What did you feed your brain in 2016?

In my case, I chose to be more intentional this year. 2017's path is even more structured. Let's start with a quick discussion of the primary tools used in 2016. I owe much of the year's progress to Bo Parrish. Bo's mentorship in 2015 set the stage for a nice launch into 2016. I retained Bo as a personal coach in the first quarter of 2015. I needed some accountability and was looking for the best. That search lead me to Bo. At the time, I needed someone who was really capable of holding me accountable for certain activities and implementations. Bo has the street cred to be that person. Things went pretty well and through the course of the year, I stayed true to my plans.

In November 2015 I purchased a Spark Planner, now Ink and Volt Planner, by Kate Matsudaira and to my great benefit, the tool came with a month long plan that was meant for December 2015 execution. This process forced a critical debrief of 2015 and fostered a planning process for 2016.

The plan I put in place included daily workouts, daily meditations, daily podcasts, daily journalling and daily reading times.

KEY POINT: The only commitment I made at the time was to be in the planner every day.

As mentioned, daily reading times were a part of the process. I thought I'd share my reading list and a short commentary around the primary takeaway I received from each read.

The first read of the year was Platform Scale by Sangeet Paul Choudary. This great book provided a baseline for my ongoing study of platforms. Sangeet is a global authority on platform thinking and building businesses in the space.

Over the last decade or so, we're seeing the emergence of a new form of scale. Today's massively scaling startups - which rapidly grow to millions of users and billions in valuation - do not sell a product or service. Instead, they build a platform on which others can create and exchange value. 

The next read I discovered while taking a course in big data and analytics on Udemy. So while riding in the car on a 7 hour trip, I'm listening to two find author's describe their work and teaching others. They describe their book and I immediately buy it. The primary takeaway was that the content made all I had read in Platform Scale come to life.

By measuring and analyzing as you grow, you can validate whether a problem is real, find the right customers, and decide what to build, how to monetize it, and how to spread the word. Focusing on the One Metric That Matters to your business right now gives you the focus you need to move ahead--and the discipline to know when to change course. 

Written by Alistair Croll (Coradiant, CloudOps, Startupfest) and Ben Yoskovitz (Year One Labs, GoInstant), the book lays out practical, proven steps to take your startup from initial idea to product/market fit and beyond. Packed with over 30 case studies, and based on a year of interviews with over a hundred founders and investors, the book is an invaluable, practical guide for Lean Startup practitioners everywhere.

Frans Johansson is the next author I read. The Click Moment was strong in that it provided a great drill down on what adds to experience and opportunities.

In the story of every great company and career, there is one defining moment when luck and skill collide. This book is about making that moment happen.

According to Frans Johansson’s research, successful people and organizations show a common theme. A lucky moment occurs and they take advantage of it to change their fate. Consider how Diane von Furstenberg saw Julie Nixon Eisenhower on TV wearing a matching skirt and top, and created the timeless, elegant wrap-dress. That was a “click moment” of unexpected opportunity. Johansson uses stories from throughout history to illustrate the specific actions we can take to create more click moments, place lots of high-potential bets, open ourselves up to chance encounters, and harness the complex forces of success that follow.

Next up was a great read by Robert Dilts. This volume was recommended to me at a time in life when things were not all that great. I picked it up this year to foster taking my belief system to another level. It worked.

Many of our beliefs were instilled in us as children by parents, teachers, social upbringing, and the media before we were aware of their impact or able to have a choice about them. Is it possible to restructure, unlearn, or change old beliefs? If so, how do we do it? This book is a result of the author's own exploration of the underlying processes that influence beliefs, using the tools of NLP.

January ended with The Joy of Thinking Big. Again, I'd owned it a while but hadn't really taken a deep dive into the exercises. It was as fun but still profound read that forces an expansion of your thinking, if you're willing to allow it. I agree with one reviewer who wrote,"I liked this book. The author's effervescent enthusiasm bounces off the page and he passes along practical ideas for improving one's own creativity. Layout of the book is attractive with plenty of white space on each page. Good use of cartoons and inspirational quotes in the margins."

Moving into February I read Ryan Levesque release, Ask. I'd taken a flyer and ordered it off of a Facebook ad for $4.50. By far, the best $4.50 I've spent. The guy shares some background in the front of the book but half way through, hold on, the implementable info comes fast and furiously. There is more packed into this little book for today's internet marketer than you can imagine.

