Development Books

I recently read, The Road to Organic Growth How Great Companies Consistently Grow Marketshare From Within by Edward Hess. Companies do it by:


1. They are generally in one business most can define their business in one sentence.

2. The companies are relentlessly focused and disciplined - they do not take their eye off the ball.

3. They drill down to the line-employee level to ensure that their people understand the business and why their job is important, why certain measurements are being made, and how employees can contribute to their own success.

4. They incrementally improve with continual top-line and bottom-line initiatives by

They involve and engage their staff:

The people doing the work need to understand the business and the importance of their individual jobs, as well as how their success will be measured and what is important to the success of the business.
Everyone has to buy into a system of accountability and a culture of constant improvement.

Only by giving employees "ownership" of their jobs can a company truly have a constant improvement culture that works.

People need constant, reliable, and objective feedback in order to learn and improve. So they have a high focus on measuring results.

It was a good book - not great but just good. I did get some ideas and it was an easy, quick read. Certainly was attracted to the title.

Ed Hess' book helped me a great deal. I own/run a small business that espouses similar values that can be found in this book, but it also taught me that in our quest for growth that some of our priorities have clearly been wrong. As a result of this fine, easy to read book, I feel more confident that our company will be kept firmly on the growth curve.

G.M. Ball
[...]

This is a phenomenal work. This book provides the attributes and tools of what it really means to "grow" a business. Hess brilliantly reveals some of the most fundamental concepts that make a "great" business great. Pages full of evidence and stories about engaged and loyal people, humble servanthood leadership, dynamic client service, and clear and conscise business models will stir entreprenuers as they read this excellent volume.

Hess has done it again. The Six Keys to Organic Growth
cuts through traditional leadership thought to show what great organic
growth leaders really do - execute. This book offers terrific insight into
some of the great organic growth companies. The Six Keys to Organic
Growth should be required reading for all young executives and MBA students who want to win.

A great book! I loved it. It is broken into nine chapters as follows:

1. Why is organic growth important?
2. Discovering the DNA of organic growth.
3. The organic growth winners: Interesting Facts.
4. An elevator-pitch business model.
5. Instill a "small-company soul" into a "big-company body."
6. Measure everything.
7. Build a people pipeline.
8. Leaders: humble, passionate, focused operators.
9. Be an execution and technology champion.

Chapters 4 - 9 are the ingredients to building a company through organic growth. If a biz can be explained in a just a few words while riding up an elevator, then it's leaders/managers can probably focus well on growing the business from within. If a biz is comprised of workers who care about the company instead of just showing up to work and collecting a paycheck, then the business will probably grow from within. The business will probably also have a pipeline of new managers if the employees care about coming to work for reasons other than just collecting a paycheck. These are the types of things discussed in the last six chapters of the book.

Generally speaking, companies either grow through "organic growth" or by "mergers and acquisitions." Many companies grow by using both methods, but the author only discusses the organic growth method in this book. There is talk that growth may take place by playing accounting games and engaging in financial manipulations. However, this really is not a method to create growth. Manipulations are just that - shifts of revenues and expenses from one accounting period to another. If there is gain today via manipulation, then there is going to be a loss next week or next month - guaranteed.

A small company soul is what this book is about. And I really enjoyed reading it. I liked the list of "Growth Questions" at the end of each chapter. They helped pull the chapters together for me. If you are putting together a business plan for a start up company, then I recommend you read this book. You will want to incorporate many of the ideas and concepts discussed here into your business plan and your implementation of your business plan.

I would have liked the book better if the print had not been so large. And since the spine of the book was not all that thick I got the feeling that the book was padded by increasing the font size of the text. The book could have been longer if there had been more examples of real world situations regarding what was being discussed. And I would have liked a chapter comparing organic growth to mergers and acquisitions. To discuss organic growth as the best way to grow a company, and to ignore M&A's as though they were a bad way, just didn't feel right to me. In fact, M&A's are a great way to grow a business. But the book was well-written and informative. 5 stars!

I came across this book during a very, very difficult time in my life. My wife of 17 years had left me and my children... everything I thought I had built my life to be had crumbled around me.

I read Steve's words and really related to his journey. I have climbed a lot of "mountains" in my life, career-wise and even real mountains including Mt. Rainier, so I could relate to his "mountain climbing" symbolism. But my life was definitely in a desert place, with no map, no compass (other than my own heart), no water, and no understanding of when I would get across that desert... or even if I would SURVIVE thr crossing.

Steve's words helped me. I found myself weeping at the end of the book when Steve shares how he felt his heart breaking... not breaking apart, but breaking OPEN. That was EXACTLY what I was feeling at the time, but I had no words to understand what was happening to me. Steve's book gave me those words, and enabled that heart-transformation to continue.

