Think And Grow Rich

Probably the most well-known book about creating wealth also happens to be one of the best, if not the best. Think and Grow Rich was written by Napolean Hill in 1960 at the behest of Andrew Carnegie.Carnegie, who amassed his fortune in steel, is one of the richest people to have ever lived; the book contains his secret for creating wealth. Think and Grow Rich is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is now in its twentieth printing.Among the people who used Carnegie's secret in their own endeavors are Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilbur Wright, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, and Alexander Graham Bell.According to Carnegie, there are six steps by which a desire for wealth (or any change for that matter) can be transmuted into actual wealth:
Decide the exact amount of money you want. Be definite and state a specific amount.
Decide what you intend to give for that money. You cannot get something for nothing.
State a definite date by which you are committed to having the money.
Create a specific plan for carrying out your desire and immediately put this plan into action.
Write out a clear, concise statement of this plan. For example, "I will have $100,000 by January 1 of next year, and I intend to give _____ through my plan of action to get it."
Read your statement aloud, twice a day. Once upon waking up and once right before bed. As you read, see and feel yourself in possession of the money.

If you think these six steps could be used to create any change in your life, you are correct.What is interesting about Napolean Hill/Andrew Carnegie's recipe is that it requires action on your part. This aspect is important to realize. Changing your beliefs is only one part of the plan.The confluence of positive beliefs and new actions creates different results. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.What you are doing with all of these exercises is messing with your own head. To the extent you have limited or negative beliefs about money, the more you begin to introduce some new ideas into your brain, the more you will begin to believe in, and thereby create, a more affluent life. dr seuss cat in hat quotes

Great Humor Book - The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat

SUMMARY: The secret lives and loves of cats are revealed in this adventure novel, entitled "The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat" that peeks into a year in the life of the mischievous feline Adrian Cat. Adrian is having trouble keeping his new year's resolutions (especially "I will not be condescending to my humans"), and he's also adjusting to the fact that his humans have a new baby, his best friend needs constant help, and he's in love for the first time--with the angelic-seeming Snowball. But Snowball turns out to be less than perfect and tries to lead Adrian into organized crime. She forces him to join the evil cat Killer's gang. After numerous misadventures he realizes that he does not love the beautiful but power-crazed Snowball and really loves the scruffy yet tender alley cat named Gypsy. After Killer's gang runs Gypsy out of town, Adrian is forced to make some strange friends, fight the evil Killer and travel a rough road in order to convince Gypsy of his love.PRESS RELEASE BODY: The DNA Press team is happy to announce the publication of "The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat", by Stuart and Linda Macfarlane of Scotland.
