Books I Have Read in 2012

One of my favorite blog posts from last year was a look back at the different things I had read in 2011. Prior to building the list, I had no idea I head been such a prolific reader. I went back through the books I had checked out from the library (Tulsa’s Library keeps a great index of what you have checked out). I went back through my emails to remember which books I had borrowed from a friend, and of course I had the list of e-books loaded in the Kindle app on my iPad to help complete the list. It turned out to be a very extensive list! Well, I wanted to do the same thing for 2012, but this time around I decided it would be better to keep a running tally of the books along with my brief thoughts after finishing each one.

FICTION:

Replay by Ken Grimwood – I was introduced to this book by reading some of the Amazon comments on Stephen King’s time-traveling thriller, 11/22/63. The funny part was, the reviews were all outstanding. More than 400 reviews for this book I’d never heard of and nearly all of them were good. Well add me to the list. Replay is the story of Jeff Winston, a 43 year old radio journalist, who dies at his desk in 1988…and wakes up in his college dorm room in 1963. He gets the chance to live his entire life over again, knowing everything that will happen- the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, who will win the World Series- and he uses this knowledge to his advantage, living the high life until he dies again in 1988…and wakes up again in 1963. This was a very intriguing book with an excellent narrative and a great concept. I was disappointed sometimes in what the author chose for Jeff to do each replay and I wish he’d gone into more detail in some of the changes Jeff tries to make, but that is not really the point of the story. The story turns out to be a metaphor for how we live our own lives. Too often, we look back on our life and think of what might have been. Well, you only get one chance to achieve, to try, to fail, to love and to be loved and you must take advantage of it or end up looking back on your life with regret. Anyways, it’s a great book- I highly recommend it.  This was the best fiction book I read all year.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson – I’m sorry, I just couldn’t finish the third endless book in the Millennium Trilogy. My biggest complaint with Larsson’s popular first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was that he dwelled endlessly on minutae like the sandwiches Blompkvist ate and the coffee he drank. He spent endless pages describing the fascinating next generational tech of Salander’s iBook and prattled on and on about the cold. I was assured by others that it would get better as the books went on…but they didn’t. By two-thirds of the way through the third book, I’d just had enough. I put it down. I may go back and pick it up at some later point, but for now, the mystery of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest will remain unsolved.

The Litigators by John Grisham – This book is your typical Grisham legal thriller, but if that is what you like then you will enjoy every word of the story. A young Harvard grad named David Zinc quits his lucrative job at a prestigious firm and finds himself joining up with the bottom-feeding, ambulance-chasing firm of Finley and Figg, just as they are about to embark on a massive tort litigation against big pharmaceutical company Varrick and the drug that potentially kills its users, Krayyox. This felt like a return to form for Grisham, and the book reminded me a great deal of some of my favorite books- The Firm and The Rainmaker. If you like Grisham, you will probably like this book.

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin – I picked up this first book after having it recommended by several friends who had read it, along with many people who watched the HBO series. I can see why the book is so popular, and why the series has such a fanatical following. The first book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series is A Game of Thrones, which introduces us to the world of Westeros and the three families fighting to control it. The Starks, led by Eddard “Ned” Stark and his family, wife Catelyn, and children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Brann, Rickon and Ned’s bastard son Jon Snow. The book follows several members of the Stark family as Ned goes to King’s Landing to act as the Hand (representative) for his friend and King, Robert Baratheon. The power struggle between Ned and the family of the King’s wife, Cersei Baratheon nee Lannister, takes up a good portion of this first book and you can see the major players being moved around like chess pieces throughout the book. Far too much happens in the book’s 700 pages to give it a good synopsis here, but if you are at all interested in fantasy books with knights and dragons and magic, this series is one for you. The world Martin creates is a massive undertaking, with 9 point of view (POV) characters through whose eyes the story is told and more than 30 major characters to keep track of. If you like the Lord of the Rings, you will love this book.

