The core of the lean model remains the same in the new edition. All businesses must define the "value" that they produce as the product that best suits customer needs. The leaders must then identify and clarify the "value stream," the nexus of actions to bring the product through problems solving, information management, and physical transformation tasks. Next, "lean enterprise" lines up suppliers with this value stream. "Flow" traces the product across departments. "Pull" then activates the flow as the business re-orients towards the pull of the customer's needs. Finally, with the company reengineered towards its core value in a flow process, the business re-orients towards "perfection," rooting out all the remaining muda (Japanese for "waste") in the system.

After reading Lean Thinking, I'm struck by the irony that while the authors recommend removing waste from the manner by which your products are delivered to the end customer, they don't take their own advice. The text could have been distilled from 384 pages down to five or six, since there's no real substantive instruction on how to implement lean principles. Then again, maybe I completely misinterpreted the intent of the authors as to their audience and it really was written for the business historian who enjoys reading about how Pratt & Whitney started in 1855. That must be it, because after I ponder the title, I realize that Lean Thinking is for just that, thinking. What I really wanted was a book entitled Lean Doing. 5 A Roadmap for Efficient Value Creation Would you like to double productivity, cut development time by 60%, reduce inventory by 65%, reduce throughput time by 95%, reduce capital investment while doubling sales? Pre-existing assets, technologies, practices, organizations and concepts often cause enormous waste, i.e. activity which does not create value. This exciting book is about a way to do more and more with less and less - to create value instead of waste.

Lean Principles
1. Accurately understand VALUE (needs and preferences) from the customer's perspective.

2. Perform VALUE STREAM analysis. This will reveal three types of actions: 1) those that create value, 2) those that do not create value but are unavoidable in the present situation and 3) those that don't create value and are immediately avoidable.

3. After eliminating avoidable waste activities, make the remaining activities continuously FLOW. This requires the elimination of departmentalized "high speed" batch-and-queue "efficiency". It requires quick changeovers, "right-sizing" and close coupling of operations without buffers. The authors state that the results are always a dramatic reduction of effort and improvement in throughput.

4. Because of the radical reduction achieved in throughput time, you now are capable of Just In Time operations. You can now let the customer PULL the product.

5. Finally search for PERFECTION. Perfection is, of course, impossible. But the effort compels progress.

"Just Do It"
The lean approach is to "just do it" with dedicated cross functional product teams which often include suppliers and customers.

The beauty of this system is that it won't work at all unless everything works properly all the time. Thus 100% performance becomes an absolute requirement.

The authors present a number of very interesting case studies in which dramatic results were obtained. They conclude with advice as to how to get started - including a list of available resources. This book is especially well-suited to operations managers, but will also benefit any executive in a company that relies upon operational excellence as a part of their strategy.

One case in point; President Bush's tax plan has been widely criticised from the start and is gaining ever increasing attacks by certain political parties. But..the fact is that that tax plan is stimulating the economy and certainly a better choice than raising taxes.

Likewise, Robert Allen offers unique advice on how to build and create wealth. It goes against the norm of just save money. Or if you invest, buy just blue chips. Don't be an entrepneur, go to school, get a good education a good job (and a good downsizing too)

Here is another one. Just buy real estate through a broker or agent. If you can't afford a down payment, you can't afford to buy the home so just pay rent and throw your money away.

How about another one. Don't invest in real estate you may get stuck with that property (you might have a nice piece of property that will create financial independence too)

Or, MLM is just a pyramid scheme. Then ask them to explain what a pyramid and you usually get a "I don't know type of look." My usual response is to draw a chart showing the hierarchy and when they say yes, that is a pyramid, I'll say, "Oh you mean like IBM, GM, Colleges, Churches etc.?"

Multiple streams of income will help you achieve just that---multiple streams of income. You can do it with very little money or even without money.

Allen provides multiple ways to create income; internet, real estate, MLM, inforpeneuring, stock market, options, covered calls, discounted mortgages, tax liens and more.

Multiple Streams of Income is a book that is perfect for the times. Certaintly no one really believes that the words job and security go together anymore do they?

