Tag Archives: Reading

What are your strengths?

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Ryan pointed to the very cool online quiz (slash hardcover book) called Strengths Finder 2.0. It’s a great tool (over 150 questions) that helps you determine what you should really focus on.

Society says we should overcome our weaknesses. We should conquer that which we apparently cannot. I think our country was founded on that. Our movies certainly like telling stories about it (Rudy is the example given in the book). That seems silly; keep doing what you’re really good at. This test shows you where you have potential of developing your strongest talents.

It was definitely worth the $20; I went to the store, picked it up, read the book and took the test. An hour later I know a lot more about myself. Here are my results (my top 5 strengths).

  1. MAXIMIZER – People who are especially talented in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
  2. LEARNER – People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
  3. ACHIEVER – People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
  4. SELF-ASSURANCE – People who are especially talented in the Self-Assurance theme feel confident in their ability to manage their own lives. They possess an inner compass that gives them confidence that their decisions are right.
  5. ARRANGER – People who are especially talented in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

The reports you’re given are great. You get a myriad of tasks and actions to help you work on your strengths. That’s the point right? Do what you can do well… even better! Then it helps you develop a personal action plan.

I haven’t figured out my plan yet but I always enjoy learning more about myself. Knowing myself means I know my own needs and I can communicate them to my teammates, colleagues, bosses, etc. Talk about win-win-win!

Chasing Daylight

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From the flap: “At 53, Eugene O’Kelly was in the full swing of life. Chairman and CEO of KPMG .. he enjoyed a successful career and drew happiness from his wife, children, family and close friends…Then in May 2005, Gene was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer and given three to six months to live. Just like that.”

Put simply, Chasing Daylight is a short, sad, and truly personal account of O’Kelly’s last few months and how he tries to ‘unwind’ all his relationships.

Devin decided you can skip this one. Although it was a touching story I’d hate for people to sympathize with O’Kelly. He lived a fast-paced life as a CEO. I think he realized he had developed more business relationships than truly close, personal ones. He spends 3 weeks ‘unwinding’ with people described merely as ‘business associates’. His family dealt with this even through his last weeks of life.

Not only did the family relationship annoy me but the fact that I don’t think he really learned anything. Sure, he became less business-like and more relationship-based. Still, he seemed to be desperately making up for lost time (and failing).

There were a few good take-aways: he finished his life peacefully and ready to “transition”, he tried to make the best of a bad situation, he was fortunate to be healthy and lucid in his final days. He was lucky… sort of.

I think the best quote came in the beginning of the book:

I couldn’t hide it any longer. “The moment she grabbed my finger,” I said, “it hit me that someday I’ll have to say good-bye to her.” (referring to his newborn daughter)

But, he admittedly missed most of her life growing up. With a CEO schedule, no wonder. Plus, he died before he had the chance to take her on their final vacation together (she was 14) to Prague.

Probably because he was spending his time closing up relationships with his ‘associates’ early on…

Note to self: get your priorities straight.

Related reading: “Hold CEOs accountable for their bad parenting”, Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

Let My People Go Surfing

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I just finished one of the best un-business business books by Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia: Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. The book is described as the “long-awaited memoir/manifesto from [the] legendary climber, businessman, and environmentalist…” and the book encompasses one man’s three interrelated world views.

Devin decided you need to read this book. Whether you’re looking for a case study on: a successful business with happy employees, how to create a business from your passion, or what businesses need to do to help the environment.

From management tips, to HR lessons learned, Yvon brings in all his Patagonia experience (good and bad):

“…If you just ask people for help–if you just admit that you don’t know something–they will fall all over themselves trying to help. So, from there I began building the company.” -Kristine McDivitt, general manager and CEO of Patagonia for 13 years

Many people like to reference the Pareto principle and Yvon is not an exception. When talking about Patagonia’s diverse product lines:

“I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession and degree of specialization that doesn’t appeal to me. Once I reach that 80 percent level I like to go off and do something totally different…” -Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia

As one of the first environmentally-conscious companies in the world, Yvon has a lot to say about the world and what needs to happen:

“The Zen master would say if you want to change government, you have to aim at changing corporations, and if you want to change corporations, you first have to change the consumers.” -Yvon Chouinard

This is a book you can’t ignore. Especially since Yvon pioneered the ‘green business’ movement…. back in the 80’s.

What other environmental business books do you recommend?

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

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The full title of the book is: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, How the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction. Here it is on Amazon.

Devin determined… this book is a must-read. Some parts get a little complicated for just a quick read. But, at 240 pages this is a a fun look at the societal and psychological issues we face.

The areas explored are summed up with the following:

…our experience of choice as a burden rather than a privilege is not a simple phenomenon. Rather it is the result of a complex interaction among many psychological processes that permeate our culture, including rising expectations, awareness of opportunity costs, aversion to trade-offs, adaptation, regret, self-blame, the tendency to engage in social comparisons, and maximizing.