A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 2 of the Game of Thrones Series) by George R. R. Martin – Continuing the GoT series, I finished reading A Clash of Kings right before Season 2 of the HBO Series A Game of Thrones started. As mentioned in my GoT review above, this series is a masterful work of fiction, with so many deep, enthralling characters that I got lost in the book. It, too, is an excellent read and continues the story of Westeros, the Stark family, the Lannisters and the rest of the many, many characters. If you enjoyed A Game of Thrones, you will also enjoy A Clash of Kings.

A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 3 of the Game of Thrones Series) by George R. R. Martin – The third book in the GoT Series is a phenomenal book. After the second book, which tended to drag in places, the third book was filled with action, intrigue and several “holy $#%@ moments. It continues the story of the War of Kings, the Stark family’s struggle against the Lannisters and introduces dozens, if not hundreds of new characters and storylines that interweave an intricate tapestry of fiction, one that grips you from the beginning and doesn’t let go until the end.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – This was a fun throwback to the 1980’s. The book is a new one, but is set in a dystopian future where everyone interacts together in a massive video game called OASIS- think World of Warcraft, except EVERYONE is using it for everything- business, food, exercise, dating, basically nothing exists outside of the game. The game’s creator, James Halliday, dies leaving a video will that bequeaths ownership of the game to the person who can solve his riddle, find the keys he has hidden throughout OASIS and locate the Easter Egg he has hidden somewhere in the world. Years go by with no progress made until high school student Wade Watts AKA Parzival stumbles across the first key and reignites the hysterical hunt for the prize. The book is a fun adventure set in a video game but as a child who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s the best parts were the many pop culture references from that time period- Street Fighter and Galaga and EverQuest and Back to the Future and a hundred other things that reminded me of my childhood. The storyline is gripping and moves at a very quick pace throughout. I enjoyed the heck out of the book. If this sounds at all like your thing, I think you will too.

Amped by Daniel Wilson – Another dystopian future thriller (I’m starting to detect a pattern), this one set a few years in the future at a point when medical technology has begun to be implanted into human beings. At first, the technology is used to heal otherwise sick people, recover brain function in people who would otherwise be disabled, etc. The main character, Owen Grey, was given a standard implant by his brain surgeon father in order to stop his debilitating seizures.  Soon, though, there is a mass resistance to the implants and those implanted, known as Amps. When the US Supreme Court rules that Amps are not citizens and are therefore no longer subject to the Bill of Rights, Owen finds himself out of a job, out of a home, and on the run to try and make sense of a world where he no longer fits. He finds a home with other Amps before discovering that the implant his father gave him might not be so standard after all, and before long Owen finds himself in the middle of a brewing war between the Amps and the rest of the humans. If the plot sound fun, that’s because it is. But sadly, the book doesn’t do much to live up to the plot. It moves relatively quickly, but gets bogged down by stilted dialogue. It was difficult to identify with the characters, even when they were being tormented by un-implanted humans. The story is intended to draw parallels to the civil rights movement or even the gay rights movement, but falls far short. It’s a below-average action thriller, but not one I’d recommend reading.

Batman: Knightfall comic book series – I went back through and revisited the “Bane” storyline highlights this summer before seeing The Dark Knight Rises.  It was good, but lacked the impact it had on me as a teenager in 1993.

HUMOR:

Bossypants by Tina Fey – Now this was a fast paced, hilarious semi-autobiography by Tina Fey. I love Fey’s show 30 Rock and knew this book would bring the funny. It did not disappoint. Many parts of it are not for the faint of heart, but the book as a whole is hysterically funny, especially Fey’s so-accurate-its-scary description of being a parent.

Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, read by Samuel L. Jackson – I’d heard this book was funny, if inappropriate for children. It is definitely that, and is probably pretty spot on for most parents of small children (like me)…or anyone who has had children…or anyone who knows children…or likes children. Come to think of it, this book is pretty funny for just about anyone.  Like I said, vulgar, but very, very funny, especially when read by Sam Jackson.

