Permission Marketing
Seth Godin is one of the most prominent online marketers today and has held that position since the early days of the internet when he saw the potential of the start up companies and this medium as it was taking off.
Permission Marketing is all about doing right by your customers through offering incentives and information in exchange for their permission to share more and market directly to them.
Written almost two decades ago, Permission Marketing was spot on when it was written and has become even more appropriate in today’s world of overpriced and highly competitive world of marketing. By creating a unique value proposition for your potential customers and then educating them on your products while keeping their attention, you cut through the distractions and other marketing attempts and win the hearts of your followers.
There is plenty of great advertising and marketing advice packed into this book and it is well worth reading if you are involved in any marketing efforts and want to stand out from the rest of the crowd.
22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing
If you listen in to Tim Ferriss at all, you’ll here him go on and on about the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout - but make sure you get the original and not the copy updated for the modern age!
This book deserves the crown and a place on the stack of marketing books for any serioius marketer or entrepreneur. 22 Immutable Laws is short and to the point but drills home all of the considerations that you need to make as a marketer if you want to be successful. With great examples and simple explanations, following the advice in this book will set you apart from all those who violate the rules of this little handbook.
The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People
The Seven Habits by Stephen Covey is a perennial seller in the management and personal improvement realm for good reasons. This book is the grandfather of most of the concepts you will read in self-help and management books that line the shelves today.
Whether you are trying to improve upon yourself, build a better business, or become a stronger leader, this book outlines the seven habits that a lifetime of research and reflection has led Covey to identify as the core to effectiveness and living a good life.
You’ve certainly heard of this book before and probably even seen the pages and concepts laid out within it a time or two before and I was surprised after reading it that it took me so long to actually sit down and read this book. Stephen Covey is a great storyteller and writer so this only furthers the support that this great book should line everybody’s bookshelf.
The book is longer than I think it needs to be but it makes more sense considering the number of stories and examples that Covey packs into each chapter from a lifelong pursuit of experience and reading on the subjects he expounds upon.
Life Value: 5/5
Entertainment Value 4/5
The Purposeful Primitive
The Purposeful Primitive - Mary Gallagher
The Purposeful Primitive is without a doubt the best book on physical training I have ever read.
This book is logically subdivided into sections on training, mindset, cardio, and nutrition.
For each section of the book, there are case studies of the “Primitives” who embody the principles of the book, sections on applying the information for yourself, and essays on the subject - which Marty is a master of writing both entertainingly and informative.
This book details the training and lives of many of the legends in strength and powerlifting, including the training programs of Paul Anderson, Kirk Karwoski, Ken Fantano, and Ed Coan just to name a few. Marty also included detailed sections of the diets aligned with his Purposeful Primitive ways including the Parillo method and Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet.
Any book that goes into depth on the psychological aspects of training gets bonus points in my book and Marty certainly delivered in that sense. This book has the most detailed and useful section on mindset and applying various techniques that I’ve read - even compared to books solely on mindset.
If you have even the slightest inkling of a passion for training, you will love this book, and I suggest you buy a hard copy as you will want to endlessly flip back to different sections of this book. The stories that Marty has from his decades of training and coaching will also have you falling off your chair laughing.
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
Managing Oneself
Managing Oneself - Peter Drucker
This little book is a quick read with many great take-home points for anyone struggling to manage themselves or others.
It breaks down a few key points from which all things surrounding managing yourself exist.
Know your values
Know how you learn/perform best
Know your strengths and weaknesses
In work you should find a company that resonates with your values
In relationships of the work of the personal kind, you should know the strength and values of the other person and respect them.
I think everyone can value from considering the points in this book if they struggle to have an answer to any of the above points and it takes less than an hour to read. Pretty good for people who are already busy.
Start With Why
Start With Why - Simon Sinek
Life Value 4/5
Entertainment Value 4/5
“There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influences. Those who lead inspire us.”
Start With Why by Simon Sinek is a book for leaders who are taking over or starting up a company. The thesis of the book is that a company and its leaders must start with why - the belief and cause of the company in order to become successful. The WHY lies at the centre of WHAT your company does and HOW it does it.
To fully embody the why of a company means to hire around others who also believe the same thing that you do. By having the company culture embody the core belief, others will come to understand your WHY and follow you as well.
