A few years back, I compiled a list of books that profoundly helped me not just in business, but in life. While that list still holds up, I’m a person who is constantly reading, absorbing as much undiluted knowledge as possible. So, we’re well past due for some additions to my previous list. Books demand your undivided attention, but they give back to you immeasurably.
Okay, maybe not every book. But I challenge you to read any of the books on this list without feeling a significant change in the way you view business, your career, and life as a whole. That’s a big claim, but I wouldn’t keep coming back to these teachings over and over again if I didn’t believe it. As a bonus, I’m also including three books at the end that have provided me with indispensable wisdom in the most trying times in my life. Enjoy! But more importantly, learn.
Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
By John Doerr
I make no secret about my love of systems. You might even consider me a systems connoisseur. So trust me when I say: If you want to examine a system that has turned countless companies into titans, few will bring you as much value as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Popularized by venture capital pioneer John Doerr, OKRs originated in the 1970s and have since been adopted by the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix. Measure What Matters takes a discerning look at this game-changing way of quantitative goal-setting, going back to its origins under Intel’s revered Andy Grove.
I don’t need to tell you that JohnHart’s staff uses weekly OKRs to guide our efforts. But for the unfamiliar, OKRs establish an overarching objective. Attainment of that objective is then mapped out through a series of key results. Everything is quantifiable and measurable. With Measure What Matters, Doerr illustrates how OKRs can apply to a multitude of industries and situations, giving you the perfect opportunity to begin implementing this tried-and-true goal-setting system in your life.
Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
By Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
If you’re going to model your business practices after a bona fide success story, you can’t do much better than Amazon. Working Backwards takes a long, hard look behind the curtain with two former Amazon executives, Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, as your guides. Bezos may be the name you recognize, but make no mistake: Bryar and Carr were right there through some of Amazon’s most colossal strides. Yes, even Amazon Prime.
Though the book is mostly focused on innovating at the management level, you’ll find valuable lessons and tools throughout Working Backwards that would enrich any role in a company. Where else are you going to find such keen insight into Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles? Working Backwards explores philosophies like an obsession with service excellence and a priority for innovation. But more importantly, it shows you practical methods of applying these principles to your business.
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
By W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
We’ve all heard about (and probably experienced) the cut-throat world of business. But with a little innovation, is there enough room for all of us to succeed? That’s the underlying question explored by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in Blue Ocean Strategy. To understand the title, first you must imagine a sea saturated with the red blood shed by competitive warfare. Kim and Mauborgne float the idea that nearly three decades of pure competition-based strategy have committed us to this reality. But more and more businesses are waking up to the possibility that creativity can free us from this destructive philosophy, leading us to the crystal blue waters free from competitive hazards.
Make no mistake: setting a course for blue oceans isn’t about altruism. Blue Ocean Strategy suggests that “blue ocean” tactics are more sustainable, leading to longevity that can resist market conditions that take “red ocean” companies under. Developing byways into untapped markets is about as easy as it sounds, but Blue Ocean Strategy explores actionable plans to help companies pivot from red ocean practices to blue ocean paradises. Don’t let the structure of your industry become a prison. Look outside of these limitations for those clear blue expanses and become an army of one that never needs to fire a single shot.
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
By Walter Isaacson
Benjamin Franklin was truly America’s take on the Renaissance man. Some of us are lucky enough (or more likely focused enough) to become a master of one skill in our lifetimes. But over two centuries after his death, Franklin remains undisputed as one of America’s most accomplished:
- Businessmen
- Diplomats
- Inventors
- Leaders
- Scientists
- Writers
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life follows the story of arguably the most influential American of all time, from his studies on electricity to his founding of a nation. Franklin was like innovation itself in human form. He invented bifocal glasses, founded the country’s first Fire Department, united the colonies, worked out a peace treaty with Great Britain, and was an early proponent of abolishing slavery. Not too bad for a life’s work.
But what makes An American Life different than other biographies is Walter Isaacson’s creative decision to present Benjamin Franklin, the fallible human, alongside his accomplishments. It allows us to humanize the leader and better understand how we, too, can become leaders ourselves.
Mastery
By Robert Greene
If you’ve ever wondered what your life would have been like had you been born a genius, you should read the brilliant Robert Greene’s Mastery sooner rather than later. Because, according to Greene, a voice with whom I rarely if ever disagree, genius is within all of us. We just need to find the focal point that helps us unlock it.
Mastery is the moment in which Greene’s indispensable philosophy evolves into its pinnacle as he pivots away from serving one’s self and into the greater pursuit of serving one’s society. He projects his 5 strategies for discovering your life’s purpose onto recognizable contemporaries, illustrating these practices in action. It’s a bold claim that all mastery can apply to a universal template, and I’d be more skeptical if it were coming from anyone other than Greene. But I’ve found no flaw in the process. Please don’t take my word for it. Test it for yourself and discover the master that no doubty resides within you.
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
By Charles T. Munger
Poor Charlie’s Almanack is an interesting book in more ways than one. Its tone makes it a quick read. But it’s so saturated with information that it probably won’t click for you immediately. The true brilliance of Poor Charlie’s Almanack hits you when you least expect it: at the moment that life mirrors Charles T. Munger’s teachings.
