The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Earl Nightingale’

How many books do you read each month? And when you read, what do you read? I have always enjoyed reading, even when I was a child. Today, I work hard at expanding my menu choices when it comes to reading. Over 10 years ago, while listening to Earl Nightingale’s Lead the Field, he recommended that we should read a book a week. I took that to heart, and was very intentional about reading four books a month.

Two years later, I decided to push myself and read more, which I have kept on doing, until last year I read 200 books. I am not saying this to brag, but reading forces me to think, and I find that I get to know myself a lot better in the process. As an active reader, reading often transports me into another world, and if I’m reading fiction, I am taken into the lives of the characters, and often have to check the qualities in myself that I detest in the characters. Setting a reading goal a achieving it, has taught me that when I commit fully to achieving a goal, I do so.

The Invisible Mentor blog is an educational one, so with that in mind, I’m inviting my readers on an adventure in learning, which is taking place all of 2012. You do not have to read 200 books – I read a lot for my consulting business – but I would like you to read one book a week, so at the end of 2012, you would have read 52 books. It’s a couple of weeks into the new year, so you have to play a little bit of catch-up.

Here are a few books that are on my reading pile for this year. Some of the books I have seen the films, but have never read the books. I will be more intentional about reading classic literature. I have struggled with focusing on classic literature, and the reason could be that the plots often move at the speed of molasses, so I put them aside and read books that I find more exciting. The best approach for me is to carve out at least three hours, or until I get to the point where I know that I have to finish the book. That’s the only way I will get through more of the classics this year.

As you will notice from the books on the list, some of them were all the rage in 2011, but I don’t necessarily follow the crowds, I skip to the beat of my own drum. All the books on the list I have them already. Choose some of the books from my list. As soon as I read and review the books, I will return to this post and add the links to the review.

I have this idea, which has been percolating in my mind for a while now, and that is to have a faceoff between books, when I do the reviews for Booked for Mentoring. What I have in mind, is to have two reviews of very different books, then find a way to connect them with the key takeaways. Let’s see how that works out.

Booked for Mentoring 2012 Reading List

1. Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1), Frank Herbert
2. The Letters of Pliny the Younger
3. Scaramouche, Rafael Sabatini
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
5. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
6. Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
7. The Sleepwalkers, Paul Grossman
8. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
9. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake
10. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials), Robert Cialdini
11. From This Moment On, Shania Twain
12. Why I am So Wise (Great Ideas), Friedrich Nietzche
13. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World, Penny Colman
14. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, Julie Powell
15. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert
16. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
17. How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker
18. The Fountainhead, (Ayn Rand Box Set: Atlas Shrugged/ The Fountainhead) Ayn Rand
19. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackery
20. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
21. Moby-Dick (Vintage Classics), Herman Melville
22. Nicholas Nickleby (Arcturus Paperback Classics), Charles Dickens
23. Dracula (Dover Thrift Editions), Bram Stoker
24. Silas Marner (Dover Thrift Editions), George Eliot
25. David Copperfield (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
26. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink
27. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
29. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
30. Anne Of Green Gables : Three In One Set : Complete And Unabridged: Anne Of Green Gables : Anne Of Avonlea : Anne Of The Island, L. M. Montgomery
31. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
32. Emma (Dover Thrift Editions), Jane Austen
33. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Dover Thrift Editions), Thomas Hardy
34. Profiles in Courage (P.S.), John F. Kennedy
35. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
36. The Portrait of a Lady – Volume 1, Henry James
37. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
38. The Old Curiosity Shop (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
39. The Last of the Mohicans (Signet Classics), James Fenmore Cooper
40. Little Women (Sterling Classics), Louisa May Scott
41. Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
42. The Magus, John Fowles
43. Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry, Stephen Denny
44. Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us, Erik Calonius
45. Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, Paul Allen
46. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
47. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
48. Roughing It, Mark Twain
49. Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda
50. Of Human Bondage (Modern Library Classics), W. Somerset Maugham
51. Captain Cook’s Journal, First Voyage
52. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzche
53. The Invisible Man, H. G. Wells
54. Paradise Lost, (Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Signet Classics)) John Milton
55. Paradise Regained, John Milton
56. Ulysses, James Joyce
57. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
58. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
59. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay
60. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Other Books for Mentoring

