Audiobooks Books

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Alice Schroeder

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Buffett, Warren

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Here is THE audiobook recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”

When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This audiobook tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Skills -> Communications
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Relationships -> Interpersonal Relations

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 624 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people." He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated. He also emphasizes fundamental techniques for handling people without making them feel manipulated. Carnegie says you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person's point of view and "arousing in the other person an eager want." You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, "let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers," and "talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person." Carnegie illustrates his points with anecdotes of historical figures, leaders of the business world, and everyday folks. --Joan Price

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Unabridged Audio Program)

Stephen R. Covey

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Business Life -> General
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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Job Hunting & Careers -> Guides

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

7 Habits of Highly Effective Creatives 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for what my opinion is (because, of course, this morning you woke up and the first thing you thought was... what is the opinion of Alana Renfro?) the best motivational CDs out there- then stop your Amazon search and purchase the UNABRIDGED Audio Program of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Working on the creative side of agencies, corporate businesses and boutique clients, you discover that many creative people do not know how to prioritize what is truly important vs. urgent, begin with the end in mind, or follow-through on set commitments with a trustworthy set of principles and ethics. After all, advertising and marketing can be known for the opposite! Just youtube "ad agency spoof", like "The Truth in Ad Sales" video from the UK or "Truth in Advertising".

My husband is in finances, I am in the creative industry, yet we both are incredibly inspired by this series of CDs. It is applicable to anyone in any industry- you just basically need the interest to better yourself, your business or your personal life. I had read the book previously, my husband had not, yet we both have these CDs in our cars as we drive to and from work and are able to not only learn from Mr. Covey's calming and informative audio, but implement the practices into our personal and professional lives. Also being parents, we've found his insights into families, mission statements, the power of thought and his personal family examples hugely helpful for our children and our perspectives.

As a professional, a wife, a mother, and simply someone who has a drive to better myself and succeed, these Unabridged CDs have changed my life. My husband and I both use the planners, but most importantly- the Unabridged Audio Program of 13 CDs I highly recommend.

Good to Great CD: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Strategy & Competition
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Leadership
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Management

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 703 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards

The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Timothy Ferris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 752 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Here, I'll save you the time and money..... 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Here's the story in a nutshell....find/develope/market a product that sells. Now have other people do all your work for you so you can travel the world. What a waste of time and money.

Our society is not prepared for this! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I've been teaching my students for years and years about the issues that Mr. Ferris explained in his book and I'm glad that I wasn't alone! The entire system of education in America (and in most countries for that matter), which is known as Prussian System, implies that the only option we have is to slave full time for somebody else for forty years and quietly die after that in poverty! That's how we are supposed to spend our lives! That it's perfectly normal to identify ourselves with how we make a living. It's unquestionable that it has to be a full time job to make money to survive in this world. It's normal to answer the question "What do you do?" with the explanation about where you spend most of your life trying to make money to survive. Isn't it humiliating! Is that what God planned for us? We stopped questioning it long time ago. Generations wasted their lives working. Just working! Do we even realize how huge it is? When a person can actually enjoy life, spend time helping others, learning something new, spending time with the family, actually doing what he or she enjoys, we somehow settled for forty years of hard work not even in order to achieve something in life, but just to survive, just not to starve to death! We can't even afford to stop working for a couple of month, because we are going to run out of money and become as poor as we are planning on being when we are retired.
The same thing with delegation. We don't know how to do it. We must make sure that we are busy 100% of the time and we can not delegate anything to anybody! If we get some free time it only means that we are lazy and we need to cure the situation by filling free time with more work!
The most ridiculous case of inability to delegate is our national crazy idea (I'm from Russia) that if you grow potatoes yourself - it's free! I still remember how pretty much everybody goes to plant potatoes in the spring. No matter how well off you are, you must do it yourself, because if you do it yourself - it's free! Can you believe it!
Anyway, this book is going to be called at least "controversial" or most likely will get one of those slap-on "get rich quick" or "it will never work" labels.
Our society is not ready for this.
But for a small business owner today it's one of the most comprehensive guides on today's business and a must-have.

Editorial Review:

Tim Ferriss is an extraordinary young man on a mission. The twenty-eight-year-old serial vagabond and successful entrepreneur has been teaching a wildly popular course at Princeton University for the past four years--a how-to and why-to guide to throwing out the old tools and methods for success (balancing life and work, retiring well, having a great nest egg) and replacing them with a whole new way of living. Readers can lead a rich life by working only four hours a week, freeing up the rest of their time to spend it living the lives they want.

The E-Myth Revisited CD : Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to do about it

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good message but might want to go with abridged version 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book has a useful message for businesses in the infancy stage: when someone who is good at something wants to start their own business, they will eventually have to STOP doing what they are good at and start building a business -- a very different skill set. I give the book four or five stars for the principles to be gleaned (though I do have some qualms about his insistence on hiring barely adequate people, not the best people, which seems to be in contradiction to "Good to Great," which emphasizes the importance of quality workers doing what they do best).

