Category: Book Reviews

What more is there to say?

This is the most entrancing book that I have ever read.

I read this book while in the hinterland of Australia. Each day I would awake before sunrise and pick fruit for maybe 10 hours and get back home before the sunset. I would read Shantaram despite being exhausted. The story carried my conscious thought.

The book is large with 944 pages. That being said, I came upon the 944th page by surprise and when I turned the last page I was surprised and disappointed that I had finished the book.

About a year later I listened to the book on audible (get the audiobook on your iPhone for free by singing up with Audible here) and was blown away again. The voice actor in the audible recording does an amazing job of portraying the diverse international motif of character accents in the book in a way that adds depth to the overall experience of the novel.

You can get the physical book mailed to you or you can listen to it.

So listen up friends. I’d love to discuss the book with you. It did change my life.

Why The Millionaire Next Door

Yeah, “why did you read this one Ian?” -> This one is obvious.

When I picked up this book, I did it because to become a millionaire I figured I might as well know what millionaires are like.

Truth is I don’t know any millionaires.

I know people who are wealthy. Perhaps the sum total of the houses they own would amount to a million dollars. But when I think millionaires, I think people with yatchs and helicopters and people who donate lots of money to political parties and stuff like that.

When I examine this, I realized that this is not a very well founded perspective and if I was really to make a drive towards becoming a millionaire, I should really understand what a millionaire is.

Anyway, I got to rebuild a steel awning in the Gold Coast and listen to this book. Though my notes where sparse at times, when I wasn’t cutting giant pieces of steel and carrying around heavy, hot metal, I was taking notes and internalizing the lessons from this book….

Reading Notes for The Millionaire Next Door

Less than $15,000 is the median net worth of Americans

80% of America’s rich are first generation rich

7 common denominators of wealthy people 
1. they live way below their means
2. They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently in ways conducive to building wealth.
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high status
4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient
6. They are proficient at targeting market opportunities
7. They chose the right occupation
UAW – Under Accumulators of wealth
AAW – Average Accumulators of wealth
PAW – Proficient Accumulators of Wealth

This book is the study of what distinguishes these people

Russian ancestry Americans make up 5 percent of American wealth. They are the highest per capital wealth holders in the USA by ancestry. Scottish to exhibit high levels of per capita ratio millionaires.

The higher population of an ancestry group, the lower the probability that they will have a high millionaire per capita ratio.

Self-employment is a major positive correlate to wealth

Immigrants are often hard working entrepreneurs who accumulate wealth. Their children are raised to have better lives than them. They are less productive as they down more time in college and come out with a sense of need for the finer things. This is why America needs more immigrants.

So funny. For the first Deca millionaire study, they brought out caviar and vintage wine. The Deca millionaires didn’t touch it. One said, in response to the offer of wine, “I drink scotch, and two types of beer; free and Budweiser”
The researchers liked the caviar an pâté, but the millionaires didn’t touch them.

There words that profile the affluent: frugal, frugal, frugal

Frugal – behavior characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources

Being frugal is the cornerstone of wealth building.

Millionaires understand:

The typical millionaire has less than 7% of his wealth in realized revenue

The more one spends, the more they must realize. The more they realize, the more they must allocate for income taxes. Millionaires and those heading that direction follow an important rule

– To build wealth, minimize your realized income and maximize your unrealized income.

Income tax is the largest expense for many Americans.

Is your goal to be financially independent?

It takes planning and sacrificing.

Your plan should be to sacrifice consumption spending today for independence tomorrow.

Earning $100,000 is necessary for buying a $68,000 boat. Millionaires tend to think this way.

Another rule:
If you’re not yet wealthy, but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your total annualized income. 

Operating a household without a budget is akin to operating a business without a plan or goals.

Most politicians don’t understand the difference between targeting those with high income and those with a large amount of wealth

Millionaires spend most of their investing time (which is often 8 hours per month) planning and studying their specific investment strategies

Dr. North vs. Dr. South

It’s easier to accumulate wealth if dont live in a high status neighborhood.

