Careers Books

I love this book! It has helped me to easily jump over the challenges we humans unknowingly place in front of ourselves for a variety of reasons. It has awakened within me the knowlege of my own power to create success in my life.

We live in a time when we are inundated with self help books. But Lee Milteer has found the real key to success. And I don't just mean success in business and money (though she gives plenty of outstanding advice in that area, too!), but success as a person as well.

If you're going to read one book that will really make a difference in your life, this is the one.

I am a reader of self help and positive thinking type of books. I read this particular book when it first came out in '96...almost 6 years ago....and it still remains a favorite for me. It touches on more than the common "rah rah rah" method. This book makes you realize the unbelieveable strengths that we are ALL born with, but that we don't develope. All of my life I've heard the term "mind over matter" and didn't pay it much attention. This book puts reality to that saying and now I truely understand what it means. The human mind is a God-made computer and none of us use our brain to it's fullest potential. Ms. Milteer writes with such an easy flow, that this book is hard to set down, almost like a novel!!! It's astonishing.
Excellent book that I seriously recommend to everyone....readers and non-readers. The ideas and the realization that this book brings will change your life and give you control of yourself and the situations that are presented to you....large and small.
During a week's bout with the flu, I picked this book up just to thumb through it and ended up reading it again....thank heaven. You won't have to force yourself to sit and read this one, once you get started, you'll have to force yourself NOT to be reading!

The greatest element of this book is that it helps you unleash your own internal potential. Lee helps you understand that you must not only face, but challenge your own internal dialogue -- what you constantly "tell" yourself, like... "I could never make more than $50K". This book teaches you how to focus on what you WANT instead of what you FEAR (which is what most of us do!) After reading Success is an Inside Job, I was able to reshape my ingrained belief systems... the very beliefs that kept me from fulfilling my greatest potential. Best of all, the principles outlined in this book really work. There's no hype or theory -- just practical information that has helped me feel better about myself, more excited about my future and more able to view my past failures as my signposts for success. THANK YOU LEE MILTEER!

Lee Milteer's book, Success is an Inside Job, is about how to get what you want and how to reach your potential by using spiritual principles. Her techniques include using your intuition, letting go of the past by re-programming, positive self-talk, goal setting, creative visualization and habit busting to mention a few. She gives you practical "to dos". This book is an inspiration and following her techniques really works. She stresses committment to yourself and to be the best you can be. I have used these techniques and passed them on to my children. I recommend that you try them. I personally owe a great deal to Lee. Thank you!

- Are you a sales person looking to achieve sales success?
- Are you interested in selling to big time, high paying executives?
- Are you afraid to approach a CEO, COO or VP because you feel imitated?
- Are you looking for a step-by-step system to increase your sales by selling to executives?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you! Get it, read it and start applying Sam' system today!

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated &
Founder of www.CoachingWithResults.com

IT solutions are a major change for an organization and impact everyone. CIO's, CFO's, CEO's and other C's initiate, influence and approve these decisions. Take Me To Your Leader$ stepped me through an effective process of establishing useful relationships with these executives. Robert W. Johnson, VP and General Manager, North America Sales

Confidence is what makes salespeople great and Sam's trinity concept is the best method I've seen to get it. Sam explains how to overcome the fear of networking and the fear of asking for critical information to win orders. Greg Stover, VP Sales

Take Me To Your Leader$ is filled with great ideas. Sam's delivery is done in a way that kept my people and me involved and interested. He has a definite flair for presenting sales concepts and my people are a tough group to please, congratulations. Rick Finkbeiner, Senior Vice President

Sam reminded me that getting to the top is not enough to keep us there. Take Me to Your Leader$ shows how to keep these relationships alive and keep us the preferred supplier. Rod Bond, President

This was by far of the three books i have red by william mccolskey the favorite he has another book called fish decks cannot find on amazon have to let you know about that one.

