Book Description
An inside look at one of the world's most successful real estate companies
RE/MAX was founded over 30 years ago in Denver, Colorado, based upon a revolutionary idea for a new system of selling real estate. Since then, RE/MAX has experienced over 380 straight months of explosive growth. In Everybody Wins, authors Phil Harkins and Keith Hollihan reveal how RE/MAX has achieved such phenomenal success by examining the company's strategy, culture, and leadership. Harkins -- with the full cooperation of RE/MAX -- led a research team that closely studied RE/MAX as well as comparable fast-growing companies. The team observed critical meetings, attended conventions, dug through historical archives, and conducted extensive interviews with more than 50 key RE/MAX leaders. The outcome is an insightful and engaging account of one of the world's most successful companies. Order your copy today.
Download Description
An inside look at one of the world's most successful real estate companies
RE/MAX was founded over 30 years ago in Denver, Colorado, based upon a revolutionary idea for a new system of selling real estate. Since then, RE/MAX has experienced over 380 straight months of explosive growth. In Everybody Wins, authors Phil Harkins and Keith Hollihan reveal how RE/MAX has achieved such phenomenal success by examining the company's strategy, culture, and leadership. Harkins-with the full cooperation of RE/MAX-led a research team that closely studied RE/MAX as well as comparable fast-growing companies. They observed critical meetings, attended conventions, dug through historical archives, and conducted extensive interviews with more than 50 key RE/MAX leaders. The outcome is an insightful and engaging account of one of the world's most successful companies. Readers will gain an insider's view of how a company grew from a renegade bunch of mavericks to a tight network of over 100,000 agents in more than 50 countries. They'll also learn about RE/MAX's commitment to community, through the Breast Cancer Survivor Recognition Program, the Children's Miracle Network, and The Wildlife Experience. Everybody Wins paints a comprehensive picture of an amazing company and offers valuable lessons for those who want to start or grow their own business.
Phil Harkins (Concorde, MA) is CEO of Linkage, Inc., a research and consulting company that focuses on senior leaders and leadership teams at the top. Keith Hollihan (Brooklyn, NY) has coauthored a number of nonfiction business/leadership books, including the Wall Street Journal-highly recommended selection Beating the Business Cycle by Lakshman Achuthan and Anirvan Banerji. He has also written dozens of articles for a wide range of leadership experts.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling........2007-05-11
I read this book about two years ago. This book has an ample amount of ingredients for success. This is definitely one of those types of books you can read over and over again for insight and inspiration. This book is not just tailored to RE/MAX and its concept but also structured to give one an adequate start or ongoing reference for ideas. I will save the gutts of the company's ascent for your on curiosity and review. This book is full of lessons on perseverance. Especially when at the brink of ruination.
RE/MAX represents a model of bold innovation, constant change and improvement, high levels of persistence, energy and passion. At RE/MAX, everyone's truly in business for themselves and not for the company they work in. That's the difference!
Everybody Wins that reads this book!.......2007-04-08
As a RE/MAX agent, I found the history behind the company to be most interesting. From a real estate perspective, it offers great insight into how the industry has changed over the last 35 years. From a business perspective (and that's probably this book's most valuable beneficial view) it illustrates the importance of holding onto a dream until it becomes reality.
Entertaining, motivating and enjoyable - a great book all the way around!
AHH..Yes..How exciting.........2006-03-18
A review areA that's chock full of intersting speculation about the real estate market.So FasCinating.
Common Sense to Common Practice.......2006-02-22
The Remax story is about applying everyday common sense to serving customers - the nice thing about it is that you could apply the principals espoused in this wonderful story of opportunity, growth and success for a host of regular folks to a range of retail business models and create your own success story. This book reminds us that we can all participate in serving customers and make a good living from doing it - nice easy read - well done.
Up, Up, and Away!.......2005-10-20
Phenomenal book on the rise of the RE/MAX philosophy. It details the efforts needed to establish a new real estate business model that flew in the face of an immobile, bedrocked industry. I especially enjoyed the emphasis placed on the early years and what the founders went through to ultimately succeed--a struggle in which success, failure, and near death all played their hands. This is an emotional roller coaster for the tight-knit community of brokers who first embraced the RE/MAX brand and strove to build it into one of the largest and most recognizable real estate brokerages in the world. Great story about the determination to build a business. 4 Stars.
Amazon.com
Most Americans would agree that they are duty bound as beneficiaries of our democracy to pay taxes, and the majority of us do pay—-exorbitantly. But what about those who do not pay their fair share? David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, here reveals how fairness and equity have eroded from the American tax system. Johnston describes in shocking detail the loopholes our government provides the "super rich"--from private individuals to profitable corporations—-to hide their wealth, to defer or evade tax payments, and to pass the bill to law-abiding middle-class Americans. The loss in revenue "imposes a severe cost on honest taxpayers" through reduced services, increased federal debt, and a weight on the middle class that threatens to impede its ability to achieve upward social mobility. Admitting the extreme complexity of our economy and by extension our tax code, Johnston points out that the very wealthy do, of course, pay taxes. However, because of shelters that allow them to understate most of their income, they pay little more on average than most Americans on the dollar. This is regressive, and unquestionably favors the superrich. Johnston includes examples of outrageous corporate malfeasance (such as companies that establish off-shore tax addresses) and exposes the tax benefits of the particularly loathsome practice made famous by Jack Welch, in which thousands of wage earners are laid off while a handful of executives are granted hundreds of millions of dollars through deferred compensation, company stock options, and lucrative retirement packages, all at stock holders' xpense. In addition to these offenses, he describes the tax evasion methods of those who simply defy the law and are emboldened by a beleaguered IRS that is too underfunded to serve as an effective deterrent to tax cheats. Johnston calls for a complete overhaul of the system. But because those who most benefit from these laws comprise the "donor class" that supports the government power structure, our prospects for reform remain very bleak. --Silvana Tropea
Book Description
One of the country's top investigative reporters reveals how the richest 1 percent of the country has rigged the tax code and other laws in its favor.
