Rated as "[One of] The Seven Essential Popular Business Books" by Today's Libarian magazine.
10 Strategies to help you heal the disconnect between the job and the life you want and the job and the life you have.
For a free chapter of Filling the Glass, visit www.barrymaher.com/filling_the_glass.htm.
Excerpt
"Don't Settle for half empty. Don't settle for half full. fill the glass."
"Be Your Own Guru"
"Change the Scale."
"He or she who has the most fun, wins!"
Professional Reviews
Filling the Glass, reviewed by Ian Bullock
Barry Maher doesn't agonize over whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, his stated mission with this book is to tell us how to fill the other half of the glass. He does this with wit and humor, and a spoken style that makes the reader feel right there listening to him and enjoying the laughter at his jokes. Not for him the messianic zeal of the human resource engineers; his preference is for the skeptical approach, a good hard look at the downside before figuring out how to get to where you want to be. And how to do it with integrity.
"The person I want to be, the person I want to hire, and the person who ultimately will be more successful and more valuable to his company, his family, his society, and himself is the one who takes a look at that glass and is concerned, not with whether it's half-empty or half-full, but with figuring out how to fill it up."
Barry Maher started out in sales, and became highly successful at that, then progressed with motivational selling, and consultancy to numerous leading corporations. This book is about more than sales because he rises above business as such and writes about common sense, wisdom, and ethics. He offers ten strategies for Filling the Glass, provides many supporting case studies, examples, brief tips, detailed tactics, with a few parables to get us started, and to quote:
1. Make peace with the negatives. Every situation has its negatives; make them work for you.
2. Fill the glass. Attitude is important, but reality rules.
3. Become your own guru. You're your own best guide. The most important decisions take place when Stephen Covey can't be with you.
4. Add water. Far too often we keep our strongest selling points hidden. Leave ways to promote your ideas, your projects and proposals, and ultimately, yourself.
5. Bring out the prospect in yourself. Look inside and outside for empathy and understanding.
6. Become an expert witness. Let the other side make its points - and make yours convincingly.
7. Fail toward success. Become a master craftsman, a master craftsman being someone who's already made every possible mistake.
8. Brag about the negatives. Make your biggest liabilities your strongest assets.
9. Change the scale to make the sale. Size may count, but it's not how big it is, it's how big it seems.
10. Never settle for success. Keep your goals from getting in your way; make your journey even more enjoyable than the destination.
Maher claims not to want to be confused with Stephen R. Covey. Nevertheless, one of the many things they both have in common is a belief in a restoration of the character ethic.
Maher is not strong on preaching or moralizing, and what he means by integrity is "…integrity in the sense of wholeness, oneness, relief from the dichotomy of what we believe we should be doing in our careers and our lives, and what we actually find ourselves doing." He generalizes that too many of us compromise our integrity "…believ(ing) our careers and our business lives should be one thing, while the untidy facts keep insisting that those careers and those lives are something else - usually something considerably less."
The author expresses a preference for becoming one's own guru rather than developing a dependence on the motivational kind whose influence often fails the test of time and reality. His advice: "Never let your positive thinking obstruct the reality in a haze of wishful thinking. Acknowledge the reality: perceive it as accurately as possible, so it can be dealt with effectively. Always realizing that - as the gurus keep telling us - we are responsible for our own attitudes and our own happiness."
On defining what one's real goals are, he has this to say: "Filling the glass is about reconciling the disconnects between what you're actually doing and what you believe you should be doing. (It) doesn't mean that you won't have to make sacrifices to get what you want. It simply means that you make certain you actually want whatever it is you're making those sacrifices to achieve." And: "…the key is to pursue the goals you really want to pursue. Not the goals you think you should have. Not the goals your boss or your parents … or even your (spouse) think you should have. Not the goals you have because you feel you have to keep up with the Joneses, or because somebody else might decide that you're not a success."
Never compare yourself to someone who's not even running in the same race.
Maher counsels that you should never settle for success. "Your ultimate goal and your short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals all become essentially the same: to simply see how well you can perform if you perform as well as you possibly can; to utilize every ounce of talent you can muster in every applicable situation, each day, each week, each month. And after each significant interaction, each day, each week, each month, you evaluate yourself to fine-tune your course."
You wouldn't settle for half-empty. Never settle for half-full. Fill the glass.
A healthy skepticism weaves its way throughout Filling the Glass. It's long on anecdote and down-to-earth common sense; refreshingly short on worksheets and checklists.
Ian Bullock
3/20/2001
The Seven Essential Popular Business Books
The Seven Essential Popular Business Books
by M.L. Jenson
Librarians Should Post This List as Required Reading for Business Patrons.
1. "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In," by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton.
This is the book that changed the face of negotiating, both business and personal negotiating. It's compendium of well-tested strategies for resolving any type of conflict. More important, it encourages a negotiating mindset that enables both sides to get what they need, if not everything they might want. Instead of negotiation as conflict (which, in spite of lip service to the contrary, is still the norm today), the negotiation process can actually become the foundation of a mutually beneficial ongoing relationship.
2. "The Art of War" by Tzu Sun.
On the other side of the coin, while business might not be war, the rich insights of this 2,000 year-old classic are relevant to any situation in which conflict might arise. That means any business situation, no matter how win/win we might try to be.
