Books · Dominic Foster

Who’s There?

September 7, 2005 on 11:09 pm | In Books, Seth Godin | No Comments

Seth Godin’s new ebook - Who’s There? - is available for free download from here.

Seth says about Who’s There? :

Who’s There is not an ebook about how to write better or how to follow the traditional conventions about formatting and building a blog. It’s not designed to sell you one service instead of another, either.

Instead, I divide the blog world into three groups and turn my attention to one. And in particular, I try to sell you hard on how building a blog asset can have a spectacular impact on you, your career, your organization and your ideas.

It is free until further notice - so don’t hang around!

The Bootstrappers Bible

August 10, 2005 on 8:55 pm | In 31 Days to a Better Blog, Blogging, Books, Tools | 1 Comment

You may be mistaken for thinking that it is Seth Godin Day here today. (Errr… could that be a Meme?)

Well with two of my most recent posts mentioning him - I remembered that I had a copy of The Bootstrappers Bible if PDF format which I got from Changethis.com several months ago. This prompted me to take a quick squiz at it again - and I realized that a lot of the information within its pages is very relevant to the flailing Blogger when he/she/it is in start mode.

This format of The Bootstrappers Bible is actually a ChangeThis.com manifesto, but is based on Seth’s book The Bootstrappers Bible which was written several years ago.

Within it, Seth describes what the Bootstrapper is and what they have going for them. At the begining is the Bootstrappers Manifesto - which Seth says should be taped somewhere conspicuous and read loudly before you go to bed each night - here is a quote from it which I really like -

I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money. I will succeed because my efforts and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded competitors. I am fearless. I keep my focus on growing the business - not on politics, career advancement, or other wasteful distractions.

Does this sound like you - or many of the people who write the Blogs that you read?

Section 1 could be the most poignant to the Boostrapping Blogger. It is titled The Joy of Small and expands on the Bootstrappers Manifesto with some true story examples of Bootstrappers - and then a list of reasons that the big companies succeed in the market - and how being small can be a big advantage, such as Having Nothing to Lose, Rapid R&D and Being the Underdog.

In the following 3 sections, Seth goes on the explain some of the tricks to make you Bootstrapping Venture a success - And then Doing the Math to keep you on track - Here mentioning Multiple Income Sources to see you through leaner times. Finaly, Seth mentions some aspects which you should understand once you are up and running and need to keep going - Among them - the importance of Being Mentored.

Anyhow. Thats enough of me carrying on about how good The Bootstrappers Bible is. Go and read it yourself.

If you are having trouble finding it on the web, then Contact Me and I’ll email you a copy.

Related Posts:
The Hypomanic Entrepreneurs

Edward de Bono - The Six Value Medals

August 9, 2005 on 12:23 pm | In 31 Days to a Better Blog, Blogging, Books | 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, 3 of my lucky work colleagues got to attend an Edward de Bono seminar here in Auckland. The seminar was about his theories of Six Thinking Hats - and in the days after the seminar I ended up borrowing another of De Bono’s books - The Six Value Medals from one of the said colleagues.

It is entirely by opportunity that I was to start reading this insightful book at the start of my 31 Days to a Better Blog. However, the book was easy to read, and there has now been a Blog Stub glowering at me from my Wordpress Admin pages for half a week now telling me to post something about it.

So I thought I had better write up my review of this book and how I believe it is relevant to Better Blogging. Besides my colleague will be wanting the book back pretty soon.

The book itself is about how we can go about thinking of the values which we hold in a different way. De Bono proposes using his framework of ‘The Six Value Medals’ to assess these seemingly intangible things. He says:

Values are central to everything: the purpose of any business or government organization is to deliver value and, increasingly, we seek this in our personal lives as well … The Six Value Medals thwarts traditional thinking habits, demonstrates how you can deal with values in a much more definite way and enables you to highlight your strengths while pinpointing areas for improvement…

De Bono identifies these Six Value Medals as:

Gold Medal Values which are specifically concerned with Human Values
Silver Medal Values which are organizational values which arise from things that are intended for an organization to complete its mission.
Steel Medal Values - arise from the quality of a service or product.
Glass Medal Values which are connected to areas of innovation, design and simplicity. They are often connected to change.
Wood Medal Values will occur from the impact of your actions on third parties.
Brass Medal Values which are to do with perceptions of actions. How they are carried out and how they affect different peoples points of view.

You can then apply this model to aspects of your life, work or organization.

This is where I found it apt that I was reading this book the day my 31 Days to a Better Blog kicked off. However, how I thought about applying these values in relation to my Blogging is another story - and therefore is the subject matter for another post.

The New New Thing

July 31, 2005 on 1:09 am | In Books | No Comments

Just finished reading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis. The book tells the story of how Jim Clark led the field in the founding of big money internet business in the 1990’s. Read this book if you want to know about venture capitalists throwing heaps of money at big ideas, massive egos and a huge sailing boat.

It is a remarkable story of Jim Clarks serial entrepreneurship and his aura in Silicon Valley which made people want to work for him and with him (no wonder, since their stock options would set them up for life).

An interesting thing about this book (at least the edition that I read) is that it was published in 1999 and does not document the subsequent bursting of the dot com bubble. I’d like to know how many of Jim Clarks associates got rid of their shares while they were worth a lot.