The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, graduate of Trinity Washington University, class of 1962.  2012 marks the 50-year class reunion of the 1962 graduating class of Trinity Washington University.

How appropriate to have Nancy Pelosi deliver the commencement speech on Sunday, May 20, 2012.  It was a beautiful day for a graduation, and Trinity’s graduates were quite surprised to learn who was delivering the commencement speech.  Up until the last minute, they did not know who the commencement speaker was going to be.  As I walked toward campus, reading the program, I was overjoyed to see that The Honorable Nancy Pelosi had been chosen to address the Class of 2012.

Not only did she address the class, but she gave every graduate (464 graduates) a copy of her most recent book, Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.  Mrs. Pelosi believes all men and women are created equal, and that the sky really is the limit for our daughters and granddaughters.  Nancy Pelosi made history when she became the first woman Speaker of the House, and she continues to inspire women of all ages in Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.  She encourages women to never lose faith, to speak out and make their voices heard, to focus on what matters most, and to follow their dreams wherever they lead.

Get your copy of Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters today!!

One Stop Shop

Wow!!!  This book is off the Richter scale.  Supposedly selling one copy per minute.  What’s the book about?  When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

One Stop Shop

Who wants a Kindle Fire?  Everybody.  

Why?  Look what it has to offer:

Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon’s revolutionary, cloud-accelerated web browser

 Order your Kindle Fire today!

One Stop Shop

Did you know that Hitler promoted, or insisted on the development of a small, affordable, everyman’s car, more notably the Volkswagen.  I didn’t know this.  

There is question regarding who actually came up with the Volkswagen design.  Two new books, The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz: The Jewish Engineer Behind Hitler’s Volkswagen by Paul Schilperoord and Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle by Andrea Hiott,  research the issue, and come up with different conclusions.  According to Paul Schilperoord, Josef Ganz designed a car called the Maikafer, or May bug.  The car was a tremendous hit in Germany.  One of the test drivers was an Austrian-born automotive engineer name Ferdinand Porsche.  In 1931 Porsche had no experience designing light-weight models with rear-mounted engines and fully independent suspension, but after his test drive of the May bug, he commenced developing drawings of his own small car, including many features of Ganz’s Volkswagen design.

So who should get credit for the Volkswagen design?  Read the books by Paul Schilperoord and Andrea Hiott and decide for yourself.

One Stop Shop

New Month – New Book

Happy March 1, 2012.  We have a new month, so we need to choose a new book. I’m selecting The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated) by Timothy Ferriss.  Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
•   How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
•  How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
•  How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
•  How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
•  How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

The new expanded edition of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek includes:
•  More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point
•  Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
•  How Lifestyle Design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times
•  The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either

Happy Reading!

One Stop Shop

Today is February 23, 2012.  We have 6 days left.  What did you read this month?  Please don’t tell me you didn’t read anything.  Not acceptable.  There is so much knowledge to be gained.  So many wonderful books available;  subjects for every imaginable interest.  So, what did you read this month?  What are you going to read before midnight next Wednesday?

I’m reading, and will finish Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant.   This is a great book for the aspiring and seasoned entrepreneur.  Written by the business world’s new gurus, Blue Ocean Strategy continues to challenge everything you thought you knew about competing in today’s crowded market place. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes from creating ‘blue oceans’: untapped new market spaces ripe from growth. And the business world has caught on – companies around the world are skipping the bloody red oceans of rivals and creating their very own blue oceans. With over one million copies sold world wide, Blue Ocean Strategy is quickly reaching “must read” status among smart business readers.

Jump start your game and create a blue ocean for your business!

Get a copy of Blue Ocean Strategy today!!

One Stop Shop

On January 20, 2012, John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: from Original Drawings sold for $7,922,500 at Christie’s of New York.  This didn’t end up being the most expensive book because in 2010, another first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America sold for $11.5 million at Sotheby’s in London, setting the record for the most expensive book ever to be sold at an auction.

