Blog Archives
Caution to the Wind
On May 5th, 1994, at 9.30 am on a chilly, sunlit day, Ebony, a 36ft Roberts Spray, left the safety of Lyttelton Harbour in New Zealand, to venture into the unknown, where nothing would be predictable.
The voyage plan was to follow the famous trade wind route, sailing from New Zealand to England.
All too soon, they found themselves battling their way to Sydney, Australia. Caught in a ruthless storm with no contact with the outside world, they were truly alone. All the romantic notions of the ultimate cruising life disappeared into oblivion.
Step aboard Ebony and take an adventure, an epic 15-month voyage. Experience this day-to-day passionate tale, packed with intrigue, and at times suspense. Experience the delights of the lands visited and learn more about the world of international sailing. This was a life-changing adventure, with a dramatic, unexpected, ending.
George’s Pursuit Across the Perilous Ocean
Follow George after he makes the decision to become his own boss running a small boat. Follow him through the tumultuous journey that leads him to eventually hand over reigns of a successful fleet of liners. We get to see the change in his mindset from worker to supervisor and finally, owner. It took strength, wisdom, knowledge and lots of other things. This is the story of a small business growing into a conglomerate, from a toddler to a fully legal human being.
According to research, only about half of the business started will still stand strong in five years time. This is quite sad for a world where entrepreneurship is highly encouraged. This book is meant to decrease this percentage. One will learn to grow their business from a period of feast and famine to a period where the business comfortably stands on its own, where the welfare and life of the business are not threatened by regular/normal business occurrences. Like a windfall of clients for example.
According to Ray Moore, one should not wait until the growth occurs. They should anticipate it. To successfully go through these growth moments, one requires a vision. They must also keep the business in balance. That is time, team, delivery and money. They must all be applied in appropriate proportions. One must set out the stall for growth. Managing the mindset is the final condition.
This is a short book, that means that the information is presented in a compact package. The whole book is presented as a metaphor. This makes the book highly appealing. It is useful even for those who do not like or have the time to read. It is sober advice from an experienced person. It is advice that actually makes a lot of sense. The steps and tips are easy to follow and understand. One thing that readers will definitely appreciate is that the author does not use complicated business words. He shows the reader how to manage a business without confusing them with difficult economic jargon.
The author outlines the common mistakes entrepreneurs make. He shows what happens to the business after the mistakes are made. He then turns around and outlines the proper way to handle such turning points so that fatal mistakes are not made.
This is a fantastic business guide that provides an easy to understand road-map for getting from a small flailing venture to a successful business. Regardless of the goal, it can be achieved by following these simple directions. Five stars out of five for this crash course in entrepreneurship.
Pages: 52 | ISBN: 1721213287
Death by the Jaguar
Sudden and violent loss is the introduction to this story, a war veteran and his family fall victim to a tragic and yet seemingly deliberate attempt on their lives. Our main character survives, along with the family dog, but we quickly learn the fate of his wife and son was far more grisly. When local law enforcement fail to provide the answers he seeks, our war veteran takes matters into his own hands. Answers alone will not right this; we follow the recently widowed down the rabbit hole of his own thirst for revenge, strongly driven in his pursuit.
Death by the Jaguar piqued my interest right away, a personal fan of sailing and being on the water, and I definitely enjoyed how often it returned to that setting. Either James Ruby is experienced himself or did his research, as his attention to detail regarding many basic mechanics and proper names surrounding the handling of water craft was on point. His technical skill as a writer shined through once more in regards to setting the scene. Ruby paints a picture well, giving enough focus on the characters surroundings to immerse the reader without putting too much weight in to detail. One aspect that continuously distracted me was his over use of commas. The flow of the story remained choppy throughout, thoughts consistently broken up too much by the trip of a comma.
I feel Ruby did a solid job portraying the scattered and distracted mindset of the main character, writing his portions of the story from a first person point of view. Consistently being pulled into the memories of a war veteran while he doggedly pursues justice for his family shows a glimpse of what it is like living with PTSD. I was a little bit back and forth on how I felt overall about just how quickly he gained his thirst for revenge, with little to no mourning and not even attending the funeral. However, I still felt he wrote this broken character with fair knowledge of human psychology. One thing that caught my attention was that we never seem to catch the name of our main character. I could be wrong and just missed it, but I personally find myself relating to a character better when I at least know their name.
Another issue was the repetitive interactions of Sullivan, an arrogant Chief of the local law. It seemed that with every interaction there was so much focus on this characters need to assert his station of power, his need for it to be recognized. The story itself left me wanting; the entire tale is a build up of vengeful actions, but in many respects it lacks the expected action factor, making it somewhat difficult to stay interested.
I was impressed with James Ruby’s ability to set the scene and draw the reader in, as well as his attention to detail regarding areas that the common person wouldn’t be too educated in.
Pages: 291 | ASIN: B0755JWFNR
LITERARY TITAN 