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Kevin and Debra Rollins Center for eBusiness - Love is the Killer App: How to win Business and Influence Friends
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Love is the Killer App: How to win Business and Influence Friends

Love is the Killer App: How to win Business and Influence Friends

Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!

A book review by D. Richard Dance, CPA and President/CEO of upChannels
and Jeffrey Dance, Consultant at upChannels in Seattle, Washington
Copyright upChannels LLC

February 2002

We interrupt this constant stream of e-business book reviews to bring you a new book released on February 14, 2002 entitled "Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders. This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to build a lasting foundation for his or her e-business. Sanders writes this book to offer a counter-proposal for business success. He says that success is NOT crushing the weak, disdaining people who are not as smart, protecting everything you know, and always being hostile and battle-ready.

Introduction:

Sanders writes this book to offer a counter-proposal for business success. He says that success is NOT crushing the weak, disdaining people who are not as smart, protecting everything you know, and always being hostile and battle-ready.

He proposes that we become "lovecats" who offer wisdom freely, give address books away, and are always human.

To get there, he proposes three steps:

  • Increase your knowledge
  • Expand your network
  • Share your compassion

This becomes the crux of the book.

Contents:

This book is organized as follows:

Introduction - The Main Idea

Section I - The Lovecat Way
Section II - Knowledge
Section III- Network
Section IV - Compassion

Afterward - Nice Smart People Succeed (NSPS)
Appendix - The Ten Must-Read books
Acknowledgements - Thanks

Book Section Summaries:

Section I - The Lovecat Way

Tim starts off section I with some powerful thoughts. Check out these two:

"Love is the killer app. Those of us who use love as a point of differentiation in business will separate ourselves from our competitors just as world-class distance runners separate themselves . . . "

"Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other" - Milton Mayeroff's 1972 book On Caring.

He then gives his definition of love in business to be "the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing intangibles with your bizpartners" of which the intangibles are knowledge, network, and compassion, of course. You will not want to miss his detailed definitions of knowledge, network, and compassion on pages 13 - 18. "Eye Opening" is my description of them.

Sanders also delineates six benefits of being a lovecat on pages 36 - 55. These are useful except for six pages on the D.R.E.A.M. concept, which I felt was an unnecessary sidelight.

Section II - Knowledge

This was the highlight of the book for me. I can tell by the number of personal notes and ideas that flowed while reading it.

Sander's basic experience with life has taught him that books, specifically hard cover books, give him knowledge (which is forever) and news gives him awareness (which is finite).

He gives a practical four-step program designed to make knowledge work on pages 71 - 110.

His 14-page discussion and examples of how to encode and process knowledge is worth the price of the book by itself.

Anyone that wants a concrete example of an effective system for knowledge accumulation should focus specifically on understanding and applying this section. I can't say enough about it. If you don't have something similar to it in your professional habits, there is a hole that needs to be filled. Start here, there is plenty of material.

Section III - Network

Sanders says, "While networking may seem like a random process of meeting people, recalling names, scooping up business cards, and eating an occasional meal, you'll do best if you follow a system such as mine… composed of collection, connecting, and disappearing."

Thus begins the section on networking. He adds five tips on how to be a great collector. For some reason I didn't feel the advice on networking was quite as potent as his advice on knowledge collection, which was so revelatory (probably because we've all heard of the importance of networking before). This does shed more light and examples on the subject and is good material to review and execute.

Section IV - Compassion

Sander's big thought in section IV is, "By expressing your compassion, you create an experience that people remember. When people remember you, it's good for business."

He quotes the late Mother Teresa saying that "the greatest disease of the West is not tuberculosis, or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, uncared for."

Sanders goes on to help us understand that compassion is a two-part process involving sensing and expressing. He covers this on pages 163 - 176, and then covers three insertion points on when to share compassion.

This has relevance in the business and in the home.

What Did I Do?

This book had a very motivating, positive impact on me. It reinforced certain ideas and habits I've had. Being an early convert to the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute in my seventh grade of school helped me become the valedictorian in my high school in Seattle. So what did I do? I bought out all the copies of the book at every Barnes and Nobles store that I could find in the Seattle and Bellevue area and have begun shipping it off to as many friends as I can afford to. I would suggest that you consider doing the same.

Where to Obtain the Book:

It can be purchased directly from the following sources:

Random House website (www.randomhouse.com)

Love Is the Killer App Tim Sanders. Hardcover | 0-609-60922-X | $21.00
Love is the Killer App Tim Sanders and Gene Stone. Audio Cassette | 0-553-71285-3 | $29.95
Love is the Killer App Tim Sanders and Gene Stone. Audio Download | 0-553-75569-2 | $17.95
Love Is the Killer App Tim Sanders. eBook | 0-676-79390-8 | January 2002 | $16.95

Amazon.com website (www.amazon.com) Hardcover | $14.70
Booksamillion website at (www.bamm.com) Hardcover | $14.70
Barnes and Noble website (www.bn.com) Hardcover | $14.70

Find out more at timsanders.com:

At Tim Sander's web site you can engage in the following activities:

  • Read a bio of Tim Sanders
  • Watch Sander's video that outlines the core messages of his book
  • Sign up for his monthly newsletter
  • Listen to Sanders on an audio download
  • Find out about his book tour

Conclusion-Why you should buy this book

One of the testimonials by Jim Notarnizola of Blockbuster forms the pattern for my conclusion:

Tim Sanders writes with an enthusiastic and provocative style. His book mixes one part universal truth (love is the answer), with one part original observations (use knowledge, sharing, and caring to win business and influence friends) seasoned with 34 sound bites from some of today's best business thinkers. It's definitely worth a taste; in fact, it should be a meal for anyone that wants a lasting foundation upon which to build an e-business practice. It is another one of those books that we encourage you to buy and mark up extensively according to the Time Sander's way.

Standard Information about UPCHANNELS LLC

UPCHANNELS LLC is a spin off from SoftResources. UPCHANNELS helps the software industry (vendors and VARs) provide the best possible experience for their customers (end-user). They establish and help emerging companies achieve all the necessary ingredients for success, whether it is sales and marketing, product advisory, operations, training and certification, or end user conferences. Their products and services include custom consulting, boot camps, tapes and CD's, pamphlets and white papers, VAR support, and subscription channels of knowledge. For more information, visit www.upchannels.com.

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