Since the mid-1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in America's socioeconomic system, one that has gone virtually unnoticed by the general public. Tax policies and their enforcement have become a disaster, and thanks to discreet lobbying by a segment of the top 1 percent, Washington is reluctant or unable to fix them. The corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the gift tax have been largely ignored by the media. But the cumulative results are remarkable: today someone who earns a yearly salary of $60,000 pays a larger percentage of his income in taxes than the four hundred richest Americans.
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston exposes exactly how the middle class is being squeezed to create a widening wealth gap that threatens the stability of the country. By relating the compelling tales of real people across all areas of society, he reveals the truth behind:
* "middle class" tax cuts and exactly whom they benefit
* how workers are being cheated out of their retirement plans while disgraced CEOs walk away with millions
* how some corporations avoid paying any federal income tax
* how a law meant to prevent cheating by the top 2 percent of Americans no longer affects most of them, but has morphed into a stealth tax on single mothers making just $28,000
* why the working poor are seven times more likely to be audited by the IRS than everyone else
* how the IRS became so weak that even when it was handed complete banking records detailing massive cheating by 1,600 people, it prosecuted only 4 percent of them
Johnston has been breaking pieces of this story on the front page of The New York Times for seven years. With Perfectly Legal, he puts the whole shocking narrative together in a way that will stir up media attention and make readers angry about the state of our country.
Download Description
"One of the country's top investigative reporters reveals how the richest 1 percent of the country has rigged the tax code and other laws in its favor Since the mid-1970s, there has been a dramatic shift in America's socioeconomic system, one that has gone virtually unnoticed by the general public. Tax policies and their enforcement have become a disaster, and thanks to discreet lobbying by a segment of the top 1 percent, Washington is reluctant or unable to fix them. The corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the gift tax have been largely ignored by the media. But the cumulative results are remarkable: today someone who earns a yearly salary of $60,000 pays a larger percentage of his income in taxes than the four hundred richest Americans. Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston exposes exactly how the middle class is being squeezed to create a widening wealth gap that threatens the stability of the country. By relating the compelling tales of real people across all areas of society, he reveals the truth behind: ""middle class"" tax cuts and exactly whom they benefit how workers are being cheated out of their retirement plans while disgraced CEOs walk away with millions how some corporations avoid paying any federal income tax how a law meant to prevent cheating by the top 2 percent of Americans no longer affects most of them, but has morphed into a stealth tax on single mothers making just $28,000 why the working poor are seven times more likely to be audited by the IRS than everyone else how the IRS became so weak that even when it was handed complete banking records detailing massive cheating by 1,600 people, it prosecuted only 4 percent of them Johnston has been breaking pieces of this story on the front page of The New York Times for seven years. With Perfectly Legal, he puts the whole shocking narrative together in a way that will stir up media attention and make readers angry about the state of our country."
Customer Reviews:
Review of Perfectly Legal.......2007-06-22
This book is well researched and addresses an area every American should be aware of, but I suspect too few are. The author has done everyone a service by pulling together evidence that is both comprehensive and detailed. It acts as a sad indictment on American society, showing that many wealthy Americans maintain and enhance their wealth by corruption. That the book shows the US authorities actively support it is all the more cause for concern. I recommend evey American to read this book thoroughly and demand appropriate action from those in power.
Excellent.......2006-07-12
Another book which confirms my own. This book in general shows that the super-rich are (in general of course) evil, but it also shows that the U.S. Government is also very evil.
He points out something interesting which is that it was found by a scholar, that the laws of the former Soveit Union were better than those of the U.S.'s, and mainly because of our tax laws, which he found to be worse than those of all the socialist countries of Europe.
The prize is capital gains........2006-05-23
Blattmair devised a scheme where he would use a charitable trust for MS Bill Gates as a way to avoid paying $56 million in capital gains taxes for $200 million in stock profits. Charitable Trust provided a shelter from taxes for stocks or buildings that appreciated in asset. The asset is transferred to the charitable trust and the charitable trust sells the asset tax-free and invests the proceedings. The trust gives the donating individual a lifetime income typically 6% a year. However, Blattmair plan was to take back 80% per year for two years and Gates would pocket $192 million without paying taxes and the charity would fold, but not before 92% of the funds had been converted into cash. The government would collect nothing. Instead, Bill Gates could claim a tax deduction of $2 million. It became questionable whether the IRS reviewed or challenged the tax shelter devise or even if the device was used. The only fact known is that at one time it existed and provided a shelter against the capital gains tax. The capital gain is the source of ½ of all the income of the super rich. Capital gains tax fell from 28% rate in 1987 to 15% in 2003.
