In this long-anticipated, groundbreaking guide to building a portfolio, acclaimed stock pickers and Internet pioneers David and Tom Gardner lay bare the simple philosophy that they have used to help millions of grateful individual investors outfox the professionals on Wall Street. The research, the stories, and the results that underpin this book stem from the revolutionary and wildly successful "Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio"" a one-of-a-kind Web experiment in which individual investors follow along as Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner invests and manages $1 million of The Motley Fool's own money. In page after page of sound, sensible investment advice, readers are offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of The Motley Fool machine and offered a first-class education in building, growing, and defending an individual portfolio, one investment strategy at a time. From learning to think like an investor to finding a first stock, from dividend investing to blue-chip bargains to small-cap treasures, from international investing to community-based online tools that are revolutionizing stock selection and asset allocation, this book takes the reader through the essential strategies for building any portfolio no matter how small its start or how big its ambitions.

Filled with the kind of contagious energy and upbeat attitude that has made Frank Pacetta one of America's most popular motivational speakers, this unique book is for anyone who wants a difference in the workplace. Whatever the occupation, organization, or industry, here are tried and tested solutions, techniques, rules and tactics that get the job done right. Whether you're a manager fed up with your worker's ho-hum attitude or an individual who can't seem to live up to your potential no matter how hard you try, this book will give you ideas that can put into immediate action -- a no-fail formula for ending the whining and instilling in yourself and your employees a winning spirit.

Successful management relies on identifying and promoting high-performing employees and targeting underperformers for serious improvement. Evaluating Performance, a comprehensive and essential resource for any manager on the run, shows you how.Learn to: Monitor day-to-day performance Conduct productive formal reviews Reward consistent, excellent performance through promotions Terminate underperforming employees Create a company-wide performance management system 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.

In today's hypercompetitive business climate, managers who help employees achieve their individual potential stand to get and stay ahead. Managing People, a comprehensive and essential resource for any manager on the run, shows you how.Learn to: Delegate the right work to the right employee Motivate people to outperform the competition Establish and empower effective teams Manage multiple projects and stay on track Inspire trust and lead in times of change 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.

Governments and development agencies spend considerable resources building property and company registries to protect property rights. When these efforts succeed, owners feel secure enough to invest in their property and banks are able use it as collateral for credit. Similarly, firms prosper when entrepreneurs can transform their firms into legal entities and thus contract more safely. Unfortunately, developing registries is harder than it may seem to observers, especially in developed countries, where registries are often taken for granted. As a result, policies in this area usually disappoint. ?Benito Arruada aims to avoid such failures by deepening our understanding of both the value of registries and the organizational requirements for constructing them. Presenting a theory of how registries strengthen property rights and reduce transaction costs, he analyzes the major trade-offs and proposes principles for successfully building registries in countries at different stages of development. Arruada focuses on land and company registries, explaining the difficulties they face, including current challenges like the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and the dubious efforts made in developing countries toward universal land titling. Broadening the account, he extends his analytical framework to other registries, including intellectual property and organized exchanges of financial derivatives. With its nuanced presentation of the theoretical and practical implications, Institutional Foundations of Impersonal Exchange significantly expands our understanding of how public registries facilitate economic growth.

There is an epidemic of unhappiness in the American workplace. A full 70 percent of workers in the United States report that they are disengaged from their jobs. When asked, "Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?" only 20 percent of nearly 2 million employees said yes. It is no wonder that 56 percent of all Americans dream of starting their own business. So why don't they do soBecause starting one's own business is seen as difficult, expensive, and risky.In this extraordinary book, successful Go It Alone! entrepreneur Bruce Judson explains that the conventional wisdom about starting your own business is stunningly wrong. Using the leverage of technology -- e-mail, the World Wide Web, and the remarkable array of off-the-shelf business services now available -- it is dramatically easier to start your own business. Magnified by these new services, it is also possible to create, for the first time, a highly focused business.Bruce Judson shows you the practical steps that will allow nearly any individual to create a business, often using job skills that seem to require an entire corporation for support. It is no longer necessary to spend time on the tasks that don't add value. It is now possible to stay small but reap big profits. Go-it-alone businesses allow the individual the freedom to concentrate on their greatest skills. After reading this book, your motto will be "Do What You Do Best, Let Others Do the Rest."

