Review: SHINE

Shine: How to Survive and Thrive at Work by Chris Barez-Brown

Review by Richard Pachter

You CAN judge a book by its cover.

I own lots of books. More arrive daily by mail, UPS, FedEx et al. I also love bookstores and libraries. (Yes, I still go to my excellent local public library and even check books out!)

Most of the books I get are advance readers’ copies (ARCs). Plainly bound copies meant for reviewers and retailers (though those sample copies are a vanishing breed, supplanted by pdfs and other digital formats.) I also receive finished books but less these days than previously.

So when I received SHINE by Chris Baréz-Brown, it immediately popped.

Here was a book that’s nicely designed: user-friendly, easy to read: pleasant typeface and clean layout. Very inviting!

I skimmed it a bit and quickly decided that I wanted to read and share it with the Biz Books Club.

And here we are.

The sub-subtitle, “Upping your Elvis,” the author explains, comes from the question U2 front man Bono asks when he enters a roomful of activists who want his participation: “Who’s Elvis here?”

He’s seeking the one person in the place who posses irresistible charisma, the group’s singular go-to guy (or gal).

It’s a good question. There’s usually someone who’s the center of gravity in every organization— and it’s not necessarily the one who is nominally “in charge.”

I’ve never met the author, but it’s implicit that he’s pretty Elvis-y himself.

He’d better be! If he’s a boring stick in the mud, he’d be way out of bounds in writing this book and offer the advice contained herein.

Advice? Yeah, that’s the crux of this book. It’s an advice-and-affirmation text that can be summed up like this: “Be yourself — BUT BETTER!”

So he encourages the reader to dress comfortably — no ties, if you hate ‘em. Dress casually or formally, if that’s your thing. What-evuh!

Be nice; open to change; resourceful; aggressive; but go with the flow...etc.

The short chapters (really just brief raps and rants) are fun and upbeat. Some of the stuff may not resonate with you and some will. You’re free to pick and choose since Baréz-Brown knows that one size fits all is nonsense and unworkable.

But most of the things he discusses are either commonsensical and obvious or kind of miniature licenses to “go for it” and let your freak flag fly by being a bit flamboyant and out there, while still taking the high road and doing the right thing for yourself and others. It’s a virtual pep talk of positivity.

Now, one wonders if any of this stuff is grounded in science and empirical wisdom.

Well, it is, to a great extent. Your attitude determines your luck!

And if you want to be successful, luck — or whatever you want to call it — is essential.

“Upping your Elvis,” indeed!

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GET RICH CLICK Review

Get Rich Click!: The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet by Marc Ostrofsky

Review by Richard Pachter

Maybe this is a little “inside,” but in my ten years+ of writing biz book reviews and running a book club, I never — I mean NEVER — read club members’ or others’ reviews before I scribble my own. In fact, when publicists or pals send me reviews or links to reviews of books that I’m considering (or not), I refuse to look at ‘em.

I’m not a snob, lord knows, but I just don’t want to be influenced by anyone’s opinion. Period. I’m an impressionable fellow, and I might be influenced or persuaded to pay attention to something in a book that I’d otherwise miss or ignore. That’s fine after the fact, and I’ve gone back to many a book upon seeing a subsequent review, sure, but for me, reading is a visceral AND intellectual activity, so I like to think AND feel in real time before I write my own review. (But that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.)

But I broke my own rule with this book. I skimmed (just skimmed) a few reviews by club members.

Why?

Since this online book club is really a new venture and participants were actually paying for the privilege, I wanted to make dead sure that my first selection was solid, as far as the club members are concerned. I’d had this book for many months and knew that it’s a really terrific tome but maybe it wasn’t the same for everyone.

But honestly, many (or most) of us are on the Net for a good portion of the day, every day, either on computers or mobile devices, and have thought about monetizing the experience. Right?

Now, I already have an affiliate thing with Amazon, for example, so if you click on any of the books listed here or on my other websites, you’re taken to each book’s page on Amazon.com and if you decide to make a purchase, I get a few cents; a pittance, really, but it can add up — although it really doesn’t, at least not for me. I think I got enough credits from transactions to buy a tin of Irish Oatmeal, but it’s not about the money. I wouldn’t mind it, but there isn’t very much of it. As an author friend told me when we discussed the unintentionally pro bono nature of his own websites, “We do it for love.”

Well, yeah, but if one also wanted to devote their online time and energy to more materially productive and acquisitive pursuits, I really can think of no better resource than this deep and wide volume by Marc Ostrofsky.

It’s a tackle-bag of tactics. Not a lot of strategy here, if at all. But that’s fine. He provides (and briefy explains) so many different websites, tool and options that most anyone with half a brain can mix and match, and come up with a good plan — or several options.

Nothing literary or poetic here: He makes no pretense of it being anything other than a well-organized and actionable compendium of resources for anyone interested in making money from the Net right now. And Ostrofsky’s upbeat can-do demeanor is apparent throughout.

Though the Internet is itself a moving target, Ostrofsky lists time-tested (in Internet time, anyway) tools, as well as new sites and tactics that mostly require minimal technical expertise.

He includes recommendations for setting up websites, finding domains, using — and monetizing — Twitter, Facebook and other social sites, selling, buying and more. Plus, each chapter includes one or more QR codes (that you scan with a smart phone) that refer to value-added content; giveaways, premiums, promotions, trials and other goodies and relevant websites.

Here's an example of a QR code:


You may not be ready to start making money online, or like most of us, are too busy earning a living to get rich (I wish) but Get Rich Click is a really terrific resource and a potentially great catalyst for thought and action.

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