John Cerasani was excited to get a job in the “real world.” After attending two prestigious universities, Northwestern and Notre Dame, he was geared up and ready to enter white collar America. He got a job in business-to-business sales and quickly rose as a top performer, later pivoting to another end of the same industry with another employer. He was doing well and was respected. He had the job title, the assistant, the office with a view, but he also started developing doubt. Major doubt. He was only 27 years old when he realized that Corporate America was filled with smoke and mirrors. There was evidence of brainwashing that suggested employees couldn’t achieve this type of success as an entrepreneur, and John discovered that everything was put in place to trick both employees and clients to believe that bigger is better when, in fact, that isn’t the case at all. This eventually led to his selling the company he started from his kitchen for tens of millions of dollars. In 2000 Percent Raise, John uses his experiences in leaving Corporate America to compete on his own as a step-by-step guide for the reader, giving them the ammunition to pull the trigger in not only reevaluating the pitfalls of working for someone else, but also how to be successful against much larger employers when working for themselves.

Organizations, like people, are creatures of habit. They tend to approach problems in predictable ways. This revolutionary book argues that such ingrained habits, which often masquerade as efficient procedures, actually obstruct growth. The 2,000 Percent Solution introduces "stall busting," a process that shows you how to recognize typical stalls (like poor communications, disbelief, misconceptions, procrastination, tradition and bureaucracy) and how to overcome them. Through unorthodox examples ranging from the sinking of the Titanic to sketches attributed to Leonardo da Vinci for a bicycle, The 2,000 Percent Solution redirects knee-jerk reactions onto more productive paths. In addition, you'll learn about a new set of thought processes for designing and implementing solutions that will reap benefits 20 times greater or faster than the same tired "normal" solutions. Packed with specific examples, advice and questions to help you improve your organization's process weaknesses, you'll learn how to go beyond today's best practices into the uncharted realm of what needs to be imagined and accomplished. Since the first printing of this book in 1999, organizations all over the world have made The 2,000 Percent Solution a daily resource for overcoming the dual challenges of tough competitors and a difficult business environment. We are particularly pleased that the book has become popular in the rapidly growing and changing markets of China. Readers say the advice and examples are as timely today as when the book was first published. We look forward to hearing your comments and questions at [email protected].

After thinking about the possible contents for the book over several weeks, Donald Mitchell was surprised to be awakened at 1:30 a.m. on May 19, 2009, by a voice that dictated to him in great detail what should be in this book. This dictation continued for many hours and finally paused for him to begin asking clarifying questions, which were then answered. The instruction lasted over six hours. In the Introduction, Mitchell notes, "From that experience, I believe that by writing this book I am merely serving as a fleshly vehicle for a message from the Holy Spirit that is intended for all people on Earth. I pray that I have been faithful and accurate in sharing with you what I was directed to write." 2,000 Percent Living presents fourteen Godly lessons that you can apply to accomplish at least 20 times more in every aspect of your life, while using less time, effort, and resources. As a result, you will focus more on what's important, spend a lot less effort on what isn't important, and achieve more satisfaction from your efforts: 1. Accept Salvation. 2. Cleanse your mind. 3. Pick better objectives. 4. Increase focus on your objectives. 5. Gain knowledge faster. 6. Obtain more helpful knowledge. 7. Create a 2,000 percent solution. (Achieve 20 times more with the same or less time, money, and effort.) 8. Teach others to make similar breakthroughs. 9. Create a new 2,000 percent solution annually. 10. Improve your breakthrough solutions. 11. Link seven complementary 2,000 percent solutions to add enormous benefits. 12. Increase benefits for those who cannot help you. 13. Draw 20 times closer to others. 14. Check your conduct to please God. 2,000 Percent Living is the tenth book published for the 400 Year Project (www.fastforward400.com and Adventures of an Optimist) designed to accelerate human progress by 20 times from 2015-2035.

Supplements The 2,000 percent solution.

The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of: - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa - $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil - $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri - $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!) - $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California - $1 million for ornamental fish research Funny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!