I don’t read book summaries. Neither should you. The following are mostly notes to myself for later reference, and are my interpretations.

• The first thing you sell is yourself — sell who they will be working with, sell what you have built, sell the team, and then sell the company

• People 'buy' optimists because they enjoy their company

• People value - and pay more for - the way you make them feel

• Keep the end in mind — while writing, cooking, drawing, learning, teaching, explaining etc.

• [Note to self] A comic book to manage your team

• Find your story, tell it well

• Social profiles bio framework:

  • Ask: What is your speciality? (And have one) — Deconstructing business? Good design that impacts business? Get feedback from team or spend time coming up with one.

  • Ask: What do you - or whatever you are selling - do? Write down your answer. Show it to fourpeople whose opinion you value. Ask them: Is it clear? Is it simple? Does it inspire their confidence that you are focused enough to master whatever you are selling?

  • Ask and answer: What is the difference you, or what you are selling, make?

  • Are you enviable? How can you make yourself enviable?

  • Before you try to make any sale, ask: How is this person likely to stereotype me? Identify and kill the stereotype first.

• To truly thrive, learn what makes you uncomfortable

• Be grateful for your strengths, but work on your weaknesses

• Don't seek a mentor. Instead, focus on doing the things that might attract people, including mentors.

• Having a mentor is overrated; having several is not.

• People don't gather data to make a decision; they often gather it to justify their decision.

• In sales & marketing, the visuals overwhelms the verbal — People think with their eyes and people hear what they see.

• Look-up: John Molloy of Dress for success.

• Watch your visual clues, to trigger the right stereotypes

• Don't try to think outside your box; it's too hard. Instead, grow it. Bring new things in.

• If you read Vanity Fair, read In-Fisherman. If you read Tattoo, pick up an Architectural Digest. If you read People, scan The New Yorker. If you attend the theatre, catch a NASCAR race. If you'd never dream of watching ballet, listening to bluegrass, or going to a county fair, go.

• Keep reading, keep listening, keep learning.

• Educate yourself in latest topics; helps in networking, helps in holistic thinking. Go deep when it deems fit and overall become more omnipresent.

• Grooming speciality design requires upbringing like a child. Protect and collectively raise till they succeed. Else they die.

• In Human Universals, Donald Brown listed the human traits that he had discovered in every culture. His list required forty-four pages and included over 250 shared traits, including singing, dancing, joke-telling, sexual modesty, revenge-seeking, etiquette, a preference for faces with 'average' features, even the fear of snakes.

• The ability to communicate matters the most.

• With e-mail, clarity becomes more important as time has become more valuable - not least of all because staffs have shrunk. Ambiguity is expensive; it forces us to go back and forth, oven several times, to clarify our meaning and move to the next step. As a result, the ambiguous communicator represents and expense.

• Those who can express themselves in words that cannot be misunderstood have more power, and more value.

• Listening makes you captivating, fascinating.

• When you listen to someone, pause a full second before replying.

• Listen actively, in pictures.

• Just hearing ourselves articulate our problems gives us clarity.

• Acquaintances give us moments; friends give us hours; good friends give us days.

• The first rule of sales and marketing is not, "You are who you are." It is "You are who you appear to be."

• A poor teacher describes; a good teacher explains; an excellent teacher demonstrates; a great teacher inspires.

• When trying to reach an audience, talk to one, not many, from your eyes to theirs.

• How to give an excellent ten-minute speech — Write a twenty-minute speech. Cut out the weakest half: The weakest stories, the unnecessary words — your least favourite half. Then cut out a minute, and give a nine-minute speech.

• How to give an excellent thirty-minute speech — Speak for twenty-two minutes.

• Audiences love when you poke fun at yourself.

• Make presentation slides supremely visual

• Reach the head through the heart — In writing, showcase as you want to help yourself and others

• Honour each person's craving to feel important — Make them feel important in team

• Master the welcome — Onboard each team member greatly

• Best learning does not come when you read, but when you write

• Reply quickly. Do everything fast.

• "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." — Mark Twain

• "We specialise in seven areas. If your problem falls outside those areas, we will help you find the best lawyer or firm for that issue"

• People want specialists.

• Ninety percent of success is just showing up: On time.

• Above all, people choose the reliable. Be there.

• Show up on time. Make sure you have everything you need for the meeting.

• Dot the i's. Not everyone does.

• Be consistent: hours, habits, behaviours.

• If an idea doesn't make you at least a little uncomfortable, it's not an idea.

• Book recommendation: The little engine that could

• The more similar two options appear, the more important the differences.

• People aren't rational. They choose the tiny over the huge; so sweat the tiny stuff.

• Someone in Beijining on a cell phone — the person's left hand cupped over his mouth and the phone mouthpiece, so you cannot hear a word. It brings peace to everyone.

• Keep your phone calls private.

• Your package provides the cues and clues.In choosing what you wear, your first thought should not be to impress or intrigue. It should be to put the other person at ease.

• If you wear one memorable item of clothing, never pair it with another.

• How to make a great first impression — Say P.M., deliver A.M.

• Your time is previous. Devote it to people you value, and who value you in return.