3:56:0 – going to sleep

You can’t tell a millionaire by the car they drive

Think about the price per pound of your car

The jeep grand Cherokee is the most common millionaire car

Seeds are like dollars, you can eat them or you can watch them grow

Intellect is what you sell when you’re in business. A wealthy Jewish man said who had fled Nazi Germany. They can take everything, but it is a persons intellect which is so powerful and will rebuild their wealth.

Many 1st gen millionaires are entrepreneurs. Their success stems from living very frugally and constantly working  on their businesses. Luck is often involved.

Dull normal businesses are the ones that most wealthy people own (sandblasting contractor, building material sales, specialty advertising distributor)

The most successful entrepreneurs that we have interviewed have one characteristic in common: they all enjoy what they do. All take pride in going at it alone.

Mind you 3/4ths of millionaires in the study owned their own business.

My overall take away from The Millionaire Next Door

First off… Frugality. Millionaires are frugal.

Secondly, millionaires are probably not even  perceptible. In fact, there is a good chance that I might know millionaires and not be aware of it because they act frugally.

Now, I’m not sure if this is correct or not. I perceive many people that have lots and lots of wealth but perhaps they are just big spenders. I think this is possible… but to me it’s about being frugal and saving money so that you can use it to create assets that earn income that isn’t subject to income tax.

Finally, I don’t know if being a millionaire is something to specifically strive for. I mean, If I had 40,000 I could live quite happily for a good amount of years in Bali or Panama. Many of these millionaires are crippled by what to do with all their money when they get old. Seems like a good problem to have, you might say…. Well, I’d rather have a beautiful orchard + ranch and spend on nice parties as I grow older rather than have to banter with lawyers over how to split up my fortune with a bunch of needy people trying to pick it to pieces.

The Millionaire Next Door was a Great Book and I Hope You Gleamed Value From the Above Notes

If you go to Audible  through this link you can get a free copy of this book and listen to it while you rip metal buildings apart.

Of course, Amazon will send a copy of the book to your door. All you have to do is order it by clicking through this link.

 

Why The Tipping Point

I guess who hasn’t heard of Malcolm Gladwell right? Well, he wrote a book a while back called Outliers which I liked a lot. Perhaps I only read the first chapter because I remember the “Hockey Players are Always Born in Month 1-3 of the Year” very well.

Anyways, Malcolm is a great thought leader and I appreciate every point he comes up with. This one is all about how the little stuff can get huge with the proper conditions so it’s full of valuable lessons.

Reading Notes for The Tipping Point

Hush puppies popularity and NYC crime fall are examples of event that saw a tipping point.

Dunbar’s number of 150 is the number of relationships a person can maintain.

Relationships meaning they are connections in which you know who a person is and what they mean to you. This really is the core of human connection.

We want groups to serve as incubators for contagious growth. Groups of less than 150 will be the most effective.

Peer pressure is much more powerful than the fear of a boss

To make a big movement, you’ve gotta make lots of small things

Airwalking

Diffusion Studies explain how elements move through population

Start something – early adopters – early majority and finally the late majority and lastly the laggards

Lambeses was the advertising executive who would study youth outliers in expectation of the next big thing. With luck they could get ahead so air walk would be considered the leader in counterculture trend development.

Starting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few key areas.

The Law of the Few – have resources solely concentrated on

Connectors | Mavens | Sales People

With the slightest push it can be tipped

CocaCola sickness in Belgium…. Kids go sick from sulfide a in the carbonation process, but the sulfide a were minuscule. The spread of the sickness wasn’t due to the sulfides, it was due to the sociological effect of everyone thinking they were sick.

We have chemicals and contaminants today, it used to be witches and demons

Manifestation if a threat that I wholly imagined

115 documented cases of hysteria scares in the last 20 year.

