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Yamazumi Books - Cold Hard Cash

Yamazumi Books Presents MoneyWeek magazine (UK)

I signed up to MoneyWeek in the summer and have never looked back. This financial weekly hooked me in with its tagline “How to Make It, How to Keep It, How to Spend It”. Who can refuse an offer like that? My inner capitalist could not resist. 

MoneyWeek’s irreverent, contrarian take on the financial markets is always entertaining, even if I don’t agree with every word.  The editor-in-chief, Sunday Times financial columnist Merryn Somerset Webb, is a fearless and engaging financial commentator who usually offers a lucid perspective on events.

MoneyWeek was spot-on in predicting the current UK recession and property crash as early as 2007, even while politicians and newspapers were still blathering on about a temporary blip, or “soft landing”. However I think the huge decline in oil and commodity prices took the magazine by surprise after July 2008, as it was still giving extensive coverage to these asset classes right up until the moment the bubble burst.

I imagine the target audience is a reasonably sophisticated and moderately affluent investor looking for up-to-date financial views that differ from the media herd. However even those who can’t be described as “investors” (like me) gain a lot from the commentary, the insight and the analysis within.

MoneyWeek certainly doesn’t dumb down financial concepts. Whereas the mainstream press (even the wonderful BBC) tend to gloss over the complexities of ABS, CDS, CDOs, CLOs and the general alphabet soup of financial market lingo, in Money Week you are more likely to see ideas clearly explained. For example, this week I learned about Tobin’s Q which is (wait for it guys) a way to spot undervalued shares by comparing a company’s stock market capitalisation to the book value of its assets.

The publication itself is concise, readable, full-colour, with plenty of charts, sidebars and the occasional photo. Don’t expect an “Economist”-style tome – MoneyWeek is usually a thin 43 pages and the cover paper always looks a bit cheap to me. I am also not keen on the bundles of advertising leaflets that come with the magazine, often advertising courses on alleged “investment secrets” at steep prices. The magazine cover usually features an inoffensive cartoon and the tagline. As an individual magazine, it retails for £2.50 but you can subscribe for £14 a quarter.

The format opens with the editor’s letter, usually a wail of doom and gloom bemoaning the imminent slump and meltdown of civilisation as we know it brought on by unsustainable bubbles, profligate governments, greedy banks, reckless borrowers etc, etc. (OK I exaggerate for effect, but you get the picture).  The news pages give a concise summary of the week’s news and the markets cover all kinds of odd stories which would not normally see the light of day outside the Companies & Markets section of the FT. For example, this week (19 Dec 2008), I learned about the Ecuador bond defaults and the surprising weakness of the Swiss Franc. There’s also the obligatory chart showing the top risers and fallers amongst UK shares.

MoneyWeek is at pains to point out it doesn’t offer investment advice and it does tend to avoid the intensive share-tipping approach of, say “Investors Chronicle”.  Instead it takes a position on asset classes and macro-trends e.g.  the future direction of house prices, or gold prices. That said, experts are drafted in to give their share picks. My favourite section is the “Entrepreneurs” feature – this week we read about the founder of Subway who went from student poverty in 1966 to billionaire sandwich king 42 years later. At a time when the excesses of capitalism are (rightly) getting a lot of criticism, it’s good to read about genuine success like that.

After a politics and economics round-up, there’s a cover story. Sometimes this grabs my attention and sometimes I just skim read it. This week it’s on the scintillating topic of forestry investment. The personal finance pages that follow are probably the most useful, with headlines such as “How to find Christmas bargains”. Another highlight is the “Best blogs” section which draws a range of smart and controversial opinions from the blogosphere.

The “spending section” is always fun (from a totally voyeuristic point of view, as multimillion pound mansions tend to be profiled). Matthew Jukes always provides a lucid and entertaining wine review, although the £120 pink champagne he features this week is a little out of my price range!

Finally Bill Bonner closes the magazine with his “Last word” column. He is a fantastic columnist since he brings real historical perspective and a razor-sharp wit. Here’s an example as he reflects on the recent credit crunch implosion and its effect on the so-called masters of the universe: “In just six months, [capitalism] has scratched 10,000 Porsches, destroyed more monuments than Cromwell, and squeezed the rich harder than Mitterand. It would have taken an army of dreary Bolsheviks decades to redistribute so much wealth; and it wouldn’t be half as much fun”.

