Company of One


Book Description

What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better--and smarter--solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that. Company of One is a refreshingly new approach centered on staying small and avoiding growth, for any size business. Not as a freelancer who only gets paid on a per piece basis, and not as an entrepreneurial start-up that wants to scale as soon as possible, but as a small business that is deliberately committed to staying that way. By staying small, one can have freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis. Paul Jarvis left the corporate world when he realized that working in a high-pressure, high profile world was not his idea of success. Instead, he now works for himself out of his home on a small, lush island off of Vancouver, and lives a much more rewarding and productive life. He no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output, and more growth. In Company of One, Jarvis explains how you can find the right pathway to do the same, including planning how to set up your shop, determining your desired revenues, dealing with unexpected crises, keeping your key clients happy, and of course, doing all of this on your own.




Nine Lies About Work


Book Description

Forget what you know about the world of work You crave feedback. Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be measured and your weaknesses shored up. Leadership is a thing. These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. As strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies--distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking--that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be. But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma. With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning; that people don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention. This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. Nine Lies About Work reveals the few core truths that will help you show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you.




Kill the Company


Book Description

In the ever-changing world of business, we've arrived at a point where process has trumped culture, where the race toward efficiency has left us unable to reach our potential. Stuck in the land of status quo, we've forgotten how to think. The very structures put in place to help businesses grow are now holding us back;; it's time to Kill the Company. This book is a call to arms: to start a revolution in how we think and work. But instead of more one-size-fits-all change initiatives forced upon employees, we need to embrace small changes that create ripple effects throughout the organization. Lisa Bodell urges companies to move from "Zombies, Inc." to "Think, Inc." Thinking can no longer be exclusive to the creative team or lead strategists. A culture of curiosity must be fostered among the ranks to shake up our standard practices, from unproductive meetings to go-nowhere strategic planning. This revolution can and will awaken our ability to think, and ultimately, to innovate and grow.




Careful of the Company You Keep


Book Description

From the acclaimed author of Trouble Loves Company comes a smart, sexy, heartfelt new novel about friendship, love, lust--and a whole lot of trouble in between. After finding her husband in a compromising position, romance author Renee Moore goes back to her hometown, hoping to start over. But once again, she finds herself looking for love in all the wrong places. To make matters worse, just as she decides a healthy relationship may not be her destiny, her ex delivers shocking news that could change her life forever. Practical nurse Danielle Brooks' professional life is picture perfect, but her personal life is a mess. Her daughter is about to give birth to a baby believed to have been fathered by Danielle's ex. In an attempt to mend her shattered heart, Danielle has been dating Calvin Cambridge, a truly nice guy. But when Calvin proposes, Danielle wants to be sure she is ready to commit. She enlists Renee to test his fidelity, but when the seduction goes too far, all their relationships may be in jeopardy. Meanwhile, their best friend is getting married, and she is counting on Renee and Danielle to help her plan the wedding--whether they are speaking to each other or not. But with Renee now being threatened by a mystery woman, and Danielle facing her most serious crisis yet, they can not help wondering if it is all going to get worse before it gets better. As things come to a head in each woman's life, there is a whole lot of praying going on--and Renee and Danielle soon realize they are blessed in spite of it all--with faith, second chances--and each other.




YOU are the company!


Book Description

Go to work on Monday in a good mood and full of positive expectations, relax with colleagues, write success stories and feel that you help make the difference - this should be more than just a dream. Patrick Vergult guides you through ten key questions on a voyage of discovery to your 'why'.Find out the true reason you work. Thanks to immediately applicable, practical tips, you can experience more work satisfaction starting from today. Among other things you'll discover: · What three fundamental values are important to your success. · Which three secrets help you to reap lasting success. · Which two skills will open all doors to you. · How you can motivate yourself (and others). · And much more! Because ... YOU are the company! Get your copy of YOU are the company now!




The Company We Keep


Book Description

On Tuesday nights in the backroom of Cassie’s café, six strangers seek solace and find themselves part of a “Company of Good Cheer” Hazzley is at loose ends, even three years after the death of her husband. When her longtime friend Cassandra, café owner and occasional dance-class partner, suggests that she start up a conversation group, Hazzley posts a notice on the community board at the local grocery store. Four people turn up for the first meeting: Gwen, a recently widowed retiree in her early sixties, who finds herself pet-sitting a cantankerous parrot; Chiyo, a forty-year-old fitness instructor who cared for her unyielding but gossip-loving mother through the final days of her life; Addie, a woman pre-emptively grieving a close friend who is seriously ill; and Tom, an antiques dealer and amateur poet who, deprived of home baking since becoming a widower, comes to the first meeting hoping cake will be served. Before long, they are joined by Allam, a Syrian refugee with his own story to tell. These six strangers are learning that beginnings can be possible at any stage of life. But as they tell their stories, they must navigate what is shared and what is withheld. Which version of the truth will be revealed? Who is prepared to step up when help is needed? This moving, funny and deeply empathic new novel from acclaimed author Frances Itani reminds us that life, with all its twists and turns, never loses its capacity to surprise.




The Company You Keep


Book Description

When journalist Benjamin Schulberg discovers a link between liberal lawyer Jim Grant and a notorious Vietnam-era fugitive, the world that Jim has carefully built for himself and his daughter collapses. His cover blown, Jim is forced to go on the run after decades living under his false identity. Still wanted for his part in an act of domestic terrorism in 1974, he must travel deep into his past to clear his name and save his young daughter. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, The Company You Keep is an intelligent thriller about political ideals, family loyalties, and the shadowy world of the radical anti-war group the Weather Underground.




The Company You Keep


Book Description

Men rarely invest time and effort building intentional and mutually supportive friendships. However, long-term friendships can inspire us, challenge us, and have the potential to transform our lives. Exploring the experiences of three men who have supported each other for more than 12 years, the author shows how such friendships influence many areas of a person's life, including family relationships, physical fitness, self-esteem, and spirituality.




What the CEO Wants You to Know


Book Description

A powerful lesson in what is really important in business, this remarkable book by an ultimate insider takes the lessons of the peddler and reveals how they can be used by the rest of us. Reminiscent of bestsellers such as "Who Moved My Cheese?" and" The One-Minute Manager, What the CEO Wants You to Know" is simple, direct, and of immense use to everyone in business.




Good to Great


Book Description

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. “Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.” Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?