Meet a genuine American folk hero cut from the homespun clothof America's heartland: Sam Walton, who parlayed a single dimestore in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largestretailer in the world. The undisputed merchant king ofthe late twentieth century, Sam never lost the commontouch. Here, finally, inimitablewords. Genuinely modest, but always sure if hisambitions and achievements. Sam shares his thinking in acandid, straight-from-the-shoulder style. In a story rich with anecdotes and the "rules of the road" of bothMain Street and Wall Street, Sam Walton chronicles the inspiration,heart, and optimism that propelled him to lasso the AmericanDream.

The path to your professional success starts with a criticallook in the mirror. If you read nothing else on managing yourself, read these 10articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Reviewarticles to select the most important ones to help you maximizeyourself. HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself will inspire youto: - Stay engaged throughout your 50+-year work life - Tap into your deepest values - Solicit candid feedback - Replenish physical and mental energy - Balance work, home, community, and self - Spread positive energy throughout your organization - Rebound from tough times - Decrease distractibility and frenzy - Delegate and develop employees' initiative

Jesus Built an Inspired Team. You Can, Too. Laurie Beth Jones has given hundreds of thousands of businessreaders insight into how the ideas of Jesus can be used to enhanceperformance. In Teach Your Team to Fish , Jones focuses onone of the most critical areas for anyone in business: teamwork.Leaders today face their greatest challenges not only in definingstrategies and getting updated information but also in gettingdiverse human beings to pull together without falling apart. Jesus is a role model for team leaders everywhere. Teach YourTeam to Fish offers dozens of stories from the Bible, showinghow Jesus managed his team of disciples and other followers, withsuggestions for how to apply these lessons to real-worldteambuilding and management problems. It offers guidance andinspiration on: ? How to excite your team members in order to motivate them ? How to ground them so they’ll be realistic about what can beachieved ? How to transform them into a truly well-functioning team ? How to release them int

Business revolves around making decisions, often riskydecisions, usually with incomplete information and too often inless time than we need. Executives at every level, in everyindustry, are confronted with information overload, less leeway formistakes, and a business environment that changes rapidly. In lightof this increased pressure and volatility, the old-fashioned waysof making decisions–depending on intuition, common sense, andspecialized expertise–are simply no longer sufficient. Distillingover thirty years of groundbreaking research, WinningDecisions , written by two seasoned business advisers and worldleaders in behavioral decision studies, is a comprehensive,one-of-a-kind guide to the proven methods of making criticalbusiness decisions confidently, quickly–and correctly. Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take forgranted in themselves and others–but it's not as easy as some mightthink. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over ahundred companies, includi

A cocktail party. A terrorist cell. Ancient bacteria. Aninternational conglomerate. All are networks, and all are a part of a surprisingscientific revolution. Albert-László Barabási, the nation'sforemost expert in the new science of networks, takes us on anintellectual adventure to prove that social networks, corporations,and living organisms are more similar than previously thought.Grasping a full understanding of network science will someday allowus to design blue-chip businesses, stop the outbreak of deadlydiseases, and influence the exchange of ideas and information. Justas James Gleick brought the discovery of chaos theory to thegeneral public, Linked tells the story of the true science of thefuture.

So much to do, so little time, so best to start early. Full of things to make, achieve, learn (and some things you shouldn't learn) this is the perfect handbook for any child who wants to revel in being young and not-boring. Can you Make an origami crane? Lie convincingly? Operate as a spy? Parents may need these skills (not origami) to wrest their child's copy from them and indulge in all the fun they should have had.

THE REMARKABLE AND INSPIRING TRUE STORY OF ONE GUY WHOTRANSFORMED HIS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE FUTURE INTO ACTION A year and a half after he graduated from college, Sean Aikenfound himself struggling to answer the question “What should I dowith my life?” His mother suggested teaching. His older sister toldhim to apply for an entry-level corporate position. His fathersaid, “It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure it’s somethingyou’re passionate about.” Taking his father’s advice to heart, Seancreated the One-Week Job Project and launched himself on an epicjourney to find his passion. His goal: to work fifty-two jobs infifty-two weeks. After the launch of his website, oneweekjob.com, the offers beganpouring in. Sean’s first gig was—literally—jumping off a bridge, asa bungee operator in British Columbia. From there he traveledacross Canada and the United States, reinventing himself as afirefighter, an aquarium host, a radio DJ, a martial artsinstructor, an NHL mascot,

Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the answer to the global crisis ofbusiness and American-style capitalism. Out of the ashes of conventional business models arises a set ofcompanies using their power not only for profits and sustainablegrowth but also social good. If you think business corporations are doomed to be lumbering,bloated, and corrupt, think again. Based on an extraordinary three-year investigation, interviewingmore than 350 key people at major companies around the world,Rosabeth Moss Kanter provides encouraging and astounding evidencethat this assumption is completely outdated. The businesses thatare agile, keeping ahead of the curve in terms of market changesand customer needs, are the businesses that are also progressive,socially responsible human communities. Take IBM. When the tsunami and earthquake struck Asia, IBM didn’tjust cut a check for relief funds and call it a day. The companyused its technological expertise and skilled people to create whatgovernment and relief agencies could not: infor

You can go after the job you want...and get it! You can take the job you have...and improve it! You can take any situation you're in...and make it work for you! For over 50 years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this book has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. Now this phenomenal book has been revised and updated to help readers achieve their maximum potential in the complex and competitive 90s! Learn: The six ways to make people like you The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment and much, much

The Extermination of Michael Moore is his anti-memoir. Breakingthe autobiographical mode, he hilariously presents 20 far-ranging,irreverent vignettes from his own life.Moore is his ownmeta-Forrest Gump, as one moment he's an 11-year old boy stuck on aSenate elevator with Bobby Kennedy, and the next moment he's insidethe Bitburg cemetery with a dazed and confused Ronald Reagan.Changing planes in Vienna, he escapes death at the hands of theterrorist Abu Nidal (others weren't so lucky). He founded his firstunderground newspaper in fourth grade. He refused to be on the CBSEvening News with Walter Cronkite at 16 ('There's not enoughClearasil in the world for that to happen'). And he became theyoungest elected official in the country at age 18 by enlisting an'army of local stoners' who had no idea what they were doing as hiscampaign staff.Before Michael Moore became the Oscar-winningfilmmaker and all-round rabble rouser and thorn-in-the-side ofcorporate and right-wing America, there was the guy who had anuncanny k

A revolutionary guide to earning power and personal budgetingshows readers how to spend wisely, streamline their finances, anddevelop a budget that puts their money where they want it to go.Reprint.

How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learninghow to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known,unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in businessand in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts. The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highlyeffective people and organizations. Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers accountfor 80 percent of revenues? That 20 percent of our time accountsfor 80 percent of the work we accomplish? The 80/20 Principle showshow we can achieve much more with much less effort, time, andresources, simply by identifying and focusing our efforts on the 20percent that really counts. Although the 80/20 principle has longinfluenced today's business world, author Richard Koch reveals howthe principle works and shows how we can use it in a systematic andpractical way to vastly increase our effectiveness, and improve ourcareers and our companies. The unspoken corollary to the 80/20 princip

Does free information mean free people? At the start of thetwenty-first century we were promised that the internet wouldliberate the world. We could come together as never before, andfrom Iran's 'twitter revolution' to Facebook 'activism',technological innovation would spread democracy to oppressedpeoples everywhere. We couldn't have been more wrong. In "The NetDelusion" Evgeny Morozov destroys this myth, arguing that 'internetfreedom' is an illusion, and that technology has failed to helpprotect people's rights. Not only that - in many cases the internetis actually helping authoritarian regimes. From China to Russia toIran, oppressive governments are using cyberspace to stifledissent: planting clandestine propaganda, employing sophisticateddigital censorship and using online surveillance. We are all beingmanipulated in more subtle ways too - becoming pacified by the net,instead of truly engaging. This book is a wake-up call. It shows ushow our misplaced faith in cyber-utopia means the West risksmissin

Do you think it's possible to truly enjoy your job? No matterwhat it is or where you are? Timothy Gallwey does, and in thisgroundbreaking book he tells you how to overcome the innerobstacles that sabotage your efforts to be your best on thejob. Timothy Gallwey burst upon the scene twenty years ago with hisrevolutionary approach to excellence in sports. His bestsellingbooks The Inner Game of Tennis and The Inner Game ofGolf , with over one million copies in print, changed the way wethink about learning and coaching. But the Inner Game that Gallweydiscovered on the tennis court is about more than learning a betterbackhand; it is about learning how to learn, a critical skill that,in this case, separates the productive, satisfied employee from therest of the pack. For the past twenty years Gallwey has taken hisInner Game expertise to many of America's top companies, includingAT T, Coca-Cola, Apple, and IBM, to teach their managers andemployees how to gain better access to their own internalresourc