"What Ryan Levesque has done is give you the art and the science behind figuring out EXACTLY what your prospects want... and then delivering it via an incredibly effective sales process. Buy this book and put the formula to work in your business - the results speak for themselves." - Jeff Walker, #1 NY Times bestselling author of "Launch"

Zero to One! This one was fun. As Peter Marcum of Dev Digital states, "Good book., Theil stresses marketing of a great idea, which is something so many people do not understand. Mostly we read about ideas as a stand alone." Totally agree Peter. Theil's book is one for any entrepreneur's shelf.

"Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. "

The Problem with Perfect. My friend Bo Parrish is uniquely qualified to share and coach on this topic. His tools help guide the perfectionist to a better and more peaceful place. If you've struggled with perfection issues, self acceptance, or just need a healthy dose of incredible inspiration, buy this book.

A review. "Bo Parrish shows how life's adversities, both physical and mental, transformed his abilities to face challenges with a choice to face the future with hope. He never gives up and has a powerful story of success where others would fail. He is inspirational in his approach and makes it achievable for any person facing the struggles of life to reach their goals. A great read!!"

Presence - I couldn't wait to dive into this read after watching Amy Cuddy's TED Talk numerous times and recommending it to hundreds of people including every important female in my life. My two daughters at the top of the list. It was a great read affording additional insight and stories related to the research Amy Cuddy shared in the talk. By accessing our personal power, we can achieve "presence," the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we're making on others and instead adjust the impression we've been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy's revolutionary book reveals, we don't need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives. 

February's end saw a dive into Adam Grant's Originals. How Non-Conformist Move the World. From Amazon and I agree: "Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo."

Ray Dalio's 2011 Book of Principles. Ray Dalio's wish? "Above all else, I want you to think for yourself—to decide 1) what you want, 2) what is true and 3) what to do about it. I want you to do that in a clear-headed thoughtful way, so that you get what you want. I wrote this book to help you do that."

"I am confident that whatever success Bridgewater and I have had has resulted from our operating by certain principles.Creating a great culture, finding the right people, managing them to do great things and solving problems creatively and systematically are challenges faced by all organizations. What differentiates them is how they approach these challenges. The principles laid out in the pages that follow convey our unique ways of doing these things, which are the reasons for our unique results.Bridgewater’s success has resulted from talented people operating by the principles set out here, and it will continue if these or other talented people continue to operate by them.Like getting fit, virtually anyone can do it if they are willing to do what it takes." Ray Dalio

Blue Ocean Strategy. This is the book, introduced to me by Elliott Cunningham, Chief Marketing mind at Swiftwick Socks, that set me on the path to being more than a legit marketer. I've read it three times but in reality, it's a discipline. Not a tactic. A great read that will influence your thinking about messaging and measurement.

A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling book charts a bold new path to winning the future. Consider this your guide to creating uncontested market space—and making the competition irrelevant.

I'm selling, you're selling. We're all selling something. It's just the way it is. You may as well be more effective while doing so. Here's one book I read that will help. Because after all; Daniel Pink says To Sell is Human!

To Sell Is Human offers a fresh look at the art and science of selling. As he did in Drive and A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink draws on a rich trove of social science for his counterintuitive insights. He reveals the new ABCs of moving others (it's no longer "Always Be Closing"), explains why extraverts don't make the best salespeople, and shows how giving people an "off-ramp" for their actions can matter more than actually changing their minds. Along the way, Pink describes the six successors to the elevator pitch, the three rules for understanding another's perspective, the five frames that can make your message clearer and more persuasive, and much more. The result is a perceptive and practical book--one that will change how you see the world and transform what you do at work, at school, and at home.

My second favorite read of the year was Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. I share two titles in this one section because I purchased them both at once. I had a reading plan in place with a thought that I would be inspired by the read. I was!

Ron Chernow hits a home run with this epic work. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers, Chernow reconstructs his subjects’ troubled origins (his father was a swindler and a bigamist) and his single-minded pursuit of wealth. But he also uncovers the profound religiosity that drove him “to give all I could”; his devotion to his father; and the wry sense of humor that made him the country’s most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography—balanced, revelatory, elegantly written.

Purchased at the same time was Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne Harnish of EO and Gazelles fame. Verne is truly accessible gentleman I might add. I've enjoyed hearing from him anytime I reference his great work. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 is a manual on running your business in ways that mimic the best in the world. I couldn't imagine reading it at a better time. I've kept it handy and given it to CEO's ever since.

