I think this book is a more coherent version of the past work of Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump. Drawing analogy to the five human fingers, the authors details the 5 essential success factors for entrepreneurs. Among the 5, I believe the middle finger or brand is most refreshing of all. The others were more of the repeat of the past work. But if you haven’t read the earlier work like the 8 integrities, BI quadrants, and etc., this book would probably surmise. More details of the five fingers are as follows:

The five-finger symbolism of the Midas Touch:
1. Thumb: Strength of Character
Lots of old failure stories between Robert and Donald.
7 types of intelligence. Sacrifice is part of the journey. Strength is an attitude, a discipline, determination and drive.

2. Index: F.O.C.U.S. Follow one course until successful.
Focus but not specialization. Entrepreneurship favors generalists. Lead the specialists to do the tasks and the work. Work to learn, not to earn. Learn the languages of business.

3. Middle: Brand: What you stand for.
Robert’s Fake Rolex story. Big-picture questions: 1. Why do you do what you do? 2. What problem do you want to solve? 3. Who or what is your competition? Great brads are: genuine, meaningful, and different. People buy with their hearts and justify their purchases with their minds. Have the courage to find your heart and put into your brand. Figure out what really moves you. Improve your public-speaking skill.

4. Ring: Relationships: You can’t do a good deal with bad partners.
Best partners are made up of the dreamer, business person, and the S.O.B. Partner with people who share your values, attitude and drive. Plan for the end of relationship before you begin by drawing up a buy-sell agreement.

5. Pinkie: Little things that count; successful entrepreneurs do that others don’t. Big difference from thinking small. Discover that little thing in your business that can be a big thing to your customers. Uncover your gift. Be generous with your energy and success. Bring others along for the ride and reward them well. Commit too being a lifelong learner. Design your business from the start so that it’s leverageable, expandable, predictable, and financeable.

This book is a bit dated since the digital camera evolves very quickly. The first half of the book is about photography, not much different from the analog photography but the second half the author dives hot and heavy into photoshop touch up and other techniques – not what I have expected. I did pick up a few nuggets about the various scene features in the new digital camera, use of the “slave” flash, and how to read the various features of the camera.

This book is about making small habit/concept change that may yield positive impact on your life. There are roughly 39 ideas on how to shift your thoughts to make your life easier/better. Most of them are common sense. A summary is as follows: A few of them stands out for me: 11. Take a vacation every day, 18. Set your expectations to zero, 19. Are you in there?, 37. Leave things as you found them and
38. Make a small difference in someone’s life every day.

1. A penny for your thoughts: a small shift in the thinking makes a whole world of difference.
2. Paving your way: questions your assumptions and stop being a creature of habit.
3. Be there for yourself: Be kind to yourself and reserve time for yourself.
4. Your life can change at a drop of a hat: Expect changes will happen and be prepared for them.
5. The most basic choice of all: Be grateful or over-extended. It’s our choice.
6. Remember the power of hope: Maintain the hope that things will be better this time.
7. I won’t go there: Don’t allow ourselves to go down the path of worry and dread.
8. Watch your thoughts: next time you become agitated, worried, harried, or simply unable to focus, step back and watch your thoughts.
9. The grass is as green as it needs to be: accept the fact that the grass is as green as it needs to be and it’s possible for us to be happy right now.
10. Take Five: Take a moment, gather yourself and responding with a clear understanding of what you can control.
11. Take a vacation every day: Set aside short period of time every day and bring fun and balance back into our lives.
12. Notice what gets you: become an observer of your reactions. Notice the source of my stress seems to send a signal to my brain that says, “Don’t worry about it.”
13. Recognize when you’re fighting reality: Ask yourself, “how is resisting concrete reality going to help? Is there any chance that fighting reality is going to make you feel better?”
14. Focus on the blessings: As negative thoughts creep into your mind, learn to let them pass and replace them with thoughts about all that’s right instead.
15. Golden pause: take one in moments of stress.
16. Plant a seed of doubt: open your mind to the possibility that there’s a different perspective to consider. An open mind is essential for true happiness.
17. Believe it or not, this too shall pass. Avoid making big decisions when your mood is down.
18. Set your expectations to zero: That way everything you see is a miracle. e.g. expect zero bonus. Once you’re done all you can, you completely let go of your expectations of the outcome.
19. Are you in there? Step forward and offer your full and absolute concentration. When you’re with someone, make that person feel as though he or she is the most important person in the world to you at that moment.
20. Find a way to laugh every day.
21. Turning on a dime: Have an open mind and willingness to make the change.
22. Lay out the welcome mat: Reach out to others and become more welcoming in whatever small way you can.
23. A small secret: use of flashcard.
24. Learn to say no: don’t over commit.
25. Stop the blame game: take responsibility for what happens in their lives – the good and the bad.
26. Be careful what you do and say: we may be influenced others.
27. First things first: focus energy and time on what’s most productive and potentially profitable.
28. Innocent until proven guilty: taking control by not letting our assumptions run our lives.
29. No more regrets: Let them pass and follow up with this thought: “I choose to believe that everything happened in my life happened for a reason. I have made good decisions that support a positive, wonderful life. I will not look back, unless it is to learn or appreciate something or to each someone else a valuable life lesson.”
30. Listen without interrupting: there is no advantage to interruption or mentally critiquing someone who’s giving your advice.
31. Save for a rainy day! Some financial advises.
32. Don’t take notes: relax and enjoy the talk. Don’t approach life wiht an intensity that obscures the bigger picture.
33. My two bits: changing our relationship to the world.
34. Give a little
35. Reading is for everyone: reading more.
36. A little kindness just might keep the doctor away.
37. Leave things as you found them.
38. Make a small difference in someone’s life every day. Create your own list of ideas and start incorporating into your life.
39. Sail way with small change.

