If you have not yet bought the original copy, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial summary from aBookaDay. SPECIAL OFFER $2.99 (Regularly priced: $3.99) OVERVIEW This review of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis provides a chapter by chapter detailed summary followed by an analysis and critique of the strengths and weaknesses of the book. The main theme explored in the book is how corruption and greed in Wall Street caused the crash of the subprime mortgage market in 2008. Despite being completely preventable, the big firms in Wall Street chose to ignore the oncoming fall in favor of making money. Michael Lewis introduces characters—men outside of the Wall Street machine—who foresaw the crisis and, through several different techniques, were able to predict how and when the market would fall. Lewis portrays these men—Steve Eisman, Mike Burry, Charlie Ledley, and Jamie Mai—as the underdogs, who were able to understand and act upon the obvious weaknesses in the subprime market. Lewis’s overall point is to demonstrate how the Wall Street firms were manipulating the market. They used loans to cash in on the desperation of middle-to-lower class Americans, and then ultimately relied on the government to bail them out when the loans were defaulted. Using anecdotes and interviews from the men who were involved first-hand, the author makes the case that Wall Street, and how they conducted business in regards to the subprime mortgage market, is truly corrupt beyond repair, and the men he profiles in this novel were trying to make the best out of a bad situation. By having the words from the sources themselves, this demonstrates Lewis’s search for the truth behind what actually happened. Ultimately, we as an audience can not be sure if the intentions of these underdogs were truly good, but Lewis does an admirable job presenting as many sides to the story as possible. The central thesis of the work is that the subprime mortgage crisis was caused by Wall Street firms pushing fraudulent loans upon middle-to-lower class Americans that they would essentially not be able to afford. Several people outside of Wall Street were able to predict a crash in the market when these loans would be defaulted on, and bought insurance to bet against the market (essentially, buying short). Over a time period from roughly 2005-2008, the market crashed and huge banks and firms lost billions of dollars, filed for bankruptcy, or were bailed out by the government. These men, the characters of Lewis’s novel, were able to bet against the loans and made huge amounts of money, but it was not quite an easy journey. Michael Lewis is a non-fiction author and financial journalist. He has written several novels—notably Liar’s Poker in 1989, Moneyball in 2003, and The Blind Side in 2006. Born in New Orleans, he attended Princeton University, receiving a BA degree in Art History. After attending London School of Economics and receiving his masters there, he was hired by Salomon Brothers where he experienced much about what he wrote about in Liar’s Poker. He is currently married, with three children and lives in Berkeley, California. SUMMARY PROLOGUE: POLTERGEIST Michael Lewis begins his tale of the remarkable—and strange—men who predicted the immense fall of the housing market by immediately exposing himself as the exact opposite type of person from them. He explains to the reader that he has no background in accounting, business, or money managing.

    

    

    Whether at work, school, church, or home, virtually everyone is part of a team—and when they work well, teams can accomplish more than individuals working by themselves.But not all teams are created equal. When a team isn’t functioning well, individual strengths can be undermined and weaknesses accentuated, making the work environment a terrible place to be. So what does a truly effective team environment look like, and how can you create one within your own organization?As a former Super Bowl–winning coach, Tony Dungy is an expert at building and bringing out the best in a team. Drawing on his experiences from years of coaching and working with other leaders, this football fable lays out four essential principles practiced by truly effective teams. Telling the story of a fictional NFL team looking for a turnaround, The Soul of a Team not only identifies some of the most common issues that hold a team back but also lays out a game plan for winning teamwork. Whether you aspire to be a better leader or a stronger team player, The Soul of a Team will show you how to contribute to a stronger, healthier, more productive team destined for success.

    It offers a bold new way of thinking about and responding to the personal and strategic challenges everyone in business faces these days.

    The book covers the essentials of leadership, talent acquisition and operations, while outlining the creative strategies that propelled a small business into one of the largest and most admired in its industry. This guidebook is full of well-tested ideas that are applicable to someone running a small, medium or large a professional firm—or running any project where people, profit and customers matter.

    

    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERThe brilliant new book from the multiple Sunday Times bestselling author that will explain the principles behind maintaining a healthy mind and body.The mind and body are often talked about as separate entities, but it’s only when they work in harmony with one another that one can truly push oneself to the highest heights.In his new book, Ant Middleton lays out and explains the principles that he lives by to best keep his mindset and body as strong as they can possibly be.

