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Today’s must-read – The Snowball

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

by Alice Schroeder In this startlingly frank account of Buffett's life, Schroeder, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley—and hand picked by Buffett to be his biographer—strips away the mystery that has long cloaked the word's richest man to reveal a life and fortune erected around lucid and inspired business vision and unimaginable personal complexity. In a book that is dominated by unstinting descriptions of Buffett's appetites—for profit, women (particularly nurturing maternal types), food (Buffett maintained his and his family's weight by "dangling money")—it is refreshing that Schroeder keeps her tone free of judgment or awe; Buffett's plain-speaking suffuses the book and renders his public and private successes and failures wonderfully human and universal. Schroeder's sections detailing the genesis of Buffett's investment strategy, his early mentoring by Benjamin Graham (who imparted the memorable "cigar butt" scheme: purchasing discarded stocks and taking a final puff). Inspiring managerial advice abounds and competes with gossipy tidbits (the married Buffett's very public relationship with Washington Post editor Katherine Graham) in this rich, surprisingly affecting biography.

Buy from Amazon

Buy from Random House

Buy Australian (from fishpond.com.au)

Buy the eBook

Download the audio book

"Have a bias toward action -- let's see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away."

Indira Gandhi

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Kitty Boitnott on 21st-Century Learning Skills


Kitty Boitnott, a media specialist at Chamberlayne Elementary School in Henrico County, VA, has spent the last year as president of the 60,000-member Virginia Education Association (VEA), the largest and oldest professional organization serving public schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
How is Virginia making sure students learn about 21st-century skills?
My most recent job was in Henrico County, VA, where in 2001, Henrico County Public Schools had just entered into the largest laptop initiative in the country with Apple. Every child in high school received his or her own iBook that he/she was allowed to keep 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the school year. At the middle school level, students starting receiving their own laptops in the middle of their sixth-grade year. And for the first several years of the initiative, every classroom and every library in every school got at least five iMac desktop computers. more » » »

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Million Dollar Smile

Million Dollar Smile

Each year this organization of men came to the Children's Home Society Orphanage.

All the boys and girls would get two dollars each. The men would take us in groups of five to downtown Jacksonville, Florida, to do some Christmas shopping.

I remember going with this one gentleman three years in a row. He would take us shopping, then he would ask us if we wanted to go to the movies. I remember watching him closely when we got to the theater. I watched him as he pulled out his wallet to pay for our tickets. He looked over at me and just smiled with his great big smile. During the movie he bought us all the popcorn and candy that we wanted. I remember thinking how wonderful it was that someone would spend their own money on someone like us.

We all laughed at the funny movie and had a really good time. The man would laugh really hard and then he would pat me on top of the head. Then he would laugh really hard again and reach over and rustle my hair. I would just look at him, and he would just keep smiling with his great big wonderful smile.

That trip to the movies was the first time in my life that I ever felt as if someone really cared about me. It was a wonderful feeling which I have never forgotten, even to this day, decades later. I don't know if that man felt sorry for me, but I do know this: If I ever win the big lottery, that man will find out that he carried a million-dollar smile.

This is why I believe it is so important that organizations and clubs, such as the Shriners and Jaycees, continue to reach out and help the children who are less fortunate. In my particular case, it was this one man's personal act of kindness that will be remembered for years to come. Just one little simple act of kindness.

It is these little-tiny acts that will insure that when some confused child goes off the deep end one day, he or she will forever remember that small glimmer of kindness that was shown to them by someone. That little speck of hope, that little dim light of goodness that will forever be stuck somewhere in the far reaches of their confused mind.

I thank you, kind Sir, for a memory which I now share with my children and grandchildren fifty years later.

Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.

Learn more about the wonderful work that Roger is doing by going to: www.rogerdeankiser.com

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Today’s must-read – Always looking up

Always Looking Up.  The adventures of an Incurable Optimist

by Michael J. Fox

There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. Husband. Father. Activist. But readers of Always Looking Up will soon add another to the list: Optimist. Michael writes about the hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities. Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served him throughout his struggle with Parkinson's disease. Michael's exit from a very demanding, very public arena offered him the time-and the inspiration-to open up new doors leading to unexpected places. One door even led him to the center of his own family, the greatest destination of all.