unlike highliners and breakers this one is nonfiction and follows along as the author goes back to alaska and around alaska where he served in the coast guard 20 years before and now is crab fishing and goes fishing around georges bank of the coast of chile and new zeland ,indonesia,and japan.looking for fish and shellfish. it also extensively covers the wreck of the exxon valdezand the effect on the fishing industry and the enviroment.Fisherman were making more money selling back buckets of oil back to exxon.He goes to the tokyo tsukiji market which i have seen on a national geographic program. This place is huge they figure they have on any given day 330 different species for sale which come from all around the world for example They have prawns and shrimp from 64 nations the market and auction generate enough trash to fill 200 trash trucks a day.It cover alot of the political side of fishing and how the different regulations have come about to protect the fish.
You read this book it is amazing that they fish with nets miles long and never think about depleteing the resources.Also learned tha over fishing was not the only thing affecting the amount of fish being caught runoff from farms both animal and agricultural.And fish farms that apeear on the surface appear to be a good thing end up causing harm to native fish.

Coming from a new generation fisherman, I find it very frustrating that the thousands of people who eat fish never appreciate its origin, or the work to attain such seafood. Such is the life of a farmer, a cattle rustler, a steel worker, the carpenter. The very root of our existence and the ability to maintain it comes from the working man, the most underestimated yet still proud individual.

The best book I've read dealing with the social AND political AND cultural aspects of commercial fishing. Making no excuses for the industry or the people who condemn it. His stories are compelling and enrapturing as well as extremely informative. It'll give understanding of why the worlds oceans are in the state they are in and all the players who have caused it to be where it is. Enjoy!

The author knows his subject matter but gets too heavy with all the legal bs and too light on the human stories. Seems like the author couldn't decide if he wanted to write a text book or a down to earth type story.

This is a superb book. McCloskey writes from such a deep base of personal experience, that within a few lines we are transported to the heaving, noisy and often foul-smelling deck of a rusty trawler pitching in a cold northern sea or the cramped camaraderie of the galley on a Japanese squid boat. You feel the shudder of the steel deck as the boat pitches into a steep swell, taste the salt in the air and gag on the stench of diesel fumes and dead fish. The book is a collection of essays, exploring the challenges that face commercial fishermen in various parts of the globe. We hear lots of languages - Russian, English, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and more - and experience very different cultures, each united by the sea and the grueling task of pulling food from its depths. Gradually, the similarities grow much larger than the differences. No matter where he is, McCloskey can rapidly blend into the crew becoming just one more figure shrouded in foul weather gear pulling in the nets. This remarkable desire to muck-in with the deckhands no matter how hard the work or how severe the conditions, is the secret to his vivid and exciting writing. I can never look at a piece of sushi or a bag of fish and chips in quiet the same way.

I was asked to read the book for an advanced advertising class at the Ross School of Business (Michigan). I was skeptical because I couldn't find it nearly anywhere. However, after reading it it has changed the way I look at advertising. If you are looking for a book that lays out all of the rules in a simple formula, this isn't that book. However, it is the type of book that infuses you with the knowledge needed through short stories and small nuggets of information. By the end your frame of reference has shifted, and you are better off for it. It is a short read and has some funny parts as well (including where the title came from).

The specific vendor was good. It came quickly and was it great condition.

While I can't add much more to what other reviewers have said, I wanted to add a few thoughts. This is a well written, witty and wonderful book. The author is highly respected in the advertising world.

This is a book about getting ideas, being creative. Yes, it's about advertising. And if you're in the advertising business, you may appreciate it more than other people. While Phil says it's not about advertising, it is.

But I got a ton of ideas from this book. I'm always chasing ideas and ways to get creative. It's my whole world. So I found this book one that I will keep in my office and refer to often.

Highly recommended.

And I've read A LOT. This one, however, goes behind the scenes on how a product lets the consumer know it's here by a "memorable" campaign, not the the 24/7 onslaught of pop-ups or product placement or posters-in-public-bathrooms that we have been experiencing of late. It's enough to make a person wistful for the good ol' days of advertising. I'm NOT in the business, but I can still remember each and every ad Dusenberry mentioned. (And I can still recite: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun! :-) ) At the same time, I can't remember a single ad that aired last night during "Desperate Housewives." Newcomers may blow off the meanderings of a mere high-school graduate who "did good" in advertising, but from this consumer's viewpoint, Dusenberry GOT it, and that's an insight I'll cherish.