Founders and VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

10 Great Beach Reads That Will Make You Sharper When You Return To The Office 

As you will notice from the list of books that I intend to read in 2012, only a few of them are business books. I do not read many business books because most of them do not make you think. The most successful people do not read business books either, instead, they read the kind of books that are on my list. Let’s read together in 2012!

Further Reading

Life Lessons from the Great Books

The Business Case for Reading Novels

Why Startup Founders Should Stop Reading Business Books

10 Benefits Of Reading!

Read a Book a Week

Watch This. No. Read It!

10 Ways Reading the Great Books Can Improve Your Life 

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Image via Wikipedia

I reviewed Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell years ago, but I thought that I would post it again because today too many of us are thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, and that the solution to our problems and challenges reside outside of our domain. This review is equally a reminder to you as it is to me that our own “acres of diamonds” is in our backyard. I made changes to this review, and I have added a YouTube video (12 minutes) of Earl Nightingale speaking about Acres of Diamonds, and in it, he suggests ways to find your acres of diamonds. Included also is a link to a post by multiple streams of income guru Robert G. Allen where he discusses the book as well.

Russell Herman Conwell, a lawyer for about fifteen years until he became a clergyman, relates a story told to him by an Arab guide. The story intrigued Conwell so much, with its timeless moral, that he subsequently used the theme as the foundation for his many speeches.

According to the story, as told by the guide, while Conwell was travelling down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with a party of English travelers, there was a farmer, Ali Hafed, from ancient Persia now known as Iran. Ali Hafed was very wealthy. He owned a very large farm with orchards, grain-fields, and gardens. He was a wealthy and contented man.

One day, a Buddhist priest visited Ali Hafed. During the conversation, this wise priest from the East told Hafed about diamonds. The priest told Ali Hafed that if he had one diamond the size of his thumb, he could purchase the county, and if he had a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth. Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, and how much they were worth. Though nothing in Hafed’s life had changed, he went to his bed that night feeling poor and discontented. Because of the stories of the diamonds, he started to feel like he was a poor man, which made him very discontented.

Ali Hafed decided that he wanted a diamond mine, and the next day he rushed to see the priest and asked where he could find diamonds. He explained to the priest that he wanted to be immensely rich. Hafed sold his farm, collected the money, left his family with a neighbour and went off in search of diamonds.

Hafed wandered around Palestine and Europe until he ran out of money. He was in rags, feeling wretched and now truly poor. He stood on the shore of a bay in Barcelona, Spain and when a great tidal wave came rolling in, he threw himself in, never to rise again. Hafed reminds me of the story of the Prodigal Son in the Bible, but the Prodigal Son had the common sense to return home and ask for forgiveness.

Meanwhile back at the farm, one day, the new owner picked up an unusual rock about the size of an egg and placed it on his mantle. A few days later, the same old priest visited the farm and immediately realized that the unusual rock was indeed a diamond. The priest and the new owner rushed outside to the place where the owner found the unusual rock. That day, they discovered the diamond mines of Golconda.

Al Hafed had been standing on his own “Acres of Diamonds” until he sold his farm.

In Acres of Diamonds, Conwell relates countless stories of people who went in search of what they already had. For example, he talks about a farmer in Pennsylvania who sold his farm for $833 and went to work for his cousin in Canada, collecting oil. Shortly after, the man who purchased the farm found oil worth millions of dollars.

Six Common Sense Ideas

1. Each of us is right in the middle of our own “Acre of Diamonds”, if only we would realize it and develop the ground we are standing on before charging off in search of greener pastures.
2. Opportunity does not just come along – it is there all the time – we just have to see it.
3. In life, when we go searching for “something,” we should know what that “something” looks, smells and tastes like so that we can recognize it when we find it.
4. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
5. Before we give up what we already have, make sure that what we’re getting is better than what we already have.
6. It’s good to aspire for more because life is about moving forward, but don’t let greed dictate how you value and feel about yourself.