The rich are getting richer. Money is moving from the middle class too the super rich. Both the middle class and the poor are increasingly burdened with tax while the super rich repeat all the social benefits of the tax. The Reagan "Trickle down Wealth effect" is mythical: 1. Working class wages increases have not increased in three decades 2. Food and consumer products have become cheaper offsetting the cost of living for the middle class. Cost reductions made possible because of government subsidies and manufacturing efficiency 3. Government debt in the form of government bonds has absorbed cheap money supply making market growth slow and become more competitive for available money. Business profit margins have slimmed jeopardizing survival long term. Interest rate thresholds have lifted increasing bankruptcies and reaching levels of about 1 million claims a year. 4. Stocks returns averaging a 7 percent real return less inflation have barely broke even. The Stock market is transferring wealth from the middle class to the super rich. The super rich are realizing profits of about 25 to 40 percent a year on their money. 5. Property taxes, fuel taxes, and income taxes have placed a heavier burden on the working class reducing the percent diverted to savings and retirement. The US has the highest percentage separation between rich and poor (1 dollar saved in the lower percentile equates to 7,500 dollars saved in the top 5 percentile). The middle class is in trouble as interest rates rise, the dollar weakens, the stock market routes, the housing market deflates, and the commodity market switches back into bear territory.
The weakness discovered in Title 26 of the US code are the law is based on politics and not principles; the tax system in America is being rigged to benefit the super rich; the tax system is a vehicle designed to finance social change; the rules that government sets for their tax system and the degree they enforce them, affects and determines who will prosper. "Congress lets business owners, investors, and land lords play by one set of rules, which are filled with opportunities to hide income, fabricate deductions and reduce taxes," and on the other hand, "Congress requires wage earners to operate under another, much harsher set of rules in which every dollar of income from a job, a saving account or stock dividend is reported to the government, and taxes are withheld from each pay check to make sure wage earners pay in full."
The richests 1 percent, whose adjusted gross income of more than $313,000 in 2000, earned almost 21 percent of all reported income and pay more than 37% of individual federal income taxes. For three decades profits have been growing 1/3 faster than corporate income taxes; in 1993, 26 cents went to taxes for every dollar and in 1998, 22 cents per dollar earned while corporate income tax remained 35%. Many of the rich owned businesses, creating opportunities to charge a portion of their lifestyle to the company and managed to keep profits near zero while the owners built up wealth in the company; wealth that would not be taxed until they died.
The share of income going to taxes for the top 400 in 2000 was about the same ratio as that paid by a single person making $123,000 or a married couple making $226,000. The average amount been paid was about $38.6 million dollars each.
The super rich are finding the tax shelter opportunities in the law and is perfectly legal. Law-makers are haphazardly allowing these opportunities to be put into the law because from lack or scrutiny or from pressure both politically and economically to allow these opportunities into the law. Lawyers and tax consultants study the law and discover these opportunities and advise the super rich on the tax shelter mechanisms. The super rich are able to increase their accumulation velocity. The accumulation of money is invested into bonds, commercial paper, bank notes, and stocks that pay the super rich a dividend. The capital gains are sheltered and increase the velocity of accumulation favoring the super rich. The middle class and the poor divert more of their money away from savings and retirement into taxes used for social change. Big government threatens to slow-down the availability of money causing rising interest rates for companies and business seeking to borrow money for capital projects. A business growth slows down employee wages are fired, unemployment increases, and retirement funds are jeopardized in survival tactics to save the company. The super rich do not have an economic incentive to risk their money on growth companies that generate almost all of the new jobs, innovations, and consumption trends. Instead, the super rich invest in large cap companies that are cash rich and promise a fat dividend payment and capable of withstanding short term distress in the business cycle. Financial devises like hedge funds become popular as the super rich dump billions of dollars into these funds. Insurance devises are also a popular tool for shelter vast amounts of money from taxes. The super rich are accumulating rather than creating jobs and that is the wealth illusion. Taxes do not create wealth. Capital creates wealth by creating jobs.
interesting, very needed yet a little over the top.......2006-05-10
This book was incredibly interesting and probably the most useful piece of investigative journalism I have seen on this topic. The tax code is rediculously complex and this book shows how that complexity is exploited by the rich and their friends.
The only problem I had with the book is the built in asumption that the rich should be taxed more that the poor. The point of his analysis is that the code is too complex, exploited, etc. The logical conclusion is to SIMPLIFY or CLOSE LOOPHOLES. However, the author repeatedly claims that as the taxes fall on the rich they must go up on the poor and middle class which is not always true and certainly need not be true. Taxes can go down on everyone. Or we could just as easily easily lower taxes on the middle and poorer citizens as raise them on the rich. There are more than one option.
The author seems to set up a case for a major reform of the tax code but his bias for an old fashioned 1930's style progressive tax policy is clear. Advocating for a retro tax code is fine and I might even agree to an extent but it seems to be a failing of many financial journalists to not understand the economics ramifications of their proposals. The economy is to different to go backward and we need a tax code for a global, serviced based economy. Robert Reich has good ideas as do many conservative advocates for a consumption tax. Which is best is still open for debate.
In conclusion the book is a vaild analysis of the problems with our current tax code but combines this analysis with advocating an old fashioned progressive system that I am afraid would be economically hurtful.