Fax machine effect . The first fax machine was expensive and worthless. It’s value doubled when they made the second one. Each time a fax machine was used, the value of the machines grew because they connected more people.

When you buy a fax machine, you buy access to the fax network…. Not jus a plastic box.

Also known as the Law of Plenitude ( not Kevin Kelley )

– this is related to podcasting, the first podcast was nearly worthless, but as the networks grow, the audience comes in and the marginal value of the medium grows.

My overall take away from The Tipping Point

Again Gladwell shifts the way I think. The most sticky points he made for me at the time of reading this (most of which I read on a tremendous walk from the Spit to Nobby’s Beach along the Gold Coast of Australia) was the Fax Machine Effect and the hysteria. The value of networks is so interesting to me, growing up in this time of insane networking (building the central nervous system for a new age of consciousness?) Of course, I always appreciate the idea that mass groups of people lose mass capacity for critical thinking. As a dedicated outsider, I find that group dynamics are the creepiest, most non-trustworthy places to be in and I appreciate a scientific writer doing the work to really show that in objective terms.

So this is another great one. Malcolm Gladwell is a stud.

If These Notes on The Tipping Point Were Helpful to You, I’m Happy for That

You can get a free copy of this book by singing up as a new member with Audible  through this link.

Amazon also sells the book and can send it your way right now if you click here.

Why Good to Great

I don’t know where I learned about this book. It seems like it’s just one of those books that everyone seeking to achieve something massive in their lives has to read. I want to do some amazing things.

During the course of my life I’m committed to seeing a turnaround in rainforest destruction and see the human race allow for regeneration of the rainforests and the biosphere as a whole.

So Good to Great seems like an important book of lessons for someone with audacious goals like this.

Aside from some of the stuff that clearly dates the book (like when he uses Fannie Mae as an example of a ‘great’ company.) All of the points in the book came as valuable resources to me.

It’s about getting people on board the ship and empowering them to make the ship unstoppable because everyone on board is working together to get that ship to Hawaii… or wherever.

So it’s another useful book that comes highly recommended. Here are my notes…

Reading Notes for Good to Great

2001 – a bit dated

Very scientific approach

Good to to Great companies – fanny Mae, Phillip Morris, Walgreens

You must be willing to go to the end of the world at your core business.

Data driven focus

Darwin Smith – CEO who took his company (Kimberly Clark) to record numbers

5 levels of Leadership

1. Highly capable individual – makes productive contribution through talent skills and productive work habits.

2. Contributing team member. Contributes individual capabilities to the effective gain of the whole team

3. Competent manager – organizes people and resources towards the effective mutual goal

4. Effective leader – catalyzes a movement towards a compelling vision stimulating high standards

5. Level 5 Executive – builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of humility and professional will

Good to great company leaders had a focus on the company being great rather than themselves.

“You’re either on the bus or off the bus.” – Keysey

Get people onboard first to get a really unstoppable bus. Then the bus will be the powerhouse so if you have to change directions, you can.

With the wrong people on the bus, fuck where it’s going, it’s not going to make it there

Level 5 executives say:
“I don’t know where we should start with this company, but I do know that if I get the right people, ask them the right questions, and encourage vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great.”

Not a genius with a thousand helpers

Executive pay isn’t correlated with a great company.

People are the core of all successful companies. What makes a good company? People, people, people, people.

My overall take away from Good to Great

It’s all about the people baby. Yes. This is what I struggle with in my little podcast publishing company. I’m currently the book keeper to the designer. Gotta step away and start brining on superstars who can help us grow the thing to epic proportions.

I Hope These Notes on Good to Great You in a Useful Way

You can get a free copy of this book by singing up as a new member with Audible  through this link.

Good to Great is available on Amazon and you can have some people brining it to your doorstep simply by clicking over here.