What an amazing book. I loved it! I'm in the advertising industry so I expected the book to be relevant to my career - but the book offers so much more to anyone from a small business owner to a CEO of a large corporation. Everyone would appreciate reading this book. The focus is on insight rather than clever ideas. The pages are full of witty stories of tried and true (and not so successful) experiences of a legendary ad man. I highly recommend this book.

I was sent this book for free but I must admit that initially I didn't really feel too excited about either the author or the topic owing to my aversion to the Madison Ave advertising industry in general. When I did open it I was expecting to read about how great the advertising industry was and how Dusenberry was the cheerleader for it. Not so.

Dusenberry actually steps back a level and talks about life managing the creative and marketing strategy behind some of the world's best-known brands such as Pepsi and Dupont. This book isn't so much about advertising and marketing as it is about the "ah hah!" moment that leads to insight into a product or service that then forms the platform upon which a successful campaign is built. In other words, years of marketing effort can be driven by a fleeting moment in time and Dusenberry talks about how these fleeting moments come to be.

Dusenberry doesn't talk about Madison Avenue really nor does he pretend to be anything other than the creative filter for BBDO through which the good ideas get through. He tries to instill a sense of wonder and engagement in the reader to bring out the best and wildest ideas that might help to launch a new product or service. Although he didn't say as much, I suspect his ideas and insights are as valid for a 1-person startup company as for a 10,000-person conglomerate.

If you're a marketer or advertiser, internet or not, you'll really enjoy this book. I would also recommend it to budding entrepreneurs who are looking for some enlightenment and guidance on trusting their instincts about launching their product or service.

I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone who is concerned about the debilitating trends in our society: students shooting their classmates, breakdowns in family relationships, high divorce rates, and out-of-wedlock childbirths. The author presents significant evidence to show that these may all be symptomatic of adult America's obsession with work outside of the home, and subsequently leaving young America to try and invent its own culture and morality.

Recent studies have shown that today's youth suffer from a far higher rate of mental illness than those who grew up just a couple of generations ago. Social disconnectedness and a sense of impending doom have driven many of our youth toward immediate gratification and away from a long-term interest in education and work. At the same time, technological change and the knowledge explosion makes a successful vocation even harder to attain. This is especially true among young men, whose participation rates in postsecondary education, in the electoral process, and in civic activities are at an all-time low and declining rapidly.

Although Robertson's book is deep and well documented, it is very readable. He is at his best in the chapter where he discusses the contrast between the work of a full-time mother with that of a "career woman." Homemaking, which was considered the ideal by feminists as recently as the middle of the twentieth century, is now looked upon as demeaning and destructive of self-esteem, while a "career" outside of the home is viewed as something highly desirable and worthy of achievement. "The work of raising children requires constant hidden sacrifice, unacknowledged and unrewarded by society, often unacknowledged and unrewarded by one's own family-particularly the children themselves. ... A society that measures success exclusively in terms of material or professional attainment is unlikely to accord much status to the hidden work of the mother in the home."

Especially upsetting to those who believe that the traditional family is the foundation of civil society is the palette of economic incentives that government and business offer to the mother who chooses to select "professional" childcare. Childcare credits, tax-exempt childcare flexible spending accounts, and higher IRA savings limits abound for the two-earner family, while the mother who elects to raise her own children receives no benefits in exchange for sacrificing a dual income and striving to make ends meet on a single income.

Robertson offers criticism for Republicans and Democrats alike. Neither major political party has found a way to support the concept of the traditional family, despite their continual touting of "family values" and "family-friendly legislation" that further drives wedges between mothers and their children. Instead of discouraging divorce and/or out-of-wedlock childbearing, welfare policies have forced mothers to accept out-of-the-home childcare so that they can go to work full time.

"There's No Place Like Work" offers a well documented examination of current destructive trends in family and workplace dynamics. It is certain to stimulate provocative discussion, and I hope it will receive the wide readership it deserves.

I'm a 20 year-old highly motivated student at a prestigious university. My entire life I've worked diligently so I could have a successful career. However, after I began reading this book, my thinking has been turned on its head. Now I can see that I've been motivated by all the wrong things: ego, self-aggrandizement, money, and status. This book has helped me understand all that motherhood used to be and could be. It is not a banal existence; there are beautiful possibilites open to the imaginitive mind. Our country was founded on the Protestant ethic that the most noble thing one could do is to be selfless, to give everything you have to your children and your family. My words are like gravel in the mouth compared to Robertson's eloquence. I wish I could capture the beauty of his words here. Please, read this book. It changes everything.