    The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries so beautiful is that he has found an underlying simplicity that unites the seemingly complex and diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies, our cities and our businesses. Fascinated by issues of aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. The result was astonishing, and changed science, creating a new understanding of energy use and metabolism: West found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. If you know the size of a mammal, you can use scaling laws to learn everything from how much food it eats per day, what its heart-rate is, how long it will take to mature, its lifespan, and so on. Furthermore, the efficiency of the mammal’s circulatory systems scales up precisely based on weight: if you compare a mouse, a human and an elephant on a logarithmic graph, you find with every doubling of average weight, a species gets 25% more efficient—and lives 25% longer. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we need. Fundamentally, he has proven, the issue has to do with the fractal geometry of the networks that supply energy and remove waste from the organism's body. West's work has been game-changing for biologists, but then he made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities. Cities, too, are constellations of networks and laws of scalability relate with eerie precision to them. For every doubling in a city's size, the city needs 15% less road, electrical wire, and gas stations to support the same population. More amazingly, for every doubling in size, cities produce 15% more patents and more wealth, as well as 15% more crime and disease. This broad pattern lays the groundwork for a new science of cities. Recently, West has applied his revolutionary work on cities and biological life to the business world. This investigation has led to powerful insights into why some companies thrive while others fail. The implications of these discoveries are far-reaching, and are just beginning to be explored. Scale is a thrilling scientific adventure story about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in simple but profound ways. Through the brilliant mind of Geoffrey West, we can envision how cities, companies and biological life alike are dancing to the same simple, powerful tune, however diverse and unrelated they are to each other.From the Hardcover edition.

    You can become a wildly successful coach on your own terms. It’s time to transcend the inner voice that screams, “Who the f*ck am I to do this work?!” It's time to stop hiding and step fully into the successful coach you are called to be. I’ve shown hundreds of warrior coaches how to serve clients, make a difference, and make a great living – all while staying true to themselves. I learned how to build an impactful and profitable coaching business without torturing myself or following someone else’s blueprint, and so can you. Your future clients are counting on you! In this book, you’ll learn: Why many new coaches fail to create a sustainable and profitable business. The inside-out approach to finding and enrolling clients who are dying to work with you. How to price your coaching in a way that is abundant, sustainable, and honorable. Why joy, inspiration, and grace are critical to your business strategy. How to step courageously into the coach you were born to be… right now!

    You will discover that the path to financial freedom lies not in selling but in sharing, and that living your dream begins when you start helping other people live theirs. You will trade the mindset of a SELLfish(TM) for the lifestyle of a STARfish(TM)-and for you and many, many others, that transformation will have an impact beyond anything you can imagine.The road to success is mapped out for you clearly in these pages. It's no secret-not anymore. You're about to discover-The vital link between action and purpose-How to "control the controllables"-How you can remove the pressure so that people love buying from you-The all-important Share Cycle(TM) and how to master its 10 indispensable steps-Proven, no-pressure ways to defuse customer challenges-And much more

    So, in a world where everybody is competing with their answers, how do you differentiate yourself from everybody elseWith a question.The Dan Sullivan Question provides: * The three things everyone wants. * An immediate insight into the kind of relationship you could expect to have with a particular person. * A peek into the other persons future goals, and the opportunity to be instrumental in making them happen.

    True persuasion is not about arm-twisting or out-maneuvering your adversary. True persuasion is the creation of consensus from conflict or indifference.

    As educational leaders around the world implement Leverage Leadership ideas, their collective stories have revealed a simple framework by which the seven levers may be implemented: See It, Name It, Do It. This book aligns classic Leverage Leadership principles with this proven framework to streamline implementation and help good leaders become great. Expert discussion and real-life success stories prove that effective leadership is not about innate charisma, charm, or personality--it's about how a leader uses their time.Aimed at all levels of school leadership, this book shows you what to do, and how and when to do it. The companion DVD includes 30 real-world videos that showcase effective leadership happening in our schools right now, and all templates, tools, and other professional development materials have been fully refreshed with a renewed focus on real-world implementation. Informational, inspirational, and highly motivational, this book explores both the separate components of success and what it looks like as a whole.Learn the core principles of effective leadership Understand what success looks like on the ground Practice the seven levers of leadership that allow transformational growth Adopt the tools and techniques that facilitate a schoolwide transformation Educational leaders from a diverse array of schools around the world have found unprecedented success using the key principles detailed in Leverage Leadership, and this book is inspired -- and informed -- by their stories. Leverage Leadership 2.0 is the practical resource school leaders need to start making real change happen today.

    Thrown headfirst into the presidency by the assassination of his predecessor, he led with courage, character, and vision in the face of overwhelming challenges, whether busting corporate trusts or building the Panama Canal. Roosevelt has been a hero to millions of Americans for over a century and is a splendid model to help you master today's turbulent marketplace and be a hero and a leader in your own organization.