No Limits The Will To Succeed by Michael Phelps with Alan Abrahamson

No Limits the Will To Succeed by Michael Phelps with Alan Abrahamson

Michael Phelps is the epitome of his philosophy of W.I.N., What's important Now? He is the olympian with the most gold medals ever. In the 2008 olympics in Beijing he won eight gold medals in swimming. He set out to beat Mark Spitz's record and succeeded.

He tells you that this takes absolutely dedication and goal setting. He has a goal sheet which he shares with his coach and writes on every day. He practices for four hours every single day. His practice includes swimming, weightlifting, and dry calisthenics. He even trained at altitude to improve his endurance.

He also eats 8,000-10,000 calories a day because he trains so much. It is rather incredible. He does say, he includes fruits and vegetables in addition to everything else. Still it is kind of stunning.

This book is about sports and dedication to sports. He tells you his goal is not just to win at swimming, but to promote the sport for young people as well. He set up a foundation to help young people learn to swim. Michael Phelps wants swimming to be as important as basketball and baseball in the United States.

If you want to learn about building will power and overcoming obstacles this book is inspiring. When he was young, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and took Ritalin until he was thirteen. At that point he stopped determined not to need it again.

Every bit of his attitude seems to be focused on getting better at what he does. He gave up other sports like baseball and football to focus on swimming when he was a teenager because tht was where his mother thought he would succeed.

Swimming is a sport where you have to constantly beat yourself: improve your time. He claims that he does not criticize other people, he only focuses on doing better and constantly breaking new records. He wants other swimmers to raise the bar for him.

I like that he is not quite perfect. He was given a ticket for drunk driving. He also listens to the rapper Lil' Wayne and has a dog. He credits a lot of his success to his mother.

This book is about winning and going beyond all normal limits. Training, setting goals, eating, winning in a big way. Even though he comes across as low key, the results are all larger than life. He even has a street named after him, Michael Phelps Way.

Winning by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch

Winning by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch

This book is about business and how to succed in business. It is very candid. There is a certain hard edge to the book despite its very positive presentation. Jack Welch likes to differentiate the top 20% best players, the 70% in the middle, and the 10% on the bottom on the way out. A lot of this book is about how not to be in the bottom 10% despite being advertised as being how to win.

A lot of the basics of business are covered; mission statements and values, what makes a winner, how to succeed in your career, and how to have a positive energetic attitude that will lead to success. Jack Welch was very successful in his career; at the same time some people described him as being too candid and willing to fire people too quickly.

He warns people against complaining and resisting change. The best way to get out of a hard situation is to either buy in to change or move on somewhere else. He tells you that a sure way not to get a new job is to complain about your current job, underperform, and sent out resumes to everyone in existence. According to him, the best way to find new work is to improve your performance so you stand out.

There are many insightful ideas in this book which I found quite useful. Jack Welch says that many of his ideas came from working at General Electric as well as teaching and consulting after retirement. He describes how he has learned from many different people, not just fellow CEOs.

One of his ideas is that organized people automatically have better work life balance. This is because they are more able to do more at work and at home. Organization and time management are something I am working on.

The book is well organized and easy to follow. Winning was a bestselling business book. It will remain a mainstay of business reading for a long time. If you are interested in the basics of how to succeed in a career or business this book offers a lot of insight.