Rothacker Reviews

One Small Step Can Change Your Life

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer.

Motivated by the questions, How do people succeed?  and How do successful people stay successful? Robert writes a book about change utilizing Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.

Robert's mantra is to perform small steps of continuous improvement.  One gaze at the chapters in his book and you will begin to get a feel:

Why Kaizen Works

Ask Small Questions

Think Small Thoughts

Take Small Actions

Solve Small Problems

Bestow Small Rewards

Identify Small Moments

Kaizen For Life

I like this book!  It is small, portable, digestible, believable and most importantly, doable.  You can crack it open, read five minutes and actually start to put it to work.  Really.

Rothacker Reviews has been going through some change.  I created a journal for guidance.  One thing that I try to write in it each day is...one thing.  What one thing can I do today that moves me into the direction of accomplishing my goal?  Thank you Robert for providing that one thing thing that has helped...your book.

Why Listen to dave?

About dave:  From the tag line underneath my site's name you can see I write reviews on books, businesses and folks.  You can also see that I am neither a celebrity, leader or expert.  Why then should you read my stuff and take action on my recommendations?

I like to think that I have an eye and ear for people who are sincere, authentic and want to succeed. I am attracted to people or things who travel in the opposite direction of status-quo.  In a world of change, status-quo was yesterday.  And in a world of change, status-quo is a greased rope that survivors do not trust.  The opposite?  Those are people who are constantly learning and evolving.  They walk about in the world eyes wide open.  They observe, they listen, they synthesize and then they produce (or try to with all of their might), stuff that makes the world a better place.

As a dad, husband and Baby Boomer, I care very deeply about this:  I passionately want the younger generations to succeed and the older generation to be valued!  To know and understand me then, is to know the lens in which I view the world. 

The American Dream

I recently read this article written by Robert Trigaux and published in the St. Pete Times.  The American Dream.  Quick, what comes to mind?  Little house in the burbs with a white picket fence, right?  This is an overused generalization that for me, signifies only one thing, that for most of us there really is an American Dream - whatever it might be.

Robert's article is based upon a survey conducted by advertising giant JWT.  Ann Mack, JWT's director of trendspotting ran point on this project.  Although the results of this survey are available to the public...for 3K, the questionnaire that JWT uses is quite interesting and available to the public...for free: Download JWT_AmericanDream_SURVEY.pdf .

In the questionnaire's cover letter, Ann says:

"As a throwaway line, 'the American Dream' passes with a nod and barely a second thought.  You can say 'He's living the American Dream' or 'She's been pursuing the American Dream,' and few people will want to know just what you mean."

The fact is, when I heard the question "What does the phrase, 'the American Dream' mean to you?" my inner status-quo took quite a head-on jolt.  I asked myself, just what was my own American Dream?  And, was I achieving it?

To contemplate about your own American Dream, is to take a deep breath and, for a moment, to step off the hamster wheel of life and work.  This exercise can be healthy and invigorating.  Why not let this question invoke a status check of your life?  And if you do not live in America, no worries...from your perspective what does the American Dream mean?

If you have your own personal Web site, tell us what the American Dream means to you?  And encourage others to do so as well!

I'll tell you what the American Dream means to me in the next couple of days.   

Their Eyes Were Watching God

The National Endowment for the Arts has a program called The Big Read.  The purpose of The Big Read is to restore reading to the center of American culture.  The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.  The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

I first heard about The Big Read in a St Petersberg Times Newspaper in Education insert.  In the past I had gotten a little goofy and sappy over another publication by the St Pete Times called tbt*.  The tbt* is a free, daily publication that has a witty, articulate and humerous voice that is most soothing.  I have to tell you though, the NIE brings on a whole nuther level of goofiness!  Here is a description in their own words:

Beyond newsprint. In the know. Online. Plugged in. In The Times.

The Times Newspaper in Education program offers students and teachers a world of free learning resources including classroom newspapers and supplements, multimedia reports, podcasting and blogging opportunities.

A newspaper that truly cares about education within the community!  And another thing, an association with the NIE speaks volumes about their sponsors.  The sponsors are listed on the right hand side page of the Web site.

Sorry, got a little side tracked.  The book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is why I started writing here today in the first place.  This book was written by Zora Neale Hurston and published in 1937.  This is a touching, powerful, humerous and scary trek through early twentieth century, rural Florida that takes Janie Crawford, a southern black girl who clashes with the values others impose on her, on a journey to find herself.

If you read and write about non fiction business topics, you must read this book.  Zora's brilliant use of metpahors combined with oscilating narrative and southern black dialogue will shake the business cobwebs from your head and provide much needed humanism to infiltrate your subconscious.

Visit here to learn more about Zora Neale Hurston. 

1000 Journals Project

The 1000 Journals Project is a story about creativity, collaboration, freedom of expression, expression of the soul and beauty.  The 1000 Journals Project is a book written by Someguy.  Or perhaps it is a collection of creativity, collaboration, freedom of expression, expression of the soul and beauty, assembled by Someguy in book form, encased in stunning cover art by Linda Zacks.  The 1000 Journals Project is a physical movement started by Someguy in 2000.