In summary then, MoneyWeek is an engaging, intelligent financial weekly that is not afraid to march to the sound of a different drummer.  My weekend wouldn’t be the same without it.

Grab That Diamond!

BOOK REVIEW

FELIX DENNIS – HOW TO GET RICH (Random House, 2006)

Felix Dennis – poet, bon vivant and flamboyant multimillionaire. The libertarian and creative Dennis made his name during the Oz magazine trial of the late Sixties and made his fortune in personal computing magazines during the early 80s PC revolution.  Now ranked the 65^th richest man in the UK according to the Sunday Times Rich List, he has nothing left to prove. Hence the frankness, honesty and good humour which characterises this book.

He has ample time to cultivate his poetic leanings while sipping fine wines in his Mustique villa, and is not ashamed to admit it. In fact his witty, often insightful poetry is peppered liberally through the text.  Felix, as the Latin translation of his name suggests, is one lucky man.

Don’t be fooled by the title. This book is as far away from cheesy, Californian self-help fluff as it is possible to get. In fact, Dennis defines this work as an “anti-self improvement book”. This is a mile away from the stuff of airport gurus or get-rich-quick merchants. As he cuttingly notes, “This book is written for amusement... I did not become rich by writing manuals telling other people how to become rich”. Nor is “How to Get Rich” the dour corporate monotone of some grey-suited businessman. Rather, it’s the story of someone who has practised what he preaches with flair, honesty and humour.

The astonishing message is that wealth is no panacea. In fact, it may even destroy the quality of your life. We learn how close Dennis came to personal tragedy through addictions and rampant spending in the Eighties decade of excess. Possibly the most genuinely touching and heartfelt section begins in Chapter 17, when he speaks of the terrible sacrifice of giving away your youth and health in pursuit of the almighty dollar, and the paranoia, jealousies and broken friendships that wealth can apparently lead to. He believes time is the most valuable commodity of all, because it can never be replaced. Mortality catches up with us all.

Dennis starts the book with a brief survey of wealth and the many tiers of affluence.  I was naturally pleased to find my own wealth rating was “comfortably poor” J The author makes some good points – there is no point in being a shining star in a dying industry. Go to where the money and the action is. Start young and you have an inestimable advantage over people a decade older. (I personally think he overplays this – age and guile can usually overcome youth and talent). He litters his text with famous quotes. My favourite – “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and quietly strangled”.

Moving on, Dennis offers a wealth of ideas from his decades in the publishing industry. Some of the ideas could be found in any good management book and there is nothing here than is truly groundbreaking, but the fun is found is reading the anecdotes and stories and seeing how Dennis has applied these skills during his own rise to the top. His section on the art of negotiating and the importance of ownership (e.g. of intellectual property rights) is particularly enlightening.

Dennis has an eye for visual images – he compares chasing wealth to hunting a gazelle with diamonds in its belly. His closing chapter (“A Recap for Idlers”) is extremely well written, placing the quest for wealth amid his own musings on mortality and the meaning of life. Amazingly, it’s neither pretentious nor preachy, but a very human and very absorbing read. The same could be said for the whole of this gripping book.

Felix Dennis – The Upside-Down Pyramid for Getting Rich

1.       Commit or don’t commit. No half-measures.

2.                 Cut loose from all negative influences

3.                             Choose the right mountain

4.                                      Fear nothing

5.                                        Start now

6.                                             Go!

Design & Value for Money

The front cover of the paperback is a parody of a get-rich-quick style self-help book, with “Rich” printed in big red letters and an image of cheque for £38 million made out to “The Bearer”. The final “S” of the author’s name is a dollar sign. In fact this deliberately cheesy front cover was so ridiculous it almost put me off buying the witty and intelligent product beneath. I splashed out a cool £7.99 at WH Smith for this production (clearly I haven’t got the eagle eye when it comes to cost efficiencies) but it is available new on Amazon for a mere £5.99. The hardback version (new from £11.89 on Amazon) features a picture of the flamboyant author himself on a chair flanked by bronze Chinese dragons.

