Wry Vita

Get Big Fast - The Amazon Story

I've been reading Robert Spector's book, Amazon.com - Get Big Fast, the story of Jeff Bezos and his world famous internet book store.  Though the reviews of the book (on Amazon!) are not that good I thought it was brilliant, so compelling that I actually enjoyed my 4am unscheduled wake-ups as an opportunity to switch the light on and read a few more pages.  Read it if you enjoy ambitious success stories and are interested in outstanding customer service.

Bezos was a high-flying Wall Street vice-president in 1994 when his research into Internet business opportunities uncovered that web usage was growing at a staggering 2300% per year and that book sales were growing faster than any other product.  When his boss rejected the idea, he tendered his resignation in order to "do this crazy thing - start his own Internet bookselling company".

Lonely Hearts

"Reflections from a Woman Alone" is the book Corinne Edwards wrote after the death of her husband but, as she says, it's less a book about being bereaved (he'd been ill for many years and her grief was spent) than about what it's like to be a single woman.

The book is sub-titled "A Light-Hearted Look at a Journey Towards Wholeness" and it's for those of us who "talk self-sufficiency but are furtively casting about for that guy who will defend the entrance to our cave".

I loved it even though I'm still more accurately trying to get the guy out of my cave.  Furtively, shhh.

Here, see if you like this short extract:

Maria's Gift

Much as I'm growing fond of that morose Swedish cop, Kurt Wallender, I have had to put down Henning Mankell's "The White Lioness" for the time being.

The young mother and estate agent we meet on page 1 is dead by page 6 and a few pages further on, an amputated black-skinned finger is discovered stuck in the ground.

I quite understand that crime thrillers have to have a bit of crime in them but quite by accident I've gone back on the Positive Mental Diet and I figure dead bodies before bedtime is probably on the 'strictly forbidden' list.

The Attractor Factor

Staying with my parents last week for a few days, my mum approached me one morning with a soft grey fleece top in her hands and asked me if I'd like it.

Just as I was looking delighted with my unexpected sartorial windfall she added by way of clarification: "I took it out of the bag for the charity shop".

She's a brilliant mum but a crap diplomat.

2006 - Your Best Year Yet?

Happy new 2006!

Is it still new on 2nd Jan?  Or have you already succumbed to  your inner gremlin baiting you to  forget your good intentions to exercise, stop drinking or lose weight?

I'm not a big fan of New Year resolutions because the perfectionist in me knows that if I mess up today, I am a lost cause and I shall simply have to be a slob for the next 364 days until I can try (and fail) again.

On the other hand...

Ain't No Use Complaining

I am such a voracious reader that I decided a couple of years ago to stop buying, and start borrowing, the majority of the books I read.  After years of being too posh to join the library, it is now one of my very favourite places and I still get a thrill knowing I can pick up loads of books (and language tapes) and walk out without paying.

But occasionally a book comes along that I have to buy and this week it was Jack Canfield's "The Success Principles".  It struck me as another "Awaken the Giant Within" (Anthony Robbins) and though I know it all already <grin>, I relish the opportunity to be reminded of all the things I could be doing and aren't, and really oughtn't to be doing and am.

His starting premise is that we are 100% responsible for the quality of our lives and who'd disagree with that?  Well, maybe some of us would, those of us who moan about how hard it is being 'me'. 

And even if - rationally - we know we're entirely responsible for the way our life is, it doesn't always stop us complaining.  Jack Canfield writes:

In order to complain about something or someone, you have to believe that something better exists.  You have to have a reference point of something you prefer that you are not willing to take responsibility for creating.  Let's look at that more closely.

If you didn't believe there was something better possible - more money, a bigger house, a more fulfilling job, more fun, a more loving spouse - you couldn't complain.  So you have this image of something better and you know you would prefer it, but you are unwilling to take the risks that would be required to create it.

Think about this... people only complain about things they can do something about...

But why don't you simply do these things?  It's because they involve risks... Making a change might take effort, money and time.  It might be uncomfortable, difficult or confusing.  And so, to avoid risking any of these uncomfortable feelings and experiences, you stay put and complain about it.

I can think of a few things I complain about (even if the complaining is often just the quiet internal voice that only I have to listen to) - my weight, my bank balance, my marriage - do I really need go on?  Interestingly, though, I would consider myself a risk-taker, I enjoy stretching the boundaries and seeing that it hasn't killed me.  On the other hand, perhaps there are some risks too scary for me to even stop and contemplate. 

So it looks like I'm not willing to take responsibility for creating something better... now that's something for me to mull over and take some action on.  I'll let you know what I decide.