The Sanford Berenberg Experience

502-533-9336

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Message of the Day - The Slow Lane is More Scenic

Good Morning,

Welcome new recipients!!

After re-reading yesterday’s message I kept thinking about our world of instant gratification and what it has done to us to speed up life as we know it. I have seen people who have not been immersed in our culture go through the culture shock of being able to get everything now. The Dalai Lama once commented on how the culture in America is moving too fast, all of our conveniences eat up our time. Our Margin is diminished. It is overwhelming the things we can do or get quickly. Things that used to take weeks or months or longer now can be provided in mere minutes or less. It takes a lot of will power to wait when what we want is right in front of us. Why cook for five hours to make homemade pasta sauce when you can buy bottled (and nowadays it is pretty good)?

I am a victim of instant gratification in the way of books. I could buy books online for a few dollars with shipping and wait a week or so for the book, or I could go to the local bookstore and buy it at near full price and have it now. There is a lot to be said for being able to hold what you want in your hands and have it, but then again, it comes at a cost. A cost which we may not fully understand at the time.

When we live our lives expecting fast, drive-through, service in areas of our life, we often compromise the quality of our life. Imagine what would happen to a full 5 course meal at a 4 Star Restaurant if it were served with the speed and efficiency of a Taco Bell or McDonalds (You know, the ones that get your orders right most of the time). You lose the ambience, the socializing, the enjoyment time. Karen often reminds me to slow down eating because I have grown accustomed to wolfing down my food in order to get to my next activity, which means I do not get to enjoy what I am eating, or enjoy the dinner conversations like I should.

Instant Gratification means that entire industries are trying to take all facets of life and compressing them into a drive-through mentality. They strive to provide the full flavor and features in an on-the-spot delivery format. In the process you lose a lot. Many of us have no idea of what we have lost by getting instant gratification and convenience. We have sped up our lives and lost some of the finer points. I enjoy cooking for five hours once a year or so, or when I can convince Karen I won’t make too much of a mess in the kitchen. The time spent with the kids and cooking is very enjoyable, a lot more fulfilling than opening a bottle and heating up premade sauce.

It is time to slow down and enjoy the walk instead of taking the car through the park. We need to take our time instead of rushing to put as much experience in as short amount of time as we have been doing. Unless we stop to smell the roses, we will find ourselves living life at warp speed with everything delivered instantly through drive-throughs and missing out on some great parts of life. There is a lot to say for quality over quantity.

Life was enjoyable before we had fast food, drive-throughs, cell phones, ipods and digital cameras. Let’s not forget to enjoy these parts of life too.

You can still get to your destination by driving in the slow lane, and you get to see more along the way!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Message of the Day - The Ant and the Elephant

Good Morning,

Welcome New Recipients!

My latest read is ‘The Ant and the Elephant’ by Vincent Poscente (http://www.beinvincible.com/). This is a parable about Leadership For The Self depicting an Ant, Adir, and the elephant, Elgo, that he lives on. The elephant is two million times the size of the ant, and yet the ant can communicate with the elephant, motivate and lead him. The ant represents our conscious mind and thought, and the elephant represents our subconscious mind and thought.

I really like the concept of learning to lead yourself. There are many books on leadership and what leadership is, what leaders do, but just reading these books does not make someone a great leader. They may have a lot of knowledge, but unless they can lead themselves, others will not follow them. A leader has to be emulate being someone that others will be willing to follow. Such is the case in this book where the ant who was a failed leader in his ant colony must first learn to lead himself before he can get others to follow him.

Throughout the story, Adir, the ant learns five steps to leading himself which then helps him lead Elgo, his elephant. The five action steps to leading oneself are listed as the five ‘C’s’:

Clarity of Vision: Not only do we have to know where we want to go, we have to understand more than just basic information about our goal. What will it look like when we get there, how will it feel, what would we do when we achieve our vision? In other words, visualize our vision.

Commitment: We must focus our mind on positive thoughts to achieve our vision. When we feel down or think that we can’t, we have to change those thoughts to positive thoughts. We must catch ourselves and right ourselves with positive thoughts. We must make a commitment to ourselves that we will stay on course and work to remain positive. It does get easier over time. I can attest to this.