Steve Case, of AOL fame and the author of The Third Wave, An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future is uniquely qualified to pontificate on the future of entrepreneurship. He's actively putting his money where his mouth is via The Case Foundation and other vehicles. The read was a quick one and very interesting since I'm an internet guy and first took to the web with one of AOL's disk and a 9600 baud rate dial up modem. We are entering, as Case explains, a new paradigm called the “Third Wave” of the Internet. The first wave saw AOL and other companies lay the foundation for consumers to connect to the Internet. The second wave saw companies like Google and Facebook build on top of the Internet to create search and social networking capabilities, while apps like Snapchat and Instagram leverage the smartphone revolution. Now, Case argues, we’re entering the Third Wave: a period in which entrepreneurs will vastly transform major “real world” sectors like health, education, transportation, energy, and food—and in the process change the way we live our daily lives. But success in the Third Wave will require a different skill set, and Case outlines the path forward. Thanks to Dr. Shawn Mathis for recommending this read.

Zebras and Cheetahs. Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle. This quick read from Michael Burt (Coach Burt) and Colby B. Jubenville was entertaing and meaningful. The study of Cheetahs is of interest to me and the way Coach Burt walks his talk everyday was all I needed to know I should read the book. I'd heard Coach Burt speak at a session and his short 30 minutes was one of the most powerful breakfast talks I'd ever heard.

Praise for Zebras and Cheetahs

"It's not the big that eat the small. Today, it's the fast that eat the slow. Zebras and Cheetahsteaches you step by step how to run faster, to be agile in the business jungle, and to pounce on opportunity 10x quicker than your competitors."

—GRANT CARDONE, New York Times bestselling author of Sell or Be Sold

I wish I could just download the entirety of this read for everyone directly into their brain. It's that important. Ryan Holiday's book The Obstacle is the Way. The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage is a three time read and three time giveaway for me. I discovered the book and Ryan Holiday via Tim Ferriss and the great podcast work he does.

"What blocked the path is now a path. What once impeded action advances action. The Obstacle is the Way." Ryan Holiday 

My favorite read of the year. I'm a history degree recipient from Mizzou. What can I say? This book was magnificent. I had no idea the reach of this historical figure, even with my degree emphasis in colonial history. I had spent to much time studying that asshole Thomas Jefferson. :) The buzz and success of the broadway show has just been icing on the cake for me.

 Chernow's is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804. Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.

My biggest inspiration from the reading of Hamilton is that during an election year as divided as 2016's, the country will heal. There have been bitter and awful fights through our history. America will survive. A while longer at least.

Hooked. How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal. This discovery came through the great podcast The Art of Charm.

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging. Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior. Eyal provides readers with:

? Practical insights to create user habits that stick.

? Actionable steps for building products people love.

? Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

This quick read from the guys at 37 Signals is a breath of fresh air. No nonsense and no B.S. Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses. 

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You - Uber. Airbnb. Amazon. Apple. PayPal. All of these companies disrupted their markets when they launched. Today they are industry leaders. What’s the secret to their success?

These cutting-edge businesses are built on platforms: two-sided markets that are revolutionizing the way we do business. Written by three of the most sought-after experts on platform businesses, Platform Revolution is the first authoritative, fact-based book on platform models. Whether platforms are connecting sellers and buyers, hosts and visitors, or drivers with people who need a ride, Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary reveal the what, how, and why of this revolution and provide the first “owner’s manual” for creating a successful platform business.

Platform Revolution teaches newcomers how to start and run a successful platform business, explaining ways to identify prime markets and monetize networks. Addressing current business leaders, the authors reveal strategies behind some of today’s up-and-coming platforms, such as Tinder and SkillShare, and explain how traditional companies can adapt in a changing marketplace. The authors also cover essential issues concerning security, regulation, and consumer trust, while examining markets that may be ripe for a platform revolution, including healthcare, education, and energy.

Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works (Lean (O'Reilly)) This is another great platform related read that really serves as a higher study in today's business models. From Amazon and I concur: "In this inspiring book, Ash Maurya takes you through an exacting strategy for achieving a "product/market fit" for your fledgling venture, based on his own experience in building a wide array of products from high-tech to no-tech. Throughout, he builds on the ideas and concepts of several innovative methodologies, including the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and bootstrapping.

Running Lean is an ideal tool for business managers, CEOs, small business owners, developers and programmers, and anyone who's interested in starting a business project.

• Find a problem worth solving, then define a solution
• Engage your customers throughout the development cycle
• Continually test your product with smaller, faster iterations
• Build a feature, measure customer response, and verify/refute the idea
• Know when to "pivot" by changing your plan's course
• Maximize your efforts for speed, learning, and focus
• Learn the ideal time to raise your "big round" of funding

"If you are starting a company, or want to adopt the Lean Startup approach, Running Lean is a must read."

- Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundary Group"

STOP! 21 Stops to Reduce Stree and Enhance Joy by Eric Parmenter. What an honor to have received this book directly from Eric Parmenter. It's a joy to read this book and pause long enough to revisit what's important. Eric speaks from experience. He's a very accomplished healthcare professional drawing on his wealth of life and professional experience and lessons. "STOP!" is not a book about health, wellness, stress reduction, diet, and exercise. There are thousands of books on those topics. "STOP!" is not fundamentally a business or a self-help book. Eric Parmenter's "STOP!," based on the latest behavioral and brain science, is designed to help you figure out what you can STOP doing to create more space in your life to enhance your joy, your well-being and productivity, so that you can live a life on purpose. Parmenter, a top healthcare consultant, candidly shares his personal experiences that prompted him to write this useful book, an easy, but thought-provoking read.

When I began reading this book, at the request of Phil Gibbs of Nashville, I thought, where has this book been all my life? How did I not know about this material. Well now I do. Thanks Phil! The Innovator's Dilemma. The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business is a masterpiece. Most entrepreneurs know it already.

A typical review: "In a landmark study, the author argues that the basis of competition among businesses undergoes a paradigm shift everytime a disruptive technology is born. So what is a disruptive technology? Remember what Walmart did to Sears? Of course you do, because disruptive technologies are usually products or services that are faster, cheaper, smaller, and more convinient. Ultimately, good companies must refrain from doing what got them to the top in the first place--listening to their customers and believing everything comes down to superior technology--in order to successfully compete with the onslaught of start-ups redefining both the buying hierarchies and value networks in which they are implicated. This is without a doubt one of the best business books I have ever read."

This book hardly needs an introduction. Any marketing pro worth his or her salt has this on the shelf. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Ries and Trout. I reread this during October and loved it once again. What a reminder of the basics.

The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a "position" in a prospective customer's mind-one that reflects a company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, advertising gurus Ries and Trout explain how to:

• Make and position an industry leader so that its name and message wheedles its way into the collective subconscious of your market-and stays there
• Position a follower so that it can occupy a niche not claimed by the leader
• Avoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one.

How Google Works - I finished this read most recently. I don't know why it took me so long to do so. It's a quick read that is worth far more than the time it takes to read. I found myself imagining being on the Google campus hanging out with the teams and learning all about what is happening in the world of the future. Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google over a decade ago as proven technology executives. At the time, the company was already well-known for doing things differently, reflecting the visionary--and frequently contrarian--principles of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. If Eric and Jonathan were going to succeed, they realized they would have to relearn everything they thought they knew about management and business. 

Today, Google is a global icon that regularly pushes the boundaries of innovation in a variety of fields. HOW GOOGLE WORKS is an entertaining, page-turning primer containing lessons that Eric and Jonathan learned as they helped build the company. The authors explain how technology has shifted the balance of power from companies to consumers, and that the only way to succeed in this ever-changing landscape is to create superior products and attract a new breed of multifaceted employees whom Eric and Jonathan dub "smart creatives." Covering topics including corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption, the authors illustrate management maxims ("Consensus requires dissension," "Exile knaves but fight for divas," "Think 10X, not 10%") with numerous insider anecdotes from Google's history, many of which are shared here for the first time.

The Completion Process: The Practice of Putting Yourself Back Together Again - Amber Robertson recommended this read to me and wow, I found it powerful. Just about the time I think I've got everything dealt with as it pertains to child hood, adulthood and emotional growth, BAM!, I'm in growth mode again.

Drawing on her wide range of extrasensory abilities—including clairvoyance, clairsentience, and clairaudience—and incorporating key aspects of inner child and shadow work, Teal offers a revolutionary 20-step process for healing any past hurt or present problem. The steps include:

• Creation of a Safe Haven—setting up a mental place where it’s safe to re-enter a painful memory.
• Validation—giving the painful emotion the message that we see it as valid.
• Seeking Origin—asking, “When was the first time I felt this feeling?” to connect to the root of it.
• Awaiting Relief—inside the memory, letting the feeling naturally shift in the direction of relief.
• Purification and Healing—a ritual for closing the memory of trauma and beginning a “new life.”

“The Completion Process is not only a healing process,” Teal writes. “It’s also an enlightenment process.” It will leave readers with a sense of their value in the world and the assurance that life can be good again.

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers - I'm an avid Tim Ferriss fan dating back to Four Hour Work Week days. His podcast is a regular part of my morning routine each week and his work and the work of his guests have been some of the most important contributions to my life over the last two years. I end 2016 just having started this 650 page read and it will serve as one of my operating systems manuals for 2017.

I hope you'll take something away from the books included in this post. They added to my life in 2016. The great thing about books is they will now continue to add to my life. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins changed my life in a major way in 2010. I'm witnessing similar growth through the reads I've shared with you here.