The Adventures of Johnny Bunko Book Review

Written by Chris on May 11, 2008 – 11:31 am -

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I have finished reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and although it was a short and easy read, I didn’t not necessarily think that it was too impressive. This book was the first time that I had read anything in the manga style and thought that it was alright. The story of the book is pretty decent and sort of the usual career advice that you may hear from other people however, if you were a younger student, the advice may be helpful. Here are the 6 different career secrets that the book shares with you.

6 Career Secrets That No One Ever Told You:

1. There is no plan
2. Thin strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

The story that the characters go through to learn the different advice is comical and will have you laughing at some points throughout the book. Some of the drawings are also funny, however, there is nothing overly thrilling coming from the book in my point of view.

Sorry for the short review, but I just don’t think I can say too much about it. It is a good nice easy read if you are interested in something to just pass the time - I read 1/3 of the book in the bookstore before I bought it. Yet, I also returned it 3 days later for Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Just to make it clear, I did not buy the book for myself, but as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. However, if it is good, maybe I’ll read it later on just to write a review about it.

Hope everyone has a good week and does well in the blogging and business worlds! Congratulations to those universities that are having their commencement ceremonies! Now, I go back to the overcast weather at the beach and to by other book, Rules for Renegades.

Tags: book review, daniel pink, johnny bunko, the adventures of johnny bunko
Posted in Books, Reviews | No Comments »

Picked up some new books to read! Check it out!

Written by Chris on May 7, 2008 – 2:00 pm -

Just a quick note that I picked up a couple new books yesterday while at Barnes and Noble. I had a gift card left over from my birthday that I wanted to use since I will be taking a vacation next week down to the Outer Banks, NC.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - As I was looking through the shelves this book caught my eye. I remember reading something about it on another blog about the different lessons that it reveals about finding your right career and how it embodied some of the lessons from The 4 Hour Work Week. Because it is put together as a cartoon/manga book, it should be a pretty quick read. In just about 15 minutes, I have read half of it. Just didn’t have the chance to finish it at the time. There is even a movie like trailer for the book, see below.

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Rules For Renegades - This was a bit of an impulse buy as I had never heard anything about the book or heard of it in general. But, the green lettering on the cover caught my attention and the descriptions made me interested. It talks about how to make more money, rock your career, and revel in your individuality.

I should probably finish Johnny Bunko tonight or tomorrow and then get started on Rules for Renegades, hopefully finishing up in a couple weeks as long as it is interesting and can keep my attention. Look out for reviews coming soon on them both!

Tags: christine comaford-lynch, dan pink, daniel pink, how to make more money, johnny bunko, rob ten pas, rules for renegades, the adventures of johnny bunko
Posted in Books, Reviews | 1 Comment »

The Four Hour Work Week – A must read for students in general!

Written by Chris on March 18, 2008 – 12:00 pm -

I know I had mentioned a while back in a post about my winter reading list that I was going to be reading The Four Hour Work Week (4HWW) by Tim Ferriss soon and would be posting a review of the book when finished. Well, I am not fully finished the book, however, I did want to put up a quick note letting you all know that the review is coming. The book is very detailed and an intense read for anyone that is interested in reorganizing their life and making major changes, so I want to be able to put together a review that is comprehensive enough to cover some of the major topics and point out some of the best information in the book. This will take some time!

Over the past week while cruising through the Caribbean, drinking beer, talking with the bartenders, enjoying the sun and different paces of life, and of course getting some sun burn, I found the opportunity to read through about half the book. If we had more time on the boat then I would have made it further – sorry but I had to experience the island excursions during my time as well.

Anyway, the book is a must read for student entrepreneurs and students in general! If you are looking for ideas on how to automate your life, work less, outsource your routine tasks, and evaluate what you really want out our your professional and personal lives, please get your hands on a copy today.

Keep an eye out for a full review of the 4HWW coming soon, hopefully within the next couple weeks. I intend to continue reading the book as much as possible over the next week to finish it up.

In the mean time, I do have a post coming up about how I am changing my thoughts on time management based off of some suggestions in the book, so look for that soon.

To be sure you know when the full book review gets posted and different posts about how I am putting into place the books tips, be sure to subscribe to the Dorm Room Biz RSS Feed!