Consistency: This is probably the hardest part in our world of instant gratification. Sticking to it as ‘change’ does not always happen overnight, or sometimes over a year. If we are truly determined to achieve our vision, we need to make a commitment to both ourselves and to achieving our mission. It can be difficult, but the fruits often outweigh the struggles. The author uses an analogy of a large vat of water, and dropping one drop of blue dye into it each day, and keep doing it until the large vat of water is blue. At first you barely notice the blue tinge, but over time it does become blue.

Confidence: Here we have to believe in ourselves and break old patterns of behavior which hinder our success. If we easily are deterred, we need to stop and think about our vision and what it would be like when we already have achieved it. We build confidence in ourselves by removing or changing patterns in ourselves which cause us to lose confidence. Take baby steps and celebrate little successes and our confidence will improve and stand up better to the bigger challenges.

Control: Practice responses to the unknown and difficult situations. Role-play challenges to build up our skills in dealing with tough situations. Sure it is not like the real thing, but it eliminates a lot of the fear and surprise when something bad happens and we know what to do about it. Disaster Recovery Plans are made up of this, like fire drills and other drills. We practice to be prepared for the unexpected. The key, according to the author, is to think up the worst things that can happen, put them on flashcards and role-play through them.

As you can see, each of these steps helps someone in pretty much any area of their lives. The first step is becoming a leader to yourself.

I enjoyed the book and look forward to other Vincent Poscente books.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Message of the Day - The Long Reach of Our Words

Good Morning,

I find it amazing that influence that our words can have on others: and how those words are shared with more and more people, reaching people you may never know or ever meet. It is like the Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon. Last week I was catching up with Dr. Todd Arwood, of TAPP (www.toddarwood.com). I am a guest writer for the newsletter that he and his associate, Dr. Hope Stith publish. Some of these messages of the day are reprinted in his monthly newsletter. I am very thrilled to be able to reach many more people this way.

Todd told me about the impact and reach of one of my messages. In that message I was talking about the book “The Ultimate Gift” in that message. One of Todd’s readers liked it so much, she bought the book and read it. She then shared the book with her Son, who also loved it and wrote a book report on it for School. The teacher who read the book report was so impressed that they bought the bought and read it themselves. That is amazing, but the story does not end there.

The book, ‘The Ultimate Gift” was recommended to me by one of your on this list. This means that your suggestion to me has helped not only me, but has reached out all the way to that Teacher and many others we may never know of.

How cool is that?

Our suggestions, our words and our messages have a very long reach. Often we will never know how far, and what good they will do. And if we are not careful, what harm they may cause. This is a reminder to all of us, even to myself, that we must keep giving our good messages to others. Who knows who they may ultimately reach and the good they will do? They may be just what that person needed to hear or read at the moment!

The recommendation to me (1), to Todd & Hope (2), to their reader (3), to their reader’s son (4), to his teacher (5) has only one more degree of separation left to reach Kevin Bacon!

Keep the words moving and Thank you for suggesting, reading and passing along these messages.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Message of the Day - A Sense of Urgency

Good Morning,

Yesterday I dropped my current read to start John Kotter’s newest book ‘A Sense of Urgency’ (http://www.johnkotter.com/). Why all of a sudden did I need to read this book? Why drop something I had been looking forward to read to grab this new book that I saw on a shelf at Borders on Monday? Simply because it was time. The subject hit a nerve, A Sense of Urgency.

I have read several time management books, but they often do not teach a sense of urgency, mostly prioritizing your workload and controlling the flow of work items coming in and out and how you manage them. They are useful tools and have helped me and many others. Unfortunately, they often lack the simple, yet elegant, sense of urgency. And then I saw the name of the Author, John Kotter. And I knew this book was a good book. I have read two of this other books, ‘Leading Change’ and ‘Our Iceberg is Melting’. John Kotter, beyond being a Harvard Professor, is considered the pre-eminent Change Guru in the business world. In other words, I respect what he has to say.

A sense of urgency is something that has not been fully present in any company I worked at over the last decade. Sure there were those who had the sense of urgency, the passion, the heart to get the job done, and others well, did not seem to care. Some of those who seemed to get it were really not getting it, they knew what needed to be done, but did not feel it in their hearts. They were working frantically, and a lot was getting done, or seemed to be getting done, but our overall progress toward our goals did not always improve as you would expect with all of the activity. It seems our society has accepted doing a lot of work, no matter what it is, as having a sense of urgency. These people would often roll up their sleeves and dive into work and a few days or weeks later would get burned out and frustrated and sometimes even quit for feeling like their work was unappreciated. Your heart has to be in it as well as your mind.

