The author offers 9 personal power hours of focus and 9 business power hours of focus – adding up to 18 total hours. At one hour a week, this means 18 weeks of focus. It’s really doubtful that each of the power hour can be accomplished within an hour a week. But it’s an ideal goal. I like the questions included in the book to ask yourself. They are a gold mine. It’s like having a personal consultants interviewing you on each area of your personal life and business career. Going through the exercises will probably yield a better result for most readers. The highlights of the book:

7 steps to activating the power of an hour:
1. Clearly identify what you need to change.
2. Apply critical thinking to identify the structure of the change.
3. Apply creative thinking to identify other solutions
4. Identify next steps
5. Schedule your change and take the first action.
6. Evaluate your activity and measure your success.
7. Reward your successful completion

Creating Fearsome Focus:
1. Clearly define what you will focus your effort on.
2. Define the action steps necessary to accomplish the project.
3. Surround yourself with the necessary tools and stimuli related directly to what you’ll be focusing on.
4. Do not allow distractions to divert your attention.
5. Launch into the project.
6. Evaluate the process of your effort frequently by consulting your action steps and immediately reengaging.
7. If you are confronted with a physical or mental distraction, simply acknowledge the distraction, do what’s necessary to dismiss or remove it, and then instantly reengage.
8. Continue until all action steps are complete.
9. Acknowledge completion and relax.

How to think critically:
1. acknowledge that you are a critical thinker and apply the skills regularly.
2. understand the blocks to critical thinking and avoid them.
3. Listen for and understand arguments.
4. Evaluate the legitimacy of the evidence.
5. Evaluate the case.

Personal Hour 1: Set the stage. 3 steps: clearly define what you want, define what specifically you’ll do to create the change, determine how to measure success.

Personal Hour 2: Identify the blocks like procrastination, ambivalence (two opposing opinions), have to or should do, excuses and justifications, and giving up. Other areas include business, career, income and financial situation, business relationships, personal relationships, intimate relationships, health, education, self-worth, spirituality, and etc.

Personal Hour 3: Destroy the blocks. 4 steps: 1. clearly identify and describe the block you are face, 2. Define specifically the result you intend to achieve by removing the block, 3. Define your plan and timeline for removing the block. 4. Take action.

Personal Hour 4: relationships: categorized to family relationships, mutually beneficial and supportive relationships, long-term friends, one-sided relationships.

Personal Hour 5: Finances: Setting up your plan: make it automatic, manage the professionals instead of money, make it digital, be frugal when you can but don’t step over dollars to pick up dimes, review it regularly.

Personal Hour 6: Self-improvement: Ask yourself the following questions. 1. What area of my life am I currently not improving that would have the most significant impact on the rest of my life if improved? 2. What is the most important skill I could learn right now and why is it so important? 3. When I look at the skill sets of my mentors and peers, which could I develop that would have the most significant impact on my life? 4. What specifically would that impact on my life be and what would it do for me? 5. What have I always wanted to study or learn but have constantly put on the back burner? 6. What is the most important skill I could learn or improve right now that would expand my income, career, business, relationships?

Personal Hour 7: Mental vacation: simply focus your mind away from all of your current tasks onto something you enjoy. Find a place where you can focus on something that’s relaxing and unrelated to what you’ve been focused on. Get in a comfortable position and relax. Begin to imagine your perfect day, your perfect vacation, or your perfect retirement. Make it real by taking time to focus on the sounds and images in your mind.

Personal Hour 8: Envisioneering: creative a master life vision. Japanese proverb – “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” 4 requirements that must be fulfilled in order to fully unleash the power of manifestation: 1. You must specifically define what you want. “If you ask for something in rich detail, imbued with emotion and feeling, layered with experiences, and something you can see so clearly in your mind that it becomes tangible, then you’ll get that too and it will be rich and empowering.” 2. understanding how you want fits into your master vision of life. 3. Giving your Master Life Vision power. Hold in powerfully in your mind and create it in the physical realm. This chapter has lots of good questions to ask of yourself. They alone are worth the value of the book.

Personal Hour 9: Overcome your fear and reinvent yourself. To overcome fear: take educated action via education and emulation.

