First Friday Book Synopsis – December

It’s hard to believe that November has flown by so quickly and the holidays are already upon us. Of course, the fast-approaching end of the month also means that the next First Friday Book Synopsis is just around the corner. Next week, to be precise — on December 7.

Randy and Karl have selected two intriguing books for this month:

• Results that Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top by Quint Studer

• Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark Penn (the man who coined the term “soccer moms”)

If you are in the Dallas area, I encourage you to join me for this unique event. For just $22, you get a hearty all-you-can-eat breakfast, networking with area business leaders and MBA students, a printed outline and summary of the books, and a chance to win one of the books. Oh… and you also get to hear Randy and Karl present their summaries of the books.

First Friday Book Synopsis – October

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this month’s First Friday Book Synopsis, but please don’t let that stop you from going .
If you’ve never been to a FFBS, Randy Mayeux and Karl Krayer promise to “take you through two books, cover-to-cover, in just one hour.” As one participant said, it is like “Cliff’s Notes on steroids.”

Randy and Karl have selected a couple of books for this months that seem to be getting a lot of attention in the business community:

• The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey and Rebecca R. Merrill (Free Press, 2006)

• Power and Influence: The Rules Have Changed by Robe Dilenschneider (McGraw-Hill, 2007)

Click here to register of get additional information.

First Friday Book Synopsis – September

It’s time once again for the monthly First Friday Book Synopsis.

Here’s the deal: you pay Karl Krayer and Randy Mayeux $11 each to review a current business book for you, and get a free buffet breakfast! That’s $22 for two book reviews, and they throw in breakfast and networking with area businessmen. And you save the cost of buying the books, because they’ve already told you everything you need to know about them.

This month, Karl and Randy have selected a couple of terrific new books:

• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman (Bantam, 2007)

• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Random House, 2007)

Click here to register for the event.

First Friday Book Synopsis – August

My summer travels prevented me from attending the last couple of FFBSs, so I’m looking forward to getting back in the routine and being at next month’s meeting. Randy Mayeux and Karl Krayer promise to “take you through two books, cover-to-cover, in just one hour.”

As usual, Randy and Karl have selected a couple of intriguing titles for the August 3 meeting:

 

• The Hampster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before it Manages You by Mike Song, Vicki Halsey, Tim Burress, and Ken Blanchard.
• How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything… in Business (and in Life) by Dov Seidman.

One is very, very practical. It provides a proven, tested method for managing the overwhelming number of emails that we all receive on a daily basis. The other will help us all realize that qualities that we once considered “soft” are now recognized as the genuine hard currency of business success.

To register or find out more, visit their web site. If you are in the Dallas area, I encourage you to check it out.

First Friday Book Synopsis – May

It’s time once again for the First Friday Book Synopsis. As previously mentioned in this blog, Karl Krayer and Randy Mayeux promise to “take you through two books, cover-to-cover, in just one hour.” If you are in the Dallas area, this is great opportunity to get acquainted with new business books and new business people.

 

This month’s synopsis on May 4 features two recent and compelling titles that I’m very excited to hear about.

• Karl will review Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate Those Who Perform from Those Who Don’t by Ram Charan.
• Randy will review Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

If you’re in the Dallas area, I encourage you to check it out. You can register here.

“Cliff’s Notes” on steroids

One of my life goals is to publish a book. I imagine it being so well written — so concise and succinct — that it would be futile to write an executive summary or a review. Every word would be so important that it could not be reduced to anything less than the original. But that probably wouldn’t sell. It seems that most books are written more for the publisher than for the reader, using at least twice as many words as necessary to convey their most important concepts.

Perhaps someday that will change. But until then, we have the First Friday Book Synopsis in which Karl Krayer and Randy Mayeux promise to “take you through two books, cover-to-cover, in just one hour.” As one participant said, “It’s like Cliff’s Notes on steroids.” If you are in the Dallas area, this is a great opportunity to meet other business professionals, enjoy a hearty breakfast, and learn about new business books.

The next event is this Friday, April 6. I encourage you to check it out. Karl will review Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter et al. Randy will review How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules of Business Success by Margaret Heffernan.

If you are not in the Dallas area, you can still benefit from the synopses. Many of them are recorded and are available online in mp3 format.