I picked up this book from the new book section of the library. The title was catchy and the book was short. So I picked it up and read it.

This book reminds of the “Goal” book with similar style that turns the learnings into a story line. It’s about this guy, Thomas, of 30 years old, who has been working in a profession (CPA) that does not bring out his passion. He was fortunate enough to meet this old guy in Italy, who guided him using the David sculpture of Michaelangelo as the stepping stone. The learnings are summarized in the following (or p.92 of the book):

1. Find the Angel (gift/beauty) within you. Know your strengths first or see the beauty inside (like Michaelangelo saw in the marble that was used for the David sculpture.

2. Follow your own passion. Like Michaelangelo did; he turned away from his father and found a mentor. “If you do not follow your passion, you will always be unhappy.”

3. Be confident (have faith) in your strength. As “David” was portrayed by Michaelangelo as a confident warrior in front of Goliath. Indeed, having the confidence seems to be the right first step or you’ll never start.

4. The beauty is in the details. The fine details are what separate the experts from the novices. Michaelangelo sculptured fine details in the “David” sculpture and truly show his crafts. In other words, one must walk the talk.

5. The hand creates what the mind conceives. (Mind over body). Michaelangelo was first a writer that perceives how he wanted the “David” sculpture to represent before he started the work.

6. Plan and prepare. The artists frequently sculpture a ‘test run’ or a small sculpture before embarking on a new statue.

7. Start with swift action (like pick up the hammer, aim, and strike the marble). One must start. “Action is the beginning of accomplishment.” Don’t let “fear of unknowns” or fear of succeeding get in the way.

8. Embrace the stages of chipping, sculpting, sanding, and polishing. Reading of the “classic” books, authored by people who already passed away may be very helpful because their contents stood the test of time. “Sanding” of life wears us down but they give us substance and make our lives meaningful. “Every negative situation can bring a positive outcome if we look for it. Those who are successful are those who can turn adversity into achievement.” Yesterday, I happened to be checking out Forbe’s richest 20 people in the world. I counted nearly half of top 10 list dropped out of school, including Bill Gates. It goes to tell you that trial and tribulations bring out the best of people. “Polishing” (looking good) will always come last.

9. Sometimes success takes years, so be content.

10. No one starts with the Sistine Chapel. (Don’t expect big, quick accomplishments).

The storyline may seem a bit corny but the teachings are deep. For those who have yet to find their passion, this book is a great boost. For those who are pursuing their passion now. The last few lessons can serve as great encouragements to “hang” in there and continue to push forward.

This is a memoir of Lance Armstrong, the seven-consecutive-time champion of Tour De France. Before reading this book, I had this impression he must be really talented and victories must have come easy to him – winning the superbowl of the bicycling sport for seven times in a row. This book earned me new found respect for him. This is another success story of a person who had been all but written off and proceeded to make a comeback in a big way.

1. How it all began.Lance Armstrong was born in 1971 into a poor family. His father practically abandoned him and divorced his mother at his age of 2. Upon his mother’s re-marriage, he was adopted by by step father and took the surname of “Armstrong.” He wasn’t very impressed with his step father. Throughout his young life, he participated in swimming, biking, and triathlons, where he found himself talented in endurance sports – probably due to his high VO2 max and his ability to block out pain. However, this may have caused him to seek out diagnostic of his testicular cancer so late. But his ability to tough it out may have helped him tremendously during the chemotherapy and the come-back of his biking career.

2. Relationship with his mother. His relationship with him mother was amazingly close because she was always there for him especially during his fight with cancer. Though he sounded resentful of his mother’s failed marriages, he remained close to his mother and his mother to him. He was very proud of his mother’s rise from a KFC clerk to a program manager, while lacking college education. His mother reminds me of Forest Gump’s mother, always faithful, caring and loving.

3. Fighting cancer and winning over cancer as Tour De France. His description of the struggle with the testicular surgery, brain surgery and chemotherapy was rather vivid and personal. The doctor later gave him an odd of survival at 5% or less. Killing cancer is like poisoning your own body and hope that your body can survive longer than the cancer cells. I now have great sympathy for people who go through this kind of treatments.

