A Force for Good - The Dali Lama's Vision for Our World by Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman's book, A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World, provides insight into the Dalai Lama's perspective on how to improve the world. He is in a somewhat frustrating position of advocating for people to accomplish good but because of his transient lifestyle able to do less good. 

I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a Mother's Day event at the University of Minnesota's Mariucci Arena.  The acoustics were poor but he was an engaging and lively speaker.  I was impressed at his quest for knowledge.  He pointed to research that animals show compassion for each other.  For him this proved that goodness was not the special province for humans or individuals in a specific religion. 

Daniel Goleman wrote the book pro bono with the proceeds going to charity.  At the Dalai Lama's speaking events he will also donate the proceeds after expenses to charity. 

Dalai Lama and Constructive Anger - Daniel Goleman - 3 min.

The Dalai Lama advocates channeling anger into action to modify behavior but not directed towards the individual.   

Cultivating Compassion in Children - 2 min. 

Children under the age of five are naturally compassionate and can be taught to be kind to others.

Time Power by Brian Tracy

The book, Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy provides a comprehensive capstone to his thoughts on managing time to improve your life and earning power.

According to Brian, successful people take a long view of life planning decades into the future.  These people view time as their most precious resource.  They do not waste it.

Time spent planning and prioritizing at the beginning of the day will improve productivity.  During an 8 hour work day studies have found that workers only work a total of less than 2 hours. The rest of the time is spent socializing, in transit, at lunch and other non work related activities.  He also provides hints on reducing distractions at work.  When a long winded talker invades your office, stand up to greet them and walk with them on your way to do something important.  An uncomfortable side chair is one of my favorites.  

Brian recommends listening to audiobooks and lectures during transit. I've used this to get through some very large books and Great Courses lectures.  The activity according to the Minnesota Safety council is only slightly more distracting than listening to a radio while driving.

Daily Habits of Successful people - 5 minutes

Foundations of Economic Prosperity by Daniel W. Drezner

 Foundations of Economic Prosperity by Daniel W. Drezner describes how to do well economically on both a personal and professional level.  According to the speaker the path to prosperity differs from the developing world and the developed world.  In the developed world it is education and entrepreneurship.   In the developing world one path is to earn money in another country and send it back.  

I found the book to be very informative.  It is helpful in predicting the likelihood of specific  organizational structures prone to corruption.  This information applies to schools, politics and countries.  Autocratic governments representing a minority group are more likely to go to war when domestic problems occur at home because they do not owe their power to the people but a much smaller group - examples: Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Assad's Syria.

Daniel Drezner -  Zombies as metaphor - TED talk -15 min.