"The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat" relates one year in the life of the extraordinary cat Adrian. At the start of the year Adrian makes his New Year Resolutions but soon finds that they are not easy to keep - especially the more testing ones like 'I will not be condescending to my humans' and 'I will not maul the vet'.The Adrian Cat book is modeled on "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole - Aged 13 ½", the book that made its author Sue Townsend the best-selling novelist of the 1980s. "I have always been a great fan of Sue Townsend and have read many of her books," said Stuart Macfarlane. 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole' provided the inspiration to write our book in a diary format. I loved the idea of a cat keeping a secret diary of all his adventures, worries and aspirations. 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Cat' started out as a working title for the book but Adrian took on such a powerful character that when the book was complete we could not bear to change his name. We spent hours trying other names, but none were right - Adrian was Adrian and refused to be called anything else."Added Linda Macfarlane, "The book is about all the things Adrian could be getting up to; trying to become famous, looking for the love of his life, promoting peace between dogs, cats and mice, getting involved with an evil gang, saving the life of a fox, treasure hunting with a pirate parrot and, of course, looking after his human family."When Adrian spots a beautiful white Persian walking through his garden he immediately falls head over paws in love. Her name is Snowball and though she appears angelic she turns out to be a power-crazed feline who will do anything to get what she wants.In an attempt to win Snowball's heart, Adrian is forced to become a member of the Cosa Nostra gang - run by the evil cat, Killer. As a member of the gang he becomes involved in many mischievous activities such as housebreaking and raiding the fish shop. As Adrian becomes more influential Snowball unexpectedly announces that they are soon to marry.When Adrian finds an injured fox Snowball refuses to help saying, 'The only good fox is a dead fox. When it dies, bring me its tail - I need a new cushion'. By good fortune a cat 'of no fixed abode', Gypsy, offers to help and through her knowledge of herbal medicines and tender care the fox is saved.Being jealous of the amount of time Adrian is spending with Gypsy, Snowball gets Killer to run her out of town. It is only then that Adrian realizes that it is not the beautiful Snowball but the rather scruffy Gypsy that he loves. After days of searching he finds Gypsy and eventually persuades her to marry him.Of course much more than this is happening in Adrian's complex life, for he has a human family to support and a best friend, Lucky, who constantly needs help and advice. This ensures that there is not a day without crises, adventure, and of course lots of food to eat and as much sleep as Adrian can cram in. But the appearance of a noisy new human kitten in Adrian's family makes it difficult for him to sleep and when an outbreak of 'Nappy-Rash' makes the noise unbearable, Adrian has no choice but to move in with an elderly human, Old-Grey-Fur. However, he discovers that she sleeps even more than he does and he soon moves back with his humans. On a day to day basis Adrian has the training of his young humans, Brat and Brat-2, to attend to in addition to fighting for a spot on his favorite chair, and of course attempting to fulfill his resolutions to, 'become the world's most famous cat', and to 'promote world peace between cats, dogs and mice'.Summing up the year Adrian exclaims, 'I've fallen in love for the first time and fallen out of love for the first time. I've married the best girl in the world. I've added a new human to my family. I've made friends with a robin, a fox and a pirate parrot. I've been the enemy of an evil gang leader, best friends with him and then his enemy again. My one regret is that there just hasn't been enough time for sleeping.' dr seuss cat in hat history