The last chapter goes on to highlight and explain how we can try to avoid these issues (regret leading to depression, leading to suicide; comparing to neighbors and having regret; post-decision regret). A lot of it has to do with accepting “good enough” which Scott Adams recently talked about on his blog.

Again, I recommend the book because it may help you see your decisions a little differently. At the same time, it helps understand the psychology behind others’ decisions.

Ben’s Start-Up Life

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Ben Casnocha has written a book about, you guessed it, his start-up life. Being that he’s only 19 I wonder what other ‘lives’ he’ll be having. In any case, Ben’s a smart guy. Check out his blog and his book, My Start-Up Life: “The book is my own story of entrepreneurship written in way that can inspire and aid other entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, or simply become CEO of their own lives. In addition, guest essays by distinguished business leaders offer an interesting perspective on the ideas I present.” Learn more at: http://www.mystartuplife.com.

Bookumentaries

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I enjoy reading, it truly expands my knowledge base and introduces me to so many great new ideas. In turn, I enjoy sharing them and talking with others about them. But recently I’ve struggled to find time to read. As mentioned before, I manage my time pretty closely; I fill every hour of my schedule. Unfortunately, work and school take up nearly all of my time lately. When can I find time to read?

Continue reading →

The Starfish and the Spider

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So far I’m doing a horrible job of maintaining my ‘read a book each month’ resolution. So, in my attempt to catch up I recently started acquiring a bunch of books. The first being The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom (Amazon).

As others have mentioned, this book is kinda like a new ‘The Tipping Point’ in the sense that it looks at these societal phenomena and tries to simplify them. The book does that with two very clever metaphors: the starfish and the spider. A starfish is a creature that is decentralized. Cut off a leg and it grows back (and the leg becomes a new organism). If you cut off the head of a spider, though, it dies.

Some of the most successful groups have been decentralized. Alcoholics Anonymous, Wikipedia, even eBay has an element of decentralization to it. The point is, there are a lot of groups that require a certain level of decentralization; they need to find the sweet spot.

I enjoyed this book because it looked at a lot of cool subjects (from abolitionism to craigslist) and analyzed this underlying reason for their widespread success. I enjoyed it so much I took it to the gym for two days and finished the 200 pages in record time. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone because it takes very detailed observations and makes them easy to understand. 10/10

Note: I decided that I want to track my book reviews so I took the movie rating plugin found on the bottom site and created a a book review plugin. You can find it on my Tools page.

Overpromise and Overdeliver

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Everytime I tell someone about this great book I’m always corrected: “No, it’s underpromise…” Or so goes the old saying. Well, not anymore, says Rick Barrera. His latest book, Overpromise and Overdeliver is a smart look at how companies have used their TouchPoints to achieve “unshakable customer loyalty.” So what are TouchPoints? They’re what they sound like, they’re points where you touch your customer. Well, no, you’re not really ‘touching’ anyone, I’m sure there are laws against it. But you do touch your customer through your website (System), your sales people (People), or your latest widget (Product). By optimizing your TouchPoints you can and will fulfill your brand promise. Through case studies, Rick illustrates how brand promises at companies like Washington Mutual and Lexus have seperated them from the pack and led themselves to worlds of success… all thanks to TouchPoint branding.

I found this to be a fun read because Rick uses dozens of products and companies. I’ve never enjoyed reading books that tell you, hypothetically, how you should market your product or build your business or solve x, y, and z. Rick has provided numerous examples with some very interesting facts about companies you normally wouldn’t think twice about. Take Progressive Auto, for example. They created a credit-card-sized card that breaks in two. Give one half to the person you had an accident with (information all filled out) and use the other half to get in touch with Progressive. At Ritz-Carlton the employees are permitted to spend up to $2,000 to satisfy a customer. There’s a company that has exceeded their brand’s promise and overdelivered through their human TouchPoint. See? You can do both.

I also found Rick’s book to be interesting becuase it, too, exceeded my expectations. One of the companies he talks about in the book (BrainX) has provided it’s software and license on the CD included with the book (among many other things). In short, this book overdelivers and is highly recommended for anyone looking to build a brand, product or service.

Free Business Books

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Okay, so I’ve been keeping a secret from all my readers, I haven’t bought a book in over a year. Yet I’ve probably read 4 or so. “But Devin, how can you read books if you haven’t bought any?!” My answer to you is: have you ever heard of the library? Then my second answer to you is: have you ever heard of inBubbleWrap? It’s a side-project brought to you by the great people at 800-CEO-READ and it basically functions as a daily drawing for a free book. I’ve won three so far. I’m in the process of reading China, Inc which I got in the mail a few weeks ago. Another good way to get free books is to ask publishers for a copy in exchange for a review. I’ve scored another 3 or 4 this way and have a review to post shortly (way overdue). There you have it, my secret is out…