 

Why Choose Yourself

So I heard about James Altutcher through his impressive appearance on 2 episodes of the School of Greatness podcast. The first episode was a show where James was interviewed by Lewis regarding his tumultuous life of making millions and losing it over and over again. The second interview was probably one of the highest listened to School of Greatness interviews where James interviewed Lewis about how Lewis made millions of dollars.

Anyways, I loved this one. I read it in one span of time while flying from Australia to America. I think these notes below are robust because it is written well and it is all about stuff that I’m interested in:

• How to take care of yourself
• Cultivating creativity
• The new economy and how to thrive at it
• What not to do

I was listening to the book and James is the narrator. He takes liberties to just go off and make his own jokes I think so the whole experience is great. Let’s get to the notes…

Reading Notes for Choose Yourself

The American dream is derived from a marketing campaign done by Fannie Mae

“The learned man aims for more, the wise man decreases and the decreases again.”

James Altutcher saved the stock market in 2009 with a bunch of bags of chocolate.

The whole thing that college graduates make more money than non college graduates is nonsense. The study suffered from selection bias in their sample by simply describing two groups of people.  The study was carried out by Georgetown University so of course there is a bias because they have a vested interest in showing that their University is providing value.

3 Bodies:

1. Emotional – people become crappy people, not because who they are, but because they are crapping inside of you.  Stop letting that happen.

Exercise: be quiet. Most people speak 2,500 words a day. Try to cut it down.

2. Mental

10 ideas exercise – write 10 ideas about anything at the very minimum. Do this to become an idea machine.

Cultivate an idea-sex environment

3. Spiritual – appreciate the rooftops when walking around the city.many people are time traveling by worrying about things.

Accept the beautiful stillness. Leads to 0 chance of burnout

4. Physical – eat well, exercise

“I dominate search engine optimization for “I want to die.” – James Altutcher

The things to do to get healthy
– sleep 8 hours
– eat 2 meals instead of thee
– no TV
– no Junk food
– no complaining for 1 while day
– no gossip
– return an email from 5 years ago
– express thanks to a friend
– write down a list of ideas
– watch a funny movie or standup bit
– read a spiritual text
– Say, “I’m going to save a life today” and spend the day looking for that person
– learn a new hobbie
– write down your schedule for the day and cross one if those things out and don’t do it for eternity
– forgive someone – write down on a piece of paper that you forgive someone and burn the piece of paper
– take the stairs instead of the elevator
– tell someone everyday that you live them
– make plans to spend time with a friend
– deep breathing

5 People That I’m grateful For:
1. Veronica
2. Mom
3. Dad
4. Erik
5. John

Work smarter not harder.

There is enough business in your town to make you rich.

You make no money by traveling.

Help the people around you.

You want to be friends with your clients. You want to make them feel happy to be around you. And you want to be happy being around them.

You make more money working with people you like.

Things I like about being entrepreneur.
– you get to be artistic
– you get to make your own hours

In everything thing you do, bring your art into it.

There is more money floating around than ever before. Most of its hidden from the employee mindset. Be an entrepreneur and reach out and grab it.

Making more money is the real reason to become an entrepreneur. “But the economy.” That’s BS. There is more money out there than ever before

The stock market has a capitalization of several trillion dollars. There’s another 2 trillion in private equity. There are fifty trillion in transaction every year. If you make money, someone will buy your company.

Having control over your own career means you can create what you want for people.

How to make money – chapter 13

Often the real reason that people buy from you isn’t for your product, but for you.

He built a trading business then sold advice on stock piking and finally, James built StockPicker.com and sold it. He gave 50% equity to a company that was dubbed the worst idea of all time… But that 50% helped him stay in business when many others were going out of business because of the dotCom bubble

Ch 12 How to Become an Idea Machine

Note: Stephen King in On Writing where he fell out of writing from being hit by the car. 3 weeks of a lack of writing f#%$#d up King’s ability to write. Exercise your idea muscle.

