Entrepeneurship - Kopf schlägt Kapital - Prof Faltin

Read this book:

It is one of the best books on entrepeneurship, I have ever read. Prof Faltin questions all classic assumptions on entrepeneurship. His main thesis is that it is not capital, but ideas who form enterprises and that enterprises can be formed out of existing modules in the market.

He is far more than a professor. He is the founder of the Teekampagne which is the world largest importer of Darjeeling tea. One very smart thesis from him is: not the customer is king, but common sense. He even says that you have to ignore your customers to create something really interesting and revolutionary, as many customers are like rear mirrors. They are extremely conservative and boring, they have no imagination and they do not know their real wishes. Very interesting, when you think about it and you will understand it, when you have read his book.

You can find more at:
http://www.kopfschlaegtkapital.com/
http://www.teekampagne.de/
http://www.co2kampagne.de/

and on the excellent blog at:
http://labor.entrepreneurship.de/blog/

50 Erfolgsmodelle - great book

Yesterday I spent over 4h in 2 bookstores and this is one of the great books I found:

A very smart best of book and a funny read. It is one of the top 5 swiss business books at the moment.

Read more about it at:
http://www.keinundaber.ch/buecher_und_records/buecher/krogerus_tschaeppeler_50_modelle_die_deine_welt_erklaeren/index.html

and you can download the pictures directly at:
http://keinundaber.soforthoeren.de/product.9809.50-Erfolgsmodelle.html

They also offer a download version for the iPhone and iPodTouch and a blog with some more funny stuff at:
http://50topmodels.wordpress.com/

Fehlermeldung from Oliver Uschmann

A great book for all men who are on their way to understand themselves better:

http://www.amazon.de/Fehlermeldung-seine-Krisen-Oliver-Uschmann/dp/3579068962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265586292&sr=8-1

A very funny book with a lot of deep messages. I don´t know whether I was laughing more about the great humor of the author or about the mirror to myself. To all men: read it!

And now for all female readers of my blog an original quote of the introduction for women (coming after the introduction for men):

"Sicher stehen Sie oft vor Ihrem Gatten, Verlobten, Freund oder Teilzeitgefährten und fragen sich, was sich tausende Menschen jeden Tag anlässlich der Fehlermeldungen Ihres Computers fragen: Was macht er denn jetzt wieder? Meist folgt auf diese Frage keine Antwort, sondern nur Systemabsturz, Frust und die Bestätigung der Überzeugung, dass man den Dingern einfach nicht trauen kann. Kennt man sich allerdings mit dem Inneren der launigen Maschinen aus, lässt sich auf eine Fehlermeldung mit ruhiger und gelassener Kenntnis der Gründe reagieren. Genau dazu soll Sie dieses Buch dazu befähigen, das zutiefst ehrlich die Alorithmen und laufenden Prozesse in Männern offenlegt und somit dazu beiträgt, dass Sie als Anwenderin nicht so schnell aufgeben und zu einem neuen Betriebssystem wechseln."

So probably also a very good book for all women :-)

Postulate zur Begegnung

I am in the middle of my preparation for my NLP Trainer testing and I found some wonderful lines in one of the Scripts from Roman Braun:

Ein Gedanke der wehtut, ist ein Irrtum.
Alles, was ich denke, sage oder tue ist "Bitte" und "Danke".
Solange ich meine, dass mit Dir oder mir etwas nicht stimmt, können wir das eigentliche Problem nicht lösen.
Hinter meinem Ärger steckt Angst; hinter meiner Angst steckt mein Wunsch nach Zugehörigkeit.
Liebe ist Glücklichsein mit zwei Ideen: Ich verdanke Dir meine Freude und Du verdankst mir Deine.
Am Ende wird alles gut sein, und wenn es einmal nicht gut ist, dann ist es noch nicht zu Ende.
Alles geschieht aus Liebe.

