Review of "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi

The book brings out a number of great ideas for introverts that are interested in expanding their social networks without having to become a relentless schmoozer. "Never Eat Alone" walks through a variety of steps that offer some solid tips in terms of meeting new people and establishing a lasting dialogue both personally and professionally. While this book likely falls in the self help category at your local or online bookstore it actually has a very heavy marketing flavor with the focus on building your own brand and network (this fits given Mr. Ferrazzi's background as a Chief Marketing Officer for several major organizations).

Here are some of the top tips that I felt "Never Eat Alone" offers up:

Plan out business trips and conferences with precision. The point is put forward that you want to maximize your time on the road and having a quality contact list for personal and business purposes that you can quickly access ahead of a trip to develop a list of people to contact once you reach your destination. One good suggestion is to drop in messages to your contacts in a city saying that you were in town and while you couldn't meet up on this trip you were thinking about them and would like to touch base on your next trip. On the conference side of things the suggestion involves targeting not necessarily the passive sessions you want to sit in but the presenters and other key people you're seeking to meet - basically you create a top 3 list of people you're targeting to meet at the conference and plan around these targets.

Get active in your community. A number of solid tips are offered up in terms of getting out and getting more involved in your community as a means of meeting new people.

He also covers a number of things NOT to do while networking here's the abbreviated list:

• Focusing on collecting business cards like they're baseball cards - the message here is simple "its not a race the person with the most cards doesn't get a free t-shirt" the purpose is to actually make connections at events;
• Ignoring or being rude to gatekeepers - this one falls in the category of good manners and common sense in treating everyone you meet with respect

Overall, I'd had "Never Eat Alone" recommended to me by a contact and thought that it sounded like an interesting read and must admit that while not all of the tips are for me I definitely got value out of reading it. In fact, this is one of the few books that I'm likely to add to my permanent collection by picking up a gently used copy on Amazon. This is likely the highest praise I can give a book since I'm committed to not add to the clutter at our house with new books unless I plan to use them multiple times.

"Journey to the center of the Earth and beyond!"

I'm a big fan of the videos that come out of the TED conference (see this post for background) and have been slowly working my way through their library of content. One vodcast that stood out for me from an impressive group of throught-provoking presentations from a variety of innovative and interesting individuals.

Is this presentation from Bill Stone titled "Journey to the center of the Earth and beyond!"

As with many TED videos it opens your mind to some interesting ideas and in this case discoveries.

He starts by providing perspective on some of the most extreme deep earth caving expeditions that have been undertaken on earth such as:

Prof. Stone then highlights the technologies that his expeditions have developed in order to safely enter and explore the last major unexplored locations on Earth (have a look at some of these photos).

What makes this presentation stand-out from the crowd is simply his BOLD and audacious goal that Prof. Stone lays out at the end of the video. I must admit that I was riveted for the last few minutes of this video as he outlines the potential of a unique mission to the Moon designed to prove that you can process and harness sufficient energy to return to Earth. He committs to his broader goal at the end of the presentation to lead this project.

I encourage you to watch the vodcast and think about what your own bold goal is...

Check your child's toys for recalls & lead

Given all the recent attention on various toy recalls from major manufacturers relating to toxic chemicals in children's toys I wanted to post the following links that help parents determine if the child's toys are safe:

Healthy Toys a volunteer organization that is doing testing on toys and reporting the results on their website.

US Consumer Product Safety Commission The U.S. government agency charged with testing and regulating consumer products where you'll find the official announcements regarding mandatory toy recalls.

Mattel Product Recall page. Mattel lists the various products and product numbers from its brands that have been recalled and what consumers should do.


Let me know other sources and I'll update this list.