The Four-Book Workweek

As we’re get­ting ready to speak at the next Big Sem­i­nar, and share the stage with none other than Jay Abra­ham, my wife Sylvie and I have been work­ing furi­ously on our upcom­ing prod­uct, Suc­cess Chef, which we are launch­ing at Big.

But as busy as I am these days, and with the added stress of writ­ing copy, deal­ing with clients and rais­ing three teenagers, I some­times find myself dip­ping into a few books as a dis­trac­tion for some solace and qui­etude — and to give me some fresh ideas.

Last week, I bought four books, and devoured them in a sin­gle week!

I’m noth­ing short of amazed at how great these books are. And I want to share them with you and encour­age you to grab a copy. (Audio ver­sions of the books are also avail­able, too.) They are…

1. The 4-​​Hour Workweek

“The 4-​​Hour Work­week” by Tim Fer­ris is a pretty big phe­nom­e­non these days.

Fer­ris, who is also an Inter­net mar­keter sell­ing sup­ple­ments online, wrote a stun­ning look at ways to make your life eas­ier, sim­pler and more effec­tive, all the while work­ing less.

From out­sourc­ing to reduc­ing your work­load (while increas­ing your out­put), Fer­ris touches on a nerve that res­onates with a lot of people.

Par­tic­u­larly Inter­net mar­keters who may have escaped their 9-​​to-​​5, soul-​​sucking cor­po­rate cubi­cles for a bet­ter life as an entre­pre­neur, but still find them­selves work­ing harder and longer hours than most employees.

It’s a refresh­ing, inter­est­ing and easy read. Not every­thing is applic­a­ble to every­one. But if you can pull at least one tip from this book, it would be worth 10 times the price of it.

Also, check out Tim Fer­ris’ blog.

2. The Tip­ping Point

I was amazed by this book.

Mal­colm Gladwell’s “The Tip­ping Point” takes a hard look at why lit­tle, some­times seem­ingly insignif­i­cant things, can spread like wild­fire, and become mas­sively popular.

For exam­ple, what makes an out­dated fash­ion (like a shoe) come back in style with­out any prompt­ing or adver­tis­ing by the maker?

How can one per­son cre­ate hugely pop­u­lar viral cam­paigns when the same cam­paign, launched by another, falls dead in the water along the way (and some­times even before it starts)?

Those ques­tions and more are explored in “Tip­ping Point.”

Glad­well cov­ers a great deal of ground in this book. If you’re a fan of viral mar­ket­ing or want to learn more about how it works (and why it works so well in some cases), get a copy of this book.

Just like Tim Fer­ris, you can also check out Mal­colm Gladwell’s blog.

3. Blink

Another delight­ful surprise.

In his sec­ond tome, Glad­well explores why the way we think, make choices and take action, often uncon­sciously with­out any real think­ing at all, can be more pow­er­ful than its converse.

For exam­ple, why are some snap judg­ments more informed, intel­li­gent or appro­pri­ate than choices made after a great deal of research, infor­ma­tion gath­er­ing and rationalization?

“Blink” offers an insight­ful and in-​​depth look at this process, which peo­ple often mis­tak­enly attribute to “intu­ition” or “gut feeling.”

Accord­ing to Glad­well, that “sixth sense” is not some meta­phys­i­cal thing but, in actu­al­ity, a cere­bral func­tion called “rapid cognition.”

And rapid cog­ni­tion, he sur­mises, can often be more potent than due diligence.

Grab a copy if you want to learn what makes peo­ple decide why they buy more from one piece of copy or web­site than another, when their choices seem to be illog­i­cal or wrong.

4. Made to Stick

This book seems to con­tinue where Gladwell’s “Tip­ping Point” left off. (And it does a great job doing so, too.)

Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” explores what makes some ideas or sto­ries stick.

That is, what makes cer­tain ideas more mem­o­rable, emo­tional, moti­va­tional and, above all, com­pelling than oth­ers — from news­pa­per sto­ries to urban leg­ends, and from polit­i­cal speeches to con­spir­acy theories.

For exam­ple, there’s an inter­est­ing chap­ter where the authors talk about a jour­nal­ism assign­ment, where aspir­ing reporters were given a set of facts and the task of trans­form­ing them into a story.

Most were bland regur­gi­ta­tions or reorder­ing of facts.

But one student’s story, in this par­tic­u­lar exam­ple, stood out of like a sore thumb. It was far more inter­est­ing and easy to remem­ber than the others.

This book dis­cusses sev­eral key prin­ci­ples of “stick­i­ness,” along with actual exam­ples and strate­gies you can apply to your own communications.

If you’re a copy­writer or mar­keter, the above books are highly rec­om­mended. But “Made to Stick” is a must-​​read, espe­cially if you’re a copywriter.

You can also browse the Heath broth­ers’ blog.

A few final notes wor­thy of mention.

Blog des­giner Cory Miller did some­thing with my free Word­Press theme that you might like. He con­verted the Clean Copy Word­Press Theme into a blog with sales page tem­plates. Three of them, in fact…

Go take a look and get them while they’re available.

Finally, I want to wish happy birth­day to my copy­writ­ing friends Ray Edwards (whose birth­day is tomor­row), and Dr. Har­lan Kil­stein, who turns 50 today.

Yup, the big 5–0.

(Har­lan, I may be turn­ing 40 next month. But with your recent achieve­ments in fit­ness and weight­loss, you look not only great but also younger than me! I feel like I’m the one who’s turn­ing 50 and you’re the one who’s 40 30!)

Any­way, happy birth­day to both!

About the Author

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