A Reading Passion

I love reading.

Combined with audio books I get through a lot of content with the list of the books I've read or listened to in the first half of 2022 below.?

• Beijing Bureau
• The Truth about China
• The Contest of the Century
• The Coaching Habit
• Project to Product
• Play nice but win - Michael Dell.
• The business of Blockchain
• Uneven Justice - Raj Rajaratnam
• Madden
• Gridiron Genius
• Star Wars: Life Debt - Aftermath, book 2
• The resilience Project

It's a mix of non-fiction, business and self-learning topics (ignoring the Star Wars novel).? Having lived in mainland China and Hong Kong for over a decade there are a few books at the top of this list which cover off my connection there, topics for my re-found love of NFL and of course the obligatory business interests be they learning discussions on blockchain or individuals business stories (good and bad). A theme that resonated for me through many of these books is the importance of PASSION. Someone once told me it's difficult to be successful at what we do in life, at any time, but to try achieve that without passion for what you do makes it almost impossible. These are some highlights.

In "The Truth about China", Bill Burtles (reporter for the Australian National broadcaster) talks about his passion for China and how that passion for the country, its people and his thirst to find out more lead him to put himself in some uncomfortable situations to get "the story".? That saw him start work in his early days in China with the state media and Xinhua. Later there were times he could have ended up in a jail cell given the sensitivities with the China government regarding media and the more recent tit-for-tat with Australia. With China looking to control the narrative more and more to the point he was hold up in the Australian embassy before, with great regret, returning to Australia.

In the "Madden" biography we find out how much his passion for "the game" (American Football / NFL) drove him to be so single minded that at one point, 10 years in, he realised he didn’t know the ages of his two sons (which became the reason he resigned).? While I think we can acknowledge this doesn’t reflect a great balance in his life, his professional record as a winning coach is matched by few.? Again passion leading to successful outcomes. For him none of this was work - it was his love, his passion. First to the office and last to leave. He loved the game even if that impacted his health and relationships.

Michael Dell tells us how much his business Dell technologies means to him and how much it meant for his name to be "on the box". It was this passion he had for his company got him through some tough times both in the early days and even later on when his leadership was challenged.? In the early days this meant filling his apartments up with PC's which he upgraded and drove hundreds of miles across the country to deliver.? His passion for technology and for entrepreneurship landed him with "one of the worlds most admired companies"

This next read is a bit left field and came about after listening to a Bloomberg news podcast. In Raj Rajaratnam's autobiography "Uneven Justice", which tells the story about him being found guilty for insider trading, his passion for the industry and for justice (from his perspective) is absolutely clear as a motivator to keep him going and to clear his name of wrong doing.? It struck me through all parts of his story from being a child in Sri Lanka to the penthouse apartment in New York, he sought out the things that give him the most passion. Again, like Dell, he didn't see what he did as a job, he saw it as an honour, something to be thankful for given his frugal upbringing.

?it's difficult to be successful at what we do in life, at any time, but to try achieve that without passion for what you do makes it almost impossible

Strangely, even a Star Wars book illustrated the passion theme to me (yeah, I'm a Star Wars geek).? The passion of Han for his loyalty to Chewbacca and of Leia in her passion for the "nerve hurter" Han.

My professional experiences in big corporate have told me that to be your best self, for your team and your stakeholders, you need to be passionate about what you do. I'm happy to say I have found my passion with Pathways as CTO. Every day brings a new learning opportunity, a new opportunity to make a difference and an opportunity to work with a passionate team.

You are never too old to find your passion.? If you haven't found you passion then don’t be afraid to keep searching.