Well Dave, that's about as clear as a London morning.

The Project - Here is Someguy's description.

The Book - Here is Someguy's book.

I bought the book back in March.  I'll use the book for a few pages and then set it back on the shelf to brew.  It wasn't until recently that I realized there was an accompanying Web site.  It is Someguy's words on creativity on the site that hold me spellbound.  Listen up:

If you ask a kindergarten class how many of them are artists, they'll all raise their hands. Ask the same question of 6th graders, and maybe one third will respond. Ask high school grads, and few will admit to it. (explained in Orbiting the Giant Hairball)

What happens to us growing up? We begin to fear criticism, and tend to keep our creativity to ourselves. Many people keep journals, of writing or sketching, but not many share them with people. (when was the last time a friend invited you to read their diary?) You will not be judged here. And you will have company. This is for you. For everyone.

Stop my soul in time and orbit my conscious with utter amazement!  Someguy gives folks a chance to liberate themselves from the crust of adulthood...to peal back to a time when their souls poured forth, unimpeded from the fear-filter imposed by society. 

Dave's 1000 Parent Project - If you are a parent of a child between K-6, or knows of someone who is, commit to the following: I will celebrate and encourage my child's uniqueness.  I will nurture not criticize.  I will prepare her to deal with society's cold shoulder and her teacher's indifference.  She will step into the world as a warrior.  She will protect others who aren't as strong.  She will respect other's opinions but not be swayed unless her spirit agrees.  She will walk tall and proud into the world as a child of creativity.  She will live and let live and those who cross her path will breath deep her energy.

The gentleman who wrote the following words is an artist.  He survived the critics.  His mind is a mind that wasn't swayed. 

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And its all over now, baby blue.

r

The Last Lecture - Synopsis

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

"What wisdom would you impart upon the world if you knew your demise was to be immediate ?"  "What matters most to you?"

College professors are frequently asked to plan a lecture with these questions in mind.  The searing difference between Randy Pausch's last lecture and all of the others?  Prior to the lecture, Randy was told he really did have only a couple of months to live.

If you can read, are related to one other person on this planet and have a heart, you must pick up this book and listen to what Randy told his students and in turn told the world.

July 25, 2008 - Randy passed away.

Thanks to all of you folks who type in The Last Lecture Synopsis in Google. I am getting a million hits...in relation to my little corner of cyberspace.  I am not honestly sure that Randy isn't working through me right now, but if you are visiting Rothacker Reviews from Google, check out what I think that Randy might be saying right now...

Lead your life the right way and your dreams will come to you.

Leave your legacy for your kids while you are still alive.  Live your legacy.  Live your legacy.  Now.

Along the Yellow Brick Road

Work has really gotten the best of me over the last eight months. 

"Awww, come on dave, that's one of the wimpiest sentences you've ever written."

Work penetrated the insides of my head with an icy-cold wake up dagger, "dave, no more cruise control.  If you want to work here..."  And with one big ole commitment I fast-tracked on a laser train right out of my personal life.  No worries.  It's what I needed.  Rosemary has been cool and Carla is a teenager.

A phenomenal effort by my team at work has secured my employment with this company for a little while longer.  While I cannot let up, I need to slow the train down and get back to that comforter that wraps itself around my soul and heart, the one that on a storm-filled day warms my mind, the one that a hurricane cannot pry loose, and the one that is one with dave's dna - dave's writing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Maxwell says, "No dream grows out of a vacuum.  It grows out of a dream.  Whether you know it or not, your life has been preparing you for your dreams."

Those who know me know that I am a fifty-one year old bald guy who has had no idea what I want to be when I grow up.  My heart, soul and mind have been ripped from my body and beaten against the rocks of not knowing. The pain of not knowing, of thinking that my answers were out ahead on the road before me have been excruciating, mind numbing and paralyzing.  The pain has sucked oxygen from my life, leaving me most often doubled over in pain.

But for the last five or six years, I've known the answer to my question is and really always has been inside...just like John says.  Something is beginning to stir within dave's soul...  I feel like the sun is trying to penetrate the clouds that accompany my journey.  Something is happening...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While my writing has taken it in the back over the last eight months, my reading hasn't.  And lately I seem to be not only smoking books, but vaporizing them. Picture the robot from the movie Short Circuit...need input, need input.

One of the greatest feelings that I have ever experienced as a human being was a bought of heart-felt appreciation for a book review that I wrote for this one gentleman.  As he told me from six-hundred miles away via telephone what this book review did for him and his company, warms tears streamed down my face.  To know dave is to know that this moment is an anomaly.  This was about six years ago and I packed this experience up in my back pack that I carry on my life's journey.

Writing book reviews and telling folks what excites me about others and their work is a portion of my comforter's dna.  John says they've always been there.  dave says he knows.  Johns says to tune in.  dave says they've walked every foot of the Yellow Brick Road with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because my back log of books to write about is so long, I am going to start writing a very short synopsis about each one.  Afterwords I'll follow up with additional posts elaborating.