I recommend this book if you are willing to look past your "mountains" of career, family, image, and keeping up with the Joneses, and look into the desert journey that truly is life. The tools Steve gives you will keep you going, even when the view before your eyes doesn't look ANYTHING like the map in your hands.

Steve Donohue strikes a powerful chord in his book, "Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change" - the metaphor of a desert rather than an upward climb is far more logical and applicible to "everyman's" journey in life. I am not a reader of self-help books or even of much non-fiction, but do some in the course of my work, so in reading Steve's book, I was pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable and refreshing read. His story, told with humor and pathos, is easy to relate to and very comforting and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to any and every one.

If you are standing at the top of a mountain looking down and wondering how and why you got there? Then this book is for you. Take a compass rather than a map. Seek a topography that fosters change, gives you a soft place to fall and a wide angle view of a never ending expanse The desert metaphor provides the perfect lessons for life in the 6 rules of desert travel outlined by Steve Donahue in this book.
If you have spent half your life reaching for the pinnacle of success and are standing on your mountain top wondering which way to go now, then you will appreciate Steve's wonderful story of his travels through the Sahara Desert. He has woven his true story of his trek across the desert into a guide to help you discover your direction and purpose. It's time to start enjoying the journey, stop at all the oases, travel alone together, step away from your campfire and call the border guard's bluff.

Steve Donohue strikes a powerful chord in his book, "Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change" - the metaphor of a desert rather than an upward climb is far more logical and applicible to "everyman's" journey in life. I am not a reader of self-help books or even of much non-fiction, but do some in the course of my work, so in reading Steve's book, I was pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable and refreshing read. His story, told with humor and pathos, is easy to relate to and very comforting and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to any and every one.

This book is like a cool drink of water on a desert-hot day for those of us who are trying to make it in a world where the climb to the top doesn't always go as planned -- and the world itself seems topsy-turvy, too!

I picked up Shifting Sands for my husband who's been experiencing the longest mid-life crisis in history. I ended up not only reading it but loving and benefiting from it myself.

Steve Donahue offers an alternative to setting and reaching goals the way mountain (and corporate) climbers tend to do -- the way we've all been taught. I was able to immediately put to use his gentle suggestions for navigating through a world in which change is the only constant (hence the "shifting sands," desert metaphor).

Careers...marriage...parenting...chronic illness -- all are deserts. This book offers some counter-intuitive suggestions for using change and adversity to your advantage.

The story of Donahue's own Sahara Desert crossing makes it an easy and enjoyable read, too. It's a self-help book that reads like an adventure novel...what more could you ask for?

A real hit with our six year old. The illustrations are wonderful and the educational aspect is not totally obvious. A very entertaining book that's he took to share with his class at school.

Once upon a time many years ago I watched my daughter Emma play with her cousin Brian, whom Emma lovingly referred to as Meatball, and I wondered how long it would take before he began to cry. At eight years old Meatball looked like a smaller version of Rhett Butler, he talked with a squeaky voice that was struggling to mature, and his blondish hair oddly matched the color of his skin. Every game between the two kids eventually turned sour--a bump of the head, a twisted arm or even harsh words would send the boy reeling into the kitchen looking for comfort. While I admired his theatrics, I did not acknowledge them. Emma, on the other hand, like to pretend he was her plaything, a doll she collected. Take, for example, the afternoon she dressed him up like a pirate and sent him out into the yard with a steak knife searching for the neighborhood tabby cat. Florence, the woman that lived across the street and spent most of her days with her nose between the blinds of her front window, knocked on my door and demanded that I do something. I invited her in for coffee but she ranted and raved, cluck-clucking about manners and responsibilities and child-rearing, none of which I particularly cared to hear about. Meatball ran inside and tugged at Florence's blue polyester pants. "Don't worry," he said. "I buried the knife in the backyard." Florence grabbed his wrist and told him that he needed to dig it back up. He sighed heavily, stared at the ground and then began to cry. I pulled the cigarettes from the pocket of my robe, lit it, and waved him inside.

Charlotte, Meatball's mother, picked him up every day at 5 o'clock. She sat on the couch with Meatball on her lap and listened as he recounted his day. She disregarded any of Emma's attempts to defend herself when Meatball claimed she had harmed him. But who would believe an eight-year-old boy that said his cousin had instructed him to hunt for prey and bring back souvenirs?