“Your diamonds are not in far-away mountains or in distant seas; they are usually in your own back yard if you will take the time to look for them.”

Acres of Diamonds – Earl Nightingale

If you cannot view the Acres of Diamonds YouTube video please click here.

In the video, Earl Nightingale suggests that every day we should ask ourselves, “How can I increase my service today?” And your clients could be either inside or outside of your company.

Discussing Acres of Diamonds, by Russell H. Conwell (Robert G. Allen’s Blog)

Links to Download Acres of Diamonds

http://www.temple.edu/about/temples_founder/acres_text.html
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rconwellacresofdiamonds.htm

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book link is affiliate link.

Video Credit: Acres of Diamonds – Earl Nightingale LifestyleRevolution

In 2011, we’ll embark on a learning journey together where we will unite modern and ancient wisdom. Imagine the possibilities when we discover an ancient solution to a modern day problem.

How will we do that?

Review both contemporary books and those written decades and sometimes centuries ago. We’ll look at ways in which we can adapt solutions from one industry to another or one era to another.

And whenever you are consuming new information, whether it be reading a book, or listening to an interview, be open to learning something new. Have a pen and notebook handy, and always try to connect the new information to what you already know because nothing exists in a vacuum. Refer to the posts How to Use Interviews for Self-Improvement and Another Way to Use Interviews for Self-Improvement to get the most from the interviews that we conduct for you. And view each interview as a two-day workshop.

For the past three years or so, I have been learning a word a day. I subscribe to both Wordsmith – A Word a Day and Word of the Day, and the words are sent to my inbox every day. Many of the words you are unlikely to ever use so I have purchased the Ultimate Vocabulary software which I have to figure out how to use – haven’t tried yet. I purchased the Ultimate Vocabulary as part of a bundle with 7 Speed Reading, which I have started to use already. And remember to add RSVPs (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) to your browser toolbars to increase the words per minute that you read. Please refer to How to Read Faster While Reading Well to refresh your memory.

In Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale, he recommends that you read a book each week. I’m up to at least eight books a month. If I can ever get organized enough, I will give you a list of the books that I will be reading each month. The danger is that I often change my mind and read other books. If you can indulge me, I am willing to post a list of the books, on the condition that they are subject to change. But the good news is that, if you read the books, you can offer to write a review so that we may all benefit.

Let 2011 be the year when we deepen our connections for the benefit of all! How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Seth Godin – Your Invisible Mentor

Five Great Ideas

1. Stop asking what’s in it for you, and start giving gifts that change.
2. Productivity and generosity make markets bigger and more efficient.
3. Seek out achievements where there are no limits.
4. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
5. Perfection is overrated, laugh at it. Benjamin Franklin discovered that perfectionism doesn’t exist.

Questions to Ponder

1. If your organization decided to replace you with someone with superior skills and far better at your job than you, what would the job ad say?
2. Do you have the confidence to make a difference in your organization, and to do work that matters? If yes, why do believe that?
3. Can you anticipate and solve your customers’ problems, even the ones they do not realize they have?
4. What do you fear? What holds you back from being your authentic self?
5. What tools do you have in your tool kit? Do they make you more productive and efficient? Do they make you remarkable?

“Original thinker, provocateur, someone who cares, the person who can bring it together and make a difference…Someone who owns her own means of production, who leads and connects, and walks into chaos and create order” is a linchpin says marketing guru, Seth Godin in his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Linchpins are also connectors, and they value relationships because they understand that no one succeeds alone.

While I was reading Linchpin, I kept on thinking about a statement Earl Nightingale made in his classic The Strangest Secret: “Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a wonderful book called Man’s Search for Himself, and in this book he says, “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice … it is conformity.” And there you have the reason for so many failures. Conformity — people acting like everyone else, without knowing why or where they are going.”