How to Exercise Your Idea Muscle
1. Read or Skim from 4 topics
2. Write Down 10 Ideas ( must be 10, you want your brain to sweat )
3. Activate another part of your brain – watercolor class
4. Collisions – read ideas and compare your old ideas with new ones. Best ideas come from old an new ideas
5. Don’t pressure yourself – be willing to fail and just do your best
6. Shake Things Up – Eat Write Work Sleep…. But mix it up afterwards

Chapter 13 Don’t Have Opinions

7 Habit of Highly Effective Mediocre People

Procrastination – if you’re feeling procrastination, listen to if. Maybe you should be delegating.

0 Tasking – multitasking doesn’t work, and being comfortable in doing nothing is a powerful tool for entrepreneurs

Being Not Original –
100% of my successes were when working with people smarter than me.

The best ideas are born from taking an old idea and a new idea and smashing them together. Eg Facebook is the bastard child of the idea sex of Internet and stalking

Poor Networking –

Honesty is #1 – this is easy

Honesty about imperfections creates amazing opportunities in life

Subtraction, not addition is what makes for a clearer, more useful mind

Ghandi sugar story – come back in 2 weeks. Why though? I had to stop eating sugar

The Beatles Last Album on YouTube

Review – (Note: This review was part of my notes)

This is a really powerful book because it is relevant to right now. James has a really interesting view on the economy as someone who has experienced it’s ebbs and flows in a visceral way.

It is a great book for anyone struggling with a bummer job who would be interested in taking the leap into entrepreneurship. But if you’re keen on that one, be prepared because the ups and downs are serious.

This is a great one though. I definitely recommend it. He’s funny and if you listen to the audio book, he goes off on interesting tangents, which he didn’t include in the book.

My overall take away from Choose Yourself

Honestly, this one is a must read for anyone interested in being in the entrepreneurial space going forward. If you’re not in the entrepreneurial space, maybe you should think about it.

James recently came out with a podcast called The James Altutcher Show. It’s great and you can get a great idea for his personality through that. If you want more convincing to get this book, other than the fact that I’m telling you to do it, then listen to his show a little and maybe you’ll get more into it.

Oh and if you get the book you can send him an e-mail telling him so and he will reimburse your purchase. I didn’t test this one out… but it would be a cool experiment. If you do test it out, I’d love to hear from you.

I Hope These Notes on Choose Yourself Where Useful

You can get a free copy of this book by singing up as a new member with Audible  through this link.

It’s easy to buy the book on Amazon too. Just go here.

 

Why Give and Take?

I first heard of Adam Grant while editing Lewis Howes’s podcast, the School of Greatness. I was really impressed with the idea that people who give are either the ones on top of the world or they end up on the bottom. To me, it was imperative to understand exactly what separates the ones on the top from the ones on the bottom…. but I took no action on it at first. The next time I heard of Adam Grant was on Good Life Project with Jonathan Fields (not released at the date of publishing.) This time, Jonathan went really deep with Adam and the breadth of his knowledge really intrigued me. I went out and got the book on audible right after listening to the show. These notes are not conclusive. While listening to this book, I was wrapped up in massive emotional turmoil due to a peak performance leadership conference I was attending in Los Angeles. I do think I’ll return to it, but for now, I’ll just share the notes I did get as well as how I responded to it all.