Tags: 4hww, book review, four hour work week, tim ferriss
Posted in Books, Entrepreneurship, Reviews | 1 Comment »

“You Call The Shots” by Cameron Johnson - The actual book review

Written by Chris on February 5, 2008 – 12:27 am -

Alright, so just the other day I posted a bit of a background on Cameron Johnson and his latest book which was published about this time last year, “You Call The Shots”. Now, the following will be my actual thoughts about the book and some different great take aways that you can get from reading the book. The main content of the book is a series of different tips for your entrepreneurial success. Here they are:

1. Put Yourself Out There
2. Start Small
3. Make Your Money Work For You
4. Look Close to Home for Great Ideas
5. Balance Work with Life
6. Surround Yourself with Great People
7. Make Yourself Your Brand
8. Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate
9. Make Your Own Tough Decisions
10. Adapt or Die
11. Find Great Mentors
12. Seek Out New Knowledge Every Day
13. Use the Power of the Press
14. Stick To Your Guns
15. Get Experience on the Ground
16. Never Underestimate The Value of Your Customers
17. Creatively Build on Your Experience
18. Remember What It’s Really All About
19. Be the Entrepreneur You Want To Be

With each of the above listed chapters, Cameron goes into some good descriptions on the different point made and shares stories from his person successes that help to prove how powerful or helpful each tip can be. Although these stories are what makes the book thick, it is also what helps illustrate the necessity of each action to take and how you can benefit from it.

Some of the take aways that I would hope that anyone would get from reading the book include the following

• Adapt or Die - Cameron makes the great point that if you do not continuously adapt your business, it will die. This is especially true for young entrepreneurs and more importantly student entrepreneurs. As a young or student entrepreneur, sometimes it is hard for us to keep up with all of the big businesses because of lack of resources, funding, time, or staff. You need to put yourself as the business owner in a different mindset and really think creatively and work to do whatever it takes to adapt your business and to make it to the top. Just because your are a small business starting out or a young entrepreneur does not mean that you can’t get what you want.
• Surround Yourself with Great People - This is an obvious one to many, but an important enough tip to reiterate here again - it’s not what you know but who you know. If there is something that you do not know enough about to comfortably make a decision on the topic, surround yourself with subject matter experts (SEMs) for that topic. Having many different SEMs on board with you will help you adapt your business and also to find even more great people to surround yourself with. If there is something you can not do, don’t know how to do, or are just confused about, start finding the people who can do it. Partner up with them to make your dream a reality.
• Make Yourself Your Own Brand - This is probably one of the most important lessons a young entrepreneur can learn. Just because you are starting a business does not mean that you should not be personally associated with your business. You are not separate from your business as an entrepreneur! As soon as you launch your business, you become your own brand and should act accordingly. The use of personalized business cards that you can get for cheap will help you in the right direction for this!

If you are looking for a book to read about entrepreneurship that is inspiring and insightful, then I would definitely recommend checking out “You Call The Shots.”

Have you read “You Call The Shots”? What did you think?

You can also check out Cameron’s blog for the occasional update!

Posted in Books, Business Ideas, Entrepreneurship, Reviews | No Comments »

Whats on your winter reading list?

Written by Chris on December 20, 2007 – 4:43 pm -

Once again, I am sitting in the Barnes and Noble cafe trying to get a little work done while away from the “office” or my house rather. So I wanted to see what you guys had planned on your reading list for the winter season. Most people are going to be having the next week or so off from work if they are members of the corporate world, plus getting gifts from the holidays, you should have some new stuff to read. So what is it?

A coupon came across my email this morning for 30% off one item at B&N on top of the normal member discount, so I knew I needed to pick up something.

I had started reading Cameron Johnson’s book “You Call The Shots” and plan on finishing that over the next week (review to come following that). So far the book has been pretty good. From meeting Cameron in person and hearing his presentation to reading his book, his writing style is very similar to that of his presentation - very easy going, easy to follow, and interesting. I look forward to finishing the book up and seeing what kind of gems I can pull from it to share with you all.

The book I am picking up today is “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris. I am sure many of you have already heard about the book or even read it, so I wont go into too much about it. The NY Times bestseller has been on my list of books to pick up since it came out. I tried my luck at winning one of the multiple copies that blogger John Chow was giving away as well as one by Dane at Business Opportunities Weblog. But now that I have a nice coupon, I’ll be able to get the 30% off plus the extra 30% off for being a member, so I’ll snatch the book for 60% off!

Besides these two, on my Christmas list was a book from Entrepreneur Press about starting your own eBay business. Although I have already started mine, I feel as though it may be beneficial to do some of the back reading about starting one, finding suppliers, keeping records, etc to help me excel even more and develop a better strategy for the business.

So, what is on your reading list? Have you already read one of these on mine - What did you think?

Posted in Blogging, Books, Reviews | 5 Comments »