I am a student at the University of Arizona South, majoring in elementary education. I recently read this book to a class of 3rd grade students. The children anjoyed watching as the guests arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Comfort and re-arranged the tables and chairs each time someone else showed up. They also enjoyed the fact that only Mr. and Mrs. Comfort's names were given and everyone else was referred to by their relation to the hosts, "Mrs. Comfort's brother's daughter's twin sons". The children loved the chaos as more and more people arrived and fewer and fewer place settings were left available, while "extra" chairs piled up in the periphery. Every student was engaged in the book because each and every one of them knew what Mrs. Comfort knew, that without a seating arrangement of eight seperate tables each seating four people, there would not be enough room for everyone to sit down. And by the end of the book, they found out they were right! The extensions available at the end of the story increase the possible learning to be attained, illustrating how to actively engage the children in hands-on activities to learn about area, perimeter, multiplication and division. Children can find out how many seats are available for each table formation in the book. They can also determine how many meatballs everyone can eat. This is a lively and interesting tale that evolves into spirited and animated discussions involving mathematical concepts. The children had a wonderful time listening to the story, then engaging and actively participating with their eight squares and 32 paper clips (tables and chairs) as we went through the story page by page with them arranging and re-arranging the seating. It was fantastic to see them so happily involved with LEARNING MATH!

Cute way of having students know how they use math in their everyday lives. Great explanation of the mathmatical idea behind the book.

I read this book to my sister's kids (ages 4-8) and they all really enjoyed it. They had a lot of fun with the story (and didn't even know they were learning). This book is great for kids.

While informing us about Fragile X Syndrome, Clare Dunsford reminds us in a distinctive voice that much more than genes binds us. Her well-told tale captures the complexity of competing realities running through most of our lives -- identity, vocation, family, faith, parenthood (and the profound difference between motherhood and fatherhood), friendship, support, loneliness and love. So we laugh, cry and rejoice with her as she recounts the frustrations and surprises of her childhood, romances, career and parenting experiences. Her references to classic literature make manifest the mystery encountered in human differences no matter the time or culture, a mystery best understood in the binding of body and spirit despite the fragility of either. "Spelling Love With an X" is a classic love story. Dunsford's X is her and her family's cross (a cross that marks others' lives in other ways) and is only made bearable in anyone's life by Love which is more Divine than human. Her story offers hope to all of us who want to live and love well.

As a parent of a son with Fragile X who is a couple of years younger than Ms. Dunsford's son, J.P., we've experienced the despair as well as the joy she writes of. Her story is beautifully written and shines with the love we have and hope we need for the future for our adult children. She is able to describe the charming, witty character of her son in a way that rings true for parents of children with Fragile X. It's her own story as well. Life as a carrier of Fragile X has its own challenges - ones you might believe are your own character faults - until you find out, at whatever age, that you are a carrier and that the personal battles you've fought for so long are the result of a genetic defect you were born with. The science is helpful. The research is hopeful. Parents, family, carriers, friends should read this book to get a good look at life with Fragile X.

This book is still with me. Those are the best kinds of books, I think, the ones that you remember well after reading them. I think it's because "Spelling Love With An X" resonates beyond its specific circumstances. It's not just about Clare Dunsford and her son, but in some way every parent and child. Or, really, every relationship. As Dunsford wonders aloud at one point in the book, since her family carries the gene, is it possible this or that relatives slight eccentricity is really just an extremely mild manifestation of Fragile X. In other words, most brain disorders are merely exaggerations of characteristics we all understand to some degree. We are all on a spectrum of varying consciousness and need. As a result, Dunsford's exploration of the extreme challenges she faces with her son are more than just a faceless "case study." They do what literature should do at its best. They make her and her son's situation universal.

Clare Dunsford's book is a moving, beautifully written story about her and her son JP's journey with Fragile X, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation. Dunsford defly weaves science, poetry, and wit through her personal story. This book will resonate with anyone who has a child touched by Fragile X, autism or any other cognitive or genetic disorder. But this book's reach goes far beyond the world of Fragile X. Anyone who loves memoir or who is interested in exploring the depths of a mother's love, a family's interconnectedness, and the human soul will discover they can't put this book down.

Clare Dunsford's book is an unusual blend of personal memoir and scientifically researched information drawn from a mother's poignant journey raising a child with Fragile X. Dunsford's book blends poetic elegance with important up to date information about her son's genetic condition, a useful read for anyone living or working with children or adults with any developmental disorder. As a special educator who is also an avid reader I was fascinated. Further, I learned of the relationship that this disorder may have to autism which has touched my extended family and of the hope that the future of medical research holds for all those affected by developmental conditions. Ms Dunsford tells her story with strong emotion and wonderfully crafted writing but does not stray from her goal of sharing the knowledge base she has been accumulating over the 21 years of her charming and interesting son's life.

I found this book to be very interesting although a bit hard to understand in some areas but I did receive some very good information with dealing with teenagers especially boys all in all a very good book for parents who have difficult teenagers.

Anyone with a teenager(s)in the house should do whatever is neccessary to make the time to read this book! I am only a few pages from finishing this book and this is as close to an "OWNER'S MANUAL" about teenagers as you're going to get. It will help you to better understand what's going on inside your amazing teen and enable you to help him/her through a most awkward (not to mention dangerous) stage of life. I wouldn't make your teen aware that you're reading this though, because there's alot of great info that a parent needs to know but may not want the teen to know that you know, if you know what I mean. And if you remember being a teen and think that will help you dealing with your teen, guess again. The problem is that when we were teens we didn't know the reasons for all the things that went on in our bodies as well as our lives. This book makes it all crystal clear, and understanding is the key to safety and harmony for you and your teen. If you love them and would like to regain your sanity read this book ASAP!

