Have been reading Robert Greene’s ‘Mastery’. It’s a very interesting and insightful book. Uses a system to categorise the steps involved in becoming a master of anything.
Definitely goes onto the ‘highly recommended’ list.
I’ve had a change in my circumstances in the last couple of weeks. Reading and writing have helped me work my way through it in my mind.
They create a path to answers when you do both with a sense of purpose.
Both skills are worth the time and effort that it takes to see an improvement. They serve each other. Reading primes the writing pump.
Take a 30 to 60 minute reading block. Non-fiction works for me. Then step away for an hour. Make some food or get a workout done.
Then sit down and recall what you read and write about it. See what comes up.
It’s a handy double-act.
The tycoons at the heads of the modern and historic media empires the world over are a story in themselves. This is that story.
From William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk, this book demonstrates the power these people wield. For those who tried to get in their way it was never, or will never be, easy.
The Murdoch family takes up a lot of the pages with good reason. The havoc they are causing the world continues as the family navigates legal battles and infighting over ownership, whilst also trying to squeeze every last drop from the press titles it still owns.
I wouldn’t normally go for a book like this but it was great. Well written and interesting from start to finish. Highly recommend.
“… you will not catch either one.”
This is a Russian proverb from the front cover of ‘The One Thing’ by Keller and Papasan.
Read it, think about it, read it again, and use it. There’s great power inside its pages.
I picked up a book on Sunday that had been on the shelf for a few months. I had started to read it but something else took my attention. I put it to one side.
I couldn’t remember much about the contents. It was a book about writing by a writer so there wasn’t much of a mystery to solve.
I read it for a few minutes on Sunday night. It wasn’t pulling me in. I picked up again last night for another go, but the reason I put it down instantly became clear.
I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get on with it. The way it’s written, the types of examples the author uses (all about himself), even the font size left me feeling empty.
Something I find time to do because I enjoy it wasn’t enjoyable.
The minute this happens, it’s worth stepping away. The book will be removed from the shelves, taken to the charity store. I don’t want it anywhere in the house.
Life’s to short to spend time doing something for fun, like reading, using your precious free time, and not enjoying it.
Put it down, find another book from the pile, and take a different journey.
Placed an order yesterday for some new insights:
Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast and Slow: I’m aware of economic theory but it’s a long time since I took steps to go a little deeper. This will be my jumping off point on that one.
Scott Galloway – The Algebra of Wealth: Personal finance strategy affects us all but most of us spend hardly any time thinking about what we are doing, let alone taking action.
The First 90 Days – Michael Watkins: I’m starting a new job in a couple of weeks. I like to go into anything with some kind of plan, however rudimentary. Similar books of this kind are on my shelves and this one could add a new angle.
(I don’t do affiliate marketing and don’t want to automatically send anyone to Amazon so this is why there are no links.)
STFU: The Power Of Keeping Your Mouth Shut In An Endlessly Noisy World, Dan Lyons – Common sense advice for anyone who has a lot to say and no idea what that can do to relationships. 7.5/10.
Release The Bats: Writing Your Way Out Of It, DBC Pierre – Wanna be a writer? Wanna know the steps to take, the real blood-and-guts stuff that’s needed to make it a success? This is the one for you. Forget the rest. 9.5/10.
The First Minute: How To Start Conversations That Get Results, Chris Fenning – Framing concersations from A-Z. A great primer on a skillset to add to your toolbox. Your boss will love you for using it. 8/10.
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, Seth Godin – His latest motivation manual. The type of book to read if you’re halfway there in terms of doing something creative in your life. 8/10.
Turn The Ship Around!: A True Story Of Turning Followers Into Leaders, L. David Marquet – Captain of a struggling submarine crew in the US Navy puts his leadership ideology to work and creates a blueprint for teamworking success. 9/10.
Ever heard of Robert Caro? I thought not. Look him up and get your hands on his work. If you have, you’ll know why I reckon he’s The Man in terms of writing and journalism. He’s still working, well into his 80’s. It’s a job that he’s filled full of passion through the years.
His life’s work has been telling the stories of only a couple of men who changed society in their own ways. His first book, The Power Broker, describes the rise and fall of the most powerful unelected official ever to hold office inside a democracy, Robert Moses. The guy built the infrastructure of modern New York City – parkways, public parks, bridges, beaches, and tunnels – but ruined numerous lives – those of everyday politicians brave enough to vote against his projects, anyone in a property on a route he wanted to develop, and anyone else who got under his feet – along the way.
The Power Broker won the Pulitzer Prize in the 70s when it came out after a few years in the making. The title sums it up but the combination of great investigative journalism, sound non-fiction wordsmithing and a killer story underpin why Obama credits it as the book that got him into politics.
I’m biased – I admire the man. His work shines as a beacon of hope in today’s world of influencers and fakery. He’s a brilliant writer. He calls in his lunch order to the same cafe, the Cosmic Diner, at the same time every day. Talk about consistency. Give his work a try if you’re into biographies and non-fiction.