3. "The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.
"The One Minute Manager" is so simple it's brilliant, a basic text for anyone who manages other human beings, or anyone who simply manages themselves, or tries to. With the longer and longer hours of the global economy, the authors' take on balancing productivity against job (and life) satisfaction is more pertinent today than it was when the book was first conceived. This is a book to be read and re-read.
4. "Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business" by Barry Maher.
The fourth spot on the list was first occupied by "The Power of Positive Thinking," followed by several recent "feel-good" bestsellers. Try defending any of them to today's cynical managers and entrepreneurs. "Filling the Glass," however, trades "let's all think happy thoughts" for a hardheaded, reality-based inspiration. With practical, effective strategies for getting what you want in your career without sacrificing who you are, it's so much the best of the breed that it's in a class by itself.
5. "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Jack Trout and Al Ries.
Even business people who have nothing to do with marketing have something to do with marketing. Those who don't understand the laws of marketing, no matter what their position in the company, become an obstacle to those who do. "The 22 Immutable Laws" succinctly explains the rules of a game almost all of us are playing in one form or another.
6. "Guerrilla Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson.
From the smallest Mom and Pop operation to the high tech start-up to the largest Fortune 100 conglomerate, businesses of every size and description can benefit from Levinson's recently updated classic. For those of us not directly involved in marketing, "Guerrilla Marketing" is even more valuable for the inventive, entrepreneurial mindset it engenders than its specific strategies and tactics. That's why it's spawned a 30 book series, and enough blatant imitations to overburden the most affluent library.
7. "What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Nelson Bolles.
Even if you're never planning to look for another job, this is an essential addition to your library. Like a parachute, it's there for you when all else fails, or for when all else simply seems likely to fail. Whenever the thought of changing jobs crosses the mind (as it always does at one point or another), this parachute offers an invaluable reality check, providing the tools necessary to properly assess the situation. So you don't jump when the plane isn't really going down. But so, when you do have to jump, you're most likely to land safely back on solid ground.
From "Today's Librarian," Copyright, M.L. Jenson, all rights reserved.
Tools For Your
Online Business
Tips for Your
Business Start-up
Tips for Using Your
Business Computer
Tips for Using the Internet
& Internet Access
Tips for Promoting
Your Website
The Seven Essential Popular Business Books
by M.L. Jenson
Librarians Should Post This List as Required Reading for Business Patrons.
1. "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In," by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton.
This is the book that changed the face of negotiating, both business and personal negotiating. It's compendium of well-tested strategies for resolving any type of conflict. More important, it encourages a negotiating mindset that enables both sides to get what they need, if not everything they might want. Instead of negotiation as conflict (which, in spite of lip service to the contrary, is still the norm today), the negotiation process can actually become the foundation of a mutually beneficial ongoing relationship.
2. "The Art of War" by Tzu Sun.
On the other side of the coin, while business might not be war, the rich insights of this 2,000 year-old classic are relevant to any situation in which conflict might arise. That means any business situation, no matter how win/win we might try to be.
3. "The One Minute Manager" by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.
"The One Minute Manager" is so simple it's brilliant, a basic text for anyone who manages other human beings, or anyone who simply manages themselves, or tries to. With the longer and longer hours of the global economy, the authors' take on balancing productivity against job (and life) satisfaction is more pertinent today than it was when the book was first conceived. This is a book to be read and re-read.
4. "Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business" by Barry Maher.
The fourth spot on the list was first occupied by "The Power of Positive Thinking," followed by several recent "feel-good" bestsellers. Try defending any of them to today's cynical managers and entrepreneurs. "Filling the Glass," however, trades "let's all think happy thoughts" for a hardheaded, reality-based inspiration. With practical, effective strategies for getting what you want in your career without sacrificing who you are, it's so much the best of the breed that it's in a class by itself.
5. "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Jack Trout and Al Ries.
Even business people who have nothing to do with marketing have something to do with marketing. Those who don't understand the laws of marketing, no matter what their position in the company, become an obstacle to those who do. "The 22 Immutable Laws" succinctly explains the rules of a game almost all of us are playing in one form or another.
6. "Guerrilla Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson.
From the smallest Mom and Pop operation to the high tech start-up to the largest Fortune 100 conglomerate, businesses of every size and description can benefit from Levinson's recently updated classic. For those of us not directly involved in marketing, "Guerrilla Marketing" is even more valuable for the inventive, entrepreneurial mindset it engenders than its specific strategies and tactics. That's why it's spawned a 30 book series, and enough blatant imitations to overburden the most affluent library.
7. "What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard Nelson Bolles.
Even if you're never planning to look for another job, this is an essential addition to your library. Like a parachute, it's there for you when all else fails, or for when all else simply seems likely to fail. Whenever the thought of changing jobs crosses the mind (as it always does at one point or another), this parachute offers an invaluable reality check, providing the tools necessary to properly assess the situation. So you don't jump when the plane isn't really going down. But so, when you do have to jump, you're most likely to land safely back on solid ground.
From "Today's Librarian," Copyright, M.L. Jenson, all rights reserved.
Learn to profit from the Natural Cycles of the stock market.
An illustrated introduction to the relationship between planetary orbits in the solar system and periodic cycles in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Practical application