It really helps to be able to feel you are doing as much as you can. Reading a book that is detached from your situation helps you to look at a problem in a different way and see the obvious.....which was lost when in the heat of your own problems.

I have recommended this book to every parent I know of a teen or preteen. It not only provides tips and "tricks" for setting up communication opportunities, but also really helps parents to not take certain teen behaviors personally. The rules change when our kids become teens. This book is a great resource for the "new" person you find living in your child's room. THANK YOU, Mr. Riera for writing this book and sharing your insight.

I just finished this and passed it on to my husband to read (after highlighting many sections that apply specifically to our relationship with our 15 year old daughter). I learned so many things from this book - about myself AND my daughter. One of the most helpful discoveries was realizing that she actually is a normal and fairly typical teenager and, much to my relief, is not in need of an exorcism. I've seen a difference already in our ability to communicate effectively with each other and I'll refer to this book again and again ... especially with our son's teenage years just around the corner.

This book is an excellent resource. It is well organized and to the point. Most guides just say, "Go to the company website and research the company before your interview." This book tells you what areas to find on the site, what information you should look for, and how to use that information. Salmon also tells you the specific questions you should be asking your contacts at the companies you are interested in. Other books just say, "Talk to people you know at the company to find out more about it." There is no fluff here.

I also really liked the very detailed descriptions of how to plan phone calls to contacts and referrals. Talking to someone on the phone and remembering what I wanted to accomplish and not getting flustered is such a challenge for me. This book helped a lot.

The only thing I didn't like was the first section or so where it felt more like a sales pitch for his "method" than a book. I was afraid he was just going to try to sell his lecture series. However, after the first few pages, the book got down to business. It was excellent and well written from then on.

We all hear about how networking is the most important way to get a job, but this book tells actually tells you how to do it! Just what I needed, and I plan to use it from now on.

Michael has written a book that can help everyone. You don't have to be in business to get something out of this book. This book gives you, questionnaires, checklists and exercises that will help everyone. Really easy to read, and a lot of fun too.
I recommend this book- it will help you. Rick Frishman Pres. Planned TV Arts www.plannedtvarts.com Co author NETWORKING MAGIC and GUERRILLA PUBLICITY www.rickfrishman.com

It changed my view of NETWORKING. I regret that I have not read this book before, while I was working, when I started looking for a change.
And I am applying this ot may daily activities, even outside job searching.
Easy read, easy material. Also, interesting tips to explore yourself about your interests.

Jointly with Winning Job Interviews and Everything Job Interview (read my review there) make a 3 pieces of work that every job seeker must read.

This is an excellent book. Author Michael Salmon wastes no words, but provides a series of tips, questionnaires, checklists and exercises that will help everyone, even the most introverted, build a network productively and use it effectively. There is no fluff here, and minimal self-promotion. The book is mostly meat. The author is extraordinarily well organized and to the point. His advice on how to categorize relatives, friends and acquaintances may seem cold, but it is indispensable. Similarly, he recommends becoming a resource to others so that they may someday become a resource to you - a utilitarian and self-serving approach to human relations, but if you have no other reason to help people, this is not a bad one. One quibble: the book is repetitious and illustrates the hard truth with soft little imaginary anecdotes. That's more a fault of the genre than of the author. If you are in job search mode, We highly recommends this book to you. As the folks back home might say, write when you get work.

I work in public health and struggle to find resources that are useful. This is a great book for everyone. There is no magic pill and there is no easy fix - but there are LOTS of ways to make things worse. Until we have changed our social norms, our environment, and the availability and ease to make healthy choices, it's going to be a long, tough road. This book is a great read that describes what it's like to struggle with weight - good for those of us who are lucky and think our 5-8 pound struggle is horrible, as well as those who struggle with real weight challenges and are ready to hear the painful truth of a child's experience. Well done, Abby.

An honest look at America's obsession with weight loss and how it affects the younger generation. The author, a former fat kid and fat camp survivor (though not a parent, as she acknowledges) explores various ways to lose weight from fat camps to nagging to behavior modification and surgery, among others. Sadly, there is no quick fix or even well-planned diet and exercise program that works for all, or even some. Due both to lack of willpower or incentive, and physical factors beyond the dieter's control, often the weight is lost then gained then lost again.

"Teenage Waistland" lets the young subjects speak for themselves. It is a fascinating look at a controversial subject.