Allen provides strategies that have created millionaires and will create many more. I also recommend Nothing Down, Creating Wealth and The One-Minute Millionaire also by Allen.

ASIDE from the overall advice by Allen, his book turned me on to Network Marketing. I am a USANNA Dist and a shareholder. Enjoyed a nice 2,000% gain this year on that stock and a nice residual income while helping other people. I also like the fact that Allen teaches the WIN/WIN Philosophy something these bashers and promoters of baically overhyped.worthless books and products need to learn.

Great book Mr. Allen. I am looking forward to your next foray! 4 Mostly Sound Advice with Overstated Claims In this book, Mr. Allen gives you an overview of the key principles behind creating more sources of income. He claims to focus on opportunities on a "part-time basis," from "your own home," "using little or none of your own money," "with few or no employees," "using simple, proven systems that really work." In many cases, he describes the success that the most successful one percent will enjoy as though that is what you should expect. In other cases, he encourages you to pursue paths that could cause you to lose lots of money. Be careful!

The section on the benefits of regular investing and compound interest is one of the very best I have seen. It shows how as little as a dollar a day invested can be turned into a million dollars over a lifetime. That is followed by 50 ways to save $50 a month so you'll be able to make these investments.

He then has a good section on the money skills you need: "value" money; "control" money; "save" money; "invest" money; "make" money; "shield" money; and "share" money for worthwhile purposes (your legacy). I agree that each of these areas needs work. I do think that the "control" and "shield" sections are overdone for the average person. They are more an indication of personality that is compulsive than of necessary steps. I have known hundreds of people who have achieved financial security through their own efforts, and none of them to my knowledge employed more than a small amount of what is described in those two sections.

I also liked his "moneytree" concept for what kind of a stream of income you should try to build. I do think he makes it sound much easier than it is. I have personal experience with most of these areas, and I thought that they each took a lot of work, strain, and sweat. I also had to put significant financial resources into them before I was done.

The stock investment section is pretty good until he starts talking about buying calls. Don't do it. His advice on buying indexed, no-load mutual funds is good, but he veers off into encouraging sector funds. Don't do it unless you are very knowledgeable.

I thought the real estate section was good, but he makes it sound easier than it is to handle the human interactions necessary to get the real estate with no money down and to do the renting and fix up. Many people would find it excrutiating to do those things. Someone with a lot of emotional intelligence would find it fun. Don't forget that needed repairs can put quite a dent in your wallet, as can having deadbeat tenants (or no tenants).

The tax lien section is pretty good, and more people should look into that.

I thought the network marketing section was woeful. Yes, celebrities have an easy time with network marketing. Are you a celebrity?

I think that licensing will be too tough for most people, although it was a good idea to have it here. This is more appealing for people who are lawyers.

I wish it were as easy to make money from writing a book as he suggests.

The tax material was decent, if a little light.

Overall, Mr. Allen seems to have a need to show off. He likes to tell about his personal successes. I agree that he is a talented man. And I agree that I am not as talented as he is in these areas. So why should I try to follow his advice? Most things require skill or knowledge to do well. If he looked for things that 90 percent of the people succeed in earning a good income from with limited risk, this would have been a great book. But he keeps wanting to pull rabbits out of a hat, by describing places where a few will make a killing while most will get killed. A good example is the section on building an Internet business.

I do recommend that you read the book. But check out the ideas for their difficulty to implement, and their risk, before choosing ones to do. Generally, simpler, safer, and easier are better. If you did everything he suggests, you would have a very complicated life just taking care of your finances.

Before reading this or any other investment book, I suggest that you think through how your would like to spend your time on achieving and retaining financial security. Then, as you read this and other books, check out the ideas to see how well they coincide with your idea of what you like to do. Reject those that push you in directions that are uncomfortable for you. You probably won't follow through, or will do it badly, or will feel lousy all the time. Money just isn't worth making yourself unhappy for.

