• 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.

(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 Wal-Mart Effect – How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works and How It’s Transforming the American Economy (Author: Charles Fishman)

This book shows us the effects given by the giant company Wal-Mart to the US economy (and to the world to some extent). The company is so big that the average American is within 10-25 miles of range to its stores. It is one of the biggest employer (if not the biggest) in the US (and also maybe Mexico), consistently delivers its famous promise ‘everyday low price’, so hard for its competitors to beat. It is so powerful that many companies are trying hard to be its suppliers, maybe only to find that they suffer being its suppliers because of its demand to push low price over time to suppliers (or otherwise the shelves in the stores will be offered to other companies).

Wal-Mart changes the way people shop, the way its suppliers deliver their products, the way its suppliers produce their products. Wal-Mart maybe has the most efficient logistics and delivery management. It is never clear on the magnitude, but Wal-Mart is believed to play a big role in keeping US inflation low.

On the negative side, there are allegations that Wal-Mart squeezes its suppliers that they don’t have enough profits to keep them innovative. Wal-Mart may even have killed many businesses for its demand to keep low prices. Wal-Mart also is criticized for being the driver of massive imports of cheap products from China and other countries; those cheap products may be produced in factories where working conditions are very very bad.

I don’t think the book reveals many things on Wal-Mart, not as much as I expected. Wal-Mart keeps its secret well, and its suppliers are so loyal not to reveal those secrets too. But this is an interesting book, and easy to read.

(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: iWoz (by Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith)

This book is about Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, who single-handedly created the Apple I and the famous Apple II. He’s also inventor of many other less-known amazing things.

Steve Jobs may be more popular, but I think I like Steve Wozniak more, I believe he is a really kind and honest man. And of course, he’s a genius, brilliant man.

The story starts from his childhood time, when his father (worked in secret projects for US government)  taught him a lot about engineering things, making him understand how things work. He was champions to many science projects in school. The story ends in present time, where he spends his time doing charity works although still officially is an employee of Apple Inc (by the time of this book written).

His knowledge about electronic circuits, his experiments, his works have changed the computer world forever. While working at Hewlett-Packard (making calculators), he joined a group of friends interested in computer related things and so he came up with the idea of building a computer called the Apple I, but it was the Apple II that gained huge success. Apple Computer, the company which he co-founded with Steve Jobs and some other friends, went public and became a huge company and so he got rich very rich.

Steve Wozniak is the one who changed the looks of computers. Back then, computers are strange machines with panels and switches, without keyboards and monitors.

I really enjoy reading this book. It’s amazing to learn how things have changed so fast in about 20 years in the computer world, how an inventor like Steve Wozniak works (he described the logic behind some of his inventions).

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2008, which does not exist now).

Book Title: Bright from the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3 (Author: Dr. Jill Stamm and Paula Spencer)

I like this book for the fact that it is so logical. It teaches parents how to get babies’ attention, to form bonding and communicate with babies through much care, singing, talking, playing, and all activities. All seems too simple, but the author assures you with scientific researches and studies in psychology, neuroscience, etc.

The book focus more on what parents should do to get a bright baby, instead of the milestones of what baby should have been able to do at certain ages.

These are things to do to nurture a bright baby according to the book:

• provide a loving and safe environment
• talk and sing a lot to baby
• hold baby often (not to let her cry for too long)
• make sure to get the right caregiver, if needed (if both parents are working)
• get baby a piano or violin lesson starting age 2 or 3 (the author does not agree to the hype of Mozart effect; so it is better for children to know how to play a music instrument instead of just listening to classical musics)
• teach baby a second language (I think I will start talking English with baby soon)

I recommend this book for first-time parents like I was back in 2007. Though the author says it’s never to late to give love and care to babies, I think if your baby is already older than 2 or 3 yo, you will feel awful for not doing what the book suggests from after birth.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2009, which does not exist now).

Book Title: Slideology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (Author: Nancy Duarte)

Highly impressed by how Al Gore presented his “An Inconvenient Truth” (which landed him Nobel Prize and Academy Award), I am interested in finding lessons on how to create good presentation slides and non-boring charts/diagrams. I tried to find samples/templates on the net to no avail.

Then I found this book (I decided to buy it because I saw it featured Al Gore in one of its case studies). I think this book gives valuable insights on how to create great presentations, excerpts are as follows:

1. We humans are visual communicators; presentations should be delivered more in forms of images/diagrams as visual aids. Slides should be simple, text should be reduced, avoid bullet points (use images/diagrams instead). The audience is there to hear the presenter giving ideas/message, not to read slides. Slides are there to enhance the story, to help the audience see what the presenter is saying so that ideas/messages are easily transmitted.

2. To give powerful presentation, one should prepare highly on knowing the audience in order to prepare for effective materials and delivery.

3. Think like a designer to create effective slides. 3 things should be handled creatively in a consistent way to avoid noise or confusion:

• Arrangement elements: contrast (to help audience see main points), hierarchy, unity, space, proximity and flow.
• Visual elements: background, color (proper color palette), text, images.
• Movement: timing, pace, distance, direction and eye flow

4. Corporations should pay more attention (and more investment) on creating great presentations as in many instances presentations are the last impression a customer has of a company before closing a deal. It’s useful to get expert help on building an organized and effective system so that all messages/slides transmitted outside are consistent with company/branding philosophy.

5. How many slides to present? It depends, but one good rule to follow is the 10/20/30 rule from the venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki (10 slides, 20 minutes, no font smaller than 30).