Customer Reviews

Shake That Brain: How to Create Winning Solutions and Have Fun While You're At It

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The subtitle tells part of the story on this book: "How to create winning solutions." The other part: and have fun doing it. Salttzman must be a little bit wacky-as you might expect from a really creative person who guides others down the path of generating ideas and solutions. His photo on the back of the book jacket is unconventional, and so is the book.

You wouldn't expect pages of straight text in a book with a title like Shake that Brain. Instead, we have a design presentation that made me feel like I was listening to a carnival hawker. The type face changes to a bold font you might expect to see on a poster promoting a circus. Very appropriate, since the book "moves" like a circus as ideas and techniques parade by.

Each chapter in this book is seasoned with examples that bring the creative processes to life. The True Story feature and other call-outs and pop quizzes keep this book moving so it's a fast read. At the same time, the reader may be slowed by the valuable content-worthy of highlighting, page marking, and note taking.

The three parts of the book provide a sensible organization: attitude, actions (the how-to), and selling (getting others to buy into your ideas). You'll get a lot out of this book. Having read a number of books on creative thinking, problem-solving, and similar themes, it was fun to be peppered with a great refresher-with some new stuff-in an easy-to-read book.

Recommended for individual reading, as well as team reading in organizational settings.

I saw Joel Saltzman speak about 10 years and ago immediately became a fan. As soon as I saw this book, I bought it and haven't put it down since. This book will help you think outside the box and develop your own abilities in fun and productive ways. SHAKE THAT BRAIN is full of timeless wisdom but has a down to earth and engaging style. This is a laugh out loud book that is full of valuable insights and attitudes that can help you to reach your goals. If there is a better book on creative problem solving than this one, I don't know what it is. Everything in the book that I've tried works. I highly recommend this book. I'm sending it to all of my friends.

Well known speaker, corporate motivator, and creative coach, Joel Saltzman, blasts through all barriers and blocks to success in this supremely accessible and FUN book. Prepare to be whisked away on a wave of L.A. energy as the author challenges your assumptions, injects hi-test creative fuel into your system, and reminds you that achieving your goal is not only doable, it's a BLAST! Inspiring quotes (the kind you stick on your mirror or monitor) are generously interspersed with observations from the author's experience along with helpful "chapter take-a-ways". After reading this book, I'm ready to conquer the world - or at least finish the book I've been working on!

When I was reading this, I couldnt help myself from comparing it with works of De Bono, and remotely with NLP. The feeling is particularly strong on Chapter 9 'Take an "Opposites" Approach' which provides suggestions as follows:-
How am I going to do all this work? => How are you going to do all this fun?
How do I get them to return my stuff? => How do they get me to return their stuff?
How do I teach this device lots of different handwriting styles? => How do I teach the users of this device one handwriting style?
How do I get telemarketers to stop annoying me? => How do I start annoying them? pg 72

Beside the above, there are many great ideas presented in quotes, points and live stories throughout the book. I like its style and structure very much, in particular the concise "Chapter take away" in the end of each chapter is great, say, in Ch12: Ask yourself "If I were a ______ what would I do? " and "What does this ______ want to be?" and in Ch16: Ask yourself, "What would ______ do?"

To conclude, all who wanna read to imrprove their creativity for solutions will be satisfied well. A helpful and fun read indeed! Highly recommended!

Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference:-

How important is attitude? It's the difference between This is hopeless and This I can do! One will get you nowhere; the other everywhere you want to go. pg 3
If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good. - Thomas Watson, founder of IBM pg 12
Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway. - John Wayne pg 17
The older sign in an airplane lavatory read: Please do not deposit anything other than toilet tissue in toilet. The newer sign read: Depositing objects other than toilet tissue in toilet could result in airplane failure. pg 21
Good moods, while they last, enhance the ability to think flexibly and with more complexity, thus making it easier to find solutions to problems, whether intellectual or interpersonal. - Daniel Coleman, EQ pg 25
The idea is to die young as late as possible. - Dr Ashley Montagu pg 28
The more ways you pose your question the better your odds of finding the right QUESTION - and the right ANSWERS. pg 64
When Stan Lee first pitched the idea of Spider Man, his boss also had misgivings: "People hate spiders. Besides, teenagers can only be side-kicks, not superheroes." pg 94
Where all men think alike no one thinks very much. - Walter Lippman pg 100
Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless. - Mary Kay Ash pg 173

I became a fan of Joel Saltzman while reading his "If You Can Talk, You Can Write". He has a down-to-earth style, is very witty and very upbeat. Quite a nice, motivating read and quite capable of moving someone beyond a writer's block.

"Shake That Brain" is a collection of tips and techniques intended to make creative thinking easier. Typical of the broad genre of "motivation" books, Saltzman relies on many aphorisms, metaphors, quotations and the other old reliables of the trade. Add to that Saltzman's sort of unique perkiness and wit and you have a bundle of motivation coming at you.

It is hard to resist being inspired by Saltzman. He blends instantly recognizable sagacious advice (Albert Einstein: "It's not that I am smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.") then blends it with some ordinary experience and comes to a conclusion that is encouraging to the reader: you can do it!

Overall, this is a fun book, with a noble purpose - shaking your brain up and making it open to new ideas and an "I can do it!" attitude.

Jerry

First, a caveat: I know Joel Saltzman and have worked with him. Had dinner with his family. That said, I paid full price for this book because I know that, more than knowing his stuff, Joel lives it. Shake That Brain! is indeed the culmination of Joel's own life. Get a Post-It pad (mentioned in the book as one of those accidental ideas too silly to be successful--but guess what?) and jot down some of the material, then frame your computer with them. The exuberant tone is contagious, and the premise is unarguably correct: you're the captain of your own attitude, and your mind is a storeroom full of solutions and inspiration. As an admitted self-defeating (at times) nincompoop, I have used the book to fire my own ideas and it works, from questioning assumptions, borrowing good ideas and making them better, and never throwing out an idea that isn't working at the time (it can work later, as you let it germinate). It's a modern philosophy book as much as a business title, and it demands to be put into action. More than anything, the book is FUN, and not in the superficial way that sounds. Pick it up and enjoy it. It's better than therapy, drinking, or basketball (well, professional basketball anyway). And it's fuel for your own weary but indomitable enthusiasm. Highly recommended, and I have nothing to gain from this except a better way to look at things.

Always looking for something to jar my thinking to another place or level and this book did it. Its probably not for everyone but the way it is written and the advice are solid for making you challenge your own way of thinking. If you are one of those stuck in change and not wanting to do things differently this book is for you.