In this video, we are going to talk about my favorite book recommendations from the
Growth Everywhere podcast, where I interview world-class entrepreneurs, over 300 now.
Such as, people that have invented the little credit card stripe that you have on the back
of your credit card.
And, billionaires and best-selling authors.
All over the place.
Best books from these people.
And, without further ado, let's check out the books.
What would you say is one must-read book [inaudible 00:00:27]?
You know, personally, I'm always attracted to stories, narrative.
My favorite book, the one that inspired me the most, over the years, is called The Billionaire
Who Wasn't.
Oh, that's my favorite book, too.
Yeah.
It's the story of Chuck Feeney.
Yep.
Good book.
First real book about startups that I read, after Palmer Andrews book.
Oh, no, excuse me.
It's his wife, Jessica's book.
After that one that I read, I read the book, by Jason Freed, I believe it was Getting Real.
Okay.
It was the one that they initially distributed online.
Actually, it isn't so much a book.
I mean, I could recommend all the same old customer development stuff that's out there.
But, actually, I would get a subscription to Harvard Business Review.
Okay.
And, they cover fundamental everyday challenges for small business, and big businesses.
And, some of the best takeaways, and best lessons I ever learned were in some of the
little stories in every issue of the magazine.
One of the best books I ever read was actually on venture capital.
And, it was Brad Feld's Venture Deals book.
I read that about three years ago, and I was like, "Oh, my God.
I understand it all now.
If you're interested in VC stuff, I would totally read that book.
And, even if you're not, it's just really awesome, because he takes specific segments
of the term sheet, and the financing documents, and then explains them fully.
And, then, has an entrepreneur's take on it, too.
It's just a great book.
I would say it's How to Win Friends and Influence People, the classic from Dale Carnegie.
It's from 1930, or something.
It has just been so good.
The other is, if you're scaling your business and you've moved into a CEO role, I just finished
a book called The Great Game of Business.
And, it's about open-book accounting, and it's awesome.
The Great Game of Business, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
I'll have to check that one out.
I like reading The Dip.
It tells people when to stick, and when to click, 'cause too many people don't know when
to bail-out of a business.
Okay.
How many times have you made that mistake?
A lot.
I don't even know, I can't even count on one hand.
Why do you think that is?
I'm cheating here.
One more question.
Just young and naïve.
Not enough experience.
I know, now, when to quit.
But, when you're 21 and you're a young entrepreneur, you don't always know what's best for you.
Here's one that you wouldn't think of that I actually have been reading.
I've read all of the series of these books, The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read,
and The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read.
And, the only reason I say that, is because if you want to be a responsible employer,
and give your employees financial security for their future, then setting up a for 401(k)
program for them is great.
But, I would definitely The Smartest 401(k) Book You've Ever Read, that's what it's called,
because it will tell you how to setup a 401(k) in a fair way for your employees, instead
of in a way that could actually really harm them in the future.
I like Steven Johnson's ... I'm trying to see it on my shelf here.
I think it's called Future Tense.
It basically talks about the power of peer networks, and their profound ability to change,
really, all aspects of society, and, certainly, the world of business.
That deeply affects my thinking, and I think the ability of individual actors, people to
work together is a capability that's kind of architecturally enabled by the internet,
and is spreading.
And, certainly, Sidecar's part of that movement.
But, it is spreading, and it's going to continue to spread to pretty much all sectors of the
economy.
I think it's gonna spread beyond that.
I think it's gonna spread to sectors, it's gonna transform the way we think about government,
the way we think about other segments of society, how we think about philanthropy, how we think
about science, and potentially, even how we think about religion.
I think it's a deeply profound thing that's going on, that we're living through, that
we are participating in, that we're building ourselves.
It's one of the things that makes me excited about the era that we're in.
I just finished reading that Ben Horowitz book, Hard Things About Hard Things.
And, I can't recommend it enough.
I think it tells the most realistic story of what's going on [inaudible 00:05:52].
Yep.
It's funny, 'cause I'm about to make all my team members read it.
And, it's the seventh time this book has been recommended on my show.
And, I can't recommend it enough, either, it's probably the best book I've read in the
last year.
Yeah, I agree with that.
The book that I recommend to anybody, especially when they're early on building stuff, is The
War of Art, by Steven Pressfield.
It was massive, for me, to get over the ... A lot of people, you end up making up excuses
for why you were not able to pull off things, or you procrastinate things that are really,
really difficult, when the fact that those are difficult are the main sign that you should
be doing them, and it's sort of a quick ... I read it on a plane, in a couple of hours.
So, it's a good read.
Nice.
Yeah, I've heard good things about it.
I think it's on my Amazon Wish List, so I think you might press me to actually buy it-
You should, it's great.
Okay.
At any given time, I'm usually reading three to four different books.
Okay.
Another book that I actually just really liked a lot is Battle Hymns of the Tiger Mother.
You're like the 30th person ... No, I'm just kidding.
What?
Okay.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, no.
What is it?
All right.
Okay, so, that's the book by Amy Choi, that's about how Asian parents, or Asian moms, specifically,
raise their daughters.
It's not so much the tactics, but it's about when you do things, and why people can accomplish
things.
It's less about luck, it's really self-created.
You make things happen.
And, I really appreciate the book, because my parents came here as immigrants.
They definitely were like, "We didn't get here because we got lucky.
We got here because we got scholarships to go to grad school, and it was really difficult.
You make things happen.
You can either pursue things, or you just think that things will just happen for you,
which it doesn't."
A book that came out right before that, and they didn't even know each other, but very,
very similar, and they're two of my favorite books right now, is the Organized Mind by
Dan Levitin.
L-E-V-I-T-I-N.
And, a whole lot of that is about the requirement for the external brain, and a lot of the research,
a lot of the aggregation of the research that showed up in the last 20 years, that your
head is really capable of handling about four potentially meaningful things.
And, you add any more than that, and it loses it.
And, so, they're certainly favorite books of mine, right now, because I'm very much
[inaudible 00:08:27] this whole getting things done methodology.
I learned it on the street, 30 years and thousands of hours, desk-side, with some of the brightest
people on the planet, sitting there and working this model, and seeing how it works, and refining
it, and testing it out.
But, these guys, now that the cognitive scientists are providing it coming around from the other
side, from the scientific side, they're about how it works.
Right.
I can't help but be enthused about it, because it very much helps sell the idea.
"Hey, guys, your head is for having ideas, but not for holding them."
All right.
So, I hope you enjoyed those books.
I hope you, at least, go pick up one.
Let me know in the comments of what you plan to do with one of these books to help level
up what you have going on in your life.
And, go ahead and hit subscribe, and we'll see you in the next video.