Audubon created his own technique for drawing birds in the 1820s.  He captured the birds in their natural movements and drew them life-sized, which dictated the books’ towering height: an imposing 3½ feet.  Can’t get that on your Kindle.

In a down economy, I wouldn’t think the purchase of expensive works of art would be in high demand.  Forbes has tracked extraordinarily expensive works of art, and identified them in an article entitled The Ten Most Expensive Books.

So, it’s January 31, soon to be February 1.  What did you read during the first month of the new year, and what’s on board for February?

Invest in yourself. Read more books during 2012.

One Stop Shop

On Sunday, December 11th, the Washington Post published the Best of 2011: 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction.  Did you read any of the best?  I’ve highlighted  several of the business works and provided a brief book review.

Best of 2011

Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present by Jeff Madrick – Looking for the roots of our financial decline, Madrick narrates a history that brims with powerful men, ugly fights, infamous scandals, twists and turns, and true to the book’s title, lots of shameless cupidity.

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis – In his latest book on the planet’s seemingly endless financial implosion, Lewis drops in on Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Germany and chronicles the messes they’ve made of their markets and money.

In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy – A detailed intellectual history of Google’s major innovations that lays bare its outsize ambitions and prodigious talents.

Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner – The authors make a powerful argument that cozy connections between government and the financial industry were the primary cause of the financial crisis.

I’ve started my reading list for 2012.  Have you?  Here’s my list for Q1 along with some quick book reviews:

Get Rich Click!: The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet by Marc Ostrofsky - Get Rich Click! is a comprehensive source of information from one of the world’s most successful Internet entrepreneurs. The book outlines proven strategies and techniques for the Internet entrepreneur, and is full of real-life success stories about people of all ages who have made millions on line!

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne - Written by the business world’s new gurus, Blue Ocean Strategy continues to challenge everything you thought you knew about competing in today’s crowded market place.  Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes from creating ‘blue oceans’: untapped new market spaces ripe from growth.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated) by Timothy Ferriss - Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

Knowledge is power, so invest in yourself by reading a new book.

Share your book reviews with me.

One Stop Shop

Would you like to bid on the most expensive book in the world?  Then you need to be at Christie’s in New York next Friday, January 20, 2012.   John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, a four-volume set, fully adorned with 435 color illustrations is worth an estimated $7 to $10 million.

Another first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America sold for $11.5 million at Sotheby’s in London in 2010, setting the record for the most expensive book ever to be sold at an auction.   Before that, the Rockingham Chaucer, a 1478 edition of The Canterbury Tales, sold for $7.5 million at Christie’s in 1998.

If you’d like to get a glimpse of the collection, visit Christie’s Rockefeller Center Galleries from January 14-19.

One Stop Shop

I usually teach graduate students in the MBA Program at Trinity Washington University, but recently I have been asked to teach the undergraduate Managerial Accounting class.  The text we use is Financial & Managerial Accounting.  It’s a great textbook.  Very informative and easy to understand.  The accompanying information in the website for the text makes my job so much easier, with PowerPoint slides for each chapter, additional problems for the students, and much more.

When you need advice on how to present information, including text, data, and graphics, for publication in any type of format–such as college and university papers, professional journals, presentations for colleagues, and online publication–you will find the advice you’re looking for in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition.

In the MBA program at Trinity, the courses I teach are Managerial Accounting and Financial Decision Making.  The Financial Decision Making text is written By Robert Higgins: Analysis for Financial Management with S&P bind-in card (Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) Ninth (9th) Edition.   Students, purchase your textbooks online from the comfort of your home.

For all the students gearing up for the Spring term, visit Amazon.com for your textbook, computer, and other school needs.  Are your textbooks available in electronic format?  If so, purchase the Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi.    Get everything you need in one-stop.

Wishing all students a great Spring term!!

One Stop Shop