Worth Thinking About

“It took me years and years to realize a very simple thing, which is that when you write fiction you’re raising questions, and a lot of people think you’re playing a little game with them and that actually you know the answers to the questions. They read your question. They don’t know how to answer correctly. And they think that if they could only meet you personally and look into your eyes, you could give them the answers.”

― Ann Beattie

4. Henry Ward Beecher Quote “The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.” 5.Did you know… … that today is Bad Trade Day? In 1920, the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees — probably the worst baseball trade ever made! The Yankees, who had never won a pennant before, became perennial American League and World Series champions. The Red Sox did not win another World Series until 2004. ~~~ ^. Today’s Inspirational Quote: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller

Heyo, Nik here with our first batch of summaries for 2020!

In order to not overwhelm you, we’ve decided to continue highlighting our 3 best summaries each week. We’ll add the titles, authors, and 1-sentence-summaries for the remaining titles below.

We hope this’ll help you pick and click and not get lost in a sea of options. Since the year is just 3 days old, here are our first 3!

First, we’ve got Malcolm Gladwell’s genius and already best-selling Talking to Strangers. The book helps us assess, judge, and trust the people we don’t know so we can have meaningful interactions with them.

Next, Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog, will get you into high-achievement mode with No Excuses! This one’s perfect to knock out your goals this year!

Finally, John C. Maxwell, who brought us The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership, explains what it takes to have positive influence on those you lead.

Let’s go!

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

1-Sentence-Summary: Talking To Strangers helps you better understand and accurately judge the people you don’t know while staying patient and tolerant with others.

1. You are overestimating your ability to read what people are thinking or feeling.
2. Humans naturally default to believing that others are telling the truth and are incapable of telling when someone is lying.
3. One reason you’re so bad at judging people is that everybody expresses their emotions and thoughts differently.

If you want to improve your ability to understand the actions of those around you and master the art of talking to strangers, this book is for you.

No Excuses! by Brian Tracy

1-Sentence-Summary: No Excuses! teaches us that self-discipline is the key to success and gives us practical advice to master it and achieve self-actualization, happy relationships, and financial security.

1. To become a high achiever, plan your tasks with The Seven-Step Method and keep learning every day.
2. Happiness is a by-product of self-discipline and has 5 ingredients.
3. You can practice taking action despite fear by using the Disaster Report.

If you want some help to stop making excuses when it comes to your new year’s resolutions, this book is for you.

The 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

1-Sentence-Summary: The 5 Levels Of Leadership will teach you how to lead others with lasting influence by focusing on your people instead of your position.

1. Your management position means nothing to those you lead when compared to the power of your personality and values.
2. Developing relationships of trust is one of the most important things you can do to have a long-term impact for good.
3. To make the biggest difference in your company and the lives of your people, you must train others to be leaders themselves.

If you want to be a great leader and help other people become their best selves, this book book is for you.

That’s it for now, hope your first week of 2020 is amazing!

Happy reading,
-Nik

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