S*** My Dad Says by Justin Halpern – Based off of the infamous Twitter feed of the same name, Shit My Dad Says tells Halpern’s story of moving back in with his parents, and the insanely hilarious things his dad says to him on a regular basis. I found myself laughing out loud often while reading this book and making my wife listen as I read passages aloud. It is irreverent and vulgar and just might be the funniest thing I’ve read in years.

I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern – Halpern’s follow-up to his first book details his lifelong struggle interacting with the female species. He starts as a kid and tells story after story of how he failed to do just about anything right until he met the girl who is now his wife. The book is funny, but the best parts are again the stories that star Halpern’s hysterical father. Unfortunately, his dad takes a backseat in this book too often, leaving Halpern unable to keep the funny going without his cantankerous father’s comments. This book is also humorous, but lacks the gut-busting laughs of his first book.

In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks by Adam Carolla – A 200-page book of Adam Carolla’s rantings. If you’ve ever heard Carolla on radio or TV or listened to his podcast, you know what to expect. Sadly, he isn’t nearly as funny in print as he is on TV, and the angry white man schtick gets old fast. By the time I got to his one to two page rants about every topic and product under the sun, I found myself skipping whole sections of the book because I really didn’t care about why Adam was so angry about white bread or blenders. Also, the constant references to his wealth (“My wife’s Jag cost $70,000” or “I paid more than a million bucks in taxes last year.”) serve only to alienate the reader, who is more likely to appreciate Adam when he was a poor construction worker than now as a rich comedian. Skip it.

Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla – See above. Not worth spending the time to read.

BUSINESS:

Getting Things Done by David Allen – I have read and re-read this book several times in an effort to keep my workflow managed. It, combined with something called “The Secret Weapon to GTD” (see below) have revolutionized the way I manage my day and allowed me to be ten times more productive than I was before utilizing this system. If you feel overwhelmed by your workload, this is a phenomenal method to try.

The Secret Weapon to Getting Things Done by Braintoniq – This isn’t so much a book as it is an addendum to Getting Things Done for the year 2012.  Essentially, it explains how to set up GTD in your email (Outlook or otherwise) and using Evernote on your smartphone to keep everything in the buckets recommended by GTD.  Nearly everyone has a smartphone now and that smartphone can be used to surprisingly powerful effect.  TSW teaches you how.  Also, it’s free and it’s a quick read- about twenty pages- and will revolutionize the way you approach your productivity.

Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin – What if what we consider “talent” was nothing more than just exceptional skill, honed over the span of years?  If there was no such thing as talent, what could we become capable of in our own lives?  This is the theory Colvin posits in Talent is Overrated and frankly, it has changed the way I look at my professional life.  In the book, Colvin discusses some of history’s great talents- Tiger Woods, Jerry Rice, Chris Rock, Mozart, Jeffrey Immelt, Steve Balmer, and more. The common thread between these successful people was not their innate talent, but that they started to work at something at an early age and put in the hard work and sacrifice until they became amongst the best in their fields.  Colvin argues that the reason Woods is one of the world’s best golfers isn’t because he has some innate talent for golf, but that his father started teaching him to golf when he was six months old, and that Woods put in the hard work and practice to become great at such a young age.  But he goes further than that, saying that in our own lives, if we are willing to put in the hours of hard work and deliberate practice in order to expand our abilities and broaden our horizons, we too, can become great at what we do.  There is a long segment of the book dedicated to explaining why people become proficient at their jobs, but never become great.  This section alone is worth the purchase price of the whole book.  The book certainly shares a common theme with Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, so if you enjoyed Outliers, Talent is Overrated will open your eyes to what your potential could be if you are willing to put in the hard work.

Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni – Patrick Lencioni is one of those new age motivational workplace gurus whose specialty lies in teaching executives powerful lessons through interesting fables. In Death By Meeting, Lencioni tackles that thing that so many of us dread- meetings. Endless, directionless, pointless meetings seem like they take up so much of our workday, yet Lencioni posits that they should actually be the most interesting part of our day. Through his fable, Lencioni shows how meetings should be run to make the most of them, and easily gives you lessons on how to integrate these items into your daily life.  Interestingly, when my organization went through a massive reorg earlier this year, I suggested we change our meeting structures too- and we have! It’s been, in my opinion, a huge success because instead of sitting through endless staff meetings every week, we have cut down the amount of time spent in staff meetings to fifteen minutes per day, every day (the morning stand up). It is a phenomenal change over what we used to do.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink – Pink’s book, which I read after seeing his famous TED talk on motivation, was an eye opener. As someone who is firmly entrenched in the modern workplace, I often found myself questioning why some people are more motivated than others and how I might go about motivating my coworkers.  Enter Pink, who says that the old world motivational methods of carrots and sticks are no more, and frankly weren’t all that effective to begin with. Instead, Pink suggests the three things that motivate everyone- autonomy, mastery and purpose. I discussed this in a previous blog post, so I won’t belabor the point, but if you can find a way to give your employees autonomy, mastery and purpose in their work lives, you will find your organization successful beyond your imagination.

A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink – Honestly, I should have written my notes on this book back in April when I read it because now, thinking back on it, it was completely unremarkable.  The thing I remember most after reading it was thinking, “He really just rehashed everything he wrote in Drive and tried to repackage it in a new book.”  I do not recommend.

Good to Great by Jim Collins – This was not the first time I read Good to Great. The first time was actually in late 2007, shortly after starting work at Spirit. Collins describes a multi-year study in which he and his team analyzed companies that went from good performers to great performers, in all cases outperforming the stock market by a large margin. He details what it was about these companies that caused them to go from good to great. You have probably heard many of the terms he created in this book if you’ve been around business at all in the last ten years. Things like “Level 5 Leaders” and “Hedgehog Concept” and “Get the Right People on the Bus.” What makes Good to Great such an exceptional review of business success (and failure) is his correlation of the good companies to their comparison companies. The comparison companies were often competitors of the great companies- faced the same economic challenges and market hurdles, but the Good to Great companies excelled while the comparison companies faltered. This is a book I plan to revisit several times over the year to help instill the lessons in my own life and work. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn how to become great.

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins – After finishing the excellent “Good to Great,” I decided to pick up another of Jim Collins’ more recent books, this one “How the Mighty Fall.” It is sort of a follow-up to his 1994 book that focused on the things successful companies did to stay successful over long periods of time. The thing about “Built to Last” and “Good to Great” is that he wrote them in the 1990’s and picked out several companies (Hewlett Packard, Sony, Merck, Circuit City, Fannie Mae and Wells Fargo) that later fell from grace, in several cases filing for bankruptcy or receiving federal bailout money. “How the Mighty Fall” is a follow up in that Collins goes back and looks at those companies again to figure out what went wrong. In a nutshell, failing to follow the principles that brought so many of these companies to greatness caused their eventual downfall. Collins is a staunch proponent of effective management that looks at the facts. Arrogance and ego have no place in business, yet all too often, leaders find themselves at the top of the hill and think they can never falter. In fact, Collins calls out a specific example of the banking CEO’s in 2008 being so arrogant that they thought their businesses could never fail. We now know how that turned out. HTMF is a shorter book, and a relatively simple read. I enjoyed it because it was a great follow up to many of the questions that arose as I read “Good to Great.” It’s a thumbs up for sure, but I recommend reading Collins’ previous books to develop a background in what he is talking about before diving into this one.

BIOGRAPHY:

