• enough insecurity due to changes in his environment (Sunni vs Shia, Islam vs Christianity, local leaders vs each other) to inspire a desire to change the world; and
• enough security (provided by parents, wider family, a group, a class system, education) to confront his challenge without lapsing into paranoia, criminality etc.

– Saladin had these traits:

• problem-solving skills
• social competence
• a sense of purpose
• an ability to stay removed from family discord (conflict)
• an ability to look after oneself
• high self-esteem
• an ability to form close personal relationships
• a positive outlook
• focused nurturing (a supportive home life)
• a well-structured household
• high but achievable expectations from parents

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2005, which does not exist now).

Book Title: Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from our Kitchen Table (Authors: Sahar and Bobby Hashemi)

This book is about an actual experience of a sister and brother building a business of coffee specialty outlets, from an idea into a real big business. (Note: This was before Starbucks era).

It started with an idea: One night in 1994 Sahar (the sister) said to her brother Bobby that she missed the experience of drinking coffee in the US, the taste, etc. At that time, to get coffee in London, you have to go to places selling sandwiches; coffees were merely additionals with poor taste, presentation (plastic cups and lids made from cheap materials). England was (and is) a tea drinking nation (no Starbucks yet). So then Bobby thought building american style coffee outlet in London was a very brilliant idea.

With that idea in minds, they quit jobs (each formerly a lawyer and investment banker). They started the search and research for knowledge of coffee, the market, demand and supply, technology, potential places for outlets, financing alternatives, etc. This book gives so much valuable lessons in starting a business from zero.

In about a year since the idea they opened an initial outlet. Bobby almost gave up since it did not do well in several first months but eventually people spread the words of the great experience drinking coffee at Coffee Republic. Coffee Republic expanded into 20 outlets a year after and became a giant in 5 years and eventually become a publicly listed company.

An inspiring book, I admire the hard works, dedication, courage of the authors in building the business, how they’re so organized, and so smart.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2006, which does not exist now).

Book Title: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner)

This is a very interesting book, gives a new perspective on how economics/economists can explain things, answer questions, in unusual ways. Some of the problems covered: how crimes fell dramatically in the 90s in the US (author’s conclusion: legalized abortion), how the sumo wrestlers in Japan and teachers in the US are or were cheating, the economics of drug dealers, socioeconomic patterns in naming children.

By clever algorithms and asking the right questions, correct information can be gathered, and things can be explained.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2006, which does not exist now).

Book Title: Undercover Economist (Auhtor: Tim Harford)

The book explains in a fun and entertaining way (among others):

• the economics of Starbucks (price targeting, who get the most from Starbucks’ premium price, etc), supermarkets, used car markets, insurance companies, property price (and rental rates)
• environmental issues related to free trade
• how poor countries stay poor
• how China grows

using economic theories like scarcity and externalities), game theory and also marketing theories.

Tim Harford argues that free trade and free movement of capital are the best for all. For developing countries, regarding the foreign direct investments, there are issues related to environmental abuses, poor working conditions for labors (cheap labors being used inhumanely), but he defends that foreign domestic investments itself don’t cause environmental damages (but local corrupt governments are more likely to be the sinners) and that working in poor working conditions is better for the labors since other choices are worse or simply unavailable.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2006, which does not exist now).

Book Title: The World is Flat (Author: Thomas L. Friedman)

This book points out that the world is now flat, where all the playing fields are leveled. The fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 had triggered more openness throughout the world (end of Cold War, no more Soviet and so on). Coincided by many breakthroughs and advancements of information technology, the openness has quickly and dramatically empowered individuals, groups, companies and even countries to work, collaborate and compete more equally, creatively, intelligently in a new platform which operates without regard to geography, distance, and, in the near future, even language. Everybody everywhere can plug and play with everybody else.

It’s interesting to know how Mr. Friedman as an American was worried that the US is not preparing the current generation well enough to face the future competition to China, India, East Europe and the others. Well, look at us here in Indonesia, with the current educational system, the poor will have limited access to good quality education, and, with most of us here are poor people, how will we compete…

Mr. Friedman also admitted that in many ways many parts of the world are still unflat, being left behind, which are the unflattening forces: many people are too sick (by AIDS, malaria, TB, etc), too poor (no access to participate), too frustrated (al-Qaeda and other Islamist terror organizations), and too much consuming natural resources (big cities eating up fuels and polluting the earth).

This is an exciting read, pointing out our modern history. Mr. Friedman’s comments on Arab-Muslim world should be read by Muslims as valuable critics (most left behinds are in the Arab-Muslim part of the world).

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2007, which does not exist now).

Book Title: The Long Tail (Author: Chris Anderson)

Chris Anderson learned that in the web culture (and then in every other things), when so many things are supplied demands follow. I think it’s like Say’s Law “Supply creates its own demand” (although this Say’s Law has its different interpretations).

The title “The Long Tail” comes from the shape of the curve (this book used Rhapsody.com’s sales) with volume (of sales, etc) in the Y-axis and inventory in X-axis. In the left side where the hits are, sales are high. That’s the head. And the tail is in the right side where all the non-hits when combined are bigger than the hits.

In case of Rhapsody and iTunes, musics are offered not in the same way as the traditional shelves in music stores. They are downloadable, cheap in storage, many non-hits are offered, many obscure songs are there, and everybody from everywhere can buy, and it turns out that the non-hits have buyers.

So it’s a big change from the traditional hit-driven market to niche (non-hit) market. All niche producers (individuals or small business who are empowered by many technologies which are cheap now) can compete with all the big companies and may have customers. Not just in music and movies sold in the net, but the long tail phenomenon can be observed in many other things, as Chis Anderson studied. Many interesting stories, a good read.