Prepare to laugh, cry and cringe --- but also to learn --- as Abby Ellin leads us through the landscape of obese teen life. First, though, a confession: When I volunteered to read this book, I feared that I was facing a hard, long slog through a dry tome packed with scientific studies on how to help an overweight kid drop a few pounds. Instead, I could barely put down this lively read. Ellin keeps a page-turning pace as she skillfully weaves her own story as a heavy, weight-obsessed teenager through the stories of other such adolescents.

Ellin begins with her own family, who courageously support her by not challenging her right to tell the unvarnished truth about the ways in which her home contributed to her weight problems and food fixations. Interestingly, the family's attitudes toward weight resulted in the author's sister becoming anorexic. Even as Ellin grew larger and larger, her sister began dieting by third grade.

Ellin's grandmother was a major influence on her self-image, withholding affections when Ellin gained weight. On visits to Grandma's house in Florida, Grandma weighed Ellin daily. At home, Ellin's mother obsessed over her own weight, restricted her diet and exercised before stepping on the scales each morning. She taped a photo of an obese woman on the refrigerator door. Both grandmother and mother repeatedly drilled into Ellin and her sister the dangers of gaining weight. As a child, Ellin was devastated when her grandmother told her she couldn't come to Florida for a visit at Christmastime unless she lost 15 pounds. The ploy didn't work. Nothing really did, for many long, sad years.

Ellin spent six years at weight-loss camps. She lost weight but also learned more about dysfunctional eating and how to do it (one counselor sneaked Ellin out to buy a cart full of candy and cookies because "Your body's getting used to the diet. You need sugar to give it a jolt."). In describing her fat camp days, she tells us the story of the owners of weight-loss camps, beginning with her visit as an adult with the man who ran the first weight-loss camp Ellin attended. During her visit, she talks with young campers, giving us the first of many insightful conversations with teens seeking to lose weight. What they say about their parents can make a reader weep.

In TEENAGE WAISTLAND, we learn what has helped teenagers lose weight and, (heartbreakingly) more often, what has either not helped them or made them worse. Experts --- from fat camp leaders to directors of weight loss programs to bariatric surgeons, researchers and fat activists (and more) --- represent a variety of attitudes as each discusses the best way to help heavy adolescents. Ellin compassionately presents suggestions to parents on ways to support an obese child, all based on respect.

Although there is not a single solution to such a complicated problem, reading this book is informative and helpful. It is a horrifying and fascinating study in our culture's warped attitude toward food and weight. Even if you don't have a child with weight issues, TEENAGE WAISTLAND is an engrossing read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

This book was extremely helpful to me and my family. As the parent of an overweight child, Abby Ellin's insight as a "former fat kid" is a hands-on "what to do/"what not to do" primer for any parents dealing with these sensitive issues. You're never really sure what to do until you're faced with it head on and Ellin's book showed that it's the sensible approach that makes the most sense. Don't panic; don't over react (as is the most instant impulse). Just act sensibly. Well done!

Simply put, Abby Ellin "gets it". She had a childhood relationship with weight, food, and family that stays with her, regardless of what the scale says today. She candidly tells her story, which isn't always a happy one, but it's often hilarious. When it comes to the "fat kid epidemic", the author doesn't claim to have all the answers, but is very willing to explore a variety of solutions. Teenage Waistland is tragic, eye-opening, humorous and true. Once you read the introduction: Fat Kid Blues - you'll be hooked, just like the author is on Hostess cupcakes!

For anyone that tells you that you can't so solid code and script development on a Mac, they haven't been introduced to the application TextMate. There are several good options for doing power editing on the Macintosh and TextMate is one of those POWER options.

'TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac' by James Gray is a perfect companion manual for all TextMate users that want to lift the hood off of this power app and get to the nuts and bolts. If you develop on a Macintosh on a daily basis for work or fun and want to learn more about what you can do to make your life easier, pick up this book and you won't be disappointed. Written well and coming in at ~200 pages, there are 12 chapters which will teach you goodies in TextMate like how to create and use Macros, using Find & Replace to quickly edit text, and much, much more!!

The Mac is a great tool for developing code and TextMate is a great app for writing it, make yourself a more efficient coder today!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Books on editors are tricky things... I'm (still) a big fan and user of vi, but textmate is my tool of choice for more project level work for its capabilties. This book has brought me closer to to the keyboard level of productivity that vi allows for with its two modes.

Visuals:
The font size in the Pragmatic Programmers books is a little larger than say the O'Reilly books, which I personally like. Easy on the eyes. Screenshots are clearly printed.

Readability:
I found the reading style conversational and easy to follow. Of course, with this type of book which includes many keyboard short-cuts you really need to be at your computer and using them to commit them to memory. Even a reading of the book will give you insights into the power available at your finger tips with Textmate.

Practicality:
If you spend any amount of time in Textmate, this is really a no-brainer. This book will help you be more productive and get more out of your chosen text editing tool.

