Top 3 Books of The 70 I’ve read in 2021

2021 is a year of exploration for me.

Here are the top 3 books among the 70 I’ve read in 2021:

Most informative: Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind

This is a timeless classic marketing book that describes a revolutionary approach to creating a “position” in a prospective customer’s mind. My favorite chapter is Chapter 20: positioning yourself and your career. The six steps to success include answering important questions like: What position do you own? What position do you want to own? Whom must you outgun? Do you have enough money? Can you stick it out? Do you match your position?

2. Most insightful: No Rules Rule: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

If you are curious about the unorthodox culture behind one of the world’s most innovative companies, Netflix, this is the book to read. Cofounder Reed Hastings decided to build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility. He set new standards: valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. Reading this book helps me re-define my leadership principles and uphold key culture values.

3. Most inspiring: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race?

Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a gene editing revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier offsprings. Walter Isaacson did a fantastic job portraying this brilliant scientist’s life journey in biochemistry. The most profound part of the book is Chapter 5 where he discusses the issues of ethics as relates to altering DNA. Who has the right? Who controls the rights? Is it right at all??

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Here’s a list of all 70 books I’ve read in 2021 for your reference:

Notable People/Orgs

1. A Promised Land?
2. The Idea Factory?
3. A Crack In Creation
4. The Code Breaker?
5. The Man Who Solved The Market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution?
6. Amazon Unbound?
7. My Life In Full: Work, Family, and Our Future
8. Rising To The Challenge?
9. Tough Choices:? A Memoir?
10. Unapologetically Ambitious?
11. How To Lead
12. Call Me Ted
13. The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business
14. Where You Are Isn't Who You Are?
15. No Rules Rule: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention?
16. The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics
17. Verizon Untethered: An Insider's Story of Innovation and Disruption?
18. Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and The Fall of General Electric

Leadership?

Positioning

1. Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind
2. HBR’s 10 Must Reads for CEOs
3. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
4. Thinking In Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts??

Communication?

1. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling
2. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
3. Quiet: : The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking?
4. Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life?
5. Communicate With Mastery: Speak With Conviction and Write for Impact
6. Never Split The Difference : Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It?
7. How To Speak Like A CEO: How Successful Leaders Communicate
8. Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language?
9. Crucial Accountability: Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior

Culture

1. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups?
2. The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
3. Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace
4. The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table

Mindset / Habits

1. The Art Of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
2. The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People into World-Class Leaders?
3. So Good They Can't Ignore You:? Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
4. Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment
5. What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
6. The Three Laws Of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life
7. The Third Door: The Wild Quest to Uncover How the World's Most Successful People Launched Their Careers
8. Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works

World views

1. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable?
2. Prisoners Of Geography:? Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World?
3. The Lessons of History
4. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
5. A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence
6. How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need?
7. Practical Medical Informatics?
8. Supersight: What Augmented Reality Means for Our Lives, Our Work, and the Way We Imagine the Future

Self-Help?

1. How To Read A Book?
2. Beyond Order?
3. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle?
4. Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most
5. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World?
6. Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done?
7. Hello, Habits: A Minimalist's Guide to a Better Life?
8. Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely?
9. Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
10. How To Be Heard?
11. In Praise Of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
12. How to Consciously Design Your Ideal Future
13. Unf--K Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-outs, and Triggers?
14. Feeding The Soul

Leisure

1. The Hill We Climb
2. A Gentleman In Moscow?
3. Go Tell It On The Mountain
4. Homegoing
5. The Power