This book is pretty interesting and Sinek has a few good case studies that he develops his thesis around but he does stick to the same companies as examples throughout the entire book - he is clearly an Apple fan - and could have benefitted from branching out to a wider range of industries.
I’ve listened to Sinek speak in podcasts and on videos before and I believe that he is better suited to delivering his message through audio. I think that this book is more of a dictation of him talking than a great written work.
Grounded In Gratitude
Grounded In Gratitude - Josh Bryant & Adam benShea
“A longing in the abstract is a dream. However, a dream with a timeline is a goal.”
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 3/5
Grounded in Gratitude by Josh Bryant is a book on building from what you already have in your life to where you ultimately want to be through gratitude practices.
This brief book focuses on a few important practices that can be used to turn dreams into objective goals that can be achieved. These practices include affirmations, reframing yourself with a growth mindset, and writing.
Writing is the main emphasis of Grounded in Gratitude because it can powerfully turn your goals from fleeting thoughts into attainable ideas. By writing your goals down you bridge the gap and synergistically blend the power of the right brain and the left brain. This act of writing down your goals also allows your subconscious mind to pick up on more opportunities through priming.
There are plenty more specific actions that can be taken throughout this book and it contains a seven-week process for completely revamping your life.
Dinosaur Training
Dinosaur Training - Brooks Kubik
Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik is an old-school mentality approach to training. Much of what Kubik writes in this book will jive with the “more is always better” modern era. Kubik is vehemently against PED use in sports and smears “druggers” constantly throughout this book. The scientific accuracy of the book is weak but the training methodology is intriguing. Kubik believes in training like the dinosaurs of past strength eras by keeping the volume low but intensity extremely high. Train primarily with singles and use the most difficult forms of lifts that you can, this includes doing squats and bench from the bottom up and using thick bars and odd objects regularly in training.
If the training style of Kubik does not interest you, the mindset section of this book is highly valuable. Full of stories of the old-school mental masters and techniques to apply for mindfulness, visualization and psyching yourself up for big lifts, this section is what turned my opinion of Kubik’s book from so-so to actually a pretty good training book.
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value: 3/5
Living With The Monks
Living With The Monks - Jesse Itzler
After spending a month living and training with a SEAL known as Goggins, Jesse Itzler decided to follow up on his journey of learning through experience with experts by living with Monks at a monastery in upstate New York. In this book Jesse shares in the wisdom he gained in his 15-day experience of peace and contemplation.
While I didn't like this book as much as SEAL, it was a refreshing taste of leading by example rather than just another flowery book about mindfulness or finding peace within yourself.
There are more than enough nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout this book to make it worthwhile to read, or in my case listen to, and was an entertaining story from start to finish.
Life value 4/5
Entertainment value 4/5
Influence
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Life value 5/5
Entertainment value 4/5
Influence is a great distillation of the science of persuasion and teaches you both what to look for or use as a marketer or salesperson and how to better avoid the pitfalls of savvy marketers. Cialdini simplifies the science behind the psychology and is a great writer and storyteller.
The book is broken down into the main categories that influential psychology falls under and gives plenty of great research and real-world examples to solidify each point.
If you need help avoiding influence in your own decisions or you are looking to attain more success in selling something, (whether you believe in it or not), this book will be highly valuable to you if you have never taken a social psychology class before and come across many of these concepts.
This book covers all the biggies including:
The contrast principle
Reciprocation
Social proof
Commitment and consistency
Authority
Liking
Scarcity
One of the best parts about the book is the author's relentless curiosity about persuasion and his down to earth approach as he includes many examples of how he himself is not foolproof to persuasion but becomes even more curious when he gets caught in a trap and why it happened.
Stealing Fire
Stealing Fire- Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal
Stealing Fire is a look at the state of Ecstasis and gets its name from an allusion to Prometheus - the titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humans, thus sparking the progress of civilization.
Ecstasis is the act of “stepping beyond oneself” and refers to experiences of the subconscious mind taking over our everyday consciousness. Ecstasis was traditionally achieved through long-term contemplative practices and also a rich history of animals consuming psychoactive plants. It is hypothesized that the consumption of these plants and fungi has been involved in the progress of human evolution and been critical to our development of cognition.
Stealing Fire breaks down the ecstatic state into the four components of the STER experience - selflessness, timeless, effortlessness, and richness and explores its relationship to the flow state and the neurobiology behind it. The book then explores the different methods of achieving ecstatic states including new technologies that are breaking through the mystery and the taboos of exploring altered states.