The West is struggling with the related issues of women in the workforce, childcare, maternity leave, and family breakdown. The usual wisdom is to say that we just need to try harder to balance work commitments with family responsibilities. But Brian Robertson, a writer living in Washington DC, believes the answers lie elsewhere.

Indeed, from a historical perspective, the current crisis is really an anomaly. The modern feminist movement of the 60s taught that the only good woman is a career woman, and that homemaking and motherhood were to be despised and fled from. But interestingly, the womenýs movement prior to that fought for the right of a mother to stay at home with her young children, and not be conscripted into the paid workplace.

Thus the struggle for those in the earlier years of the womenýs movement was to protect women from the encroachment of market forces, and to prevent them from being forced into career at the expense of their families. Motherhood and homemaking, in other words, were seen as honorable and valuable ends in themselves.

But with the late 60s and onwards, the new wave of feminists took a totally different line: only in the paid workforce can a woman find meaning, freedom and dignity. Thus the vitriolic attack on mothers and the family. Betty Friedan therefore could call the home a "comfortable concentration camp" while Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown could label a mother and housewife as "a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger ý a bum".

A womanýs freedom, said these feminists, meant that a woman should and could be independent both in the economic and the reproductive realms. Women just do not need men, and are better off without them. Establishing a career and gaining financial independence is the first goal of the modern woman. And millions of Western women bought this line of thought.

Of course now the inherent contradictions are coming all too clear. Women who were told that they could have it all are now fining that they have very little. They may have a good job, but they have no husband or boyfriend, no children and no family. And many today are deeply regretful of this fact.

But it is not just women who have suffered at the hands of feminist orthodoxy. Children have been the big losers. Millions of children today are being raised by strangers. Yet all the social science research shows that children desperately need their mums and dads. No day care system can ever compete with the love and attention of a mother and a father.

Yet as Robertson documents, while the social research on all this is quite clear, very few are willing to promote the findings, for fear of incurring the wrath of feminists and of making working mums feel guilty. So although the research is clear, that attachment is important for infants and mother-child bonding is crucial, millions of mothers are ignoring the evidence, and their maternal instincts, and are abandoning their children in droves.

The harmful effects of extended periods of time for young children in day care are well documented in this book. Even child care workers admit that they would not dare to leave their own children in day care. Yet many mothers have been so indoctrinated into believing that their needs and desires must come first, that they are offering their children second best.

And seeking to alleviate the problems by better day care, more workplace flexibility, or seeking to obtain an unobtainable balance between work and family just is not sufficient. And it is not just short-sighted governments offering these inadequate solutions. The corporate world in effect has bought the feminist myth as well that women can have it all. But the truth is, they canýt have it all, at least not at the same time. Thus more corporate day care centres will not solve the bigger problems.

Indeed, the corporations are shooting themselves in the foot here. The really productive worker is the worker who has a happy and satisfying home life. But the corporate world, even with generous paid maternity leave policies, cannot stop the hemorrhaging of the family. Maternal deprivation is harmful to children, and unhappy children make for unhappy families, and unhappy families result in poor workers.

Governments also lose, as they seek to press women into the paid workplace, and do not deal with the root causes as to why so many families are forced to have two incomes. By bribing mums into the paid work place, whether by child care subsidies or other financial incentives, the growing problem of falling fertility rates, for example, will only increase. Less people mean less taxable income, and the inability to pay for expensive social welfare programs.

Thus both governments and businesses need to radically rethink what family-friendly workplaces actually mean. Robertson concludes by proposing some radical measures to put the interests of families first. These are predicated on the principle that human societies need the traditional family structure with a mother as the principal caregiver. Marriage and family are non-negotiable first principles. If that is accepted, then the following steps can be explored:

-Treat families as a unit in the tax code
-End "no-fault" divorce
-Replace the current welfare system with one that does not encourage illegitimacy and undermine intact families
-Pare back affirmative action legislation and programs
-Give all parents, not just those in the paid work place, child care credits or tax breaks.

