Stanley Books

Imagine making an actor out to be a detective. If you were a notorious cheapskate like Harry Cohn, it makes perfect sense. He orders Bogart to solve a mystery in Hollywood. Bogie enlists his reluctant friend Peter Lorre to assist him.

ALong the way, many Hollywood friends and acquaintances show up, such as Van Heflin, John Wayne, and Frederic March. Bacall is alluded to, but plays a minor part in this noir mystery. What is clever is that Raymond Chandler lends a hand, making the plot plausible. D.W. Griffith has an amusing cameo, if that word may be applied to a novel.

For those who love movies and mysteries, this book is a gem. I read it when it was first published, and its vivid imagery remains with me today. I heartily recommend this book.

The importance of this book is very strong. Jevons was the first economist who uses the mathematic language as we today mean in this sense.
Jevons was also logic and he knew very well the probability and the statistics. His teory of utiliy takes the place of the value theory introduced by Smith and Ricardo.This fact was really a revolution.

The book is eazy to folow and backed with thought and evedence. Inciteful into the true history not just what we learn from a 8th grade text book.

Great companion. English/Spanish translation very accurate. Recommended for anyone trying to learn this book in English or for anyone having to take this course and needs a little help translating. Very easy to understand.

i never would have caught a bonefish without this "bible" of the sport! many thanks to "kid" babson for his wise guidance and inspiration.

The book written by the samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi circa 1645 is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than only that of martial artists: for instance, some business leaders find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work.

The term "Ichi School", which is referred to in the book, Go Rin No Sho, when referring to such books, refers to "Niten No Ichi Ryu", or "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu", which literally translated, means "Two Swords, one heaven".

Throughout the book it is clear: what is primary for Musashi is The Goal, while the means of achieving the goal are secondary. He wrote "According to this Ichi school, you can win with a long weapon, and yet you can also win with a short weapon. In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size."

The same is in business: the leaders who are attracted by the goal rather than by embellishments are the true leaders. For example, the dot-com bubble of 2000 was caused by the managers who forgot about the primary goal of the business: net income. Those who were obsessed by their stock prices regarding of massive losses and the lack of revenue became bankrupt. They put attention to the fancy office buildings and furniture rather than to the assets that generate earning. Musashi wrote about it: "Just as a horse must have endurance and no defects, so it is with weapons. Horses should walk strongly, and swords and companion swords should cut strongly. Spears and halberds must stand up to heavy use: bows and guns must be sturdy. Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative".

Musashi also encourages to maintain a balance of your skills throughout your life. This balance could be thought of as Yin and Yang. The balance is to be neither over-familiar with something nor under-familiar. The over-familiarity or over-use of one weapon is not recommended by Musashi, as it would be seen to reveal your spirituality to your enemy, and thus your boisterousness, or over-calm. The over-familiarity makes you stick to a conviction. This is a very important for the business. Take, for example, mr. Warren Buffet. A quality standing out about Mr. Buffett is his ability to morph. If you read his materials from the 1960s, he said very different things than in the 1970s and early-1980s. Early on he was buying dirt-cheap stocks by simple statistical standards and typically smaller stocks (smallcap), later he bought "franchises", then he entered a period of buying great managements of big companies and being a long-term holder, then, amazingly, he was buying smaller things dirt cheap again just as value came back into play as the twenty-first century began. He tactically morphed steadily over the decades. Trying to freeze his tactics from any decade and replicate them in the next few would never have led you to his actual actions. Musashi wrote about that this way: "You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for commanders and troops to have likes and dislikes."

This small group Bible study is a great way to simplify the complexity of the concept of a biblical worldview. Andy Stanley teaches less for more. He keeps things simple so that in the end, you learn more and or better able to apply what you learn to everyday life.

This book departs from the standard practice of empty rhetoric penned by starry-eyed academians. In THIS book, we see what real people do for real success.

I was able to formulate my own plan for success, by looking at what these people do. This vicarious learning is the best approach for such a subject matter, and it has become a competitive advantage for my company.

My 2 year old son loves this book. While reading it we ask him questions like: "Where's the lobster?" or "How many friends does Stanley have?" This book has provided many learning oportunities for us besides being a cute story.

This is a great book! OK, I'm probably biased - like Senior Chief Snodgrass I work in Navy Preventive Medicine so it is always a great thing to see our work in print. There's also the fact that I'm a fan of his from my first Navy tour in Hawaii, where he currently resides.

However, it is always with mixed emotions that one picks up a book, piece of art, or such thing from a friend - what do you say if you don't like it? Not a problem here. Quite aside from an expert analysis of the actions of the Navy in combating infectious disease in Egypt, this is a insightful look into the politics and situation in the Middle East immediately post-war, and it is also a great read. Importantly, this is also a chronicle of an aspect of military service that many never hear about, the support and humanitarian assistance that continues to occur around the globe.

There are a million great stories in the US Navy's history - thanks Stanley for making sure that the beginning of NAMRU-3's has been so well recorded.

Bravo Zulu,

Mike Kubler