(These are in no particular order of favouritism.)
What would be top of your list?
I’ve read almost double the amount of books in 2016 as I did the year before. This reading has covered a very wide range of topics and has been fiction and non-fiction titles, autobiographies, ‘how to’ books, novels and more.
It’s done me the world of good and encourages more thought and the formation of new ideas of my own. I don’t have a TV but I watch a lot of video online and read all sorts of content – specifically in the marketing/technology area that’s my line of work but also in other areas that are of interest to me everyday – and this also helps to develop new ways of thinking and new things to say.
Something as simple as reading from a source that you have never visited before, or watching a different show to your usual choices on TV can also help. The broader the range of sources – reading/watching/taking in as much as you can from everywhere – will fill your brain with inspiration and this can lead you anywhere.
I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration, too. What have you read or seen this year that’s really rocked you and made you think?
It’s been a few weeks since I have written anything here because it’s been a time of big change. I’m now writing this from Sydney, Australia after moving here one week ago and the lead up to this change has been very hectic. House rented, belongings packed, plane tickets bought and accommodation secured does make it all sound very simple but I can assure you it isn’t!
Anyway, this time of change is also a big opportunity for growth in many ways. A new country – well, I was here 20 years ago and it has changed a lot since then – that is so far from the culture, weather and lifestyle that we had when in the UK will take some getting used to but that is part of its attraction.
I’m looking at getting back into employment so doing lots of research and adapting my mindset to being part of team again, even leading one if the opportunity presents itself. I’ve also got some time to think about doing some fresh learning in a new area and I haven’t drawn any conclusions from this yet.
Basically, every option is still open and this time of change is going to give some amazing opportunities for growth that will be fabulous as time goes by. There’s a lot to be very grateful for.
As a sidenote – current reading:
Chaos Monkeys – inside the Silicon Valley money machine, Antonio Garcia Martinez
The Inner Game of Golf – W. Timothy Gallwey
Homicide, David Simon
Race schedule for running:
Bay Run 7km this Sunday
City2Surf (CBD to Bondi Beach) on 14 August
Western Sydney half marathon on 1 October
This book is a real shot in the arm when you are down in the dumps or lacking the will to get things done. It tackles resistance and rightly positions it as the main thing that’s stopping all of us from achieving our goals, whatever they are.
Pressfield is a writer by trade so a lot of what he says in this book is based on how you would approach the task of writing a book yourself, but this shouldn’t put you off picking it up if you’re not a writer. There is some real gold in here and you can use the book like a coach in your ear, guiding you through a project of any kind.
A couple of points from the book that ring around my head a lot of the time:
Highly recommend getting your hands on a copy. You won’t regret it.
Shoot The Messenger, Shane Kuhn – follow up to Kill Your Boss, fast moving fiction involving a hitman on the run.
The Establishment, Owen Jones – dissects the make-up of the British ruling classes in great detail.
Essays of Warren Buffett, Lawrence A. Cunningham – extracts of the famous annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.
Billionaire, Peter James – a stockbroker gets greedy and pays the price.
“The vitality of our network will determine our professional fate.” From The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010)
The work of Tom Peters is well worth getting to know if you are interested in learning how to improve your work life and, if you are a manager, get the most from your team.
Mr Peters learned the basics in the US Navy, collecting his postgrad qualifications following active service in the Vietnam War. He also spent some time in the White House in the 70’s as a senior advisor to the Nixon administration. But the experience for which he is most renowned is his time with McKinsey & Co in the late 70’s/early 80’s – with his co-writer Bob Waterman he wrote ‘In Search of Excellence’, one of the most popular books on organisational effectiveness there has ever been.
Nowadays, Mr Peters writes and speaks extensively on getting the most out of yourself and those around you in the workplace. The quote above is taken from one of my favourite books and it’s one I highly recommend for some true pearls of wisdom on how to achieve excellence at every level and in everything you do.
It’s all about being helpful, caring about people, doing a great job no matter what and about delivering excellence in the face of whatever you are confronted by. Reading this book also makes you immediately get off your backside and take some action which is one of the main reasons I love reading his work so much.
If you’re someone that loves to learn and finds that taking action is the best way to effect some kind of change, make sure you add this one to your shopping list.
Every now and again I come across a book and as soon as I’m no more than a handful of pages in, I know it’s going to be a really useful one for a long time to come. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle is one of those books and I would highly recommend it for Coyle’s work on this very grey area and deep research into talent hotbeds and methods of practice that debunk the myth that talent is simply something you are born with.
The top performers in a variety of sectors, not just sport or music, across the world are using a “neurological mechanism” to aid their practice where “certain patterns of targeted practice build skill”. This creates a neural insulator called myelin which wraps itself around electrical circuits travelling from your brain as you practice and the more you practice, the more myelin insulation you create. As the myelin increases in thickness and wraps itself around the circuits building speed and skill, the better you perform in the long run. Apologies for the amateur science lesson but hopefully you get the point.
