“Share a Book” evenings

The Management Club recently launched another project in their series of Knowledge Development activities for members and guests by initiating a “Share a Book” evening.

Improve your Financial IQ

Kicking off this initiative at the Management Club at Galle Face hotel, TMC’s founder member and member of its Board of Management V. Satyendra, reviewed the book “Increase your Financial IQ” by Robert Kiyosaki.

It turned out to be a very interesting and educative evening for those who were present as the presenter also shared his personal experiences, over a successful career spanning over three decades.

One interesting element of the book that came to light was that money does not make one rich but it is only the way you use your financial IQ that would make you successful. According to Robert Kiyosaki the five basic measurement criterion of Financial Intelligence were how you make more Money, how you protect your money, how you budget your money, how you leverage your money and how you improve your knowledge on financial information.

Kiyosaki in his book says that as every goal should have a process to achieve it, hard work will be an essential requirement in trying to make more money.

The 7 Bs

To protect your money the 7 Bs, namely the Bureaucrats, the Bankers and the Brokers, Businesses, Brides and Beaus, Brothers in Law (death will, trusts etc) and Barristers, will have to be tactfully handled.

It is more important to budget for the excess of income over surplus than to budget for the excess of expenditure over income in Kiyosaki’s opinion and the important concept is to accrue assets with a greater degree of control and leverage.

The book also describes that the most important asset one can have is ‘good knowledge’ while poor or mistaken knowledge is a liability and that it is not the physical assets that make one rich but it is the information that makes you rich ..... or poor.

Civilised workplace

The second in this TMC “Share a Book” series was presented by the Immediate Past President of its Board of Management, Col. Faiz Ur Rahman, who reviewed an interesting book by Robert Sutton on Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving one that Isn’t

This too turned out to be an interesting and thought provoking evening for those who were present as Col. Faiz drew comparisons from his personal experiences to what was described by the author in the book.

In his book Sutton explains how a jerk would make people who have no power to retaliate, feel small in front of their colleagues thus having to change their behaviour patterns after experiencing such unpleasant circumstances.

It was said that being treated by superiors like this is a phenomenon that every one has to survive with, as all individuals display these traits at one time or another in their lives.

If a person sees his co-workers as his competitors and believes that the best way to climb the ladder is to push other people down or out of the way then that person possesses two of the major characteristics in contributing to an uncivilised workplace according to what is revealed by Sutton in his book. TMC plans to continue these “Share a Book” evenings on a regular basis in view of the enthusiasm that it has so far generated among members and their guests.