Audience:
The book does not list an intended target audience, but if you use Textmate at all I would say you have a bulls-eye right on you.

Overall:
If you use Textmate get this book.

"TextMate is actually a thin shell over a personalized team of robot ninjas ready to do your bidding."

The funny thing is, to people who have never used TextMate for more than a few minutes the above phrase sounds like an exaggeration. It's not. (As long as you can accept the analogy of "really awesome code running on a Mac" = "robot ninjas"...)

Anyway, this book targets a pretty specific market: 1) Humans, 2) who own Macs, 3) and use TextMate. I'm here to tell you that, if you're human you should have a Mac; and if you have a Mac you should buy TextMate; and if you have TextMate you should buy this book. So there, now it covers everyone.

As with all of the Pragmatic Programmer books, I found this book to be concise without missing anything important. You may be thinking, "200 pages about a text editor!? That's crazy talk!" But you would be wrong, my friend. The amount of functionality built into TextMate is incredible, but I didn't even know the half of it until I started reading this book!

I don't want to give away the ending, but:

Three of my favorite simple features I didn't know about until I read this book:
- Pressing [ESC] to complete the word you're typing.
- The built in TODO list functionality (so crucial!!)
- [Cmd-Enter] to add a new line below this one and go to the beginning of it.

Things I wouldn't have been able to do without TextMate and this book:
- Edit some of my Bundles to make TextMate work even more how *I* like
- Complete an after-hours Web Site project *way* under time and budget

Seriously. TextMate is the One True Editor for Mac (it makes me loath using any other editor on any platform) and this is a great book for learning how to *really* take hold of its power.

This book is the perfect primer for what I have found to be one of the most indispensible Mac OS X applications - TextMate. If you are a software developer or web designer or anyone else that edits text on a frequent basis and you have not already discovered TextMate, stop right now and visit http://www.macromates.com.

The Pragmatic Programmers' book, TextMate Power Editing for the Mac is a thorough introduction to TextMate. Edward Gray II has written a very accessible book, that covers the product very well.

The first third of the book is devoted to the basics - things you do every day in your text editor. The second third of the book dives into the details of some really sweet features of TextMate that you'll find yourself using all the time: bundles, snippets, macros and UNIX shell commands.

TextMate ships with over thirty 'bundles'. Each bundle is a directory of related files that provide additional functionality to TextMate. Let's say you're working on an HTML file. The HTML bundle will help you with loads of things related to your document: validate the syntax of the document, open the document in the default browser, refresh the document in the current browser session, insert open/close tags for the current word, strip all HTML tags from the document - just to name a few. Each bundle provides functionality that applies not only to the syntax of the language you're currently working with, but repetitive tasks that would apply as well.

As I mentioned, a couple dozen bundles ship with TextMate and many more are available for free download from various websites. You can even create your own bundles to extend the product in ways that only you can imagine. Here are a few of the bundles that ship with TextMate: Blogging, CSS, HTML, Java, Markdown, Objective-C, Python, Rails, Ruby, SQL, Subversion, Text, Textile, Xcode and XML. Bundles provide you with lots of help editing files and performing related tasks.

Snippets are a smart completion mechanism that go way beyond the simple concept of 'finish this word'. For example, if you are editing a Ruby file and you type array_object.ea followed by the TAB key (where 'array_object' is an arbitrary Array object), the snippet feature will automatically fill in the skeleton of the 'each' iterator, including the opening and closing curly braces, the text '|e|' with the letter 'e' highlighted. You simply type the name of the variable you want to represent the next element (or simply leave it as it is), hit the TAB key again and the cursor will be placed between the closing '|' character and the closing '}' character, ready for you to type in an expression. Very cool. This same trick works for dozens of different scenarios in your Ruby code. And that's just the snippets that apply to Ruby code. There are snippets that apply to a large number of file types.

You've probably seen macros in other editors and TextMate's macro facility works as you might expect: you start recording a macro, perform some actions and save the macro. TextMate saves the macros as XML files, so it's a snap to edit a macro after recording if you need to tweak it a bit.

The ability to fire off UNIX shell commands from within TextMate gives you another powerful tool to use while editing files. You can fire off one-liner shell commands by simply pressing the ^R key on a line containing a shell command. You can also use shell commands to act on all or part of the current document.

For the advanced TextMate user, the tail end of the book shows you how to create your own language syntax for use in TextMate, including how to describe the grammar of the language in terms TextMate will understand. So, if you program in some far out funky language that TextMate doesn't support out of the box, you can add the language grammar to TextMate and program away!

Overall, I found this book extremely useful and easy to read. TextMate ships with an excellent help system that will answer many of your questions. The TextMate Power Editing for the Mac book will take you beyond the built-in help and give you an in-depth guide for this great Mac application.

I bought six of my favorite childhood books for my great-grandson..."Little Black Sambo", "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", "Henny Penny", "Chicken Little", "The Three Little Kittens", and "Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit". My great-grandie is 2-1/2 and I can't wait to read these wonderful stories to him.