You may recognize Munger as the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which makes him royalty in the business world. Rather than teach you a step-by-step system, Munger’s sage writings help you to reconfigure the way you see the world around you. The name of the game is to recognize mistakes before you have the chance to make them. And Poor Charlie’s Almanack takes years of raw experience in business, finance, ethics, and philosophy, and condenses it into a series of mental checklists to help you master the foresight that leads to confident decision-making.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Plan all you want, but if you think chance doesn’t play a factor in business, you’re kidding yourself. There will always be factors beyond our control, but Fooled by Randomness at least gives us a fighting chance of understanding random influences. Nassim Nicholas Taleb explores the concept of “luck” through the filter of business but also as it applies to life. But more interestingly, it closely examines people’s hesitation to believe that chance is simply chance.
Fooled by Randomness also delves into survivorship bias; people’s tendency to fall into the trap of mimicking success stories without giving any attention to the failures. It draws parallels to confirmation bias, a trap I caution my staff against for its tendency to pollute valuable research. Ultimately, we can’t control everything that happens to us in or outside of business. But we do have the luxury of controlling how we react to it. And for that insight, Fooled by Randomness is essential reading.
What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence
By Stephen A. Schwarzman
Stephen A. Schwartzman came from truly modest beginnings. Yet, through a series of systems and an iron belief in his vision, he went on to become the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms. What It Takes is more or less the story of that journey. But within that story is the guide for developing the seed of an idea until it grows into an unimpeachable success.
Schwartzman goes into specifics, like establishing teams of experts, exploring untapped markets, and maintaining an uncompromising integrity (even to your own detriment at times). But at its core, What It Takes reminds us that the ideas that truly transcend generations are the ones we water with conviction. In Schwarzman’s world, complacency is the biggest crime. And perseverance is a religion.
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change)
By Clayton M. Christensen
When Clayton M. Christensen first published The Innovator’s Dilemma in 1997, every leader you can think of in the business world took note. A lot has changed in the subsequent decades, so some references may seem dated. But don’t get lost in the details. Christensen’s thoughts on disruptive innovation are still game changers.
Disruptive technologies are basically advances that change industries: new products, new services, and new technologies. And so many companies think that if they adapt the latest disruptive technologies into their business models as quickly as possible, success is a given. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a rhythm to this that Christensen breaks down in The Innovator’s Dilemma. It’s not enough to recognize how to adopt disruptive technologies. You also need to recognize when.
Three Books I Turn to in Difficult Times
As promised, here are three books that have helped me immeasurably during the darkest times in my life. Hard times are inevitable, no matter who you are or what you do. You can do everything perfectly, make all the right decisions, and outsmart all of your competitors. The hard times will still find you. There’s no changing that. But these books teach you how to endure those inevitable moments.
It’s like Rocky says in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” I know it’s a sin to quote a movie in a book list, but wisdom is wisdom. And for my money, these books give you more of that than most.
Man’s Search for Meaning
By Viktor Frankl
This should have been on my original reading list, and I still can’t believe I missed it. I’ve read it no less than 10 times. It tells the frankly unfathomable story of Viktor Frankl from his own perspective as he was detained in a series of concentration camps during World War II. In those grim years, Frankl was forced to endure unimaginable loss. But rather than let it break him, he analyzed the circumstances and developed his own insightful philosophy that continues to empower and inspire people through their darkest moments.
Basically, Man’s Search for Meaning breaks each person’s life purpose into one of three categories:
- Completing tasks
- Caring for others
- Retaining dignity in the face of suffering
Frankl’s suffering was personally unavoidable, and he acknowledges that. But in looking deeper into this suffering, rather than turning away from it, he was able to draw a connection between people’s life purpose and their health. Today, we call this logotherapy and, thanks to Frankl’s efforts, logotherapy institutes have been established across the world. Man’s Search for Meaning challenges us to find sense in the senseless. And that’s a life-affirming gift in difficult moments.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
By Ben Horowitz
How often do worthwhile pursuits in life come easily? Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz and a veritable celebrity around Silicon Valley, untangles the problem with problems in his insightful The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Reading his wisdom on matters as diverse as management, investment, and development filtered through rap lyrics can actually serve to energize and inspire when things aren’t going the way you imagined.
The truth is that sometimes working with friends goes wrong. Sometimes your top talent leaves for the competitor. And sometimes, you get to the top and realize it’s not all you hoped it would be. Horowitz draws from his real-world experience building a startup from the floor up. It’s a wild ride. But is it still worth taking? That answer will be different for everyone, but Horowitz will at least help you get to the bottom of it.
Meditations
By Marcus Aurelius
I’ve probably read Meditations at least 30 times, but it’s hard to keep count. That’s because reading from this collection of philosophical insights from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has become an essential part of my morning routine. You don’t burn through Meditations. You read a brief passage and then spend the day ruminating on it.
It’s likely that Aurelius didn’t even intend for this collection to be published. Rather, these were simply notes about life from the author to himself. Yet, he created a bottomless well of wisdom, separated into 12 concise books that help to center the reader within the vastness of the universe. What really speaks to me about Aurelius’s teachings is his emphasis on maintaining focus on your objectives while eliminating distractions. But it’s a literary treasure trove of inspiration, from his philosophies on returning to nature to the idea that mastery over emotional responses leads to true power. If you’re ever doubting your place in life, few books can offer the profound grounding experience of Meditations.
After working with, and for, many different real estate firms, it became apparent to Harout that there was a major disconnect between what consumers needed/wanted and the service that was being provided to them. It was upon this realization that Harout founded and opened JohnHart Real Estate; and as the CEO/Principal Broker he has continued to break from the norm and redefine real estate with an insatiable appetite to give his clients the service and attention they deserve.
