#16. Prosperity – Arch Angel

OK, so I actually finished this book before the Bloomberg bonanza, but I wasn't sure I was going to post about it (or add it to my reading list) as I was a bit embarrassed that I had read it. But I did, probably because in the current climate, prosperity seems a little thin on the ground, and it had a rather fetching picture of some angel wings on the cover.
The inside cover explains Prosperity as a practical guide to some simple changes you can make to your life to live abundantly. It is written as a series of ten meetings, between 'Arch Angel' (the author) and Ned and Kate, a pair of materially and spiritually bankrupt young people who need a great cosmic kick up the butt to get their lives back on track. Each meeting contains the dialogue between the three, and includes some 'homework' exercises each week for the reader to try at home, which are the same ones the fictional Ned and Kate experiment with, and report on their results.
While it is hopefully twee and cringeworthy some of the time, if you are interested in the whole Secret/quantum physics/abundance 'thing', it actually explains some of the concepts in a more comprehensible way than anything I have read or seen before, and provides a roadmap to introduce them into your life, if you so desire. Whether they work - who knows? What was also refreshing for me is that it does not only focus on material wealth as the expression of prosperity or abundance, but also considers quality of life, spirituality, and your relationship with and contribution to others - which all seems a lot more sound than just being able to "manifest" a parking space next to the entrance of the shopping centre.
Embarrassing confession over. Next up, Carol Shields. Not sure she would take a second look at a self-help book if she fell over it.

So many books, so little time...

I read a particularly funny column in the Sunday Life magazine last week, about 'The rise of the dummy mummies', written by Rachel Cooke. She basically asked why it was necessary for new mothers to become "boring, selfish and smug", and how it impacts on non-mothers like herself.
She said when people ask her why she doesn't want to have children, she usually says, "I'm worried I won't have enough time to read". Good point.
This was then followed by an existential crisis while I was at the library, about having to make good book choices – after all, just how many books will I be able to read in my lifetime? Does that mean I need to guard against duds, even if I manage to keep up a rate of 40+ books a year? And what if, for a period while meeting the needs of hopefully forthcoming children, this falls to just 20 a year, or even 10? Am I going to miss out on some really good books?
While the beauty of libraries for me is the abundance of choice and the absence of penalty for making the wrong choice (no money invested, no compulsion to finish it, just take it back), this dilemma has thrown a whole new light on things. Thoughts?

#15. Bloomberg by Bloomberg – Michael Bloomberg and Matthew Winkler

As we are on the verge of launching our own online content service, AssociationWire, I picked up this book as I thought it would be interesting to read the insights of someone who has built a billion-dollar company through providing information and media.
It was interesting to read about Michael Bloomberg's early career as a Wall Street hotshot for Salomon Brothers and how he was eventually 'set free' after 15 years, going on to establish a company built first on the Bloomberg financial information console, which would become an essential for traders the world over, but then added to the empire with news, TV, and other media. Written in 1997, it now seems a little outdated, and one wonders what he would make of the internet explosion that has happened since then, with its incredible impact on the media and transmission of information.
I guess the key difference between his company and a business like ours is that when he started up, he had received a lazy $10 million (in 1981, no less) as a payout from Salomon, so he was hardly on the poverty line. While he preaches about creating a lean and hungry company, in my view, any business that can afford to spend four years in development isn't that lean and hungry. But in light of Bloomberg's success, it was obviously time well spent.
I enjoyed reading about the development of the business - later chapters, expounding his views on management, business, technology, philanthropy, and perhaps most irritatingly, how great America is, are less engaging. The structure leaves a bit to be desired - for instance, the chapter on his early life and the influences of his parents is second-last, which seems a little strange. Mostly, I think the book suffers from a lack of light and shade - his endlessly positive, blustery tone leaves you in no doubt of his will to crush every obstacle he faces, but there is little sign of the moments of self-doubt, sheer terror and crushing disappointment that surely are part of every entrepreneur's journey to the top. He even paints the failure of his marriage as little more than a necessary development in the evolution of two people, but without any real emotion. For this reason, the book sometimes reads like a corporate brochure-cum-history of the Bloomberg business, and in it, Michael Bloomberg lacks the humanity that someone like Richard Branson, for all his own success, conveys. I have real difficulty with the American 'corporate warrior' act, and frankly sometimes he sounds like a complete tosser – but then when you think about it, it is no mean feat building a company of the size and complexity of Bloomberg, so maybe he deserves to blow his own trumpet.

#14. Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

This is a simply epic novel, both in terms of its sheer size (930 pages) and its range. It is based on the life of Gregory David Roberts, a convicted bank robber and former heroin addict who had, at the beginning of the novel, escaped from a high security prison in Australia and landed in Bombay. The book follows his experiences as he becomes involved with a motley crew of characters, is introduced to slum life through a network of Indian friends, and becoming involved in a branch of the Bombay mafia. He ends up, with his mafia don father figure, in a warzone in Afghanistan helping the militia, before returning to Bombay. At times, it seems as though it simply isn't possibly that one man experienced so much 'adventure', for want of a better term, but then a life of crime, organised or otherwise, presumably takes one in directions unavailable to most others.
I found it to be a story of great contradictions - that a man who writes so lyrically, and who expresses such love for other people and for India could be so violent. Similarly, that his criminal friends, particularly the all-powerful Khaderbhai, could be so philosophical and deeply spiritual. And in fact, the endless soul-searching and discussions of the meaning of life wore a bit thin.
My favourite parts of the book were about his experiences of life in the slum, of Indian life and the family he built in Bombay. It was amazing to think of how these communities actually work to provide their residents with security, when they look as though they are simply hanging by a thread. And there were some charming anecdotes along the way, such as the story of Kano the bear and his two blue-painted bear handlers, who regularly got into trouble.
Although the book felt too long in places, generally it was hard to put down, and was an amazing, rollicking and sometimes hair-raising journey.

#13. Small is the new big, and 183 other riffs, rants and remarkable business ideas – Seth Godin

Godin includes a warning at the beginning of this book – not to read it all at once, as it might give you a headache. He's right. As the title suggests, it is a collection of his blog posts and other writings from eight years, about business, the online environment and the world in general. What ties them together is Godin's unique way of turning accepted wisdom on its head and throwing new light on things, but at the same time, making you think, 'Why didn't I think of that before?'
At a time when the business environment has never seemed worse and fear and contraction is the order of the day, Godin provides comfort and inspiration about the possibilities for small business (after all, small is the new big and small businesses can zoom...), and challenges you to make whatever you do remarkable. It's the perfect antidote for all the downturn/recession talk.
As a special bonus, two of Godin's e-books have been included in the book - the one on website design gave me a totally new understanding of what a website is actually meant to do, and his booklet on blogs breaks this new medium down at a functional level, to explain the purpose of different types of blogs, which I found a lot more helpful than the usual hype.
It's the type of book I would want to keep going back to for more inspiration - fortunately, you can get daily updates from his blog for that instead http://sethgodin.typepad.com/