Business Hour 1: Find your business focus. Break out the operational units: sales, marketing, operations, financial operations, manufacturing or service delivery units, and human resources.

Business Hour 2: Time Management. The glass ball (broken if dropped) vs. rubber ball (bounced back if dropped) analogy.

Business Hour 3: Management. Creating and Articulating Your Vision, Creating your business culture (empower employees, motivation and recognition, delegate for success – 1. determine who’s best suited to accomplish the task, 2. explain the task and expectations in as much detail as necessary, 3. give authority and support, 4. give positive feedback of understanding and commitment, 5. get out of the way).

Business Hour 4: Sales and Marketing. Lots of good questions to ask of your sales and marketing on unique differentiators, advertising, public relations.

Business Hour 5: Customer experience. Find our exceptional experience.

Business Hour 6: Making connection. Three types of connections: mastermind partners, power partners, casual connections.

Business Hour 7: Mentoring.

Business Hour 8: Give something back. Of course, how else can you reap the reward and leave a legacy?

Business Hour 9: The final hour – creating systems. How to create systems: 1. Clearly identify the system or process, 2. Identify the outcome of performing the system or process, 3. Identify who should run the system or process. 4. Identify the exact steps involved in performing the process, 5. Identify the expected outcomes at the end of each step. 6. Identify the confirmation signal that the system is complete. Best uses of your system books: to train new employees, to interview potential employees, to manage existing employees, to improve company efficiency, to open new offices or divisions, to evaluate problem areas, to allow someone else to take over if necessary.

The wrap around mortgage concept advocated by the author increases the speed of money by assuming the loan from the seller, fixing it up, and then turn-around and sell on contract with very little money down, hence creating a positive cash flow machine. The concept is simple and elegant but I don’t think this is practical any longer with the the “due-on-sale” clause of most mortgage loans these days, thanks to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae agencies. On the other hand, with the two agencies near bankruptcy and a potential hyper-inflation with Fed’s money printing machine nowadays, the author’s method may come back in vogue.

Now suppose this method is doable. I wonder about its legal implication and whether there needs to be a legal entity handling the transaction. You never know what people are capable of doing through legal means when they don’t like the house they just bought or the arrangement of the house they just sold. Having lots of houses tied up in such a wrap-around mortgages could spell disasters for legal entanglement.

It’s a novel idea in the 80’s or 90’s but I doubt it’s even practical today.

I listened to the abridged audio version of the book. As one of the earliest work of Michael Lewis, I thought the book is pretty good. The style is not as published as his recent work but the story is interesting enough to overcome its shortcoming.

The story gives the readers a glimpse of what’s it is like to get a job in an bond trading form like Salomon Brothers and to work there day in and day. It’s really like a big legal casino based on author’s description. The trading form worked like a giant bookie firm taking bets from all over. The characters in the story was also interesting like the human piranha who cussed constant f*k words, his two mentors: Alexander, and Dash, the geeks in the training class, and the rich clients who made money and lose money based on their recommendation. Of course, the obscene amount of the money/bonus the sales person made on 12/19 of every year reflect the insanity of the Wall Street. But it was no different from the Internet companies that went belly up after the year 2000.

Overall, the story was riveting though long-winged at time. Most of all, it was entertaining.

I listened to the abridged audiobook first then read the book later. The audiobook was concise but lack continuity of the book. By far, I believe this is the best of Rich Dad’s books. Robert Kiyosaki offers excellent advises for the entrepreneur-want-to-be. What impressed me the most were: 1. importance of the mission and serving others, 2. difference between job and work, 3. success reveals failures and 4. pricing strategy. The checklist before you quit your job is already worth the price of the book. My summary below:

Entrepreneurs vs. employees (Promoters vs. Trustees)
Promoters are driven by perception of opportunities. Trustees by control of resources.
Promoters’ management structure is flat with multiple informal networks, trustees formalized hierarchy with multiple tiers. Promoters are value driven, performance-based, team-oriented, where trustees are security driven, resource-based, job promotion-oriented.

Lesson #1: A successful business is created before there is a business. Rich Dad’s quote: “Losers quit when they fail. Winner fail until they succeed.” BI triangle: Three sides: Mission, Team, Leadership. Stacked from bottom to top: cash flow, communications, systems, legal, product.

