Maryse

Essence of leadership

Reviewed: 2020-04-20

There are many guides and how to books about leadership. This book though is a call for leadership.
It goes down to this:
Leaders have nothing in common besides their decision to lead.
There is no guide to leadership as a leader is about leading. If he needs a guide he then is a follower, not a leader. It's about change, about connecting together people who have a common belief, idea, project, desir. It's about connecting and inspiring to move together towards a common objective.

I really enjoyed how this book simplified the idea of leadership to it's essence.

Good book

Reviewed: 2019-10-09

Great reminder that actions, small enough to maintain, will eventually bring momentum to allow reach our goals.
It is all about consistency and persistence.

My favorite quotes
About the types of relationships we have and the impact it has on us :
"Are you surrounding yourself with anchors or engines?"

For this one I don't have the exact wording.
"The extra effort done after giving your best and hitting the wall is what multiplies your results to be a winner."

Cool book

Reviewed: 2019-10-03

Fun and entertaining but above all, illustrates how we can do far more than what we think we can!

Amazing, must read!

Reviewed: 2019-09-26

What a fantastic book. I'm so thankful for having discovered M. J. DeMarco's books as they are pure information on the reality to financial freedom and a fullfilling life.

It has nothing to do with the widespread wealth guru speeches where your realize they don't give the whole truth because of hidden agendas.

Here you get the raw reality, like it or not.

As for me, this book has been a huge relief as I much would rather live with those conditions than with what is sold as empty wealth and success all over social media and society. 

I appreciated above all the emphasis on contributing real value, not empty fake value.

He details the fundamentals and mindset. No magical formula. 

Real work is mandatory but strategic with awareness. Mistakes are to be expected but it's integrated to the necessary learning process.

I align so well with his message but now I found the missing parts to my puzzle to reach my objectives. There are clear principles that the path we choose to follow must adhere to in order to succeed financially, and they are well described in this book. But they never exclude what is most meaningful to me, it only guides me to a better way of operating. 

I recall a few years ago telling someone that I viewed people in 2 categories: 

Recipients and contributors. 

We all have a little of each but one of these two categories is stronger and guides most of our motivations and actions.

I am strong on my desire to contribute but I started fearing I needed to put this aside to succeed financially and that only after, I could focus on contributing. I was hoping for better options so I kept searching. I also felt I was supposed to make things happen super fast feeling I was already out of time. 

This book puts everything in a much better perspective and it brought peace and confidence in my approach to my goals.

It is a journey I know I can live with knowing it includes meaning and fulfillment, not just a selfish empty scam.

I'll end this with my favorite quotes.


"Impact one through a productacracy and scale will work it's way through by design."

(Productacracy is a product/service that pulls people to it, not one that you have to push people to via tons of advertising, that if you stop advertising, it won't survive. This demonstrates real value.)


"Scale is a process, not an event."


This next one is a bit rephrased but pretty close.

"Failure is the sweat of success. If you're not willing to sweat, you don't get the six pack abs and big biceps."

So if you're not willing to fail you cannot succeed. 

Good book

Reviewed: 2019-09-08

This kind of book is of the kind I need the most at the moment.
The main idea is to think of what is the one thing I can do now that will make other things either easier to do or unecessary.
With so many things competing for attention, I find this question essential to be able to continue progressing by taking better decisions for what we give our energy and attention to.
I really appreciated this book for this.

Good read

Reviewed: 2019-09-02

The title felt a bit suspicious but the content is realistic and comprehensive. There is a clear distinction between fast and easy wealth. I found the book very thought provoking and made me question many decisions. I took the time to digest the content and reread some chapters and it helped me understand better and more. The idea is that wealth is being able to have freedom of choice, healthy relationships and a good health. It is up to everyone to define what they need to acquire this. It may look very different from one person to another. So it is not just the mere acquisition of money as a goal but having the necessary money to have all those goals fulfilled early enough to enjoy it while you are young and not only after you retire in old age limited physically and in time left.
The book explains how the most common retirement plans do not allow us to take avantage of it's benefits while we are at our best to do the most out of it and being able to contribute at our highest level. We discover how we need to aim at what is scalable to reach our goals of freedom with good health and great relationships. A great educational and thought provoking read on wealth.

What an awesome book!

Reviewed: 2019-07-24

This is a must read, and since it's so actual despite having been written more than 50 years ago, it's has to be a classic.
I'm ready to listen to it all over and I just finish.
There is great insight on how our perspective and opinions on ourselves and others makes or breaks us.
I learned a great deal on forgiveness. I think I finally understood what this means.
For so long, I was searching on the meaning of forgiveness and how it is done without the moralistic ideas we always here.
This book greatly contributes to my peace and serenity.
I'm very grateful !

Insightful!

Reviewed: 2019-06-28

This book offers a scientific approach to trauma exposing how trauma is a part of nature. We discover the natural way the body copes with trauma and releases it, how the body and minf are closely interrelated and how we can benefit from such negative experiences in the restorative process.
I found this book very insightful.

Fabulous book!

Reviewed: 2019-06-27

This has been the perfect book at this particular time in my life.
I found it to be calming and a great reminder to the best way to encounter difficult times.
It is about learning to embrass any situation we have no control on as a new direction to our life and an opening to maybe something better suited for us. I understand it as if the obstacles become a stencil that puts our focus on what is the most important for us. We just need to be receptive to the message and humble enough to adapt or risk losing our life or a part of it to resentment.

5 people found this helpful

Nice overview of security basics

Reviewed: 2019-06-21

I really enjoyed reviewing the basics of security in action in the perspective of a social engineer.
There are numerous examples of social engineering exploits with the details explained and why it worked.
The last chapters details how and what fundamentals of security should be implemented in general but also how specifics should be added depending of the needs of the enterprise.
I found that despite the fact it is a book from 2002, it stays relevant in many aspects and can certainly be used and adapted to help implement the fundamentals of good security policies.
This is not a technical book but mostly on the social engineering side, an important aspect of security.