This game-changing book empowers readers to become confident, independent, wise decision-makers— savvy to how our emotions, moods, and habits can trip us up. An investor wonders whether to put his money into the stock market or to keep it in a savings account. A patient is torn between opting for surgery and trying an experimental drug therapy. A college-bound student questions whether to take on debt to attend an Ivy League school or to choose a public institution with low tuition. We face momentous decisions with important consequences throughout our lives. We have never had better access to information and expertise, yet this data deluge has become a double-edged sword. Which sources of information are credibleHow can we separate the signal from the noiseWhose advice can we trustAll of these questions are reasons for us to become empowered decision-makers capable of making high-stakes choices ourselves. Whether you are a politician, a businessperson, a professional, or a parent, now is the time to take a radically different approach. In Eyes Wide Open, the bestselling author and visionary thinker Noreena Hertz shares insights from the latest research along with practical advice, including why looking at information in black and white rather than in color can lead to better decisions why it's smart to be skeptical about experts' pronouncements, and how to identify the best among them why it's crucial to carve out time to think, even in moments of crisis how and why you should regulate your emotional thermostat to make smart decisions why you need to shake up your social network if you don't want only to reinforce what you already know and amplify the beliefs you already have It's time to make decisions with our eyes wide open—for the sake of our health, our wealth, and our future security.

The measure of the executive, Peter Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done." This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results. Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must, be learned: Management of time Choosing what to contribute to the practical organization Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect Setting up the right priorities And Knitting all of them together with effective decision making Ranging widely through the annals of business and government, Peter Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.

In this age of digital communication, getting the right message across clearly is crucial to success. Communicating Effectively, a comprehensive and essential resource for any manager on the run, shows you how.Learn to: Build relationships through effective communication Get more done via e-mail Draft pitch perfect letters, memos, and reports Conduct productive conference calls Deliver hard-hitting presentations The Collins Best Practices guides offer new and seasoned managers the essential information they need to achieve more, both personally and professionally. Designed to provide tried-and-true advice from the world's most influential business minds, they feature practical strategies and tips to help you get ahead.

From the author who brought you the massive New York Times bestseller Bringing Down the House, this is the startling rags-to-riches story of an Italian-American kid from the streets of Brooklyn who claws his way into the wild, frenetic world of the oil exchange.After conquering the hallowed halls of Harvard Business School, he enters the testosterone-laced warrens of the Merc Exchange, the asylumlike oil exchange located in lower Manhattan. A place where billions of dollars trade hands every week, the Merc is like a casino on crack, where former garbagemen become millionaires overnight and where fistfights break out on the trading floor.This ordinary kid has traded Brooklyn for the gold-lined hotel palaces of Dubai. He keeps company on the decks of private yachts in Monte Carlo teeming with half-naked girls flown in by Saudi sheiks and makes deals in the dangerous back alleys of Beijing.But the Merc is just a starting place. Taken under the wing of another young gun and partnering with a mysterious young Muslim, the kid embarks on a dangerous adventure to revolutionize the oil trading industry and, along with it, the world.Rigged is the explicit, exclusive, true story behind the headlines that dominate the world stage.

Aiming high is essential to success. But by following through and completing what you've set out to do, you can truly outperform your competitors. Achieving Goals, a comprehensive and essential resource for any manager on the run, shows you how.Learn to: Set smart and challenging goals for yourself and your employees Create a goal-focused environment Help employees meet their objectives Anticipate and overcome obstacles Measure progress and stay on track to achieve success The Collins Best Practices guides offer new and seasoned managers the essential information they need to achieve more, both personally and professionally. Designed to provide tried-and-true advice from the world's most influential business minds, they feature practical strategies and tips to help you get ahead.

This expert, one-of-a-kind handbook shows you how to ensure that your inheritance instructions will be carried out the way you want them to be; protect your children's inheritance from creditors, ex-spouses, addictions, tax troubles, mismanagement, squandering, and other risks of loss; prevent family conflict that can arise when parents die and children divide the family money leave more money to your children and grandchildren, and less to the IRS; avoid creating inheritance problems in your family with cautionary tales of inheritance planning gone bad; understand why you still have to deal with estate tax issues even if your net worth falls below the new death-tax-exemption.

Your one-stop guide to finding a job, navigating the corporate ladder, and leaving when the time is rightDid you know that: 60% of hiring managers will offer a higher salary if asked14% of workers have used happy hour to get ahead66% of businesses monitor Internet use77% of workers feel burnout on the jobFrom the experts at CareerBuilder.com, America's largest online job site, comes a complete handbook for career domination. Whether it's answering the questions the interviewers are really asking, making the most of your performance reviews, or quitting with great references and without burning bridges, Career Building explains it all. This book offers everything from job hunting basics to hiring manager secrets, office survival advice to career change suggestions, workplace statistics to sample resignation letters, and more. Whether you're looking for your first job or your fortieth, or you're just eager to move up the ranks at your current company, this is the one and only guide you need to create the career you've always wanted.

