Jeet Banerjee – Entrepreneur

Jeet Banerjee is a serial entrepreneur, having started StatFuse and Visionary Media Group. He’s also given a TEDx Talk. These are his good things.

Good things to read.

The Millionaire Fastlane, MJ DeMarco.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki.

TechCrunch.com every morning.

Good things to watch.

Shark Tank.

The Wolf of Wall Street.

Rounders.

Good things to use.

HootSuite.com. Simplifies my social media life by making it easy for me to manage the multiple accounts I have.

Wunderlist. Reminder style app that allows you to create lists, organize priorities and get stuff done efficiently.

My Fitness Pal. Keeps me healthy and in-shape by giving me in-depth analysis on the food I eat.

Connect with Jeet on Twitter, @TheJeetBanerjee.

Deacon Hayes – Well Kept Wallet

Deacon Hayes is the financial expert at Well Kept Wallet where he helps people through writing, consulting, and coaching. These are his good things.

Good things to read.

Good to Great by Jim Collins. This book dives into what makes “good” companies “great”. I have learned so much from it as a business owner, however, there are many ways that you could apply the principles of this book to your everyday life. One of the things that stands out the most is the Stockdale Paradox. James Stockdale was a POW that eventually got his freedom. Collins says in his book,”You must retain faith that you can prevail to greatness in the end, while retaining the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality.” It is important to be optimistic about life but you also have to embrace the reality of your situation to move forward. So many people are unrealistically optimistic and end up going bankrupt or going out of business.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This book is great because it is an in-depth study of people that are Outliers like Bill Gates, The Beatles, etc and why they were so successful. One of my biggest takeaways was the 10,000 hour rule that states in order for you to be an expert at something you need to put in at least 10,000 hours. From Gladwell’s research all of these people did just that and it shows that if we want to be an expert at something, we have to invest the time to make that happen.

The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz. I am reading this right now and there are many similarities to the first book I mentioned Good to Great. However, he really focuses on how to be good at something by following the example of growing the biggest pumpkin. In a nutshell, in order to grow the biggest pumpkin you need to plant with the right seed and get rid of the unhealthy pumpkins and focus only on the one that has the best chance to win. This helped me to re-evaluate my business and weed out the “bad pumpkins” so that I can focus on what will really give me the best results at the end of the day.

Good things to watch.

Shark Tank. I love this show because it highlights what investors look for in a a business to which they are willing to invest capital. If you are an entrepreneur or just love hearing about new business ideas, I highly recommend checking out this show.

I’m Fine Thanks. This is a documentary about complacency in America. A crew of guys drives around the United States and interview people from all walks of life that at one point were miserable with the way that there life was going. Then they decided to do something about it. To stop being complacent and pursue something that they loved. One guy goes from being a lawyer to being a Yoga instructor in NYC and loves it. Another guy decided to buy a school bus and live out of it with his family. It is a great movie that helps you think outside the box of how you can actually start pursuing your dreams today.

Pitch Perfect. This movie is about College students who compete in A Capella. It doesn’t sound like much, but the classic one liner’s along with the song choices for this movie make it a great watch. If you are into music and enjoy a good laugh than this is a must see.

Good things to use.

My Fitness Pal. Tracking what I eat and my exercise routines is super helpful for me to stay fit and hit my health goals. This app allows you to scan the bar-codes of your food or just manually enter in the info so that you can monitor your eating habits so you can stay on track. It also allows you to enter in your exercises so that you can track you strength training and cardio as well.

Google Calendar. If it wasn’t for this calendar I would be lost. It reminds of meetings that I need to go to ahead of time, it tells me when people’s birthdays are, I even use it to enter tasks that I need to get done so that I remember to do them. It is truly one of the most useful apps out there.

Audible. I am an auditory learner so this app/service is amazing. I get one audiobook a month and I can listen to it anywhere I go through my cellphone. I even have a bluetooth radio in my car so I can listen to these books with ease while driving. If you like to listen to books instead of reading them, this is a good resource.

Chris – Founder of FollowUp.cc

Chris is the founder of FollowUp.cc, which enables you to set reminders on emails you send, snooze the emails you have for later and schedule tasks right from your email.  It’s something that every inbox needs these days, here are his good things.

