Category: Books

Who?

Read The 4-Hour Workweek if you are interested in productivity, efficiency, or entrepreneur.

When?

Don’t rush.

Why?

It’s a good book, but not everyone loves it.

Best Quote

For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.

Review

When I first read this book in 2010, I was very impressed. Some of The 4-Hour Workweek comes across like a get rich quick sales pitch from a young guy with far too much bravado. Once you get past that though, it’s easy to see that Tim Ferriss’ book is packed full of strategies and tactics that really can help you do a better job in your current position, make yourself more efficient, and help you to progress faster in a lot of different situations.

The most important aspect of the book is actually its structure:

1. Define – Define your objectives. What is important to you?
2. Eliminate – Eliminate distractions and inefficiencies.
3. Automate – Automate your cash flow byt building something that requires as little of you as possible.
4. Liberate – Liberate yourself from everything that you don’t want to be. Don’t want to work 9-5? Don’t. Don’t want to work in an office? Don’t. This is the step where you really start reaching your goals.

Last Word

Although I prefer audiobooks, I highly recommend that you get the paper or ebook version of the expanded and updated 4-Hour Workweek because this book is much easier to digest when you’re actually reading it, and the expanded and updated version has actual case studies from Tim Ferriss’ readers demonstrating the viability of his approach in many other circumstances.

Who?

Anyone that has never taken a marketing class should read this book.

When?

As soon as you begin doing any marketing or product development work.

Why?

Positioning is a great Marketing 101 explanation of branding, extending, and even developing a product.

Best Quote

Today’s marketplace is no longer responsive to the strategies that worked in the past. There are just too many products, too many companies, and too much marketing noise.

Review

If you studied marketing and/or work in it, you can probably skip this book, but if you do read it, you’ll probably enjoy it. I found the stories and examples rather simple, but the person that said I must read it, and isn’t a marketer by the way, thought it was amazing. The thing that marketers will enjoy in this book is all of the solid stories about how large brands tackled their problems.

Some main points that really stick out:

1. Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your customers say it is.
2. People are inundated with information and attempts at communication. Forcing your way into someone’s life will almost always not work.
3. Change minds by simplifying your message.
4. If you can’t win in your category, create a new one. For a more recent example than the book gives, this is what Tim Ferriss did when he made up “lifestyle design.”
5. 80% of learning and sensing is done visually, so make your product visually attractive. I don’t know if this had a name when Positioning was written, but I recommend researching sensation transference.

Last Word

Even though you might find yourself thinking, “Yeah, I know this already,” Positioning is a great reference book to have on your bookshelf. I will recommend it to young marketers I work with in the future, and I recommend it to you.

Who?

Anyone interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, or management.

When?

No rush.

Why?

It’s an interesting book from a successful, serial entrepreneur.

Best Quote

Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).

Tied with

Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins.

Review

Tony Hsieh writes in Delivering Happiness that he wanted to complete it without a ghost writer, which is admirable in a way, but ultimately, it shows as the book wonders, has odd tangents, and does not keep a consistent tone or message. Despite those problems though, Delivering Happiness is a valuable read and one that I recommend to many people.

Tony is a serial entrepreneur – having seemingly stumbled into a dot com advertising success early in his career, made an attempt at running an investment fund, and then moved into the leadership position with Zappos after his fund invested in them. There is a lot to learn from him, and he carries a strong message of culture, training, customer service, and passion that has been told in one form or another of the follow-your-dreams talk nearly everyone of us got several times during our youth, but of course, someone that has actually lived that and been successful always renews our belief that following your dreams really is all that it takes.

Last Word

Without a doubt, Delivering Happiness is worth reading. There are a lot of valuable lessons, and Tony comes across as a great guy. That being said, I wouldn’t put this book at the top of any reading list as I think it could have benefited from a more experienced writer.

Who?

Anyone interested in Warren Buffett, investing, the stock market, finance, and probably entrepreneurship.

When?

Put it in your queue.

Why?

Being one of the richest and most financially successful men the world, he’s someone you probably want to learn about. Also, it’s a very well written and interesting book.

