books – the {r}evolution apparel blog

How to Cope with a 21 Hour Bus Ride

One of the greatest things about travel is the time we spend reading books. Airplanes. Long bus rides. Rainy days. A good book can be your best friend when you’re out on your own.

All of Us has come up with a list of books that, to us, represent what business should be: an understanding of the world, people, psychology, and philosophy. Plus some inspiring stories about exceptional people.

We left for Nicaragua yesterday at 4am. What was supposed to be a 14 hour ride, turned into 21 hours and we arrived in the capital city at 1:30am. You can bet we had some of these books to keep us company. {r}

The List:

The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

How To Win Friends and Influence People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The Last Lecture

Wishcraft

Rework

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable–Includes new bonus chapter

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy (and how they will save the American worker)

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World

Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms

Think and Grow Rich

The Secret

The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility”

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Where Are You Wearing?

I recently read a book that had my mind spinning about the clothing industry. For better or for worse, it left me thinking, “I’m never shopping again.”

I knew that wasn’t a solution, but I also knew that the way I ‘buy’ is forever changed.

The book is called ‘Where Am I Wearing‘ by Kelsey Timmerman and it chronicles his multi-country quest to visit the sweatshops (he prefers using the term ‘garment factories’) where his four favorite pieces of clothing were made. He talks to developing-world laborers in Bangladesh, Cambodia and China about their lives as industry workers — the few benefits and the many struggles.

In the last chapter, he raises an important question about how we consume and the different types of consumers who feed the industry.

So, what kind of consumer are you?

a.) I’m a bargain hunter. I don’t care where or who made my clothes just as long as I don’t break the bank.

b.) I would like to support an ethical manufacturing system by buying fair trade clothes, but I can’t afford to.

c.) I am a red, white and blue consumer. After watching Americans lose jobs to outsourcing, I only support USA-made products.

d.) I am a conscientious consumer. I only buy products made by transparent companies that I know treat their workers fairly.

e.) I am a low-impact consumer. I want to remove myself from the process entirely, so I only shop consignment or sew my own clothes.

f.) I am an apathetic consumer. I know the people who make my clothes lead difficult lives and may be treated unfairly, but I don’t pay much attention.

We don’t vote for candidates we know nothing about. We don’t invite people into our homes if we don’t know who they are. So why do we put clothes on our backs when we know they are corrupt, tainted or unethical?

It comes down to forcing responsibility and accountability on global companies — the companies we buy from every day. We vote with our dollars, and it’s our job as buyers to do the research, ask the questions, and be engaged. Unfortunately, we can’t count on anyone else to do it for us.

Would you pay five more dollars for clothes you know are made by people who are justly treated and receive a wage that could help lift them out of poverty?

According to Kelsey’s book, 61 percent of people answered yes, based on a post-recession poll from a 2004 study at the University of Maryland.

Would you be one of them? {r}

For more on Kelsey and his book, visit his blog at www.whereamiwearing.com or follow him on Twitter at @KelseyTimmerman.

ReWork: The Sacrilegious Business Book

We love the alternative business book called Rework by the founders of the software company 37 Signals. It’s so edgy for the conventional business world that it borders on sacrilegious.The authors offer the “perfect playbook” for entrepreneurial success by using concise, straight-forward language and offering the opposite advice of what everyone else suggests. Here are some of our favorite words of unconventional wisdom, quoted from the text:

To do great work, you need to feel that you’re making a difference. That you’re putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you’re part of something important.

Embrace constraints. “I don’t have enough time/money/people/experience.” Stop whining. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.

Sell your by-products. When you make something you always make something else. You can’t make just one thing. Everything has a by-product. Observant and creative business minds spot these by-products and see opportunities.

If you’re successful, people will try to copy what you do. It’s just a fact of life. But there’s a great way to protect yourself from copycats: Make you part of your product or service. Inject what’s unique about the way you think into how you sell. Make it something no one else can offer.

All companies have customers. Lucky companies have fans. But the most fortunate companies have audiences. An audience can be your secret weapon. Then when you need to get the word out, the right people will already be listening.

Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or outsponsor competitors, try to out-teach them. Teaching probably isn’t something your competitors are even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling or servicing, but teaching never even occurs to them.

Emulate chefs. There are many great chefs, but why do you know a few better than others? Because they share everything they know. They put their recipes in cookbooks and show their techniques on cooking shows. As a business owner, you should share everything you know too.

Go behind the scenes. Give people a backstage pass and show them how your business works. Imagine that someone wanted to make a reality show about your business. What would they share? Now stop waiting for someone else and do it yourself.

Do it yourself first. Never hire anyone to do a job until you’ve tried to do it yourself first. That way, you’ll understand the nature of the work. You’ll know what a job well done looks like.

Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. {r}

My $100,000 Check

‎”Decide what you want — believe you can have it, believe you deserve it, believe it’s possible for you.” –The Secret

By now, my friends and family are probably sick of hearing me say, “envision it.” Those two words have become my mantra — and I apply it to everything. You want the promotion? Envision it. You want to lose seven pounds? Envision it. You want a million dollars? Just envision it.

I am a “law of attraction” enthusiast. I firmly believe that you attract everything in your life through positive or negative emotions. And I have had too many personal experiences and know too many real-life accounts for anyone to convince me otherwise.

Fact: a great deal of success depends on imagination. You must be able to see yourself there to achieve your goals. There have been countless books and manuscripts written on this subject dating all the way back to Aristotle and Socrates. Successful people such as Rockefeller and Carnegie have chalked up their own prosperity to the law of attraction. “Envision it” and even science says, it’s as reliable as the law of gravity.*

Yesterday, I wrote myself a $100,000 check for January 2012. I’ll keep in my wallet, look at it every once in a while and sometimes, I’ll envision it sitting in my bank account. Whether it’s through meditation or a pen and a piece of paper, I complete a goal-setting exercise about once a week. It’s not psycho-babble or New Age hullabaloo, and if it is, well, it’s worked for me so far. I fully attribute the current status of my life to hard work and visualization, and I want everyone I know to benefit from it too.

Take for example the way I’ve funded my travels to Australia, South Africa and now, Latin America. With no prior waitressing or bartending experience that first summer, I envisioned myself working at a lucrative restaurant in Boston. I actually saw myself making drinks and serving food, all the way down to what I was wearing and what the bar looked like. I set a goal amount of money I wanted to make at the end of each summer, and every time I’ve reached or surpassed it. Write it down. Visualize it. Know that you will achieve it.

There are a whole slew of tools I use to set me off in the right direction, and I’m happy to share them with you in a series of posts to come. For now, I’ll leave you with a goal-setting sheet I’ve put together to get you started. I use this myself and will continue to revamp and revise it as my goals change or are achieved.

What would you do if you knew you could have anything you wanted?

Well, you can. {r}

*Resources:

Make the Law of Attraction Work for You: Goal-Setting PDF

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

{the blog}

Tagged: books

How to Cope with a 21 Hour Bus Ride

Where Are You Wearing?

ReWork: The Sacrilegious Business Book

My $100,000 Check