Breaking the silence with books….

Books and Silence

As someone that is intensely private, and in some ways introverted, I struggle with putting out information in the public domain – specifically on social media in all its guises. It is rather paradoxical given my career but nonetheless true. Professionally, somehow, I have managed to get by without the need to be as ‘out there’ as my counterparts.

My natural tendency is silence in public spaces. Given the social interactions required for work, I have focused on building sincere relationships at heart-level and taking a true interest in people which, over time, has genuinely and organically evolved into friendships and business relationships that I am humbled to have. This in turn has helped us build our team and organisation. Yet still my natural inclination is to be found with a book under my nose exploring autobiographies, reading about some far-off historical event, or political or sociological topical point and forming my own view. In fact, If I could satisfy my natural curiosity with this all day, I would do this and nothing else. It is my true and purest interest.

The underlying cause of my social media silence is that I felt like I had nothing to say. Or more correctly nothing valuable that the (probably) thousands of people that I have engaged with in my career, my respective potential ‘audience’, would find profitable.??I fear talking for talking’s sake. Adding more noise to the cacophony of opinions only to run the risk of being misunderstood and causing offence. This coupled with a philosophical appreciation of the irrelevance of my opinion in the scheme of life, history and eternity (if you believe in that sort of thing!) lends itself to the silence of a Benedictine monk!

Three things have happened that has caused me to re-evaluate my position on a social media silence and specifically on LinkedIn. The first reason is that through conversations, I have found that people are interested in the books that I have read and actually like discussing the wider lessons learned from books. If I was to start posting anything on social media it would be on the topic of books.

Secondly, I have understood (through a book I have read) that the culture and course of business behaviours have changed entirely since the start of my career. The art and form of marketing has moved on entirely. I and the organisation I belong to, must reflect the cultural changes that exist in the business world in order to thrive. Now being ‘out there’ is the way to be found and utilised by new clients. I have watched this shift in my career and reluctantly accepted the need for my personal change in this area. My reticence, which stems from the feeling of ‘that’s not how it used to be done’, will ultimately lead to my business demise. The rules of natural selection play in business as much as in the natural world??– the harsh choice is: evolution or extinction.?

Finally, the content I will share, If I did have a voice in the chorus of opinions, would be my safe space – books. From my early years reading has always been a love of mine but I have been encouraged by two people to take my reading more seriously and this has super-charged my habit.

The first is a friend. I will not embarrass him by saying his name on this platform (as I have discerned that he shares my introversion!) but he knows who he is. His library boasts in the thousands. I??identify myself in him: A black-man from a working class background, who has witnessed the attendant drama, violence and spiritual deprivation that comes with growing up in an economically deprived area of London. He found his personal path of advancement through books. He is an unusual man of excellence and someone who is a role model. I am glad that he has come out of his metaphorical mental library and is now sharing his knowledge with me and with others. I am not sure if he understands the impact that he has on the life of people who come from where I have come from. I am truly grateful to him and will always encourage people to follow his reading-list. In due course, with his permission, I will share his list and direct people to follow his social media account which is nothing short of inspirational.

The second person, is someone who I consider to be a father figure. A well-read and deeply spiritual man who I always seek counsel from at life’s major junctions. He is seemingly never short of an apt response – constantly able to draw on a book, parable or life experience to educate and teach. He’s a well-spring of knowledge, able to command information at his whim and with humility he wields great power. He is very dear to me. Again, without embarrassing anyone upon reading this, he also will know I am writing of him. I remember clearly many years ago his fierce encouragement to me to be a voracious reader. I can’t quite say why it resonated with me so much, perhaps it was the way he said it.

In any case, the person I am now is the product of these experiences. As a result of this, I would like to mark a turn in my commitment. A breaking of my social media silence. This commitment is my final point: I would like to announce a reading club that I am launching on LinkedIn.?

A few times a month, I would like our community to post the books we have read in that month and the general lessons that we have learned from them and would like to garner your opinions on them.??The books will be from a broad range of categories – autobiographies, books on history, books on technology, books on finance, books on science, books on societal concerns today to name a few areas. This is not an exhaustive list.

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Some of the learnings will have a career dimension and some will just have a life dimension, and some will just be great reads and nothing more. I would appreciate your recommendations on books also and your book reviews too and life lessons that you have learned from each book you post.??Together we can learn and grow as a community. We collectively have something of value to say not adding to the cacophony of noise but contributing to the redemptive power of reading and learning.

I am looking forward to reading (and learning) with you all.