This is the story of Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller, the two reporters who led the Wall Street Journal's reporting on Enron and uncovered the unorthodox partnerships at the heart of the scandal through skill, luck, and relentless determination. It all started in August 2001when Emshwiller was assigned to write a supposedly simple article on the unexpected resignation of Enron CEO Jeff Skilling. During his research, Emshwiller uncovered a buried reference to an off-balance-sheet partnership called LJM. Little did he know, this was the start of a fast and furious ride through the remarkable downfall of a once highly-prized company. Written in an intense, fast paced narrative style, 24 Days tells the gripping story of the colossal collapse of what would become the world's most notorious corporation. The reader follows along as Smith and Emshwiller continue to uncover new partnerships and self-dealing among the highest levels of Enron's management. As they publish articles detailing their findings in the Journal, Wall Street and individual investors have a crisis of confidence and start selling Enron stock at unprecedented levels of volume. In the end - 24 short days later - Enron had completely collapsed, erasing 16 years of growth and losing $19 billion in market value while watching the stock drop from $33.84 to $8.41. Not only was the company destroyed, but investors and retired employees were completely wiped out-all the while Enron executives were collecting millions of dollars. Climaxing with this 24-day period, this book shows the reporter's-eye view of a David-and-Goliath battle between journalists and a giant corporation. Each day a new story uncovered another fact; each day the company issued denials. And when the investigative stories reached critical mass and momentum, the stock market cast its final vote of no confidence. In the tradition of Indecent Exposure and Barbarians at the Gate, two other gripping narratives that began as a series of Wall Street Journal stories and ended up as books that defined an era, 24 Days brings the importance of great investigative journalism to life.

According to the Department of Labor, the average woman in 1998 was bringing home less than $25,000 a year. For every dollar that a man makes, a woman makes between 50 and 75 cents, and that is hardly news. But what you may not know is that, quietly and steadily, the number of women making six figures or more is rapidly increasing. Currently, over fifteen million women make $100,000 or more, and the number continues to rise at a rate faster then for men. And these women come from every industry - psychologists, dot com founders, consultants, freelance writers, and even part-timers. What makes these particular women able to do so well in the workplaceFueled by curiosity, Barbara Stanny, author of Price Charming Isn't Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money (Viking Penguin), set out to research this phenomenon. What she discovered was that, though the high-earning women she interviewed came from different backgrounds and had had greatly different work experiences, they all had certain characteristics in common. Secrets of Six Figure Woman: Surprising Strategies of the Successful High Earners will be a ground breaking book for high earners who want to ensure their wealth, enhance their success, and learn from others who are in the same boat. It will also offer inspiration, guidance, and motivation to those who aspire to make more.

Playing With The Big Boys -- And Beating Them At Their Own Game! From Meg Whitman of eBay to Marcy Carsey of Carsey-Warner and Oxygen Media, today's leading businesswomen show how to make it in the notorious boys' club of corporate America.Gone are the days when men called the shots. More and more women have replaced men or excelled over rivals in male-dominated industries because they possess the qualities of leadership that top firms are seeking today. Esther Wachs Book introduces the new Female Leader and reveals the seven key, and uniquely female, qualities of leadership that are turning the world around -- and allowing more women to achieve success.Filled with compelling insights gleaned from the country's highest-ranking businesswomen, Why the Best Man for the Job Is a Woman reveals how these exceptional women have soared to the top and captures their strategies for success.

