A Snippet of The Book of Politics by Aristotle

I’ve learned 3 things from reading this book:

• Books translated from Greek are difficult to read. 
• Aristotle expects the reader to be versed in everything else going on in his day which makes his work difficult to read. 
• The methods with which a tyrant takes over a government were the same 2500 years ago as it is today.

Some notable thoughts taken from the book:

“They who love in excess also hate in excess.”
-Aristotle, Politics

“All constitutions are overthrown either from within or from without; the latter, when there is some government close at hand having an opposite interest, or at a distance, but powerful.”
-P. 207 from “Politics” book by Aristotle (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)

“History shows that almost all tyrants have been demagogues who gained the favour of the people by their accusations of the notables.”
-P.216 from “Politics” book by Aristotle (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

"...The tyrant is also fond of making war in order that his subjects may have something to do and be always in want of a leader. And whereas the power of a king is preserved by his friends, the characteristic of the tyrant is to distrust his friends, because he knows that all men want to overthrow him, and they above all have the power."
-P.226 from “Politics” book by Aristotle (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

“Every man should be responsible to others, nor should anyone be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in every man.”
-P.244 from “Politics” book by Aristotle (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

“No one will doubt that the legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth, or that the neglect of education does harm to states. The citizen should be moulded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy; and always the better character, the better government”
-P.300 from “Politics” book by Aristotle (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

Learning Outside of Careers

The average life expectancy is 75 years old and I don't know about you but life seems to go by faster the older you get. There's more to life than just to live. Knowing this, I would consider it a great shame to die with the only knowledge being that of my chosen career path. There's simply more to life than whatever we are learning in our careers.

It's been said that it takes 10 000 hours to master anything. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant for this discussion. What we need to keep in mine is that we only have a set amount of hours that we can dedicate to our activities as well as our learning endeavors. This means that we won't be able to master everything.
If you're like me, and wish to learn all that you can before dying, then where do you even start? Which book? Which audio? Which video? The answer is quite simple: Get the information directly from the experts.

"Listen to those with the fruit on the tree". -Ripencil.com

You may not be a philosopher but there are many that are/were.
You may not be a economist but there are many that are/were.
You may not be a carpenter but there are many that are/were.
You may not be a mechanic.... (you got the point?)

We're decades into the information age now. This means that the information is out there for who ever wants it. We can pretty much learn everything that we want from the devices we carry in our pockets. There's no excuse so get to it!

Chris Brady Recommended Book List

Looking to work on your thinking in the new year? Start with the below books recommended by Chris Brady.

Attitude and Success

See You at the Top, Zig Zigglar
The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations On and Off the Court, John Wooden
The Psychology of Winning, Dennis Waitley
Life is Tremendous, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones

People Skills and Principles

How to Have Power and Confidence in Dealing With People, Les Giblin
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
Personality Plus, Florence Littauer
Bringing Out the Best in People, Alan Lloyd McGinnis
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

Leadership

It's Your Ship, Captain D. Michael Abrashoff
The Cycle of Leadership, Noel Tichy
The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle, James C. Hunter
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell
Launching a Leadership Revolution, Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward (it's a summary of so much of our learning!)

Historical Leadership Illustrations

The Founding Fathers on Leadership, Don T. Phillips
Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing, Richard Luecke
Churchill on Leadership, Steven Hayward
Character Counts, Os Guiness
The American Leadership Tradition, Marvin Olasky

The History of Liberty

The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria
The 5000 Year Leap: The Miracle That Changed the World, W. Cleon Skousen
How the West was Lost, Alexander Boot
The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk
The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas

Economics

The Economy in Mind, Warren T. Brookes
Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt
The Making of Modern Economics, Mark Skousen
Human Action, Ludwig von Mises
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Politics and Governance

Politics: Easy as P.I.E., Bob McEwen
The Revolt of the Masses, Jose Ortega y Gasset
The Road to Serfdom, F. A. Hayek
The Creature from Jekyll Island, G. Edward Griffin
Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Robert H. Bork

Source: http://chrisbrady.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/recommended-book-list.html

Do this, do that ... Now set a goal for yourself

It is common practice for a business to request their employees to set goals for themselves and it's often source of headache from both the employee, who struggle with goals, and the business that doesn't know how to inspire their employees.
The reason why people struggle with setting goals for themselves is because they're thought what to do and not how to think. If you train a dog how to fetch a ball, you can't just suddenly ask of him to fetch the newspaper. He needs to be thought how to fetch the newspaper as well.

While humans aren't dogs, the same principle applies. If you tell someone what to do all the time, you can't just suddenly ask of him to "think of a goal"... He hasn't been thought how to.

Many business have libraries with many books that will help the employee improve his technical skills but what most of those libraries lacks are books on how to think.

If a business want their employees to think then they have to provide some tools to teach them how to.