Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

In this book, self-made millionaire Phil Towns will show you how he turned $1,000 into $1 million in only five years, and then proceeded to make many millions more. Before I became “Phil Town, teacher of investing principles to more than 500,000 people a year,” I was a lot like you: someone who viewed individual stock investing as way too hard to do successfully. As a guy who barely made a living as a river guide, I considered the whole process pretty impenetrable, and I was convinced that to do it right you had to make it a full-time job. Me, I was more interested in having full-time fun. So I was tempted to do what you’re probably doing right now: letting some mutual fund manager worry about growing your nest egg. Let me tell you why that decision could one day make you absolutely miserable. The fact is, because of natural market cycles, the mutual fund industry is likely to soon be facing twenty years of flat returns. That means that if you’ve got your nest egg tucked away in funds—especially the type found in most 401ks—your egg won’t get much bigger than it is now. Translation: Get ready for a retirement filled with lots of cold cuts, plenty of quality TV-watching time, and a place to live that’s too small to accommodate your visiting kids. I came to investing as a person who wasn’t great at math, possessed zero extra cash, and wanted a life—not an extra three hours of work to do every day. Fortunately, I was introduced to The Rule. Rule #1, as famed investor Warren Buffett will tell you, is don’t lose money. Through an intriguing process that I’ll clarify in this book, not losing money results in making more money than you ever imagined. What it comes down to is buying shares of companies only when the numbers—and the intangibles—are on your side. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s because the mind-set I’ll be introducing you to leads not to bets but to certainties. Believe me, if there were anything genius-level about this, I’d still be a river guide collecting unemployment much of the year. Part of the secret is thinking of yourself as a business owner rather than a stock investor. Part is taking advantage of today’s new Internet tools, which drastically reduce the “homework factor.” (We’re talking a few minutes, tops.) Part is knowing the only five numbers that really count in valuing a potential investment. And part—maybe the most important part—is using the risk-free Rule #1 approach to consistently pay a mere 50 cents to buy a dollar’s worth of a business. What I won’t waste your time with is fluff: a lot of vague parables reminding you of what you already know and leaving you exactly where you started. This is the real deal, folks: a start-to-finish, one-baby-step-at-a-time approach that will allow you to retire ten years sooner than you planned, with more creature comforts than you ever imagined.

Business & Money

Town, Phil

Investing

Crown Business

Nothing is more important to business success than innovation . . . And here’s what you can do about it on Monday morning with the definitive how-to book from the world’s leading authority on innovation When it comes to innovation, Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot of SRI International know what they are talking about—literally. SRI has pioneered innovations that day in and day out are part of the fabric of your life, such as: •The computer mouse and the personal computer interface you use at home and work •The high-definition television in your living room •The unusual numbers at the bottom of your checks that enable your bank to maintain your account balance correctly •The speech-recognition system used by your financial services firm when you call for your account balance or to make a transaction. Each of these innovations—and literally hundreds of others—created new value for customers. And that’s the central message of this book. Innovation is not about inventing clever gadgets or just “creativity.” It is the successful creation and delivery of a new or improved product or service that provides value for your customer and sustained profit for your organization. The first black-and-white television, for example, was just an interesting, cool invention until David Sarnoff created an innovation—a network—that delivered programming to an audience. The genius of this book is that it provides the “how” of innovation. It makes innovation practical by getting two groups who are often disconnected—the managers who make decisions and the people on the front lines who create the innovations—onto the same page. Instead of smart people grousing about the executive suite not recognizing a good idea if they tripped over it and the folks on the top floor wondering whether the people doing the complaining have an understanding of market realities, Carlson and Wilmot’s five disciplines of innovation focus attention where it should be: on the creation of valuable new products and services that meet customer needs. Innovation is not just for the “lone genius in the garage” but for you and everyone in your enterprise. Carlson and Wilmot provide a systematic way to make innovation practical, one intimately tied to the way things get done in your business. Teamwork isn't enough; Creativity isn't enough; A new product idea isn't enough True innovation is about delivering value to customers. Innovation reveals the value-creating processes used by SRI International, the organization behind the computer mouse, robotic surgery, and the domain names .com, .org, and .gov. Curt Carlson and Bill Wilmot show you how to use these practical, tested processes to create great customer value for your organization.

Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want

Wilmot, William W.

Carlson, Curtis R.

