Renaissance Minds Bookblog

Never Eat Alone

And Other Secrets To Success, One Relationship At A Time

By Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz

I was reading this book during a speedreading course I took last month (oh shush up), and my instructor asked what I did for a living. When I told him that I was a coach, he said, “Oh, well I can see how you’d need a book like that.” It didn’t occur to me at the time to challenge his comment, so I will do that here. What I could’ve done was asked him how he’d found his mechanic, his accountant, even his wife. How do we go about finding people to work with, to hire, or even to socialize with? Through our network! Most of us would much rather take our car to somebody who comes to us through a glowing recommendation of a trusted friend or acquaintance, rather than doing a random “I Feel Lucky” shot out after our fingers do the walking.

Ferrazzi’s book on networking is literally chock-full of fantastic tips and information on building powerful, beneficial relationships. He stresses that you must give, give, give, and give a little bit more, and then things will begin flowing back to you. Focusing on how you can be helpful to others is a key factor on creating a beneficial relationship. This isn’t shallow and conniving because of the fact that sincerity is there - you really must want to help people in whatever reasonable ways you can (and sometimes, perhaps go out of your way too).

Many examples are given on how to create powerful intentional relationships. I love his idea of “aspirational contacts.” These are people well “above” you and/or your network, who you’d love to meet because they are inspirational or successful (or both). “Anybody from heads of state and media moguls, to artists and actors, to people others speak highly of.” And people laugh at the idea - “But the results speak for themselves.” I’ll sign up! I’m adding Oprah to my aspirational contact list, because meeting her is already on my dream list, but I’m adding some local and industry successes to my aspirational list too. I’ll let you know when the Oprah contact pans out.

He also coins the phrase (to my knowledge, at least) marketing wonks. How can any book that uses the phrase marketing wonks NOT hold your interest? Ferrazzi’s style is readable, flows well, is peppered with amusing remarks, and seriously kids, this book is FULL of information. One reading isn’t enough. Read it, give it a few months to jel (or gel? not Orajel), and read it again.

Quantum Leaps
7 Skills for Workplace ReCreation
By Charlotte Shelton

Quantum Leaps is one of the most intriguing, and most difficult, books I’ve read over the past year.

And reread.

A book like this takes several readings to even begin to comprehend, especially for somebody who is just learning about the details of the reality of quantum physics. Taking reality to a subatomic level and the violation of Newtonian Laws and our high-school educations can be mind boggling.

A quantum leap refers to the ability of subatomic particles to interact in unpredictable ways; for instance for an electron to actually be in two places simultaneously. As Shelton describes it, “The laws that govern the classical realm are in direct opposition to how things work at the subatomic level of the universe.” Instead, subatomic interactions are unexplainable, unpredictable, and perhaps even most perplexingly of all, affected by our intentions. Shelton does a fabulous job of explaining all of this, much better than I can, but it does take awhile for a person to really begin to wrap their mind around this information. Fans of Stephen Hawking will definitely have an advantage in comprehension of this complex book.

The seven skills are divided into two categories. The psychological skills include

• Quantum seeing
• Quantum thinking
• Quantum feeling

The spiritual skills include

• Quantum knowing
• Quantum acting
• Quantum trusting
• Quantum being

Each skill has an entire chapter devoted to its description, application, and further development.

The seven-page bibliography at the end illustrates two points – the difficulty of the material, and also the exceptional study and research that went into compiling the information in this book.

For those of you ready to explore, and perhaps even accept, a new paradigm as to how interconnected we all actually are, grab a copy of Shelton’s book and watch your thinking expand.