READING

Being someone that is self taught and with the help of other mentors, coaches and hours of reading and study, I have found it crucial to make reading and study a regular part of your life. I once read that successful CEOs read as many as 50 to 60 books per year. I have been near that for some years. It is crucial to stay up to date on the latest and greatest information that is available and relevant for your area of interest or your position. -- Bill Darrah

Personal Development

Discipline Is Destiny

Ryan delves into what the Stoics and others in modern times thought about Discipline. There is a great story of Lou Gehrig the hall of fame baseball player for the New York Yankees. How he was able through his discipline to grind out 2130 consecutive games which stood as a record for 56 years. This durability gave him the nickname the “Iron Horse” Lou was a disciplined guy and most of his successes were due to that fact. There is much to learn from him and others in this book and how discipline can overcome talent and even intellect.

Extreme Ownership

Jocko, a Navy Seals commander discusses how to lead by taking full ownership and accountability in all areas of your life and leadership. He as a commander in Iraq has many real world stories of life and death situations where being a leader that men will follow is key to keeping them alive and that they know that you as a leader take full responsibility when the chips are down. Those men will respect you. That if the mission fails it is because of you as the leader not others around you. That a “ decentralized command” that allows those under you to take full ownership of their position so that frees you up to be the very best at your position. That spreads out responsibility to others and teaches them to lead and make decisions on their own.

Endure

Cameron who is known as the world's leading bow hunter tells about how hard work and rigorous dedication can take you to the top of your chosen field. He says “Its all Mental” and he believes that we are all capable of much more than we have been told or believe ourselves. He is an ultra runner but uses that fitness to get into the backcountry to hunt in the most rugged and remote areas around the world. He came from a troubled background with a broken family at a young age and was driven to prove himself and do things that others wouldn’t or couldn’t do. He was tough as nails and seemed to not need much sleep or rest. He kept a 9 to 5 job while becoming a writer for Bow Hunting magazines and also a world famous hunter. This book inspired me to work harder, dig deeper and be a better man and business Owner.

The Effective Executive

Peter Drucker is known as the Dean of Leadership. In this book that is the gold standard for leadership and where everyone should start. He gives tips and tricks on how to orgainize your efforts and time, how to manage employees, how to manage your boss and how to make decisions. This book is a keeper and one to refer to over and over.

Essentialism

Greg is great at storytelling and makes a case for focusing on what is important. Some things need to be focused on the most for us to be most productive. Working longer and harder is not necessarily the best way forward. Is thinking more and working less a better way forward? Is taking some time to be Unavailable so that you can focus? The Power of a graceful No is one of the chapters where he describes Rosa Parks saying no to the bus driver. Learning to say no at the right time is essential. Essentialism is reducing oneself to the very minimum to maximize oneself.

It's Your Ship

Captain of USS Benfold with 310 sailors onboard. This was Captain Abrashoff’s first time as a Captain and he tells a story of his efforts as the leader of this ship and the 310 souls on board. With ideas such as “Listen Aggressively” as a leadership methodology. How or if you even listen or are you waiting to talk or give direction. Getting to know the crew meant learning everyone’s name and the name of their spouse. Respect!

The power of Praise over criticism. Develop an environment of support. The men will follow you and do hard uncomfortable things when times get hard. Such a great book full of leadership ideas and advice for everyone that leads.

The Obstacle is the Way

Ryan discussed how hardships, resistance and obstacles are what make us great.
Quoting Marcus Aurelius the stoic and learning that the obstacle instead of a wall or a no was actually the way forward. Perspective is everything and if you can change your perspective that something hard is in fact just a shift in perspective. We can choose how we look at things and then what we tell ourselves. Small changes in our perspective can be extremely powerful and helpful to how we approach difficult things. One of my favorite books of all time that has helped me re-frame my ideas on approaching difficult things.

The Checklist Manifesto

How to organize your life.

The 10X Rule

Grant is an absolute madman. He is like a hurricane of energy. He discusses how through sheer hard work, long hours and doing more than anyone else you can and will reach success. Grant through sheer force of will and determination became a marketing and sales juggernaut. He then focused this on buying real estate and teaching others how to do the same but not just in real estate but the methods of out working others, in just trying to do ten times more than most would be willing to do and through this came much of his success. This book inspired me to work harder, to dig deeper when I really wanted to move my life or just an area of my life forward and I felt like I was stuck.

