commercial, which is rare, since I DVR everything!
68. TripAdvisor – Find reviews and tons of other information for your next vacation. Allows you to quickly make decisions on where to stay.

Bonus! A few articles I’ve had bookmarked on simplifying life

69. Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life – ZenHabits

70. 50 Ways to Simplify Your Life – Third Age

71. 35 Spectacular and Practical Time Saving Tips – Dumb Little Man

There you go! 71 technologies & resources that should help you eliminate some paperwork, clean up your desk and ultimately free your time. This took an extremely long time to compile so I hope you liked it! Please share this with anyone who may be trapped in the rut of working for work’s sake. And I look forward to hearing of any additional technologies you feel should be on this list! Thank you!

Now – for the first time ever – I had to make a life changing decision. Do I go back to Lac du Flambeau and work with my Dad’s company? Relaunch my business? Stay in Green Bay and become a “townie?” Continue onto post-grad education? Or start climbing the corporate ladder in Chicago?

Oh how I wish that during these decisions I could have read Rick Smith’s recent best-selling book, The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career From Good To Great. Who knows where I’d be now if I had been able to spend my senior year reflecting on the thought provoking case studies of this book!

The Author

After co-authoring a best selling book resulting in him being left on the street by his employer, Rick Smith was forced to make a change. Was it a drastic one? No, not at first. Like most of the unemployed world, he looked for another job. However unlike the typical jobless executive, he had an extraordinary idea to change his life. Why not get the top executives and world influencers together? They need to network and chat just like the rest of us. World50 was formed. Instant success? Nope. Everyone he knew said it wouldn’t work… except his target market. Nonetheless, one email to a CMO, a positive response and a $50k check later, w50 was in business. Forty-nine others quickly followed suit with $50k checks. Rick Smith had taken the leap. Rick has since worked with the likes of Bono, Alan Greenspan, Francis Ford Coppola and on & on. His knowledge and expertise made this book an eventuality. So without further ado:

The Review

Rick Smith was kind enough to send me a copy during his launch event. Don’t worry everyone; this wouldn’t alter my verdict on the book! But it did help bump it to the top of the stack of books on my desk I wanted to read. Even so, I initially was scared off by the addition of the word career in the title. Didn’t I become an entrepreneur to avoid that dreaded 9-5 career thing? Despite the slightly construed title, this book’s content definitely encompasses business owners.

Anyway, I recently finished reading this book and believe me, it’s good. From the countless books I have read on business, professional training and personal development, this ranks in my top 5. That’s a pretty bold statement. (In case you were wondering, my other four recs. would be The Four Hour Work Week; How to Win Friends and Influence People; The Cash Flow Quadrant; & The Secrets of Power Negotiation)

The Good Stuff

Rick Smith has found a way of making a 200-page book on career development and life choices fun to read. I’m not kidding. I started reading it after dinner and closed it – wondering where the time went – just before the airing of the nightly news. My biggest pet peeve is a dry, slow reading book. Fortunately The Leap passes the readability factor for me.

More importantly, the book is extremely thought provoking. I would have cruised through the book in under 3 hours if I hadn’t been constantly scribbling notes and ideas. In fact, I’m still frequently thinking about the case studies days later.

My favorite chronicle in the book is of Sara Blakely, the creator of Spanx panty hose. I first heard of Sara in an interview she did about a year or two ago. She discussed the unique stories of the creation and initial sales presentation of Spanx. And from what I know of the formation of her company Rick has done an excellent job detailing her trials and tribulations. Additionally, I enjoy that he equates her startup costs with a two-week vacation to Hawaii. Great symbolism!

Nonetheless, the examples in the book of past successes would be nothing new if he hadn’t continually re-framed them in a comprehensive theme. Rick Smith keeps cohesion mainly through his concept of finding one’s Primary Color. Basically, it’s a concept that helps you find your true life’s goal/path/calling. If you are interested, check out the website to explore your Primary Color, it’s really pretty interesting.

The Bad Stuff

I’m usually pretty critical of business books, but I really can’t complain this time. My only complaint would be the length, or lack there of. I am not saying that the author didn’t cover everything he intended. Not at all! Instead, it was such a fun easy read that I was a little sad when I finished it. I guess I am a bit selfish that way… hehe!

Another downfall that comes to mind; no audio book version! I absolutely love road trips – my iPhone, an audible download and the open road – not the case for The Leap. Hopefully soon!

With the lack of complaints, you can see why this book hopped onto my top 5.

In Conclusion

I recommend everybody read this book. Whether you are unhappy with your career path or have embraced a life you absolutely love. I strongly believe everyone will take something positive away from Rick Smith’s book, The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career From Good To Great.

Any of you already read it? What were your thoughts?

Additional Resources

Video interview with Rick Smith on Book Blade

The Leap Builder – Cool set of tools for your leap

The Primary Color Assessment Website

Rick Smith on Fox Business