Pop! Stand Out In Any Crowd

In her latest book, Sam Horn's describes some great creative business marketing wordplay techniques for getting your product or service to be noticed and stand out from the crowd Her book is focused on creating a less than 60 second "opening" that will start a dialogue with prospective customers. The dialogue is where you interview the other person to find out more about them, so you can help them solve their problem. If you're only telling someone what you do (monologuing), there's a good chance that your general solution won't fit their needs. Furthermore, you want to create a memorable impression, something that will stick in their minds long after your initial conversation. By being creative and interesting, you have a good chance to achieve your goals."Pop" stands for purposeful, original, and pithy. The wordplay is based around filling out the following "W9 questionnaire":W1. What am I offering?W2. What problem does my idea or offering solve?W3. Why is it worth trying and buying?W4. Who is my target audience?W5. Who am I and what are my credentials?W6. Who are my competitors and how am I different from them?W7. What resistance or objections will people have to this?W8. What is the purpose of my pitch?W9. When, where, and how do I want people to take action?The (core) words that you choose to answer these questions are used to help you create a message that is uniquely yours. She gives over twenty different techniques (including rearranging cliches, inventing new words, rhyming, etc.). dr seuss cat in hat book

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - A Spectacular Conclusion

After long waiting, J.K Rowling the renowned English storyteller finally unveiled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and the last book of the phenomenal series, Harry Potter. The breathtaking conclusion to J.K. Rowling's series has lot more excitement for the readers. With great revelations, battles, and betrayals the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will leave spellbound almost every fan.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is more about coming in to the terms with the ultimate reality-- death, which every person has to face one day. Despite many rumours and interpretations, Rowling's seventh book has been widely acclaimed by the readers, because she is quite successful creating suspense by narrating increasingly dark and dangerous tales of magic and adventure, mingled with lessons of honour and contempt. It is another odyssey highlighting spellbinding tales of love and loss, and right and wrong.The world of Harry Potter, as depicted by the author coexists between the mundane and marvellous, and so is the mortal world. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is more about Harry's mission of life, i.e., not only about finding and destroying the Horcruxes, but it is his journey from boyhood to manhood. Here the protagonist Harry faces more danger than those depicted in the previous books. Harry is haunted by direct threat of the Death Eaters and is in constant dilemma of losing faith in himself. Rowling applies the same notion of Dumbledore's warning about making choices between what is right and what is easy to conclude the story.No doubt, the Potter fans will get the answers of most of the mysterious queries, specially the debated questions about Dumbledore and Snape. However, the 7th book of the Harry Potter series is an embodiment of J.K Rowling's extraordinary imaginary power.Rowling's inclination towards the Christian concept of resurrection and accepting of self decay and disintegration is evident here from the way she crafts the conclusion of the series. As Rowling concludes, she glorifies parental bond--its power of conferring sacred protection to the children. She gives a spectacular conclusion to the series by gifting her favourite character with precious boon of parental love, including immortality.Despite pre-release and internet leakage of the book before its official publication, reader's enthusiasm is not marred, which is clear from its record sales of 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours in the USA alone. dr seuss book collection

Westerfeld - The Last Days - Vampire Novel Review

Westerfeld, Scott. The Last Days. Razorbill, 2006 (Sept. 9)This book is aimed at the young adult crowd but can be enjoined by everyone.Strange things are happening in New York City. Stranger than usual, that is. In fact it is down right scary in a paranormal kind of way. Black liquid spurts out of fire hydrants; rats, more numerous than ever, are roving the streets; and people suddenly go crazy, like the woman who throws all of her belongings out her sixth floor apartment window all the while screaming about who knows what. One about-to-be-discarded object catches the attention of two teen onlookers. The crazy lady waves a mid-seventies Fender Stratocaster with gold pickups and whammy bar. Pearl and Moz, strangers until this moment, work together to catch this valuable guitar before it crashes to the pavement. A quick glance above and both glimpse human figures moving swiftly towards the crazy woman's window. Neither comments aloud on this phenomenon. Instead they excitedly talk about their passion for music and the possibility of forming a band.Pearl is a super smart multi-talented gal who thinks Moz is really cute. She and Moz and his friend Zahler meet for practice sessions, and quickly realize they need a drummer and a singer to make their band complete. Street wise Alana Ray agrees to play percussion. She has the ability to see music with color and movement and is especially sensitive to these visions when Pearl brings in her friend Minerva to sing. A few months earlier Minerva suffered a mysterious breakdown. She now stays most of the time in her room, fights to contain the beast she feels inside her, and writes pages full of weird symbols that only she understands. At the first rehearsal, when all five gather to play, Minerva singing blends with the music and evokes wonder and fear.As the story progresses the musical talent of these teens and the vampire powers of Minerva become paramount in fighting monsters that live far below ground and only surface every seven hundred years. The Last Days is a sequel to Peeps, (Razorbill, 2006) where the story of the vampires aka Peeps begins. Westerfeld's powers of description brings characters to life and immerses the reader into the world his vivid imagination has created.Sequel to Peeps. Razorbill, 2005 seuss book collection sets cat hat

