Books and employment.

Reading Get Things Done, on the train to Manchester.

I’m still looking for work. The good news, is that my change in status has allowed me to consider a change in vocation, and I recently applied for a job at Waterstones (I would really love to work in a bookshop).

While I was thinking about what job I would like to try my hand at, I considered for a moment, what the worst possible job would be.  After some consideration, I’ve decided that its checking X-Rayed baggage at an Airport. Whilst I know the job has to be done, who in their right mind would WANT a job like that.

Back on the subject of books, one book I keep trying to get into, but never seem to succeed, is ironically Getting Things Done by David Allen.

As a last resort, I even took it with me on a train journey to Manchester (It was calculated by Brian Tracey, that if you sit down to do some work on either a train or a plain, you are 35 times more productive).

I got half way through it speed reading in an hour, but its still hard going.

I’ve also joined Chester library. As part of my daily routine, I am going through my shelf of technology books, and reading for 2 hours each day (I normally read in the library, as I find my room isolating sometimes).

While reading the Citrix and VM Ware books, it was annoying to keep finding things that would have solved “baffling” problems in just a few minutes, when I was at work, if Id only had time to read them (but who HAS time when their actually working ?)

£1000 Jeep - Taking the book Rich Dad Poor Dad seriosly.

Some years ago, I read Rich Dad – Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaka.

I wont spoil the book, but he talks about real ways to make money, the myth of the middle classess and stuff like that.

The book takes its name from his own and his friends family. The two were so close that they considered themselves to have 2 famlies, and therefore 2 dads.

The basic play is that his dad was a lawyer, drove a BMW etc, and his friends Dad owned a pool cleaning business, a shop and stuff like that.  Because his friends dad lived simply and used his money for leverage etc, he died a billionaire, while his lawyer dad, died broke.

One section of the book, talks about how Rich Dad, drove a very cheap knockabout car, despite the fact, that he was very wealthy. The logic went that a Rich Dad, should spend all available money, on assets. Since an asset is something that normally increases in value, and a car normally decreases, it was reasoned that a car could only be an asset, if it could be used to generate money.

I was recently talking to a friend. I wont name him or go into specifics, but he has a property portfolio worth around £1,000,000.

We were discussing the book, which he had also read, and to my amazement, it was the inspiration for him to purchase the vehicle above, which cost less than £1000. The Jeep carries £2000 worth of beer to his pub each week !.

I normally try to act on things that I read in books, but It was amazing to see someone read the same book as me, and take it so literally.

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