Blinded by numbers.......2006-04-27
Simply put, this book uses statistics and uncited claims to wow the reader whenever possible. This book had tremendous potential to show how broken the US tax system is and how much in need of reform it is. Instead of doing this it appears that the author took more or less substantial research and well developed hypotheses and ran it through the NY Times Krugmanizer, making everything seem like a grand right-wing conspiracy that with a wink and a nod politicians and multi-billionaires are bilking "American families" (the political buzzword du jour) from their hard earned cash.
Furthermore, as the Supreme Court has ruled explicitly, it is not an American's citizens duty to pay anything but the minimum amount of taxes required by law by using whatever lawful deductions or tax shelters he/she chooses.
So the thesis of the book is that the super-rich have taken advantage of and, the horror of it all, used their money to influence lawmakers to make tax laws even more favorable for them. I'm aghast!! The thought that lawmakers could sacrifice the principals of fairness and their constitutional duty for monetary gain?!? Thank goodness we have such paragons of virtue (Randy Cunningham, Tom Delay and his good friends Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon, and my new personal favorite W. VA congressman Allan B. Mollohan) protecting we plebians.
Book Description
Like one of the movie moguls of old, Michael Eisner is a titan -- feared, powerful, and almost magically successful. After rising through ABC television and Paramount Pictures, he awoke the sleeping giant of Disney and sent it stomping across the entertainment landscape. But since the tragic death of Frank Wells in a helicopter crash in 1994, he has lacked -- for the first time in his career -- a colleague who could temper his personality.
The result, writes Kim Masters, has been a slide into a Nixonian paranoia and isolation. In The Keys to the Kingdom, Masters crafts a gripping account of this larger-than-life story of larger-than-life hubris, combining an insightful analysis of power in Hollywood with a vivid, deeply researched narrative that brings the personalities, the enmities, and the corporate mayhem to life.
Customer Reviews:
digging into disney.......2005-03-26
A very well written account of the movie business--detailing a lot of the major players. Discussion how decisions are made and how grown men act like little boys most of the time. This industry is ruthless and this book gives the reader on all the inside scoop about how that happens. A fascinating read. The pictures stink but thats ok.
Prescient Book.......2004-04-12
Keys to the Kingdom predicted the current situation at Disney with remarkable accuracy. The insights about Michael Eisner turned out to be right on the mark.
pretty terrible.......2004-02-25
Oh Lord, this book is so unbelievably frustrating....more than any book I've ever read. Eisner, his life and his actions are so completely fascinating and Masters somehow manages to take all this great material and make it mind-numbingly boring...what was she thinking? That you could write a "nuanced" portrait of someone by throwing in hot gossip, sound bites, bits of articles from Time and Newsweek, as well as a bunch of stories that don't remotely relate to the main subject but are "dishy"? There was so much I wanted to know as I read this book, so many questions I had and she didn't answer any of them. Masters discusses Eisner's charm vs. his ruthlessness, she brings up provacative examples of his relationship to his family, his friends and his colleagues, and then steamrolls all of them by emphasizing how "aloof" he is and "imperial." Doesn't she know that when sketching a complicated portrait of someone, you can't just throw a bunch of facts around but you have to maintain interest by putting them TOGETHER to form a PERSPECTIVE, a CONTEXT. Much more time should have been spent on Eisner's days at Disney (rather than the completely gratuitous tales of his time at Paramount, and Star Trek, and Nimoy, and Gene Roddenberry, and Don Simpson, and Barry Diller, and...well you get the picture). I liked the parts about his childhood and his relationship to his parents, they should have been given much more space...but the biggest flaw of this book is the lack of info on the Eisner-Katzenberg relationship. Sure, Masters give plenty of space to financial issues about Katzenberg's bonus, but aside from Wall Street enthusiasts, who the hell cares? She COMPLETELY glosses over the roots of the Eisner-Katzenberg bond, and we never get an idea of WHY IN THE WORLD DID THESE TWO PEOPLE REMAIN TOGETHER FOR 19 YEARS IF THEY WERE SUCH ENEMIES? What held them together? How exactly did they meet? She talks about how Katzenberg was won over, like others, by Eisner's self-deprecating charm and his (Eisner's) confidence in him, about Katzenberg's not-so-great childhood and his problems with his own parents (very vague descriptions there as well) and how Katzenberg constantly "sought Eisner's approval". Why? What did Eisner offer him that no one else did? Why did Katzenberg follow Eisner from Paramount to Disney? She spends a whole lot of time talking (in a dry, Variety-kind-of-way) about the break-up, but the real question she (and other writers) have often missed is NOT why this relationship crashed and burned but why it was born in the first place. Why did Eisner need Katzenberg? Why did Katzenberg become so enamoured with animation, with his role at Disney, with a potential role as Eisner's number 2? These people are not carbon cut-outs, they are people. They are fascinating, complex characters and Masters gives them with about as much focus as subjects of an obituary. She seems more interested in how much money Captain EO lost, how much money Eisner allegedly cheated certain people out of, how much money Eisner paid Michael Ovitz, how much money Katzenberg wanted, how pissed Leonard Nimoy was at Paramount, what a disaster Star Trek: The Motion Picture was to produce. I don't know about you, but I didn't pick that book up to learn about this stuff. It's SO DIFFICULT to really learn about these people (Eisner and Katzenberg) despite their famous "relationship" or "feud" extremely little is really written about their interactions together as people...you have to research a ton of articles to even find out anything...this is such an interesting subject but whatever Master's knows that the rest of us don't, she isn't sharing. Her book (like many articles) unfortunately is pervaded with the "Everyone knows this" kind of tone that drives me nuts...well, I'm not a Hollywood producer, or director, or actor. I've never met either of these people, but that's why I'm interested! People buy books on Spielberg because they're interested, why the hypocricy? Masters book is slanted, glib, gossipy, disorganized, unfocused,and worst of all, insulting to the reader.
