Thursday, October 11, 2012

"Your Mark on the World" by Devin D. Thorpe {Book Review)


Review:



"Your Mark on the World is a fast quick read with real stories of real people who have accomplished their goals and how to analyze your financial situations. I found it easy to understand, follow and hopefully accomplish my goals.  Highly recommended for everyone.

I give "Your Mark on the World" a 5 star rating.

About the Book:



Your Mark On The World combines inspiring stories of ordinary people doing remarkable things to make the world a better place with practical advice to empower anyone to give more to a cause (charity, non-profit or social venture) without giving up a career or family.


The inspiring stories include:

Botevy’s life and death struggle through Pol Pot’s killing fields that led her ultimately to create an orphanage in Phnom Penh.

Rick’s personal crusade to cure cystic fibrosis to ensure that his two afflicted grandchildren will attend his funeral and not the other way around.

The eight-member Smith family’s world service tour.

David’s decision to walk away from a successful career as an international executive to volunteer to care for victims of leprosy in rural India.

These stories are combined with practical financial advice to empower you to give more to a cause without giving up your family or your career.

The book answers these questions:

How do I get out of debt and stay out of debt?
Which charity or cause do I choose to make my donation?
How do I decide where to volunteer?
How can our family plan a volunteer vacation?
How can I save money for retirement?
How much should I contribute to my 401k?
Can I use Mint to manage my budget?
How to retire early enough to devote healthy years to volunteering?

This must-read book provides an overview of philanthropy in America and around the world, providing you with a clear picture of charity and its fruits. You’ll learn the ability to leave your mark on the world.

About the Author, Devin D. Thorpe:



In 2011 I left the corporate world behind.  I hope it is for good.

My goal is to use all of my financial experience and ability, combined with my passion for doing good in the world to help people leave their their own mark on the world.

I am merely the sum of my parts.

Let’s be clear about one thing right now.  I am not Mother Teresa or Bill Gates.  I aspire to be like them in many ways, but if you measure me by the standards they set, I will appear very small indeed.

While living in China for the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to think deeply about who I am and who I want to be.  The past year has also given me an opportunity to see the world and its problems through a new lens.  The most important thing I’ve seen is that there are huge problems in the world to which many wonderful people—people far greater than I—have devoted themselves to solving.
So my proposed contribution to the effort, is to help more people do more good in the world by writing about how we can all do more.

Now, you may appropriately ask what qualifies me to write this book in the first place.  Let me try to address that in a way that will give you sufficient comfort to keep reading this book, rather than dismissing its contents as the mindless musings of mediocre man.

In China for the 2011-2012 school year, I worked as a professor of Business, principally at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong about two hours from Hong Kong.

Previously, I worked as the Chief Financial Officer of a global company called MonaVie (#18 on the 2009 Inc. 500 with $834 million in revenue).  This job gave me the opportunity to do business in countries all around the world—I’ll never forget visiting Israel during the war in January of 2010.
Prior to that I had the opportunity to work for Utah Governor Jon Huntsman in the Utah State Government for an agency called USTAR, where I quickly learned I was not cut out to be a bureaucrat.

For the seven years before that, I owned and operated a boutique investment bank creatively named Thorpe Capital.  We operated an investment advisory business as a part of the company for several years.

Though I am no longer licensed to deal in securities, at one point I had, I believe, six such licenses authorizing me to do all sorts of work in the securities arena, including running a firm, acting as the chief regulatory officer and functioning as the chief operations and finance officer.

Previously, I served as the treasurer for a then Nasdaq-listed (now NYSE-listed) company called USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (USNA) that also conducted business globally.

Going back even farther, I operated a mortgage brokerage.  And before that, I worked on Capitol Hill, on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee, where I got a birds-eye view of financial markets and their regulation—what an education!

Speaking of education, I earned an MBA at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management after completing a B.S. degree in finance at the University of Utah.

So there you have it, a lengthy career spent entirely in finance, which explains why I approach the solution to the world’s great problems largely from a financial viewpoint.

Learn more about Devin and his books on:
Twitter - @devindthorpe or #yourmarkontheworld

Purchase "Your Mark on the World" on:





* Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Promotional Book Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by promotional Book Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.




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