Tag: Finance

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, ReadingLeave a comment

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a telling of Stephen Covey on how to be more efficient, productive, and happy in your life starting from the very bottom (which is you) and working your way to the top (which is everything else). Through his different analogies and personal stories, he guides you through how to be the best you can be. There are a lot of great points in this book.

Mr. Covey has his process broken down into 3 parts. Private Victories, as he calls them, are the first three habits dealing with getting yourself where you need to be to be the best you. Public Victories are taking the Private Victories and applying them into how you interact with other people whether professionally or personally. And the final part, Renewal, takes the previous six habits and putting in a cycle of constantly fine tuning or re-sharpening the saw if you will.

I found this book to be a bit wordy like the title is. Though I plan to take several of the lessons outlined to heart and apply them, I thought a lot of the examples were a bit too personal to the author to help me relate to the particular topic. I would have liked to have seen something that was a bit more generic instead of spending so much time learning way more than I wanted to about Stephen Covey. I would recommend this book but with the disclaimer the reader should be prepared for the content.

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The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, ReadingLeave a comment

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I ended up with mixed feelings about The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Mr. Ferriss is a very successful entrepreneur and I found many things in common with him as I read this book. Having said that, this book didn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside at the end.

The Four Hour Work Week outlines Tim Ferriss’ keys to minimizing your work day. From only answering emails twice a day to working towards telecommuting, there are all varieties of ways to shave minutes or even hours out of your work day. He even boasts that he runs a company from anywhere in the world in about four hours per month. He also goes into what to do with all this newly created free time such as travel the world or learn a new exciting skill.

I think this books is a great read and definitely dovetailed into The 4 Disciplines of Execution quite well. The reason I ended up with mixed feelings was due to hearing all the amazing things Tim Ferriss had manage to accomplish with little to no more knowledge and experience than your average person. It made me really look into what I’m doing with my day, month, year, life. I didn’t feel great about that but it did motivate me to look for new opportunities. Let me know how this book sat with you in the comments below.

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The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading1 Comment

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As a person who tries to be as efficient in my work as possible, The 4 Disciplines of Execution was a great read. The CEO of the company I work for had given it to me when I was added to a team in charge of one of our product lines and said “we try to incorporate these disciplines in this company.” So, naturally, it sat on my shelf for over a year. Shouldn’t have done that.

4DX outlines a thought process or behavior that many extremely successful companies have adopted over the years. The authors spent a long time implementing this process in companies both large and small before pinning this book. The basics are find a wildly important goal (WIG) that will impact your company the most, figure out what drives the success or failure of that goal, track that driver, and hold people accountable for the success or failure. Seems pretty simple but as you read, you’ll undoubtedly see and probably have experienced the challenges this simple process can run into but have no fear, they will guide you on how to overcome them.

A lot of thought and research went into this book making it very thorough and easy to understand. After reading it, I find myself trying to implement aspects of 4DX into various parts of my day both at work and at home. I will say that the second half of the book gets a bit repetitive when they go into how to scale the process from a team to a company to even at home. However, this book would be a great read for anyone who leads people both in and out of the office.

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The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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The Automatic Millionaire is a book I wish I would have read at a much younger age. David Bach’s book on how to automate your finances to financial security and freedom in the future is a valuable tool for anyone who has ever made even a dollar. Even if you don’t worry about money or don’t know anything about financial topics, this books breaks the fundamental knowledge every person should have about what you are probably working for, income, and what to do with it.

In case the title didn’t do it for you, the Automatic Millionaire primarily focuses on how to automate your finances. No one likes to worry about paying the bills or keeping a budget. Bach’s book teaches you how to not only get the time back you are spending on budgets and bills with the added benefit of preparing to be in a better place in the future as far as your finances go. With simple explanations and examples, anyone can understand and implement his suggestions easily.

As mentioned, I wish I would have read this book when I was in high school or early college. Though I am an accountant, there were still several ideas in The Automatic Millionaire I had never thought of and immediately put into place after reading this book. I think this book would be a great gift idea for any graduate. Hint. Hint.

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Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad is a staple for anyone who is interested in investing, wealth building, or just finances in general. I guarantee if you look for books or YouTube videos on finances for very long someone will either reference or recommend this book and for very good reason. This book is a great read for anyone who wants to know more about wealth building or just doesn’t know what they want.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, unlike most financial related books, is actually a story of Robert Kiyosaki’s upbringing in Hawaii. His Rich Dad was the father of his best friend who was an entrepreneur. His Poor Dad was his biological father who took the more traditional route of working a regular job. Though one could argue they were both successful in different ways, the Rich Dad was more wealthy. As you read this book, you Robert Kiyosaki takes you through the life and professional lessons he learned from these two influences and how they shaped him into the successful person he is today.

To be honest, I was a little skeptical about reading this book. Though so many people, websites, YouTube channels, and even other books recommended it, I had seen videos of Robert Kiyosaki and he always gave me the impression of being quite arrogant. However, I read his book and I will say that it is one book that has give me more motivation in my professional and personal life than many others have.

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The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading1 Comment

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The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is a book I found by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Published in 1926, I have since heard many people recommend this book. The added benefit is that it is really short at 144 pages and can be picked up fairly cheaply.

The Richest Man in Babylon is actually a book of short stories. Each story is about a different person in the ancient city of Babylon and the lessons they learned in business and wealth building either through trial and error or serendipity. These stories or parables were originally published in separate pamphlets by banks and insurance companies to educate their clients on financial matters.

This was a good, short read. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to educate themselves on how to build wealth or build a business. The old world language used in the book is a bit of a struggle to get over at first but before long, the extra -iths won’t bother you too much and the lessons will start to sink in.

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The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, ReadingLeave a comment

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Ever thought about starting a business? Want to be your own boss? Thinking about making your hobby into something more? The $100 Startup is maybe the book for you. I’m not going to lie, I had a bit of a hard time finishing this one.

Chris Guillebeau spent time contacting and researching entrepreneurs and their businesses to come up a set of keys to success on starting your own business and not losing the farm, so to speak, in the process. He goes through tips on how to grow your business instead of trying to explode it so you don’t waste a lot of time and money and set yourself up for failure. He also goes through a step by step process from day one to getting your business out there which was very helpful.

Though I do greatly appreciate the content of this book and think it is extremely valuable, I thought the book itself was a bit cumbersome. Some people may enjoy the endless case studies and examples Chris Guillebeau provides but I thought they buried the actual content and made it more difficult to grasp. Some of his other books sound interesting but after reading The $100 Startup, it might take me awhile to get to them.

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