These and other proposals, will help to ensure that real family-friendly policies are pursued. Yet Robertson knows that legal and economic change alone is not enough. The much harder cultural element needs to be addressed. But we have to start somewhere. And this volume is a good beginning point.

...This book is a wonderful distillation of Brian's views on the workplace, political and social movements and most interestingly his work here is a roadmap for the analytical process he undergoes to arrive at his conclusions.

Brian's book is an outstanding example of constructive critical thinking...one feels envigorated, enlightened, and most importantly tested and forced to confront deeply held truths and defend those ideas within that are found lacking.

It is a book to be proud of and I enjoyed it, unreservedly.

Agree with him or not, give him a chance to make his case in this book which addresses the foundation of a polite society, family.

Robertson shows how the best care is maternal care and why society is in denial of this fact. I found this book very informative and enlightening, and has forever changed the way I look at alternative child care and the media, whose refusal to tell the truth about parenting is causing the millions of children to be neglected.

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.

I was a student of Prof Friedman's at Wharton and read this book as part of his seminar course in Total Leadership. Six months later, I now have a blueprint for pursuing career success while simultaneously improving my personal life. Since reading this book, I have improved my marriage, strengthened relationships with other family members, and recommitted myself to both community and fitness by running the 2008 Boston Marathon as a charity fundraiser.

This is more than a great read. While the program requires a serious commitment to change, so too do Stew's concepts provide a sustainable framework for positive change across all aspects of life.

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.

I am glad Azriela Jaffe took the time to write this book. I wish more books were written about the great challenges a man and woman face when they are both the same religion but one person is very observant and one is not. In the introduction the author states that the reader may not agree with 100% of the book, but there is great value in her techniques and suggestions regarding what can work and what will frustrate and cause no-win situations. Even though she openly shares her Orthodox life-style and opinions, she is non-judgemental and is open to the other paths that Jews choose to follow in the modern age. I would welcome a second book that deals with the journey of compromise that is necessary for an Intermarrige involving two Jews.

What is often overlooked is that there are almost as many ways to be Jewish as there are Jewish families. That because marriage and children bring otherwise dormant spiritual issues to the surface and that families on both sides of the aisle are pressuring the couple to be true to their heritage, the term "mixed marriage" is a very apt description, even when both husband and wife were born and raised within the Jewish faith. Azriela Jaffe writes with experience, wit, candor, and a gift for expression that readers will find informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, and oh-so-familiar! Two Jews Can Still Be A Mixed Marriage: Reconciling Differences Over Judaism In Your Marriage is highly recommended, exceptionally valued, eminently sensible, and wonderfully useful reading for Jewish couples aspiring to marriage, as well as husbands and wives trying to build a stronger relationship despite (or because of) the variations and differences in their understandings and practices of Jewish traditions.

I providentially discovered this book while dating a man who was Jewish like myself, but nonobservant-- and I am Orthodox. The book was so helpful to me for the new way of thinking that it exposed me to. "We live in an age of a la carte Judaism", is the opening line, and powerful premise, of the book. For me, religious practice was always black and white, right or wrong. How narrow-minded is that, I quickly realized.

Although the book gives many examples of "mixed marriage" couples that are actively working through their differences, it is clear that matters of religion are a constant source of tension in all those marriages. So, along with the practical advice you can bring from the book into your own life, if you are not married yet you should carefully discuss and weigh the risks of entering into a marriage with such dark clouds hanging over it from the start.

As other reviews pointed out, most of the advice in this book was common sense- couples should try to accommodate each other's levels of observance where possible, figure out what's most important to them, not argue over basic issues of theological principle, etc. And I think the basic message of tolerance is a good one.

A few bits of the book might be grating to people who are a little more observant (or even a little more knowledgeable). For example, her chapter on synagogue attendance implies that couples will normally wish to pray together (and perhaps even that they should do so in order to avoid being social lepers). But this view completely overlooks one major purpose of prayer- not to connect to your spouse, but to connect to God. It logically follows that there is no reason to be with your spouse in synagogue - and in fact that doing so might be a huge distraction that makes your prayer less fulfilling. (Orthodox congregations limit this "distraction factor" by having men and women sit in separate sections of the synagogue- but non-Orthodox or "mixed" couples can achieve equally wholesome results by going to separate synagogues, or perhaps by sitting in separate parts of the same synagogue).

