Next to the exhortation at the beginning ofMoby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudicemust be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing the intricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British mating rituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye. As usual, Austen trains her sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, the Bennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley, a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is even richer. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival as an opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley is complaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy, however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and the untoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see the true worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive pride offends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other people have to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in the village, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall on fertile ground.

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

A brand new collection of essential insights for your business and career from world-renowned experts…now in a convenient e-format, at a great price!

Get results! Master breakthrough communications techniques for every audience and every medium—from PowerPoint to face-to-face conversations! Learn to succeed at everything from making a great first impression to communicating complex data…listening effectively to managing a flood of email!

From world-renowned leaders and experts, includingJerry Weissman,Mark Magnacca,Terry Fadem,Jurgen Wolff,David M. Levine,and many more

Included in this collection:

• Less Is More: The Proper Use of Graphics for Effective Presentations(Jerry Weissman)
• Grabbing Your Audience’s Attention Immediately: If You Don’t, Your Presentation May Be Doomed(Jerry Weissman)
• Don’t Make Them Think!: Creating the Best Flow for the Elements of any Great Presentation(Jerry Weissman)
• Grab Your Audience’s Attention: First Impressions Set the Presentation On—or Off—Course(Mark Magnacca)
• Presenting to Win: How to Use Animation Effectively to Tell Your Story(Jerry Weissman)
• Presenting Data in Charts and Tables: Categorical and Numerical Variables(David M. Levine and David F. Stephan)
• How to Get Your Presentation Audience to Aha!(Jerry Weissman)
• Capturing Your Audience Immediately (and You Are Off to a Great Presentation!)(Jerry Weissman)
• Great Questions: The Most Important Tool in a Manager’s Toolbox(Terry J. Fadem)
• How to Guide Conversations Toward Extraordinary Results(Jurgen Wolff)
• Unasked Questions Are Foolish Ones(Terry J. Fadem)
• Create Your Personal Questioning Style(Terry J. Fadem)
• How to Keep the Email Monster from Eating You Alive(Jurgen Wolff)
• How to Ask the Best Probing Questions(Terry J. Fadem)
• The Role of Listening in Asking the Right Questions(Terry J. Fadem)

Currency trading offers immense potential to stock and futures investors seeking new speculative opportunities. However, there are several ways to trade in currencies, and many unsuspecting traders have been burned by aggressive marketing campaigns and gimmicks luring them into unfavorable trading environments. In this book, best-selling trading author Carley Garner covers everything new currency traders need to know to avoid those pitfalls and start earning big profits.Currency Trading in the Forex and Futures Marketsbegins by demystifying all the essentials, from quotes and calculations to the unique language of Forex trading. Readers learn all they need to know about choosing trading platforms and brokerage firms; working with leverage; controlling transaction costs; managing liquidity, margins, and risks; and much more. Garner thoroughly explains the currency spot market (Forex); currency futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME); and currency ETFs. She candidly discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each, cutting through the "smoke and mirrors" often associated with currency trading. Readers will also find a full section on currency market speculation, including a clear introduction to fundamental and seasonal analysis in currency markets. With her guidance, new currency traders can identify the markets and approaches that best fit their objectives, and avoid the pitfalls that have often victimized their predecessors.

Money: some people just seem to know how to get it -- and keep it! What's their secret? What do they know that the rest of us don’t? They know the "rules of money": the "golden behaviors" that create wealth and make it grow. Anyone can learn the rules of money. You could learn them by spending years watching rich people up close... or you can learn them all right now, with Richard Templar’sThe Rules of Money, Expanded Edition. Templar -- author ofThe Rules of Lifeand many other best-sellers -- has brought together 107 easy wealth-generation techniques you can start using instantly! Now updated and expanded with 9 brand new rules, Templar's rules address everything you need to know about money: how to think wealthy, get wealthy, get even wealthier, stay wealthy, and share your wealth. You'll find great up-to-the-minute advice on saving, spending, and investing, and enjoying your money, too. You'll discover why your money beliefs might be holding you back; how to see wealth as a friend, not the enemy; how to make money without compromising your ethics; avoid envy; make a plan; get your current financesunder control; master deal-making and negotiation; discover opportunities nobody else sees, and much more. Templar's bite-size advice isn't just fun to read -- it's easy to use, too!

Michael Hyatt, one of the top business bloggers in the world, provides down-to-earth guidance for building and expanding a powerful platform.

To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compellingproductand a meaningfulplatform.In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creatives are doing differently to win customers in today's crowded marketplace. Hyatt speaks from experience. He writes one of the top 800 blogs in the world and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. His large and growing platform serves as the foundation for his successful writing, speaking, and consulting practice.

InPlatform,Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key? By building a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now. . .  The book includes:

• proven strategies
• easy-to-replicate formulas
• practical tips

Social media technologies have changed everything. Now, for the first time in history, non-celebrities can get noticed-and win big!-in an increasingly noisy world.

Endorsements:

"I've known Michael Hyatt for more than a decade, and during that time I've seen him master just about every social media platform that's hit the scene. He's used blogging, Facebook, Twitter and more to expand his personal platform from a successful book publisher to a leading national brand of his own. Trust me, this guy knows what he's talking about-so pay attention!" -DAVE RAMSEY, New York TimesBest-selling Author, Host, "The Dave Ramsey Show"

"A generous book from a man who knows what he's talking about. Michael Hyatt has built a platform, and you can too." -SETH GODIN, New York Times Best-selling Author, We Are All Weird

"Platformis absolutely essential to delivering value. As a big fan of Michael Hyatt, I'm excited he's sharing this with you. Your job? Learn about this and implement it. Your success depends on it." -CHRIS BROGAN, President, Human Business Works, New York TimesBest-selling Author

"Michael Hyatt is the authority on creating a platform in our crowded world, andPlatformis the definitive, step-by-step guide to building a platform-from the ground up. If you're longing to become a true influencer in this world, Hyatt can teach you how. WithPlatform, Hyatt's done the near-impossible: create a guide even more useful than his wildly popular blog!" -CLAIRE DIAZ ORTIZ, Social Innovation, Twitter, Inc.

