There I go, turning the page
“Learn continually - there’s always ‘one more thing’ to learn.” - Steve Jobs.
I operate under the sincere assumption that I can learn something from everyone with whom I interact. Whether I agree with everything they say or do is irrelevant, but if I don’t learn something from them, their perspective, or their experience - that’s on me. The same goes for books. If an author spent painstaking weeks, months, or years bringing a literary work of art to life, I’m confident they have something novel to offer (pun intended) and I’m thankful for the opportunity to take part in the lesson.
I enjoy books. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I’m more of an auditory learner than a visual learner, thus I can generally dig into books better when listening than when sitting down to read them. Additionally, with two kids and a few business responsibilities, the audio option allows for consumption of the written word while completing otherwise mundane tasks, like attempting to exercise, making breakfast, or commuting.
In this recap of the books consumed, there will be no negative comments about any of the books or the authors: just the quick key take-away I pulled from the final product. I may not have loved every element of these books, but I certainly learned from each and gained additional perspective that I would never have attained otherwise, so for that reason, I loved reading each of them. I will avoid politics in my comments because I believe we can learn from people across the political spectrum. If you find anything here thought provoking, I’ve included the link to one of the places each book can be purchased, though I encourage you to access it through a local store. Thank you to all the friends, family, and colleagues that recommended the titles below! Please continue sharing your recommendations.
NEW READS FOR ME THIS YEAR
These are the books I “read” throughout the year, starting in January. All of them were either first time reads for me, or the first time since grade 10 – my perspective has changed a lot since the early 2000s, so the books felt completely new. Additionally, I’m currently reading “Buy then Build” by Walker Deibel, which was a gift from a friend. I’m completely captivated by the content thus far, but I haven’t finished the text, so it’ll be featured on next year’s list.
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick is a phenomenal investigative author and this book focused on the struggles in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the 20th Century. The story details how fear can control a population: enabling actions (or lack thereof) that they otherwise would never dream of committing. Some elements of the book were difficult to consume, given the graphic nature of the text and the horrific circumstances that some of the real-life characters lived through, but it was eye opening to learn about such a recent conflict and the lives touched throughout.
Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker
Holly takes us on a journey of questioning the role of alcohol in our lives. She does so in a way that, for me, didn’t come across as shaming, but rather asking: what goal is alcohol helping to drive towards? Of course, this kind of honest questioning is great in all aspects of one’s world and isn’t isolated to consumption. I haven’t had an alcoholic drink since reading Holly’s book in February - it enabled an inward look at my own decision making, along with a healthy re-evaluation of priorities.
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Brené holds herself accountable and, in doing so in her writing, encourages readers (current and future leaders of all types) to do the same. She details some interesting stories and the mindsets that helped (or didn’t help) achieve positive results. What I like about Brené is that she doesn’t define “leadership” as strictly leading a business: she recognizes and celebrates leadership in every aspect of family, friendship, and relationships. I believe every reader will pull a slightly different take-away from the text, given the nature of the levels of leadership Brené details - which is great.
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Love him or hate him, Barack Obama is unquestionably one of the greatest orators of our time. That, and he’s one heck of a writer. Providing an inside view of how decisions are made within politics is fascinating for me. I believe Obama painted a more vivid picture of the life of a politician than previous presidents have offered in their memoires. You don’t have to agree with it all to respect the art of getting things done in Washington. Hearing his perspective on events that we otherwise would only hear from CNN or Fox or NPR is thought provoking.
Note: It was a great contrast to Michelle Obama’s “Becoming”, as some of the same stories were told from each of their perspectives. I also recommend “Becoming” - Michelle is an inspiring individual.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
When I first read this book in high school, I remember thinking I lacked much of the context required to really commit the lessons to memory. I likely still do, but at least I felt more at ease having read some of the biographies of the leaders featured in the book over the past few years. This book was awesome for bringing those stories together and highlighting the themes. Yes, some of the context is slightly out of date given the age of the research, but the themes remain relevant, and it digs into incentives and overarching strategic planning required for businesses to go from “good to great”.
Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
The infamous take-over of RJR Nabisco by KKR in the late 1980s. Such a convoluted story and, in many ways, the public dawn of an M&A style that has been deployed widely in the last 30 years (LOBs). Few books that I’ve experienced do such a detailed job of showing the politics of boards of directors and how this impacts decision making. Investors in public equities should enjoy learning more about the inner workings of board level dynamics with management teams.
Note: I read this as a kid and didn’t understand any of it, but my grandfather was at RJR Nabisco during the take-over, so it was neat comparing notes live after reading the text.
1984 by George Orwell
I realized that I had never read 1984. I think we read the Chrysalids in Grade 10 instead of 1984… despite the Chrysalids being a thought-provoking novel on leveraging one’s unique abilities for greatness, I feel like I spent a couple decades missing out on one of the greatest novels ever written. George Orwell dove into the psychology of fear and the methods of control over a population. The word pictures he painted were spectacular. It was a reminder that the mindset of quietly questioning the motivations of media, politicians, and large corporations/non-profits, instead of taking everything at face value, is an okay and healthy practice.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A great reminder that media and propaganda can slowly, over long periods of time, change hearts, minds, and motivations. And that a good idea taken too far is a bad idea. This was required reading in Grade 9 and I recommend it to anyone at any age – it’s a quick read and George Orwell has a unique ability to pack more meaning into fewer words than most other authors.
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Imagine following the life of the man that went from seemingly honestly trying to improve upon medical best practices in the 1930s (lobotomy was still an accepted practice) and ended his career having created the start of a snowball that would result in an opioid epidemic? The lies, deceptions, FDA rigging, polygamy, and hubris shown by Arthur Sackler created the pharmaceutical marketing industry we know today and set his descendants up to utilize these practices to earn billions on the opioid epidemic.
The research and diligence that went into this project is astonishing. It details the rise of the Sackler family, of Purdue Pharma infamy. Easily my favourite book of the year.
Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman
The 2020 review of WeWork, which I bought because I was downloading it while walking to the park with kids sleeping in a stroller and I meant to buy “The Cult of We”. Regardless, it turned out to be a supremely engaging account of the rise of Adam Neumann and why the decisions were made the way they were made. The book reminds the reader that thinking big is a good thing: change that M to a B on the “potential market” slide in your deck and then work like hell to make it a reality. To quote Matthew McConaughey: “a roof is a manmade object.”
Note: Reeves, maybe unintentionally but in line with a number of “woke” journalists, painted Adam Neumann with the same brush as Elizabeth Holmes (“Bad Blood” is highly recommended), but I believe that to be hyperbolic and inflammatory. Adam positively changed office leasing for the entire world, while making a considerable number of people wealthy, and laying the groundwork for what ended up being a $9b IPO in 2021. He unquestionably completed some shady actions along the way, but the investors and advisors that encouraged these practices should be equally accountable. Elizabeth Holmes knowingly lied about every aspect of Theranos, never created a product that even remotely worked, and was willing to risk the lives of her customers in order to build her personal wealth – a jury of her peers will decide her fate in the coming days.
The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell
The book WeWork I initially tried to get from Audible: a wonderfully researched tale of the WeWork creation. Eliot and Farrell delve deep into the weeds of various capital raises, strategy decisions, and egotistical posturing that led to the meteoric (private valuation) rise and cringeworthy fall ahead of WeWork’s first IPO attempt. The book digs well under the surface of Adam’s relationship with SoftBank and gets at the mentality of those with the power to enact change. This iteration of the WeWork story is more holistic than “Billion Dollar Loser” and seems to take a more matter-of-fact approach, with less cheap shot opinions built into the rhetoric – of the two, this was a stronger output, in my opinion, though I learned something from each title.
Billion Dollar Whale by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright
There’s a reason this book was named Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times – no idea why I took so long to finally read it. What an awesome story tying Asian politicians, Middle Eastern princes, Wall Street bros, and Hollywood A-listers into a wicked scheme of fraud that (I hope) is totally unprecedented. I’m still shocked that Jho Low was able to finance the “Wolf of Wall Street” film with nine figures of stolen money without being meaningfully questioned by anyone in power. Very few books dance between pop culture, politics, and the finance world with such grace.
