Top Business Book Reviews

Mastering the Seven Decisions by Andy Andrews

Mastering the Seven Decisions by Andy Andrews

Guest review by Joanna Daneman 

I ended up buying quite a few copies of The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success for friends because I liked it so much, I read it cover to cover twice without stopping. I really believe in what the  author has to say. The seven decisions are an attitude that (akin to positive thinking) can change how you view the world and deal with the world, and ultimately, how the world deals with you.

The seven decisions are:
The Responsible Decision: The buck stops here. I accept responsibility for my past. I am responsible for my success. I will not let my history control my destiny.
The Guided Decision: I will seek wisdom.
The Active Decision: I am a person of action.
The Certain Decision: I have a decided heart. Criticism, condemnation, and complaint have no power over me.
The Joyful Decision: Today I will choose to be happy.
The Compassionate Decision: I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit.
The Persistent Decision: I will persist without exception.

The problem with motivational books is that they are inspiring to read, they make us feel great, but then we aren't really easily able to change our behavior. Reading is passive, changing attitude and behavior is active and more difficult.

The author gives techniques to master these attitudes. Some are as simple (on the surface) as smiling when you really don't feel like it. But smiling is a muscular action, and it fires neurons in the brain. The brain, even though it may be simmering about the hellish traffic you are in, the disastrous breakfast you just ate and the unpleasant meeting with the boss you are heading for, is not so bright. The neurons firing in your brain saying "I'm smiling!" tell the brain "I'm happy!" and you find you are turning on the good music and relaxing rather than tensing up and formulating curses at the driver in front of you.

There are many more of these techniques in the book. If you love "The Traveler's Gift" and want to get more out of it, I'd suggest this companion volume. I think it would make great reading with a book club or church group or at home for dinnertime discussions. Sometimes your future can be positively changed by something as simple as a smile--or this book. Highly recommended.

The Seven Minute Difference

Like most of the great business books of the last 2 decades, The Seven Minute Difference has a simple premise: life changes in an instant - it changes the moment you decide to change.

Easily on par with the greats - The One Minute Manager, Fish!, Who Moved My Cheese, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - this book starts simple. You'll have many "IATK moments" ("I Already Knew That"). But then Lewis delivers the zinger - how many of these small changes (she calls them micro-actions, and the book is LOADED with them) are you ACTUALLY DOING?

For it is in the doing where the power lies.

Want to lose weight? Forget about fad diets and extreme exercise programs. They'll never stick. Start today with reaching for a water instead of a soda. Micro-action done!

Want to get more clients and make more money? Fine. But don't go on a tear revamping all your marketing material or hiring expensive consultants. Make 2 extra phone calls a day. Micro-action done!!

Want to get promoted faster? Forget about playing office politics or thinking up manipulative schemes. Spend 7 minutes hand-writing a note to a colleague, manager, or client. And spend 15 minutes a day reading a good business book. Micro-action done!!

Like one of my favorite business authors, William Bridges, Lewis talks about all these changes "happening in an instant." And they really do. The transformation occurs not in the change (which is immediate) but in the transition (which happens over time). But it all can start today.

The book is very positive, very encouraging, and best of all, very concrete and actionable. Each chapter is loaded with micro-actions and 7-minute key points.

As a consultant and speaker, I've seen many books bought in bulk and distributed to all hands inside a corporate environment. I've seen CEO's force the "motivational Kool-Aid" down their employees' throats. It's not pretty.

The Seven Minute Difference, on the other hand, is a book that EVERY CEO, EVERY executive, EVERY manager, EVERY frontline corporate insider, EVERY entrepreneur, and EVERY man and woman can learn incredible lessons from. This is a book worthy of the largest possible audience, both inside and outside corporate America.

Yes, it IS that good.

Don't just read this book. Highlight it, dog-ear it, share its wisdom with others. And most of all, ACT on it. Make the changes that are most important to YOU - 7 minutes at a time!!!

The Great Formula

In The Irresistible Offer, Mark Joyner showed marketers, salespeople, and business leaders how to craft an offer that no reasonable person could refuse. But, despite its undeniable effectiveness, The Irresistible Offer is only one ingredient in Joyner's recipe for consistent sales success. Now, he shares the rest of his proven selling process in The Great Formula.

The Great Formula begins where The Irresistible Offer left off: with an unbeatable offer that's just waiting to be sold. This second installment takes that offer and shows you how to present it to customers, sell it, and then sell it again. The key to sales success really is that simple! Realistically, everything you need to know about selling can be summed up in three short steps—create an enticing offer, present it to the right audience, and then give them a second helping of it.

If none of this sounds all that original to you, then you're already on the right track! The Great Formula works because it stresses simplicity and focuses just on those actions that get results. It's real-world, down-to-earth selling advice that's so straightforward even the smartest people often overlook it. But great businesses, whether they know it or not, use The Great Formula everyday. As proof, Joyner examines a variety of successful businesses—some you might already know about—and shows you how they used The Great Formula to great success.

Joyner fully explains every aspect of the three-step process and also includes tips and tricks that will make it even more effective. He shows you how to use word of mouth to turn satisfied customers into free advertising, how to find the perfect potential buyers for your product, and how to increase your profits by selling even more product on the back end.

The Great Formula is simple because, as Joyner shows, success is never complicated. It's only a matter of seeing, with clarity, which simple actions will render the desired result and then taking those actions with zeal. Regardless of what you sell, this time-tested system can be applied to any business—even yours—in any industry.