Decision Points by George W. Bush – One of my goals this year was to read several biographies of people I might be interested in. I was a W. supporter in 2000 and 2004, and supported his Presidency despite the many missteps along the way. Decision Points is President Bush’s response to many of the events that defined his Presidency. Events like the 2000 Election and the “hanging chads.” 9/11 and the beginnings of the War on Terrorism and the War on Iraq. Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Hurricane Katrina. The list goes on and on. I enjoyed listening to the President’s take on things, which often differed from what was played out in the media. I have never felt President Bush was an evil or incompetent man, but that he was faced with a great many challenges during his eight-year Presidency that, when taken as a whole, prove that he was simply outmatched. The most terrible terrorist attack on US soil in history, followed by a massive two-war front that was initially supported by the American people followed by the most destructive natural disaster in US history followed by one of the worst worldwide financial meltdowns of the banking system…President Bush faced a more challenges during his time in office than any other President in history that I can think of . I don’t think he handled all of the challenges well. Looking back through the lens of history, the War in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina, and his failure to prevent the financial meltdown will be what he is long-remembered for. I don’t know many children who grow up saying “I want to be President someday,” and this book should be a sure reminder of why that job is no longer coveted. Because even though the Presidency is the leader of the free world, it is also a more stressful and painful job than anyone can imagine. I salute the President for standing strong to his values during his eight years in office, but I look forward to a day when I feel that the person holding the office can actually handle the job itself.

My Life by Bill Clinton – I read this shortly after finishing Bush’s Decision Points and I was shocked at how reasonable President Clinton seemed throughout most of his book.  Growing up in a staunchly Republican household, I had been taught that Clinton was a bad person and a bad President, and since he left office before I really got interested in politics, I didn’t have any reason to doubt that.  But Clinton’s book was a good read, if only to serve as a reminder that the people who serve in the Presidency are still human.  That said, the book is clearly his attempt to whitewash history and to gloss over his serious mistakes with Monica Lewinsky, and his battles with the Republican Congress.  That said, I did enjoy it, despite his delusions about his role in the Lewinsky scandal.

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen – Holy wow, this was a gripping book, even moreso because it is the true story of one of the SEALs who took down Osama bin Laden.  The book is written in first person by Owen, a pseudonym, and as such, it puts you right on the ground from the get go.  Owen opens the book mid-mission on May 2nd, 2011 and grabs your attention before settling in to tell the story of how he got there.  He tells about his upbringing, hunting with his father in the Alaskan wilderness, and of deciding to go into the military, and joining the Navy SEALs.  He tells of previous missions he went on and of the training and build up to the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.  Even though I knew how it ended, the book was one of those page-turner, can’t put it down books. Definitely recommended.

Boys Should be Boys by Meg Meeker – This is a book about raising healthy boys in a day and age when there are so many threats out there to raising good, healthy boys. Things like pornography, violence, overprotective parenting, negligent parenting, and many other things that act as a danger to boys who should grow up to be kind, caring, considerate young men. As a father of a boy who is already growing up too quickly, this was a good book to both reinforce many of the beliefs I already held about my son (let him play outside, keep him away from pornography and violence) and opened my eyes to other aspects of parenting that I might have missed or not led much credence to.

The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall – Notable internet TV critic Alan Sepinwall explains how television was fundamentally changed, starting in 1997 with HBO’s Oz, continuing through The Sopranos, and dedicates entire chapters to some of the greatest TV shows of the last fifteen years- Lost, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad and a great deal more.  Sepinwall doesn’t just tell us how the show’s changed the landscape, he demonstrates it in great detail, and uses his connections to show runners like David Chase and Matt Weiner to give us detail into the creation and run of these shows that would not come from anywhere else.  I picked up this book because I had read a snippet online about Lost, which was one of my favorite shows right up until the ending.  This book explains that ending, and much more.

And that sums up everything I read in 2012. I know, it’s kind of a long list. One of my favorite things to do is wake up early, sit around the house with a cup of coffee, and just read. It’s when I get a lot of my reading done. The other “reading” I do a lot of is listening to audiobooks when I’m at the gym or driving. I like to make efficient use of my time, and that is a good way to get it done.  All that said, here is a partial list of books I intend to read in 2013.

Books to Read in 2013

So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport – This book is a bit of a follow-on to Talent is Overrated, and I’m partway through it right now.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro

The Corner Office: Indispensible and Unexpected Lessons fro CEO’s on How to Lead and Succeed by Adam Bryant

Duma Key by Stephen King

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes our Lives by Steven Levy

Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky

Mile 81 by Stephen King

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

The Racketeer by John Grisham

Silver Fin by Charlie Higson

One Second After by William Forstchen

The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau – I’m about halfway through this book and just haven’t taken the time to finish it yet.  It’s very good, though.

