Improving Our “Signals” and “Beings”

This is a review of Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen’s Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most.
Have you ever struggled to negotiate something important to you like a pay raise? Have you ever felt anxious about talking something over with your partner? Are there issues in your life that you ignore because [...]

This is a book review of Michael Hall and Bobby Bodenhamer’s Mind-lines: Lines for Changing Minds.
You’ve been to told to see the glass as half full, but how do you do it? Have you ever wondered how your worries, fears, disagreements, interpersonal conflict, anger, and misunderstandings can be reinterpreted so that they empower you; instead [...]

This is a book review of Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power.
Robert Greene is author of three savvy books covering seduction, war, and power. His interest in topics that others overlook because they appear greedy, manipulative, and condescending have caused people to frown upon his work. However, on the “opposite side” of his reviewers [...]

This is a book review of Dale Carnegie’s all time international classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is a fairly large review with the occasional “diversion” from the topic because I feel it is appropriate for this classic book.
The original version of this book was written in 1937 with just 5,000 copies [...]

“Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.” – Richard Whately
“Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us.” – Loren Eiseley
“We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” – [...]

“Man prefers to think what he prefers to be true.” – Francis Bacon, Sr.
“Leadership comes through respect, and a large part of respect is liking someone.” – Carol Leonard
“Each man is led by his own liking.” – Virgil

You arrive at a bus station where you wait for a bus to go to work. While you [...]

“Language is surely too small a vessel to contain these emotions of mind and body that have somehow awakened a response in the spirit.” – Radclyffe Hall
“All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“You don’t have to hold a [...]

“Forbidden things have a secret charm.” – Publius Cornelius Tacitus
“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few and they are more beautiful if they are a few.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” – Jim Rohn

When I came to write about [...]

“When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Trying to get without first giving is as fruitless as trying to reap without having sown.” – Napoleon Hill
“Whether by presenting us with an initial favor or initial concession, the requester will have enlisted a powerful ally in the campaign for our [...]

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the [...]