John Gallagher

Recently I completed Put Your Dream To The Test by John C Maxwell.  As usual with John Maxwell’s books, I was not disappointed.  The sub-title to the book was “Ten Questions That will help you See it and Seize It.”  One of the things I appreciate with the author’s books is that they are not necessarily chronological, but you can pick up and begin at nearly any chapter in the book.  This was valuable to me as it took me nearly 3 months of picking up and putting down to complete.  Not because of the book, but because of lots of ‘stuff’ happening in the life of John Gallagher over the past three months (several blog posts coming soon about the learnings here!)

In any event, I found the book to be filled with several development nuggets and timely quotes from other leaders that he ‘borrows’ to emphasize his points.

There were some specific questions for me that I went back to review a couple times:

1) Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?  While I have a Life Plan to outline the dream, my action on the strategy has been sputtering.  I need to remove some non-essentials (I identified 7 of them in writing.  I know there are more!) that keep me from reaching my dream.

2) Am I willing to pay the price for my dream? One of the prices to pay in achieving the dream is dealing with criticism.  This is not a strength of mine.  Just ask my wife, Chris!

3) Am I moving closer to my dream?  This question focused on believe in self.  Another area where I can grow.

So, I am sure that of the ten questions in this book, you can find 1,2, or 3 to trigger some thought in your mind and more importantly, action by you, to help you achieve your dream.

This book, like most of Maxwell’s books, was 225 pages.  I had 11 dog ears.  My new rating system will be on a ’20:1′ ratio of ‘total pages:dogears’.  My expectation for a good book would be a 20.  Anything from a 15-20 is a good book and worth the investment.  Above 20 – Go get it now!.  This book’s score is: 20.5.  Go get it…read it…take action from it…

So, what is keeping you from achieving your dream?

I just finished reading who’s got your back by Keith Ferrazzi.

I had also read Keith’s book, Never Eat Alone, a few years back and was drawn to this book on the bookstore shelf with it’s bright blue jacket, but even more when I saw the sub-title “The Secret to Finding the 3 People Who Will Change Your Life.”

As I jumped in, I was not disappointed.  Ultimately, the book revolves around the four core mind-sets that form the behavioral foundation for creating lifeline relationships (p. 41):
1) Generosity
2) Vulnerability
3) Candor
4) Accountability

I found many different points within the book to be effective.  At the start, he mentions that the people you are relating with now are likely not the ones who you will be relating with as you grow and mature.   Amusingly, his therapist referred to getting into the habit of “plucking the weeds and tending the flowers.”  Weeds are individuals who bring you down and flowers are the relationships you have that bring brightness, ideas, support and meaning to your life.  It is hard to weed out at times in my personal life.  Comes with my personality profile in that I want to believe and trust everyone and don’t want to tell anyone ‘No’.

I probably could have stopped reading this book about 60 pages before the end.  I thought that it got a little long and went from individual relationship building throughout the first 200+ pages to the team relationship building tips.  My personal opinion is that a non-fiction book that goes much past 220 pages or so gets too long.  Oddly enough, on the same day I finished this book, I read a post from Michael Hyatt about “How to Read a Non-Fiction Book”. His first tip was “Don’t feel that you need to finish.” I thought this was a few days late for me!

In any event, there were MANY good points/takeaways as I mentioned above.  I had 7 ‘dogears’  and many highlights throughout the book that I reviewed.  Thus, I would suggest this book for your reading pleasure.  Because I lost interest in  the last 60 pages or so, I would give this book a 6 out of 10 on the dogear scale.

So, how are you cultivating those life-long relationships in your life.  In those relationships, are you being generour, vulnerable, candid in providing feedback and holding yourself and those relationships accountable for their actions?

I just finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin.  To say that this was a difficult book for me to read would be an understatement.  As I got to the final pages, I found myself thinking about how I would review the book and the author knew exactly what he was doing(as I had presumed).  In the final 2 pages, there was a section titled “What, Exactly, Should You Do Now?” It followed with: “You made it to the end.  And it’s possible you missed the checklists, the detailed how-to lists, and the For Dummies style instruction manual that shows you exactly what to do to find a tribe and lead it.  I think that was the point.”

Well, I kept saying to myself the last several pages that this book was not organized into logical chapters AND, I think that is exactly what the author intended.  He confirmed if for me.  At least it was confirmed that I was NOT losing my mind!!!

The Tribe in the title is that group needing to be led.  It may be a Tribe that is already created, but they need a leader. 

There were takeaways for me that I highlighted and/or dogeared:

• He talked about heretics as those wanting to make a difference and challenging the status quo.  I might refer to them as ‘pot-stirrers’, but stirring the pot with the intent to improve and solve a problem, not just stir the pot.  The example he used was “If faith is the foundation of a belief system, then religion is the facade and the landscaping.”  Just because you challenge ‘religions’, doesn’t mean you lose ‘faith’
• He talked about technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging as ENABLERS, and not as a cure.
• He did throw in one “How to” about 2/3 of the way through the book by identifying the key elements in starting your movement:
• Publish a ‘manifesto’ (motto, mantra, story)
• Make it easy for your followers (Tribe) to connect with you
• Make it easy for the Tribe to connect with one another
• Realize that money is not the point of a movement
• Track your progress

My favorite quote of the book was early on how he differentiates between managers and leaders