Top books for the first part of 2017!

Whew! The first four months of 2017 have been a whirlwind and I can’t believe I’ve had time to read at all frankly.

Thankfully I love to read and find that I learn the most about living well and about leadership from some great authors and teachers. As many of you know, I like to share some of those top “reads” along the way. The picture is ALMOST all of them. There were two I gave to others to read (Seven Mile Miracle by Steven Furtick and The Women of Easter by Liz Curtis Higgs). There are also a couple that I bought multiple copies of to gift to others (Own It and The School of Greatness)… They were that good.

Please let me know if you read something I need to grab! Summer is coming soon and hopefully there will be time to take on something new and different. (I usually read one or two fiction books per year and summer is a good time for getting lost in a great story.)

Here are a few of my favorites:

• All Tim Ferriss books: Tools of Titans, The 4-hour Chef, The 4-Hour body… As you might notice in the picture, his books are the big ones at the bottom. Frankly, he has a lot of great content. But better yet, he knows that content draws individuals in differently and that the ideas aren’t necessarily for everyone. He points this out off of the top and encourages the reader to find the areas that are valuable for them. One of my favorite quotes from the book: “Asking the right dumb questions is often the smartest thing you can do.”  – Alex Blumberg.The encouragement to ask the question everyone wants to ask, but it seems to basic, is called out by one of America’s great entrepreneurs.
• Own It, Sallie Krawcheck… As mentioned above, I bought multiple copies of this. It may at first seem like a book for just women, but honestly if I were a male leader I’d put it at the top of my list. It’s really just solid advice and offers some great stories to drive them home. The primary message is about finding your purpose in your work. I thought this part was great on the topic of assessing risk as a leader: “When I was running Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch, I made sure that I assessed risk every day. When I was in meetings, I would ask again and again, “What’s the ‘everybody knows ‘ risks? What’s the risk we’re not seeing because we are too to it?”Whether you are a parent, a new grad, a physician or anything else, this is what I call key learnings… We must get really good at this.
• The School of Greatness, Lewis Howes… If you are a motivation junky go grab this now. If you need to learn some basics on what will help drive you to success, go grab this now. And if you want to diversify your thinking with a contemporary leader who I have no doubt will eventually compete with the Zig Ziglars of my time, then grab this now.Lewis is a good one to follow on Instagram as well, @lewishowes. He was briefly a professional athlete and while sidelined from his dreams, he has not let that defeat him, but rather accelerate his potential. Here’s a part I thought you might like: “GROUNDING: Before I do pretty much anything in life, I like to have what I can a “grounding” moment. I originally experienced this process in sports. Before every game, the coach would prepare us for the battle ahead by getting our thoughts together and putting us in the right frame of mind. I call it getting grounded. This is where I commit myself to my vision, get connected to who I am, and focus on what I’m intending to create in that moment.”

  Good, huh?

• GRIT, Angela Duckworth… Such a terrific book. This should be on everyone’s required reading before they launch into college. Angela Duckworth is a “pioneering psychologist” who helps crack the code for outstanding achievement by a focus on passion and persistence, aka “GRIT.” A fun excerpt:”There’s an old Japanese saying:  Fall seven, rise eight.  If I were ever to get a tattoo, I’d get these four simple words indelibly inked. GRIT depends on different kinds of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. ‘I have a feeling tomorrow will be better’ is different that ‘I resolve to make tomorrow better.’ The hope that GRITTY people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.
• Unshakeable, Tony Robbins with Peter Mallory… (A Kansas City boy!) This is a book that requires ACTION on our part. If you have been following social media, you may know that Tony Robbins – a well-known motivational speaker – is on a campaign to make America smarter and richer. This is his second book in recent years on the topic, and in this one he partners with Peter Mallouk, Creative Planning, who helps us with the topics of risk, fees and in general how to maximize our retirement and savings. There are a lot of good actionable steps that you will want to use… This will give you a good idea:Whether you are a business owner or an employee, you can see how your company’s 401K plan stacks up by using his free online Fee Checker tool. It will analyze your plan and calculate within seconds how much you’re being charged in fees.

The others were terrific as well, but I like to keep those posts short and this one already exceeds my norm. Again, I’d love to hear what you have been reading!