Recommended Reading: An On-Going List
It's my list, meaning that it's only one person's opinion of the too many published and too few worthy books describing paths to success in business.
An updated and readable overview of the technical underpinnings of the Internet and its accomplice the World Wide Web, The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. I enjoyed his authorized biography of Steve Jobs as well. An easy read where one can peruse the book at sections of interest.
Written in 2007 as mobile devices, moving beyond the capability of a "mobile phone", began to show their disruptive promise. Evidence that our affiliations moved beyond geographic, e.g. neighbors, churches, schools, to communities of like-minded via Facebook, Instagram, Periscope.
The Age of Discontinuity by Peter Drucker Written in the late 1960s, pre-Internet, and at the height of a cultural yearning for social change. Predicted the consistency of change. In the fury of the moment, I find it useful, and comforting, to try to identify patterns and trends.
Advertising techniques change as technology enables change; the purpose of Advertising / Marketing has not. David Ogilvy On Advertising. A simple read as should be the delivery of every marketing theme and campaign. Ogilvy & Mather is the partner of IBM; I heard its Chairman Emeritus, Shelly Lazarus, suggest an an annual IBM hosted CIO Conference that "the sole purpose of technology (meaning technology investments) is to promote the business."
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. How to get things done in an era of multi-tasking, TSA, commuting and an avalanche of data. I met SC at a simple promotional seminar at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC in 1993. I recall his advice on 'firing people' or, politely, building a compatible team, which was: 'there is no need to fire people. Focus on the desired culture; those who do not fit will self-select out of the business.'
The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna. Referred by my #1 favorite website, Brain Pickings. About the opposite of a Peter Drucker tome and useful as a reminder that as we spend so much of our time and energy in our work, we should enjoy the problems, people and purpose of our professions. How's that for alliteration!
A couple of quotes for re-orienting to true North:
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11
The antidote offered by President Calvin Coolidge: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