Coyle takes us on a journey around the world visiting talent hotbeds – a tennis academy in Russia and Brazilian football schools among others – and analyses the coaching methods employed to build the maximum amount of myelin, even in cases where the coaches themselves don’t even know why they are getting such amazing results with their pupils. His insights are easy to understand and the book contains very few scientific references with the ‘code’ broken down into three key parts:
Get hold of a copy if you’re even a tiny bit interested in talent and understanding how people reach levels of performance that seem a long way away from the common man. Lots of great learning points and a book I’ll be referring back to for years.
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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.
I was looking at few of my old notes for a bit of writing inspiration and I found some very good stuff on keeping it simple:
I bought a very short book on this subject when I was a lot younger and it has since been lost or misplaced in various house moves, but that book was where some of this stuff came from and it was a really important thing for me. Following a few of these basic rules has helped me to keep my life relatively uncluttered and allowed me to sleep well at night when things have been tough.
In the world we live in today, the pressure to conform and live up to other people’s standards can be an expensive and tiresome task but still so many of us make the effort when it really isn’t required. Vanity has become of greater importance than sanity for many and this trend isn’t going to help to develop the great leaders and philanthropists of the future. Keep it simple and your chances of living a life that is full and authentic will be much greater.
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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.
I’ve made list of a number of business books that I’ve read over the years, some of which are commonly-known classics and a few of which I revisit fairly frequently. They are all of great value to me and I can recommend them all for different reasons or purposes. They are listed in no particular order so take a look and let me know what I’m missing from the list as I get a lot of pleasure adding to it.
Tom Peters – The Little Big Things
Tom Peters and Robert Waterman – In Search of Excellence
Daniel Pink – To Sell Is Human
Daniel Pink – Drive
Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends and Influence People
Gary Vaynerchuk – Crush It
Gary Vaynerchuk – The Thank You Economy
Chris Brogan – Social Media 101
Chris Brogan and Julien Smith – Trust Agents
David Ogilvy – Confessions of an Advertising Man
Stephen Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Sun Tzu – The Art of War
Machiavelli – The Prince
Carlos Ruiz – The Voice of Knowledge
Tim Ferris – The 4 Hour Work Week
Fisher et al – Getting to Yes
Steve Gates – The Negotiation Book
Paul Arden – its not how good you are, its how good you want to be
Alan Webber – Rules of Thumb
Daniel Goleman – Social Intelligence
David Ogilvy – The Unpublished David Ogilvy
Chris Guillebeau – The $100 startup
Seth Godin – Free Prize Inside
Seth Godin – Tribes
Seth Godin – The Dip
Stephen Bull – The Mental Game Plan
Edward De Bono – Tactics
Tom Rath – Strengthsfiner 2.0
Michael Bungay Stainer – Do More Great Work
Felix Dennis – How To Make Money
Felix Dennis – How To Get Rich
Philip Delves Broughton – What they teach you at HBS,
Philip Delves Broughton – Life’s A Pitch
Sahara & Bobby Hashemi – Anyone Can Do It
Stephen Pressfield – The Warrior Ethos
Stephen Pressfield – Do the Work
Stephen Pressfield – Gates of Fire
The Mind Gym
Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler – Connected
Twyla Tharp – The Creative Habit
Christian Lander – Stuff White People Like
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow
Phil Jackson – Eleven Rings
Steven Levy – In The Plex
Dom Sagolla – 140 Characters
Steve Peters – The Chimp Paradox
Struck and White – The Elements of Style
Stephen King – On Writing
Nicholas Naeem Taleb – Fooled by Randomness
Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz – Never Eat Alone
David Heinemeier and Jason Fried – ReWork
Emma Wimhurst – Boom!
Matthew Syed – Bounce
Shel Israel – Twitterville
Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search For Meaning
Richard Branson – Losing My Virginity
Richard Bolles – What Color is My Parachute 2013
Spencer Johnson – Who Moved My Cheese?
A quick list of the books that I’ve read and enjoyed in 2013:
It’s all going well so far, and I’ve got into a great habit of getting up at around 6.30am and putting a minimum of 40 pages in the bank. So far I’ve read:
The Junior Officers Reading Club – Patrick Hennessey. Life as an Officer in the British Army, including active service periods in Iraq and Afganistan.
On Writing – Stephen King. An autobiographical look at King’s trade through his own eyes. Fascinating.
One Day – David Nicholls. A beautifully written novel full of similarities to the lives and experiences of many. Focussed on the interactions of two college friends as they grow up.
And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks – William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Summer in wartime New York City, punctuated by booze, freeriding and murder.
And I’ve just started Anonymous Lawyer – Jeremy Blachman. The fictitious blogging exploits of a hiring partner at a top US firm. Hilarious but sadly it appears to be very close to the truth.
No, I’m not back on the cigarettes, but I’m trying to get back into books with 40 pages a day. I read a lot of blogs but want to add variety by mixing what I would normally read (crime thrillers, business titles, sports biographies) with some very new and different stuff for me.
Starts today, and with this one. It’s a very interesting insight so far…
Ian Mountford 