Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

Three words come to mind when recalling the life of Steve as described in his authorized biography:

Disturbed
Driven
Idealistic

He was a deeply disturbed individual. Seemingly incapable of showing remorse or sensitivity to others feelings. He was also incredibly driven to create and achieve things that lived up to his ideal vision of how the world ought to be.

This book is a remarkable read. I had no idea Steve was so influenced by his explorations in Indian and Zen Buddhist training. I did know that he was vegan for a time, but was surprised by how much of his life was impacted by his dietary tendencies.

I was also amazed by how emotional a person he was, apt to break into tears when things didn’t go his way. He was a master of harnessing his emotions to create change.

I was also given a glimpse into how he built his company. His relentless focus on doing a few things exceptionally well. His commitment to building a team of only A players (since A players don’t like working with Bs and Cs). Most importantly, his belief in taking responsibility for all aspects of the product experience. From retail to packaging to the chips running Apple device, he demanded control over everything to ensure that customers got something remarkable (or at least his definition of remarkable!).

The most impressive thing to me was how he kept focus on the company even through his painful battles with cancer. His dedication to his vision of the future was unwavering. Most humans would have passed the torch well before he did. He was driven by far more than money or fame.

If you are even remotely interested in technology, and especially if you use Apple products, it’s worth reading this inside look at what made Steve tick.

What gives some people the capacity to reach great heights and stay there? Folks in the limelight are not always the most talented, connected or resourceful people. Look to artists and this is definitely true.

I was at a book reading with Neil Strauss a couple of days ago. His latest book, Everybody Loves You When You Are Dead, is a compilation of interviews he has done with dozens of artists and musicians during his tenure as a writer for Rolling Stone and co-author of numerous biographies.

He is an expert at getting to the heart of an interview…not asking fluff questions but really asking questions that help you understand what people are really like; insecurities, idiosyncrasies and all.

One thing he shared was that in all his interviews he’s come away with a defining characteristic that separates those that are successful long-term or those that are not. Those that are long-term successes believe that they were destined for the position they were in. It was as if they believed that God, fate and all the mysterious forces in the universe were aligning to assure them of their path. That they were truly the chosen ones. That they should not be guilty for what they have or aspire to have because that is their path.

On the flip side, those artists whose careers never took off or fizzled out early felt that they didn’t really deserve their social standing, and along with this came guilt and fear of losing what they had.

Whether you believe in a greater power or not, I think it makes sense to assume that you deserve to be successful and all the good things that come with it.

I’m a big fan of Tim Ferris‘s blog and his book The Four Hour Work Week. Here’s a trailer for his new book (to be released this month), The 4–Hour Body. Enjoy.

Over at The Huffington Post, they have a link to this video, along with a poll asking for reader opinions on the book. Here’s the results so far (doesn’t show number of completes yet…but the poll has only been open for a few hours so far)

Bored? Don’t be. Here’s a list of the 100 most influential book ever written.

Visit a library, bookstore or grab your Kindle and start reading. There is a ton of stuff out there.

I like books that are over 50 years old that are still in print. If it’s still being printed after that much time, chances are there is something worthwhile in there. Many of the books on the top 100 list are thousands of years old which probably means there is a lot in their worth reading .

These are the kind of books that have influenced presidents, religious leaders and business tycoons over the years. They are worth digging into. Put down the pulp fiction and pick up one of these.

Happy reading,

This is a truly outstanding book. I give it a solid rating of 8 out of 10.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum is the story of Mr. Slocum’s solo sail around the world in his hand-built wooden ship in the late 1800′s. The book is written by Slocum and is a brilliant account of his nearly 3 year ordeal. Throughout the adventure he has run-ins with pirates, tribal people, cultures from around the world, military battleships and modern “steamers” that motor on by as he relies solely on the power of the wind to get him from point A to point B. He fights through stormy seas and patiently waits through weeks of calm nothingness.

He conveys a strong empathy for people of other lands, including indigenous people. He has an unwavering confidence in his own skill and craftsmanship. I can’t imagine how frightening it must have been to venture alone around the world without things like beacons and satellite phones to keep you connected should things go incredibly wrong. This is a great book for anyone who enjoys adventure. I also learned a ton about sailing history in general through reading the copious footnotes and glossary.

One tough book to get through!

I can’t believe I FINALLY made it to the end! I give it lowly a rating of 3/10.

You might consider this blasphemy, as it is a classic and one of the most widely read books of all time. It was just so darn boring and tough to follow!

It follows the real-life story of the author (Robert Pirshing) and his son Chris’s long road trips on a motorcycle in the 1960′s. Throughout the book, the author recounts the beauty and wonder of his long motorcycle journey’s with frequent segues on Ancient Greek philosophy and his own troubled (psychotic even) past. Ultimately, it provides a glimpse into the harried pace of things in the world, and the gap between rationality (seeing objects as separate) and quality (the fundamental nature of all things). It’s very much about the difference between seeing yourself as separate from the world duality and oneness – where you see yourself as unique but made from the same fabric as the rest of the world. It draws parallels with Zen, Buddhist and Hindu teachings in this regard.

The underlying message is powerful, but the book is ridiculously long-winded. The stories about Robert riding with his son were great to read and very enjoyable. Hearing about his relationship to his motorcycle and his caring for it like a human being and going into great detail about the workings of the motorcycle is super interesting. However, the book would often break loose on tangents exploring the innards of Greek philosophy or flash-back to some weird dialectic between the author and his college students or fellow faculty members. There were many times when I was totally lost reading this thing. I frequently couldn’t follow what was going on and many paragraphs just didn’t make sense. This was perhaps the single most frustrating book I have ever read for this reason. The vocabulary was too advanced at times and at other times just boring to read.