Sadly a lot of this frantic work is not so much unappreciated, but unnecessary and at times, damaging to your organization. A true sense of urgency combines the knowledge of what is needed, and the best ways to get it accomplished and a feeling in your gut and heart that it needs to be done. While it involves the desire to ‘act now’ it does NOT mean on everything that comes to your inbox or bin. Sure there is the four quadrants of Important and Urgent, and we are to act on all the urgent and important items first, then, important items, and ignore the not important and not urgent, etc., but this is only part of puzzle.

A true sense of urgency is conveyed in all communications, urgent or otherwise. The message must be intelligent and passionate. Not a frantic scramble, but making sure the weight of all actions is known. Acting like you know what’s on the line for your organization, your customers, your stakeholders. A sense of urgency means being aware of what is important, not only to you, but to your customers, your bosses, you stakeholders and working to respect these feelings.

Yes, it is time for a Sense of Urgency.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Message of the Day - The Land of I Can

Good Morning,

A few weeks ago I went to the Library, part of my exercise at work, and picked up some short books from the self-help, inspirational section. One of these books was a short book called “The Land of I Can: An Adventure in Life” by Susan L. Gilbert (http://www.thelandofIcan.com ). It is a powerfully concise book, well illustrated by Jill E. Holden on getting to the land of I Can.

What is the Land of I Can? To me it is the place where we can do what we long to do, and to be happy doing it. It is the place of positive attitudes and the success that comes from them, when you stick with it, even through the rough times. Every time you start taking several steps toward being positive, the world often dumps a pile of bricks on you to set you back. And what do we do? We blame trying to have a positive attitude rather than facing the bricks and obstacles and keep going.

The Land of I Can is fun and inspiring. Susan takes us through several different lands for those having challenges taking that first step to the Land of I Can. There is the land of Apathy, the Land of Fear, the Land of Sorrow, and the Land of Ashes, which all represent places we can and often do get ourselves stuck in when we make our way toward the Land of I Can. I really enjoyed this little, yet powerful, book.

The trip can be short. The trip can also take a lifetime if you let it. It can be made in a few steps if you find out what you want to do, and then, here is the kicker, you do it. You do not worry about it, you do not question how, you simply do it. Of course if your goal is to walk through walls, make sure there is an open doorway before you go for it. The world around us will often work out the problems and obstacles when we truly decide to enter the Land of I Can. Have you ever noticed that? You decide to do something and you know there are problems and issues out there that will have to be addressed, and often as you start your journey, you find out some or all of these issues have resolved themselves? I am seeing it more and more in my journey.

The Land of I Can is a great place to be, there is no need for sunlight because all of the light comes from us, and we can see clear as day. People in the Land of I Can are not afraid, full of sorrow, or apathy because they take the little steps to do the things that make them happy, and their hearts soar!

The best news is that all of us can enter the Land of I Can. It starts with just taking a few small steps. Find out what we want to do and take the small steps toward doing it. A few years ago when I was looking for jobs with my Associates Degree and getting rejection after rejection, I never thought I would have a graduate degree until I decided to start walking to the Land of I Can and enrolled in college and earned my Bachelors, took a year off and then earned my Masters. There were many reasons to say I could not do this, no money, no job, no time, I am moving, etc., but I chose the path to I Can, and I Did.

So can you.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Monday, August 18, 2008

Message of the Day - Speaking Your Truths

Good Morning,

My current read is ‘Your Truth: Know It, Speak It, Live It’ by Eileen R. Hannegan (http://www.amazon.com/Know-Your-Truth-Speak-Live/dp/188522334X). This book talks about improving your personal and professional life by focusing on knowing what the truths in your life are and eliminating illusion to find out the true you. Then learning to speak those truths and finally live them, to walk your talk. One of the hardest areas that I see in gaining authenticity in our lives is being able to speak our minds and get what we want to say off our chests. You know, telling someone how you truly feel about something or some action or some person, opposed to ‘sucking it up’ just not saying anything.

