Best of 44/52 books into 2018.

If asked the most expensive commodity that one can trade with , I would say, one's values, virtue, character and believes. This, I have concluded after reading couple of biographies and autobiographies that I’ll proceed to review below. Why 44 books? well, because it's been a while. My reading this time was a little skewed from the norm as I found myself read so many biographies and Autobiographies. This was not the initial plan as I had purposed to read one a month, I've thus tea more than that. Admittedly, this was for good and I've enjoyed. So what are my favourite books thus far?

1. The autobiography of Andrew Carnigie and the gospel of wealth – This man is known as the steel magnate in America. He was the man who built the steel industry thus building many steel structure in USA and around the world mostly bridges on rivers. Why do I choose this book? It has a lot of real life case studies and wise sayings about leading your business and conduct of your life to success. I’m particularly astound by what we commonly say that the best way to invest is to divide your eggs in many baskets and put them their in. His position is different as he say his idea is to put all the eggs in one basket and then watch that basket. Diversification is an area I'll write about one of these days here. He also brings out about the skills one need to have in life, from public speaking to the essence of making sure we surround ourselves with the best as his close friends we the likes of Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln and well educated men. Towards the end of the book, there in it an essay that he wrote called The Gospel Of Wealth which you can read here

2. Long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela – I truly have never connected with a character as I did with Mandela, not only on his stand of the need for education in our society, but also as a young boy growing up what he found pleasure in is very reratable. Certainly to you too if you grew up in the village. Mandela is would renown icon mostly so in our time. I greatly admire his strong stand and stubbornness on the course his country takes. In his book, he stands out to be this person who strongly believes that should abiding with authority and doing what is right and good contradict, without a second thought, do what is right; for if your wife pays visit to you in prison and the rules stipulate that family matters should not be discussed, proceed to ask her how the children and the greater family is without a second thought, of course in a coded way. While the book is huge and thick, it’s such a page Turner that you’ll not put it down one’s you start it. This left me with such a good feel and an awakening that I did enjoy. Be sure to enjoy this speculative narration of events in South Africa.

3. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaackson – Walter is a very gifted writer as he narrates the story of Steve Jobs in a very commit and interesting way. Steve Jobs was an American entrepreneur who grew up with his parents who adopted him after his Syrian biological parents departed him. While we all know Apple is such a strong brand, it was mainly driven by Steve Jobs love for elegance and beauty. Him together with Wozniac founded Apple and after they went public, he was thrown out by a board and he went on to start another company. When the Apple CEO found this out, they tried to put him on hold together with his five employees some of whom he snatched from Apple. The interesting bit was his response when he found about the court case “Why would a company with a market capitalization of billions and 4, 300 employees fear six men in blue Jeans?”. Many knew him as a psychopath but his innate drive to have some great product is what drove him to create Apple even after he was reinstated as the CEO. I greatly admire his approach to The market as he states that “when Alexander Graham made The first phone, he didn’t go asking people what their thought was, he made it and people used it”. Steve believes in creating a need through a product as the customers don’t know what they want. A very interesting story was this one time he went out looking for a job when one of The employees told him that they didn’t have openings, he said he’d not leave until he was given a job. Obviously, they hired him. I totally love Steve.

4. The autobiography of Lee Iacocca – I was gifted this book by the president of my toastmaster club and I couldn’t imagine how impactful it would turn out to be. Lee, was an American with Italian parents who spent a lot of his time reading after his illness prevented him from being selected to join the army on the oversees during the WWII. After joining Ford, he was tasked with designing the spring of the crutch. He could imagine spending his life in such a way and he joined sales team. In a very interesting turn of even he rose all the way to become the then president of Ford Motors and it was during his presidency that he made the wonderful car, Ford Mustang. "It's my baby", he says. In his book, he narrates about his time in Ford Motors and, the cars he made before he left and joined Chrysler rescuing it from near the jaws of insolvency. He gives a lot of management advices, business negotiations in fact, he has a while chapter dedicated to that. The reason I loved this guy was for his love man is his boldness. Why I like him more, is that he didn’t live to regret his crazy work schedules in life because he created time for his wife and family. This fellow really loved his wife so much that every weekend was spent with her and office work was left where it belongs, in the office. 

As I read through these books, I observed a very interesting pattern about their growing up. Each of this guy was greatly motivated by his FATHER. They grew up admiring something about their dad and mostly their dad's vigour and character. 

Andrew Carnigie when growing up, his father started a small local library with his books and this motivated him to read widely and extensively that by the time of his death, he had built 1,300 library, you read that right, one thousand, three hundred libraries. Phewks. 

Nelson Mandela growing up, admired his fathers stubbornness to see the blacks free . In fact, Mandela says that his father was a great orator who would spend a lot of time telling people stories from his position as a chief of his area. 

Steve Jobs was not any different. His turning point was when his father who adopted calmly told him that he better learn to do something for the better of his life. It was then that they made the first Apple in his father’s garage. 

Lee Iacocca grew up observing his father’s love for cars and true to this, his father was the first person to own a car in his home area. His father was very happy with him that with every eureka moment he had while being the president of Ford and Chrysler, he would call him immediately notably whenever there was new technology in tires for this would remind his father’s struggle with bad tires. 

I’ve had a very interesting time and I’ve read quite a lot, to think the more you read the more you get informed, is to be wrong, surprisingly, the more you read you realise how little you know. 

I leave you with a line from Benjamin Franklin in his book, Richard Almanac, that “Learning is a valuable Thing in the Affairs of this Life, but of infinitely more Importance is Godliness, as it tends not only to make us happy here but hereafter”.