Lesson #2: Learn how to turn bad luck into good luck. Two reasons why entrepreneurs fail: afraid of failing, do not fail enough. “In today’s rapidly changing world the people who are NOT taking risks are the risk takers. People who are NOT taking risks are falling behind. Commit the process: 1. start the business, 2. fail and learn, 3. find a mentor, 4. fail and learn, 5. take some classes, 6. keep failing and learning, 7. stop when successful, 8. celebrate, 9. count your money, the wins and the losses, 10. repeat the process.

Lesson #3: Know the difference between your job and your work. You get paid for a job but not for doing your work. The more homework you do, the more money you earn on your job.

Lesson #4: Success reveals your failures. “The way to stop failing is to fail faster.” Your strengths will reveal your weaknesses. Team Smarts: A-thinker (analytical skills/critical thinker), C-thinker (creative thinker/flexible logic), T-thinker (technical skills/expertise), P-thinker (people skills/personal leadership). Be the best on one of them – develop yourself.

Lesson #5: The process is more important than the goal. The process determines who you become in attaining your goals.

Lesson #6: The best answers are found in your heart not your head. Stronger mission wins in business and in wars. 3 types of money: competitive, cooperative, spiritual money. A mission is about who you do your work for. It’s not about working for yourself. “Your mission starts at your core, in your soul, felt in your heart, and spoken through your actions – not just your words.”

Lesson #7: The scope of the mission determines the product. Focus on fulfilling a mission that solves a problem or fills a need, the money will come. “The more people you serve, the richer you will become.”

Lesson #8: Design a business that can do something that no other business can do. 1. clearly define the mission, goals, and vision of the company. 2. Find the best people and forge them into a team. 3. Strengthen the company on the inside. 4. Expand the company on the outside. 5. Improve the bottom line. 6. Invest in research and development. 7. Invest in tangible assets. 8. Be a good corporate citizen. How to expand a business: 1. replicating the entire B-I triangle. 2. Franchising. 3. Taking the company public through an IPO. 4. Licensing and joint ventures. Single tactic (what you do, Domino’s “pizza in 30 minutes or less”) – multiple strategies (the plan on how to get the tactic done). Always have a low-risk idea to fall back on.

Lesson #9: Don’t fight for the bargain basement. How to find good customers. Be choosy. Rich Dad’s 3 tips about dealing with people. 1. “Pain the ass factor, 2. “hire slow and fire last.” 3. Two kinds of communicators: when unhappy, one would come talk to you face to face, the second one would stab you on your back. Gross margin: 1. finance the rest of the B-I triangle. 2. determine the price of your product, 3. Product and price determine your customers. 5 P’s: product, person, price, place and position.

Lesson #10: Know when to quit. 1. Check your attitude. Need to love the business. 2. Get as much experience as possible on five levels of B-I triangle. 3. Always remember that sales = income. 4. Be optimistic as well as brutally honest with yourself. 5. How are you spending money? 6. Start a business to practice on. 7. Be willing to ask for help. 8. Find a mentor. 9. Join a entrepreneur network. 10. Be faithful to the process.

Mission => Process => Goal.

This is a very short story about author’s 8th-grade baseball coach, Coach Fitz, who taught them the lessons on the game of life. It’s not about winning the game only but more about persevere against adversity. The coach made the students do sliding drills all evening after losing a game. By forcing them to wear the same unwashed uniform until they finally won a game, the coach impressed upon them the lessons of life. But it’s getting harder for Coach Fritz to apply the same teaching and lessons to the kids nowadays as the rich parents demanded the private school coach to cut their kids breaks and privileges that work against the Coach’s teaching in responsibility, discipline, and lifting of the courage and strength to meet the life challenges. Coach Fritz found it to be his purpose in life to not give up on the kids but win for the kids. He carried it out through his emotion and tough punishments, bordering abusive. The turning point for the author was when a baseball broke his nose as he tried to catch a baseball after losing his concentration trying to listen to what Coach might have been scolding him of his skipped practice due to a family ski trip.