The housing market, like any other investment, has always had its ups and downs. But ever since it started its upswing at the beginning of this decade, the ride has become more thrilling and more dangerous. One day, home values are skyrocketing and cheap money is up for grabs; the next day, houses linger on the market and interest rates rise alarmingly high. Home buyers and sellers are beginning to recognize that however the market moves where they live, they must be prepared to make smart housing decisions.Written by veteran real estate reporter June Fletcher, House Poor teaches you everything you need to know to weather the ups and downs of the housing market, including: How to tell whether your hometown is likely to boom or bust When to take equity out of your house How to buy as a first-time home owner or as an investor during turbulent times How to protect your home investment When and how to sell your home Today's volatile housing market could make you house poor.This book will keep you house proud.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

Donald J. Trump is an icon: the very definition of the American success story. The star of The Apprentice and developer of some of the planet's most prestigious real estate, he's been on the bottom and risen to become one of the world's wealthiest men. Bill Zanker started The Learning Annex with $5,000 and grew it into a $5 million a year company. That was before he met Donald Trump. Thirty months later, after Zanker learned to think BIG himself, The Learning Annex is generating over $100 million a year in sales and still growing. Together, they're living examples of how thinking BIG and knowing when to back up your opinions aggressively regardless of what your critics or opponents might say can help you maximize your personal and professional achievements. For the first time ever, you too can learn Trump's secrets to thinking BIG and kicking ass! Learn: Momentum: the Big Mo. How to get it and how to get it back. Revenge: how and when to get it (and why it's so sweet). "I love you, now sign this!" Why contracts in business and personal life are so important. Real-life stories from people who've applied the think BIG formula in their own lives. These strategies are proven and attested to by those who've learned to think BIG from Donald Trump and found success in their own lives. Bill Zanker used Donald's strategies to grow the revenues of The Learning Annex twenty times in under three years. Both of them have been down and out, and know what it's like to feel the whole world's against you and both have risen to dizzying heights of success by thinking BIG and kicking ass! It is an attitude that can be easily learned.

Two world-renowned marketing consultants and bestselling authors present the definitive rules of marketing.

Revered management thinker Peter F. Drucker is our trusted guide in this thoughtful, day-by-day companion that offers his penetrating and practical wisdom. Amid the multiple pressures of our daily work lives, The Daily Drucker provides the inspiration and advice to meet the many challenges we face. With his trademark clarity, vision, and humanity, Drucker sets out his ideas on a broad swath of key topics, from time management, to innovation, to outsourcing, providing useful insights for each day of the year. These 366 daily readings have been harvested from Drucker's lifetime of work. At the bottom of each page, the reader will find an action point that spells out exactly how to put Drucker's ideas into practice. It is as if the wisest and most action-oriented management consultant in the world is in the room, offering his timeless gems of advice. The Daily Drucker is for anyone who seeks to understand and put to use Drucker's powerful words and ideas.

The untold story of the renegade burger chain that evokes a passionate following unlike any other In fast-food corporate America, In-N-Out Burger stands apart. Begun in a tiny shack in the shadow of World War II, this family-owned chain has stead fastly refused to franchise or be sold. It is a testament to old-fashioned values and reminiscent of a simpler time when people, loyalty, and a freshly made, juicy hamburger meant something. Over time, In-N-Out Burger has become nothing less than a cultural institution that can lay claim to an insanely loyal following. Perman uses her investigative skills to uncover the story of a real American success story. It is not only a tale of a unique and profitable business that exceeds all expectations, but of a family's struggle to maintain a sustainable pop empire against the industry it helped pioneer, internal tensions, and a bitter lawsuit that threatened to bring the company to the brink. This is a lesson in a counterintuitive approach to doing business that places quality, customers, and employees over the riches promised by rapid expansion. In-N-Out Burger is a keenly observed narrative that explores the evolution of a California fad that transformed into an enduring cult of popularity; it is also the story of the conflicted, secretive, and ultimately tragic Snyder family who cooked a billion burgers and hooked a zillion fans. As the story of In-N-Out Burger unfolds, so too does the cultural history of America as influenced and shaped by car culture and fast food.

From the founders of ClassyMommy.com and MomGenerations.com comes the ultimate guide to helping moms build successful careers at home by doing what they already do online just better.To work or not to work it's the toughest question for most mothers today. But Audrey McClelland and Colleen Padilla have found the coveted middle ground, creating successful careers from home via the Internet. They've literally Skyped, blogged, vlogged, tweeted, and Facebooked their way to the top and in this eye-opening book they show other moms how to find success through these seven basic steps: 1. Find your passion. 2. Hang a digital shingle and start typing. 3. Find your tribe. 4. Make opportunity knock and learn how to answer that door. 5. Manage the Benjamins. 6. Don't forget the children! 7. Live happily ever after by living your values.

