胡雪岩传：红顶商人沉浮记

胡雪岩的书籍我读了不少。但，据说，这一本挺靠谱。书的开端也证实了这一点：所谓父亲让胡雪岩继承家业的事情，完全就是一个杜撰，就是为了给胡雪岩塑造一个“金身”，而编造的一个荒唐传说。。。而且，这么小本（仅有大约一百页）的书籍，怎么能难倒我呢？读一读，无妨！

结果。。。麻雀虽小，但还真的是五脏俱全。这本“小书”很巧妙的利用仅有的白多页清清楚楚的交代了胡雪岩的起伏人生。阅读这本书只花了我一个下午茶时间。但，很好的让我重温和再次提醒自己从商不从政，从政不从商的原理。如果读者对于胡雪岩事迹很熟悉，这本小书的确起到了“重温”的作用。

10分满分，我给予10分。这本书我读的轻松。这本书我读的津津有味。浪费一个下午茶时间来提醒和反省自己。。。值！！！

The Study Guide for the New Trading for a Living

To be honest, "The New Trading For A Living" is not really my cup of tea. I flip through and found that I just cannot live with those charting stuff. However, I know there are certain parts that could help me. As such, I decide to jump straight to this study guide in order to save some time for other books.

End up... this so called "study guide" is still not my cup of tea. I tried hard to answer all the questions. However, the questions either too "theoretical" or too predictive to me. Maybe it helps some trader. But, surely not the trader of my type. As such... for a full rating of 10, I am going to rate it at 0/10... 

The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth

I hardly touch this sort of books. But, a friend of mine recommended this as he said it was better than "The Narrow Road" and "How to get Rich"... wow... must read then...

Ironically, this book is so much better compares to "Trade Like a Hedge Fund". If I rated "Trade Like a Hedge Fund" at zero, this book deserved 8/10. In another words, the author is actually good at writing books. (A speculate author with random results? Hmm...) However, his idea on hedge fund stuff simply reflects his own weaknesses. After all, he admitted that he somehow failed in his hedge fund stuff, be it the operations of hedge fund or his book on hedge fund...

Ok, back to this book... This book inspired me in many ways. The quotes listed below are very much aligning with my thinking:

Engage with nobody who is bad to you. When you get in the mud with a pig, the pigs get happy and you get dirty.

Complaining is draining. When you are anxious, nervous or scared, try to stop yourself and do two things:
1. Repeat to yourself, "I notice I am felling anxious." This distances you from the feeling.
2. Think of at least one new thing you are grateful for.

Increase in salary only offers marginal to zero increase in "happiness" above a certain level. This is because of a basic fact: people spent what they make. So, back you go to the corporate casino for one more try at the salary roulette wheel. I have never once seen anyone save the increase they received in their salary.

When your idea muscle is developed along with the other legs of the Daily Practice - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - you'll have a better idea when you should shut things down. 

Everybody is a poor predictor of outcomes - from the weatherman, to the stock analyst. But, we can all be good at preparation.

Nobody is going to buy from someone they hate. The buyer has to like you and want to be your friend. People pay for friendship.

The best way to make friends and customers for life is to direct them to a better service or product than yours. Be the source of valuable information rather than the source of your "product of the day".

A bad customer spreads like a disease inside you, your employees, your other customers, your competitors, your future customers, your family, etc.

It seems natural to say "yup" or "right" or "uh-huh" or whatever. But, here are the facts based on studies: people perceive you as stupid when you do this. Just keep quiet when someone is talking.

Everyone around you needs to ultimately become better than you. That's how you lead. The light is in front of you and you take them to the light and then go back.

We do things to hide the pain. Soon, everything in our lives we might think give us pleasure (because we are now avoiding all the pain) is actually just a buffer against pain and change. When you get rid of the buffers against pain and change, life becomes more insecure, but you become free.

Buddha himself realized this about public speaking. He said, "Don't believe me on anything. Try this out for yourself." Hence, always be vulnerable in public speaking. Nobody wants to hear from Invulnerable Man or Ms. Perfect. They want to hear where you are scared and vulnerable and feeling insecure, because we all are. 

If you can't walk away from a negotiation, then you aren't negotiating. You are just working out the terms of your slavery.

A way to replenish energy is to live a gentle live. As gently as possible, so your energy grows and is used where it is needed. 

Connecting people who can benefit each other is the most useful skill you can have on the entrepreneurial ladder of skills. 

You can't get good at something if you are working twenty hours a day. If you just do one thing, the benefits quickly decline and you also ignore the pleasure of becoming well-rounded.

I've asked many others what were they thinking at the rock bottom and the answer almost always was something like "what else could I do with my life? I had to keep going!"

Find your niche, then find a small or a nonexistent market where you can enter and dominate 80% of the market, as if you were a monopoly.

Find a business that satisfies the three D's: Death, Divorce, Debt.

Most people don't realize that owning a home has all the attributes of the worst investment possible: it's highly illiquid, there's a high leverage, it includes most of your net worth, and it provides you with an average of only 0.2 % over the past year. And this doesn't count all your maintenance cost. I rather rent, and invest the extra money in myself and my own ideas. 

So many legitimate funds that might have been better places for investor money... couldn't survive because the illegitimate funds crowded them out of the space. 

A path to unhappiness is thinking the future can be predicted and controlled.

Perhaps, the only chapter that really turned me off was "How to get an MBA from Eminem". This chapter again shows that the author is a good writer where his creativity excels in a way. However, I read this chapter as sort of bullshitting (LOL). By listening to a song, you can get a MBA? Come on... Apart from that, this book is a nice book to explore. I spent quite a lot of time reading this book. My conclusion is... well worth the time and money spent!!!