As always, I am open to comments and suggestions. If you have any, please leave them in the comments!

Be More Productive Than Ever

**Note** I originally wrote this entry at the end of June and intended to publish it the first week of July.  Then my wife went and had a baby, and the last few weeks have been a blur of diaper changes and midnight feedings.  That said, none of what I wrote is any less relevant in August than it was in July.  Enjoy. -AB

If only it were this easy!

I’ve had one of the most productive years of my life so far in 2012, and the year is only half-over. During the first six months of this year, I have accomplished nearly every goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Those include personal and family goals like teaching my son or preparing my family for the birth of our daughter (any day now, seriously). Spiritual goals like daily prayer and volunteering at our church. Financial goals like getting that promotion I’ve been working towards. Giving speeches. Writing blog posts. Reading books. Of the 34 specific, measurable, attainable goals I set in January, I have achieved 27 of them in one form or another and failed at 7 of them. Goal-setting and regular evaluation of goals is an important part of my productivity.

1.) Set achievable goals, and then review them regularly.
Look back at the goals you set in January.  How many of them were specific, measurable, achievable goals? “Lose weight” is not specific. Lose how much weight? By when? “Lose ten pounds by June 1st” is specific, measurable and achievable.

2.) Do more in the same amount of time as everyone else.  
We all have 24 hours in a day. What you do with those 24 hours determines how successful you will be.  I read a great New York Times article about what CEO’s do that everyone else does not.  One of the things that popped out at me was that they get more done in the same amount of time than everyone else does. They find tiny ways to be more productive. For me, that has been eye-opening. I used to waste a lot of time on things that weren’t adding value to my life. TV, messing around on the internet, classic time-wasters. I’ve cut a lot of that out of my life and replaced it with things that I feel are more productive uses of my time.  In the mornings, when I’m getting ready in a quiet house with my wife and son sleeping, I will throw on my headphones and listen to a book.  This has helped me read/listen to more than twenty books so far this year.  They run the gamut, from fiction to business to biographies,  but each one has engrossed me and taught me something.  I write speeches for my Toastmasters group and then turn around and edit those speeches into a blog post. Twice the work in half the time.  But lest you think my productivity is limited to my personal life, I’ve also found ways to increase productivity at work, through consolidating a dozen reports into one simple easy to read report or getting a subject matter expert to explain to me a topic I am not familiar with before I dive headlong into a new project.

Find the places you are wasting time and figure out a way to use that time more effectively.  Sitting in line at the post office? Don’t check your email/Twitter/Facebook, rattle off some words you were trying to learn in German.  Playing blocks with the kid? Just kidding, when it’s play time, my son gets 100% of my attention.

3.) Find someone to keep you accountable. About once a month, a good friend and I talk by phone about our goals. We discuss the things we’ve been working on, detail our failures, and offer advice to each other. These conversations are great because they allow me the chance to see what someone else is doing (and sometimes shamelessly steal his goals as my own) and they keep me accountable because I know that I’m going to have to talk about what I accomplished and I don’t want to say “nothing.”

Sure, there are literally hundreds of other ways to increase your productivity, but these are three things that I started doing this year that have turned 2012 into one of the most productive years of my life. Wouldn’t you like to look back on 2012 in six months and be able to say the same thing?

Speaking Extemporaneously

Don't be afraid of speaking extemporaneously!

In Toastmasters, we have a part of the meeting called Table Topics, a point at which the Table Topics Master starts talking about the topic of the day and then asks several people in the audience questions for which they have not been prepared.  The speaker then stands and speaks extemporaneously for up to two minutes on the topic they have been asked about.

It is for many people, the scariest part of a Toastmaster meeting. For me, it’s the most exciting. I have been blessed with the skill of speaking extemporaneously, a skill I further developed in college during fraternity and Student Government meetings (surely, much to my colleagues’ chagrin). The ability to speak extemporaneously is a valuable skill to have, as its usefulness is evident whenever someone stands up to speak and stumbles over their words for thirty seconds before sitting down. If you are scared of speaking in front of people, don’t be!  You can learn how to do it.  Here’s how.