However, the unabridged version has SO much padding in it, it became grating fairly quickly. Gerber could probably have said what he needed to say over the course of two CDs, not seven. He runs on and on, beating his points to death. I found myself skipping ahead quite a bit. Since it's an audio CD, I might have missed something useful, but I couldn't take the pedantic, overkill I was being subjected to. A typical example: "Jim and Bob own a business together. Sometimes Jim does the books. Sometimes Bob does the books. When Jim doesn't do the books, Bob does. When Bob doesn't do the books, Jim does. When they hired Al, either Bob, Jim, or Al did the books. When Bob or Jim didn't do the books, Al did. When Al or Bob didn't do the books, Jim did." And so on and so forth. It was either skip ahead or crash my car into a wall to end the mental anguish this style of speaking/writing caused.

So, useful info mixed into the dregs. I recommend the abridged version.

Editorial Review:

In this compact disc edition of the totally revised underground bestseller -- The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. He walks you through the steps in the life of a business -- from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed -- and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have listened to The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Motivational

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 808 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Anyone who thinks the audiocassette adaptation of Stephen Covey's bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a shortcut to reading the book has another thing coming. As a preview, the cassette is worth every one of its 90 minutes; as a substitute for the original, it will only leave you wishing for the rest. There's a reason 7 Habits has sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into 32 languages. Serious work has obviously gone into it, and serious change can likely come out of it--but only with constant discipline and steadfast commitment. As the densely packed tape makes immediately clear, this is no quick fix for what's ailing us in our personal and professional lives.

The tape opens to the silky-smooth, overtrained voice of the female narrator, who's responsible for tying together audio clips from actual Covey seminars. Leaving aside the occasional attempts at promoting Covey and his institute, her script does a first-rate job of making sense of Covey's own intense, analogy-rich style of explaining his habits. There's nothing simple about his approach to becoming an effective person. The first three habits alone--which have to do with personal responsibility, leadership, and self-management--could take years to master. Yet the last four are unattainable, the narrator insists, if you can't acquire the personal security--the "inner core," says Covey--that presumably comes from a mastery of the foundation.

Throughout our lessons, Covey's presence is both learned and thoroughly appealing. He drops references to the likes of Socrates, T.S. Eliot, and Robert Frost with the aplomb of an English professor. And his knack for mixing everyday stories with abstract concepts manages to clarify difficult issues while respecting our intelligence. You could argue that the cassette is nothing more than a clever marketing tool for selling another few million copies of the book. But, even at that, it's worth the investment in time and concentration: in the end, we're moved to learn more about integrating all seven habits in our struggle to become better and, yes, more effective people. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) --Ann Senechal

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> Policy & Current Events
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic Conditions
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Free Enterprise

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 289 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq'' civil war, a new law is unveiled that will allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves… Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly outsources the running of the 'War on Terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater… After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts… New Orleans residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be re-opened." Klein not only kicks butt, she names names, notably economist Milton Friedman and his radical Chicago School of the 1950s and 60s which she notes "produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today." Stand up and take a bow, Donald Rumsfeld.

There's little doubt Klein's book--which arrived to enormous attention and fanfare thanks to her previous missive, the best-selling No Logo, will stir the ire of the right and corporate America. It's also true that Klein's assertions are coherent, comprehensively researched and footnoted, and she makes a very credible case. Even if the world isn't going to hell in a hand-basket just yet, it's nice to know a sharp customer like Klein is bearing witness to the backroom machinations of government and industry in times of turmoil. --Kim Hughes

The Psychology Of Selling: The Art of Closing Sales

Brian Tracy

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Marketing & Sales -> Sales & Selling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Find The Keys To Sales Success!

The worlds foremost producer of personal development and motivational audio programs offers an expanded version of Brian Tracy's sales classic.

The Unsuccessful Salesperson says, "the other guy has the best territory."

The Successful Salesperson says, "every territory is the best one."

The Unsuccessful Salesperson says, ""that company will never buy."

The Successful Salesperson says, "I can make that company buy."

Confidence and self-esteem are just two of the factors that separate the successful salesperson from the unsuccessful one. In this comprehensive program, Brian Tracy -- an expert sales tainer -- shares more than 50 practical, day-to-day techniques for increasing your confidence in your sales abilities and boosting sales profits, including:

• The two major "motivating" factors in closing a sale
• The three "hot buttons" to push when selling to businesses
• How to avoid the five simple errors that spell the difference between success and near-success

Brian Tracy will help you master the art of closing the deal.

The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the riveting style of The Tipping Point, Stephen M. R. Covey uncovers the overlooked and underestimated power of trust in a gripping look into what he calls "the one thing that changes everything." Groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting, The Speed of Trust demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged, economic driver -- a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing.

The former CEO of Covey Leadership Center (founded by his father, Dr. Stephen R. Covey), Covey draws on his experience leading a $100 million enterprise to explain how trust can help you create unparalleled success and sustainable prosperity in every dimension of life. He reveals the 13 Behaviors common to high-trust leaders and persuasively demonstrates actionable insights that will enable you to increase and inspire trust in all of your important relationships. The Speed of Trust presents a road map to establish trust on every level, build character and competence, enhance credibility, and create leadership that inspires confidence.