Also, a little historical perspective might have been nice. The author seemed to think that Jewish "mixed marrriages" are common only in this generation. But I recently read an article in Midstream (a Jewish magazine) asserting the opposite (that is, claiming that observant Jews are so walled off from non-observant Jews that such marriages are LESS common than 50 years ago). I have no idea who is right- but a better book might have utilized not just the experience of the current generation of adults, but of older couples who have lived through decades of theological incompatibility or of their children.

This book deals with resolving cobflict in a Jewish marriage where one patner has a higher level of religious observance than the other. However, many of the strategies for resolving conflict can be applied to other, non religious, areas. For example, suppose having a kosher house, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 10 for the husband while the wife's desire to be able to eat anything in the house is a 6. The house should be kosher. On the other hand, if the wife's desire to eat whatever she wants, when the couple goes out to dinner is a 10, then the compromise should be that the home is kosher but the husband does not pressure the wife to keep kosher outside. Wouldn't this strategy work for just about any conflict, religious or secular?

Sometimes the compromise might be to meet each other half way. For example, if the couple cannot agree on which synagogue to join, they might join a third one which each would be willing to join even if that synagogue is neither's first choice but is an acceptable second choice for both. Another possibility is from time to time, to attend both synagogues. The important thing is for each partner to have respect for the other's level of Judaism and to seek to work things out. The wrong thing to do is to become defensive and have an angry "Reform vs Orthodox" argument. This fine book shows how conflicts can be worked out.

Rick brings out excellent points about how our circumstances, household, upbringing etc affect our lives and our thought process. He brings out very well how our complex thoughts, our anxieties, apprehension, fear, perplexity, dissatisfaction in professional lives may affect our personal lives as well. With excellent example from his own life he explains how all these feelings may eventually agitate a person so much that they decide to take up career changes He has done an excellent job in non-conventional career counseling. Overall the set of cassettes are extremely mesmerizing.

I've felt stuck for quite a while now and anti-career tapes have opened me up. The guided imagery exercises are great--I made many discoveries along the way (I really enjoyed listening to his soothing voice, too!) Initially, I thought the chakra component was too New-Age-y for me, but to my surprise, I'm moving forward with less fear, and I really believe that "aligning" the chakras, as Rick suggests has helped a lot.

I have much respect for any author who can draw from many religious and spiritual traditions, as Rick Jarow does. The material he presents is intelligent, compelling, and practical.

Rick Jarow provides a much-needed alternative to the conventional "write a winning resume" and "knock 'em dead in your job interview" approach to finding a livelihood. Most career seekers are told to HUNT for a job -- i.e., use the hunter-gatherer model to find a position that just happens to be open at the specific time you are looking for a job. Once you've bagged yourself a job, then you are expected to mold yourself to fit the parameters your new employer wants you to fit into. Jarow advocates an more organic approach where finding a job is an outgrowth of creating a life that is right for you. As you associate with people/organizations whose values resonate with you, you will eventually connect with people who can steer you towards work that fits YOU. It is the difference between showing off a series of stuffed, mounted trophies on a wall as opposed to a lush, colorful garden you've cultivated yourself to represent your life's work.

I bought "Creating the Work You Love" about a year ago. It clicked with me. He's writing for people who come to life from a spiritual perspective, and have grown fairly skillful at that side of life, but are awkwardly deficient in the nitty gritty of reality. Jarow understands that the nitty gritty is also spiritual, and so he approaches the good old question of jobs and career from a wise and spiritual place, plucking examples inspirations from both Eastern and Western ancient traditions (although he organizes the process through the system of the chakras), but also from history and popular culture and his own life and counseling practice.

But I had a hard time focusing on the book. It's full of meditation exercises, which can be hard to take from text into meditation. Also, I never felt like I was sufficiently "done" with a chapter--after all, when have you ever done enough connecting to "abundance"? So I would recommend the audio tapes over the book.You can listen to it again and again, focused and meditating deeply, or absentmindedly, or in a more rationally conscious state. It speaks to all three states.

