2015 was quite a year. This was the year I bade farewell to physical books and went totally digital. E-books and audio books became my thing. This shift allowed me read (or listen to) multiple books at once.
It’s a precious thing when a book can alter your perspective on fundamental areas of your world view. I want to highlight the top 5 books that did this for me this year. I believe I ‘stole’ these books from the universal mind — a sort of unending stream of consciousness that powers all life. I call this stream God. He is always speaking, many times He does it through a random phrase, a chance image or a well written book.
These ones had some words for me. I’m happy to share a little piece of what they taught me with you
#5 — The PayPal Wars by Eric Jackson
This was a delightful book to read. I heard about it from a side reference in “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel, my definite number one book of 2014. The book takes us behind the scenes, seeing the key decision points that created PayPal and what is today referred to as The PayPal mafia — the distinguished employee /founder alumni who have gone on to found multi-billion internet companies (Linkedin, Space X, Palantir, Youtube, Yammer, Tesla etc). As a marketing buff, I was intrigued by their decision making at critical points in trying to scale their idea for an alternate payments system.
In a startup, you have to be ready to subordinate your heart for your head, over investing emotions in a perceived path to growth can lead you to stagnation. This book showed me this and the culture that results from this mind set.
Business man as scientist , tweak tweak tweak…Bingo! — 100 marks
#4 — Believer by David Axelrod
Another great book. A random quote from my friend F led me down this delightful rabbit hole. As we were squaring up for the 2015 presidential elections, this book came handy in guiding me to shape narratives. David understands politics and how to win elections, The End.
Ok let me say a little more. ‘Believer’ is a testament to what being guided by a genuine belief in the power of politics to make a difference in society can do. How to marshal resources, what messaging appeals the most, the necessity of only working to elect people you believe in. it’s a precious book, told with much heart by a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.
Politics can bring good guys to power — 100 marks
#3 — Give and Take by Adam Grant
This was a book I stumbled on by reading a quote from the author on a random post on Instagram. Adam sought to explore if nice guys finish last — do givers get ahead? Is the world of business set up to favor takers? His findings were not only enlightening but also provided a road map to effectiveness. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and one of the principles I was able to apply immediately led me to earning a tidy sum of money. That’s a solid ROI.
Givers win…the ones that give with ‘sense’ though — 100 marks
#2 — How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
As a marketing professional, my obsession has always been growth. How can the brands I manage or the businesses I advise grow fast? Byron Sharp gives a pretty damn good set of answers in his book. Bursting many ‘received truths’ on segmentation, loyalty programs, sales promotions, mass marketing and advertising and I was like….hol up, hol up, hol up!! This guy is messing with my brain! The good thing is he has the data to back it all up.
I will be incorporating these new thoughts as I approach marketing and advertising projects in the new year.
Bye Bye to narrow segments, hello mass marketing — 100 marks
How do you spell serendipity? This book. My approach to navigating my career has always been weird. From my very first job to my last one, I have behaved like I was on a paid internship — learn as much as you can and create new challenges for yourself, don’t choose a job for money, keep your head down and grind, be confident to gain horizontal knowledge and not vertical leaps. ‘Mastery’ showed me I wasn’t crazy or weird. Using the lives of many masters (ancient and modern), Robert Greene presented a model for the pursuit of mastery in any field, the careful system for self-directed development and apprenticeship that places men and women in the very center of their purpose and gifts.
More importantly he showed how to know when your time is up for apprenticeship and pinpointing all the ‘forces of gravity’ that wish to keep you at a certain level. In several light bulb moments I knew where I was, what I was ready for and the assurance that the time was right to make some changes. Nuff said…I went for it and its already looking incredible from the nice perch I’m on up in the sky.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears — 200 marks
what were your top reads this year?
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