The story made me wonder how our kids’ future are being ruined or spoiled by the parents and how many teachers nowadays truly care enough to risk losing their careers to bring out the best of the students. I also remember a few of the teachers in my early life who were doing the same thing as Coach Fritz does and yet I felt they were simply abusing their power. It’s hard to appreciate the teachers when you’re young. Only when you grow up and accomplish something that set you above others that you begin to appreciate the gifts you have received from your teachers, if you haven’t already attributed 100% to your own doing.

Janet Lowe offers a 3rd-party, unbiased perspective on the life and accomplishment of Jack Welch, the previous CEO of GE. I listened to the abridged version of the book. Nothing really new about Jack Welch that I haven’t heard of. He’s a tough, truth-confronting, no-non-sense manager, who rose from a small yet up and coming division of GE plastic to take over the CEO position of the entire company. His advocacy of Six Sigma took the company to the next level of quality. He stressed the importance of being #1 or #2 of the market, in order to maintain high level of margin/value to the customers. His mistakes were numerous but the obsession with winning gives the investors lots of reasons to forgive him and yet at the same time allow him to win even more, like the baseball batting analogy. How many CEO’s in the Fortune 500 companies are afforded such leniency? I like the 3rd-party analysis of the Welch instead of the many autobiographies Jack published with his wife. Too bad the audiobook was too short to assess the value of the book.

This book paints a pretty accurate and gloomy picture of what property management is all about. The author does not exhibit much enthusiasm about property management. It’s a necessary evil to real estate wealth but can be outsourced or leveraged to outside service. Managing the property manager is what this book is all about. I tend to agree with the author, after managing my own rental property for over 5 years, that it’s not for the faint of heart and it’s way too time consuming to be worth doing it yourself. In any case, the author does offer some good advices on what to look out for. The explanation of the financial statement is helpful and the impetus to maximize the rent and its translation to the value of the property drive home the points.

Here are the outlines of the book:

5 tasks of dealing with tenants: 1. find them, 2. collect rent/fees, 3. Be a sounding board for them, 4. Address their maintenance issues, 5. Enforce policies and contracts.

On laws: Have a solid lease, document everything, know when to fold ’em (let the residents win the battle), LLC’s. Tip: one of the most empowering things you can say is “read your lease.” Always document everything when it comes to resident communication.

Cash flow management: Income/expense statement is your property’s report card. Income – Expenses – Debt = Cash Flow. Tips: a seasoned property manager will immediately see that rents are increased. Never assume that previous year’s actual numbers will hold true in today’s market. Loss to lease = gross potential income – actual potential rent income.

Revenue: Gross Potential Rent Income – Gain/Loss to Old Lease – Concessions – Other Loss – Vacancy => Effective Rental Income + Other Income = Total Income

Operating Expenses: Professional Management + On-site Management/Payroll + Administrative + Advertising + Tax and Insurance + Utilities + Repairs and Maintenance = Total Operating Expenses.

Tips: pre-negotiated contracts with set pricing for their approved vendors (carpet cleaning, interior painting, electrical repairs, heating and air-conditioning service, plumbing repairs, appliance repairs, landscaping, pool service, pest control). Keep a capital reserve in order to complete large, onetime capital projects. Never forget your property’s value is based on its net operating income. Anybody managing anything will cost either time or money.

Net Operating Income = Revenue – Operating Expenses
Cash flow = Net Operating Income – Capital Expenses – Debt Services

Finding good property manager:
Match the needs of your property in terms of age, structure, equipment, grounds, local laws, amenities, administrative needs, and size to the types of property management companies: commercial, HOA, Mini Storage, shopping center, multifamily, single-family/small property. And Operating capacity: national/international, regional, mom-and-pop, realty company, owner/resident management.

Examine the
Employees training, job satisfaction
Systems: policy and procedures, accounting
Structures

Do you search
Level 1: Finding the players
Level 2: Meeting the players: the office visit – check for property condition, club house, staff, collateral/marketing materials, tours/models, and office.
Level 3: picking your player. Management contract: Fee structure, accounting systems, responsibilities, and expiration.

There are lots of sample forms, property management agreement, and etc. in the appendix. Good references.