First, collect your thoughts. There is no shame in silently standing for a few seconds to collect your thoughts. Usually, while doing so you will grab the attention of the room.  Silence is so rare these days that when someone stands silently, even for a few seconds, people tend to stop what they are doing to pay attention. Silence is not a bad thing. Don’t be afraid of it. Your audience will find themselves on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what you will say. Once you have them there, don’t let them go.

These guys would be a hostile audience.

When you have an idea of where you want to go with what you are going to say, start strong. You will lose your audience immediately if you mumble and fumble your way into your speech. Speak loudly, speak clearly, and state your point at the very beginning. Your audience has just spent ten to fifteen seconds in hungered preparation for what you will say, and it is up to you as the speaker to feed it to them. You want them to know what your point is from the start. Once you’ve stated your thesis, use the rest of your time to frame your oratory around that one, simple thought.

While doing so, be sure you direct your conversation to a subject you can speak on for a few minutes. In other words, don’t talk about things you don’t know about. Too often, I see people who speak on subject from which they have no knowledge, and it is painfully evident from the get go that they will be lost within thirty seconds. Your audience is smart. They will know if you are BS-ing them. I was once asked the following question by an engineering graduate student during table topics: “The philosopher Plato examined the reality of the metaphysical world. His beliefs questioned whether anything in the world is real or merely a construction of our imagination. What do you believe? Are we really here or is all of this a construction of my, or your, imagination?”

Yes, he really asked me that.

It took me a few seconds just to wrap my head around the question. It has been about fifteen years since I studied Greek philosophy, and I have long since forgotten the theories we discussed in my classes. So I stood, gathered my thoughts for a few seconds, and talked about the first thing that popped into my head.

The Matrix.

Yes, the movie.

I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stand there and try to make up something about Plato’s belief system and whether or not those beliefs were accurate or not. So I started talking about how the allusions Plato discussed were an allegory to the subject matter of The Matrix, and how those who were in the matrix thought their world was real, but it was actually a construct of the machines. (Yes, I still remember the movie’s plotline ten years after it first came out.)

Needless to say, I was pretty happy to sit down after my two minutes were up.

The point of that story is that I didn’t BS the audience trying to make up something about Greek philosophy when I was clearly out of my element. Instead, I steered the topic of conversation to something I could speak about- science fiction movies. You can and should do the same when faced with talking about a subject of which you have no knowledge. Politicians do it all the time- ask them about health care funding and they will move the subject to gun control. Ask them about the deficit and they will answer by talking about privacy rights. A good politician will answer the question THEY want to answer, not necessarily the question that is being asked. And a bad politician will answer a question about Net Neutrality by comparing the Internet to a series of tubes.

Don’t talk about tubes, folks. Speak about what you know.

Finally, as your time is coming to a close, have a definitive finish. Make a point, whether it is a reference back to your original thesis or a joke to close out your speech. I finished my Greek philosophy Table Topic question by positing, “If the question is whether the world is real or a figment of my imagination, I choose the latter, in which case this question was something my mind made up and I no longer feel it is necessary to jump through hoops trying to answer this question.”

Perhaps Homer Simpson put it better. “Alright brain, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. But let’s just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.”

SOPA/PIPA and the Wikipedia Blackout

If you’ve been on any social network, read or listened to the news or tried to access Wikipedia today, you’ve probably noticed that there is a massive push to raise awareness and fight support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). I hope this is something you support. It is federal legislation that will could well open individual owners of websites (like aaronbushell.com) to liability should someone post copyrighted content on the site. My website could be shut down without due process. I could be fined or jailed as someone who supports copyright infringement. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

If you go to any Wikipedia page today, you will see that they are forwarding all pages to their SOPA informational page. You can put your zip code in to get the contact information for your elected representatives. I highly recommend you contact them to voice your opposition to SOPA.

Get To The Point

Today I would like to discuss getting to the point.

