Gems you learned from books - REI and others

[Jerry K.]

Brandon's thread about which books you were reading right now is very enlightening. I think a book is a good read if I can pull just one gem of an idea from a book.

I thought a good thread would be for people to tell us their "gems" that they gathered from their favorite books. I'll start with one:

Networking with the Affluent and their Advisers by Thomas Stanley. This is the author of "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind". I like his books because for a PhD, he writes in a very easy to understand format and he uses surveys for his data. "Networking..." was his 3rd book and it's more for a salesperson or entrepreneur on how to help market and attract wealthy clients.

His first two books were "Marketing to the Affluent" and "Selling to the Affluent". Both are geared to the salesperson/entrepreneur. He was a Marketing professor at the time he wrote those books based on surveys of millionaires and interviews with top sales people. There is so much to learn in these books that I constantly re-read them.

One gem (and there are many gems) from Networking with the Affluent was to pick an industry or two to focus your marketing. Then offer to write articles for their industry or association magazines on your business topic.

For example, if you wanted to find angel investors for your real estate projects, find a strong industry in your area that does not relate directly to real estate. Let's say aerospace in Seattle. Sure Boeing moved their headquarters to Chicago, but all the suppliers and manufacturers are still in the Seattle/Everett area.

You can do a quick search on Google for Aerospace or Aviation associations in Washington state. Find out their websites and look for their magazines or online newsletters. Approach the editors with a list of article topics that would interest their members. Something like "Self-Directed IRA investments", "Self-directed 401k investing in Real Estate", "Plans for your Bonus? Hands off Real Estate Investments" etc.

The idea is that you are the expert on how their members, many of whom are the owners/high ranking managers (meaning they have investable funds), can invest in real estate without having to learn the entire real estate industry. You're going to write about what they need to know to be the angel investors and how it benefits them.

Many of these associations have quarterly, semi-annual, or even annual publications. You won't need to write many articles. And here is a gem from "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss - hire somebody to write the article for you. You provide the topic maybe even the outline and the benefits you want to highlight in the article. But you hire a real writer to actually ghostwrite the article.

Your contact information is at the end of the article in your short bio. Now you have affluent individuals who are going to contact you, instead of you searching for them. That is just one gem from Networking with the Affluent and their Advisers. Not your style? There are many other gems in that book.

What are your gems from books you read?