Keep money in perspective in terms of your goals for a wonderful life! 5 Escaped the rat race, thank you Robert While I admire the success of people like the reviewer who precedes mine, network marketing never really appealed to me. I tried it once back in the 70's, had a lousy sponsor who didn't teach me beans and the company I was in loaded me and other distributors with soaps, shampoo's and so on.

That said, what I like about Robert Allen's book is that he recommends network marketing as a choice but also recommends other ways to create residual income, that are low risk and low cost.

The book is a series of parables about money written in the 1920s by George Clason. They were written as individual essays of a few thousand words, but the theme throughout them is consistent -- save 10% of your money, give 10% away, use 10% to reduce your debt load, and live on the remaining 70%.

The stories in the book are entertaining; they are reminiscent of some of the parables in the Bible, such as the Prodigal Son or the story of the Workers in the Vineyard. I think this is intentional on the part of the author; certainly readers in the 1920s had an appreciation for "old fashioned stories with a moral" that people today seem to have lost. I enjoy the book greatly, though, and any thoughtful person who reads the book should find it interesting, especially if they are trying to get their finances in order. 5 FUNDAMENTAL: a portion of ALL you earn is yours to keep!' Excellent-should be required reading for all! *****

This is an excellent book. I read it back in 1998, what a pity I hadn't found it when I had FIRST started to work! It verbalises what one needs to be aware of in the management of finances. In other words it tells you HOW to acquire AND KEEP wealth!

I immediately streamlined my finances upon reading this book (completed within 3 hours). I have not looked back since!

It was a life altering moment. I am now and have been debt free with assets and savings for retirement! [Which I am still doing] I am following the plan rigorously.

Life's lessons " Help your friend in such a way that his burden does not become your own!" This little parable ahs helped me a thousand fold! " Life is good do not be afraid to spend and live niggardly" Just a *couple* of the POWERFUL stories and statements that are packed in this book.

I now give copies as Christmas gifts and wedding presents. Unlike many recent advertising marvels, this book has SOLID information that you can use IMMEDIATELY to acquire wealth!
Additionally, it has good morals and values to live by.

I read it at least once a year to keep me focused.

This one of those gems that can change your life and make you wonder...what was I doing before I was exposed to this?

BUY the book! It is money well spent. 5 Very Rich and Powerful Stories The book is just 144 pages long - I read it in 2 hours. But it took me a couple of days to let all the timeless information sink in.

I especially liked the 2nd story and the three rules it lays down:
- Live upon less than you earn and save atleast one tenth of what you earn for yourself.
- Seek the advice of wise men whose daily work is handling of money.
- Learn to make gold work for you.

These three lessons are given in a story and that makes it easier for the lessons to sink in. The other 9 stories are also interesting but the second story alone is worth more than the entire book.

Further, my investing in real estate properties, I was able to earn enough money to pay off my home in under 5 years and replace my salary from my job of 20 years.

Some of the information in "Creating Wealth" is duplicated from "Nothing Down" but there is also much newer information as well.

For example, Allen shows you the traps to avoid in buying properties with Nothing Down that most other authors ignore. HE ALSO offers scripts to use when calling home owners.

While I don't expect to become a millionaire (wasn't my goals anyway) I have achieved financial independence in that I am debt free and live very well on the income generated from Mr. Allen's strategies.

I also recommend "Multiple Streams of Income" and "Multiple Streams of Internet Income." 5 A book that will show you how to create wealth...by someone who has done it!

Creating Wealth was written back in the mid 1980's, interestingly enough, a time when the economy was very similiar to the current economy, a time when a strong republican was in office and a time when tax cuts and other powerful strategies were being introduced by the administration that was in charge at that time.

However, Creating Wealth is a good book for anytime. It offers timeless advice by Robert G. Allen, a man who has helped create more millionaires and financially successful people than anyone in history.

In this book by Robert Allen, a followup to Nothing Down which was at that time a national best seller and stillselling very well today, 23 years later, you will learn how to create a wealth building program tailored to your own individual needs.

In Creating Wealth, Allen explains the fundamental ideas and principles which made him a multimillionaire before he was thrity-five.

