Book Recaps

Anything You Want:40 Lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur  By Derek Sivers  What’s Your Compass? Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced

Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide By John Cleese Creativity can be seen in every area of life—in science, or in business, or in sport. Wherever you can find a way of doing things that is better than what has been done before, you are being creative. You can teach

Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life by Donald Miller This book covers the four primary characters we played in life: victim, villain, hero and guide. When we understand this we realize we can be the authors of our own stories and shape our life into something

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect By Will Guidara This book is loaded with wonderful stories and insights on hospitality, leadership and culture. I’d recommend picking up the book since I only share a small percentage of the insights.  Essential lessons in hospitality for

Stillness Is the Key Ryan Holiday The Buddhist word for it was upekkha. The Muslims spoke of aslama. The Hebrews, hishtavut. The second book of the Bhagavad Gita, the epic poem of the warrior Arjuna, speaks of samatvam, an “evenness of mind—a peace that is ever the same.” The Greeks,

12 Notes: On Life and Creativity by Quincy Jones and The Weeknd I’m often asked what my “formula for success” is, or what my road map is to becoming (at the time of this writing) the all-time most Grammy–nominated artist, but to be honest, there is no formula or road

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Assuming you live to be eighty, you’ll have had about four thousand weeks. Certainly, you might get lucky: make it to ninety, and you’ll have had almost 4,700 weeks.  The real problem isn’t our limited time. The real problem—or so

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration By Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace  Key Takeaways: Acknowledge that you and your company have problems that are hidden from your view and work relentlessly to uncover them.  Unhindered communication is key no matter what your

BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company By Jim Collins and Bill Lazier What Is a Great Company? We define a great company as one that meets the following four criteria: Performance A great company generates enough cash flow (through highly profitable operations) to

Will by Mark Manson It’s hard to encapsulate an excellent biography so this is more of a compilation of my favorite lines and moments from the book. I honestly could not put this book down. It was witty and entertaining but also filled with deep wisdom. I wouldn’t of said

Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization by Scott Barry Kaufman Also listen to my talk with Scott – Listen Here  Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s provides a roadmap for finding purpose and fulfillment–not by striving for money, success, or “happiness,” but by becoming the best version of ourselves, or what Maslow

The Everyday Hero Manifesto: Activate Your Positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve The World By Robin Sharma Also checkout  The Greatness Guide: One of the World’s Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery By Robin Sharma The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You

Motivation And Personality By Abraham Maslow SELF ACTUALIZING PEOPLE: A STUDY 0F PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH (Their traits)  MORE EFFICIENT PERCEPTION OF REALITY AND MORE COMFORTABLE RELATIONS WITH IT  The first form in which this capacity was noticed was as an unusual ability to detect the spurious, the fake, and the dishonest

Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness By Steve Magness  Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet,

The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life David Brooks *This is one of the best most impactful books I’ve ever read Also checkout David’s exceptional book The Road to Character  INTRODUCTION  Every once in a while, I meet a person who radiates joy. These are people who seem

What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence Stephen A. Schwarzman “But I’ve always believed that it’s just as hard to achieve big goals as it is small ones. The only difference is that bigger goals have much more significant consequences. Since you can tackle only one personally defining

Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine Derren Brown THINGS ARE NOT ALL AS GRASPABLE AND SAYABLE AS ON THE WHOLE WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE; MOST EVENTS ARE UNSAYABLE, OCCUR IN A SPACE THAT NO WORD HAS EVER PENETRATED From Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria

Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Building Teams and Winning at the Highest Level Michael Lombardi and Bill Belichick 1 THE ORGANIZATION CULTURE BEATS EVERYTHING Champions behave like champions before they’re champions. —BILL WALSH Bill Walsh’s formula, what he called his Standard of Performance: an exacting plan for constructing and

The Road to Character By David Brooks You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the

50 Self-Help Classics 2nd Edition: Your shortcut to the most important ideas on happiness and fulfilment (50 Classics) By Tom Butler-Bowdon “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” William James  No matter how adverse the situation, we always

How To Own Your Mind By Napoleon Hill  Action is critical to success. But you must think before you act or your actions will be wasted. Found in all successful leaders – definite purpose, definite motive, mastermind alliance, self reliance, self discipline over head and heart, persistence, a well developed

The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life  by Boyd Varty A book filled with life wisdom that’s told through the lens of tracking lions. It can be a super deep book about self discovery and finding meaning in pursuing your own path in life. The renowned writer of the African wilderness

The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class By Robin Sharma External leadership begins with internal mastery Warren Buffet once observed, “There will never be a better you than you.” And so today, what will you do with you as you march out into

The Emergency Mind:Wiring Your Brain for Performance Under Pressure By Dr. Dan Dworkis  This book is about training to bring your skills to bear when the heat is on and wiring your brain to perform at your best during times of crisis. I wrote this book because I believe deeply

The Greatness Guide: One of the World’s Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery By Robin Sharma ‘Gu’ simply means ‘darkness’ in Sanskrit and ‘ru’ simply means ‘dispel.’ So the word ‘guru’ simply speaks of one who dispels the darkness and brings more understanding and light.”