Do you feel that if you could get rid of some of the chaos in your work life, you could take your performance to a greater levelDo you stay late at the office many nights, trying to empty an inbox that never seems to diminishDo you have difficulty dealing with cantankerous bosses or passive-aggressive coworkersDo you find yourself checking your BlackBerry almost against your will during dates, family dinners, or your children's soccer gamesIf you've answered yes to any of the above, chances are you feel fragmented, pulled in too many directions at once, frustrated. Your work life has taken over your personal life.In The One-Life Solution, Dr. Henry Cloud, consultant, bestselling author of the Boundaries series and Integrity, and clinical psychologist, examines the workplace. He demonstrates how our failure to maintain a unified life with good boundaries at the office not only blurs the line between the professional and the personal, but leaves us less equipped to deal with the problems of today's workplace: stress, heavy workload, and a blistering pace. As a result, we are overworked, overstressed, and unhappier than ever. Through real-world examples from years of working with leaders at companies large and small, Dr. Cloud shows us how to construct and enforce better boundaries against the technological devices, bullying bosses, and distracting coworkers who invade our time and space.From conducting an audit of your time, to developing a policy of who you are and what you stand for, to learning how to overcome a paralyzing inability to say no, Dr. Cloud provides invaluable strategies and *s for moving toward a more unified, coherent sense of self and a life that fully encompasses work, family, and spirituality. In a clear, conversational voice, he will help you develop the ability to: contain self-destructive behavior and keep it from spreading. define yourself and know who you are. set limits when needed. communicate effectively. learn how to improve your performance at the office and outside it. By starting to do what's best for you, you'll find the key to living the one happy, fulfilling life that only you can live.

Douglas Rushkoff was one of the first social commentators to identify the new culture around the internet. He has spent nearly a decade advising companies on the ways they can re-orient their businesses to the transformations the internet has caused. Through his speaking and consulting, Rushkoff has discovered an important and unrecognized shift in American business. Too many companies are panicked and operating in survival mode when the worst of the crisis has already passed. Likening the internet transformation to the intellectual and technological ferment of the Enlightment, Rushkoff suggests we have a remarkable opportunity to re-integrate our new perspective with the work we actually do. Instead of running around trying to "think out of the box," Rushkoff demonstrates, now is the time to "get back in the box" and improve the way we do our jobs, run our operations and drive innovation from the ground up. Combining stories gleaned from his consulting with a thrilling tour of history's dramatic moments and clever readings of cultural shift we've just experienced, Rushkoff offers a compelling vision of the simple and effective ways businesses can re-invigorate themselves.

7 simple steps to transform your presentations Speaking in front of an audience can be tough. Believe it or not, working out what you want to say is often the easiest part. You may need help overcoming nerves, or practical advice on body language, using technology, or dealing with tricky questions. This book gives you practical advice on how to give well-structured and clear presentations that engage your listeners and make an impact. No more sweaty palms, just cool, calm and effective presentations.

7 simple steps to effective meetings that will change the way you work People spend up to 60 percent of their working day in meetings, but all too often they leave feeling overwhelmed and confused. Sound familiar? Meetings that involve the wrong people or are badly organised are a waste of everyone's time, so whether you need to learn from scratch or re-evaluate your techniques, this is the book for you. Follow our 7 simple steps to more productive, efficient and successful meetings. With expert advice on everything from using informal meetings to your advantage to dealing with technical hitches during conference calls, this book contains everything you need to transform the way you spend your working day.

Aspirational business book based on interviews with over 75 leading American CEOs. What does it take to succeed in business and to inspire others? Adam Bryant of The New York Times sat down with more than seventy-five CEOs and asked them how they do their jobs and the most important lessons they learned as they rose through the ranks. The Corner Office draws together lessons, memorable stories, and eye-opening insights from chief executives like Steven Ballmer (Microsoft), Carol Bartz (Yahoo), Jeffrey Katzenberg (DreamWorks), and Alan Mulally (Ford), as Bryant reveals the keys to success in the business world, including the five qualities CEOs value most in their employees, and shows how executives at the top of their game get the most out of others. For aspiring executives, of any age, The Corner Office offers perspectives that will help anyone who seeks to be a more effective leader and employee, and a path to future success.