His surprisingly simple---and effective strategies can help any investor amass and maintain a fortune starting with little or even no money, yes, even in todays volatile financial climate.

The first step to becoming wealthly, Allen tells us, is to stop thinking poor. He shows how most of us have been programmed to think that only saving is good, debt and risk taking is bad, and that in our efforts to gain security we disqualify ourselves from ever making a substantial amount of money.

By developing the "wealthy mindset" as explained by Allen, you can launch yourself into financial self reliance. Robert Allen's practical and innovative investment advice, combined with a realistic set of goals and values along with a firm committment to getting ahead, can help you achieve a level of success you never dreamed was possible.

In Creating Wealth you will learn how to:

* master the seven principles of wealth

* develop a winning wealth strategy suited to your own unique
circumstances.

* make the opportunities come to you

* organize your life and your money to avoid taxes

* perpetuate your wealth once you have it

* retire within ten years!

The key lies in Allen's unique integration of real estate with other wealth generating investments. Creating Wealth provides detailed information on how to use leverage to multiply holdings while minimizing risks; how to take the greatest advantage of the tax system; when to diversify and in what directions, including special sections on high yield discounted mortgages, numismatics, limited partnerships, money markets and more; and how to set up corporations and trusts to protect your assets.

At a time when just keeping up with the bills and hanging on to a job is difficult, bankruptcies at an all time new high, Creating Wealth offers a system to get ahead. No matter how much or how little you've got to start with, Robert Allen's proven strategies can help you build---and keep---a fortune.

The parts of the book that I found most useful were

* The Automatic Pilot Principle

* Enormous Profits in Discounted Mortgages

* Numismatics: the secret of the Midas Touch

* Liquid Money and where to pour it

* Insulating your assets from Liability and Lawyers.

* The Win/Win Philosophy; How to achieve Win/Win Wealth
in a Win/Lose World.

Creating Wealth provides a sophisticated investment strategy that will help you achieve and perhaps even more importantly, maintain wealth.

Good writing, however, doesn't mean the book is low on strategy. It is, in fact, some of the best strategic insight into consumer behavior I've read in years. While I picked the book up expecting just another marketing tome....there's not a marketing gimmick in sight. The book is all strategy: a no nonsense recipe for success in today's challanging business climate. It shows us that the "average" consumer is no more. Everyone is "gourmet" in the categories that matter to them...and a bargain hunter those that don't. You can now sell premium price to a mass market...and win big. [just lke ... the many other companies profiled in the book].

It doesn't matter if you're in the appliance business, selling cars, producing food products, running a fast conveninece restaurant, or marketing travel services...if you don't read "Trading Up"...you're gonna find yourself traded out! 5 Outstanding view of the new way people buy I loved this book for several reasons.

1) The premise made sense from the beginning
2) They backed it up with real data and examples
3) The book was highly readable (not an academic snooze inducer)
4) The information is useful to my business

A brilliant successor to Paco Underhill's outstanding "Why We Buy."

Are people shallow if they identify with certain products or lifestyle choices? Perhaps. What this consumer trend says about people is not the issue. It's about how businesses must adjust to this phenomenon to remain viable.

The book visits the concept of "Death in the middle." The market is polarizing more than ever. The biggest successes are either the lowest cost or the highest. People are moving away from the mid-range products. Your product is either a commodity or a specialty item.

People are choosing which goods that they want to be identified with - good that define their passion and personality. They will spend a great deal more on these few items. Everything else is unimportant, so the cheaper the cost the better.

So if you are a marketer, position your products as either the lowest cost or the highest. If you are a product manager, design your products to fit one or the other class. Don't die in the middle.

However, the book offered me numerous new strategies for more effectively protecting my wealth. The best thing about the book is that it is structured in a way that will allow just about anybody to find specific, tailored advice.

Good work Jarvis and Mandell! I look forward to your next book! 5 Clear and easy read book I could not believe how easy it was to read and understand some of the complex issues in this book. The authors not only really know their stuff, but they can explain in a clear fashion. It's excellent! 3 Nice Outline But VERY LIGHT On Detail!!!! This book will be good if you want to review the components that might make up your wealth protection strategy. However, the book comes up short on the detail needed to understand those components well or to structure a comprehensive plan for yourself.