To his credit, Dennis includes Amazon customer reviews at the front from ordinary readers with as much prominence as the newspaper reviews of the great and the good. His website (felixdennis.com) is also worth a look and features further samples of his poetic offerings.

(c) WestOcean 2008

 

 

Yamazumi Books - "Eat That Frog!"

Yamazumi Books presents "Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy

Have you ever struggled with a “to do” list and a million urgent tasks? Have you ever worked hard all day stumbling to bed exhausted, and still only accomplished a quarter of what you wanted? 

This kind of experience – allied to the intriguing, quirky title, which is a natural draw – led me to purchase “Eat That Frog”, by Brian Tracy.

This book is brutal in its simplicity, challenging in its message and sparse in its content. Brian Tracy offers a definitive technique to get things done, compressing his message into just 113 pages. He openly states he lives by the Pareto rule where 80% of the value is contained in just 20% of the content. In “Eat That Frog- Get More of the Important Things Done Today” he has stripped out all the inessentials to focus on what really matters – getting things done.

Why the Frog?

The title is a great selling point because it grabs your attention. The Frog represents your biggest, ugliest and most important job for the day. It’s the awkward, demanding task you really don’t want to do – the kind of thing you would put off and procrastinate about for as long as possible. We all know what our daily frog is, Tracy argues. Instead of writing endless and unachievable “to-do” lists, Tracy advises us to focus on just one thing – eating the frog. After that, everything is easy riding. Yes folks, it’s that simple. There is no rocket science in this book, just simple, unassailable logic.

There are 21 chapters in the book, and here are the best ideas from each one.

Think on paper – write down your goals

1. Plan each day in advance to become unstoppable
2. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything – go for the “vital few” versus the “trivial many”
3. Ask – which one project or activity, if I completed it, would have the biggest positive impact on my life?
4. Ruthlessly rank all tasks from A through to E. Get the tasks graded A finished first.
5. Your weakest key result area holds you back. Focus on these bottlenecks.
6. You’ll never have time to do everything. Focus on the single most important thing.
7. Prepare your working environment
8. Learn continuously
9. Leverage your talents
10. Identify and eliminate your bottlenecks.
11. Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step (enormous cliché, but true)
12. Set artificial deadlines to keep you moving
13. Take one full day off a week (I rarely do this)
14. Be positive!
15. Ruthlessly weed out lower value activities
16. Do the most difficult task first
17. Slice and dice the task – chunk it down
18. Set aside blocks of time
19. Develop a sense of urgency
20. Do every task once and once only

I noticed two things as I was drawing up this summary.  First, I noticed that most of these chapters were variations on a single theme – namely, the power of focusing on what really matters, and then doing it.  Focus and execution – that boils down 113 pages to three words! The second thing I realised is that most of these ideas are key principles in modern “lean production” systems in factories. Elimination of bottlenecks, continuous improvement and even Pareto (80/20) diagrams are at the heart of total quality management systems. This book is just about taking business concepts and applying them to your own life.

Does it work?

I enjoyed this work. I liked the short chapters, the helpful summary boxes at the end of each and (yes) even the little pictures of frogs at the start of every chapter. The book is eye-catching in its red and yellow cover. But did it deliver the goods?

Yes, if applied consistently and methodically. Tracy has developed an excellent system that should deliver quantum leap improvements in efficiency and results.  However you can be efficient without being effective – similar to climbing a ladder and only realising too late that’s it propped up against the wrong wall. The book offers some great insights and a valuable way of looking at the world. However in real life there is always the unexpected crisis, the sudden and urgent problem which can throw everything off course. External events can derail the best laid plans of mice and men.

About the author - Brian Tracy

The author, the Canadian Brian Tracy, is a big hitter in the personal development world. He left school without graduating and became a drop-out, travelling the world on a freighter. After eight nomadic years, he took up a career as a door-to-door salesman and rocketed up the career ladder. Today he manages a multinational personal development and training organisation from his base in Solana Beach, California. I highly recommend his much larger work “Maximum Achievement”, which offers a comprehensive success philosophy.