What you should read in 2021

I hope you are all well and 2020 can finally pass. Here are my books that I read in 2020. It's always hard to pick the top 5 as I really enjoyed reading all of them.

Here are my top 5:

1. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

I love how David Ogilvy (the father of advertising) wrote this timeless handbook on advertising. It may be off-putting to some since the first publication of the book was from 1983, but human behavior changes very slowly compared to technology. It is a must read for anyone working in advertising, sales and social media.

Link to the book: https://bit.ly/Ogilvy2021

Excerpt from the book:

"When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll form Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."

2. Einstein by Walter Isaacson

Since Albert Einstein and I share our origins in Swabia, and both consider ourselves "Wackere Schwaben," it was time for me this year to delve into the origins of the theory of relativity and the world's most famous formula E=mc2. Walter Isaacson does a terrific job of explaining this nevertheless complex subject in simple terms. To my own surprise, I was amazed at how connected Einstein was to so many other scientists and political leaders during his lifetime. 

Link to the book: https://bit.ly/EinsteinSwabian

Excerpt from the book:

?Dear Habicht,

Such a solemn air of silence has descended between us that I almost feel as if I am committing a sacrilege when I break it now with some inconsequential babble . . .

So, what are you up to, you frozen whale, you smoked, dried, canned piece of soul ...? Why have you still not sent me your dissertation? Don’t you know that I am one of the 1? fellows who would read it with interest and pleasure, you wretched man? I promise you four papers in return. The first deals with radiation and the energy properties of light and is very revolutionary, as you will see if you send me your work first. The second paper is a determination of the true sizes of atoms ... The third proves that bodies on the order of magnitude 1/1000 mm, suspended in liquids, must already perform an observable random motion that is produced by thermal motion. Such movement of suspended bodies has actually been observed by physiologists who call it Brownian molecular motion. The fourth paper is only a rough draft at this point, and is an electrodynamics of moving bodies which employs a modification of the theory of space and time.“

3. All the right moves by Constantinos C. Markides

Markides explains in his book why some companies survive over time and many do not. He has some fascinating approaches to navigating innovation and creating a breakthrough strategy for any company, regardless of size. I loved his insights into culture and how important it is to get every employee on the same page of your vision, mission and values.

Link to the book: https://bit.ly/MarkidesMoves

Excerpt from the book:

?One of the best-known examples in which emotional commitment to a strategy was won in an impressive manner is that of Apple Computers in the mid-1980s. After its initial success in 1976-81, Apple came under severe attack from IBM, which entered the market in 1981 with its own computer, the IBM PC. At that time, industry analysts predicted that Apple would lose the battle and be forced out of business.

?Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, responded to the threat by setting up a separate team to develop a new computer, the Macintosh. The team was separated from the rest of the Apple organization and was given freedom and resources to innovate. Team members were very carefully recruited, and only those who demonstrated passionate belief in developing a product that would change the way people thought about computers were allowed to join the team. Team members were made to feel that they were on a grand mission to change the world and save everybody from "evil" IBM. This sense of self-importance was reinforced by selective recruitment, by the challenge embodied in the team's objective, by the presence of a big and threatening enemy (IBM), and by the fact that Steve Jobs himself (that is, the leader) spent most of his time working with this team rather than with the rest of Apple.“

?Not only was the team placed in a separate building but it was also given freedom and autonomy to experiment and try things out. The group was encouraged to behave like a band of pirates outside the corporate bureaucracy. There was limited hierarchy in the team, and decisions were made after debates in a collective manner. The feeling was "We are in this together." In addition, people were allowed to dress as they liked and work the hours that suited them. To reinforce this sense of being "mavericks," a pirate's flag was placed on top of the building. Once the Mac was developed, the names of all team members were written on the inside of every computer a gesture symbolizing the idea that this was the work of everyone on the team.“

4. Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle

Bill Champell was one of those people who always stayed in the background, but are essential to the success of any business. The greatest mentor in Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Wojcicki, Sundar Pichai and many others were coached by him. What fascinated me most about this book is that humanity, integrity and honesty are the keys to success for any team, whether in sports or in a business context.