Biography & History

Surprisingly, it’s not about education or pedigree or even native smarts. Most of us are like jack welch, who started life as a lowercase guy, the son of a railroad conductor, but went on to become the most celebrated and successful executive of recent years. Sure, Jack Welch—and lots of other people like him—are smart and talented, but there are countless people even smarter and more talented who stall out on the way up. Something else is going on. What is it, and what can the rest of us learn from such people to improve our own chances of accomplishment? Stephen Baum uncovers not only the business secrets of prominent CEOs but their inner stories as well. He ferrets out the real men and women behind the public personas, learning about life-shaping experiences they all have in common that turn out to be the foun-dation for true success in career and in life. Baum has gotten them to recall key moments that they hadn’t thought about for years, as well as the fears, emotions, and learning they’ve experienced during moments of challenge and doubt. These seminal events are “archetypal shaping experiences”—critical and often unexpected learning moments when future leaders take advantage of challenges thrown in their path: • When you take calculated personal risks without the safety net of specific instructions on how to proceed. • When you are clueless about how to solve a knotty problem but dive in and prepare yourself to work through it. • When you learn to swim in water over your head, make the tough choice, get good on your feet, or are forced to take a hard look in the mirror. These character-building moments engender an inner core of toughness and confidence that is the real key to leadership in any business or endeavor—they are what made jack welch . . . JACK WELCH. Stephen Baum provides an entirely new way of thinking about how to fulfill your dreams and aspirations. You’ll come away with the feeling that “if they can do it, so can I” . . . and that is the first step on the journey to becoming extraordinary, awakening the JACK WELCH that lives in each of us—just waiting to take us further than anyone could have predicted.

What Made jack welch JACK WELCH: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders

Conti, Dave

Baum, Stephen H.

Business Culture

It could happen when you make a routine withdrawal from an ATM, respond to an e-mail asking for information about an online account, or leave a new box of checks unattended in your mailbox. Identity theft is one of the easiest crimes to commit in America—and one of the hardest to prosecute. As thieves become increasingly clever, Americans have more reasons than ever to fear this elusive, ubiquitous crime. Now there’s a book to help you beat it. In two easy-to-understand sections, Terri Cullen, The Wall Street Journal’s expert on identity theft, first walks you through the most common types of identity theft and how to arm yourself against them, and then leads victims step-by-step through the process of reclaiming a stolen identity. The average victim loses more than $6,000 and spends approximately 600 hours negotiating the complex bureaucracies and paperwork—this book will help save time and effort by laying out the process. And by following the advice in the first half, you may never need the second! You’ll learn: • how to avoid the most common scams, from “phishing” to “dumpster diving” • why children under eighteen are the fastest-growing target, and how you can protect your family • why your credit report is the single most important document for protecting your identity • how to use the sample letters, forms, and other useful tools inside for recovering from identity theft In today’s marketplace, your two most valuable assets are your credit and your identity. No one should be without this vital guide to protecting them.

The Wall Street Journal. Complete Identity Theft Guidebook: How to Protect Yourself from the Most Pervasive Crime in America (Wall Street Journal Guides)

Cullen, Terri

Computers & Technology

The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire. Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche: House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by. “My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK. “You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, making lean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force. Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected. “My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth. And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

Robert Frank

Economics

Karen Blumenthal, like most people, is mystified by the stock market. Just why is it, she wonders, that seemingly good news can send a stock plummeting and bad news can send it skyrocketing again? In Grande Expectations, she shows how money is made and lost by following one of America’s hottest growth stocks, Starbucks, through a year of rapid store openings, fancy new drinks, and clever promotions, revealing how the many players—big and small investors, company management, analysts, and the media—propel its shares up and down. Blumenthal pulls back the curtain on the stock market to expose its quirks and inner workings, from the power of a penny of earnings and the unexpected impact of a stock split to the image-enhancing effects of a brand of bottled water. With a fly-on-the-wall, character-driven narrative, Grande Expectations not only makes investing interesting but also will help you make smarter and savvier investing choices by: •Understanding how big pension and mutual fund managers decide whether to buy more Starbucks—or dump it •Seeing the unique ways that analysts and other finance professionals assess an investment—dissecting not only the numbers but also the company’s management, demographics, and global opportunities •Learning how Starbucks executives manage our expectations and keep excitement percolating about the business—and the stock •Watching how a stock is traded and how that might affect your buying or selling •Gleaning how multibillion-dollar private hedge funds make money on infinitesimal changes in a stock’s price •Entering the dark, strange world of the short sellers •Realizing how different people can make absolutely opposite bets and all still come out ahead You’ll come away with new insights into how the stock market really works—the power of expectations, stock buybacks, and profits—and explore Starbucks’ phenomenal growth and whether it is sustainable. By unraveling the market’s mysteries, Grande Expectations shows how investing can be both profitable and understandable. Get ready for the ride of your life—and a lifetime of fruitful stock market success.

Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock

Blumenthal, Karen

Discover the formula used by twenty-one of the world’s most extraordinary leaders to make consistent and smart decisions. How do the wise decide and lead businesses and organizations to great success is the question Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski posed to themselves after landing their first jobs as managers. Despite the best training the world could offer—Harvard MBAs and stints at McKinsey &amp; Company, the elite powerhouse consulting firm—they felt unprepared when faced with the pressure to make critical decisions. So they set out on a three-year quest to discover how people with remarkable success and experience in both corporate and public life—“the wise”—went about making crucial, often make-or-break decisions. • How did William George, when CEO of Medtronic, get the real story about why a critical tool used by cardiologists was failing and use that information to fix a systemic problem within the company? • When inventor Dean Kamen has to make a decision about investing in a new technology, why does he find it useful to “fill a room with barbarians” to get the best thinking from his team? • How did Shelly Lazarus assess the risks of making a nontraditional career move, a decision that eventually led her to being appointed CEO? • How did Stephen Schwarzman and Peter Peterson, the founders of The Blackstone Group, turn $400,000 of their own money into one of the world’s preeminent alternative asset managers with $100 billion under management? These and the other accounts of the direct conversations Zeckhauser and Sandoski had with twenty-one major leaders show that between wise decisions and poor ones lie vast fortunes and extraordinary contrasts in success. How the Wise Decide distills their wisdom, and it reveals how you can use this wisdom to be on the winning side of the ledger.