The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Avoid blind compliance. Ask questions.”― Mimi Ikonn. Mimi is not related to this book in any way, which is intentional, but her sentiment is relevant in almost every situation. Though I’m bi-partisan and have no horse in this race, it’s difficult to comment on this amazingly detailed account of Dr. Anthony Fauci and those around him without coming across as sounding political, leaning either left or right. Thus, I recommend everyone read the book and make their own judgments, so we can strike up a conversation together.
RE-READS
These are some of the re-reads I enjoyed this year to help through specific challenges or to bring perspective into a time of uncertainty.
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Anyone that is starting a business, or thinking of doing so, needs to read this book. Anyone that wants to learn more about the motivations of social media companies needs to read this book. Anyone that is looking for a supremely entertaining story needs to read this book. Antonio is a masterful writer that holds no punches about the not-so-nice elements of start-up life and of dealing with much larger, much better financed opponents in the social media world. He’s honest about the inconvenient truths around start-ups, looking at the business elements but also the negative familial impacts that accompany. I’ve gone through it at least three times and know that it’ll be on my annual list going forward.
Note: I encourage those folks at Apple in their Slack channel to read the full text, then judge, instead of reading one out-of-context, hyperbolic paragraph that was posted on TMZ. In hindsight, Antonio can thank that Slack group for their small-mindedness because their actions resulted in a windfall of epic proportions for his brand and reach.
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
A book about mindset and how one thinking and outlook determines the ongoing results, long before those results are realized. This book is on my annual list because it’s such a great reminder to pull one’s head from the weeds to focus on the vision for the business or venture. The businesses reviewed and stories told are engaging and relevant, as only Simon can. The final result is a book that makes you feel prepared to go bite the ass off of a bear.
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
If I’m having what I think to be a bad day, I turn this on. This is a book about getting relative and changing your attitude to change your circumstances. It’s a quick one and Matthew reads the audiobook himself: I’ll jump to a specific section of the book to help through a mental reset, if that’s what I need. It’s a book based on the premise that all red and yellow lights will eventually turn green and that sometimes our perspective on a particular situation allows us to change a red light day into fuel for a green light tomorrow. I’ve listened to it 12+ times – safe to say it’s currently my favourite book. “Stepping in s#*t is inevitable, so let’s either see it as good luck, or figure out how to do it less often.”
The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
John details the methods of power utilized by those that control the flows of finances around the world to ensure long term success of the few. The World Bank, Federal Governments, and major corporations were all highlighted in the story of John’s career, which spans five decades and six continents as an Economic Hit Man (EHM), working towards the goals of the “corporatocracy”: defined as a term used to refer to an economic, political and judicial system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. I re-read it mostly to bring context to the infrastructure deals occurring across Africa on behalf of China, but also to refresh my memory on how government contracts are politicized in North America.
Boomerang by Michael Lewis
Pre-Trump era Michael Lewis was my favourite author. Ironically, the book that I liked the least upon first read, but then the most after some time was allowed for contemplation, was Boomerang. Michael looks at the financial crisis from the perspective of the nations involved in the crisis, not just the companies that participated (or just the American view). He dives into the mindset that led otherwise rational people to make irrational decisions, based on the experiences they had lived through prior to high finance. Seeing the contrast of Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and specific towns in California brings a far more holistic understanding of the crisis and its impacts (yes, he spoke with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the book - side note: “Total Recall” by Schwarzenegger is awesome).
Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
I find the financial crisis of 2008 to be the most interesting and complex tale of interconnectedness and I’ll read/watch anything related to uncovering more perspectives. The interviews that Andrew had to complete in order to bring this work to life is somewhat astonishing. And his ability to bring the stories of the relevant banks, politicians, and stakeholders to life in the text is captivating. Focusing mostly on the actions taken that resulted in Lehman failing on September 15, 2008, and on the subsequent steps taken to bail out the other financial institutions in the weeks following this crash, brings context to other great books, like Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short”. The research put into this project reminded me of the story of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind: “The Smartest Guys in the Room” - this is potentially the highest praise I can bestow.
- David