Link to the book: https://bit.ly/BillCampbell2021

Excerpt from the book:

?Love is a word you don’t hear a lot in business settings. Oh sure, maybe people will express love toward an idea, a product, a brand, or a plan. Or to that dessert they are serving in the cafeteria today. But not to a person. We’ve all been conditioned and trained to separate our personal emotions from the business environment. We all want to hire people with passion, but only in the business sense, of course, lest the lawyers and HR people get concerned. So what happens, what we live with daily, is an existence where our human selves and working selves are practically separate beings.

But not Bill. He didn’t separate the human and working selves; he just treated everyone as a person: professional, personal, family, emotions . . . all the components wrapped up in one. And if you were one of his people, he cared about you fiercely and genuinely. “When Bill walked into the office at Benchmark, it was like a party arriving,” Bill Gurley says. “He’d walk around greeting people by name, hugging them.” After the hugs and greetings, he would talk about families, trips, friends. Bill was a coach of teams and a lover of people. What we learned from him is that you can’t be one without the other. Academic research, as usual, bears this out, showing that an organization full of the type of “companionate love” that Bill demonstrated (caring, affectionate) will have higher employee satisfaction and teamwork, lower absenteeism, and better team performance“

?Earlier in the book we recount a story from Jesse Rogers, about how when he launched his new company, Bill called him up and chewed him out about his crummy website. Jesse recalls that story through a combination of laughter and tears, then he notes something we heard a few times in our conversations about Bill. The ranting, the getting in his face over a crappy website, “came from a place of love,” Jesse says. “The concept of male love is something people aren’t used to talking about. When he is yelling at you, it’s because he loves you and cares and wants you to succeed.“

?John Donahoe calls it, with appropriate reverence for Huey Lewis and the News, “the power of love.” “He had a way of communicating that he loved you. And that gave him license to tell you that you are full of shit and you can do it better . . . It was never about him. Coming from him, it didn’t hurt when he told you the truth.”

So this is what we learned from Bill: that it’s okay to love. That people in your team are people, that the whole team becomes stronger when you break down the walls between the professional and human personas and embrace the whole person with love. Literally, in Bill’s case.“

5. Meditation & Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe

 As a devoted Headspace user, I enjoyed discovering the origins of Andy Puddicombe's journey from monk to founder of Headspace. For those who are struggling to get started with meditation and want to be prepared in the new year so that stress, insomnia or anxiety doesn't rule your life, this book is for you. I also highly recommend the Headspace app. 

Link to the book: https://bit.ly/headspace2021

Excerpt from the book:

?Often we’re simply unaware of our feelings. Sure, we notice them when they’re raging out of control, at either end of the spectrum, but the rest of the time it’s as though they’re just there in the background coloring our view of life. But also the speed at which our emotions change, one feeling morphing into the next, can make them seem impossible to separate and define. Think back to the last time you felt happy, do you remember when it began? Take a minute or so to see if you can pinpoint the very moment the emotion of happiness came into being. And then when did it end? What about the last time you felt angry? You might remember the situation or context for the anger, but can you remember when the feeling of anger began and when it finished? And what caused these emotions to suddenly vanish? Was it that they ran out of steam? Did something else more important grab your attention? Or was it simply replaced by the next feeling?“

?For something that’s so central to our entire experience of life, we have remarkably little understanding of emotions. Neuroscientists can tell us with amazing accuracy what’s happening physiologically, and behavioral scientists can interpret that data to give us a rational explanation for why we feel the way we do. But although this is helpful and interesting, does it change the way you feel? More importantly, does it alter the way you respond or react to the way you feel? I may know that I shouldn’t get angry because it releases harmful chemicals into my body and causes my blood pressure to rise, but that knowledge does little to stop me getting angry. Likewise, I know that taking it easy and being a bit more carefree will make me feel less stressed, but that is of little use if I’m going out of my mind with worry. Sometimes this gap between what we understand intellectually, and our actual experience of emotions in everyday life, can appear as an enormous chasm.“

?Just as my teacher asked me to consider a life without emotions, good or bad, can you truly say you’d want to live without emotion? The way we feel is fundamental to our experience of life. Perhaps in those moments when we’re overcome by a difficult emotion we might wish that there was some way to get rid of all of them, but this is usually fleeting.“

?People often begin learning meditation either trying hard to get rid of emotions, or fearful that meditation might turn them into some kind of disinterested gray blob, with no sense of emotion whatsoever. But as we’ve seen, this isn’t the case at all.“

I wish you all a happy new year so that we all stay healthy and further motivated for everything that is yet to come.

Alex