Three Little Kittens was my favorite book as a child and now that i have a son of my own I am able to pass on a favorite to him. He loves the vivid images that this book offers, there are so many different pictures in their that at 16 months old he likes to point and hear me say the name of an object.

My three year old daughter loves this book. It has cute illustrations and an easy to follow story line, just like I remember. This is great book for both boys and girls.

The book was in perfect shape and arrived very quickly. A pleasure to do business with.

This is one of the best books for young children. I read it to my daughter as a child and she loved it.

I have read this book as one of my elective courses at Wharton West. Prof. Friedman discussed in his book about how acting with authenticity (being real), integrity (being whole), and creativity (being innovative) affects performance. By acting with authenticity, I feel much more purposeful at work and home. I am more committed and drive persistently in myself and people around me, which help to improve the performance for myself as well as people around me. The leadership skills I have learned from this book:

Align actions with core values by choosing what matters most: I become more result oriented and focus on those important tasks that matter most to my core values.

Cultivate awareness of true leadership priorities in all domains: I have shared the new concept of leadership in this class with my boss, my colleagues, my husband, my son and friends and I do see the action from all domains.

Ethically influence others to generate support in all domains: The efforts I have put in the experiments have generated positive results both at work and home.

I hope this review help you to choose this book and act with urgency to lead a richer life with four ways win at work, family, community and personal level.

Thank you Stew Friedman! This work is engaging, enlightening, and inspirational--giving us all insight into what it means to be a 'Total Leader.' It answers the fundamental question most people ask about how to integrate all of the various pieces of our lives. I especially enjoy hearing the stories of the Total Leadership participants, and how they've grown and are able to see the world in a different light after going through the program!

I'm definitely sold on this Total Leadership Program! However, it is, not without constant work and reevaluation, as Friedman notes, that we can achieve both a meaningful and professionally successful life. I recommend this book to anyone, especially women and those in transition, as a useful guide about how to structure your life in a meaningful and productive way. It certainly helps me rethink the things that are important to me in my day to day life. :)

I took two intercontinental flights recently and took the time to go through the "Total Leadership" program. And, before I begin my review, I want to say that over the past ten years or so I've seen an absolute avalanche of "leadership" books come out - most of them gimmicky and useless. This is not one of them and in fact I believe the title may deter people from purchasing this; do not be one of them.

"Total Leadership" is about finding your way when you have multiple responsibilities tugging you in different directions. Until now, I've often felt family pulling me one way, only to find the more time I spend with them the more I resent the time it takes away from work. Similarly, on business trips for example, I fight with feelings of guilt for being away from my family. And that's not to mention the the toll all of this takes on my health, when I'm too busy to exercise or just watch the game with friends. I'm here to say this book can help, like finding the long lost manual and finally figuring our how to do new things with a product, this book acts as a guide to finding a semblance of control in your life. It's not about sacrifice, and it's definitely not found in the idea of "balance", this book advocates a powerful third way: overlapping your domains and drawing boundaries.

What makes this book especially effective are the exercises the author puts the reader through. The reader is asked to define the issue, starting with the multiple responsibilities and challenges s/he faces, then it moves on to defining your domains, where is it that you spend your time? Most of the readers (including myself) would find four areas: self, family, work and community. Then, with domains defined, you can identify stakeholders in each domain and begin the process of finding ways "to live your life in accord with what really matters to you." The reader is asked to discuss his/her vision for a future life (post-change) with trusted individuals s/he has previously identified. A particularly effective step is then speaking with others about living your life differently, such as: your boss, significant other and friends, and getting their opinion and feedback on your plan, and as difficult and challenging as this may be it ends up providing the most powerful incentive to change through accountability and stakeholder buy-in. In many cases, I found that as much as I was building bridges between domains in my life, I was also creating boundaries (for example, no longer do I check my blackberry or the Internet between the hours of 6pm - 9pm.) But some of the biggest changes are personal ones that are for me and my family, other readers will likely find similar decisions they make without necessarily sharing them.

This book is not about easy decisions, or difficult ones, its about drilling down to what's most important in your life and building from there.

Ultimately, this book is required reading once, in my opinion, you are put in a position of responsibility. It is effective in maintaining a mindset conducive to responsible living, it provides a non-cookie cutter approach and it creates change in your life through practical exercises.

For these reasons, this reviewer highly recommends "Total Leadership."