This is an extremely interesting read and has a lot of value to some of the changes in legislature being made in North America currently. While many people will be exploring Michael Pollan’s newest book on this subject, “How To Change Your Mind,” I think that Stealing Fire published a few years ago, is an interesting parallel to explore on the subject of altered states.
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck - Mark Manson
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
The Subtle Art really is written as the first and last self-help book you’ll ever need to read. Even if you’re a self-help addict always digging into the latest trend or opinion on whatever secret will change your life, you should give this book a read. I hated the title when I first saw this book and refused to read it for that reason. It was when Ryan Holiday had it at the top of his list of books to read if you could only read a limited number of books this year that I figured I would give it a shot and dive in.
Mark Manson is a great storyteller and while some of his stories get pretty silly, this book is so entertaining to read that you’ll be burning through the pages. The lessons in this book are so important for so many people to comprehend and take action on towards achieving greater happiness and life satisfaction that you really owe it to yourself to give it a chance.
I’ve heard mixed thoughts on the writing style and some people think that it’s too much “bro-speak” which I can defnintely see being an issue.
The main takeaways:
Only give a fuck about things that are true and are immediate and important.
Happiness requires struggle. We all must suffer from problems.
You are not special - even world-class performers struggle with things. They got to where they are by facing their failures.
Eliminate your shitty values and build your values upon states that are achieved internally.
Take extreme ownership of your life. Even if someone else is to blame for your unhappiness, only you are responsible for your state of unhappiness.
AIM - Action - Inspiration - Motivation. We wait around for inspiration to strike us to get motivated to take action towards a goal but if you reframe it and just start moving you can fire up your own inspiration and motivation feedback loop.
Choose yourself - say no to things that don’t matter to you and eliminate FOMO. Greater success and happiness comes through committing to things long-term.
Memento mori - in the face of the inevitability of death there is no reason to ever give in to one’s fear, or embarrassment, or shame, since it’s all a bunch of nothing.
The Warrior Ethos
The Warrior Ethos - Stephen Pressfield
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
The Warrior Ethos is a brief and entertaining read about the code that populations like the Spartans lived by. If you loved the movie 300 and want to hear more about the real lives of the Spartans, this is a great read.
The Warrior Ethos is a strict moral code of the rules that dictate the lives of warrior tribes. In writing this, Pressfield draws the parallel to all humans and the values that can be extracted from warriors to live a better life. This includes taking the values that the warriors applied to fighting war and turning the fight inward to direct it to become mentally stronger and more balanced.
Who's this book for:
- Anyone who loved the movie 300
- Mind flayers looking to forge an unbeatable mind
- People interested in the history of warrior tribes
Who's this book not for:
- If you're looking for a long and intricate book this one won't satisfy that urge as it's short and to the point.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson
Benjamin Franklin is one of the most famous Americans of all time. The United States owes much of their independence and views on virtues to the efforts of Ben Franklin before America was even a country.
Ben Franklin was an inventor - of himself as much as of things. He spent his life in a wide variety of roles and has been the inspiration for countless individuals to this day.
The biography by Walter Isaacson is another great example of Isaacson's power as a biographer. While Franklin wrote about his "Plan for Future Conduct" which was his coda for pragmatic rules for success, he was as human as the rest of us and dealt with struggles and scandals. Isaacson maintains a neutral standpoint throughout the various disputes that arise around Franklin throughout his life so that you don't see him only as a titan of industry and inventiveness.
I do like some of Isaacson's other biographies better than this one, like Da Vinci for the beautiful colour photos of the artwork being discussed that's incorporated into the book. I was still happy that I read this biography since I wanted to learn more about Ben Franklin and his life.
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value: 4/5
Who's This Book For:
- anyone interested in early American history.
- biography lovers
Who's This Book Not For:
- Anyone who can't stand long biographies with some fairly dry sections.
On Writing Well
On Writing Well - William Zinsser
“Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, garbage collectors into waste-disposal personnel and the town dump into the volume reduction area.”
Rating:
5/5 - Life Value
4/5 - Entertainment Value
Who's this book for:
- Writers, particularly non-fiction writers.
Who's this book not for:
- Anyone looking for a book for purely entertainment value.