For all of the millions of Americans who are out of work, soonto be out of work, or wishing to be freed from unrewardingwork—here is the must-have book that will show you how you can makea living by working when, where, and how you want. Newly revised and updated, Barbara J. Winter’s guide tosuccessful self-employment is now more relevant than ever before.Drawing on the techniques and ideas of her popular seminars as wellas her own thirty years of business expertise and that of othersuccessful entrepreneurs, Winter offers the practical, proven wayto launch your own profitable venture. Her indispensable adviceranges from why creativity is more important than capital to how toavoid the most common pitfalls of self-employment and how todevelop multiple profit centers. And for this new edition, she has added timely advice on topicsincluding: ?how to find opportunity in a chaotic economy ?why smart, small and spunky is the 21st Century businessmodel ?using the Internet to o

There will come a time when you must decide to lead the lifesomeone else has chosen for you…or the life you want. According to legend, when a young boy asked the great Renaissanceartist Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the block ofmarble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David,the artist replied, “Young man, there is an angel inside this rock,and I am setting him free.” In The Angel Inside, the renownedconsultant and career coach Chris Widener uses Michelangelo’s wordsto explore the hidden potential that exists within us all. In this unforgettable tale, Tom Cook, a disillusioned Americanbusinessman, has traveled to Italy looking for direction in hislife. In Florence, the last city on his tour, Tom meets amysterious old man who opens his eyes to the art and life ofMichelangelo and reveals what the artist’s work can teach him—andall of us—about the power of following your passion. Among the lessons that Tom learns over the course of the ne

In Seduced by Success, Robert J. Herbold, the former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, shows you how to avoid the nine traps of success-the “legacy practices” that almost felled such giants as General Motors, Kodak and Sony. Herbold, a 26-year-veteran of Procter & Gamble who lived through each trap, gives you proven tactics for preventing arrogance, bloat, and neglect while capitalizing on your accomplishments, sustaining your momentum, and retaining your position in the marketplace. The nine traps every successful organization must avoid are Neglect: Sticking with Yesterday's Business Model Pride: Allowing Your Products to Become Outdated Boredom: Clinging to Your Once-Successful Branding Complexity: Ignoring Your Business Processes Bloat: Rationalizing Your Loss of Speed and Agility Mediocrity: Letting Your Star Employees Languish Lethargy: Getting Lulled into a Culture of Comfort Timidity: Not Confronting Turf Wars and Obstructionists

The Remarkable discoveries about what drives and sustainssuccessful women leaders. Based on five years of proprietary research, How Remarkable WomenLead speaks to you as no other book has, with its hopeful outlookand unique ideas about success. It's the new "right stuff" ofleadership, raising provocative issues such as whether feminineleadership traits (for women and men) are better suited for ourfast-changing, hyper-competitive, and increasingly complexworld. The authors, McKinsey Company consultants Joanna Barsh andSusie Cranston, establish the links between joy, happiness, anddistinctive performance with the groundbreaking model of CenteredLeadership. The book's personal stories and related insights show you themagic that happens when you put the five elements of CenteredLeadership–meaning, framing, connecting, engaging, andenergizing–to work. They include: How Alondra de la Parra built on her strengths and passions toinfuse her life with meaning and make her way in the

Combining fascinating research with revealing commentary fromhundreds of women, this groundbreaking book explores the personaland societal reasons women seldom ask for what they need, want, anddeserve at home and at work–and shows how they can develop thiscrucial skill. By neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job,a woman may sacrifice over half a million dollars in earnings bythe end of her career. Yet, as research reveals, men are four timesmore likely to ask for higher pay than are women with the samequalifications. From career promotions to help with child care,studies show time and again that women don’t ask–and frequentlydon’t even realize that they can. Women Don’t Ask offers real-lifeexamples of the differences between the negotiating habits of menand women, and guides women in retooling their attitudes andapproaches. Discover how to: ? Take the first step–choosing to negotiate at all ? Develop a comfortable, effective negotiation st

Using a straightforward rational-choice approach, ProfessorRamseyerexplores the impact that law had on various markets inJapanese historyand the effect that those markets had on economicgrowth. In doing so,he applies an economic logic to markets in adifferent world in a differenthistorical period with a differentpolitical regime and a different legalsystem. He looks hardest atthose markets that have most often strucktraditional observers as"exploitative" (e.g., the markets for indenturedservants and forsexual services). Within those markets, he focuses on thewayparticipants handled informational asymmetries in thecontractingprocess. Ramseyer finds that Japanese courts generally definedimportant prop-erty rights clearly, and that Japanese marketsgenerally protected an indi-vidual's control over his or her ownlabor. As a result, that the Japaneseeconomy grew at relativelyefficient levels follows directly from standardeconomic theory. Healso concludes that the legal system usually pro-moted mutuallyadva