4. Cancer survivorship. Lance went through a spout of the cancer survivorship, which is similar to people who lived through great tragedy and found themselves not able to go back to their normal life due to the confusion with the purpose of life and self awareness of one’s own limitation. I would probably feel the same way if I had survived a stage 3 cancer. It would be very confusing to me.

5. Against all odds:Lance Armstrong’s story can easily be titled “Against All Odds.” What’s the odd of a US sport jockey turned into a 7-time champions of the Tour De France, a coveted trophy of a sport dominated by Europeans. And stacked against these odds are the fact that he came back from a stage-3 testicular cancer. Quite an amazing story. Like my dentist friend, Dr. Wu, said, “the toughest are the guys most victimized.” How true!

6. Biking as a sport.A lot of my friends are into biking. It never quite appealed to me due to its long, boring, enduring nature. This book really changed some of the negative aspects of biking – it’s no different from living a life. Sometimes, it’s long and boring and sometimes it’s an uphill battle that you’d need to peddle really arduously just to make some small advance. And sometimes, it’s all downhill and you must focus on the road and the turns so you won’t “crash.”

7. Fame and money corrupt. Lance’s love story with his wife, Kik (Kristin Richard) was really touching and the classical. But based on Wikipedia, he divorced her in 2003, a few years after publishing this book. I don’t mean to be judgmental, but I think having the fame and wealth does corrupt a person. Prior to the discovery of his cancer, he was very cocky and was on top of the world. Honestly, he wasn’t a very likable person. The cancer brought him down to earth, mortality and maturity.

This is truly an inspiration book, a most read for someone fighting the terminal disease and a must read for someone who thinks he/she had it all. And for the regular guy like me, this book serve as a warning that I had it good. Don’t complain and keep my eyes on the road. You never know when the road may turn up or down.

This book is a memoir of a Marine (Jay Kopelman), who was sent to Irag during the Iraq war, somehow fell in love with this puppy called Lava. He want through quite a ordeal to get the puppy out of Iraq.

In a way, I believe the author sees a little of himself in this puppy -a little restless, lawless, and emotional. Rescuing the puppy in a way is like to rescue himself and his sanity and give him a sense of purpose from a country of insanity and war zone. With help from an Iraqi, a CNN Journalist, bomb-detecting kennel, he was able to fly the dog out of the country after the end of his tour. The fate of the dog hung on the balance throughout the story.

I was surprised to learn how badly Iraq has fallen into. This is not a country anyone would want to live in. The vivid account of the situation there (like separation of green and red zone, human bodies being eaten by stray dogs, constant threat of suicide bombing, and bomb-strapped cows, retarded kids and etc.) does send a chill through my spine.

The book reads like a novel but was in a journal format and kept the reader interested all along. Very nicely done. Looking at these pictures of Lava, I can see why people would want to preserve his little life. He is a miracle in itself (the odd was stacked against him) and gives us hope that things will get better for his homeland – Iraq and for the US men and women who are still there. Our thoughts are with you.

This is a rags-to-riches story. Chris Gardner would have been written off long time ago and would not stand a chance to succeed. He was a poor boy living through abandonment by his own father, several separations with his mother due to her going in and out of prison, verbal and physical abuses by his step father. Against all odds, based on his own drive to success and his mother’s encouragement (“You can make a million if you want to.”)

The most dramatic and interesting part of the story is that after he had some success with his medical equipment sales career, he became homeless with his boy, walking around in baby stroller in Oakland, BART station, San Francisco, all the while trying to make a career in the E.F. Hutton Brokerage house, sometime sleeping in the bathrooms of the BART station, or dark corner of the Union Square WITH his baby boy!

Armed with his SPD (Smart, Poor, and Deep desire to succeed) and several people’s help, he was able to rise through the ranks, founded his own firm and became rich. This story should serve as a good motivator for people stuck in the same situation. There is no question that Chris Gardner was a very smart person in his own right. Who would capture any seemingly unlikely chance to talk to a guy driving a Farrari sports car and ask him directly how he became rich. He was direct, charming, knew exactly what he wanted – to pursue his happiness that he desired in this world against all odds. No one else believed in him except his Mom and his little boy.