Not a full view of the man -- which proves the point!.......2002-10-11
Some may say that Masters' book is biased against Eisner, but she does nothing except reiterate the feelings about him that have been voiced by many others in other forums. Maybe you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the duplicity, wishy-washiness, undercutting, second-guessing, micro-management and all around malevolence that is evidenced shows that's pretty much impossible. What we can't figure out is just why he is the way he is? Why does he casually cast aside decades-long friendships? Why doesn't he cultivate relationships with valuable talent instead of alienating them? What is most important to him that would cause him to make some the decisions he does? Eisner seems to be capable of cutting off his nose to spite his face--he fails to do things that would be beneficial to the company's bottom line which is what he claims to be most interested in. It doesn't add up. Still, it is fun reading about the Paramount years, the Katzenberg trial, etc. At this point in time (summer of 2002) when many believe Eisner is in danger of losing his job, this book gives us as much insight as possible as to the inner workings of Eisner's brain.
instead of burning
Masters Paints a Grim Picture of Disney's Inner Sanctum.......2001-09-24
After reading Hit and Run and an excerpt from the this book in Vanity Fair, I couldn't wait to read "Keys to the Kingdom." I was not disappointed. Masters does a fine job of telling Eisner's (and the stories of those around him--Katzenberg, Diller, etc)story. Something about Eisner has always bit a bit unreal--even smarmy at times--and Masters holds nothing back. It isn't always balanced, but overall is fair. The details and stories are terrific--until the last 1/5th of the book. I was engrossed until the story turned the Katzenberg trial--where Masters drowned us in the details. I love details, but at times one needed a road map to keep. Masters is to be commended for a journalistic/insiders account of that dark time for Disney, but wow...I just had a time staying focused. However, on the whole the book is well worth the paper back price. You'll learn how Disney has never really gotten over the death of Frank Wells and why all those executives keep leaving. It is indeed a grim place; Eisner's inner sanctum. It is also another fascinating book.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for personal money and life management.............2007-03-09
Excellent for personal money and life management, very limited in investment management information and techniques. Protecting, Excellent; (and Growing) unfortunately is below what I expected.
A 'Must Have' Guide for Everybody!.......2006-08-21
Boy, does that title ring true! I also noticed on the cover of this book the wording, "Because that hand in your pocket... isn't yours!" You and I know that everybody wants your money in one form or another. However, I discovered some new ways while reading this book that I just finished. It is Written by David W. Latko, who is the co-host for the national radio program, "Money and More". Impressively, David Latko ranks among the nation's top one percent of financial advisors. I can just imagine how 'in demand' he is. He started off in a middle class neighborhood and moved his way up by helping people.
Where do you usually turn for answers with questions regarding investing, real estate, divorce, automobiles, identity theft, and so much more? If you say your family, friends, neighbors, or your own financial advisor, then you REALLY need to read this book to make sure you are steered on the right path. Looks can be deceiving. Do your homework, starting with this book, because it is YOUR money and YOUR financial future you are looking out for. No one else has such a vested interest in your finances as you need to, except for the slime balls mentioned in this book that you have to watch out for who want your money.
David not only presents practical advice in this book. He also shares memorable stories that yank on the heartstrings and gets your blood boiling. Think you are safe from your own family members who are to inherit your money? Think again and take a look at the story examples in this book. If nothing else, you will at least be aware and prepared just in case.
This book would make great gifts for everyone in your life. What better gift can you give them than to make sure they don't make wrong financial decisions that can destroy their future? I'm going to be buying and giving this book to some of my own family and friends as gifts. I am keeping mine to refer to and share with my children when needed. This book is definitely worth it!
... Story example: Willa and Tony, a retired couple who had a horrific experience with their first financial advisor. They came into some money. They had no idea what to do to invest or what to do.
So they solicited some advice from other retired friends. One of them had received a postcard in the mail a week before, and he passed it along to Tony and Willa. It gave the name and number of a financial advisor who worked in a branch office of a major brokerage which they knew of from hearing about it on TV.
In short order, their new advisor "handled" their prosperity problem. He put them into a range of investments that Willa and Tony did not clearly understand. Then, after a month or so of frenetic activity, he stopped calling-or returning their calls.
With their frustration mounting, they mentioned their problem to a person who happened to be a client of Davids. Turns out the other advisor had locked Willa and Tony into investments that carried staggeringly large up-front commissions; others carried long-term (and expensive) surrender charges.
There was little that could be done. The couple were tied into investments that could not be changed without taking a significant financial hit, in the case of Willa and Tony, it was more than a $26,000 loss.
This book should be a part of everyone's collection.......2006-07-11
This book is valuable on so many levels. Not only does David Latko explain those investments such as real estate, and car buying but he also details the financial repercussions of a divorce and its long-term implications.