Builders Business

Profit Bleed

As usual Vicki is able to quickly and concisely help Contractors and business owners the areas of their financial reporting and status that need to be focused on the most. Her financial background and the fact that she had coached and mentored numerous builders gives her unique insight into the inner workings of the life and times of Contractors and small business owners. Vicki has an unusual ability to see through the BS and get right to the heart of the issue. Her book helps you see how there are areas of your business that you may have been overlooking that if focused on could help you win more work, make higher profit margins and hopefully have more free time and lastly understand the financial status of your company.

Health & Wellness

The Primal Blueprint

Mark discusses how our bodies thrive on a lean and clean way of eating and exercising based on what he believes is how our bodies have evolved to be most healthy. Getting away from processed foods and snacks and focusing more on a lower carb all natural way of eating the way our ancestors ate originally. I have read many books on what and how to eat and have tried many diet and exercise routines over the years but I think Mark Sisson has nailed it on the head with this and his other books.

The Obesity Code

How intermittent fasting and a low carbohydrate diet can help people get off the sugar train and onto a better lower body fat way of eating and living often times taking diabetics off of insulin. The science behind all of this is very interesting and leads you toward eating a diet focused more on veggies, seeds and nuts, berries , some clean meats and unprocessed fats and oils but staying away from processed and bad carbohydrates as much as possible.

Why We Get Fat

Gary is an investigative journalist. He writes about health and nutrition studies and research and has formed his own opinions based on his being outside of the standard medical research field. In this book he goes against the grain in current medical nutritional thinking and proposes alternative ideas on why we eat so damn much and and what it is doing to our health long term.

Other Interesting Reads

Empire Of The Summer Moon

This book is about the battle on the plains between the Comanche Indians and the white settlers who came to Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma.There are so many great stories in this book. Love, war and heartbreak. A must read to understand the past history of American and how we navigated the relationship with the Native people who were here long before anyone else.

One Thousand White Women

Native American story of integration with white settlers. Fascinating story of how our leaders at that time thought that integrating white women with the Indians would help take them out of savagery into the modern era. While at the same time we were being savage. Interesting, ironic and sad at time.

Transformed

Remi is one of the Few African American Navy Seals. He tells an amazing story of his life.
Being born in West Africa of Nigerian royalty and then at a young age his life is turned upside down. Ending up in the US and his story of discipline and focus and eventually finding faith and how all of that together changed his life and made his story unique and compelling. This was a surprisingly good read.

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. He has a very interesting personal story and background that is worth looking into as well. This story is about successful people and how and what may lead to these successes and also how certain things in life may contribute to or block your way to successes. He gives many examples of these in his story telling way of writing.

The Color of Law

As a builder and knowing a bit about development this book really hit home to me as a Caucasion American. Learning about the stories of how hard it was for Blacks in the American past who were pushed out and marginalized in “White” neighborhoods and areas. Many stories here that just show you the facts of how local governments reinforced neighborhood and racial segregation. This is factual and presented with actual stories of our past here in America.

Educated

A tale of growing up in a Fundamentalist Morman household. This book also shows the reader how an education can pull you up and out of both physical and intellectual poverty. This true story written as a first hand account of how a young but intelligent young woman was able to find a new path and not to follow the path that way laid out before her by her parents and her religious community by educating herself and pushing beyond her norms and boundaries set by those that claimed to love and support her. She found her way out. As someone who came up in a similar situation this was like an Aha moment as I read this story. Education is the path out.

The Art Of War

This amazing book that was written in the 5th century BC has been a military strategy manual for Eastern and Western military since it was written. However there are many lessons tucked into the pages of this ancient text for the modern reader to apply to life. There are many examples of how to outsmart your opponent without ever having to engage in physical combat. This has many applications in our daily lives. This book is for the deep thinker and helps you realize that a more thoughtful approach could lead to the outcome you are hoping for.

The Comfort Crisis

Michael is a great writer and this book really spoke to me. If you like doing hard things this is a good book for you. I have done hard things in my life and have pushed myself deep but knowing that there is an even deeper place you can go to and how that has a profound effect on your thinking is important. How a life that is full of softness and ease is probably not the best for us. We need hard things in our life to keep us grounded and living in reality. This made me think deeply about implementing some of his methodology into my day and year.