An update on books

If you've been following me for a while (and especially if you're on my substack ), you know I'm always reading and sharing my reviews/feedback along the way.

Without further adieu, here are my last 2 reads and a note on what's next:

1) From Impossible to Inevitable: How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Jason Lemkin

This was a really great re-read because we're in an exciting growth period at Visto.ai and I'm trying to stay ontop of my sales game. I initially read it about 5 years ago after being gifted it by friend Zaki Mahomed (thanks Zaki, still making good use of it!).

While it's definitely geared more toward B2B tech/SaaS founders and businesses, there are a lot of great lessons on sales and growth that could apply in any business.

It also goes beyond traditional SaaS to cover things like growing a sales team, focus, pricing, hiring strategies, managing people and maintaining a good balance between business, family, etc.

If you're a B2B SaaS founder, sales leader and/or in charge of sales or marketing at a company, I think you'll like it.

2) The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story of Family and Survival by Jeremy Dronfield

While I normally read business books/biographies, this one caught my attention at the book store and given the crazy times we're living in, I wanted to read more about some of the scary events of World War 2.

It was a real eye-opener for a few reasons. First, the story was unbelievable and real - it follows a Jewish family from Vienna as they get torn apart during the war. Most of the story focuses on the father and son who are sent to not one, but two concentration camps together and all of the terrifying events that occur (thanks to records kept in the father's journal that was miraculously preserved).

If nothing else, it made me realize how lucky I am not to have lived through that period of time and put some of my current problems into perspective. When you're reading about starvation, slavery and mass murder, most of my current problems don't seem like problems at all.

On the other hand it also gave me some scary realizations. The terror of the Holocaust and the millions of people who died - Jews, Nazi political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, men accused of homosexuality and many more - happened less than 100 years ago, and if you're following the news, it certainly doesn't look like anti-semitism ended with the second world war.

Far from it.

If you want to read a gut-wrenching story from World War 2 and get an idea of the hate and terror of the Holocaust, it's a recommended - although not very light - read.

Here's to hoping for far less hate and far more peace/love in the future.

What's next

I'm currently about 1/4 of the way through Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. I loved Isaacson's bio on Steve Jobs and so far I'm loving his book on Musk.

Full review of the book when I finish it, although at 600+ pages, I may need another week or two.

Hope you enjoyed another update, to get my weekly post and never miss a book review, make sure you're on my substack too.

Have an awesome week,

Josh