Reminds me very much of one of my favourite authors: Chuck Spezzano:
http://www.amazon.de/dp/3442217229/?tag=googhydr08-21&hvadid=3236382001&ref=pd_sl_3fn6azwl69_e

Tablets will replace e-book readers

For all of you who still think that the current e-book-readers are cool, have a look at this preview:



Apple is one of the players in the market who are currently working on these next generation media players.
So I am desperately waiting for these new toys for the boys and enjoy my Sony e-book-reader in the meantime.

For those iPhonies of you who cannot wait any longer: there is a kindle client for iPhone available at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=ms_sbrspot_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000301301&pf_rd_p=498990411&pf_rd_s=center-22&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0015T963C&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0TRFBVTHG79ME9E3W06N

So keep on pimping your brain :-)

Get abstract book summaries on my e-book reader

For all of you who just can´t get enough of brainfood, like me, have a look at

http://www.getabstract.com/

This is a great service, where you can subscribe to abstracts of classic and current management books and other literature. They also offer a premium rate, where you can download unlimited abstracts.

I use this service to scan the new management literature and to decide, which books I want to read. In addition it gives me a lot of input in a very short time.
An alternative is: http://www.summary.com/
These are the executive book summaries from Soundview.

A great way to read the summaries on the go is one of the new e-book-readers.
I use the Sony e-book-reader, which has a native pdf support.
It is a great way to safe weight while travelling, as it carries tons of books in its memory.
You can even read in the bright sunshine and the battery lasts for more than a day, as it only needs power, when you turn the page.

You can find more infos on it at: http://www.sony.de/hub/reader-ebook

New book from Thomas Schäfer on working life

I am just returning from a seminar weekend with Thomas Schäfer. Another weekend with very intense insights on systemic structures. Thomas also published a new book on systemic approaches to job related issues. I read the book on my flight back home and it is really great. As in his other books, Thomas has a very clear and empathic writing style.

You can find the book at:

http://www.amazon.de/Wie-Beruf-Berufung-wird-Familien-Stellens/dp/3426874180/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253477720&sr=8-4

You can find Thomas Schäfer on the internet at:

http://www.familienaufstellungenthoschaefer.de/frame.htm

Thank you very much again Dirk for this great recommendation!

Free from Chris Anderson

The long tail was a very controversial book from Chris Anderson. He now event went a step further with his latest book "FREE".

It is developing his long tail thoughts to the next level and let´s you rething the traditional revenue generating streams. Probably not everything can be taken up by you instantly, but this book defenitely opens your mind on how future business models will look like.

As the book is called FREE, you can download it as an audio book for free, too.

You find the free audiobook at:
http://www.loadblog.de/internet/chris-andersons-free-the-future-of-a-radical-price-als-kostenloses-horbuch/

If you want to order the book at amazon, you can find it at:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/140131001X?ie=UTF8&tag=nerdblogabouv-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=140131001X

or in German at:
http://www.amazon.de/Free-Kostenlos-Gesch%C3%A4ftsmodelle-Herausforderungen-Internets/dp/3593390884/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253283706&sr=8-3

You should also have a look on Chris´ Blog at:
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/

This book really gave me some points to thing about. So keep on rethinking today how you are doing business tomorow!

Interesting book about Angela Merkel

I just read an interesting book about how Angela Merkel from Margaret Heckel. Some nice insights into the political system in Germany.

You can find it at:
http://www.amazon.de/So-regiert-die-Kanzlerin-Reportage/dp/3492053319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253281757&sr=8-1
Not a really deep analysis, but some nice views behind the scenes on how the financial crisis was handled by the German government and some nice anecdotes about male behaviours in politics :-) especially on Sarkozy.

Virtual assistant at www.getfriday.com

After I read the 4h-workweek from Timothy Ferriss, I started to use the virtual assistant services from getfriday. When you deliver good briefings (which is really essential), they are delivering great support.

They already did a lot of internet research jobs for me. Currently they are transferring our web-page into a content management system. You can nearly delegate everything which can be done via internet, e-mail or phone.

Just recently they introduced also a German speaking service.