My 16 year old daughter yesterday talked about wanting to live in an ‘anarchistic’ environment where people could do and say what they want because she did not like the rules attached to living in today’s society (she is looking to enter the workforce for the first time and reading the rules and regulations on a job application). One of the points I brought up to her was that there are repercussions for everything we do and say. Just like a bullet cannot be recalled after you pull the trigger and the slug leaves the casing: words and actions cannot be unsaid or undone. You can repair, but not undo. In anarchy, there are no rules, but there are still repercussions for actions, and these repercussions, not having rules themselves, are usually worse than those in rules-driven societies.

Going back to the book, many times what we want to say, we hold back for fear of the repercussions of saying these words. Some folks, and we all know them, have no problem saying what they need to say and moving on, happy and relieved while they leave a smoking wasteland of hurt feelings and repressed anger. Society labels them as not being ‘PC’ and socially unacceptable, etc., but these folks are more true to themselves than those who hide behind the rules of Political Correctness and trying to make everyone happy.

Being truthful to ourselves then faces many challenges when we wish to speak our truths to others. We need to be aware of the consequences of our words. How they will be taken? What will be the impact? We need to know what is the net-effect of saying these words between the benefit of saying them versus the consequences of speaking them.

Yet, those who do not speak their mind also may have negative effects as well. People who hold in their emotions for years and years tend to erupt when they have embraced one too many stressful situations or heard one too many enervating speeches or watched something that really upsets them. This can lead to or cause life threatening medical issues.

Our goal is to find the happy medium between the two. To be able to speak our truths to those who need to hear them and in a manner which will be least offensive, and yet not to open the floodgates and drive people away with our endless venting of what is the truth to us.

Something to think about!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Message of the Day - Are you a go getter?

Good Morning,

Last week I went to a book sale at the local Jewish Family Vocational Services center with my Mom. At the sale I found this gem of a book called ‘The Go-Getter: A story that tells you how to be one’ by Peter Kyne (http://www.amazon.com/Go-Getter-Story-That-Tells-You/dp/080500548X). This book, written originally in 1921 still has value in today’s world. It tells the tale of a test used to see how much of a go getter the character of the story is, that is if they had what it took to fill a key role for the company.

The test is set up to be next to impossible, but seemingly very important to a person who the character holds in high regard. Purposeful misdirection is used to make the task harder and most of the people tested either failed or gave up. Those who passed the test were rewarded for their ingenuity, perseverance and hunger to finish the task.

While the task in the book is a bit extreme it ties into what Dr. Randy Pausch talked about when he mentioned barriers; the brick walls which are there to tell us how much we really want something. A go getter is someone who knows what they want and will work to get passed the barrier one way or another.

I learned long ago that if you want to get something done, you need to get up and get passed that barrier. If there is a door, open the door, and go through. If there is no door, find another way around, over, or if necessary, make your own door. More often than not, I found myself making my own door. Sometimes that proved great results and other times, it caused more problems than it solved. In either case, each event taught me to be more focused on getting tasks completed. ‘Whatever it took’ entered my vocabulary.

The more I accomplished goals, the better I became at accomplishing goals. The more I hemmed and hawed, the more complacent and less productive I became. At this point in time, there are some tasks I can do in my sleep, and others, I keep finding ways to put them off. I am trying to find ways to be more productive, to be a go getter and achieve more of my life’s goals.

How about you? Are you a go getter? Will you do what you need to do to get the job done, or do you have a limit as to how far you will go? Is that limit far, or not as far as you would like to admit. Are you willing to do something about that?

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Message of the Day - How will your last hour be spent?

Good Morning,

The title of today’s message is not meant to be gloomy, but to actually open your hearts and minds to the magic that is often right there in our lives now. I had the opportunity to read a book called ‘An Hour to Live, and Hour to Love” by Richard Carlson and Kristine Carlson (http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Live-Love-Story-Given/dp/1401322573). Richard Carlson, author of the ‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’ series of books passed away in December of 2006 of an aneurism at the age of 45. His wife Kristine honored Richard with this book which includes a poem Richard wrote to her on their 18^th Anniversary, three years before he passed. That poem talked about what he would do if he had one hour left to live and how he would spend it. You know he would be spending that time with his soul mate and love, his wife.

What grabbed me about this book was what Richard said he would not spend time on during his last hour. In that perspective, your last hour, many things in life cease to have their meaning. Let me share some examples:

If you had one hour left to live:

Would you really care if people who owed you favors paid them back?
Would you really care if people who owed you money paid it back?
Would you call your financial planner or broker to find out how your investments are doing?
Would you put in another hour of overtime at work?
Would you really care that there was a sale at Macy’s or Kohls, etc?
Would you worry about what others thought about you?
Would you worry about not having the latest fashion or cool gadget?