Reading Notes for Give and Take

Reciprocity styles: Givers, Matchers and Takers Givers dominate the top and the bottom of the success curve. Givers are more likely to be champs or chumps Expedition Behavior – putting the goals of the team ahead of those of the individual. Givers are less likely to be caught in sunk cost traps. Inman, the talent scout made a mistake in missing out on Michael Jordan in exchange for drafting someone a little less valuable. But he recovered from the mistake and was a leader in drafting players. Inman was a giver. Michael Jordan on the other hand shows sings of being a taker (pay players more as a player, pay owners more as an owner, leaves out thanks in his hall of fame speech in exchange for belittling those who didn’t believe in him.) As the owner of the Wizards, Jordan went all in on a player who turned out to average 7 points per game in his career. He oversaw the Wizards at a time when thy had the smallest winning percentage in NBA history. Because Jordan was a taker, he was more susceptible to sunk cost errors because of the nature that takers are unwilling to be wrong. When attempting to gain dominance of a situation, takers are more powerful due to asserting anger, large motions and getting louder…. But are they more effective leaders? Dominance is a zero sum game Prestige is not a zero sum game Prestige therefore has more lasting value. Powerless communication is worse at asserting leadership and confidence. Powerless communication is the most powerful sales strategy in the studies Advice seeking can be a powerful way to assert influence in a situation. Giver seek the most effective advice because they genuinely seek the learning from others. Advice seeking is a way to open yourself up to the possibilities of the universe. Benjamin Franklin was an expert at this. important note: it only works when it’s sincere and genuine.

My overall take away from Give and Take

I loved this book. My notes left out a pair of important parts of the book. The example of the editor of the Simpsons and the silicone valley connector that helps so many people. Though I can’t recall the names of these characters, I know that they where integral parts in creating many amazing things because they allowed themselves to give and receive without an immediate expectation for reciprocity. This is how I live my life now. I’m constantly on the lookout for how I can give to people. This just came to me though, what does separate the givers on the top from the givers on the bottom. Funny enough, after going through the whole book and I can’t recall this. I think I’ll have to give Give and Take another reading.

With Luck, You Found These Notes on Give and Take Useful

If you go to  this link and sing up with Audible you can get a free version of this book so you can read it just like I did and forget the most important part. Just kidding. If you’re more conventional and like to dog ear the book and mark it up, please feel free to pick it up on amazon here.

Why Rich Dad, Poor Dad

This is one of the books that I had seen on the shelves of a thousand walls. I’ve known about it since I was young but I never actually took the time to read anything about how to become rich until 2010.

After working my way around the world picking fruit, cattle station handing and being a tour guide in various places, I realized that I wanted to hack the whole money game. Though all my previous jobs were adventures and really enjoyable… I was getting tired of resetting over and over again from broke to flush. I knew rich people and I knew what was possible, but I also knew there was a big gap in my financial knowledge. So I picked up this book up in Hawaii in 2011.

The lessons in this one are super important for anyone out there seeking to make lots of money. Hell, I haven’t made lots of money yet, but I’m starting to get to the point where cash flow is coming in without me actively spending time on it. This is the meaning of wealthy. When your income derived from your assets out paces your expenses.

So the lessons learned in this book are indispensable and if you’re reading this, you’ve gotta do yourself a favor and listen/read this book. While you do, take notes and make actions to get your way there.

Reading Notes for Rich Dad, Poor Dad

This is my second reading of this book. The first one was years ago.

What’s blowing me away is the focus on emotional intelligence in the first chapter. I remember none of this from reading years ago. If you asked me last month what the book was about I would have remembered the mechanics of of the cash flow quadrant and other superficial aspects of the book. Now I see that I missed a core ingredient of financial success: identifying fear and desire and work with it rather than it it.

“Harness money’s power.”

“Learn to use your emotions to think, not think with your emotions.”

“The rich really do, make money. They do not work for it.”

If you want to build the Empire State Building you have to dig really deep an pour a giant foundation. If you want to build a home in the suburbs, you have to pour a 6 inch slab. Most people trying to build massive wealth do it on a 6 inch slab.

Rule #1 and only. If you want to get rich you must know the difference between assets and liabilities and buy assets.

Wealth is a persons ability to survive so many number of days forward or, if I stopped working today, how many days could I survive?

Wealth vs Net Worth | wealth is how many days you can retire on… Net worth is a wushu washy number if what your junk is worth.

The rich but assets. The poor expense. The middle class but liabilities that they think are assets.

A corporation is just a file in an attorney’s office. Nothing more. It’s a structure that allows you to manage your risk of government invasion.