I listened to the audiobook. The author/narrator tells a good story of Ben’s turn around from being the “Answer Man” to the “Question Man” and from the “Judger” to the “Learner” mindset. As stated in the book, “Great Results begin with great questions.” It takes discipline and practice to move away from withholding the answers and becoming the “learner” by asking questions and allowing others to provide the answers. I particularly like the Q-storming instead of brainstorming. Sometimes it may seems to be playing the Double Jeopardy.

Overall, I learn to be more conscientious of which role I’m playing when and if I run into a sticky situation. The switching questions help. Ben’s story may be a bit juvenile and dramatic but it drives home the point that being the Judger affects negatively a person’s work and personal life. To be successful as a leader, asking questions is more effective.

The 10 tools are:
1. Empower your observer: Be present with yourself and others.
2. Use the Choice Map as a Guide: choose to be on the Learner path, not Judger path, use switch lane. Use the ABCC (Aware – Am I in Judger?, Breathe – Do I need to step back and look at this more objectively?, Curiosity – Do I have all the facts? What’s happening here?, and Choice – What’s my choice?) Choice process.
3. Put the power of questions (internal and interpersonal) to work.
4. Distinguish Learner and Judger mindsets and questions.
5. Make friends (be aware of) with Judger.
6. Question assumptions.
7. Take advantage of switching questions. (Am I in Judger? Is this what I want to feel? Is this what I want to be doing? Where would I rather be? How can I get there? Is this working? What are the facts? How else can I think about this? What assumption am I making? What am I missing or avoiding? How can I be more objective and honest?
8. Create Learner Teams
9. Create breakthroughs with Q-storming.
10. Ask the top twelve questions for success. What do I want? What are my choices? What assumptions am I making? What am I responsible for? How else can I think about this? What is the other person thinking, feeling, and wanting? What am I missing or avoiding? What can I learn? From this person, situation, mistake, failure or success? What action steps make the most sense? What questions should I ask myself or others? How can I turn this into a win-win? What’s possible?

This book describes the history of Hawaii, how it was like originally in its own kingdom, which was savagely consolidated by King Kamehameha, to its being annexed by the United States and its statehood. In a way, all the people, the whalers, sailors, imported labors and the foreign conquerors are all unfamiliar fishes to the native Hawaiians.

The incestuous tradition of the early Kamehameha kingdom was not different than the Egyptians. Also, the Mormons were one the earliest settlers that influenced the religion of people and gave them their written language there. But given the economic necessity of growing sugar canes, many of the Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos workers were imported into the islands. The islands turned into a melting pot. After many generations of mixing, the people are all “cousins” as they often referred to one another.

The politics of US’s annexing Hawaii in the early 19th century coincided with the peak of imperialism was rather interesting. Politics have a way to explain away all evil doings in the name of precedences and strategic importance for the future.

This book also gave the history behind the famous Hawaiian song, Aloha Oe, written by the last Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, who sang this song to Teddy Roosevelt during his inauguration. Of course, this book would probably not be of interest to people if it were not for President Obama’s being born and growing up in Hawaii.

The organization of the book is bit hard to follow on audiobook which I listened to. The author’s voice is not your usual professional voices but OK and there were many quotes voiced by a few famous people including Keanu Reeve. Overall, it was a casual, interesting book – well researched, not too serious and occasionally funny. I’ll be sure to bring this book along next time I plan to vacation there.