The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals


Chris McChesney - 2011
    A #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller with more than 500,000 copies sold, The Four Disciplines of Execution will radically change your business.Do you remember the last major initiative you watched die in your organization? Did it go down with a loud crash? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated by other competing priorities? By the time it finally disappeared, it’s likely no one even noticed. What happened? Often, the answer is that the “whirlwind” of urgent activity required to keep things running day-to-day devoured all the time and energy you needed to invest in executing your strategy for tomorrow. The 4 Disciplines of Execution can change that forever. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is a simple, repeatable, and proven formula for executing your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. By following the 4 Disciplines—Focus on the Wildly Important; Act on Lead Measures; Keep a Compelling Scoreboard; Create a Cadence of Accountability—leaders can produce breakthrough results, even when executing the strategy requires a significant change in behavior from their teams. 4DX is not theory. It is a proven set of practices that have been tested and refined by hundreds of organizations and thousands of teams over many years. When a company or an individual adheres to these disciplines, they achieve superb results, regardless of the goal. 4DX represents a new way to think and work that is essential to thriving in today’s competitive climate. The 4 Disciplines of Execution is one book that no business leader can afford to miss.

Plan Your Prosperity: The Only Retirement Guide You'll Ever Need, Starting Now--Whether You're 22, 52 or 82


Kenneth L. Fisher - 2012
    Many retirees or soon-to-be retirees have heard a plethora of advice. Take 100 (or 120) and subtract your age to get your equity allocation, put the rest in bonds or cash. Buy only bonds. Buy only high dividend stocks. Or some combination! Buy equity-indexed annuities or some "guaranteed" income product. All examples of a potentially harmful myth many folks believe to be smart, strategic moves.Investors believe preparing for retirement requires a radically different set of tools or a dizzying array of products. Navigating the world of retirement products and services can be a full-time job. But investing for retirement is, in practice, not much (if at all) different from investing. In Your Retirement Plan, Ken Fisher will give readers a workable strategy to either develop their own retirement investing plan or work more successfully with a professional to increase the likelihood of achieving long-term goals while avoiding common pitfalls. The book will include easy-to-follow steps likeHow to think, correctly, about investing time horizon. How to better figure how much income you need How to determine if a portfolio can provide that income How to figure how much to save each year to achieve retirement goals What pitfalls to avoid And more. . . . In this retirement planning book that's not just for retirees, Fisher will hand readers the tools and confidence they need to better plan for the future.

The Way to Wealth


Benjamin Franklin - 1757
    It is a collection of adages and advice presented in Poor Richard's Almanac during its first 25 years of publication, organized into a speech given by "Father Abraham" to a group of people. Many of the phrases Father Abraham quotes continue to be familiar today. The essay's advice is based on the themes of work ethic and frugality. Some phrases from the almanac quoted in "The Way to Wealth" include: "There are no gains, without pains" "One today is worth two tomorrows" "A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things" "Get what you can, and what you get hold" "Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright" "Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today" "The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands" "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" "For want of a nail..."

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers


Ben Horowitz - 2014
    His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, includingdemoting (or firing) a loyal friend;whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them;if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company;how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you;what to do when smart people are bad employees;why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one;whether you should sell your company, and how to do it.Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.

How to Think About Money


Jonathan Clements - 2016
    And then there are those who get it.Want a more prosperous, less stressful financial life? Jonathan Clements, longtime personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal, is here to help. His goal: to provide readers with a coherent way to think about their finances, so they worry less about money, make smarter financial choices and squeeze more happiness out of the dollars that they have. How to Think About Money is built around five key ideas: 1. Money can buy happiness, but we need to spend with great care.2. Most of us will enjoy an extraordinarily long life--and that has profound financial implications.3. We are hardwired for financial failure, so sensible money management takes great mental strength.4. We need to bring order to our financial life--by focusing on our paycheck, or lack thereof.5. If we want to add to our wealth, we should strive to minimize the subtractions."Now why didn't I think of that? That's what you'll ask yourself after you read Jonathan Clements's fine new book. Its beauty lies in the commonsense and wisdom that is summed up in just five simple steps that will help you to earn your financial independence. Easy to understand, essential to follow."--John C. Bogle, founder, The Vanguard Group"Jonathan Clements brings his intelligence, insight and commonsense to How to Think About Money, which is packed with wisdom and great guidance. Read it and reap the rewards in the years and decades ahead."--Eric Tyson, author of Personal Finance for Dummies and Investing for Dummies "How to Think About Money is financial feng shui --a blueprint for harmonizing all the aspects of personal finance into a balanced way of approaching and managing money. I found myself measuring my own attitudes and beliefs against the yardsticks in Jonathan Clements's book, and was pleased to find that we're on the same page. Anyone who feels overwhelmed by the challenges of today's world can benefit from Clements's advice on how to make smart financial choices, as well as how to develop, in his words, a 'coherent way to think about their financial life'."--Janet Bodnar, editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine"Concise, important and true. Jonathan Clements provides you a path not just to better finances, but to a better life."--Terry Burnham, finance professor, Chapman University, and author of Mean Markets and Lizard Brains"Jonathan Clements writes so well and thinks so clearly that even financial planning, saving, and wise decisions are almost fun to think through with him as our guide."--Charles Ellis, author of Winning the Loser's Game"In How to Think About Money, Jonathan Clements, one of the premier financial writers of our times, provides readers with a roadmap for a successful financial life. It's an easy read that can result in changing the way readers look at investing and life. Read it and reap."--Mel Lindauer, Forbes.com columnist and co-author of The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing and The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning"Jonathan Clements is one of the greatest financial consumer advocates of our time, not only because of his emphasis on a practical and commonsense approach to personal finance, but because his message is delivered in a welcoming, easy-to-understand manner. That approach moves his readers to take the most important step toward winning in the personal-finance world--taking ownership of one's financial life and following that with action."--Peter Mallouk, president of Creative Planning and author of The 5 Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them