Latko uses real-life experiences that hit close to home. So many of the problems that he describes are ones that I've encountered or have friends that have encountered them. His advice and knowledge are priceless.
David Latko really knows what he's talking about. This book was an absolute inspiration and savior to me!
Read this book immediately! .......2006-07-11
David Latko's "Everybody Wants Your Money," skillfully outlines the dos and don'ts of asset management. After reading this book I feel like I've dodged a financial bullet. It is so easy to take the easy way out and do as our advisors recommend without looking at the big picture.
Throughout this book, Latko uses numbers and charts to help visualize his arguments. In this way he effectively shows how the decisions you make today will have an impact on your finances in the coming years.
The advice and wisdom that I took from this book are priceless. He is a master of his field and honestly believes that everyone should make informed decisions.
A truly amazing book.......2006-07-11
After reading David Latko's book I realize how trusting most people are. So many of us put the future of our financial stability in the hands of our "advisors." In reality, these people are out to make a dollar too!
Latko does a beautiful job of outlining the typical financial pitfalls that we all face in a way that is not only easy to understand but fun to read.
This is such an important book for everyone to read. Even if you think you have nothing to worry about - this is really an eye opener!
Book Description
Completely updated for today's competitive job market!
In today's competitive job market, it has become more important than ever that candidates prepare a strong cover letter. A well-worded cover letter not only gets the attention of recruiters, HR personnel, and managers, it often sets one candidate apart from the others and helps ensure the all-important interview. Featuring more than 100 brand-new cover letter samples for dozens of new industry jobs, this all-new edition of The Everything Cover Letter Book includes all one needs to know-whether job seekers are applying online or to a traditional print classified ad.
Readers benefit from experienced advice on how to:
Adapt a cover letter to be application-appropriate
Write follow-up correspondences, including post-interview thank-you letters
Know what words to avoid
Book Description
Everyone knew him then: Bruce Barton was a cultural icon. Two-thirds of American history textbooks today cite him to illustrate the 1920s adoration of the business mentality that then dominated American culture. Historians quote from his enormous best-seller, The Man Nobody Knows, in which Barton called Jesus the founder of modern business who picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world. But few know Bruce Barton now: he is the most famous twentieth-century American not to rate a biography. Richard Fried's compelling new study captures the full dimensions of Barton's varied and fascinating life.
Customer Reviews:
The Man Who Signed Off On "Which Twin Has The Toni?".......2006-01-04
Richard Fried wrote a fantastic book on US Cold War homefront pageantry (THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!) a few years back, but he's perhaps not the world's most dramatic writer, and his new biography of legendary adman Bruce Barton is serviceable, but nothing outstanding. Fried estimates that Barton was the 20th century's most famous man for whom no full length biography had ever been attempted. That may be so, but maybe there was a reason no one else had tried to get Barton into hard covers.
From what I can make out, his achievements are paltry, and boosted by hot air (he was, after all, one of the kings of Madison Avenue, though not a particularly original designer or thinker). As Fried reveals, Barton was so well-known at the time that many credited him wrongly with every advertising campaign that got noticed; thus he was like the Dorothy Parker of advertising (Parker got the credit for every halfway decent quip uttered at the Algonquin Round Table.) His agency, BBDO, made the Campbell Kids popular on TV, and Carton thought that their creation Chiquita Banana, a talking banana developed for United Fruit, was a masterpiece. Values are screwy in the ad world, and yet Barton had the balls to write one of the all time best sellers of the 20th century (the #1 nonfiction book of 1926), a life of Christ called THE MAN NOBODY KNOWS in which he attempted to paint Jesus Christ as the ultimate businessman, good at molding little people into good workers, a glad hand for everyone, the kind of guy who pats you on the back at a Kiwanis luncheon.
Barton played up his marriage as something sacrosanct but he got caught with his pants down in the early 1930s, when a conniving pre-Code type of minx got her hooks in him and threatened to expose their office affair unless he paid her off to the tune of $25,000. When he did, and she came back again with renewed demands, he went public with his affair, and charged the woman with blackmail. He handled the whole sorry mess with aplomb, but it left his reputation a little dog-eared, poor guy.
Oh well, it was worth a try but at this date it might be too late to try to rehabilitate one of the dumbest careers of modern times. Fried does his best but fails to convince us that Barton's life was any more interesting than that of, oh, someone like Dick Clark. There's shallow, then there's mad shallow.
Good book -- but there's one even better.......2005-11-04
This is a well-written, well-researched, long-overdue biography of an important figure in advertising and American life.
A glaring omission, however, is the lack of any mention of or reference to Joe Vitale's pioneering book on Barton's methods: The Seven Lost Secrets of Success.
For anyone who wants to know the principles by which Barton accomplished what he did--and how they can put Barton's methods to work in their own business or career--Vitale's Seven Lost Secrets of Success is the book to get.
Average customer rating:
- Important Book
- Step By Step Guidebook For Monetary Change
- Boston Tea Party for Wage Slaves
- No more wars or privation. Everybody wins!
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Interest and Inflation Free Money: Creating an Exchange Medium That Works for Everybody and Protects the Earth
Margrit Kennedy , and
Declan Kennedy
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Popular Economics
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Money & Monetary Policy
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Public Finance
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Natural Resources
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Inflation
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Interest
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ASIN: 0865713197 |
Customer Reviews:
Important Book.......2002-12-02
Someday humanity will look back on this book and wonder why its methods were not put into practice generations sooner. Better late than never. Free yourself. Become part of the solution.
