Book Recommendation: #AskGaryVee

  In this previous post, I recommend one great book-<<Crushing It!>> by Gary Vee.

  Now, I am going to share another excellent book with same author-<<#AskGaryVee>>.😎😎😎

  Have you heard a YouTube famous show-"The #AskGaryVee Show" ? The content of the book

is exactly extracted from different episodes of the show, which consists of various topics like

"Gratitude, Leadership, Management, Starting up and Education.(actually contains 22 different 

topics!OMG!)So,it definitely caters to anyone since you don't need to finish the whole book, just find

your favorite chapters and read them. You can get many tremendous benefits from it if you don't

want to watch the show.

  The following are my favourite Q&As from 5 different Topics and I hope you can enjoy it:

Education

Q：What advice would you give a high school senior in America who is trying to decide whether or not to go to college and which one?

A：......"In life, you should only be doing two things ever: discovering your passion and then realizing it.  (p.48)

  (It seems that it is quite old-school. However, most people just ignore it since they think it is bullshit. Of course bullshit! You have such a perception as You DON'T TAKE ACTION!. Now, DO IT!)

Leadership

Q：What are the most important lessons your father taught you about building a business?

A: ......You word is bond......He taught me that when you make a commitment, you stick to it......(p.213)

  (It's absolutely true for anybody though you are not a leader because it is the core of a relationship. It makes you credible and anybody will like it.)

Q: Do you ever complain?

A: ......Life isn't fair or perfect. Complaining fixes nothing. Only taking action does......(p.216)

  (it's not a remarkable idea. But, it reminds me of the importance of taking action. We often moan and groan about our life, money, opportunity, friendship and so on. Yet, none of us start doing things that can improve our quality of life, which is quite weird, isn't it? It is very hard to develop such a habit, But let's try to do it because We are born to live a blissful life with our family, not a tedious and dull life.)

Management

Q: When hiring for a team, is it better to bring in specialists of someone who can wear multiple hats?

A: ......, If you work hard at trying to be good at many things, you'll get good at many things. And 

taking that attitude will force you to say yes to new challenges more often......(p.243)

  (Without a doubt, you can't be an expert if you want to be good at many things. However,  most significantly,it can help us to strengthen our confidence and become more willing to face new adversities. It is more beneficial to us.)

Self-awareness

Q: What are some easy ways to become more self-aware?

A:......it's asking people straight up to tell you your strengths and weaknesses......

(Don't be afraid that it may ruin the relationship , If  you think that you are in the true relationship, 

just feel free to ask their opinions and digest them without annoyance.)

Public speaking

Q: As a speaker, you rarely use filler words and you hardly ever lose your train of thought onstage, or in front of the camera. Can you provide insight into how you've nurtured your public speaking chops?

A:......Talk about what you know......

(It is the most powerful tips. Don't be a smarty-pants if you want people to listen to you and respect you.)

Book Recommendation: Crushing it by Gary Vaynerchuk

 I guess many of you know this excellent man-Gary Vee, a famous speaker, YouTuber and the CEO of VaynerX. He is a fantastic guy who always likes telling us the truth about social media, business as well as entrepreneurship. This book- <<Crushing It!>> can teach you how to make good use of any social platform to promote your products, most importantly, build your personal brand. Also, it shows many examples of people who are successful due to utilizing social media, which can further encourage  you to apply the concepts you learned from this great book,:)

  The main idea of this book is very simple: Find You Passion and Take Action Right Now!!

  OK, let me show you how to use 3 social platforms to promote the things that you want:

Instagram

  Actually, there are 7 steps that are pretty simple:

1. Create an account and constantly offer high-quality content on your page that can make people benefit from it and start recognizing you.

2. Enter your keyword on the search bar. For example, if you want to promote your book blog," books", "bookgram"and reading" could be your keywords.

3. Click the most popular one(depends on followers)

4." Like" the first 4-6 photos

5. Check their pages to see whether they have a website, blog  and stuff like that. If yes, ask them whether you can help them create content on their websites.

6. If no, just send a DM to them. Remember don't do "copy and paste".

7. Just show your interest in their page, appreciate them, and then try to promote brand kindly.

  #Search,Click,Check,DM. Repeat again and again. It is known that if there is one reply from 100 DM, you are excellent actually.

Snapchat

  This is a very popular app among young people since it is free, simple and safe(videos are deleted within a few seconds). So, how do you promote your brand?

  one core thing you should bear in mind: Don't think too much！

  If you want your snatchat account to be exposed, use other platforms like Instagram,Twitter and Facebook to get people's attention.

