Learn to Earn: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business
Author: Peter Lynch
Mutual-fund superstar Peter Lynch and author John Rothchild explain the basic principles of investing and business in a primer that will enlighten and entertain anyone who is high-school age or older.
Many investors, including some with substantial portfolios, have only the sketchiest idea of how the stock market works. The reason, say Lynch and Rothchild, is that the basics of investing -- the fundamentals of our economic system and what they have to do with the stock market -- aren't taught in school. At a time when individuals have to make important decisions about saving for college and 401(k) retirement funds, this failure to provide a basic education in investing can have tragic consequences.
For those who know what to look for, investment opportunities are everywhere. The average high-school student is familiar with Nike, Reebok, McDonald's, the Gap, and the Body Shop. Nearly every teenager in America drinks Coke or Pepsi, but only a very few own shares in either company or even understand how to buy them. Every student studies American history, but few realize that our country was settled by European colonists financed by public companies in England and Holland -- and the basic principles behind public companies haven't changed in more than 300 years.
In Learn to Earn, Lynch and Rothchild explain in a style accessible to anyone who is high-school age or older how to read a stock table in the daily newspaper, how to understand a company annual report, and why everyone should pay attention to the stock market. They explain not only how to invest, but also how to think like an investor.
Table of Contents:
| Preface | 9 | |
| Introduction: The Companies Around Us | 13 | |
| 1 | A Short History of Capitalism | 21 |
| 2 | The Basics of Investing | 92 |
| 3 | The Lives of a Company | 170 |
| 4 | The Invisible Hands | 201 |
| Appendix 1: Stockpicking Tools | 243 | |
| Appendix 2: Reading the Numbers - How to Decipher a Balance Sheet | 251 | |
| Index | 265 |
Book about: Pasta or 101 Things to Do with Meatballs
Selling the Invisible
Author: Harry Beckwith
A treasury of hundreds of quick, practical, and easy-to-read strategies - few are more than a page long - Selling the Invisible will open your eyes to new ideas in this crucial branch of marketing including why focus groups, value-price positioning, discount pricing, and being the best usually fail; the critical emotion that most influences your prospects - and how to deal with it; the vital role of vividness, focus, "anchors," and stereotypes; the importance of Halo, Cocktail Party, and Lake Wobegon Effects; marketing lessons from black holes, grocery lists, the Hearsay Rule, and the fame of Pikes Peak; dozens of proven yet consistently over-looked ideas for research, presentations, publicity, advertising, and client retention...and much more.
Publishers Weekly
It's unfortunate that the author, founder of Minneapolis's Beckwith Advertising and Marketing, and his editor didn't spend more time on this book, intended to help service businesses sell their products. They could have eliminated the endless repetition; for example, we are told four times that clients aren't buying a service provider's expertise but are buying a relationship. A tightly focused, engaging book would have offered more useful advice. Beckwith underscores the concept that a brilliant marketing plan is virtually useless if your service is less than first-rate. He talks about the importance of pricing the service to correctly reflect the value of what is offered and why small firms should not be afraid to trumpet that they are small. But by the time we have heard again that McDonald's is really selling not food but entertainment, we aren't as receptive to Beckwith's message as we might be. BOMC alternate; Time Warner audio. (Mar.)
Library Journal
"Don't sell the steak. Sell the sizzle." In today's service business, author Beckwith suggests this old marketing adage is likely to guarantee failure. In this timely addition to the management genre, Beckwith summarizes key points about selling services learned from experience with his own advertising and marketing firm and when he worked with Fortune 500 companies. The focus here is on the core of service marketing: improving the service, which no amount of clever marketing can make up for if not accomplished. Other key concepts emphasize listening to the customer, selling the long-term relationship, identifying what a business is really selling, recognizing clues about a business that may be conveyed to customers, focusing on the single most important message about the business, and other practical strategies relevant to any service business. Actor Jeffrey Jones's narration professionally conveys these excellent ideas appropriate for public libraries.Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Michael Pellecchia
Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing is about marketing services rather than products. As founder of Beckwith Advertising and Marketing in Minneapolis, he has had some stellar clients, including McDonald's, Shearson Lehman Hutton, Smith Barney, Chase Manhattan Bank and Musicland. Beckwith's distinct personality comes through in this collection of very brief essays. His stories, many from his personal experience, remind me of the friendly arrogance of other legendary marketers such as David Ogilvy and Stanley Marcus. Sure, some of the anecdotes merely come from other business books, such as the oft-told tale of how Swiss watchmakers invented the quartz digital watch but lost out to the Japanese, who successfully marketed the watches. But one chapter is by itself worth the price of the book--the 25 pages on "Planning: The Eighteen Fallacies." In this chapter, Beckwith debunks commonplace notions such as strategy, patience, intelligence, facts, memory, experience, confidence and other purported positives in business. Another great chapter on branding is called "Monogram Your Shirts, Not Your Company."
Terry O'Keefe
Most of the things we buy today are unreal and intangible--services that don't exist at the time we place the order, and non-products which can't be seen, tasted, kicked, tried on or tried out. What used to be a product-driven world is now replete with services. So, unlike the product-driven economy of just a generation ago, almost everyone is now selling service. And, says Beckwith, when it comes to marketing, the differences between products and services are oceanic. To help us bridge that gap he has written Selling the Invisible, and the book is superb. Most readers will be thankful that nothing too weighty is presented here--just a smorgasboard of creative thoughts and intelligent suggestions regarding how to make sales in a service market. Many of these ideas should make you think about your business in entirely new ways. Busy readers will love how this book is organized. Beckwith offers several hundred bite-sized pieces that you can dip into a couple of minutes at a time. If you are the principle marketeer in your business, I can't imagine how you can come away with less than your money's worth from this book.
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