4 Areas of Exertise:

1. Accounting: being specific with every penny

2. Investing: money makin money

3. Expertise of Market: understanding the markets around all of us

4. Law: knowing what corps can do that individuals can’t

Self doubt is the #1 aspect holding people back. Many people know the answer but take no action.

It’s not the smart that get ahead, it’s the bold.

The poor and middle class work for money, the rich make money.

If you can grasp the idea that money is not real you will grow richer faster.

Investment Strategy.

Technical skills tht make up financial education:

1. Financial Literacy: the ability to read numbers

2. Investment Strategies: the science of money makin money

3. The Market: Supply and Demand.

4. Law: knowledge of state and federal laws and regulations regarding accounting.

Lesson 6 work to learn don’t work for money.

My overall take away from Rich Dad, Poor Dad

This is a game changer. I’ve begun to see my finances in this light and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. These are lessons that where never taught to me neither in my home nor in my International Business course work. Yet it is essential.

Kiyosake is a big fan of real estate but I’m bearish on real estate. As freedom and movement are integral factors in my view of what wealth is, I’m trending more towards internet properties that allow for cash flow.

But hey, he even says in the book, “this is just what I used to get rich. Anyone can get rich in other fields as long as they understand the importance of Cash Flow in their finances (paraphrasing.)”

I Hope These Notes on Rich Dad, Poor Dad Were Useful to You

You can get a free copy of this book by singing up as a new member with Audible through this link.

You can purchase the book on amazon here.

Why On Writing

Stephen King’s books are too scary for me. I was working with the guys over at Asymetrical Publishing and I found in their forum a discussion in which King spoke about what it takes to be a writer.

Hell, I don’t know if I want to be a writer. I don’t even know what that means. I write a lot, I guess that makes me a writer. The labels seem off balance to me. I appreciate craft and if to be a writer you have to hone the craft, I think they should take on another word for what it is that they do. Perhaps author is that word.

I digress. Anyways, I listened to this one while walking around the illuminated streets Fitzroy in the city of Melbourne, Australia. It was winter and while walking around listening to Stephen King narrate the book to me, I enjoyed the week of projections that the local artists had set up in all the stores windows. Each wall was bathed in light from a projection show that the artists had put together. It was a truly mesmerizing experience and I was constantly stopping to take the following notes. Here you go…

Reading Notes for
On Writing

“We are writers, we never ask each other where our ideas come from because we all know; we don’t know.”

No one asks about the language. This is the idea that hit this book.

“To write is human, to edit is divine.”

Massive poverty for these kids growing up in Durham in the mid 50s. = Another example of the abundance society we live in these days

“The idea that creative endeavor and mind altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop intellectual myths of our time. The four 20th century writers who’s work is responsible for it are probably Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson and the poet Dylan Thomas.

They are the writers who largely formed our vision of an existential, English speaking wasteland where people have been cut off from one another and live in an atmosphere if emotional strangulation and despair.

These feelings are very common to alcoholics. The common response to them is amusement.”

“…I’m going to tell you as much as I can about the job [writing].

As promised, it won’t take long.

It starts with this:

Put your desk in the corner and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room.

“Life isn’t a support system for art, it’s the other way around.”

You must not come lightly to the blank page.

The first rule of vocabulary is to use the first word that comes to your mind.

“Grammar is not just a pain in the ass; it’s the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking.”

Avoid the passive tense
The passive voice is safe
Unsure writers think the passive tense is majestic
One place or the passive tense:

A fellow dies in the kitchen but the body ends up somewhere else:

The body was carried from the kitchen and was placed on the parlor sofa.

= ok but was is used too often =

Freddy and Myra carried the body out of the kitchen an laid it on the parlor sofa

Why does the body have to be the subject of the sentence anyway? It’s dead for Christi sake! Forget about it!

Too much use of was sucks.

