The Post-American World Author: Fareed Zakaria ASIN: 039306235X Binding: Hardcover List price: $25.95 USD Amazon price: $14.27 USD

This is possibly the most important Globalization book that I have read since The World Is Flat. The key points that I appreciated most were as follows:

1. Post-America doesn't mean that America will fall. It is the only super power left and no single or league of nations can out fight us militarily speaking. However, emerging economies are positioning themselves to lead us in many key economic areas. America isn't necessarily growing weaker as much as the rest of the World is getting stronger. Zakaria calls this the "rise of the rest".

Pre-Foreclosure Investor Marketing

Now that the real estate market looks like a disaster a second round of real estate investors are swooping into the market to sweep up the destruction. The pre-foreclosure market is surprisingly competitive. Traditionally pre-foreclosure investors have focused their marketing on two strategies: Signs and Letters.

Investors have seen consistent results in signs (roughly one house per $100 spent) and Letters (about 1% success rate or one house per every $50 spent). These results are highly contingent upon consistency and quality of sales copy. One should expect much lower results if in experimental stages of sign placement and letter design. Also, it is very important to recognize the fierceness of competition. The pre-foreclosure investing community is somewhat infamous for the viscousness inherent in their competition.

Confusing Definitions

Elitism has taken on a negative connotation over the last twenty-five years. Today many people flippantly use it as an insult (as if being an elitist or even subscribing to an elitist belief were as bad as being a racist). Elitism is viewed negatively by two groups. The first group is the majority of the anti elites. They confuse Elitism with discrimination. This group of anti-elites are simply anti-discrimination and not really anti-elitist. They have had trouble defining terms. Let's get clear on some terms so that the first group can change their attitude about "Elitism".

Bank of America, McDonalds, Visa, and Mastercard all spent enormous amounts of money to capture Hispanic customers. These large companies are able to influence local markets because of their raw power in advertising the eyeballs off Hispanic television viewers.

Small businesses have been much slower in showing interest in many cities where Hispanic growth has only occurred recently. Most small business owners appreciate the buying power that the Hispanic demographic represents but have a very difficult time wanting to change their business to accommodate them.

I have learned to enjoy reading and writing despite my public school background. (Perhaps my poor grammar and poor writing style betray my poor education). Ultimately, I blame myself for being such an unambitious and uninterested kid. However, I am unwilling to ignore the lack of intellectual stimulation offered in my K-12 experiences. Most of my time was spent pretending to pay attention to the ramblings of a teacher repeating for the third time a concept one can learn from watching a cartoon.

Self-Help can basically be divided into five general categories. Each category represents a substantive philosophy defining Happiness/Ethics/Epistemology/Theology/Politics. Maybe some self-help isn't informed by any of the five. However, as a general rule you can bet that the self-help you are reading or not wanting to read comes from one of these five school's of thought.

1. Secular Humanism

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions Author: Dan Ariely ASIN: 006135323X Binding: Hardcover List price: $25.95 USD Amazon price: $15.57 USD

Behavior Economics Book

This was a fascinating introduction for me to Behavioral Economics. The author conducts several easy to understand experiments to explore some of the less explainable sides of Economic Theory. The author refers to his explanation of difficult to explain data as "irrational". His word usage has irritated subscribers of conventional Economic theory. The traditional explanation of Economic behavior suggests that all decisions are calculated rationally. The unpredictability of rational preferences has more to do with unstated beliefs than from being "irrational".

I just finished reading Godin's Meatball Sundae. I have read All Marketers Are Liars, The Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, The Dip, and of course Meatball Sundae. Here are the 5 take home ideas that I learned from Godin:

1. People don't want to change their mind. It is far more profitable to tell someone something they want to hear, then, to convince them against their will. Instead of marketing an uphill battle, market to people who already want to believe you.

Something that has always bothered me about the attitude of some of the self-help industry is that it encourages everyone to pretend indefinitely. It’s the attitude that all mankind can achieve all things. If you aren’t achieving all things then you must not be saying it in front of the mirror enough. The more that I look at the injustice and inequality of life, the more I find this attitude towards the less fortunate naive. I am reading a couple of books that seem to help clarify some of the disadvantages which prevent people from becoming successful.

Personal growth, to a large extent, is limited to self-awareness. I can only change what I recognize. Self-awareness is not as simple as it seems. It requires several skills that have to be developed.

Here is a list of skills and virtues, which enhance someone’s ability to be self-aware.

1. Honesty- until a person is willing to accept the truth about themselves, he will miss the mark as to where he should focus on changing himself.