Book Review: Love Is the Killer App

The Big Idea behind Tim Sander's (former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!) first book is very "proverb-esque": You can win business and influence friends by being a lovecat.

So, what is a lovecat? Sanders defines lovecats as those "Nice, Smart People" who cheerfully share their intangibles with others: their knowledge, their network and genuine compassion.

By knowledge, Sanders means any insight or reference which can help another person succeed (or just get ahead) in life and/or business. At the top of the heap is book referrals. Books, he says, should be your diet staple because they are the complete thought-meal. Magazine articles are between meal snacks. The news media are like candy and soda. Books give you knowledge. The news gives you awareness. His advice: Devour as many books as you can and spread the knowledge far and wide.

By network, he refers to your contacts. I couldn't help but wonder as I read this book whether or not "LinkedIn" was inspired by Sanders' book. If you understand LinkedIn (the way it is brilliantly explained by Lee LeFevre of CommonCraft), then you understand the heart of this section in Love is the Killer App. He asserts that the nodes in your network can accomplish almost anything for you. For Sanders, the purpose of collecting contacts is to give them away--to match them with other contacts. Therefore, he says, collect them, connect them and then get out of the way of the new relationship. And do it all with no strings attached.

By compassion, he simply means that you take a genuine interest in others and then show them that you care in whatever manner is appropriate for the particular context. By expressing your compassion, you create an experience that people remember. When people remember you, it's good for your business. The "P.S. I Love You" has a great thought Sanders paraphrased from Dale Carnegie: You can accomplish more in two months by developing a sincere interest in other people than you could ever hope to accomplish in two years trying to get people interested in you.

About a 5-hour read for me. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Broad applicability, whether you are in the 8-5 or not.

You can read all of my book reviews here.

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About Eric Wilbanks

Brand strategist. Wordsmith. Change architect. Training specialist. DiSC Certified. Family guy (hot wife and 4 cool kids). Love my Bible, guitars, baseball, and MMA.