Step By Step Guidebook For Monetary Change.......2002-12-02
No need to reinvent the wheel. This book explains how money works for those who already have too much and against those who are really creating the wealth. Then it shows examples of systems tried and shown to be effective in keeping the productivity in the hands of the creators and at the same time allowing the already-rich to keep their security. No guesswork necesary. A complete guide to making changes that are long overdue in this nation and hopefully on this planet. Imagine working your fair share of time and prospering while the earth has a chance to recover from merciless plunder. Don't dream it: BE it!
Boston Tea Party for Wage Slaves.......2002-12-02
If people only understood the concepts in this easy to read book, freedom would return to this land. People would be able to keep the profits from their labor. Americans who have been taught to endure hardship simply to earn a living would find that their life-energy has been stolen and would be empowered to take it back. Land would be redistributed and it would be profitable to live lightly on the earth once again. The system described in this book is tried and proven. Many communities are using its example to restore prosperity to their citizens.
Small but powerful book. Should be required reading for all high-school students. At least the next generation would taste freedom and prosperity.
No more wars or privation. Everybody wins!.......2002-05-19
Inflation is just another way of saying the government cannot pay the interest on its war debts and has to print more money to cover the payments, devaluing the federal reserve notes you earn.
Interest is a huge wealth transfering machine, from the suffering to the already obscenely wealthy.
All of America is laboring under some terrible delusions today.
And a host of evils fall upon our heads. Desperate, driven, unhappy unhealthy populations suffer to pay back imaginary money. Families suffer, society becomes unsafer, children are unloved because they have parents who have no time for them. The next generation is being trained to endure hardship, and work longer and longer hours only to give away the fruits of their labor. Minds are wasted and the wondrous inventions that they might have come up with are lost... Knowledge of life-saving and health promoting methods are repressed. Our lives have been stolen from us, and the existence were are permitted is miserable. We are walking abortions. Permitted to have our bodies, but denied our lives.
This tiny little book shows the way out. The systems in this book stimulate an economy so well that even artists flourish, and it even tends to redistribute land: the only real wealth. Towns like Utica NY have tried it and it works beautifully, And the best of it is that "the Big boys" get to keep theirs, so the system is no threat to them. In fact, instead of having to worry about their holdings being eaten by inflation, they pay only a very small holding fee (say, 2%/yr.) to the banks if they don't want to participate. Much less worry for them, too, because even their fortunes suffer from being eaten by 4-6%/yr inflation.
It is all the more imperative that we take just a few minutes to read this simple little book now, because, over the next few years, 90% of the workforce will become unnecessary (see Jeremy Rifkin, "The End OF Work"). About 350 people own as much of the world as 40% of the rest of the world population. How long do you think they will need you?
Besides, for the believers in the Bible and the Torah among us, "Woe be to him who sells money at interest, for he sells what Does Not Exist". Do you really think that God just meant to not sell money to "foreigners"? That was when he was talking to a few tribes that he had chosen to build a better world for themselves. We are all one world family now. That means you, too, if you have an interest bearing bank account, pay a mortgage, are buying a car, or use credit cards.
And even if you think you pay interest only if you borrow money, think again! There are interest costs in everything you do including paying for your trash collection.
There is an easier and better way. Margrit Kennedy explains it much more succinctly than I can write this review...
Book Description
Since the publication of Roger Fisher and William Ury's highly influential book, Getting to Yes, it has been widely recognized that there is a middle ground between winning and losing in negotiation. Yet, while Getting to Yes was long on motivation, it was short on technique. What you really want to know is on which issues you will win, on which you will lose, and on which you will have to compromise. To this question, Steven J. Brams and Alan D. Taylor bring a patented procedure that not only is fair but also actually guarantees that both parties walk away with as much of the "win-win" potential as possible.
Customer Reviews:
A Useful Tool, But Not A Panacea.......2001-11-14
This book introduces only one novel concept, which is okay, because many best-sellers contain no original thought at all.
Brams and Taylor spend the book explaining the concept "adjusted winner" and its implications for dispute resolution. The authors begin by laying the following framework: the dispute involved is a two-party dispute, goods or issues ("items") are being divided, and the division is a voluntary choice.
Within that framework, according to Brams and Taylor, there are four basic ways of dividing items: strict alternation (taking turns); balanced alternation, which adds something to compensate for the disadvantage of going second; one-cuts-the-other- chooses, and "adjusted winner."
The "adjusted winner" situation has three characteristics: it is envy-free, efficient, and equitable. Each of these terms has a specific meaning in this book (the concepts can be hard to keep straight on a first reading).
"Envy-free" means that no party is willing to give up the portion it receives in exchange for the portion someone else receives.
"Equitable" means that both parties think they received the same fraction of the total items to be divided, as they value them.
"Efficient" means that there is no other allocation that is better for some party without being worse for another party.
How is this gold standard of negotiation outcome achieved? Ah, there's the rub. First the parties designation the goods and issues in a dispute. Then, each party indicates how much the value obtaining the different goods, or "getting their way" on the different issues, by distributing 100 points across them. Each item is initially assigned to the person who puts more points on it. Then, an equitable allocation is achieved by transferring items, or fractions thereof, from one party to the other until their point totals are equal.