"I have watched Michael Hyatt build his own platform from the ground up to become one of the largest in the world. And he has done so with the strategies and tips he outlines in this very practical book. Any author, speaker, or small business owner who wants a blueprint for getting the attention and visibility they want, needs to read this book." -JOHN C. MAXWELL, New York Times Best-selling Author, and Leadership Expert

"Michael Hyatt is a pioneer in social media who is now generously sharing his 'secrets' with those of us who have been marveling at his success for many years. Whether you are a seasoned writer, blogger, speaker and social media enthusiast, or just now starting out, this book will help you take that next step and begin to build a platform of your own." -DAN T. CATHY, President&COO, Chick-fil-A, Inc.

"In today's world, having an idea isn't enough to land a book or record deal, get a movie made or find funding for your startup. You need a platform: A connected following that's ready to try, buy and spread the word. Finally, in a single book, the blueprint for your platform is revealed by blog wunderkind Michael Hyatt.  You'll finish this book slowly, because his simple but powerful advice will interrupt you with go-do-it-now urgency. Read it and expand your influence." -TIM SANDERS, Former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo, Author ofToday We Are Rich 

"When I finished the last page ofPlatform, I realized I had more actionable notes from the book than from any other business book I've read in years. This is the definitive guidebook for building an online presence.  Michael Hyatt, one of the pioneers of social networking and blogging, shares his successful blueprint for raising your visibility.  Learn from his experience and save yourself time, money, and frustration by following his step-by-step advice." -SKIP PRICHARD, President&CEO, Ingram Content Group, Inc.

"Yes, talent, desire and passion are key elements for success as an author, musician, artist, coach or speaker. But this book identifies the elephant in the room-the other 90% of the process necessary to have a voice in today's arena."  -DAN MILLER, Creative thinker at 48Days.net and Author of,48 Days to the Work You Love

"For the last five years, if I ever had a question about platform building, social media or standing out amidst the clutter, I turned to one place-Michael Hyatt. As an author who turned a blog into a book and made countless mistakes along the way, I couldn't get my hands onPlatformfast enough. Michael Hyatt has writtenTHEhandbook to one of the biggest cultural revolutions in the last fifty years." -JON ACUFF, Wall Street JournalBestselling Author of Quitter: Closing the Gap Between YourDay Job&Your Dream Job

"Michael Hyatt has given much of his professional career to helping others achieve their potential. And he helps others by pioneering a way and then teaching people his way. InPlatform, he's accumulated the best of his counsel and advice. If you'd like to expand your influence, readPlatformand then read it again." - DONALD MILLER,  New YorkTimes Best-selling Author of Blue Like Jazz

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.
 
Marketers at Procter&Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.
 
An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.
 
What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.
 
They succeeded by transforming habits.
 
InThe Power of Habit,award-winningNew York Timesbusiness reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.
 
Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter&Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.
 
At its core,The Power of Habitcontains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.
 
Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

The major had analyzed videotapes of riots and had found that violence was often preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza and, over the course of hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle.

When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: Could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Great Mosque of Kufa. It grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8 p.m., everyone was gone.

I asked the major how he had figured out that removing food vendors would change peoples' behavior.

The U.S. military, he told me, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history.“Understanding habits is the most important thing I’ve learned in the army,” he said. By the time I got back to the U.S., I was hooked on the topic.

How have your own habits changed as a result of writing this book?
Since starting work on this book, I've lost about 30 pounds, I run every other morning (I'm training for the NY Marathon later this year), and I'm much more productive. And the reason why is because I've learned to diagnose my habits, and how to change them.

Take, for instance, a bad habit I had of eating a cookie every afternoon. By learning how to analyze my habit, I figured out that the reason I walked to the cafeteria each day wasn't because I was craving a chocolate chip cookie. It was because I was craving socialization, the company of talking to my colleagues while munching. That was the habit's real reward. And the cue for my behavior - the trigger that caused me to automatically stand up and wander to the cafeteria, was a certain time of day.

So, I reconstructed the habit: now, at about 3:30 each day, I absentmindedly stand up from my desk, look around for someone to talk with, and then gossip for about 10 minutes. I don't even think about it at this point. It's automatic. It's a habit. I haven't had a cookie in six months.

What was the most surprising use of habits that you uncovered?
The most surprising thing I've learned is how companies use the science of habit formation to study - and influence - what we buy.

Take, for example, Target, the giant retailer. Target collects all kinds of data on every shopper it can, including whether you’re married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how much money you earn, if you've moved recently, the websites you visit. And with that information, it tries to diagnose each consumer’s unique, individual habits.

Why? Because Target knows that there are these certain moments when our habits become flexible. When we buy a new house, for instance, or get married or have a baby, our shopping habits are in flux. A well-timed coupon or advertisement can convince us to buy in a whole new way. But figuring out when someone is buying a house or getting married or having a baby is tough. And if you send the advertisement after the wedding or the baby arrives, it’s usually too late.

So Target studies our habits to see if they can predict major life events. And the company is very, very successful. Oftentimes, they know what is going on in someone's life better than that person's parents.