Best Quote

If you are investing in your education and you are learning, you should do that as early as you possibly can, because then it will have time to compound over the longest period. And that the things you do learn and invest in should be knowledge that is cumulative, so that the knowledge builds on itself. So instead of learning something that might become obsolete tomorrow, like some particular type of software [that no one even uses two years later], choose things that will make you smarter in 10 or 20 years.

Review

From the first few minutes of The Snowball, Alice Schroeder had me hooked. She created a very well-written and intriguing biography of a highly successful and interesting man. Honestly, before I read this book (or listened to it actually), I knew very little about Warren Buffett. Now, not only do I know quite a lot, I also am interested in a number of aspects of investing, management, and entrepreneurship that I had not been before.

The Snowball is one of the most absorbing reads I have had in the last few years. Alice Schroeder takes her readers from Buffett’s childhood and filing his first tax return to owning a tenant farm in high school all the way through college, his work life, and every personal detail you could imagine. Along the way, you get some very interesting stories about people like Akio Morita (or Sony), Bill Gates, and more, and of course, there are fascinating dives into Buffett’s curious habits as well as personal stories such as him seemingly having two wives at once.

Last Word

While I would not rush out to get this book, The Snowball is a must read. Whether you’re interested in business, Warren Buffett himself, or simply a good biography, you will find Alice Schroeder’s book well worth your time.

Who?

Every entrepreneur, marketer, and product manager.

When?

Now.

Why?

The Long Tail is one of those books that puts changes to world markets in perfect perspective.

Best Quote

The three main observations:

1. the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize
2. it’s now within the reach economically
3. all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market – seemed indisputable, especially backed up with heretofore unseen data.

Review

Some people have greatly criticized this book by saying that Chris Anderson took one step too far by trying to force the Long Tail model onto market that do not conform to it. I disagree with their critiques.

Having been exposed to this idea as a result of statistics courses in college and then my work in SEO, I did not find this idea all that shocking. That being said, The Long Tail was a very impressive book. It is extremely well written, and if you’re not familiar with the topic, it is the book to read in order to help understand changes in media and marketplaces of all types and why it is that your one big bet is unlikely to succeed, but your 1,000 little bets all just might.

Last Word

Whether you agree with the critiques of The Long Tail or not, Chris Anderson’s book is a must read that will give entrepreneurs, marketers, and product managers significant insight into market fragmentation, indie success, and the growth of niche upon niche upon niche.

Who?

Everyone should read this book.

When?

At the earliest, when you’re in high school. Early in your career is best though.

Why?

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie will help you understand why, despite their best intentions, people sometimes do not do what you want, or ask them, to do. Recognizing this will help you get ahead in personal and professional situations.

Best Quote

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Review

I didn’t want to read How to Win Friends and Influence People honestly. The title makes it sound way too much like a stereotypical self-help book. “Do good things and good things will come to you,” “Think positively, and you’ll have success,” etc. Thankfully, it was not like that at all.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the most valuable books you will ever read. Applying the principles you learn in this book will help you be perceived as a more sympathetic person, make better decisions about people’s motives, and have greater insight into interpersonal dynamics.

Without giving too much away, here are a few highlights of the book:

1. Criticizing others will always come back to bite you. Use metaphors to call out others’ flaws and mistakes. This will help them see their own problems without feeling like you’re saying they have a problem.
2. You can’t influence others by telling them what you want. Ask questions. Get them to want to do what you want.
3. Most people have a huge need for sympathy from others. Fulfill that, and you will get their sympathy and attention.

Final Word

The most valuable thing you will learn from How to Win Friends and Influence People will be how to be a happy, healthy person that has happy and healthy relationships that lead you more quickly and easily to success, and while the title might make the book sound hokey, I wholeheartedly recommend that you get it and begin reading today.

Who?

Anyone interested in people, power, or politics, and anyone interested in 50 Cent.

When?

No rush.

Why?

In a similar way to how a well written biography is intriguing, this book is also an intriguing examination of the power principles that supposedly underpin 50 Cent’s life.

Best Quote

By a paradoxical law of human nature, trying to please people less will make them more likely in the long run to respect and treat you better.

