Nirvana + Michael Jackson

My Home by Marc Allred & Family

Blog Archives

Good to Great Preface

Good to Great: A Preface

good to great preface

My preface to Good to Great

I often find myself bringing up Jim Collins’ book Good to Great when hanging out with good friends. My wife makes fun of me, promising to buy a handful of paperback copies, getting me to write my personal testimony of the book on the title page, and then I can give them away to friends because I’m such a believer. I think I’ll save us some money and time and I’ll just write about it.good to great

So before I dig into 7 of the main principles over the next few weeks, I want to set the stage.

Upfront, this book has changed my life. It’s changed the way I think and the way I work – I’m not kidding...

August 11, 2012 Books, Good to Great No comments
Read More

Good to Great: Why Should I Care?

Good to Great PrefaceBefore digging into some of the principles of Good to Great I want to write a bit about why I care, why I think you should care, about learning significant principles. In a broader sense, why I think I should keep writing this blog and you should keep reading. At this point, I offer three reasons why: There’s too much to experience in this lifetime, it helps in the struggle between the fear of loss versus faith in principle, and it makes life easier.

Too Much to Experience

One, like my father said in a previous posts, you cannot experience everything this world has to offer in your lifetime; as a result, you cannot learn everything there is to learn through experience through experience alone. There’s too much to read. You can’t study every field the colleges have to offer...

August 10, 2012 Books, Good to Great 3 comments
Read More
dying coals

Blowing On Dying Coals

After many life changing events, to include the passing of my father, the birth of a child, and moving my family not only across the Pacific Ocean but across the United States, I’ve remembered this blog.  Like a fire that has some dying coals still glowing, I feel like breathing some life back into this project.

dying coals

Dying coals

I’ve spent a good part of the past year or more studying leadership and becoming familiar with a range of principles I’ve found extremely interesting and valuable.  Next few posts will be about principles I’ve found valuable in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great and making the connections between those principles and other aspects of life.


August 8, 2012 Inspiration, Uncategorized 2 comments
Read More

Indie Music Show

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident.

March 15, 2012 Band, Event No comments
Read More
making connections

Making Connections: A Conversation with My Dad, Garth Allred

I realize I have a habit of constantly making connections between principles and this comes from my Dad.  He was a college professor as well as a marriage and family therapist.  I’ve been in countless scenarios whether it was academic, in the home, or in church, where he pointed out the need to make connections.  Throughout his career he has written a number of books, given countless lectures and talks, and has helped a lot of people and a good portion of it has centered on this concept.

making connections

Dad taught me about making connections

Yesterday I called him while he was in the hospital.  He’s in his mid-70s and I’m not sure he has much time left for me to ask him questions or pick his brain...

March 28, 2011 making connections 5 comments
Read More

Knowledge and Wisdom – A Conversation With Aristotle

I noticed a copy of The Pocket Aristotle on my shelf the other day.  It reminded me of an interesting section under the heading Metaphysics, where Aristotle describes the difference between and the value of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Knowledge and Wisdom

plato and aristotleAristotle describes knowledge as being an understanding of things through experience.  “For men of experience know that the thing is so.”  It’s like knowing that fire is hot, water is wet, a kiss is awesome, and the sun is bright.  This is knowledge and it can only come through experience.

However, knowledge has a shortcoming.  Just because someone may have experienced heat from a fire, wetness from water, awesomeness from a kiss, or brightness of the sun, that person is not always able to explain the why of it...

March 22, 2011 Ideas One comment
Read More

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Author: John Perkins
Copyright: 2004
Copy: Picked it up randomly at Borders. 

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Gist: John Perkins feels bad for the global economic sins of his past and decides to write Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  Perkins attempts to explain how he and a few other unnamed individuals went about the world promoting U.S. economic interests to the detriment of foreign countries.  Perkins ultimately is trying to repent for what he considers to be his past sins and in doing so is trying to explain to the world what is really going on.

My Thoughts: To be honest I can’t remember a ton of detail about this book since I read it so long ago...

March 20, 2011 Books No comments
Read More

Fahrenheit 451

Author: Ray Bradbury
Copyright: 1953

Copy: One of my closest friends let me borrow a copy of Fahrenheit 451 back in the late 1990’s when we were in high school.  My friend always has cool books and cool ideas.  Ideas from this book have been extremely influential to me throughout my life.

451Gist: Guy Montag is a “fireman” in an age where firemen start fires, they don’t put them out.  During this time period books have become illegal and anyone found with books in their home will be visited by firemen who dump kerosene on the books and house and light them up.  Montag starts to question this notion that books are bad and decides to change things.  Another important piece of this book is Montag’s wife...

March 20, 2011 Books No comments
Read More

A Wrinkle In Time

Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Copyright: 1962
Copy: Paperback from the Friends of the Kaneohe Library.

WrinkleInTime5Gist: Meg and her savant brother Charles Wallace wonder where the heck their father has gone.  He seems to have disappeared while working for the government and no one knows exactly what he was doing.  Strangers show up on a dark and stormy night and take the children to a distant planet to help rescue their father.  Come to find out baby brother Charles Wallace has a special ability to read people in a curious way and Meg has a special ability that is not totally explained during the book.  The kids experience new worlds, new dimensions, time travel, and an evil pulsing brain that tries to take away their freedom of choice.

My Ideas: This is one of the earliest novels I can remember ha...

March 20, 2011 Books No comments
Read More

True Believer

Author: Eric Hoffer
Copyright: 1951
Copy: A great friend of mine from college gave me a copy.

true_believerGist: I can’t write about this book without mentioning how amazing the author is.  Here is a link to Eric Hoffer’s wikipedia page.  Basically, at the age of 5 while his mother is holding him falls down a flight of stairs and he loses his eye sight.  He had already learned how to read and write in enligsh and german and then at the age of 15 his sight miracilously returns.  Afraid he may loose his sight again, Hoffer consumes every book he can get his hands on.  He specifically works jobs near great libraries so he can spend is free time reading the best books.  Truly an amazing story.  Suck it Good Will Hunting – you never had to go blind!

One of the results of his endless reading, Ho...

March 20, 2011 Books No comments
Read More