The last ten years, which is really the stuff of this book, began with such a loss: my retirement from Spin City. I found myself struggling with a strange new dynamic: the shifting of public and private personas. I had been Mike the actor, then Mike the actor with PD. Now was I just Mike with PD? Parkinson's had consumed my career and, in a sense, had become my career. But where did all of this leave Me? I had to build a new life when I was already pretty happy with the old one..

Always Looking Up is a memoir of this last decade, told through the critical themes of Michael's life: work, politics, faith, and family. The book is a journey of self-discovery and reinvention, and a testament to the consolations that protect him from the ravages of Parkinson's.

With the humor and wit that captivated fans of his first book, Lucky Man, Michael describes how he became a happier, more satisfied person by recognizing the gifts of everyday life.

Michael J. Fox gained fame playing Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties. His many other acting successes include the Back to the Future trilogy, and his award-winning lead role in Spin City, from which he retired in 2000. That same year, he launched the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, which has leapt to the forefront of the effort to find a cure. He is the author of a previous book, the #1 bestseller Lucky Man, and lives with his family in New York City.

For more information about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, please visit michaeljfox.org.

Best Price $12.49
or Buy New $16.55

Audiocassette $41.26

Paperback $30.98

CD audio $19.79

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“Don’t discard your fantasies as merely wishful thinking. Honor them as messages from the deepest part of your being about what you can do and directions you can choose.”

-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

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Find your answer to the life long question “Who Am I?”

To understand life, you must first understand yourself. Uncover different aspects of who you are and where you are going in life.

Become clear through self discovery.

Book for Teachers – You can't say you can't play

You Can't Say You Can't Play
by Vivian Gussin Paley
Woven throughout Paley's lessons is a parable about loneliness and rejection, which enables readers to share a child's view of the world. What the kids have to say is enchanting and surprisingly wise. For example, should a "boss" determine who plays with whom, or should there be an election? As a sagacious second-grader observes: "See, the bad thing about voting is, if you don't vote for that person she'll see all the people who don't like her. If it's a boss that's only one person doesn't like you so you don't feel so bad. ... more

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Working Well with Others

A 20-year study at Stanford University examined the career paths of thousands of executives to determine the qualities they had developed that enabled them to move ahead rapidly. Researchers concluded that there were two primary skills that were indispensable for men and women who were promoted to positions of great responsibility.

... more

Year-round inspiration

 

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is a bit of folk wisdom that illustrates a powerful truth: the remedies that provide true health come in daily doses! You can’t work out one day a month for twelve hours and expect to get in shape. But if you work out thirty minutes a day, you’ll see definite results.

Spiritual life is the same way. Going to church on Sunday and attending an occasional seminar or special service might be great for a growth spurt, but we still need to practice a daily “walk with God” if we want to mature and develop as people of faith. That daily walk needs to include time in God’s Word, prayer, and giving thought to those things that matter to God—so that they will increasingly matter to us.

Inspired Faith 365 Days a Year is just what the doctor ordered for your spirit. Simple and profound new writings are combined with a weekly selection from one of the great devotional writers from history like Spurgeon, Wesley, and Tozer. Each selection includes a Scripture verse, a suggested Scripture reading, an inspirational quote, and a prayer starter.

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How to reinforce a positive attitude

After a speech one day, Zig Ziglar was approached by someone in the audience who said:
"Zig, it was a great speech, but...motivation doesn't last."

Zig said, "Bathing doesn't either. That's why I recommend it daily!"

Like me, Zig loves quotes and believes that the right quote can provide "a-ha" moments and can help to reinforce a positive attitude. Here's what he said:

"Reading has been my fuel for motivation. If the "a-ha" I get when I'm reading is not already reduced into one or two sentences, I'll take the essence of what I've read and chunk it into easily remembered bites of information. That information is what becomes "quotable." You would not sit still for me to read every book I've ever read to you. But if you're the least bit like me, you'll jump at the chance to bypass all the churning and scoop the cream right off the top - that is what quotes are...the cream of our learning."

Sixty Minutes said, "He's a legend in the industry. He's the Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison of enthusiasm." What we love about Zig, however, is his heart. His ability to help people realize their potential is unsurpassed and his belief that, "You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want," has been the foundation of all he's accomplished.

Inspiration 365, is a beautiful, 160 page, coffee table book that will be a perpetual source of inspiration for years to come. It's a collection of 365 quotes (each day of the year) from Zig himself, and many others that have motivated him over the years.

To read 20 of Zig's favorite quotes, and to watch his beautiful 3 minute inspirational movie, just click here.