Stillness Is The Key

Rating 5/5

Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key is one of my favourite books from 2019. 

I believe that everyone can get something of value from reading Stillness and that you owe it to yourself to buy and keep on your bookshelf and turn back to regularly. 

This is considered the third in a trilogy of books on Stoic philosophy that Ryan has written and while Obstacle and Ego are books that I highly recommend to people in certain instances, Stillness has something for everyone. 

It’s also extremely practical.

Each chapter includes advice to apply the practices talked about which is something that wasn’t emphasized as much in OITW and EITE. 

We live in a busy and chaotic world. Everyone is gasping for air as our attention is pulled in countless different directions and the key to it all is to find stillness in whatever way works best for you. 

This book shares why stillness is so importantly (and has literally saved the world from meltdown) and how you can get more stillness in your life to become better at everything you do. 

Quiet

Rating 5/5

I put off reading Quiet by Susan Cain for a number of years because I assumed I knew all I needed to about the introvert/extrovert divide and experience in the business world. 

Extroverts and those with higher energy who talk more have always been perceived as smarter and as leaders. This book challenges those assumptions and shows how these perceptions are flawed and limiting great business leaders who prefer to operate with less publicity. 

The information about nervous system differences between introverts and extroverts was fascinating. Introverts are more sensitive to stimuli even from infancy and this is one part of what contributes to the displayed quietness. 

This book is also one of the first to dispel the shyness and introversion myth and show the differences between shyness which is more of a social anxiety issue with introversion being a tendency to recharge your batteries in solitude rather than with others. 

In Quiet, Susan offers up practical advice for introverts on how to find balance and thrive in the business world which has also been reportedly very beneficial for extroverts who read this book and better understand and respect the needs of the introverts around them. 

When it comes to being an introvert, know that you don’t have to follow the status quo with your leisure time by going to the bar with friends. It’s ok to get into nature alone or curl up and read a book. Also carve out restorative niches for yourself - these are places and activities in your work and home environment that help you to recharge. 

Read this if you identify as an introvert and feel like it is holding you back or you have quiet children. This book is also hugely valuable for any leaders or business owners to understand their team better. 

Leaders Eat Last

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek is an exploration of leadership and a call for the urgency of more leaders being needed in the world. 

I found the title of the book confusing because even though Sinek briefly refers to how some leaders in the army eat after their subordinates, the book seemed to be more about the neurochemistry of human interaction and examples of good and bad leadership. I guess that means the title still works in the sense of eating last being one of the principles of leadership but it still confused me throughout listening to the audiobook. 

Not a bad book about leadership but not great either. 

Dichotomy of Leadership

Jocko and Leif are back at it with a follow-up book to Extreme Ownership, which still stands as one of my favourite business books of all time because of the real-world parallels they were able to draw between leadership on the battlefields of Iraq and leadership in the office of corporate America. 

After four or more years since the release of Extreme Ownership, Dichotomy begins where it left off and reigns in some of the extremes from the previous book as the authors found business owners struggling when taking the concepts of the first book far too literally. 

Dichotomy sets to soften some of the blows by being “in control, but not rigid” and helping readers see the gray area that is often where true leadership lies. 

I liked this book but not as much as how fresh the idea was when I read Extreme Ownership. While the business principles are still solid, many of the stories from Iraq that Jocko and Leif tell sound familiar and rehashed to me. Some of them are from the previous book and it could just be that I’ve recalled them from some of the Jocko Podcast episodes but I think that it is more so from the previous book. Sure, they’ve retold the stories from the dichotomous perspective but I’d still have liked to get more fresh stories from the book than feeling so much like a repeat of Extreme Ownership.