The following is from my friend David Lebow, of AOL. He’s a Radical Leap fan, and has been known to scarf up quite a few copies at quite a few bookstores to give to quite a few of his friends and colleagues. He recently wrote to tell me that he was frustrated at not finding the book (bless his heart) at an airport bookstore. He ultimately vented his spleen by writing his observations of the store’s business section, musing especially on the preponderance of Business Books With Numbers in the Title.
David’s commentary:
250 Sales Questions Hell of a long sales call.
#1 Sales Teams They must know the answers to the 250 questions. Does the whole team know all 250 questions? Or does Murphy know 1-25 Johnson knows 26-50 etc.?
50 Success Classics Ok. Is Caddyshack a classic? Technically?
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership 21? I will never remember them. What ever happened to lists of 7? But..I LOVE the word irrefutable and will use it 21 times this week.
301 Smart Answers How can there be 301 answers to 250 questions?
1001 Ways to Reward Employees I see cash, stock, bonus, car, vacation, bigger office, more responsibility, recognition, parking spot, more accounts, better view, shorter meetings, better meetings, better hours, more shares..but then I drift and imagine #950: New Toothbrush!
The 10 Day MBA: A Step by Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught in America’s Business Schools Wait till my father finds out he only had to pay for 10 days. Then I think about John Belushi: 6 years of college, down the drain.
The Seven Minute Difference Wasn’t this previously released as the 8 minute abs?
10 Clowns Don’t Make a Circus True.
10 Ways to Screw Up an Ad Campaign And I would read this…why?
Three Deep Breaths Okay.
Steve,
Gotta tell you, I love your books. My team and I read them together, discussed and try to live a little closer to the edge every day.
We also used book #1 as a holiday gift for clients. Guess what this year’s will be.
On the topic of numbers in business book titles, I’d like to add mine to the discussion. 99.3 Random Acts of Marketing. (I’ll send you a copy so you can see why the .3) My goal was pretty simple — be arresting on the bookshelf. Do something traditional in a non-traditional way. It generates conversation…and hopefully some book sales.
It’s a pleasure to cyber-meet you. I look forward to doing it in person some day. Our mutual friend, Mike Sansone, says we’d have a blast!
Keep spreading the good word!
Drew
Well done son, securing that new contact with Mr Bigg shows real promise. Here have a toothbrush.
I did enjoy that one.
I actually make a point of never buying books with numbers in the title. Christians print even more BS than business people and I grew up in a church big on writting books.
That said 99.3 acts of whatever… I’d have to give that a second look at the very least.
I love this post. David has pointed out something very obvious that is righ in front of our faces. I won’t be able to read a book anymore where they go into “9 steps to success”, etc, without thinking of this post.
Do you think anyone takes a manuscript to a publisher with only 2 methods and are told that it’s not enough. “5 Great Answers to tough True of False Questions”.