You can find more details at:
http://www.getfriday.com/

Additional link & blog on Beyond Budgeting from Niels Pfläging

Niels Pfläging gave me another great link on Beyond Budgeting (see his comment on my prior post):
http://www.bbtn.org/

Niels Pfläging has also a great blog, which you can find at:
http://www.beyondbudgeting-transformation.org/blog/3

Thank you very much again for your great input Niels. A great example of sharing knowledge!
My wife (she is professor for strategic controlling and marketing http://www.fh-westkueste.de/en/home/department-of-economics/about-us/personen/professoren/nicole-jekel-phd.html) and me are very much looking forward to your new book.

Beyond budgeting free download of the German book

One of my favourite books on budgeting is beyond budgeting, by Niels Pfläging.

I now found the full original version as a free download at:

http://www.controllingportal.de/Fachinfo/Budgetierung/Niels-Pflaeging-Beyond-Budgeting-Better-Budgeting.-Ohne-feste-Budgets-zielorientiert-fuehren-und-erfolgreich-steuern.html

If you want to go more deeply into the concept of beyond budgeting, you should also have a look ot the following sites:

http://www.beyondbudgeting.org/

http://www.bbrt.org/

http://www.iioe.eu/fileadmin/files/conferences_seminars/3b_Morlidge.pdf

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Budgeting

So keep on rethinking the way of doing business every day!

The 4 hour workweek from Timothy Ferris

If you have not read the 4h workweek from Timothy Ferris: DO IT NOW!
It is one of the best books on personal productivity and far beyond that I read within the last 2 years. You can find it at:

in English:
http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307353133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250758349&sr=8-1

in German:
http://www.amazon.de/Die-4-Stunden-Woche-Mehr-Zeit-Leben/dp/3430200512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250758294&sr=8-1

It is about how you move from being efficient in life (what I think I was in the past) to getting effective in life, meaning doing the right things. It is about how to organize your life so that you really live it. Life is not about geting a millionaire, it is about living like a millionaire and Timothy shows, how he changed his life to achieve this.

Timothy Ferris has a lot of great stuff on the internet. You can find him at:
http://fourhourworkweek.com/

He also has a great blog, which you can find directly at:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
The title of the blog is experiments in lifestyle design, which is perhaps the best description of what his concept is about.

To give you a first impression about the concept, have a look at this youtube video:

The cider house rules / Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag - John Irving

One of my all time favourite books and films is The cider house rules / Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag from John Irving.

http://www.amazon.de/Gottes-Werk-Teufels-Beitrag-Irving/dp/3257218370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249935188&sr=8-1

This is definitely a must-read book and must watch movie ....

Der Vorleser - book & movie

One of the most touching books I read this year was the reader / Der Vorleser from Bernhard Schlink. You find it at http://www.amazon.de/Vorleser-Diogenes-Taschenbuch-22953/dp/3257229534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249934006&sr=8-1

The movie is one of the rare literature adaptions I was not disappointed of after reading a great book.

So both is very touching.

Book and videoblog on Youtube for business

I just read a great book from Michael Miller on how to use youtube for business.

You can have a preview of the book on:
http://www.amazon.com/YouTube-Business-Online-Video-Marketing/dp/0789737973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249601910&sr=8-1

The author also has a great videoblog, which you can find at:
http://businessvideoblog.blogspot.com/

E-books for iPhone from Barnes & Noble

For all of you who have an iPhone or iPod Touch:

Barnes & Noble offers a free e-book-reader-SW for these gadgets (and also for other platforms).

You can find it, together with a lot of e-books at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/download-reader.asp?cds2Pid=28549

The great thing (besides being another cool app for the iPhone) ist that B&N offers the e-books extremely cheap (opposed to the Sony-partners and Amazon with its Kindle).

So check it out and use another chance to pimp your brain!

18 miles of books in New York

All of you who know me a bit better, know that I am an absolute book-junkie. So when you have the same addiction, you definitely have to go to Strands bookstore in NY, Broadway/12th East.

They have a lot of current management books and nearly all the all time classics and most of them are from 3 to 15 US$.

Everytime I am in NY I am at least 3-4hours in there and I come back with tons of new books.

http://www.strandbooks.com/