Personally, I know where I want to be in, say, five years. But I'm still struggling and dragging my feet about the short term necessities. And Jarow's approach helps connect the unglamorous aspects of the job search with the nourishing and challenging spiritual work that I'm more comfortable with.

I read in one of the Harvard Business Review Journal series how people learn best by reading or listening. Most are a combination of both but we all tend to one side or the other. If your a listener and your ready for a life change then you owe it to yourself to listen to these disks. They are mesmerizing and refreshing. So much of career books and tapes today are all about setting goals, listing accomplishments, competeing, negotiating, conquering. I think a reflection of our culture in America. The success oriented approach may get you a great paying job but will it make you happy? When I first started listening to Rick I tried to understand what his main point was. And this is what I came up with - success does not equal happiness. Not writing down goals, wandering, following a whim, getting lost in a project that has no apparent meaning or rational may be the beginning of something magnificent. That is not a quote just some added thoughts about the audio book. Thanks Rick.

Fantastic book. I have owned this book since 1974 and I love it. The author's approach to problem solving is just as inventive today as it was then. The book is a guide to using your creativity to think out of the box and arrive at unexpected solutions and goals.

I first found this book in 1974. I still have it. This book approaches problem solving and personal values within the framework of a travel guide. How do you get from HERE to THERE?

Well, how do you get to New York from Los Angeles? How do you determine that New York is even where you want to go in the first place?

Simple, without TELLING you what to decide, it SHOWS you how to decide for yourself.

I carry this one in the sachel that I bring with me everywhere- I have done so for years now. At the movies, at the restaurant, at work... I always have it. Every time I am totally without any solution to an engineering problem, I turn to it. It has yet to let me down.

I purchased this book in the early nineties because it was a required book for a design methods 101 class within a four-year design program. It would have been worth my while to have read it in it's entirety then but, unfortunately, I failed to do so until years after I had received my degree. Having done so earlier may have saved me years of frustration of not fully understanding creative idea generation and development, and consequently, not realizing I was working with and for people who fostered, out of the same ignorance of the creative problem solving process, a non-creative work environment. I have since read The Universal Traveler many times as it has become a major source in my own intellectual inquiry into the psychology of creative problem solving. This is a must read for anyone who values creative thought and who desires the freedom only process awareness can bring. Seperate yourself from the pretenders.

Being Don Koberg, the author of The Universal Traveler now in it's just released Thirtieth Anniversay Classic Edition, I can assure anyone interested in buying this book that Jim Bagnall is not the author but rather my associate and soley responsible for the graphics, not the text, of this and other editions wandering about during the past three decades.

This book is a charmer full of well-crafted and wise tales. I recommend it to anyone desiring nuggets of ancient insight about human nature.

This wonder book brings Chinese wisdom to the reader, who has no prior knowledge of Chinese history, through delightful, inspiring stories. The stories (there are more than a hundred in the book) may be well-known in China, but not in the West. Most of them I read for the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've learned a lot from this precious volume. I'm going to apply some in my life.

China has long presented the Western world with stories of folklore and proverbs; this contains stories relevant to business success, retelling Chinese tales to fit the business model. No prior knowledge of Chinese history and folklore is required in order to appreciate these fine tales of wisdom.

This is a unique book for those who seek wisdom from Chinese classics to apply in their career and life. A one-stop shopping for quintessential Chinese wisdom conveyed through more than a hundred of delightful stories by a remarkable author. For a lay person like me, no prior knowledge of Chinese history is required. I love the book's beautiful design and elegant calligraphy. Nichloas Kristof of New York Times sums it up better than I can when he says: "Treat this as a story book, and you will be entertained; treat this as a history book, and you will learn the richness of Asia's past; treat this as a book of wisdom, and you will be inspired."

If you have time to read only one book on Chinese wisdom, this is the one that will surely uplift you, enlighten you, inform you and entertain you. I love the book for its wide scope, its witty stories and inspiring messages, its elegant package and its practical application to many aspects of modern life. The author's insightful comments at the end of each story are very helpful for me to fully appreciate its embedded wisdom. I visited the author's web site michaeltang.com and would like to recommend it to all interested readers. The author's uncommon experience and accomplishment make the message of his book all the more valuable.