When you start considering what you would do with your last hour, you often find a lot of what you thought to be truly important ends up being really not that important. Not that you forget about these things forever, but their true priority in your life become clear.

The other point that comes up, which was also seen in ‘The Ultimate Gift’ and Ultimate Life’ is that when you find out what you would do with your final hour you often find that it is something you can do right now. So, if it is, why not do it now?

This is great little book which helps you put what is important in your life into perspective and find out how your last your will be spent.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Message of the Day - When are at your best, get better

Good Morning,

Welcome new recipients!!

Coach John Wooden (http://coachwooden.com/) preaches working toward operating at our best, consistently, no matter what we do. When we get to our best, it is not a time to stop and coast and enjoy our accolades. It’s a time to find a way to get even better; and there is always room for improvement. Searching how to find out what to do better, and where to learn it from then become the big challenge facing making our best even better. Along this path Coach Wooden remains firm on holding true to our values. Everything we do should conform to our values. When we give in to temptation or try to skirt around our values, it usually comes back to bite us. Holding fast to our values builds character, and we all can use some more of that. Work hard to improve, but do not sacrifice your values along the way.

No one is perfect, certainly not me, and certainly not anyone I know today. When we forget this, we run into problems. One of my leadership heroes has personally acted less than heroic to two of my friends when interacting with them personally. If I ever had the opportunity to meet this hero, I would tell them how much I appreciate their work, and then suggest that they might further reflect on their own works due to those they have hurt and probably did not realize it. The damage done to your reputation due to acting like you have arrived can do a lot of damage.

Accepting that we are all fallible takes a lot of effort at times. Once we can get there and honestly look at ourselves and see where we are, we can get on with the task of finding ways to make our best even better. Please remember, when we get even better, we still have not arrived; we are just better and can still improve.

Coach Wooden talks about how he would contact the coaches who beat his team and tried to learn from them. I have networked with those who do what I want to do and joined several organizations so that I can learn from them. Due to this arrangement, I am getting better in many areas of my life. Even still, I have a long way to go in many others. Getting better does take time and effort, and it is worth it.

I enjoy improving. Learning and working with those I can learn from as well as those I can help is great, but never forget, when we are at our best, our next move is to find out how to get better. Find out who to talk to, what to read and what to do and follow through.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Friday, August 8, 2008

Message of the Day - Being your best is better than winning

Good Morning,

My current read is John Wooden’s ‘Wooden on Leadership’ (http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Leadership-John/dp/0071453393). For anyone who knows about John Wooden’s accomplishments with the UCLA Bruins 10 National Championships and multiple perfect seasons, the chance to learn how he led his team to accomplish these feats is exciting. Add to this how many other leadership greats all look to John Wooden as one of the best of the best.

Early on in the book Coach Wooden points out his goal was not to win. His goal was to help his team, both as individuals and as a team to be their best and keep working on improving their best. They must give their best in their practice as well as in their actual competitions. A team that wins who does not perform their best really did not win, because they could have done better. Teams that do their best, win or lose are winners as they performed at their peak, and what else can you ask from someone other than do their best. Anything more would be foolish, and dangerous.

I feel my best when I help others. My mentoring sessions with those I coach give me more energy and zest for life than any accomplishment at work. I feel that I win every time I make a difference in someone’s life. Last night I received an email of thanks for helping someone and being supportive while they achieved one of their goals over the last nine months. Having helped, I can say that I share in their joy and am proud of their achievement. It is success!

What about you? Do you do your best? Do you know what you are best at and do you do your best at it regularly? And do you try to improve upon that?

Be your best, every day.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Message of the Day - The Human Side of Economics

Good Morning,

Today I finished Tim Harford’s ‘The Undercover Economist’ (www.timharford.com) and have to say that it was the easiest to read economics book that I have ever tackled. I like the fact that Tim Harford focused on examples which do not include tables and pages of numbers. He also focuses on showing the big picture of economics, and takes it to a level rarely seen by the average person. That is often because eyes glaze over and mouths start to drool at the thought of economic data.

