5/50 - 2022) Story Telling in Business - Janis Forman

 Story Telling in Business is another book in my list from a professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. This one I found directly in the Anderson website, under the tab where they show all the books from Anderson professors: https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-authors

This book is like a guide on how to practice and develop story telling for business. It shows how to build a story from scratch, how to turn a business presentation that usually is flat and boring into a vivid story that will reach the intended goals, whether it is to persuade someone to something or to provide a report. The book is a little outdated, because it does not say much about story telling in a digital world, or even in a post pandemic world. I recommend the reading for people interested in story telling, public  speaking, leadership, and coaching.

Title:Story Telling in Business

Author: Janis Forman

Year: 2013

Pages: 304

Link https://www.amazon.com/Storytelling-Business-Authentic-Fluent-Organization/dp/0804768714

4/50 - 2022) Extraordinary Outcomes - Iris Firstenberg

 This book is by Iris Firstenberg, professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. I learned about this book after sitting at her lecture for the Executive Education where I work, on campus. Her lecture itself was really good, it was about story telling for business. She has the gift of telling a story and catching your attention throughout the whole 6-hour session. It is very interesting how she manages to give a lecture in a story telling format. It feels like she is telling a story, when she is acutally teaching a real business case. The way she does that, makes you listen to every detail attentively and patiently, it’s not like a regular lecturer that you start day dreaming after 10 minutes of talk, it is really good, I learned a lot. Following up to the lecture, I wanted to read her book, I like to read books from UCLA professors, and this one is really special. It is a self-help book that brings the concepts from Prof. Iris Firstenberg classes, like how to see your problems and how to position yourself to overcome obstacles and succeed. I definitely recommend for anyone. I used one of the techniques in the book with my girlfriend and it worked exactly the book said. It was about how to face frustration from rejections. Basically, a rejection is just one small part of your life, and sometimes we give too much attention to them and let them influence our emotions and our self-awareness, affecting our behaviors, so the book shows how to look at rejections and frustrations as just a small back circle inside the larger circle that is our life, and when we are able to see that it was just a small circle, we are able to move on with courage and self-confidence. 

Title: Extraordinary Outcomes

Author: Iris Firstenberg

Pages: 240

Year: 2014

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Outcomes-Shaping-Otherwise-Unpredictable/dp/111893833X

3/50 - 2022) Brian Tracy

 I read or listened to many books by Brian Tracy this year again. Usually I listen to his audiobooks while I am driving. I drive a lot in L.A. so I managed to listen to almost all his books already and he has hundreds of them. So this post is simply dedicated to Brian Tracy. Every year I listen a little bit of Brian Tracy to stay motivated. He is a great speaker, he has seminars all around the world. He talks about sales, self-motivations and business in general. It is very inspiring, specially if you are in sales. Sales is my field so I really enjoy listening to his thoughts. He has the gift to make people feel better about them selves and self-motivated. He talks about being good with yourself, accept who you are and know your qualities, be proactive, use your time wisely and satisfy customers above all. Know how to sell anything and most importantly learn how to sell yourself. People do business with people they like so be kind, learn how to listen, say what people want to hear, give them what they need and they will trust you and your suggestions and will end up buying from you and referring you to people they know. I recommend Brian Tracy for people who like to listen to audiobooks about sales, entrepreneurism and self-motivation. It always helps me stay alert, energic and engaged in challenging goals even in adversity. Every once in a while a go and listen a little more of his seminars or YouTube videos. I've read most of his books already, but here are some that I listened this year. I first heard of Brian Tracy in a class at the course Principles of professional Selling at UCLA Extension, whit the book Be a 5 Start Sales Person or something like that. Then I started reading or listening one after the other and I really liked it and it helped me stay motivated in my hard work to achieve challenging goals. I recommend! Brian Tracy!

2/50 - 2022) Harvard Business Review

 

This year I miraculously found that I had access to the UCLA Library with my Bruin ID Staff card, which gives me access to any college library in the U.S. that is integrated in this system. I can order books online and they deliver to my library, the management library, Rosenfeld, at Anderson, where I mentioned before here in my blog and my journal, my favorite spot on campus. With the library account, I have access to the system with the books online, so I have access to all the collection from the Harvard Business Review. I mentioned on my list of 2021 that I started reading these 10 Must Reads and I simply fell in love with them. I kept reading, and more and more. I think this started when I took the class with Professor Nathanson in the Summer 2020, when he assigned us Harvard Business School cases. This year I started listening to the Audiobooks online and I also borrowed some at the library. These articles are very good. They are all super smart people. I got really interested in the Harvard Business Review. I even started to listen to all their podcasts, it is a little taste of their MBA too. Some of the podcasts are about the articles in the magazines, and they invite the authors to talk about the articles. These articles are usually based in the books that the authors wrote. And I started to borrow some of these book too from the library so it is a big snowball of book! That is why I must run to write here about them all! 

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1/50 - 2022) Get it done now! - Brian Tracy

 I decided to finally get back writing on my blog about readings, even if it's just for a few minutes per week. I've been accumulating all these readings to write about and now it's time to get them published here. It's been some books already since the start of 2022. This year I started by reviewing Brian Tracy, my favorite author and speaker, very successful writer, salesperson and business owner, he gives seminars all around the world and he has written literally hundreds of books. I like to listen to his audiobooks, another cheat trick to keep up with your readings. I do that mostly when I'm driving a lot. Otherwise, I still prefer the classic paper books. I read a lot on my iPad as well, mostly articles and school readings, but I do have some books there too. And Kindle, sometimes I go back using my kindle, usually when I am reading at the beach or park. 

I decided to write about this bool, "Get it Done Now" because this is a very straightforward lesson on how to use your time and avoid distractions that eat your time and keep you away from your goals. It is very simple, finishing difficult tasks first, stopping procrastination, "eating that frog", and not wasting time with social media, email and chit chatting, it's very important to know how to prioritize actions so you can achieve your goals. I recommend Brian Tracy for anyone searching for motivation, public speaking practice, writing practice, sales, presentation, pitch, etc. I will bring more Brian Tracy books on the next post.

Title: Get It Done Now! - Second Edition: Own Your Time, Take Back Your Life 

Author: Brian Tracy

Pages: 213

Year: 2022

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Get-Done-Now-Second-Your-ebook/dp/B09B83DVLG