To get a feel for the lack of detail take a look at the Table of Contents, note that it seems very comprehensive but when you look a little closer you will see that most of the chapters are LESS THAN 5 PAGES! The subtopics in each chapter usually make up a single paragraph with a large font bold heading that takes up a lot of the page.

Reviewed by Ronald * Starr, experienced real estate investor.

This seems to me to be a very good book. First: while I have some land investments, I am not a land investment specialist, so I can not evaluate the quality of the opinions and techniques recommended in this book. However, I have invested in real estate for about 25 years. I could find only a couple of things with which I disagree with the author, Robert J. Abalos. And those are on theoretical matters of how to look at investing, not the specific techniques and approaches he advocates.

This is not a "rah-rah" book, trying to motivate you, as you will find in other, well-known authors' writings, such as those of Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, or Carleton Sheets. The writer does not promise quick profits, as is all too commonly done by many other authors of real estate investing materials. For instance, Abalos, recommends spending two years studying the land marketplace and dynamics where you invest. This is similar to my recommendation that real estate investors expect to spend 6-18 months studying real estate investing and their choosen marketplace before putting any money into real estate.

The main theme is to be selective in what to buy, pay less than market value, and then resale as soon as possible for a profit. I call this "real estate merchandising," as opposed to real estate investing, which is long-term holdings. There is some discussion of holding vacant land properties and of developing properties. Mr. Abalos' general suggestion is "don't," leave it to others, such as your buyers. He indicates that carefully done, land investing can provide very handsome profits in a few months. However, it can take years to become financially independent, a sentiment with which I concur.

The writing is clear and easy to read. I found a modest number of typographical and grammatical errors, which I judge do not detract from reading the text. Some sections were praiseworthyly error-free. There are some brief accounts of actual investments and investing situations. I would have enjoyed more concrete examples and would have preferred some longer case studies of specific deals. I would also prefer to have more very detailed explanations of how to deal with the problems, issues, and difficulties one could run into. However, Investing in Land provides far more than just generalities. It does offer advice on major issues of investing and alternatives to make profits. I feel there is enough information for a self-starter to go out and get started on this approach to investing.

On a five-point scale, I'd rate this book, "Investing in Land," by Robert J. Abalos, Esq., at 4.5. Amazon limits us to full-point ratings. 5 A must for any real estate developer or homebuilder My name is Tom Porchello and I've been a commercial developer and home builder for 16 years in western Connecticut. I learned about Mr. Abalos and his investinginland.com website after surfing the internet and boy am I glad I found it! His book called Investing in Land is simply one of the best real estate books ever written and that's no joke. Not just on the subject of making money with land but explaining how investors actually make money buying and selling properties. I've read them all from Nickerson to Lowry to Allen and more and this book is simply amazing and in a class by itself. One chapter recently saved me $340,000 on a land purchase. I attended one of his live seminars in San Francisco and it was memorable. The guy really knows the real estate business and makes what he teaches fun to learn. I know Mr. Abalos is one of the most respected real estate lawyers and authors on these subjects in America and it really shows. His book not only shows you step by step how to make money as a developer or investor but also discusses ethics in real estate, something rare in today's real estate world, but also asks the reader to search their own heart and always realize that money is sometimes not the greatest reward, maybe building a park, nature reserve, or preserving a farm is. I would recommend this book and his website with dozens of free articles on real estate investing and development at investinginland.com to any investor, developer, or homebuilder. This is one book on my shelf that will not be gathering any dust. 5 Cohesive, yet simple!! Robert's book is my first reading in real estate investment, and this being the subject of land investment. I have to say, it is well presented, concise, and filled with some practical suggestions and tips. I look forward to executing some of the ideas presented. I fully recognize the leveraging power of options and to me, this is the way to go. He gives some compelling reasons why land investment are much more lucrative than the typical improved real property. A bit of useful financial information is also presented