I’m glad I made it through to the end, I was very close to abandoning it – but it’s been on my book list for a very long time and I wanted to make it through. However, this is one book I don’t plan on giving another read.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Finished reading a very quick book – The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, by Robin Sharma. I was perusing Barnes and Noble and noticed the book due to the striking title. I had never heard of Robin Sharma, but have since learned that this book is a bestseller and has been for the past 10+ years.

It was an incredibly quick and easy read (I finished it in 3 sittings, about 2.5 hours total). It’s written as a fable and embeds a whole bunch of personal development teaching through the story. If you have read Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins or other personal and spiritual development teachings, the themes of this book will be very familiar.

Overall, the book was OK. I give it a 7 out of 10. It’s worth reading, but the fable itself had a bunch of information (and quotes!) I had already read through other teachers. the fable itself also was pretty darn predictable in terms of how the dialogue progressed (though there was a twist at the end!).

Some of my take-away’s:

• Time management is one of life’s most important skills
• Most of us sleep far too much
• Not being motivated means you don’t have a clear vision/purpose/goal for your life
• Mental chatter causes physical fatigue and “aging” on some level – thus the importance of meditation
• Never put off happiness for the sake of achievement – stay in the present
• The purpose of life is to serve others
• Will-power is required for personal transformation on any level
• The mind will follow your direction, your will….don’t let yourself follow the whims of your mind!

There’s a bunch of other nuggets. It’s a worthwhile read, not mind-blowing but full of good insights and it’s very quick and easy to get through.

Listening to the audio book for How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Read Part 1 and Part 2 for insights from the earlier portions of the book. Here are some insights from this evening’s listening:

• See things always from another person’s point of view – always, try as hard as you can to do this
• Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires
• Appeal to people’s nobler motives
• Use showmanship to get attention – movies do it, TV does it, window displays do it – and it works
• You can dramatize ideas in business or any other part of life – works great when dealing with adults and kids! Dramatize facts to make a point in a business setting. Use props if necessary to get your point across
• The way to get things done is to stimulate competition – in a healthy and productive way, throw down a challenge and see what happens!
• Work is the most motivating force for any worker, not money, benefits or anything else – quality and interesting work is the single biggest tool to keep people interested in their job
• Let other people do a great deal of the talking in any conversation
• It’s always easier to listen to criticism after you have given someone some praise – never just criticize, always see the positive aspects and comment on them first – them provide your thoughtful critique
• Providing criticism after praise is a technique used by many world leaders past and present (Lincoln, Coolidge, McKinley, etc.) in motivating staff an leading without making people feel bad
• Beginning with praise is like a dentist that begins with Novocaine!
• There is a way to redirect/correct/criticism without upsetting people – make others feel important (praise) while correcting
• People judge us by our “letters” – small errors, like spelling errors, make a big impression
• Humbling oneself and praising another can turn a staunch adversary into a close friend
• Admitting one’s own mistakes can motivate others to change their behavior for the better. For example, by quitting smoking – parents will set a positive example that children and friends will notice (and potentially follow)
• A good leader talks about their own mistakes before criticizing others

It is in our best interests as a society to want others to succeed. If other people succeed, we really are better off. Think about it. If your friends and other members of your community have better jobs, better education, better access to services and better/adequate pay, they would be able to contribute even more back to their communities – wherein they and everyone else (including you) would benefit.

However, we don’t naturally act like this is real life. The Ultimatum Game was an experiment that studied the willingness of people to contribute to a common pool of money over time, in return for everybody getting a specific and favorable payout.

Everyone contributes and everyone benefits.

In reality what happens is that people begin to realize that even when they don’t contribute they still reap the rewards. A classic example of this is the effort people make to evade taxes, while still benefiting from public services and infrastructure that other people’s tax dollars provide.

As a result of this, people feel cheated because some members of their community are getting more than their fair share. They then stop contributing to the overall pool even though they would be better off by doing so.

Primates have been found to do the same thing. A story from a recent book I read, The Wisdom of Crowds, pointed out a study conducted with Chimps. The researchers had chimps trade pebbles for small pieces of cucumber. One pebble = one cucumber. After some time, the rules changed and some chimps were given a grape (a much tastier snack!) instead of the cucumber. The other Chimps, upon seeing this…would react in disgust, either throwing away their cucumbers or in some cases even refusing to turn in their pebbles at all.

They would forgo a modest payoff just because someone else got something better.

Think of how this unconscious pattern plays out in your own life and in your own community. Think about the improvements we could make in the world by letting go of greed and jealously and really acting in our own best interests – which often are in the best interests of the community as a whole – and not getting sucked into the Ultimatum Game.

It’s now the season where people run to their nearest malls – to empty their savings – all in an attempt to make other people happy. Giving is fantastic, but there is a better way to do it than just racking up debt. Below are a few ideas that redefine what it means to give a gift.

In fact, you would think that the tough economic times we are in would curb some gratuitous spending, but the mall next to my home is still swarming this weekend. I wonder how many of the gifts that people receive over the holidays are actually used?

When I downsized earlier this year I was guilty of giving away many things that someone surely spent good time and good money to purchase for me. I am not alone in this.

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