  It is advised that you just simply offer the content you want to others by using your own creativity.
Then start building the relationship with your followers even though the number is quite low. Of course, it takes time.

  When your number of followers is quite high, go to https://www.the11thsecond.com/ to find people with same interest and get more people to recognize your account.

  Send message these people to invite them  to hold a  snapchat event together, which can increase your popularity,

  When you become more popular, you can directly ask influencers for collaboration, which can help you further gain popularity if you get it.

YouTube

  It seems that this is not for anyone since it requires people who are outspoken and confident enough in front of the camera. Undoubtedly, yes. However, you can do it in a different way-Making Vlog.

  Vlog is a great thing as you do not need to do and think too much. All you need to do is to record your daily life and upload it on YouTube(with creativity will be better though.).For instance, if you want to keep fit, you just need to record your daily healthy habit like what kinds of exercise you did, what types of food you ate and what problems you had etc.

  By making vlog, it can not only force yourself to do it every day but, most significantly, show your real side to other people, so they can know you more and appreciate you owing to your real characteristics.

  Of course, you should also put effort into other things of  your video, like:

  1.Title(clear?concise?reader-friendly?)

  2.Description(should include your social platforms account)

  3.Category(should be the correct one)

  4.Photo of the video(attractive?)

  5.Information card(let people watch your other videos)

  I highly recommend this book. It just totally changes my mind and perception of different social media platforms. It seems that the promotion methods are quite simple,  but many people just ignore them and never take action.

  If you feel disappointed and unhappy about your current life, you must not miss this book!
  Remember the core idea of this book:

                   JUST START TAKING  ACTION and DO WHAT YOU LIKE!😤😤😤

Economics:10 Hours for 4-year University Economics

 <<10 Hours for 4-year University Economics>> is written by Toshihiro Ihori, which is an immensely great book for beginners to learn Economics. Of course, it is impossible to learn it within just 10 hours. However, you can have a better understanding of different economic concepts and terms like GDP, Supply and Demand, Profit Maximization etc, which is definitely much better than a textbook.

What is Economics?
  Actually, it means the deal between the economic agent(individuals, enterprises, and government...) and market(products, services, money...).Let's take some examples:
1.a customer buys an apple from a supermarket，it is a deal.
2.the government buys notes from a financial institution, it is a deal.
3.a firm buys stocks from the stock market, it is a deal.

  With the above matters in mind, it is obvious that economics permeate into our daily life and is around every corner of the world.

The concept of Perfect Competition
  Basically, Perfect Competition is buyers and sellers who are under the same conditions. In a perfectly competitive market, the amount of supply and demand is identical, which means the enterprises cannot set the price for their products themselves, fixed price is offered by the market, and therefore the profit is almost zero for companies. Undeniably, it is something that you should make every effort to avoid it if you want to make a profit for yourself. The more you can avoid, the more you can earn. The first thing you should do is focusing on the supply and demand.

One famous concept--- Prisoner's Dilemma
I guess many people have heard this term before despite that they never learn economics. To put it simply, it means that two(or more than two)person are skeptical of each other in a certain situation. For instance:
  There is 2 person who joins a game. Each person has two same choices and can only choose ONE option.
  A. Get $100 to self.
  B. Give $300 to another person.

  so, there are 4 combinations of the results of this game:

  1.both of them cooperate with each other, get $300  together.
  2. A give but B don't, A: $0         B:$400
  3.B give but A don't, A: $   400        B:$0
  4.both of them don't cooperate with each other,get$100 together

  From the above results, apparently, cooperation can provide them with the highest profit. However, Greed and suspicion are human nature when it comes to cooperation. People usually look for the biggest benefit but ignore the biggest drawback for them. If you are an entrepreneur, it is the thing that you should bear in mind, thinking about it deeply.

Of course, in this book, there are still many concepts about economics. If you are a beginner interested in economics, Don't miss this book!😋（But only Chinese and Japanese Version are available😫

Design Thinking:The Non-Designer's Guide to Design Thinking

  Being creative is gaining popularity among people nowadays.It is deep-root that only designers,inventor,entrepreneurs and innovators have this kind of ability of thinking creatively and differently.However,Have you wondered how to think out of box like a designer despite not  studying  at a design school?

  <<The Non-Designer's Guide to Design Thinking>>,written by Saso Kunitake who studied BBA but went to Illinois Institute of Technology for design thinking, shows how to think creatively like a designer.

2.Why should we learner creativity 

  It is known that artificial Intelligence(AI) is becoming more and more common and popular.Many jobs will be definitely replaced except some jobs that require creativity(at least later).Also,our modern society requires us to think logically.Of course,using our left brain is not enough,especially in business due to fierce competition today.Right brain is responsible for imagination and creativity,which can help you think in differently and come up with some new ideas that you never get before.Creativity depends on action . Action depends mindset.That's why we should train our left brain to see the world differently,and even become an innovator who changes the world.

