MY TOP THREE READS FOR 2016
As we get ready to rip off our 2016 calendars in order to put up the new 2017 versions, I felt that it would be great to share with you my top 3 picks of the books I read this year. I am an autodidactic learner hence reading is second nature to me. I read to expand my mind and learn a little more about my environment every day. I also strongly believe that if you are not learning, you are not growing and that more importantly, learning doesn’t necessarily have to take place within the four walls of a classroom. Today we can learn from anywhere at anytime and with anyone. In spite of the proliferation of fake sites with senseless content on the internet, there are still so many sources of quality information for people to take advantage of today (subscribe here for great articles).
Regardless of the chaos and confusion happening around us everyday, I still strongly believe that this is one of the greatest times to be alive in the history of the world. Starting a business today is much relatively easier in my opinion than it was 20 years ago. It’s possible today for someone to be based in his home in Haiti and work for a company in the United States all thanks to the internet. It is possible for a new product to be launched today and within a few hours, be seen by hundreds of millions of potential customers with a zero-marketing budget. Anybody and I mean anybody can become an overnight celebrity thanks to the power of Social Media. If you doubt it, just ask Irvin Randle aka #MrStealYourGrandMa! We live in a knowledge-based economy today where innovation is rapidly disrupting whole industries. Therefore we must constantly reinvent ourselves by reading, learning new skills, becoming a better version of ourselves each and every day or risk becoming obsolete. There are no two ways around this.
We live in a knowledge-based economy today where innovation is rapidly disrupting whole industries.
So like every other year I try to read one book a month (minimum). Some people read one book in two weeks and others do one book a week. Whatever works best for you as long as you stay consistent along the way is perfectly ok. What you shouldn’t do is set lofty unachievable reading goals and then end up not doing anything at all. I know this because I have been there before. You are not in a race with anybody. If somebody reads 24 books in a year, your attitude should be “Great! but I have my own pace to follow.” And then go ahead and follow through with what you had planned to do. At the end of the year, you will feel good after hitting your own goals not someone else’s.
Ok having said all that, here are my top 3 picks of all the books I read in 2016. I chose this 3 because they made such an impact on my life. Let’s go! (in no particular order);
At the end of the year, you will feel good after hitting your own goals not someone else’s.
- TRACTION
My Thoughts on it: Traction is a book that will help you see your for-profit, social enterprise, non-profit or even your life from a 360 degree perspective. One of the things I really learned from it is it’s strict emphasis on data which the author succinctly captured in the phrase, “what you can’t measure, you can’t improve.” It’s based on a proven system called the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). No matter how complex the structure of what you are building or leading is, traction will help you narrow down to the essentials and the key points to focus on. It’s a book I’ll like to skim read one more time before getting into 2017.
2. THE STARTUP OF YOU
My Thoughts on it: Great book! Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha bring their combined experience building multimillion and billion dollar businesses into world of building dream careers. If you want to build an amazing career for yourself, one that you have always dreamed of but didn’t know how to go about it then this book is for you. They make you see that your own career in itself is and should be treated like a start-up. And they provide a framework to guide you along the path of building that career. In my opinion, this is arguably the best career book in the world. Easy to read, lots of practical steps to take as you read along and thoroughly grounded in research. If the co-Founder of LinkedIN has something to say about building careers, you had better listen. The Start-Up of You empowers you to become the CEO of your career and take control of your future.
3. HOW THEY STARTED: GLOBAL BRANDS
My Thoughts on it: This book was a true eye-opener for me. An interesting read of how 21 seemingly “normal” ideas became great global businesses. To the entrepreneur reading this as he/she struggles to find a profitable model for his/her business, the stories provide an invisible blanket of warmth and reassurance that you are not alone in the hustle. The 21 global brands studied in this book all started from nothing by people who had failed miserably several times over but refused to give up and quit. One of the stories that was the most interesting to me was the bitter rivalry between Adidas and Puma (founded by two blood brothers Adolf and Rudi Dassler respectively). And how the two companies got so engulfed in the family feud making way for Nike to come in and dominate the athletic footwear industry leaving both of them behind. Do you have an idea you want to test out in 2017? Have you been burnt in the past in a business relationship? Are you confused about whether or not you should be an entrepreneur? Then this book is for you.
Those are my 3 top picks for 2016. What are yours? Please share with me in the comments section and don’t forget to like and share this write-up with someone else. Let’s read some more in 2017! Counting down…