People are playing it safe and conforming, so we are living in a me-too culture, where most subscribe to the herd mentality. In Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin uses the term artists, but in the context that an artist is someone who changes people by the gifts they offer the world. Reading the book will make many uncomfortable, because most people do not want to stand out and be remarkable. Why? Because it takes hard work and a lot of effort. And many do not step out of their comfort zone and do what needs to be done, because we have always been told what to do.

Historically, if people kept their heads down, did what they were told, showed up on time for work, worked hard, sucked it up and not make waves, they would eventually attain professional success. Those days are long gone. To be successful today, the new reality requires people to be remarkable, generous, make judgment calls, create art and connect people and art. This is what the global markets dictate. People have to take the initiative and do what needs to be done.

Being remarkable and doing what needs to be done will create resistance because it’s foreign. When this occurs, it’s time to move through the dip and do what Susan Jeffers says, to feel the fear and do it anyway. Contrary to what we were taught, our creations really do not have to be perfect. Most times 80 percent is good enough. As an artist, the more craft you make, the better you become.

Seth Godin deals with a very difficult topic, because to be a linchpin requires us to swim upstream. To get more customers, or increase market share, requires that we up the quality of our service offering, do what others are not doing. In what ways can you up the ante and deliver your product or service so that it changes your customers?

A good place to begin if you want to become a linchpin is to honestly answer the five questions to ponder, then take action.

1. If your organization decided to replace you with someone with superior skills and far better at your job than you, what would the job ad say?
2. Do you have the confidence to make a difference in your organization, and to do work that matters? If yes, why do believe that?
3. Can you anticipate and solve your customers’ problems, even the ones they do not realize they have?
4. What do you fear? What holds you back from being your authentic self?
5. What tools do you have in your tool kit? Do they make you more efficient? Do they may you remarkable?

Simple Application

People often forward interesting articles to their clients for them to read. In my post yesterday I discussed how to go a bit deeper, and instead of simply sending the article, add your keen insights. This simple gesture will distinguish a linchpin from an ordinary employee. Yes, it’s more work, but it’s value added for your client. And in the process, you are making yourself more indispensable.

I recommend Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin because it will make you think.

Are you a linchpin? What are five things you could do today to add value that would change your customers’ experiences? How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Further Reading

Review: Evil Plans by Hugh MacLeod

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The Internet has been abuzz over the past few weeks with Napoleon Hill‘s Invisible Counselors, but is this technique different from Invisible Mentors? Are people going to turn The Invisible Counselor Technique into a fad like “The Secret” movie where viewers thought they could visualize a goal and have it manifest without taking action, instead of taking the time to do things the correct way. Is there really an easy way out?

This post is my reaction to the concept of Invisible Counselors. Please refer to Vishen Lakhiani’s original post “Napoleon Hill’s Weird “Invisible Counselor Technique” and Why it Inspired (and Scared) So Many People.” It’s a great post and the video is a great complement to the written information in the post. See the video below. What critical component did Napoleon Hill omit in his technique?

If you cannot view the video click here. I got a copy of Think and Grow Rich because I wanted to go to the source to present the facts to you, and I wanted to better understand Invisible Counselors. Many people have said that Think and Grown Rich was one of the books that had a profound impact on their life. I wasn’t one of those people, and I didn’t enjoy the book when I first read it. However, I thought that Earl Nightingale did a nice summary of the book. I am at the point where I am ready to re-read Think and Grow Rich and see if my reaction is different seven years later.

The Invisible Counselor is discussed at length in Chapter 14, “The Sixth Sense: the Door to the Temple of Wisdom.” I must preface my comments by saying that I do believe in the power of the subconscious mind and the sixth sense. Here is what the book says about Invisible Counselors.