3.How to think like a designer

  There are 3 main factors of design thinking:

   1.Input: search massive amount of pictures on the internet as stimulation for your mind.

   2.Jump:ways of thinking like make strange familiar(advancement) and make familiar strange(innovation).

   3.Output:present your ideas or products like storytelling and make them short.

  and 4 models of design thinking:

  1.Investigate:driven by curiosity and use all of your sense to feel,see and hear the things around you 

  2.Analysis:select your resources and pictures with your groupmates(use memo papers to write down any idea you get and stick it to a sketch book or whiteboard)

  3.Editing:turn on your right brain mode,digest your resources and edit them  and make it become a real project.

  4.Manufacture:manufacture your products

3.Anyone is a designer

  Creativity is inborn.Just look at children,people usually are surprised by their work and even some ideas.But,as we grow up,our right brain is hidden and main utilize our left brain to think logically.In order to unleash your inborn power,there are some simple things that you should bear in mind:

  Hold the firm belief in yourself that you are creative

  feel the world and even some minor things from your surrounding

  use memo papers to write down anything you get and put them in your notebook as an idea bank

Accumulate your ideas and you will find that you can see the world differently.Most importantly,you get out of your tunnel vision and enjoy your life more readily.

  

Management and Leadership:Good to Great

Circuit City,Kroger,Pitney Bowes and so on,it's sure that many people have heard of these companies by business news or magazines.They are immensely successful in America.However,do you know why they can achieve such a big success?What kind of leader they have?

  <<Good to Great>>,written by Jim Collins,can show your the secrets of these companies.Collins and his team did the research for 5 years,analyzing why they can become extraordinary despite being failed in the beginning.Of course,in this book,it reveals the valuable results of their research.

There are 6 main factors of a firm becoming constantly successful remarkable under fierce competition.

1.The Level 5 Leadership
  Actually,the concept is very simple. Level 5 leaders consist of 2  main characteristics:Humble and persistent to do the right regardless of the hard situation. Certainlly,there are other characteristics that they have,like hard-work,professional and wise.However,the most important thing is that no matter they get huge success or not,they won't blame for others or be arrogant,they will think that the success is attributed to luck and keep doing their work.That's why their companies become hugely prosperous.

2.Find the right people before making any decision
  It is of great significance to form a extraordinary work team since they can drive the company to a right way though the company is facing big problems.In order to allay their potential.,it is necessary that right positions and workers should be offered to them.

3.Bravely face the cruel reality
  Every corporation faces different problems and challenges(no matter inside or outside of the firm).Despite of this,Holding your brief and confidence is the thing you should do as it will be failure only if you just simply give up or move to other ways.It is quite old-school,isn't it?So,how to do it better?There are 4 rules:
 1.No Bureaucracy-treat everyone as the same
 2.Ask question but no answer-trigger hit debate in company
 3.Review your action,but no blame-scold and moan will just make things worse
 4.Be realistic,not optimistic-embrace the adversity and believe that you can succeed finally.

4.Hedgehot Concept
  There are 3 categories of this concept,see the picture below:

  It is pretty clear to show what should a company look for if they want to become successful.Therefore,spend time to find the answer.once you find the answer,anything will be much easier as you should simply follow it.Strategy,target,brief and stuff like that,should be contributed to the answer.(The great corporations averagely take 4 year to get it)

5.Culture of Discipline
  Once the main 3 categories are found,workers should also focus on them.So,it is advised that the leader should develop a system that requires every employee to follow.Of course,Don't force them to do it.Just make them become willing to do and understand the importance of the system. Remember one thing:NO Dictatorship,which is the worst thing for any company undeniably.

6.Use technology as accelerator
  Technology becomes so advanced nowadays,which provides our human with tons of benefits and convenience.Yet,for a company,it should not be considered as a weapon,but an accelerator.A successful firm will utilize their techniques and machines to make their Hedgehot Concept better.If you put all the resources and effort into new technology,only failure will happen eventually.(That's why many high-tech companies cannot succeed)

The above are the major 6 factors that contribute to a enterprise's success.(if you want to see examples,just read the book😉）However,there is one important concept we should bear in mind:Every remarkable corporation doesn't succeed in one night with a single strategy,they encounter hardship,deal with it , keep doing their work and finally they become successful and famous among people.It is not only for business,but also for our life.

