There is no substitute for reading a book carefully (except, maybe, a three-hour dinner with the author).
But, in our time-crunched world, we all take short cuts in our quest to accumulate knowledge and wisdom. We read book reviews without ever reading the books reviewed. We catch author interviews whenever/wherever we can. We wait for the movie version. (We recently “celebrating” the 40 year anniversary of the Watergate burglary. I have both read All the President’s Men, and seen the movie. The movie left the more lasting impression in my mind…)
But, most business books will never be made into a movie (Steve Jobs, excepted). And we all need ways to get a little more from those books we may not find the time to read.
Let me introduce 15minutebusinessbooks.com. Since April, 1998, my colleague Karl Krayer and I have presented 15 minute synopsis of the some of the best business books to a live audience in Dallas. For the last few years, we have recorded our synopses, and made them available for purchase at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. Each purchase comes with an audio recording of our presentations, plus a multi-page comprehensive handout, with excerpts/quotes directly from the author(s), and then the highlights of the key concepts and transferable principles from the book. And, most recently, I have added my takeaways for my presentations.
The “big” books are available: Good to Great; Outliers; The Tipping Point; Women Don’t Ask; Steve Jobs; Words that Work, and many more
And, plenty of lesser known jewels are also available – books that may not have made your radar screen, but are very much worth pondering. The fact is, some best sellers just had great publicists behind them, and some great books never made the best-seller lists. Some of the books that may not be as well known that we presented are: Toy Box Leadership; The Opposable Mind; Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Again, the list is long…
The newest additions are always found at the bottom of the home page — just scroll down. Check out our catalogue by clicking here. Give one a try. I think you will find it a valuable addition to your knowledge accumulation efforts.
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(We also offer a subscription price, with all of the archives, plus 24 new synopses for 12 month, available in our subscription price. Check it out).
First Friday Book Synopsis 