I wish this book had been available 20 years ago when I was a senior-level corporate executive, struggling without much success to balance everything in my life. At that time, I had a large corporate staff to supervise and was married and the father of four teenagers, three sons and a daughter. Moreover, I was actively involved in several non-profit organizations. Finally, whenever possible, I tried to "squeeze" into my already busy life a occasional round of golf, a visit to one of the local art museums, "going out" to see a film. What I should have done -- but failed to do -- is what Stewart Friedman recommends in this book: to reflect on and then explore (through a four-step process of discovery) the relative importance of four domains in my life (i.e. work, home, community, and self) and determine (a) whether or not the goals I was pursuing in each were in synch, (b) in synch with the other goals, and (c) and how satisfied I was with what was happening in each and all domains. That was then...

Now, here's my take on a few of Friedman's key points.

1. Most people (including business leaders) function in the aforementioned domains. Once each has been measured, he challenge is to make whatever modifications are necessary to establish and then sustain harmony between and among them. "The whole fits together elegantly."

2. According to Friedman, "total" leaders possess great strength because they do what they love, drawing upon the resources of their entire (four-domain) life. By acting with authenticity, they are creating value for themselves, their families, their businesses, and their world. By acting with integrity, they satisfy their craving for a sense of connection, for coherence in disparate parts of their lives, and for the peace of mind that comes from strictly and consistently adhering to a code of values. Meanwhile, they "keep a results-driven focus while providing maximum flexibility (choice in how, when, and where things get done.) They have the courage to experiment with new arrangements and communications tools to better meet the expectations of people who depend on them."

3. At the same time, a "total" leader does everything she or he can to help others (at work, at home, in the community and for themselves) to become aware of whatever changes may be necessary within her or his own domains; to have a sense of urgency about making those modifications; to decide to commit to appropriate action that will create for each a different, better future; to solve whatever problems encountered when pursuing the giving goals, meanwhile sustaining commitment despite any barriers, delays, distractions, etc. Total leaders also ensure that "people who depend on them" have the support and encouragement they may need by celebrating incremental successes while resisting "slippage."

4. In Chapter 6, Friedman urges that those who aspire to become total leaders learn how to adapt to new circumstances with confidence to conduct several "design experiments" whose purpose is to increase the ability to be innovative with creative action. He identifies ten types such as "Appreciating and Caring" experiments that involve having fun with people, caring for others, and appreciating relationships. Daniel Goleman characterizes this as developing "emotional intelligence" and Friedman believes that it is very important in each of the four domains. Because each domain has different kinds of relationships, separate goals and strategies must be devised for nourishing ("humanizing") relationships in each.

5. In the next chapter, Friedman offers sound advice on "how to get going and make something new stick" during what is necessarily a never-ending process of human development. Once again, he stresses the importance of achieving "four-way wins" in each domain by "jumping" into the hearts and minds of others. "The best experiments are those that don't just get the approval from all your stakeholders, but will genuinely benefit them by changing their worlds for the better...When you're trying to make something new happen, you've got to know what others care about, so that you can adjust your actions. And you've got to know whom they trust, so that you know who will listen to whom as you seek to exert influence."

I can personally attest to the importance of each of these and Friedman's other key points. However, what he advocates is obviously much easier said than done. Consider the concept of "balance," of "integrating" what is most important in each of the four domains. Let's assume that someone achieves that. For most of us (including corporate CEOs), a proper balance on weekdays usually differs (sometimes) substantially from a proper balance during weekends. Moreover, obligations, objectives, and opportunities in the work domain, for example, change during the progression of a career. That is, our proper balances on weekdays and weekends frequently change, and that is also true of each of the other three domains. The key to effectively responding to these changes is to think and feel one's way through a four-step process.

Of course, Friedman is fully aware of this. In fact, in the final chapter, he observes that total leadership "doesn't end with the implementation of your experiments. This is really just the beginning. Being a better leader and having a richer life is an ongoing search, which I hope you will be on for the rest of your life. As long as you continue practicing authenticity, integrity, and creativity, you will increase your chances of scoring four-way wins - performing better and finding satisfaction in your various domains."

I presume to conclude this review with a personal note: After reading Friedman's book and before composing this review, I read The Last Lecture in which Randy Pausch (age 46) shares his thoughts and feelings as he awaits imminent death from pancreatic cancer. Actually, "awaits" is not the correct word because Pausch does everything he can to leave no "IOUs" behind for his beloved wife ("the woman of his dreams"), their three young children, other family members, friends, and associates. In his last lecture to his students at Carnegie-Mellon, he provides a "distillation" of how he felt about the end of his life. "It's not about how you achieve your dreams. It's about how you lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you." In my opinion, this is precisely the same message that Stewart Friedman communicates to his own students as they prepare for a career in business. The "total leader" is first and foremost a total person.

Stew's 'Total leadership' has had an incredible on my life. About a year ago, I sat for the first time and tried to figure out what I wanted in all aspects of my life. The journey has been eye-opening and very satisfying.

I now often go back to my writings and experiments and update them as I go through life in a much more determined and deliberate way; trying to achieve what I want in each of the "4 domains".

Thank you Stew for being such a mentor, be it in person or through your book.