Review

To me. The 50th Law is Robert Greene’s best book. The 48 Laws of Power comes across as too much of a laundry list, and The Art of Seduction made me feel slimy. I want to note though that the narrator/reader of both of those audiobook did not help at all though. This book shares a lot of characteristics with those books, but has a central character that is at least intriguing and in the public space, so reading this book makes you feel a bit like you’re getting a little insider information on 50 Cent.

I do not fully agree with 50 Cent’s worldview, but clearly, he is highly accomplished, apparently very smart, and has experiences that I will never get close to, so whether you agree with how he views the world should be a second consideration after the fact that you can easily learn a lot about how people very different from your view and experience life just by reading this book.

One of the main things that stuck out to me in this book was 50 Cent’s view of fear. Fear makes you weak. It causes you to make bad decisions, not take chances you need to in order to succeed, and take chances that you would have been better off passing on. This is one reason that 50 Cent has focused so much time on learning from others very different from him, doing things that make him uncomfortable, and not accepting weakness in those around him. Letting fear reside within himself or people around him creates more opportunities for failure.

Last Word

As I said, I don’t really view the world in the same way that 50 Cent does, but there’s a lot that you can learn from The 50th Law, and at the very least, I think that you’ll enjoy the writing and personal stories woven in.

Who?

Everyone should read this book.

When?

Now.

Why?

Even the best communicators have things they could work on, and honestly, can you say you’re a great communicator already?

Best Quote

People who are skilled at dialogue do their best to make it safe for everyone to add their meaning to the shared pool–even ideas that at first glance appear controversial, wrong, or at odds with their own beliefs. Now, obviously they don’t agree with every idea; they simply do their best to ensure that all ideas find their way into the open.

Review

I really, really liked the information shared in this book, but hated the format. It’s written as if you’re watching examples being played on on video or on a stage, so it’s very dialogue heavy with bookend analyses, and being an audiobook person, the fact that they have voice actors playing it out really rustled my jimmies.

This book really helped me to deal with some tough conversations that I was avoiding, and I wholeheartedly believe that it will help you. Start with Heart, Learn to Look, and Pool of Shared Meaning are some of the easiest concepts to remember and apply, and in just the few months since I have read Crucial Conversations, they’ve had an impact on me.

Last Word

Honestly, this is one of the better business books that I’ve read in years. It’s not revolutionary. It’s not going to bring anything to light that you shouldn’t already know, but it will give you a great walk-through of successful tactics for dealing with your own conversational difficulties and those of others, so I say got out and buy Crucial Conversations now.

Who should read The Art of War by Sun Tzu?

If you are interested in business strategy, military strategy, personal dynamics, or leadership, read this book.

When should you read The Art of War by Sun Tzu?

Early in your career. I recommend reading this in college or early into your first post-college job.

Why should you read The Art of War by Sun Tzu?

You can learn a lot about positioning yourself in your company, your group of friends, and even within your family.

Best Quote

Because it seems particularly relevant to current times:

No long war ever profited any country: 100 victories in 100 battles is simply ridiculous. Anyone who excels in defeating his enemies triumphs before his enemy’s threat becomes real.

Review

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an ancient military treatise. As such, it uses the language of battle to impart lessons that apply to many of life’s situations. The text itself is thirteen chapters, each focusing on a different style of military engagement. In the version that I read, ancient stories highlighting the strategies from each chapter break up Sun Tzu’s original text. If you are like me, this helps significantly because it is not particularly easy to relate to Sun Tzu’s text by itself, and the stories help you to work out the value of each of Sun Tzu’s teachings.

The Art of War can teach you a lot about business strategy and workplace dynamics, but the things that really stuck out were:

• Choose your battles.
• Find where others are weak and exploit that.
• Don’t fight someone head to head if you can help it.
• A little bit of brain is worth quite a bit more than a lot of brute force.

You’re not going to sit down for an afternoon and lazily thumb through The Art of War. Sun Tzu does not give a lot of explanation for his strategies and approaches, and the copy can feel very dispassionate so it’s also not going to be something that you can sit down and understand without really focusing.

Final word

I recommend that anyone interested in improving their personal or professional relationships or in working on leadership skills read this book. If you are like me, you won’t find it to be the most thrilling, but it is worth your time if you apply what it teaches you.