A Treatise on Science Fiction, Fantasy Authors and Story

An older novel, and a favorite, Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon, published by Donald I. Fine, Inc., estate copyright, 1986, with a forward by Robert Heinlein, and afterword by Stephen R. Donaldson, explores the human reaction to a Christ-like figure, Godbody. The premise of this story is unconditional love and how, when faced with it, individuals respond. This entity, this being, is seen through the eyes of eight people from a small town, all chapters written in first person singular, except for the last, which is written from the omniscient viewpoint.Sturgeon not only breaks all the rules; he transcends them by combining several points of view, and finally, is omniscient in the final chapter. In a way, each chapter is a small vignette which ultimately makes up the entire book. The setting of the story is a timeless small town in America. To me, all the characters are vivid, rich, real,and have their own unique voices. Each chapter, each vignette, examines that particular chapter's character and their response to this being of unconditional love. Each character has to search deep within themselves or not (depending on the character) and come up with how they feel about Godbody, who like Christ, broke all the social rules of his day.What is so remarkable about Theodore Sturgeon is his unfailing ability to tell a damn good story, simply. Writing, to me, is nothing without the story. Moreover, the story, to be good, must come full circle. Why? I can't tell you other than I know it. It's like an Indian thing. A circle represents completion. A good story represents a circle in an odd sort-of-way. It's complete, it's full and you leave it like the after-dinner table at Thanksgiving, stuffed and ready to take a nap.I believe story is one of our greatest teachers and where else can you stand atop a soapbox and spout your views, even if they are opposing? If you do it well enough, you might even get paid. I think the Preacher in me is alive and well, and demanding his time, so therefore I must take to the pages and preach my views among parables, stories, poems and songs.And it's not necessarily in what is said, verbatim, on the page, where the story is told. The story is told through the conflict between characters, among themselves or with ideas, emotions or situations they're struggling with. I think the best stories, like Sturgeon's, Heinlein's or McCaffrey's are easily read. They're easy on the eye and the mind's ear. I, for one, do not like to struggle to read. Though I am a good reader, I don't want to have to read the same sentence over and over again because the writer was trying to be too fancy, or too eloquent, or too damn arrogant. Big words are nice, but they don't impress me.While working at the newspaper, I learned the difference of writing styles and what "age group" to write to. It is my understanding that Reader's Digest is written to the 6-8th grade reading level, while an insurance document (boring as hell) is written at the 13th grade level. I strive; though don't always make it, to simplify my writing. I find myself modeling after some of the world's successful writers: S. King, R. Ludlum, and Anne McCaffrey. (I love Vonda McIntyre as well).I find that Sturgeon has honed his craft like a blademaster wields his sword: artistically swift and to the point. I like Sturgeon because he tackled worn-out topics from a viewpoint and story that went against the norm, especially for his day and time.Among the first of the first science fiction writers in America, Sturgeon, was not, in my opinion, (I could be wrong) as well-known as some of the others: L. Ron Hubbard, (who by-the-way, won his bet with his science fiction friends on being able to start a religion) Sprague de Camp, and Heinlein. These men, among others, used to hang out together and meet on Saturday's night. You might call this group one of the first SF Writer's Group.I know it's sacrilegious, but I'm not impressed at all by Asimov, though that could change. I started Foundation Trilogy more than 25 years ago and was thoroughly bored and haven't tried since. David Brin is better than Asimov. I also find Larry Niven a great storyteller. Andre Norton is also excellent. When I read the Witch World series, I was enthralled. Frank Herbert, a former journalist, created a world rich with double meaning in his Dune series but he has written other good books as well. I am not hung up on techno-crap stories because it is not gadgets, in my opinion, that bring people to a good story. A good story will cross all genres and work into the mainstream, whatever its venue. When I find an artist that I like, I gobble them up completely. I've read so many books, I sometimes find myself remembering stories and not the author.I read most anything, but my primary realm of mischief is SF, then Fantasy. I think, however, one of my favorite books of all time (there are more than one) has to be Stephen King's The Stand. As any mainlining reader knows, a good fat book is hard to find. I am also reading Terry Goodkind's, Wizard series and Robert Jordan's Eye of the World series, but find myself bogged down in Jordan's ninth or tenth book. Too much of a good thing can be, simply put, too much. I need to go on a Jordanian diet for the moment.Now it's late and I find myself wandering far afield from my chosen task at hand, though I do think, I've given you an idea about myself, my writing ability (or lack thereof) and the understandings I do and do not have on the subject. So for now, I'll sign off. dr seuss cat in hat quotes

