If I could just sell one!
One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work Revised and expanded edition by Stephen Key. McGraw Hill; New York 2016. Picture this scenario: A man selling pencils on a street corner is having no luck until a couple stops out of pity and asks him the cost. “Thirty thousand dollars apiece.” the would-be vendor replies smartly. Shocked, the couple backs away. “If I could just sell one!” speculates the man with the pencils. What grit, what confidence, what outrageous optimism! But what if he had a one-of-a-kind so valuable that selling it brings in tens or even hundreds of thousands from the right buyer? Picture this scenario: A man selling pencils on a street corner is having no luck until a couple stops out of...
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Blazing a trail for new scholars
How to Become an Academic Coach: What you Need to Know by Mary Beth Averill and Hillary Hutchinson. CreateSpace independent Publishing Platform; First Edition edition 2014 (162pp). Anyone who knows either Mary Beth or Hillary will not be surprised to see how clearly and frankly they lay it on the line in this plainspoken, but thoughtful joint effort. Available in either paperback or Kindle format How to Become an Academic Coach reflects the decades of experience as writers, academics and academic writing coaches these authors variously share. In their closing chapter, “The Solopreneur Life,” the authors remind us they are also self reliant independent business women. After listing the typical downside of the entrepreneurial lifestyle (irregular business cycles, multiple demanding roles, continuous rebalancing) they list the pros. Flexibility and creative opportunity head the list, but they close with these heartfelt words...
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Live, love longer with the one you’re with
LOVE SENSE: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships By Sue Johnson 340 pp. Little, Brown & Company 2013. Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.com. Sue Johnson’s Love Sense is indeed about romantic love as popularly defined. More specifically the book targets prospects for “happy ever after”. Her continuing professional and research focus is fostering the enduring emotional attachment she believes truly happy couples exhibit. According to Johnson’s clinical experience, despite inevitable conflicts or setbacks, true long range love is no fairy tale. By extension and example, Love Sense is also about the many other forms of strong attachment mainly as the author believes the roots of all human affection are essentially the same. Johnson’s work has real implications for positive psychology. Not every researcher would agree. According to the well known intimacy scientist, Helen Fisher, different neurological systems are at work in...
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Humble heroism or “Adaptation 101?”
Legendary Service: The Key is to Care by Ken Blanchard et al. 161 pages. McGraw-Hill 2014. The idea is simple enough although there is often an undertow of resistance from accounting and the executive suite. Look after your customers and all your other people. Loyalty will follow delivering growing, reliable returns. For many in business, or government for that matter, the formula just does not compute. Motivation to buy is complex, but everyone wants to be respected and valued beyond the immediate transaction. Co-authors Ken Blanchard, Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey outline the new math of Legendary Service by telling the story of one young employee completing her business degree and working in a hardware store. It’s a plausible narrative that interweaves the gist of her lectures with opportunities on the job to illustrate their key points. Throughout the...
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Are you steering or in steerage? Part 2: Author interview
This post continues our exploration of Upgrade, both the book and the ideas behind it. Part 2 is our recent interview between author Rana Florida and Praxis interviewers Kelly Okamura and Donald Officer. KO/DO What were your main reasons for writing Upgrade? Why now? RF I’ve interviewed an amazing cast of successful creatives for Your Start-up Life, my business advice column at The Huffington Post. Not just CEOs, business executives, and management leaders but a rocket scientist, an all-star athlete, politicians, mayors and governors, a Grammy Award winning musician, a graffiti artist, starkitechts, fashion designers, media moguls, a tech billionaire, authors, a neurologist and so many others. I learned a lot from them and it’s their collective insights boiled down in 7 simple principles that I found we could all use to upgrade our lives. KO/DO Who would you most like to read this book? Why? Who else might...
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Are you steering or in steerage?
Upgrade: Taking your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary by Rana Florida McGraw-Hill 2013 review and author interview by Donald Officer and Kelly Okamura Part 1: The Review Although Upgrade is written in a readable, conversational style, author Rana Florida is pretty hard headed in what she prescribes for any individual seeking an upgraded life. She is also on record as a strong believer in creativity – Get Creative is one of her seven commandments and she is CEO of the Creative Class Group which embodies her husband, Richard Florida’s well known innovative ideas about economic growth. She is, moreover, a regular Huffington Post columnist. Consequently, the disciplined regime advocated in this book might seem at odds with the out of the box ideas the author espouses elsewhere. Perhaps qualifying as a member of the creative class does not tick off all...
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