618: Three Books To Read (Or Listen To) in 2023

The last 50 years in world history have led to influential inventions, and yet still the top four inventions are the wheel, the nail, the compass, and Gutenberg’s printing press. Dutch Philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam lived in chronological proximity to the printing press and was able to expand the influence of his writing.  Books were a non-negotiable for Erasmus, saying, “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” Indeed Erasmus was reported to have little money and so fought through hunger pains for the pleasure of reading.  Attributed to Mark Twain is a saying that should serve as an accountability nudge to leaders, “The (person) who does not read good books has no advantage over the (person) who can't read them.” Here are three books I have read that I would challenge you to consider reading in 2023 in order to grow in fortitude.   Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, Will Guidara A friend and client Chris Kornman (Entablature Construction and Entablature Realty, New Orleans, La) recommended this book.  Reading during a trip with my family I left a trail of dog-eared and underlined pages of thoughts and ideas.   Guidara walks through how he and a team took the famed Eleven Madison Park restaurant from a nice New York City establishment and transformed it into the number one restaurant in the world according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, along with four stars from the New York Times, and a coveted three Michelin stars.   Guidara caps a simple thesis of the book with this statement, “whatever you choose to do, be in the hospitality business.” The ultimate quote for busy business owners jumps off of page 116, “you don’t want to have 100 keys; you win when you end up with only one - the key to the front door.” From Strength To Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose In The Second Half of Life, Arthur C. Brooks If you are in your mid to late thirties or above it is time to begin reading this book.  In 1995, Bob Buford published a book entitled Halftime: Moving From Success To Significance.  It was good and helpful.  Arthur Brooks’ manifesto is deep and meaningful.   Brooks confronts what he describes as the “striver’s curse…a hidden source of anguish that wasn’t just widespread but nearly universal among people who have done well in their careers.”  Many successful business owners and key leaders build up capabilities and then feverishly work to avoid a decline in their capabilities.   Brooks delivers a needed blow, a thoughtful alarm, in order to wake up the leader who is heading off into their second half of life, “Here is the reality: in practically every high-skill profession, decline sets in sometime between one’s late thirties and early fifties.  Sorry, I know that stings.” This book invites you to prepare for a “second curve” and a reminder that “what got you to this point won’t work to get you into the future - that you need to build some new strengths and skills.”   Brooks then devotes the rest of the book to uncovering those strengths and their rootedness in wisdom, and how those strengths will be diminished in the face of workaholism that keep you tied to the fleetingness of worldly rewards (that rust and evaporate), and your fear of decline.   From Strength to Strength is an important shot of interpersonal cold water with the complimentary encouragement of a loving grandfather. A New Kind Of Diversity: Making the Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage, Dr. Tim Elmore We have culturally assumed diversity as a cross-section of race and skin color and less about the generational differences that illuminate the modern workplace. Elmore writes, “Millennials and Generation Z will make up 70 percent of the workforce by 2025.  We’d better get to know them.” The older generations say things like, “nobody wants to work anymore” and “the younger generation has a bad work ethic.”  Elmore brings a teaspoon of humility reminding us “we’re the ones who gave birth to them and raised them.  If they (truly) were unready for the workforce, we must look in the mirror.” Owners and leaders can moan, complain, and gripe about the new workforce, or we can embrace A New Kind of Diversity.    Elmore’s books are loaded with heaps of helpful and digestible research that he skillfully then summarizes into implementable takeaways. A couple of weeks ago I heard of a new 23-year-old Director of Marketing at a large company.  That same company has a 64-year-old Director of Estimating.  That is an unprecedented span of four generations working together on one team. It will be imperative that we all put in the work to understand generational tendencies, realities, nuances, and grow multi-lingual in speaking to others the way they wish to be spoken to as we all push towards a unified end. Elmore recommends not just diversity training…but unity training. Of the books mentioned above, Business On Purpose receives no compensation or recommendation. Books are always a worthy investment of your time, attention, and leadership. Test Prep Insight reported that 48.5% of adults did not read a book in 2022…let’s change that and all become book nerds in 2023! Part of our work at Business On Purpose is working with business owners and key leaders to hold them accountable to the things that will help liberate you from chaos so you can make time for the things that matter…like reading. Go to mybusinessonpurpose.com/healthy to get a free assessment on the health of your business to get started.