Bestselling author Ken Blanchard brings you the tie-in guide to accompany his TrustWorks! training program. Ken Blanchard is famous for his ability to make the seemingly complex simple. In Trust Works! he brings his talent to bear on the complicated and timely issue of trust. The book begins with an allegory - in this case, it's the story of a dog and a cat with major trust issues. Their fighting, backbiting, and sabotaging soon affects the whole household - including the humans. It quickly becomes clear that unless the ongoing conflicts can be resolved, all of the pets will be without a home. Through the counsel of a wise old parrot, the animals learn the Abcds of trust, becoming aware of the unconscious behaviours that had been eroding their relationships and begin to change their actions. In the end, the results have a positive effect that reaches far beyond the dog and cats' relationship. Applying lessons presented in the fable to real life situations, Blanchard explores his Abcd trust model to address issues like poor morale, miscommunication in relationships, poor customer service issues, and dysfunctional leadership. Trust is an evergreen topic but is particularly relevant today, as protests in cities throughout the world underscore a growing distrust of corporations and institutions. Now more than ever, people need trust-building skills and a common language for learning the behaviours that build - or erode - trust. Trust Works! is the first book to create a common, easy-to-learn language for talking about trust in a way that can bring peace and co-operation where once there was dissension.

Are you a genius or a genius maker We've all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the ones around them and always need to be the smartest ones in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, lightbulbs go off over people's heads, ideas flow, and problems get solved. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now, when leaders are expected to do more with less. In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman and management consultant Greg McKeown explore these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. In analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman and McKeown have identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed, they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. Lively, real-world case studies and practical tips and techniques bring to life each of these principles, showing you how to become a Multiplier too, whether you are a new or an experienced manager. Just imagine what you could accomplish if you could harness all the energy and intelligence around you. Multipliers will show you how.

The gripping story of Helena Rubinstein, Eugne Schueller, and the dark side of the beauty business they helped to create Helena Rubinstein and L'Oral's Eugne Schueller both started out in the beauty business during the first years of the twentieth century, and, by the time World War II broke out, had come to dominate it. However, their motivations could not have been more different. Rubinstein, a Polish Jew, claimed the world of paid work for women, and working women's enthusiasm for her products made her the first self-made female millionaire. Schueller, a French conservative in the Henry Ford mold, thought women belonged in the home, and during the Nazi Occupation he used his company as a source of cash to buy economic and political influence.Schueller eventually won the long fight for supremacy: in 1988 his company swallowed Rubinstein's. But the victory cost him his reputation when, in the wake of the takeover, he was exposed as a Nazi collaborator. Deepening the scandal, his wartime activities were shown to have been abetted and condoned by a cadre of young men who, by the time the news broke, had scaled the peaks of wealth and power in postwar France.By then Schueller and Rubinstein were both long dead. But cultural historian and biographer Ruth Brandon argues that the battle they began continues to this day. She examines their conflict to ask important contemporary questions about beauty standards and the often murky intersection of individual political aims and the role of business. Filled with remarkable twists, turns, and larger-than-life characters, Ugly Beauty is a riveting true story about what lies beneath the flawless exterior of the cosmetics industry.