The one most striking take away from The Undercover Economist is that economics is a part of everything that we do. Who we are and how we live, what we like and don’t like are all intertwined in economics. Psychology may tell us about our mental state, but economics involves in how that mental state interacts with the world. Freaky really, but when you think about it, pretty much everything in our lives ties back to economics.

Let me show you an example:

You are reading this email on a computer. That computer was purchased from someone. The person/company who sold the computer was paid for the sale, and they paid the manufacturer or distributor for the computer, who in turn paid the components manufacturers for their parts, and they in turn paid sub-components makers and raw material providers. The logistics providers (trucking, cargo shipping, airmail, etc.) all get a cut. And then there is the electricity to run the computer which is paid to the electric company who in turn pays for fuel and equipment to generate the electricity, and so on and so on.

Tim Harford covers how companies and countries build their economic status and why helps and hinders this growth. Again, in each of his examples he ties the economics back to the human element. People who have incentive to improve their lives will improve their economics. People with no incentive to improve their lives will invariable not improve their economic situation.

So, improving yourself can lead to improving your personal economics…again, freaky how it all ties together.

It was great reading about the human side of economics, and to see how we all fit into the global picture. And when you look at the global picture, you will see me. I’m the one smiling….

Enjoy.

Sanford Berenberg

502-533-9336

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Message of the Day - Making Every Day Great!

Good Morning,

I took a break from reading The Undercover Economist to dive into my first Normal Vincent Peale book which I picked up for $1 in the Half-Priced Books clearance section. The book is ‘Have a Great Day – Every Day!’ (http://www.amazon.com/Have-Great-Norman-Vincen-Peale/dp/0449912078). This book has a positive paragraph a day for every day of the year, including February 29^th. It was magical to read through this treasure trove of positive material. I have seen much of it used again by other authors, but reading it from Norman Vincent Peale’s own hand made it that much more potent. This book, though, will not have a place in my bookshelf of read books as it will lay on my night stand so that I can read it as it was meant to be read, one day at a time.

Let me share with you two sections of this book, and you can see how powerful it truly is:

March 5:

There is one way to avoid criticism: Never do anything, never amount to anything. Never get your head above the crowd so that the jealous will notice and attack you. Criticism is a sign that your personality has some force.

July 25:

What’s wrong with having problems? The only people who have no problems are in cemeteries. Problems are a sign of life. So be glad you’ve got them. It means you are alive. The more problems you have, the more alive you are. If you have no problems, better get down on your knees and ask: “Lord, don’t you trust me anymore? Give me some problems.”

Wow. Both of these entries just echoed through me. No need to comment on them, they both speak for themselves.

I look forward to adding this book to my daily read with my bible.

Getting more positive EVERY day!!!

Enjoy

Sanford Berenberg

http://www.berenberg.net ß New and Updated!!

502-533-9336

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Message of the Day - What We Don't Know

Good Morning,

I was further reflecting on my readings and the responses you sent back to me and I realized that I missed one key point in all that I have learned. The more I learned, the more I realized that I have much more to learn. That is, the more you know, the more there is know. One would think that the more you know, the less there is to learn as you know more and more of it. That assumes there is a finite amount of knowledge out there and that also assumes that you know of all the knowledge to be learned, and that is simply not the case on either front.

There is infinite knowledge and we keep learning and discovering all around the world every day. Also, most of what is out there is not known to us, how could it be? The more I read, the more I see of what is out there. The authors reference other books which I add to my wish list on Amazon (great for keeping track of books you want to get), and next thing you know, you finished one book and have three more that you have just learned about and want to read.

It is humbling to see that there is so much out there that we don’t know, and while we most likely will never know it all (see there really aren’t know it alls….) we can open our minds to learn more and become aware of the worlds of knowledge that were once hidden from us, and make new paths in those directions.

I look forward to further exploration of knowledge in untapped subjects and I look forward to the worlds of knowledge they will show me which I never knew existed before. For example, my current read “Undercover Economist” by Tim Harford (http://www.timharford.com) has shown me new ways to look at the way we buy groceries or even a cup of coffee, and now I see whole new areas that I had not seen before. Tim took the economic knowledge and broken it down from a MBA level to every day people level, something the schools do not all do so well.

This new way of thinking more so than the knowledge itself is just as valuable a tool as the knowledge itself. We get to see the world around us in new and exciting ways.

It is amazing what we don’t know and exciting to find out what it is.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg