Earlier this week, Today We Are Rich, the newest book by Tim Sanders was released. The book is filled with principles to embrace values like generosity and gratitude which ultimately help produce confidence. Here are my top ten highlights from my reading:

1. “Because we were able to share, we’re worth something. By being able and willing to give, we are rich.”
2. “If you mentally chew on something too long, it will get stuck in your psyche… Analyze something too deeply, and you’ll lose touch with reality.”
3. “Never predict that another person will experience failure.”
4. “Remember, your subconscious is easily directed by your actions, and giving what you feel you lack tells it there is a surplus after all.”
5. “When you give, you need to come from a place of humility, seeking to give to others what you want for yourself. If you give because you feel sorry for the needy, you are not empowering them.”
6. “Confidence in others requires a high level of trust, one at which you are willing to let go of your control of a situation.”
7. “Leaders who don’t follow someone or something bigger than themselves will eventually become drunk with a false sense of their own power.”
8. “How can you detect your higher purpose? It lies at the intersection of a make-a-difference opportunity and your personal capabilities.”
9. “The essence of spiritual maturity is when we begin to follow a purpose and enjoy, but not be governed by, our passions.”
10. “If you pursue your commitments the way you chase your dreams, you’ll someday realize how linked the two really are.”

Visit Tim’s site to download a free excerpt from the book, or use my Amazon link to purchase a copy for yourself.

Erik Calonius

Earlier this week, I share some highlights from the new book Ten Steps Ahead by Erik Calonius. Erik has been a writer with the Wall Street Journal and Fortune. I caught up with him last weekend for a quick interview. Here’s our dialogue:

TONY: I’m always intrigued by the story behind the story. What prompted you to write a book about visionaries?

ERIK: An editor at Penguin came up with the idea. I had just finished collaborating on Predictably Irrational (a bestseller about cognitive psychology) and Wired for Thought (about brain science) and said, “Suppose we take brain science and psychology and look at visionaries under that lens?”

TONY: Your book features the stories of a number of great visionaries. Who is your favorite and why?

ERIK: Virgin CEO Richard Branson. I had a wonderful time hanging around with him in England in the mid-1980s. He has charisma, vision, and above all he makes being a visionary seem easy–and fun!

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I’ve had the opportunity to help two great churches go multi-site. Maybe one of these days I’ll write about some of my experiences. In the mean time, Jim Tomberlin has done us all a favor and shared his insights from working with churches across the country that have taken that step.

Last week, Jim released a free ebook called 125 tips for MultiSite Churches. Whether you are already engaging the multi-site adventure or you think you might consider that sometime in your church’s future, you should grab this free resource. I consider Jim to be the number one expert when it comes to multi-site strategy. Much of what I know on that topic, I’ve probably learned from him or the churches he’s helped.

After you’ve read through the 125 tips, let me know which one rings most true based on your experiences. Or, let me know which tip prompted a new aha! moment for you.

If you could Twitter a quick tip for leaders considering multi-site for the very first time, what would you offer? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

My copy of Guy Kawasaki’s new book finally arrived today. It was my first chance to confirm that the rumors were true. The book includes my personal story of a visit to Willow Creek Community Church almost 20 years ago. Here’s the proof:

Curious to know what I shared in the rest of the story? You’ll have to pick up your own copy of Enchantment (my Amazon link) to find out.

After having four books published the traditional way, I mentioned a few months ago that I’m ready to try something new. I’m not a very traditional guy, so it pains me to do things the way they’ve always been done…especially when I think we could achieve better results with new strategies and systems.

With that challenge, I’ve called on Ben Stroup and his team to help me chart a new course. He’s been busy. Look what showed up on my virtual doorstep this week:

Thanks to Ben’s team and in partnership with my friends at the Leadership Network and Catalyst, I’m about ready to release three eBooks. Some of the themes may look familiar if you follow my writing. (That’s the idea.) And, because I think healthy change happens when people engage conversations and then put ideas into action, we’ve added a little spice to each resource to help you take your next steps.

In the mean time, my team has their work cut out for them. These eBooks are just the appetizer. The big enchilada is still working its way through production. We’re working on the first of a series of eBooks on a fresh new topic ready to hit the newsstands before summer. I can’t reveal any more details other than confirming that this eBooks series does have something to do with the leisure suit I dropped off for alterations yesterday.

Now it’s your turn. Which one of the three eBooks that I’ve shown above do you want me to release first? You get to decide. Vote for your choice by sharing your comment.

I shared my interview with Seth Godin about his new book, Poke the Box, the other day. Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “Without the spark of initiative, you have no choice but simply to react to the world.”
• “No one has influence, control, or confidence in his work until he understands how to initiate change.”
• “If your project doesn’t have movement, then compared to the rest of the world, you’re actually moving backward.”
• “We have little choice but to move beyond quality and seek remarkable, connected, and new.”
• “You can’t grow by becoming even more predictable and ordinary.”
• “If you never fail, either you’re really lucky or you haven’t shipped anything.”
• “The typical factory-centric organization place a premium on not-wrong, and spend no time at all weeding out those who don’t start.”
• “If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low.”
• “We spend most of our days waiting for permission to start.”

You can pick up your own copy of Poke the Box by using my affiliate link.

In the mean time, what have been your favorite takeaways from the book? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. (Familiar with that company?)

Today, Guy’s newest book, Enchantment, hits the bookstores. I caught up with Guy this weekend to talk about the book. Here’s what he had to share:

TONY: What prompted you to write Enchantment?

GUY: I have a naive and optimistic desire to help people improve their “game” in order to change the world. My personal mantra is “empower people.” Enchantment, the book, enables me to empower people.

TONY: What’s the book all about?

GUY: Do you know that a reporter once asked Tom Clancy this and his response was, “It’s about $26.”? What a great answer! Anyway, Enchantment is the process of delighting people and producing the outcome of voluntary, long-lasting, and enthusiastic support.

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Seth Godin

Last week, Seth Godin’s most recent book, Poke the Box, released in the wild. I finished reading it on my flight back from California, and I’ll share my highlights later this week. In the mean time, I caught up with Seth this weekend, and we discussed the new book. Here’s the interview:

TONY: What’s the big idea behind Poke the Box?

SETH: Initiative is taken, it’s not given, and it’s the scarcest resource in most organizations. Individuals who choose to initiate are priceless.

TONY: Why do you think people are so comfortable waiting for orders?

SETH: Total deniability! If someone else gives the instructions, well, then it can’t be your fault, can it?

TONY: What’s one thing leaders could do differently to get their teams to initiate change?

SETH: This is the hard one, Tony. What leaders have to do is seek out and embrace (and possibly reward) smart failure. If you’re not willing to fail, you have no chance to succeed.

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Almost Isn’t Good Enough – the new book from Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Soles4Souls – reveals what is possible when one person resolves to make a measurable impact in the world after looking directly into the eyes of the suffering, hopeless and forgotten. This book doesn’t read like a typical collection of leadership thoughts, but rather like an invitation to intercede on behalf of others because the human connection changes everything. Whether it’s a simple act of kindness or the idea to start an international relief organization, everyone can do something to make a positive difference in the life of someone else. Promises, plans and good intentions are a waste of time and a fruitless exercise absent of action. We must demand more from ourselves because almost simply isn’t good enough.

This book captures the philosophy and practice of a successful corporate executive turned philanthropist and activist who founded Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization whose captivating culture and clarity of mission has fostered unprecedented growth and impact in a very short time. “Almost Isn’t Good Enough” will allow others to see the success of Soles4Souls through the eyes of its founder and leader, Wayne Elsey.

Grounded in the language and practice that exhibits a fundamental difference between Soles4Souls and charity or nonprofit work in general, you will see that the ingredient to success is action. Wayne’s intent is to inspire others to do something (i.e. take action) to improve the world is some positive way. Whether such action be a small act of kindness to another person or creating an entire enterprise around solving world problems, change doesn’t take place until someone takes action.

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Over the last six years, I’ve written four books. Three of them were written with a guy much smarter than I am. All of them involved a traditional publisher. Through that process I’ve made several good friendships with folks in the publishing industry. This isn’t about those friendships. This is about a growing frustration I have with a broken system.

The current book publishing system completely frustrates me.

• The author can’t initiate the process on his own. It typically involves engaging a literary agent to essentially pimp you and your writing services to publishers.
• Publishers are unwilling to tackle non-traditional projects on non-traditional topics because of the underlying fear they currently experience surrounding their ultimate demise.
• Once the publisher gets involved, the author begins to lose part of his voice as the publisher drives the content and branding of the project.
• Unless your name is Joel Osteen or Rick Warren or Andy Stanley or Max Lucado, then writing a book is very unlikely to profit you much more than the hourly wage of a Wal-Mart employee. It’s a lot of work for very little financial reward.
• The process of writing a book with a traditional publisher takes forever. If I started writing today, it’s very likely that you wouldn’t see the book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble until sometime in mid-2012. If your thoughts are time-sensitive, you’re out of luck.
• Traditional publishing requires lots of overhead expenses including agents, acquisition staff, editors, graphic designers, marketing directors and publishing executives. And, they are the middlemen who have the relationships with the printers, distributors and bookstores. Each of these people and entities grabs a piece of the pie leaving the author with a very small portion of the profit.
• In the current model, there’s no room for non-traditional formats. Books are expected to look a certain way and contain a certain amount of words. That creates barriers for those of us who communicate primarily through social media. My audience doesn’t show up at a conference to hear a keynote and then purchase a hardcover book. My audience is on Twitter and Facebook and very willing to share an idea if it’s presented in a format that can easily be forwarded to a friend.

With all of that in mind, I’ve been having some great conversations with Ben Stroup over the last several months. When our efforts to find a publisher for my most recent book project stalled, Ben and I began talking about doing something completely different. Since “we were on a break” with the publishers, we decided to start seeing other people. (Regrettably, only “Friends” fans will find the humor in that.)

We’re not waiting two years to get a book in your hands. In fact, it’ll likely be less than two months. (Ah, I love having agressive goals.) And, it’s very likely that instead of just one book being released in 2011, it’s going to be multiple books.

I’ve been wondering for several years if it’s possible to spread ideas and generate a platform without a book publisher. I’m tired of wondering. I’m ready to test the waters. My theory is that, without a publisher, I’ll be able to distribute my writing to more people and make more money than I would with a book publisher.

By the way, this little experiment has nothing to do with making money. Yes, I want to use this experiment to prove that a new process for distributing my writing will be profitable. Emily and I have decided, though, that we will be giving away 100% of the profits from this project. (More on that later.)

With that, I better get to work. The clock is ticking. My writing deadline is fast approaching. For the publishers who are reading, just remember…

We were on a break!