Are you ready to succeed? By Srikumar Rao

If you are ready to master yourself, it would be a good idea to invest in Srikumar Rao's book, 'Are you ready to succeed?'.

Be advised that if you expect a quick fix this book is not for you. Srikumar truly challenges the reader on a mental and emotional level with various exercises throughout the book. What gets revealed can be shocking, but also offer the possibility for change deep within the individual.

Without revealing too much of the journey, it is worth mentioning a few of the themes that are addressed. According to Srikumar we have the ability to 'straighten up our gardens'. As a starting point he takes us back to our existing mental models that refer to our notions of how the world works. We all have these mental models for different situations, e.g. work, love and our families, but we call them by other names, like 'the truth' or 'reality' or 'the facts'. We absolutely believe in all of these mental models. Sometimes our mental models are in direct conflict with each other and they cause much stress in our lives, but we still hold on to the mental models that we've constructed over the years.

On this journey, Srikumar helps us to identify the realities that might cause us a lot of heartache, but he also paves the path for us to create new realities so that we can live a better and happier life. In taking the reader down the path of creating new realities or mental models a lot of eye opening truths are shared, but never forced upon the reader. The various exercises help the reader to discover and experience their own truths and this can be done at their own pace. Valuable insight is also shared about topics such as happiness and freedom, the law of increase, and the Me-Centered Universe, just to name a few.

From a business perspective valuable information is made available regarding how to build 'true' contacts and how to relinquish the ego driven need to be in control. According to Srikumar doors will start to open mysteriously when you have the right mixture of passion for what you want to accomplish and the detachment and acceptance of whatever actually happens. Ultimately this book will teach you how to deeply connect with others.

'Are you ready to succeed' provides an incredible reading experience as well as a unique platform to create fundamental and lasting change in your life!

The Penguins Who Learned How to Fly

When synchronicities abound and 'almost impossible creations happen out of no where', you know you’re onto something – something bigger than yourselves and the sum total of everyone together, you know that this is what they call, 'Spirit @ Work' - LITERALLY. This is what 'The Penguins Who Learned How to Fly' represents for 7i™ – a collaborative work with one of our major clients, documenting the journey of growth, invention, leadership, transformation, teamwork, and quite simply, what it takes to make a company fly! 7i™ is excited about this creation and look forward to having it published and sharing our collective story. This body of work is written as an allegory with an accompanying manual unpacking the pearly gems in changing the way we do Work and do Organisations. Watch this space for details or contact 7i™ directly if you would like your organisation to go on the journey yourselves.

Mind Map Handbook – The Ultimate Thinking Tool By Tony Buzan

We are what we think we are! This is a well known and proven statement. Imagine how much more we can be if we alter and better our thinking patterns. Can we actually maximise our personal potential and financial worth by harnessing the power of our minds to achieve results beyond our wildest dreams?

According to Tony Buzan we can do exactly that by using the mind mapping technique. This technique focuses on increasing creativity, vocabulary and memory. The mind mapping tool is constructed around the ideas of using images, associations and pictures to open the way for phenomenal improvement in thinking power.

It can show you how to: solve problems by seeing them from unusual and unique angles; generate brilliant ideas and push them to their limits; persuade people; hone negotiation skills and also improve your understanding of any subject.

Mind Map also reveals amazing real life stories of regular and famous people such as Martin Luther King, Alexander the Great, Isaac Newton and many more, who by thinking ‘out of the box’ created the unthinkable. We learn that there are no limits to our capabilities and that all that is thinkable is attainable.

This book is a good read for anyone who has a lust for growth and knowledge. The author explains this thinking tool in a very motivational way and it definitely makes you want to get out there and create on all levels of your life.

The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time By David A. Vise

There is no surer sign that the information age is upon us than the phenomenal rise of Google, now a global mega brand and worth more in financial terms than Time Warner, and Amazon and eBay combined – and it has achieved this in a little over eight years. Google's meteoric, if puzzling, ascent to that elite business club whose membership includes established household names such as Microsoft only begins to make sense if one considers that a fundamental requisite of information usage is the ability to search and order it in a meaningful way – and information is becoming available 'online' at an exponential rate. The Google founders realising this, and the fact that search engines available to them while studying towards their PHD at Stanford University were not up to the task, went on to create and market a search engine ahead of its time.

This book does an admirable job of making sense of the 'Google phenomena' by touring through some fascinating "circuitary" of the Google 'motherboard'. For example, the reader will delve into the the Google founders' time at Stanford, their progressive attitude towards business and recruitment practices, how they proved their mettle as tough businessmen and, to top it off, their regular attendance at Burning Man, America's key alternative lifestyle festival. Other notable topics covered are the clever use of hard and software by Google to power the lightning fast searches, how Google made advertising work on the internet, Microsoft's less than enthusiastic relationship with Google, Google's listing on NASDAQ, and Google's forays into various (seemingly unrelated) fields such as biology and genetics, including digitising the 'miles and miles' of books available in the world's great libraries.

If this inquiry into the 'Google phenomena' has a weakness it is its failure to fully leverage the various parceled clusters of information within its pages to deeply understand the implication that Google, its various projects, and the principles underpinning its growth, have on our evolving world but, an astute reader should be able to fathom that for him/herself.

10 Lessons From The Future By Wolfgang Grulke

'Spying' into the future through what can loosely be called 'Futures Research' has stirred literary whirlpools since the 1960s. However, the future's research literature has in general been written in the capitals of the northern hemisphere, and it is thus refreshing to read a South African text that adds local flavour to an international topic. Wolfgang Grulke starts this thought provoking book by posing questions such as: What industries will be shattered in the new economic revolution? Which industries will boom? What is government's new role?

He then answers these questions by, as can be guessed from the title, investigating '10 lessons from the future'. These 'lessons' delve into topics such as the knowledge economy, biotechnology, individual responsibility and leadership, chaos and the unknown, and business competitiveness. The author writes in an informal style, creating a workbook like format that the reader is encouraged to interact with. Not all of the book is groundbreaking and the author makes assertions that some might find contentious, but there is enough that is new and thought provoking – conceptually, contextually and theoretically.

This is worth the read for the business person who is intimately involved in shaping business strategy and is looking for clues to what the future holds and where to look for new opportunities. The quote on the back cover says it all: 'In today's warp-speed world, you have to learn from the future'. This book is especially relevant for 7i™ as we are in the business of creating a new way of doing business and the timing is now.

Free Lunch Easily Digestible Economics, Served on a Plate By David Smith

"Why there's no such thing as a free lunch. A stimulating lunch in five courses with guest speakers from Marx to Milton Friedman."

For most of us, when we hear the word 'economics' or pick up a book only to find out that it is about economics, we get a glazed look in our eyes and not without some fear. Many of us think of economics as something mysterious, accessible to a small, select few, like some secret society. The real truth however, is that economics and life are inseparable. The laws of supply, demand and competition apply to all of us, all of the time, whether we like it or not. Acknowledging this fact is the first step. The second step is to acquire some basic knowledge and not to become the next guru on economics but rather, to understand some basic principles and your place in all of this.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to sit down to a dinner amongst friends, colleagues or even clients, and speak knowledgeably about aspects such as house prices, stock markets, inflation and deflation, budget deficits and even employment levels? But better yet, to actually find these interesting? David Smith manages to turn something that can potentially be extremely 'dry' into a delicious, juicy meal. Using this analogy, David brings economics to life. To continue with the pun, this book is extremely digestible, and what's great about it, is that you don't have to eat it all in one sitting. This book is not an economics text book and it doesn't bring complex equations into the picture, or expect you to prepare a critical analysis of our finance minister's budget speech. Rather, it's fun, it's real, and it's accessible. To quote David Smith, 'Unless something can be easily explained, it has no place here', and in Free Lunch, he sticks to his word.

Working with Emotional Intelligence By Daniel Goleman

Goleman makes extensive use of a wide variety of sources, particularly from the workplace. He utilises anecdotes from real people and taps into a large body of research studies to support his argument and make a very convincing case that emotional intelligence (EI) matters.

The author uses emotional intelligence as a tool to improve relationships between people in all walks of life in a business or social context. He talks about gut feelings, the difference between IQ and EI and the importance of self awareness. The concept of EI can be embraced globally, even in the South African context, where diversity in culture, ethnicity, abilities and training all need extensive consideration. In a country where formal education is sorely lacking, the good news according to Goleman is that emotional intelligence can be learned and implemented within organisations across the board.

His casual style of writing makes for an easy read for both the professional and layperson alike. Rather than creating a sense of inadequacy or doubt, he inspires the reader to consider EQ as a real and useful life skill.

Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Recently 7i™ reviewed 'Free Lunch: Easily Digestable Economics, Served on a Plate' which explained the fundamentals of economics. This book, however, gets even more basic and talks about what 'gave rise' to economics in the first place – how do people get what they want, and what makes them do it? Steven Levitt has an impressive CV, an MIT graduate who most recently received the John Bates Clark Medal for the best American economist under the age of forty. He claims not to be good at maths and therefore more interested in questions related to 'the stuff and riddles of everyday life'. The type of questions that interest him range from – 'Why do prostitutes earn more than architects?' to 'What is more dangerous, a swimming pool or a gun?'. Particularly interesting are the chapters on parenting considering the massive emphasis current society places upon being a 'perfect parent'. Levitt's underlying belief that the modern world is knowable and intriguing if you just take a new way of looking at it is delightfully heartening and entertaining. Who'd have thought that economics and a discussion on parenting could be on the same page! You'll never look at economics the same way again.

blink The Power of Thinking without Thinking By Malcolm Gladwell

Have you ever made a snap judgement and had it vindicated, or discovered it was unfounded? Using examples such as a marriage analyst who can predict with 90% accuracy if a couple will remain together even though he has only seen 15 minutes of a videotape of them chatting; and art experts who can 'tell' in a flash that a sculpture is a fake.  This book guides us through our powers of rapid thinking.

The examples are fascinating and just as you believe that you should be making every decision in a nano second to be effective, the author discusses the downside of this cognitive process prejudice. An example he uses refers to orchestra conductors who often have fixed ideas about what is a 'male' instrument and what is 'female'. This theory is turned on its head when one is unaware of the gender of the player. Thus 'blind' orchestra auditions have become mandatory, and the number of women in orchestras has increased five fold!

The book concludes with lessons on how to develop your own rapid cognition taking into account your own prejudices, and thereby enabling greater accuracy when using this effective decision making tool that we all possess. Don't think about it, just get this book!

The Tipping Point How Little Things can make a Big Difference By Malcom Gladwell

Discussing epidemics could result in a stolid academic book full of equations and solemn declarations that could leave you feeling helpless and overwhelmed. Not this book – it uses all the academic study but shows how radical change can become a certainty if we harness the ideas to start positive epidemics of our own.

He uses the ‘80:20 principle' to explain how a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work – whether that work is spreading a virus or starting a new fashion. These people have certain characteristics that are necessary for a new idea to take root. Secondly, the message has to be sticky. Stickiness means that the message or virus makes an impact – you can’t get rid of it. Finally, the power of context explains that people are a lot more sensitive to their environment than we give ourselves credit for. In other words, a strictly enforced ‘no graffiti’ rule on the subway reduced violent crime in the whole of New York.

If you want to create rapid change within your organisation, your family or your own life then buy this page turner!

Now, Discover Your Strengths By Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

This is a book about building a strong life – with a focus on strengths, not on improving weaknesses.

Strengths are defined as ‘consistent near perfect performance in an activity’. The authors argue that your top strengths give you intrinsic satisfaction from performing the activity as opposed to an ability which you could still be good at but which often leaves you drained of energy. To excel you need to capitalise on your strengths and manage your weaknesses. This is not the same as ignoring your weaknesses.

Buying the book makes you eligible to take the online strengths finder test where your top five strengths are identified for you. Cleverly, your remaining 31 strengths to weaknesses are not revealed, however for $500 a Gallup coach will discuss these with you including strategies for managing your weaknesses which are usually your last five on the list!

Two million people were interviewed to design the strengths finder analysis and after taking the test myself I would highly recommend this for anyone wanting to build an excellent life around strengths as opposed to focusing on abilities.