Powerful Stephen King…. I never really understood subject of a sentence until now…

Another one

My first kiss will always be recalled by me as how my romance with Shaina was begun.

Shit… Better=

My romance with Shaina began with our first kiss. Ill never forget it.

Not in love with this because it uses with twice in 4 words…

At least it’s rid of that awful passive voice

Also notice how much simpler it is to understand as its broken up into two thoughts

The reader must always be your main concern

The writer threw the rope; NOT; the rope was thrown by the writer

Adverb is not your friend. It’s used by the timid writer

Adverb = words that motify (often end in -ly)

The road to hell is paved with adverbs

Fear is at the root of most bad writing

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation.

Good writing is about choosing the right tools to work with.

“You can’t be serious,” bill said unbelievably = shit writing because the adverb is inherently redundant.

Writing is refined thinking.

The more you write, the more your paragraphs take form on their own.

My overall take away from On Writing

Stephen King uses On Writing as an excuse to tell his life’s story and its a beautiful accomplishment to blend together; as they are such entwined existences.

King’s life is exciting in only a way that he can explain. His is immeasurably good writing because he can make a life story like his exciting. In truth, his life wasn’t too remarkable. He grew up in a lower middle class household, held crappy jobs until he sold his writing for a high price tag. He then got addicted to drugs and then kicked the habit. Finally, he was hit by a van on a long walk. To be perfectly honest, it’s a mediocre life story in terms of radical adventures and remarkable accomplishments. It’s in the way that he explains his life and passion that makes this book a 5 star, “you must read this book because it is all important if you want to write” type book.

I’m a better writer because of this book and I appreciate grammar for the first time in my life. A lifetime of ignoring English teachers and cheating on tests couldn’t get me to give a damn about what the subject of a sentence was; but King brought it to my attention and I retained it almost immediately when he discussed the importance of grammar.

So yeah, this is a must read. Even if you don’t want to be a writer, it’s a beautifully written autobiography with lessons that could just as easily be used if you want to be a painter or a banker.

On Writing is a Must Read and I Hope These Notes Were Valuable to You

If you want to listen to King read the book to you, you can get it for free through this link.

Amazon sells the book too. Surprise, surprise.

 

This is my reflection and meditation upon reading Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. It’s a simple book which can be tied to a million metaphors… here is one:

Hustling is key to success and those two little rats (Sniff and Scurry) are the quintessential hustlers. They did a few things that I appreciate:

1. See the Big Picture

Himmm and haaa didn’t notice that the cheese was shrinking. They didn’t notice that their time in tube three was running out. The signs were there but they just sat around getting fat and practicing stupid the whole time. When the cheese ran out they were obliterated.

Sniff and Scurry saw it coming. When the cheese finally ran out they weren’t surprised. They didn’t waste a minute to get to the business of finding more cheese.

This s$%t is happening on the daily in this country. THE CHEESE IS MOVING FOLKS. Higher education? Scammy finance rackets? Are you a involved in the movie rental business? BlockBuster declared bankruptcy in 2010 people. There is no reason you should think that whatever cheese you’ve got is not going to run out.

2. Act Accordingly

Himm and Haa took forever. Haa got it after a while and I think his process would be far more enjoyable if he had enjoyed the hunt for cheese. Himm is simply a metaphor for what to avoid. Do not wait for the cheese.

Sniff and Scurry got to work immediately on hunting more cheese. There wasn’t even a discussion about it.

| Cheese Gone | I’m Finding Cheese |

3. Win

There is always going to be cheese.

Macroeconomic forces might alter the big picture for governments and the international monetary fund, but that crap doesn’t affect me or you. Those things don’t affect us because, though we get international news, we live in local economies. We live in local relationships. You can start from nothing tomorrow and be great now.

100% is possible 100% of the time.

Cheese is, of course, a metaphor. It is the representation of getting what you want, be it a relationship, a bunch of money or inner peace. You’re only going to find it by taking action, finding new opportunities and executing on them like your life depends on it.