22nd Reading 2021 - The Wow Factory

I got this book from the list of readings for a course at UCLA Extension, Sales Management Strategies, it was a large list of about fifty books, old school sales books, and you know what, sales is sales, even with the advance in technology, sales techniques always depend a lot in soft skills and people skills and communications. This book is from 1995 and purely for marketing and advertising. It is from the era before the internet boom, it is from the TV, radio print era, before video streaming and all, it’s paper and pencil for advertisiment agencies in the late 90’s so it is even a little boring. But I read it to the end because it was interesting to compare what it is today and what it was in the past. Especially because they even have some future projections and forecasts, for things that would substituute CD’s, like a CD rental subscription, or virtual rental something, clearly not knowing what was about to come with Youtube and Spotify.

Title: The Wow Factory

Author: Paul Levesque

Year: 1995

Pages: 172

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786303867/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

21st Reading 2021 - Consequential Communication - Diana Peterson

 This book is a practical guide for communication in times of crisis and appeared for me as a glove in tims of pandemic and remote work. This book was part of the curriculum of the course Crisis and Conflict Management for the certificate program in General Business at UCLA Extension. The big plus of this course despite all the learnings, activities, interactions, content and an incredible instructor (Dr. Sarah Ohr) , we had the chance to have lecturers with special guests such as the author of this book, Diana Peterson.

https://www.uclaextension.edu/business-management/leadership-management/course/crisis-leadership-and-conflict-resolution-mgmt-x

It was amazing to hear directly from the author the strategis for good communication in times of crisis, iot was like talking the person who knew all of that by heart on the tip of her tongue. I learned a lot and I hope to have this chance again. I really enjoy reading the books by the professors and instructors, it is a great opportunity to exchange ideas directly with the author as we will see in a couple of other books in this year.

Title: Consequential Communication in turbulent times

Author: Diana Peterson

Year: 219 

Pages: 116

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Consequential-Communication-Turbulent-Times-Leadership/dp/1733614605/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3UPQ6Y2AXL9PS&keywords=consequential+communication&qid=1640561392&s=books&sprefix=consequential+communcation%2Cstripbooks%2C122&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzTUVYWElXNEdLMzE5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTY3MzA1VEhIQktOV1ZXUUNIJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2ODkwMzkySTY2Ujk5N1RSRVA3JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

20th Reading 2021 - Household Gold

 I had to read this book because I took part in a recruiting process to Amway to be a representative. It turned out that Amway operates in those pyramid scams where you must buy a minimum amount of products yourself and convince a minimum number of people to buy too so you can get discounts. Fortunately, I jumped out of it as soon as possible, because I am sure that would take my time and my money. It was an opportunity from someone on LinkedIn, but it was not the first time. Interestingly, I had to listen to some podcasts, join some webinars and read this book. 

This book is about extracting an income for part of your expenses, meaning that you can have an income on stuff you buy for yourself and your home by buying in bulk and selling with a margin to your neighbors, that is why it’s “Household Gold”. I think this business makes some sense, I head about a few people who got really successful, and Amway actually is a public billion valued company. But not for me.

Author: Dr. Steve Price

Title: Household Gold

Year: 2005

Pages: 107

Links: https://www.amazon.com/Household-Gold-Convert-Expenses-Income/dp/1891279130/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BQB1C5NSJWN5&keywords=household+gold&qid=1640560913&s=books&sprefix=household+gold%2Cstripbooks%2C126&sr=1-1

19th Reading - On Fraternity and Friendship - Pope Francis

 I like to read books written by popes or saints or about them, first, of course, because of my religion and second because I admire them for being humans but still so connected closely to heaven. They were sinners like us, but through prayer and dedication to a pure life, they became saints. In this book, Pope Francis addresses the world community from the perspective of the good Samaritan, and all the victims of the major problems in the world today, including COVID, wars, religion discrimination and health issues, as problems in which we are all involved somehow, and they happen as a consequence of the lack of love in the world. This book is a reading similar to a biblical reading, it is good to read early in the morning before anything else, reflecting, absorbing and thanking God for his gifts and for His words.

Title: On Fraternity and Social Friendship

Author: Pope Francis

Year: 2021

Pages: 144

Links: https://www.amazon.com/Fraternity-Social-Friendship-Fratelli-Tutti/dp/1601376782/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=TI3GP9GASWL5&keywords=pope+francis+fraternity&qid=1640559847&s=books&sprefix=pope+francis+fraternity%2Cstripbooks%2C111&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFaSUFaOExYN1QxQU0mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA0NDQ2NTYyQjRHNjZQN09WN1g5JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAwMTQ5NjMxRTE4MDZMTTdLRzFKJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

18th Reading 2021 - Dave Mustaine

 This book was released in 2020, so it means that it was written in 2019 or before, meaning, pre-pandemic, another world, even for the own Megadeth story. Things happened after that already. But that’s a good thing actually about bands books, they can always write more books because there are always new stories and new perspectives and points of views, depending on the context, for the band, and for the world. Just look and many famous bands like Beatles, or Pink Floyd, many of the original members are dead and they are still writing about them. This is probable the third book I read about Megadeth. The others were the biographies of the member, Dave Mustaine and David Elefson. 

I like biographies, it’s one of my favorite types of books. for a while I would only read biographies. I had a full shelf of biography books, from Amy Winehouse to Zeppelin. I grow up reading these rock start stories. I think this was one big influencer in my imaginay of Hollywood and Los Angeles, and one important factor when I decided to move to the U.S. Especially Megadeth. MEGADETH is one of my favorite metak bands, and their story influenced my own story. I even have tattoos and pictures with the band members. This book is like a collection of writings from band and family members, like journals and diaries written by different people. The reading is not very fluid, because it brakes down to a different character and a different point of view of the story. I think they wanted to have a book in celebration of the 30 years of Rust in Peace album, but it was not their best work honestly. But still it was intesting to read the perspective of the other members.

Title: Rust in Peace

Author: Dave Mustaine

Year: 2020

Pages: 208

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Peace-Inside-Megadeth-Masterpiece/dp/0306846020/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1PMN1TU1NX0RF&keywords=dave+mustaine&qid=1640558865&s=books&sprefix=dave+mustaine%2Cstripbooks%2C135&sr=1-2

17th Reading 2021 - Rock your Business - David Fishof

 This book was actually the first book I read this year. I bought it on amazon because I watched the author in one of the pitches at Shark Tank. I don’t remember exactly what he was offering on Shark Tank, probably his business of having workshops for executives with rock starts. I learned mored about the business after reading the book. In the book, David Fishof describes how he started his business after putting together his two passions, rock concerts and business. He worked as agent, manager and producer in the music industry and he worked for an ad agency for a while. When he realized he had a good idea in hands he didn’t waste time and started his business with the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, a three day retreat for executives with rockstars, with lecturers and jams! Very interesting. I want to go one day of one of these seminars with the rockstars! \,,/

Title: Rock your business

Author: David Fishof

Year: 2013

Pages: 283

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Your-Business-Company-Learn/dp/B00BCHDVR4/ref=sr_1_6?crid=RQC76OCC138N&keywords=rock+your+business&qid=1640558375&sprefix=rock+your+business%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-6

16th Reading 2021 - The Tao of Inner Peace - Diane Dreher

 The Tao of Inner Peace is one of the first book by Dianna Dreher. I read it after I read “The Tao of Leadership” that I posted here before. Dianna Dreher has UCLA background and is a teacher at UCSB, so that is why I wanted to read her books. It was very interesting to read how se built this “self-help” book based on tthe “Tao”, which is like an asian philosofy, and it helped me to focus and clarify my path. I am usually very busy and I like to say yes for everything and hug the world like we say, but sometimes it is not possible because I am a singlee individual with 24 hours a day as everyone else. So reading this book helped me think through my problems of trying to fit one thousands activities in a rushed schedule. 

Title: The Tao of Inner Peace

Author: Diane Dreher

Year: 200

Pages: 336

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Inner-Peace-Diane-Dreher/dp/0452281997/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwqCOBhCdARIsAEPyW9lZdkrjk0nIh-Qq2DRe8Xmt9cCWmHa1a9kLmdrq8JWSP3fyFA2pifcaAifiEALw_wcB&keywords=the+tao+of+inner+peace&qid=1640557894&sr=8-1