The book addresses adequately, I think, the problem of one or both parties being insincere about their preferences (it can be demonstrated mathematically to backfire). However, despite the concrete examples offered of the David and Ivana Trump divorce, the Camp David Agreement, the Clinton-Bush debates, and the Spratly Islands dispute, the reader is left wondering, doggone it, how do I actually assign these point thingies in my next negotiation? And is this method just too fancy to get the folks across the table to buy into? I suspect it probably is.
Advance in Dispute Resolution.......2000-08-25
In a broad perspective, we see a strong desire in society to understand dispute and simplify the process of closure. In one camp, there have always been those who have worked toward addressing the underlying reality of disputes through logic and wisdom (Solomon for example). In another camp, there have always been those who have arbitrarily simplified dispute resolution leading to forced, bureaucratic solutions, which more often than not led to a more intense conflict.
In this reviewer's opinion, it is critical to understand which camp ideas on dealing with disputes belong to. Win-Win does not present a variation of a one-size-fits-all solution or conjure up a quick fix by slight of hand. By recognizing that disputing parties have different needs and priorities, they developed an efficient process that offers the opportunity for all parties to assert, and perhaps win what they think best for themselves. Their idea is nothing less than an addition to the science of fairness in the Western philosophical tradition.
Fair division is not a complete solution to every dispute. Solomon might have been confused if confronted by two parents with equal rights, responsibilities, and motivation. In such complex situations as divorce with children, much can be gained however by partially stripping away disputed issues and focusing a new wave of effort on those that remain. Judging from what is presented in Win-Win, I believe the authors would be satisfied with a recommendation that their ideas deserve to be part of the general toolkit for dispute resolution. I would go farther in suggesting it as part of a basic scientific understanding of fairness that every culture needs.
Many books attempt to address a broad class of problems and eventually end up in the dusty stack of fads with Hoola Hoops. In Win-Win, Brams and Taylor have presented a valid idea with mathematical precision that adds to our understanding of fairness and is not likely to go out of fashion. But it doesn't stop there. They provide systematic processes for applying the knowledge in real life. I could not possibly imagine the full list of professionals and non-professionals, scientists, politicians, negotiators, and den mothers, who can find value in Win-Win.
Roger F. Gay, Project Leader Project for the Improvement of Child Support Litigation Technology http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5910/index.html
Average customer rating:
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EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS (Everybody's Business)
Robert Levering
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Company Profiles
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| Business & Investing
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General
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Production & Operations
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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ASIN: 0385265476
Release Date: 1990-10-01 |
Average customer rating:
- Good but beware of bias in language
- Bedtime story
- Very endearing and sweet
- Great book!
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Shhhhh! Everybody's Sleeping
Julie Markes
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Bedtime & Dreaming
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Similar Items:
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Opposites
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Wiggle (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards))
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10 Little Rubber Ducks
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Tickle the Duck
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Colors: A First Art Book
ASIN: 0060537906
Release Date: 2004-12-28 |
Book Description
Does the farmer sleep on a mattress of hay? Is the baker's bed made of soft, doughy bread? And is the grocer most comfortable resting on a bed of lettuce? No matter what the bed or walls look like, when the day's activities are done, it's time for everyone, big or small, to go to sleep.
With whimsy and humor, Julie Markes and David Parkins show that -- although everybody has a unique idea of quiet and order -- happy dreams and slumber await all when evening falls.
Customer Reviews:
Good but beware of bias in language.......2006-02-27
This is a lovely book filled with rhyming words and intricate pictures. That said, the language and identity of the characters shows bias. I would prefer the book to say "police officer" and "fire fighter" and have pictures of men and women in those roles. This book is very gender rigid with women in the roles of librarian, teacher and baker; and men in traditional men's roles. I change the words when I read it to my toddler but the pictures still reinforce the gender stereotypes.
Bedtime story.......2005-08-10
I bought this for my 2-year old granddaughter. I read it to her on my last visit. She seemed to like it, but it wasn't the book she brought to me most often for reading.
Very endearing and sweet.......2005-06-10
My 2 1/2 year old son loves this book. We took it from the library and now I'm here to buy it since it enjoys it so much. It's a simple read, and short enough for a toddler bedtime. The premise is that each page shows another person sleeping, but people children would know. Like the teacher is sleeping (surrounded by school things), the librarian is sleeping (with books around her), policeman, etc. My son likes to see everyone sleeping, and the illustrations are gentle and have enough going on so we can talk about what he sees. For instance, in the picture for the pages on the Farmer is sleeping, he's using a sheep for a pillow and one of his socks fell off. My son thinks that's pretty funny. And at the end, a little boy just like him is shown going to sleep. I highly recommend it, especially for kids that don't want to go to sleep!
Great book!.......2005-02-28
My 21-month-old daughter loves this book. She asks me to read it every night before bed. It is short and engaging enough for young toddlers, but would appeal to older kids as well. It only has two short sentences per page and is beautifully illustrated. I don't even mind reading it over and over.
Books:
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
- Fourth Generation R&D: Managing Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation
- Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods
- Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- Global Institutions, Marginalization and Development (Routledge/Ripe Studies in Globalpolitical Economy)
- Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
- Groups in Context: Leadership and Participation in Small Groups
- High Five (A Stephanie Plum Novel)
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