Good things to read.

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. Really contrarian and interesting book about the way the world works and how wealth is created from massive shifts.

The Einstein Factor by Richard Poe. Ways to better your brain through different techniques. Image Streaming is amazing on what it does for cognition and vocabulary.

Paranoia by Joseph Finder. A fun corporate espionage thriller, great summer read and the movie is coming out in August with Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman.

Good things to watch.

Shark Tank (TV). Definitely gives a semi-realistic view into the dynamics of talking to an investor but most of all is inspiring to see people’s ideas, their execution, and their success

In Time (Movie). Certainly no oscar winner, but a really interesting movie about time being the currency for material goods and life itself

Can We Eat to Starve Cancer (online). Really interesting research on how food protects us from disease, worth the watch for anyone who’s ever wondered if their diet matters

Good things to use.

FollowUp.cc. I’m definitely not shy to suggest my own service because I literally couldn’t function without it, and my inbox would be a mess. I set about 250-350 reminders per month and there are customers who use it way more than that. It’s basically the missing piece of every email system.

Rapportive.com. The best plugin for Gmail to see who you’re emailing and their recent social updates

F.lux. This app removes the blue light from your laptop/monitor to mimic the sun setting. We spend too much time on electronics at night and this affects a lot of people’s circadian rhythms, so it’s a great app to automatically solve that problem as we continue to use our gadgets at night!

Get more Followup.cc news on Twitter, @followupcc.

Carrie Smith – financial strategist

These are Carrie Smith’s good things.

Good things to read.

The Start-up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. This book makes up my top five list of books I’ve read in the past two years. We all need to invest in ourselves to be successful — to treat our lives and careers as a start-up!

Dream Save Do by Warren and Betsy Talbot. I already read the first edition of this book and fell in love with it, but the second edition is even better. If you want to turn your dreams into a living, breathing reality then this book will give you the tools you need to succeed.

The Pumpkin Plan by Michael Michalowicz. This book is a fantastic combination of all the business books out there. All of the best but simple business principles are wrapped up into this book, with some excellent analogies to learn from.

Good things to watch.

ABC’s Shark Tank. I’ve learned a ton of business lessons from this show. The most important one, is to know your numbers — no matter what kind of business you run, if you’re in a leadership position this is vital.

Chopped. A show about food, competition and money? Yes please! Just like in life, in order to win the prize you’ve got to be creative, work well with others and keep your cool under pressure. This food competition show is a guilty pleasure of mine!

The Cosby Show. This is a classic and Bill Cosby is by far my favorite actor. This show is lighthearted, funny and entertaining. It totally hits me with a dose of nostalgia from the 80’s and 90’s.

Good things to use.

A spending plan. Yes, as a financial geek I had to sneak that in here! Without a spending plan (aka budget) I wouldn’t be debt-free, be able to invest for the future, or save up for a month-long summer vacation this year. Seriously, a spending plan will change your financial life!

An eReader. Electronic books and eReaders are a must-have, and I would be lost without my iPad, with both iBooks and Kindle apps. Of course a Kindle or Nook is just as great too, you don’t know what you’re missing till you get an eReader.

Google Calendar. Stop trying to remember everything, keep track of everything and do everything. Write down all your to-do lists, tasks and meetings into Google Calendar. You’ll be surprised how clear your head becomes (and how much more productive you become) when you don’t have all those things floating around.

Jamie Tardy – Founder of Eventual Millionaire

These are Jamie Tardy’s good things.

Good things to read.

The Singularity by Ray Kurzweil.

Abundance by Peter Diamandis.

Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey – (pivotal years ago when I decided to pay off $70k in debt).

Good things to watch.

Shark Tank.

Jason Silva – Find his videos on YouTube, they rock!

Love Iron Man, can’t wait for 3!

Good things to use.

Sleep cycle – iPhone app that wakes you at the best time each morning.

ITA software by Google – On the fly – I’m loving looking up flights this way.

Your muscles! I think we become complacent sitting at our keyboards and staring at our phones all day! Get out there, use your body or it’ll hate you when you are old. I’m a huge fan of karate, bootcamp and yoga.

Final thought. The speed of technology is moving SO fast. Start to pay attention to new and upcoming trends so you can be ahead of the curve in business!