The mix of first and third person in this post is by design.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it oh great magazine editor!!

Good Vibrations

At some point over the last few years I lost the desire to camp out at the local post office in sweet anticipation of my next Fast Company magazine.  I cannot wax lyrical articulation as to why.  I can only say that maybe, just maybe, they lost a little bit of their soul.

A Westerly wind blew into my life a couple of years ago and gently nudged me into the prevailing trade winds of Design.  I've read many books on the subject and subscribe to at least four different design magazines.  An appreciation for design has allowed for a finer appreciation of culture and deeper tie-ins to the art of communication.  The ability to look through a different lens at one's favorite subjects is most exhilarating!

Sailing at sea with my four design magazines, I always seem to notice when other design magazines float by.  It was about a year ago when I picked up Good.  Aesthetically, it has off the chart design appeal.  I love it.  But it is Good's content that has me remembering Fast Company's good old days.  Creators say Good is for people who give a damn.  They say it's an entertaining magazine about things that matter.  I agree.  Troll through their Website a bit and you'll get a feel.

When one subscribes to Good, one-hundred percent of that payment goes to one of its twelve nonprofit partners.  My proceeds go to Room to Read. 

"Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books."

While visiting a remote mountainous area in Nepal, John Wood, founder of Room to Read, came upon a school in horrific condition.  It did however, have a library.  The problem - it contained fewer than twenty books. 

John did go back...with books.  Room to Read grew from the seeds of John's gestures.

We construct force fields to survive the daily onslaught of advertising overload.  (unless, like me, you crave the stuff. I'll explain this sickness in a future post).  Sometimes however, a message pierces your armor and lodges in your heart.  The second that I heard about John's mission was the second right before Room to Read's message landed in my heart.  There will most definitely be some sort of dave-involvement with this organization in the future!

Thanks for coming into my life Good!

Tide Away

"Tide-away Dad, duh"

So it's early on Saturday morning and I am taking Carla to USF to play in a high school basketball tournament this past weekend.  As my coffee level is one cup short, I pull into a Mickey Dees to refuel.

"Daaaaaad," Carla cries, moans and pleads at the same time, "We're going to be late."

Actually we're about ten minutes ahead of schedule.  Daughter number one was sixteen, eleven years ago. I could've sworn the ants had left her pants by that time.  Daughter number two, Carla, has built up the infrastructure and made community improvements in her drawers.  The ants aren't going anywhere soon.

Two minutes out of Mickey Dees and I now have a coffee stain on my white shorts the size of a softball.  Oh well, whatta ya going to do?  I'm going to a basketball game, who cares?

"Daaaaaad, you aren't not going anywhere in those shorts!!"

Actually, embarrassing our children in public is something that Rosemary and I live for.  Now I am definitely feeling pretty good about the situation.

"Carla, what to you want me to do?"

At this point though, I know I'm at the kid's mercy.  She can be like a dog that won't let go of its bone.  She will absolutely hammer on me until I concede.  Note to self: Groom Carla Ziglar to be a saleswoman.

"Tide-away Dad!  Duh!!"

I look at her in absolute bewilderment.  I figure she is talking to me in code.  She thinks I'm one of her female friends who talk faster with their thumbs and a phone keyboard.

"Oh dear God, Dad!  Tide-away, you know the stuff you put on stains."

Actually I didn't know. 

"Ok, we'll stop at the grocery store and we'll be on our way."

The ants began to elevate Carla off of her seat.

"Ok relax, I'm just kidding."

I drop her off at USF, then I go to the grocery store.

The stuff worked great and I didn't get to embarrass daughter number two.

The stuff is really called Tide to Go.  Besides having fun with Carla, this truly was a learning experience for me.  I had no idea there was something that looked like a magic marker that you could just rub on your clothes and get rid of stains.  Now everyone at work is going to think I started using a bib at lunch. 

Beyond

The concept of beyond is a personal value.  It is a personal principle, standard and mindset.  It does not represent the after-life.  It represents what is ahead on the road of life...if and only if, I am willing to strive for it.  Because if I am just walking down the road of life, like a hamster walks his wheel, I will miss what is beyond and I will only continue to see what I see.

Next to Oz is the Yellow Brick Road, Vaporize Boundaries is my own personal favorite mindset.  To make boundaries melt into the sunset is the physical act of beyond.  To break a four-minute mile, to break nine-five in the one-hundred meters, to walk after being wheelchair bound, to achieve an A in Algebra after cranking out eight years of C's in Math, to become sober, to repair relationships with family, to invent a new paint can...what has not yet been done - that is possible?

To envision what can be done is the mental act of beyond.  To find work that is enjoyable and meaningful, while still able to support one's family, to connect two individuals and smell the aroma of their collaborative effort, to forge written words from the colander of one's soul to help liberate another's burden or to improve their life or business, to connect to another's words, allowing them to lubricate the gears within your mind and hit a new level of thought...what can be imagined - that is possible?

What is beyond is different.  And what is different is a kernel of knowledge that we did not before possess.  A kernel of knowledge gained strengthens our journey and expands the boundaries to what lies beyond.