It's a challenging time to be young and new in the workplace. Your parents can't help the rules have all changed. In Welcome to the Real World, career expert and entrepreneur Lauren Berger arms you with the tools you need to succeed. She's been in your shoes just a few years ago she was you. This handbook tells you everything you need to know to make the most of your first on-the-job experience, including how to think about the big picture deal with rejection effectively manage your time navigate sticky situations in the office and communicate with different personality types embrace entrepreneurship regardless of position, rank, or title organize your financial situation and personal life get promoted and (one day) take your boss's job! In a world defined by uncertainty, Lauren shows you how to be bold, take risks, and understand your value.

In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers, administrators, and executives who lived the story, this riveting chronicle details PARC's humble beginnings through its triumph as a hothouse for ideas, and shows why Xerox was never able to grasp, and ultimately exploit, the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered. Dealers of Lightning offers an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistoiy--and the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.

Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all dayAn obsession that keeps you up at nightNow is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed here, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. By the end of this book, readers will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, Crush It! is the ultimate driver's manual for modern business.

Michael E. Gerber, bestselling author of The E-Myth Revisited shares his powerful insights to lead independent physicians to successful practices and enriched lives.Michael Gerber has dedicated much of his professional life to the study of entrepreneurship and business dynamics. His E-Myth Academy is renown in the entrepreneurial world for its business insight and guidance as well as its inspirational advice.In the E-Myth Physician, bestselling author Gerber returns to his roots in order to provide indispensable advice to doctors who own and run their own practices. Gerber provides excellent business insights into topics such as streamlining systems, effective small-business management practices, healthy patient relations and managing cash flow, all with the goal of freeing physicians from the daily grind of running a business and leading them to a happier and more productive life while doing the job they love - practising medicine.

Technology is not the answer. It is also not the problem. What matters insteadAwareness, Engagement, and Wisdom.Wisdom 2.0 addresses the challenge of our age:to not only live connected to one another through technology,but to do so in ways that are beneficial, effective, and useful.

A completely updated and revised edition of a bestselling book that has helped tens of thousands of people learn how to network effectively, Success Runs in Our Race is more important than ever in this fluctuating economy. With scores of anecdotes taken from interviews with successful African Americans -- from Keith Clinkscales, founder and former CEO of Vanguarde Media, to Oprah Winfrey -- Fraser shows how to network for information, for influence, and for resources. Readers will learn, among other things, how to cultivate valuable listening skills, which conferences blacks are most likely to attend when looking to build their business network, and how to effectively circulate a rsume.More than a guide for personal achievement, this is an information-packed bible of networking that also seeks to inspire a social movement and a rebirth of the "Underground Railroad," in which successful African Americans share the lessons of self-determination and empowerment with those still struggling to scale the ladder of success.

It was an inconceivable deception: over $65 billion stolen in the world's largest Ponzi scheme. Including new and revealing interviews with those who worked closest to himand his family, Betrayal is an in-depth, penetrating look at the man who perpetrated history's most notorious financial crime. To the people who knew him, Bernie Madoff was a kind and honorable person; a loving father and husband; generous to his employees and charitable even to strangers. On Wall Street, he was known as a wise elder statesman, wildly successful in his investments but never too risky with people's money. He was so revered and trusted that thousands placed their life savings with him, and he in turn provided them with early retirements and affluent lifestyles.But on December 11, 2008, Madoff confessed that he'd lied to them all. The monthly financial statements he'd sent customers for decades were all works of fiction. Their money was gone.Despite the crush of media attention on Madoff's scam, little is known about Madoff himself. What could lead a seemingly good man to ruin the lives of everyone who ever cared about himWhat caused Bernie Madoff to commit an unspeakable act of betrayal, bankrupting his family, his friends, his mentors, and thousands of investors who depended upon him for their livelihoodsBetrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff is about the man who realized that he could have everything he wanted if he simply lied to the people who trusted him the most. Author Andrew Kirtzman tracked down more than a hundred people from Madoff's past, from the first girl he ever kissed to family members who played in his house as children; from his secretaries to his drivers; from traders at his company to his inner circle of friends. He pored through thousands of pages of court records; private e-mails; phone-conversation tran*s; and census, military, and immigration records. The result is a fascinating story about the rise of a deeply immoral man.Kirtzman describes Madoff's feelings of inferiority and humiliation as a child, and his obsession with making money to prove himself worthy as he grew older. He reveals Madoff's construction of a criminal enterprise at a young age, long before he's ever claimed it began. He paints a picture of a loving yet strange family that ran a multibillion-dollar corporation like a small family restaurant. He offers an inside look at life within the company and the characters who worked on the infamous seventeenth floor. He reveals the details of an underground flow of cash that no one has known about until now. And he chronicles the desperate moments leading up to Madoff's fall, from the perspective of the people who spent the last hours with him before his house of cards collapsed.