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results Gary Keller and Jay Papasan 1 THE ONE THING  “Be like a postage stamp— stick to one thing until you get there.” “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be

Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen By Zoe Chance   “Real influence isn’t about transactions; it’s about transformation.”   The bedrock principle of influencing behavior is this: People tend to take the path of least resistance. Ease is the single best

With Winning in Mind By Lanny R. Bassham Larry is a former gold medal winning Olympic and mental training coach. “The Mental Management® System is not based on psychology; instead, it is 100% based on competition. I did my apprenticeship in the arena of Olympic pressure. My credibility is not

HBR’s On Managing Yourself The Effective Executive By Peter Drucker  This first part was written by Jim Collins and is the intro to the Effective Executive This is the forward to the legendary book on executive self-management by Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive. It doesn’t matter the size of your organization,

The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now By Thich Nhat Hanh We’re so close to Earth that sometimes we forget how beautiful it is. Spirituality is not religion. It is a path for us to generate happiness, understanding, and love, so we can live deeply

Orison Swett Marden: The Premium Collection, Wisdom & Empowerment Series  Orison Swett Marden was the founder of Success Magazine and wrote in the early 1900’s around self help and what he learned from the achievers of excellence. Some of his language is old school but lots of gems in here

Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion By Pete Carroll Pete Carroll is one of the most successful coaches in football today. As the head coach at USC, he brought the Trojans back to national prominence, amassing a 97-19 record over nine seasons. Now he shares the championship-winning

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court By John Wooden  PART I FAMILIES, VALUES, VIRTUES I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs. —JOHN WOODEN It took me a long time to understand that even a stubborn mule responds to gentleness.

Awaken The Giant Within By Tony Robbins    “Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.” —ORISON SWETT MARDEN   PART • ONE UNLEASH YOUR POWER 1 DREAM

Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change by Chödrön, Pema The Overview Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what is next or how. The moment you know-how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company Iger, Robert Prologue Optimism.  One of the most important qualities of a good leader is optimism, a pragmatic enthusiasm for what can be achieved. Even in the face of difficult choices and less

Unlimited Power By Tony Robbins    To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world

The Courage to be Disliked By Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga   “Freedom is being disliked by other people.- It is proof that you are exercising your freedom and living in freedom and a sign that you are living in accordance with your own principles.” Happiness is a feeling of

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson   Introduction by Walter Isaacson The first is to be curious, passionately curious. Leonardo did not need to know these things to paint the Mona Lisa (though it helped); he needed to know them because

The Wisdom of Life by Schopenhauer, Arthur Introduction Voltaire says we shall leave this world as foolish and as wicked as we found it on our arrival. Chapter 1. Division Of The Subject Aristotle divides the blessings of life into three classes—those which come to us from without, those of

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance By W. Timothy Gallwey, Zach Kleinman, Pete Carroll, and Zach Kleiman   Every game is composed of two parts, an outer game, and an inner game. The outer game is played against an external opponent

The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain By Annie Murphy Paul   PART I Thinking with Our Bodies 1 Thinking with Sensations Interoceptive Awareness leads to better success in financial traders Interoception is, simply stated, an awareness of the inner state of the body. Just as we

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success By Phil Jackson    When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.-RUMI 1 THE CIRCLE OF LOVE  Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar. JIM BUTCHER “What moves me is watching

The Power of Full Engagement Our energy, not our time is “the fundamental currency of high performance”, and that skillful management of energy makes it possible for us to be fully engaged.To accomplish this, Loehr and Schwartz present a step-by-step process to help us: (1) examine how we currently manage

Key Insight: Shifting your mindset around stress to “stress can be a learning and growth opportunity” positively impacts almost every aspect of your life. Stress can be good and very helpful.  5 Takeaways  1. The new science also shows that changing your mind about stress can make you healthier and

The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning By Gautam Baid CHAPTER 1  INTRODUCTION: THE BEST INVESTMENT YOU CAN MAKE IS AN INVESTMENT IN YOURSELF  I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines.

Productivity is about recognizing choices that other people often overlook. It’s about making certain decisions in certain ways. The way we choose to see our own lives; the stories we tell ourselves, and the goals we push ourselves to spell out in detail; the culture we establish among teammates; the

The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers by Eric Weiner The Socrates Express Introduction: Departure What is this hunger that cannot be sated? We don’t want what we think we want. We think we want information and knowledge. We do not. We want wisdom. There’s a

Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge  Bennis, Warren G.; Nanus, Burt Leaders implement and create the atmosphere for the vision to thrive. In order to do this a leader must be crystal clear with clarity and also bring consistency and reliability. This will establish trust which is the glue that

In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters The theme we shall return to continually in the book is that it is attention to employees, not work conditions per se, that has the dominant impact on productivity. He described good managers as value shapers concerned with the informal social properties of

Decoding Greatness by Dr. Ron Friedman  Key Takeaways  Identify the models you can Deconstruct, Analyze, and Reproduce.  You can copy others’ work backwards to extract a wide range of lessons.  Don’t limit your focus to a particular domain or genre, sample a wide range of fields/people/industries. Studying a wide range

How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices Annie Duke INTRODUCTION There are only two things that determine how your life turns out: luck and the quality of your decisions. You have control over only one of those two things. The only thing you have control over that can

The Tao of Leadership  Polarities  All behavior consists of opposites or polarities. If I do anything more and more, over and over, its polarity will appear. Knowing how polarities work, the wise leader does not push to make things happen, but allows the process to unfold on its own. The

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know Adam Grant  After the prologue are 30 actionable takeaways from the book and then a more indepth exploration of each chapter. Highly recommend this book  Prologue When people reflect on what it takes to be mentally fit, the first idea

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Tetlock, Philip E.; Gardner, Dan Excellent Mauboussin Research on Superforecasters Pair with other Decision Making Learnings from the CIA How To Decide- Annie Duke  Think Again – Adam Grant   Summary Philip Tetlock’s study of hundreds of experts making thousands of predictions over two

Perform Under Pressure By Ceri Evans Dedication Te waka taiuhu, monā I whakatau akē, ngā ngaru āwhā. The prow of the waka will cut a decisive pathway through the stormiest of ocean waves. Introduction Whatever your performances look like, the aim of this book is to change the way you