On Writing Well is a guide to writing better as a non-fiction writer in any field. This book is a perfect example of applying the craft of writing to solve the problem to book set out to solve in a to-the-point yet entertaining style. Zinsser is a master of the craft and provides countless tips along with examples of good writing and bad writing - along with how to fix it. This is the type of book writers should regularly revisit and keep on hand when tackling their biggest challenges to make sure they've satisfied the criteria of writing well.
Some of the essential points include:
- Be yourself. Don't flourish your words necessarily or use breeziness, condescension, or cliches.
- Cut out small words that make your writing a little bit less convincing.
- Leave your readers with just one provocative thought that they didn't have before reading your piece.
- Writing that will endure tends to consist of words that are short and strong.
- Clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering and no writing decision is too small to be worth a large expenditure of time.
Choose Yourself
Choose Yourself - James Altucher
“Without rejection, there is no frontier, no passion, and there is no magic. When you give up searching for frontiers, inevitably you end up stuck in a swamp, sinking deeper into the mud the more to struggle to get out.”
Rating 4/5
James Altucher has tried, failed, and succeeded in many different avenues throughout his life. He is as apt to make an example out of his failures as he is his successes if it will make for a great story and help someone else. I don't know if anyone considers James a true expert in any one subject but he certainly likes to make his presences known across many different industries.
I like James. The way he is constantly trying to sell his ideas makes me question his integrity a lot, but I still like the way he writes and the stories he tells; Choose Yourself was no different in this sense.
The book revolves around the central idea that to be happy and create value in the world for others you must choose yourself, meaning that you have to think about yourself and your ideas as an entrepreneur would. James says that the world of the manual labour job is quickly disappearing and that the only way you'll be able to thrive in the future is to become a creator, in other words, someone capable of Deep Work.
The book doesn't follow much of a progression from beginning to end and instead is more like a collection of essays and many of James' ideas on why you must choose yourself. He is an unusual, yet captivating writer and I found myself devouring the pages to see where each story led James next.
Who's This Book For:
- Anyone looking for entrepreneurial inspiration.
- If you like 'mad genius' style thinking, you'll likely enjoy James' sometimes rambling style of writing/thinking.
Who's This Book Not For:
- People who dislike disjointed ideas.
- People content with their 9-5 jobs that don't want to take any risk.
Mind Gym
Mind Gym - Gary Mack
“Show me a guy who is afraid of looking bad and I can beat him every time”
Rating: 5/5
Mind Gym by Gary Mack is the ultimate guide to sports psychology and mastering the inner game with sports. Gary Mack was a big-time sports psychologist who had worked with athletes in a wide range of professional leagues. This is the type of book you can’t fully appreciate until you start to apply the information in the book to yourself.
The writing style in this book is very blunt. Each chapter serves its purpose with a couple of quotes from athletes and then an example of how the practice is applied or a case study of how an athlete has used that principle. There are no excess words or rambling sentences to lose the point over, which is great because each principle can be read over in a few minutes and then used for yourself.
Athletes dedicated to maximizing their performance and matching their inner excellence to performance on their field of choice will appreciate this book and find value in it. Sports psychology isn’t a brand new revelation so many of the topics may be recognizable to the experienced athletes reading this book but it is still a great book and reference to carry with you as an athlete.
Own The Day, Own Your Life
Rating: 5/5
To own your life begins with building the momentum that comes from owning a single day. Own The Day, Own Your Life is the perfect guidebook for optimizing your day through health, productivity, and well-being/relationships. I had listened to Aubrey Marcus on his and other’s podcasts before but never read any of his blog posts or other writing. I was impressed by his conversational yet polished writing style and his ability to be both motivational and humorous. This book reads like a how-to manual on getting through the day as a human being. From the first moment, you open your eyes to the last minute before you drift off to sleep at night, Own the Day has got you covered.
If you are already well-versed in the realm of self-improvement books or have a dedicated fitness regimen, much of what you read in Own the Day will be an overview (albeit, a well-written one) of things you likely already know. However, Aubrey is into some funky stuff when it comes to human optimization, so you’ll still learn a few things that will surprise you.
For anyone who doesn’t feel their life is in full control or is looking for a place to start for habits and routines that will improve your health and well-being, this is a great book to start with and will leave you motivated to achieve more.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Revenge is a dish best served cold. The count would handle revenge the same way as what he his friends in the book is the root of all human wisdom- "Wait and hope."
The Count of Monte Cristo is the 1800s version of a superhero story - you've probably heard of it before. Although in many ways it feels like the origin story of more of a villain in some ways. Just as Bane tells Batman that he was born in the darkness, so was Edmond Dantes and his unending journey to get revenge on those who wrongfully imprison him out of jealousy and greed.
Edmond spends 14 years wrongfully imprisoned, exacting his revenge on those who locked him away in a black cell. Upon escaping the prison he works to dismount the lives of his enemies.
I've heard the book described as being too long but it rarely loses the reader's interest even at over 1200 pages. There's a purpose with developing all the characters and the interweaving of stories in making this a long book, If you want to read a classic work of fiction that has a powerful lesson to be had from it, you can't go wrong with The Count.
Who is this book for: anyone who feels they are too hot-headed and could benefit from practicing stoicism and patience.
Who this is not for: Anyone without the patience for an extremely long book (but at the same time, this is exactly who needs it most).
"I have only two adversaries - I will not say two conquerors, for with perseverance I subdue even them, - they are time and distance... What men call the chances of fate- namely, ruin, change, circumstance- I have fully anticipated and if any of these should overtake me, yet it will not overwhelm me."
Beyond Training
Beyond Training - Ben Greenfield
Here's how I think you should approach Beyond Training instead of making the mistake I did by sitting on this book for so long: go listen to a few podcasts with Ben Greenfield, either on his own podcast or as a guest on a show like Joe Rogan. He's a quirky guy and you may not like him enough to want to buy his book. I know people who think he talks too arrogantly. I found that I came to like his writing style even more than his audio persona.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book and disappointed that I was initially reluctant to give it a shot for a long time. I had read many negative reviews about Beyond Training that said that is was nothing more than a glorified infomercial and rife with pseudoscience and biased plugs for supplements and products. Having already been unsure about Greenfield, since I know him to be a quirky and overzealous guru of biohacking and believer in earthing, grounding, and the dangers of EMFs, I didn't want to waste my time on something if I didn't really like or agree with what he had to say.
Reading Greenfield's book totally changed my mind though and I wish I had bought the hardcover of the book instead of a digital copy from the get-go since it's a biohacking bible for athletes looking to maximize their performance. I don't deny that there is some pseudoscience in this book but Greenfield does something I think is super awesome by admitting that the evidence is lacking for certain things he says or suggest but he feels better doing them and that's why he still recommends it and does it himself. How many people have superstitions or funny rituals that calm their mind or set them at ease but don't actually do anything verifiable by science? Almost everyone right? As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I don't see what's wrong with most of the pseudoscience claims like only using hardlines to avoid wi-fi signals in your home. And if he recommends a goofy talisman to shield you from the harms of EMF, be logical and decide whether you think it's important enough to waste money on something like that or simply discard that idea and make use of many of the other great suggestions found in this book.
Some people hate on his chapter titles and say that the chapters are like really long blog posts - like many great modern business models, Greenfield gives away 99% of his material for free through blogs, podcasts, and videos and you can probably read about a lot of this book material on his blog if you don't want a single compendium of awesomness and are willing to spend many hours more digging thruogh his free material. I thought the writing style with light and informal enough to make it feel like an enjoyable conversation with Greenfield instead of a dry and humourless book of information. And the chapter titles were descriptive of exactly what they entailed; what more could you ask for?
Many people seem to think that Greenfield turned the book into a glorified infomercial with all the gizmos, products, and services he refers to in the book. I actually think it was the best thing he could possibly have done for the book. For one thing, Greenfield doesn't beat around the bush about disclaiming his affiliations and the people griping about him plugging different products and services must not know how online businesses work. More importantly though, Ben has built his reputation around being a biohacker and self-experimenter in the fitness industry and he cares deeply about quality, especially when it comes to foods and supplements, so who better than him to make recommendations to the general public about these things? You don't have to listen to his suggestions but it certainly helps those who are uninformed about the fitness industry start off on a better path than going straight for the cheapest quality product on the shelf and not getting anything of benefit out of it.
Oh yeah, I'm not even a typical endurance athlete, which is what the training section of this book is geared towards, but I think that there is enough outstanding training advice in the training chapters to up the game of any athlete. I compete in strongman and I have already started applying the information for my betterment.