Book Review: How To Win At The Sport Of Business By Mark Cuban

Meetingmax’s March book of the month was How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban.

Keeping in line with our core value of Doing More with Less Meetingmax selected this book as Grasshopper was offering a complimentary copy to their best customers.

This book is a collection of blog posts about Cuban’s life, outlining his failures and success in both his personal and business life. As Cuban states “If I can do it, you can do it”; he offers a realistic outlook on how to succeed in the business world through perseverance and dedication.

The following are a few key takeaways the Meetingmax staff got from the book:

• You only need one win to succeed. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, it will only bring you closer to your win.

• Read as much as you can. Cuban reads a minimum of three hours per day. Everything you read can give you ideas for your business so it is worth the time investment.

• Just because you win the battle doesn’t mean you have won the war, the sport of business is 24/7/365- we are always playing.

Overall Meetingmax gave this book a rating of 8.4/10 on a scale where 1 equals a book with little value one would not wish to read again, and 10 equals a fantastic book with the ability to grow an individual personally, professionally or both.

Although it was a fantastic read, one limitation was that the book was only available through a Kindle or PDF download.

If you are interested in buying this book you can do so here.

Book Review: Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

Meetingmax’s February book of the month was Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar.

Ben-Shahar teaches that the key to being ‘Happier’ is to find activities that provide us both present and future happiness; ultimately to live for today and for tomorrow. He teaches us to incorporate pleasure (present benefit) and meaning (future benefit) into ones life.

Below are a few of the different issues covered in the book:

Happiness is the ultimate currency. Most people mistake money as the ultimate currency when in fact we seek money so we may buy items or experiences which we believe will bring us happiness.

There are four basic archetypes of happiness:

1. Rat Racer: The rat racer is constantly chasing happiness. They believe that sacrificing their own happiness in the present will result in future happiness.
2. Hedonist: The hedonist lives for present happiness without care for future gain.
3. Nihilist: The nihilist has given up on happiness. They don’t believe they can find it in the present or the future.
4. Happiness: Happiness requires that one live both for today and tomorrow, present and future benefit.

Happiness and pleasure are not the same thing. Pleasure is the experience of present gain; meaning comes from having a sense of purpose from the future benefit of our actions. Experiencing pleasure will not bring you happiness. You need to derive both present (pleasure) and future benefit (meaning) to be truly happy.

Gratitude is of utmost importance. Shahar suggests keeping a gratitude journal and writing down five things each day that you are grateful for.

Some examples from the Meetingmax staff on activities that bring them happiness are:

• Running
• Learning new languages
• Working on creative projects
• Computer programming (luckily from our IT guy!)
• Playing sports
• Training for a triathlon
• Running the newspaper in college

The Meetingmax team highly recommends Happier. Overall it scored an 8.9/10 on a scale where 1 equals a book with little value one would not wish to read again and 10 equals a fantastic book with the ability to grow an individual personally, professionally or both.

For more from Ben-Shahar, check out this article where he answers the following questions. 

1. What can people do each day to be happier? 
2. How can we cultivate gratitude? 
3. What happiness techniques are particularly important in today’s world?