The Edge of Disaster and Modern Health Care

Stephen Flynn's recent book The Edge of Disaster, featured on national public radio this week, describes a number of large scale vulnerabilities across the United States. His thoughts on pandemic flu, while certainly concerning, pale in comparison to the real numbers.Mr. Flynn describes 80 million infected with as many as 800,000 dying of the disease. However, a review of Avian flu pandemic over the last 300 years shows that one-third of the U.S. population or 100 million people will be infected. If this is not enough one half of these individuals or 50 million will require some level of hospitalization or institutional care from bone health all the way up to intensive care unit services. As Mr. Flynn correctly pointed out there are fewer than 970,000 hospital beds in the United States far less than the 50 million that will be required.Of greater concern is the fact that half of those requiring hospitalization will develop a life threatening lung condition know as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Twenty-five million people requiring advanced lung care will quickly overwhelm not only the capacity of our hospitals but of our respiratory therapists and our nurses. Of those with ARDS half will require ventilator support, unfortunately there are only 105,000 ventilators in the United States and only 16,800 are available at any given moment to treat these 12.5 million ARDS patients. Of those that require ventilators, approximately 6.25 people. This last number is eight times that predicted by Mr. Flynn and has been substantiated in multiple scientific reviews of the major pandemic of the past 300 years.Mr. Flynn also spends a significant amount of time discussing surge capacity and when asked by his NPR host about the economics of increasing surge capacity beyond the pitiful 12 percent currently available nationwide Mr. Flynn simply said it was an investment in the future, an "insurance policy." Those knowledgeable in healthcare surge capacity and healthcare vulnerability analysis differ with Mr. Flynn's otherwise star analysis of the other vulnerabilities of the United States.Immersion Simulation based disaster training for hospitals and healthcare facilities results in a new protocol in the minds of those who are trained. They learn to deal with triage on a moment to moment basis with every patient whether there is an ongoing disaster or not. Those hospitals that adopt this model quickly learn that they can activate their emergency plan even when their hospital is only suffering from the daily surge of patients. Hospitals in New York, Boston and Philadelphia have done this with increasing frequency when emergency room await times have been only two times the norm. As a result the hospital activates its emergency operation center, calls in additional staff and increases the number of patient care areas in the hospital by re-tasking administrative and non-patient care areas to the treatment of non critical individuals. These "green" treatment areas decrease the backlog in the emergency room lobby with surprising results.* Fewer people leave the hospital without medical care because the wait has been reduced.* There is an increase in hospital admissions because greater diagnoses are made by less stressed doctors, nurses.* There is a net increase in hospital revenue despite the cost for staff and re-tasking facility.* Patient satisfaction is improved with patient satisfaction scores on survey rising.* The hospital saves money because a surge capacity emergency plan activation counts as one of the yearly required disaster drills.In addition to Mr. Flynn's "insurance policy" approach to surge capacity there is a real world economic advantage for hospitals and healthcare facilities to participate in large scale disaster planning and preparation. Every hospital in the United States has now accepted money from the federal government under HRSA grants or through various government based insurance payment programs. As a result these facilities are now required to be compliant with the 17 elements of the National Incident Management System implementation plan for hospitals and healthcare facilities. In addition, they are required to maintain a surge capacity equal to 20 percent of licensed hospital beds or 500 bed per million population in the geographic license area of the hospital or whichever is greater, less these facilities be guilty of fraud.The stakes are high for healthcare not only because of the duty and responsibility they take on as part of their role in society but now as a result of the financial assistance they have accepted for the past five years as they were supposed to be preparing for all hazards and all disasters.Mr. Flynn's book and the features on national public radio this week have brought the spotlight to bear on the vulnerabilities in America, the question is will we respond now or lament the next catastrophe? dr seuss cat in hat history