Weekend article: The MOST LIFE-CHANGING BOOKS I read in my LIFE. And my forthcoming books

The library was a safe haven for me growing, being bullied, abused, and surrounded by racism, hate. There I could escape the madness and in my mind travel the world, history and understand humans better.

I do not know if I would have been alive today without my beloved books, because even as a child, I sometimes thought, that this life, was not worth living, but my books kept me alive.

I found hope that humanity can be good, that I can become something in life, despite I was not born with a good hand, the only good card I got, was my passion, which started for the books, later on for computers and to fully bloom out, when I became an Engineer, Entrepreneur/Intrapreneur and now becoming an Author myself in 2021, my life circle is finally being fulfilled.

What is most ironic about me becoming an author is that I have a spelling disorder that they call Dysgraphia, and without spelling tools, you would probably scratch your head from all my spelling mistakes. So if you find any typos, now you know why :)

Eduardo X and my coming books

As my author alias/name I have selected "Eduardo X", because it stands for so many important things in my life, and my last name very few remembers outside the Latino/Hispanic world.

I am a descendant from the original habitants of Chile in Latin America, the Mapuches, the only tribe/nation that was never conquered by the conquistadors in war, they signed a peace treaty with us. Still today you can see that beautiful passionate spirit that runs in our blood in our national football team, but also in our music and all the amazing authors from Isabel Allende to Pablo Neruda.

The X stands for:

• The name I lost, when the conquistadors gave my ancestors a new name of their own.
• The Malcolm X biography, that made me find pride in myself when I was an unwanted immigrant teen by some people, and I could find hope that humans can do great when we unite and that our existence and humanity are something worth fighting for, no matter what color of skin that we have.
• The "X factor": - a noteworthy special talent or quality, - a variable in a given situation that could have the most significant impact on the outcome.

My forthcoming books

I am negotiating with a publisher to co-publish with my coming publishing company "Eduardo ink", either way, the books will come out in 2021.

I have so many writings that I have not published, my articles, my posts, are just the tip of the iceberg. I have come far with "Way of the passionate" which is my life story and the philosophies I concluded that guides my life today, "The Digital Culture" is my version of GOOD to GREAT, of how to build an amazing company in this fast-changing digital world, through Company Culture and being human-centric "PEOPLE first, processes second, technology third".

The most life-changing books I read in my life

It was actually not so hard to select these three books, because of all the big amount of books I have read, these three ones, change my life forever.

The house of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

The book was first conceived by Allende when she received news that her 100-year-old grandfather was dying. She began to write him a letter that ultimately became the manuscript of The House of the Spirits.

The story starts with the del Valle family, focusing upon the youngest and the oldest daughters of the family, Clara and Rosa. The youngest daughter, Clara del Valle, has paranormal powers and keeps a detailed diary of her life. Using her powers, Clara predicts an accidental death in the family. Read more

I was around 11 years old when I read it for the first time, I was into the books of "Gabriel Garcia Marquez", another amazing author that was my hero as a child when my other classmates had Spider-Man as theirs.

It is the story of my Chilean people, all that we have, the folklore, the spirituality, the politics, the struggle, humanity, and also magic that can appear in life. This book gave a belonging to my Chilean people when I was lost finding my identity as a refugee/immigrant child in a foreign country.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination.

From I was 7 years old, every day I went to school and back again, I see Nazi symbols on the walls and there was written "Blackhead Go Home " or "Keep Sweden Swedish". And sometimes I had to pass scared to death by Nazi Skinheads, hoping they would not beat me up or worse, kill me.

When I was around 14 years old, I and some white Swedish friends, were outside listening to Hip Hop, it was mostly Public Enemy and similar bands that we liked the most at that time, then one of them said: - Eduardo, we like you, but the rest can go home. There and then I realized that maybe they were also writing the hate on the walls, towards people of color like me, hating my mother, father, my sisters so much, they wanted us to disappear from their country, but not me, I was "The Accepted Blackhead".

There and then I distanced myself from them, I went back to my books, to find the answers, having pride in my Chilean past was not enough, I needed something else to cope and live, in this or any other country in the world where I was not an original inhabitant.

And there it was "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", It made me find pride in myself despite whatever color of skin I had, to not accept the racism, the injustice to others of my kind around me, and to put it in Malcolm's words, that became imprinted in my heart FOREVER:

We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.

Thank you so much Malcolm X, May you Rest in Peace, in you, I found a father figure, a mentor when I needed it the most.

GOOD to GREAT by Jim Collins

In 1998 entering the University, I bloomed out fully, I started to freelance besides my studies, and already after two years, I was nominated to "The New Shining Stars of Telecom" by the leading Engineer magazine "Ny Teknik".

I founded my first Startup, and from 2000, we went with a restart during the way, from 0 to 35 employees as the most, and I won innovation prices and was nominated for several awards. The doors to Society were fully open to me, that before was closed, and might still be for some people with my background.

But the highest achievement I ever did, was that I had probably the highest ratio of foreigners employed Engineers in our IT company in the whole region, maybe even in Sweden at one moment.

Jim Collins masterpiece "GOOD to GREAT", put together the missing parts together for me that I needed as an Entrepreneur, which I have mostly concluded by experience, but were never taught about in University or the Incubator. This is still my number one bible as an Entrepreneur/Intrapreneur to this very day, and a must-read for anyone entering the life of the Passionate One and any leader, at any level in any company no matter of industry.

First Who, Then What—get the right people on the bus—is a concept developed in the book Good to Great. Those who build great organizations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they figure out where to drive the bus. 

This is something many companies do not understand or maybe understand but do not implement, and in my coming book "The Digital Culture", I will even take this another step, this has to apply for EVERY STOP, FOR EVERY MISSION, that the buss will go. You need the right people at any instance.

MUCHAS GRACIAS

I came to this LinkedIn network about 2 years ago, to try out my texts, as a publisher said I should for them to consider if they would publish me.

I would never in my life have expected that I would have over 12.000 followers and that my article "WayOfThePassionate.com" would have over 600 likes and have been shared all around the world.

That I will become an author, my childhood dream I never thought I was going to accomplish because everyone around me, besides my mother and some few others told me I was worth nothing, I would become nothing, that I should pack my bag and "go home" to my own country.

My country is the world, I do not have any borders anymore, and the few people that stood by me all the way is the reason I never gave up, so keep empowering and inspire others, it can mean the difference, between trying one more time, or giving up, for some people you might not even know. For that, I thank you so much.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for inspiring video podcasts with some of the most empowering people in our network and anyone that has a good empowering life story to tell: https://eduardo.live

Muchas gracias, Tack, ???? ???, Takk

Eduardo "X" Ibacache Rodriguez

https://EduardoX.com