“While I was passing through the age of “hero worship” I found myself trying to imitate those whom I most admired… I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me. These nine men were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Luther Burbank, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. Every night, over a long period of years, I held an imaginary council meeting with this group whom I called my “Invisible Counselors.” [I added in the last name of Hill's nine Invisible Counselors]

The procedure was this. Just before going to sleep at night, I would shut my eyes and see, in my imagination, this group of men seated with me around my council table. Here I had not only an opportunity to sit among those whom I considered to be great, but I actually dominated the group by serving as the Chairman.

I had a very definite purpose in indulging my imagination through these nightly meetings. My purpose was to rebuild my own character so it would represent a composite of the characters of my imaginary counselors….

These meetings became so realistic that I started to be fearful of their consequences, and discontinued them for several months. The experiences were so uncanny. I was afraid if I continued them I would lose sight of the fact that the meetings were purely experiences of my imagination….

I began to add new members to my cabinet. Now it consists of more than 50, among them Christ, St. Paul, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Homer, Voltaire, Bruno, Spinoza, Drummond, Kant, Schopenhauer, Newton, Confucius, Elbert Hubbard, Brann, Ingersol, Wilson and William James….”

In the technique, Hill called on each of his nine Invisible Counselor and was very specific about what he required from them. For example,

“Mr Darwin, I wish to acquire from you the marvelous patience and ability to study cause and effect without bias or prejudice so exemplified by you in the field of natural science.

Mr Carnegie, I am already indebted to you for my choice of a life work, which has brought me great happiness and peace of mind. I wish to acquire a thorough understanding of the principles of organized effort, which you used so effectively in the building of a great industrial enterprise.

My method of addressing the members of  the imaginary cabinet would vary according to the traits of character which I was most interested in acquiring at the time. I studied the records of their lives with painstaking care. After some months of this nightly procedure, I was astounded by the discovery that these imaginary figures became, apparently, real.”

Please click here to read Chapter 14 on page 134 of the electronic version. What Napoleon Hill refers to as Invisible Counselors are what I call Invisible Mentors. From the cited text from Think and Grow Rich, the nine Invisible Counselors are people who Hill admired, and he imitated them, which suggests that he studied them, which is exactly what I advocate for your Invisible Mentors. I suggest that you become so steeped in your Invisible Mentors that you could ask and answer “What would Invisible Mentor 1 do in this situation?” You can also find invisible mentors on The Mentors page.

Below is an Invisible Mentor slide that I created over seven months ago. After I finished viewing it today for inclusion in this blog post, I realized that I have to update it because my views have expanded, because my knowledge has grown, which is a good thing. How has your knowledge changed in the past six months?

Many people viewing the video “The Most Controversial Personal Growth Technique Ever,” may think that they can use the technique to mentally call on successful people to answer their questions, or generate great ideas without any initial work. Hill spent decades studying successful people so his subconscious mind had a place to start. From my previous posts on generating creative ideas and creative problem solving, the process is preparation, incubation, illumination and verification/implementation.

So what did Napoleon Hill Omit? Hill did not omit anything from what I have read from Think and Grow Rich, the video neglected to mention that when Hill started using the Invisible Counselor Technique he used nine people whose lives and life works had been most impressive to him. To me, that means he had studied these people. This is a major omission from the video. Also, he practiced the technique each night over a long period of years. This also suggests that Hill practiced the technique until he mastered it. Statistics floating around suggest that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.

This is an important lesson to always go to the source if you are able to, otherwise you’ll never know what critical piece of information you are missing. What are your thoughts on Invisible Counselors? Which five of Hill’s Invisible Counselors would you choose as Invisible Mentors? Now that you are familiar with Invisible Mentors from reading this blog, would you chair an Invisible Mentor Council Meeting? And if yes, what would you hope to achieve?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed.

For an electronic copy of Think and Grow Rich, please click here.

Further Reading

The Sixth Sense: The Door to the Temple of Wisdom – The Thirteenth Step toward Riches

Napoleon Hill Did This, And You Should Too

Napoleon Hill’s Weird “Invisible Counselor Technique” and Why it Inspired (and Scared) So Many People