A global-innovation expert offers a new perspective on how consumers think and how to develop products and services that affect their everyday lives.Who are your next customers not just the ones you are serving today but the ones you'll need three, five, or ten years from nowHow do you figure out what goods and services will attract them in the future before your competitors do?According to Jan Chipchase whom Fast Company has called the James Bond of design research and Fortune has called the Indiana Jones of technology for the developing world most of the clues are right in front of us. The key is learning to see the ordinary in a revolutionary new way. As the executive creative director of Global Insights at frog, an award-winning global design and innovation company, Chipchase draws on everyday objects and patterns to show us how to see the world differently, from making a phone call to filling up a gas tank to ascertaining whether it's actually half-and-half you're pouring into your coffee. Chipchase is always looking for opportunities gaps, anomalies, and contradictions that will give his clients, some of the world's largest and most successful companies, a distinct competitive advantage, whether they're delivering the most low-tech bar of soap or the most high-tech wireless network.In Hidden in Plain Sight, Chipchase takes readers on his journeys around the globe and shares his methods for identifying the unmet needs of customers. No matter where he stops whether Cleveland or Kabul his goals are the same: to spot and decode the routines of daily life and to help readers use the very same tools that he and his team use to see, and capitalize upon, what is hidden in plain sight today to create businesses tomorrow.

Why do some projects deliver under budget and ahead of schedule, while others cost more and take longer than expectedMore important, which products work better: the quick and thrifty or the slow and expensive?In a story-filled blend of quirky pop culture and practical engineering insight, Dan Ward's F.I.R.E. answers those questions and more. Ward's extensive research and firsthand experience show how the world's top technologists consistently deliver best-in-class results on shoestring budgets and cannonball schedules, and using skeleton crews.This remarkable book will make you laugh, make you think, and equip you to leverage the power of constraints. Discover the secrets of F.I.R.E. and learn how to:Build strategies for speed that enhance accountability and ensure your products are well aligned with the market's needs.Design your organizations, products, and processes with thrift in mind, solving problems with intellectual capital, not financial capital.Unleash the power of small budgets and small teams, using short schedules, short meetings, and short documents.Streamline your designs and cut through unnecessary, unproductive layers of bureaucracy.But this is not just a book about how to win. With unflinching candor, Ward shows how the F.I.R.E. method, even when followed wisely and well, can result in a flop. Taking a deep look at several negative outcomes, he shows how to make failures optimal rather than epic.F.I.R.E. provides strategic concepts for leaders, decision-making principles for managers, and practical tools for people working on anything from spacecraft and fighter jets to websites and children's toys. Technology professionals and curious amateurs alike will come away with a deeper understanding of effective product design. Plus, there's a funny story about a dishwasher that just may change the way you buy major appliances.

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNAHow can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatnessThe Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiorityAnd if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to greatThe Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How greatAfter the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was differentWhy did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only goodOver five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. Some of the key concepts discerned in the study, comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Are You Considering Early Retirement?Do You Know Someone Who Is Considering This Momentous DecisionWith Retire EarlyMake the SMART Choices, Steven Silbiger, CPA, offers a short guide to the big issues of retirement planning packed on every page with detailed, step-by-step advice. Choosing when to retire is one of the most important and overlooked decisions we will make about our lives. Silbiger, author of The Ten-Day MBA, has written the first guide that untangles the complicated issues surrounding early retirement, based on careful research about the money pitfalls retirees and near-retirees face. He delivers an understandable roadmap that demystifies the confusion about Social Security benefits, and clarifies the choices for anyone considering when and how to retire.Are you thinking about getting the early Social Security checkIt can be tempting, but for many this can be a foolhardy decision. For others, it makes perfect sense. Making the smart choice about when to retire can make a $100,000 difference for an individual and $200,000 for a couple. Silbiger guides readers through the key variables that affect the decision to elect early Social Security retirement benefits: What are your early benefits and penaltiesHow's your healthAre you marriedAre you planning on working while retiredWhat are your cash needs during retirementBy getting a grip on how to manage our investments, cash flow, and real estate, Silbiger shows how we can put thousands of dollars more into our pockets every year. He addresses vital questions about money and retirement that include: Tapping your nest egg for retirement how to make ends meetWhich retirement investments are for youAre you prepared to fend off scam artistsThrough it all, you'll meet everyday people who have faced the early retirement question and learned how to make the smart choices. Silbiger provides the tools, worksheets, and assessments to avoid costly mistakes, take charge of your financial future, and choose the path to a secure, happy retirement.