Getting to the point is a crucial skill in the business world.  It is one we must deal with on a daily basis.  I remember at one point in my career being assigned a new manager.  You already know where this is going, don’t you?  I, playing the part of the impressionable young employee excitedly went to our first staff meeting to see what new and interesting things our manager would bring to the team.  I left two and a half hours later, exhausted, dejected, and completely out of sorts.  Why? Because this manager had no idea how to get to the point.  We are all busy.  No one has time for you to get to your point in a roundabout way.  You need to be able to express yourself in a clear, concise manner in order to be taken seriously in the professional world.  Without that skill, you will find your influence is diminished or you may find that people avoid speaking to you altogether.  Neither of these things will help you be a successful professional.

I am going to present you with three ways to get to the point and get on with your day.

Organize Your Thoughts

How often does something pop into our head and we rush off half-cocked trying to get someone’s attention?  Too often, I say.  Organizing your thoughts will help you figure our what you understand fully and what you require additional explanation for.  It will help you tease out the tough concepts and give you a chance to further deepen your knowledge before you present it to someone else.  Take the time to think about what questions someone will have for you and be able to answer those questions.  There is nothing more irritating than when someone presents half an idea and then does not have the simple basic understanding of the issue to answer questions or further expound on that idea.  Once you’ve organized your thoughts and thought up questions, walk away from it.  Then, a few minutes later, come back to it and review it again trying to come up with more questions or problems that may arise.  Being organized will help you come across as more credible and will give your opinions on the issue more weight.  Even if this means taking several minutes to jot down what you know about what you are going to report to someone, that time spent organizing your thoughts will lead to a more efficient use of your and your boss’s time.

 Be Concise

Get to the point in ten words or less.  What is the main point of what you are going to talk about?  This is the most important thing to get across to someone, and you should be able to summarize it in ten words or less.  If I were to summarize this post in ten words, I would say “get to the point, organize your thoughts, be concise, conclude.”  I’ll give you a second to count those, but I assure you, it is ten.  This doesn’t mean that all of your reports should be ten words or less, but you should be able to sum up the main point of what you are trying to say in ten words or less.  “The supplier is requesting an overall increase of six percent.”  “The contract expires within the lead time and must be extended.”  These are summaries of a broader explanation, but the main point is clear, and should always be clear to the person you are reporting to.  The best thing about being able to concisely state your point in ten words or less?  If someone needs more information, they can always ask for it.  But you’re not overwhelming them with pointless information they neither need, nor will remember.  And because you spent the time organizing your thoughts and thinking of potential questions, you will be prepared for when those additional questions do come up.

Have a Conclusion

This was my manager’s weak point.  She rambled on and on for as much as twenty minutes on a single point, throwing out random anecdotes and stores to try to help make her point clear.  But because she had not organized her thoughts and boiled the main point down to ten words or less, she ended up going on and on and only served to further confuse her audience.  Always be working towards a conclusion.  Often, ten words will be enough for your main point, but you will need to further explain the subject to your audience.  That is fine, but as Stephen Covey once opined, “Begin with the end in mind.”  While he was making the point about starting a project, it still applies to speaking before a group.  Once you get to this point, you have already organized your thoughts and boiled your main point down to ten words or less.  Now expound upon your main point, but know when to get out.  Be able to summarize your main points and any specific items that bear importance and then, shut it down.  For less complicated matters, you should be able to conclude in a couple of minutes.  Only the most intricate issues should go five minutes or more.  But regardless of how intrinsically complex your issue may be, have a point where you wrap your thoughts up in a neat little bow. Conclude.

And speaking of conclusions, that brings me to mine.  Getting to the point is a critical business skill.  We’re just too busy for you to take your time examining all of the different viewpoints of an issue.  Today’s business environment requires quick, decisive action and in order to facilitate such action, you have to be able to get to the point.  Remember to organize your thoughts, boil your main point down to ten words or less and have a conclusion in mind.  Once you have mastered these three skills, you will be well on your way to being able to successfully, skillfully, and concisely get to the point.