In the previous post, I listed out the 72 books that I read in 2017. In this post, I continue my analysis of them. I won’t address every book, more the groups of them, with some call-outs to the most impactful.
(That being said, if you have questions about any one, feel free to ask in the comments below.)
My biggest category was business…
13 Business Books
- The Great Disruption by Rick Smith with Mitch Free
- Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree
- Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff and J.J. Sutherland
- Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
- Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson
- Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
- The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
- Predictable Success by Les McKeown
- No by Jim Camp
- The Synergist by Les McKeown
- Key Performance Metrics by Bernard Marr
Business is a broad category, and these books run the gamut.
Predictable Success as the most impactful as it changed how I look at business, as well as giving a big picture gameplan that has already turned out useful. I wrote about Predictable Success in this previous post.
Though not on the same level, The Synergist, his follow-up title was also good.
Who by Smart and Street was another impactful read. This details an extensive hiring system, proven to work great, that we have starting using as best as we could at Lost Empire Herbs.
Another favorite was Hacking Marketing. This came right after Scrum and is about that same topic. However reading the former was more applicable to me, using it inside marketing team, rather than in software development, where it was created. This is still an aspirational read as we haven’t quite got there, but the idea of it excites me.
No by Jim Camp was another great one. Famous email marketer Ben Settle kept talking about it and I see why. I haven’t studied negotiation much at all. But I applied just a few principles from this book and landed a high-dollar client without really even trying, by going for the no.
5 Financial Books
In the past, as I detail in the introduction for my money system book, I’ve read a lot about the topic. Now, not so much. Most of these occurred after I had purchased a home and wanted to expand in some new areas.
- Succeed and Grow Rich through Persuasion by Napoleon Hill
- The Sale of a Lifetime by Harry S. Dent Jr.
- The Last Safe Investment by Bryan Franklin and Michael Ellsberg
- Automatic Wealth by Michael Masterson
- Buffettology by Mary Buffett and David Clark
Of these, The Last Safe Investment was the most different. Really the concepts transcend age, but especially for any young person looking for an alternative path the the classic college route, this would be a great read. This book challenges conventional wisdom, which makes it great (since so much convention is wrong).
8 Self-Help Books
- The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
- The Book of Joy by Douglas Adams, Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
- How to Live a Good Life by Jonathan Fields
- Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- The Art of Living by Bob Proctor
- The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
Looking at it again, I lumped all these into self-help when it really covers a wide variety of things.
Tools of Titans covers lots of major topics so I just lumped it in here. As that is a collection of wisdom from many people, distilled down, I found a lot of useful bits in there.
My favorite of this group was The Great Work of Your Life. This was recommended over and over by Yanik Silver. (Actually half of these books came from him and other Mavericks!) This book is great for you finding more of your purpose or calling in life. I will likely re-read this one over time as there are lots of great stories and ideas in it.
More next time…