By any standard, he is a very good salesman. He just knows how to sell. His secret? Understand what the customer needs and sell them what they want, above and beyond their needs. Of course, it doesn’t hurt what he was selling was making money for the clients. The numbers speak for themselves. He also found a niche to sell into the rich black community that needs his service.

I haven’t got a chance to watch the movie version. But this audio book was so vividly narrated, I can feel all the emotions encountered by the author. Sometimes, it helps to be put in the deepest cycle of the life to shake someone out of his comfort zone and become the best he/she can be. This is a success story. If he can do it, there are many people can do it too.

As in the “Automatic Millionaire” book, this book started out working on the Latte factor and Double Latte factor. I guess he’s not getting the spokesperson job from Starbucks. It’s true that there are many frivolous spendings people do just to “spoil” oneself. For me, it’s the “joy” of being alive. Well, I don’t do latte and I only drink coffee of the day so my savings is not that much. I did manage to cut out my “fruit” salad from my lunch, saving me ~$4/day. Instead, I brought my own fruits, which costs < $1. That's roughly $3/day or $750/yr or $43K in 20 years, assuming 10% APR. Not bad. The next few chapters are for the credit card slaves who are up to their necks on credit card debts. This section is not particular interesting to me. There is some tips about paying mortgage biweekly or paying 10% extra per mortgage payment or add an extra payment every year. Budgeting doesn’t work. Make it automatic and pay yourself first: I long ago realized the budgeting is simply waste of time and try to do things manually simply don’t work well. These days, there are many on-line tools to automate the payments. It’s a waste of time not to take advantage of it.

Investment strategy: Bach suggests that all investment should be in 3 equal shares in real estates (including the equity of your home), bonds, and stocks. Try to balance the investment in all 3 areas. Investment should be “boring” and your life should be exciting, according to Bach.

Getting extra income: I waited a while to see how much the author is going to get everyone to save and not offer ideas to increase the income. I was not disappointed. His advise about getting a raise was enlightening. As a manager, I have never seen any employee coming to me asking for a raise, nor have I done it myself. But the question he asks, “Ask yourself or your boss if he/she would hire you now.” Wow, that’s a difficult question to ask oneself. It’s true that an excellent employee worths many times the “good” employees. And indeed, good employees are the worst kind because they are not bad enough to fire and not excellent enough to take on additional responsibilities. He also suggested using eBay to sell your goods.

Franchising: May be good for people who can manage and follow the rules. He suggested several good tips like: have some money to tie over, talk to people who already own the franchise, work at the franchise to see behind the counter, buy an existing franchise by asking the existing franchisee if they want to sell, and catch the growth curve.

The most expensive time is the hours you get paid for. This is another shocking statement for people who are making ends meet. In other words, if you’re getting paid by the hours, you’re not maximizing your worth. You should be leveraging your assets and talents to multiply your earnings.

Owning your home. Your home is an asset. Contrary to what Rich Dad said, your home is your asset. David Bach did not go into some long winged arguments but make it clear that for most people it’s the best investment you’ll ever make and the equity you build up is going to feed you in your old age. I agree with him. Not everyone is cut out to be a landlord and wanted to deal with finicky tenants.

Be a dream creator. Giving back by tithing.David Bach made it clear that getting rich is not the ultimate goal but the wealth created choices and freedom and ability to give back. Go and enable others’ dreams. Good point.

Teach your kids to start early and finish rich.Start them early and teach them about the basic financial wisdom from this book so they can start early and finish richer (than we).

Live in the joy. “When was the last time you had joy?” Be happy and do the things that make you happy. Having the financial freedom can make that happen.

I like this book more than the previous books. David Bach has reached certain level of maturity and acquired more wisdom. Of course, he would not consider buying his books or joining his membership a double-latte factor. Would he?