Business Model:Rise of 70 Business Model

   Nowadays,we all have heard that there are so many successful business companies and people in the world.Apple-Steve Jobs,Dell-Michael Dell,Amazon-Jeff Bezos,Alibaba-Jack Ma and so on.Do you know what kind of business model they have?<<Model:Rise of 70 Business Model Innovations>>,written by Koji Mitani,shows different business models that the companies have had today.70 business models,200 companies and 140 successful entrepreneurs and businessmen,will be introduced in this book.If you are interested in business,this book can help you get a better understanding of the history of business models and how they work.

1.Dell(by Michael.S.Dell)

  Dell is one of the most successful and remarkable computer companies in the world. You buy a laptop from Dell and you can get it in a short period of time.How can Dell do it ?It is all about 'Direct Selling'.From order to delivery,it only takes around 36 hours to finish,which is much faster than other competitors.Also,there is only 7-days amount of inventory of finished goods.That means Dell can eliminate the waste of over-production and money(just like TPS).Even better,credit card payment is available in Dell,and thus the speed of fund withdrawing is higher than other firms.That's why Dell can stand out from the crowd and gain high profit per year.

2.Zara(by Amarcio Ortega)

  Have you ever noticed that you go to Zara frequently when you go shopping every time(if you like fashion)?Actually,it is Zara that makes you have such an behaviour. Zara has done a very brave and unique action--Mass production without prediction.Ortega believes that trend prediction is almost impossible in fashion industry since it changes too quickly.As a result,Zara just focus on making new products and make the production time shorter(2 weeks for one new product).Also,Regardless of being popular or not,each product's shelf time is 4 weeks.That's the reason for people going to Zara frequently due to the fear of missing the clothes they like.

3 .Rakuten(by Hiroshi Mikitani)

   Rakuten is  a Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company and found in 1997.It is similar to Amazon.However,in the past,Amazon in Japan was much more popular than Rakuten. How can Rakuten survive in such a severe situation?The answer is Exaggerating its business services.Of course,not only about online shopping,Rakuten offers a wide range of services like auction,securities and travel booking etc,which achieve OSS(one stop shopping) system.In addition,the company launch the'Super Point' strategy--people can use the points got from A store in B store when they go shopping online,which attracts more customers,therefore,it is considered as The Amazon of Japan nowadays.

If you want to buy this book,you can go to amazon.com for Japanese version and books.com.tw and taobao.com for Chinese version.(no English version 😔)

Management:Toyota Production System

 Toyota Production System(TPS) is one of the most famous management systems in the world."JIT "(Just In Time) is definitely the most popular term that every businessman has heard about it.However,what does that mean?What other elements that contribute to Toyota's big success?The book-<<Toyota Production System>> can give you the answer and is written by Taiichi Ohno,the vice director of Toyota in 1973 and is considered as "the father of TPS"


  The foundation of TPS

Elimination of any waste is the fundamental brief of TPS. But,how to achieve that?There are two major components:(a) JIT  and  (b)  autonomation. With these two components,they can help the firm eradicate any waste in industries and thus,"Zero stockpile" can be reached.

  (a) JIT

Basically,this concept is quite simple:offer necessary and specific amount of materials to the next process within specific period of time.With this concept in mind,it can be separated  into two ways to do it: Standardized production and Board:

1.Standardized Production
let's look at an example:
A company need to manufacture 1000 products per month.
working hour of a person is 8 hour per day,
which means that he needs to produce 1 product within 12 minutes
and after 25 days,it finished.
But,of course,the crucial part is constant producing.

2.Board
actually,it is very similar to "Instruction Sheet'.Every production line has this kind of board that shows how much materials is needed,how much time is allowed,how many workers are needed etc.Managers and workers have to obey it completely.

  (b) Automomation

It is known that machines can provide us with huge convenience in many areas of life.Yet,from Taiichi Ohno's point of view,it is partially incorrect.It is inevitable that a machine will generate some 'by-products' or 'degraded products'.If we allow them to run continuously,waste will just accumulate. Autonomation(human+machine) can solve this problem.Each person manages more than 2 machines and once degraded products are formed,they can stop and fix them immediately.As a result,waste can be eliminated.

  7 Types of Waste

In my opinion,this is certainly the most important part of this book because you will find any waste in your company if you look at the following "Waste Check List":

1. Waste of over-production
2. Waste of idle workersb
3. Waste of delivery
4. Waste of process
5. Waste if stockpile
6. Waste of action
7. Waste of degraded product

This is definitely one of the best books about management since it is quite easy to read and it conveys powerful concepts.Also,we can see Taiichi Ohno's wisdom and ambition in this book

If you are interested in this book,just go to amazon.com or bookdepository.com for English Version and taobao.com for Chinese Version.