How the Wise Decide: The Lessons of 21 Extraordinary Leaders

Sandoski, Aaron

Zeckhauser, Bryn

Management & Leadership

Will the sun set on the greatest currency in the history of the world? For decades the dollar has been the undisputed champ. It’s not only the currency of America but much of the world as well, the fuel of global prosperity. As the superengine of the world’s only superpower, it’s accepted everywhere. When an Asian company trades with South America, those transactions are done in dollars, the currency of international business. But for how much longer? Economists fear America is digging a hole with an economy based on massive borrowing and huge deficits that cloud the dollar’s future. Will the buck be eclipsed by the euro or even China’s renminbi? Should Americans worry when the value of the mighty U.S. dollar sinks to par with the Canadian “loonie”? Craig Karmin’s in-depth “biography” of the dollar explores these issues. It also examines the green-back’s history, allure, and unique role as a catalyst for globalization, and how the American buck became so almighty that $ became perhaps the most powerful symbol on earth. Biography of the Dollar explores every aspect of its subject: the power of the Federal Reserve, the inner sanctums of foreign central banks that stockpile the currency, and the little-known circles of foreign exchange traders that determine a currency’s worth. It traces the dollar’s ascendancy, including one incredibly important duck-hunting trip and the world-changing Bretton Woods Conference. With its watermark, color-shifting inks, and a presidential portrait that glows under ultraviolet light, the dollar has obsessed foreign governments, some of which have tried to counterfeit it. Even Saddam Hussein, who insisted on being paid in euros for oil, had $750,000 in hundred-dollar bills when captured. Yet if a worldwide currency has enabled a global economy to flourish, it’s also allowed the United States to owe unbelievable, shocking amounts of money—paying hundreds of millions of dollars every single day just in interest on foreign debt; that’s raised concerns that the dollar standard may not be sustainable. Any threat to the dollar’s privileged status would do much more than hurt American pride. It would mean U.S. companies and citizens would not be able to borrow at the low rates they have become accustomed to. The dollar’s demise would impact the rest of the world, too, boosting the costs of trade and investment if no other currency was able to play the same crucial role. Ultimately the dollar system may weaken, but it should endure—a while longer, at least; it’s in few people’s interest to see it fail, and there is still no credible alternative. Biography of the Dollar is must reading for anyone who wants to understand what truly makes the world go ’round—and whether it will continue to spin the way we want it to.

Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege

Karmin, Craig

“A remarkable historical, political, and economic examination of the dollar.” –Booklist Craig Karmin’s in-depth “biography” of the dollar examines the power of the Federal Reserve, the inner sanctums of foreign central banks that stockpile currency, and the little-known circles of foreign exchange traders who determine a currency’s worth. It’s “a surprisingly entertaining and informative social history of the currency that makes the world economy go round,” says Kirkus Reviews. “An incredible book that should be required reading for anyone whose future depends on understanding how the dollar is valued and manipulated." –Timothy Ferriss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek “An indispensible guide to understanding the way both the U.S. and the world economies work and the dollar’s role in keeping the economic skids greased." –Ram Charan, coauthor of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done and The Game-Changer “It’s hard to imagine a more entertaining book on such a vital subject.” –Bloomberg.com “Craig Karmin’s fortuitously timed Biography of the Dollar argues that the greenback’s recent plunge is more than just a market tumble.”–Portfolio

The new grand theory of leadership by Ram Charan . . . The breakthrough book that links know-how—the skills of people who know what they are doing— with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader. How often have you heard someone with a commanding presence deliver a bold vision that turned out to be nothing more than rhetoric and hot air? All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before. For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors. Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century: • Positioning (and, when necessary, repositioning) your business by zeroing in on the central idea that meets customer needs and makes money • Connecting the dots by pinpointing patterns of external change ahead of others • Shaping the way people work together by leading the social system of your business • Judging people by getting to the truth of a person • Molding high-energy, high-powered, high-ego people into a working team of leaders in which they equal more than the sum of their parts • Knowing the destination where you want to take your business by developing goals that balance what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve • Setting laser-sharp priorities that become the road map for meeting your goals • Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business Know-How is the missing link of leadership. By showing how the eight know-hows link to, interact with, and reinforce personal and psychological traits, Ram Charan provides a holistic and innovative portrait of successful leaders of the twenty-first century.

Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't

Charan, Ram

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Crown Business publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Crown Business

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Crown Business publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want

What Made jack welch JACK WELCH: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders

The Wall Street Journal. Complete Identity Theft Guidebook: How to Protect Yourself from the Most Pervasive Crime in America (Wall Street Journal Guides)

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock

How the Wise Decide: The Lessons of 21 Extraordinary Leaders

Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege

Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege

Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't