An entrepreneur’s secret stash
He dropped out of college to pursue his career.
Well, that… my parents would’ve NEVER allowed it.
Perhaps, that’s the reason Patrick Bet-David has a $450 million net worth whereas I am not done figuring out my life or career. Ok, enough of self-pity. Let’s get to know this man.
David and his family are from Iran. They arrived in the US in 1990. After high school, he served in the US Army for some time. Dropping out of college, David went on to be a successful entrepreneur and YouTuber.
Today, we will be going through the books that David recommends. Let’s go!
Where do you lie on the scale of consciousness?
David R. Hawkins studied medicine and went on to do a residency in psychiatry.
Hawkins is a pioneer in the field of consciousness research.
His work focuses on measuring the level of consciousness through kinesiology or muscle testing. Some consider it pseudoscience, but others have benefitted from this method.
“With Acceptance, there is emotional calm and perception is widened as denial is transcended.”
This book makes use of Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness to show an important dichotomy. The dichotomy between Power and Force.
The Map of Consciousness rates from 0 to 1000.
It tells us about human emotions that exist at various levels of consciousness. At lower levels, the emotions are negative like shame, fear, and anger. At the higher levels, the emotions are increasingly positive.
“Everyone is crippled in some area, and everyone is somewhere on the path of evolution, some ahead of us, and some behind.”
Force comes into play at lower levels. At these levels, humans have a limited view of life.
Power exists at the higher levels of consciousness. Individuals at that level navigate the world through a sense of inner power and bring positive changes around them.
The author motivates us to use Power over Force.
This book is an interesting discussion of consciousness. Those who are into spiritual explorations will appreciate it.
Have difficult conversations the right way.
Every day we have countless conversations. With our family, friends, colleagues, and strangers that we meet.
Some conversations are essential and unavoidable like negotiation with a shopkeeper. Others are crucial.
The authors define crucial conversations as those where:
Stakes are high
Opinions vary
Emotions run strong
“People who are skilled at dialogue do their best to make it safe for everyone to add their meaning to the shared pool — even ideas that at first glance appear controversial, wrong, or at odds with their own beliefs.”
Well, these are the conversations that test our patience and the strength of our relationships. Think back to a political conversation where you and your spouse have strong feelings about your respective opinions.
This book teaches us the art of having those emotionally charged conversations in a productive and meaningful way.
The authors remind us not to operate from a place of emotions. They tell us to bring the conversation back to the common goal of both parties and to make it safe for everyone to express their opinions.
“Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for progress.”
Another important lesson is to watch what you speak.
This book is filled with valuable knowledge of having conversations the right way.
Even the minute details matter.
Will Guidara is a New York restaurateur.
In this book, we learn of his career, advice from his dad, and his journey of buying and transforming Eleven Madison Park (EMP), a fine dining restaurant where he was a GM.
“People will forget what you do; they’ll forget what you said. But they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
Guidara along with Chef Daniel Humm jointly bought EMP and took it to the next level.
How?
They focused on providing hospitality beyond the reasonable understanding of the word. Hence the name of the book, ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’.
For example, the staff was taught to arrange the plates such that if the guest overturned it, the seal would be right side up.
Small things like these might not even enter our thought process. But through such minute focus, the staff was trained to provide the absolute best experience to the guests.
The author also talks about using the unique skills of the employees in such a way that those skills are used in an efficient manner.
“…great service cannot exist without great leadership.”
Hospitality lessons in this book will serve as a great guide not only for those in the hotel and restaurant business but for all companies across the board.
War is an art.
Greene teaches us about various strategies and how we can apply them to conflicts in our lives.
Most of us aren’t in the army. There is a low chance we will ever be part of war in the traditional sense of the word. But we have conflicts that we have to manage daily.
It can be competition in the market or a clash in our personal lives.
The author tells us to blame ourselves for bad strategies. His focus is on accepting responsibility.
“You are responsible for the good and bad in your life.”
Greene teaches us to observe where the conflict is taking place and to learn more about our enemy and ourselves.
He also tells us about offensive warfare, defensive warfare, and many psychological strategies.
Some of the things he says like creating doubt by spreading disinformation put me at unease. Like… isn’t that unethical?
“Everything in life can be taken away from you and generally will be at some point.”
The author makes us realize the importance of having good strategies in the toolbox of our minds. All can be taken away except from what’s in your mind.
A li’l crazy is a good thing.
All great people were a little cray-cray in the head. That’s the argument that Gartner makes.
He tells us about hypomania, a condition where a person has high energy and lots of ideas. This person is driven by confidence and a drive to take risks.
“Ideas pour out of hypomanics, a mix of the ridiculous and the brilliant.”
Gartner claims that the US has a higher percentage of hypomanics as compared to other countries.
Why?
Because the nation has a lot of immigrants. Immigrants have the qualities of hypomania since they take a big risk to upend their lives from their home country to travel and settle in a new place.
He also calls the immigrant influx ‘a golden stream’ because of their contribution to the American economy.
The author tells us about a hypomanic’s obsession with a historical figure that inspires him or her.
“A compulsion to take risks is another classic sign of hypomania.”
I’d say this book shows us how hypomania changes the world for the better.
Getting ready to face the wicked.
The ideas in this book speak to me.
Epstein’s emphasis is on building range. Range in skills and knowledge. He argues against building specialization early on.
“We learn who we are in practice, not in theory.”
Early training i.e. starting from childhood might benefit in situations where there are clear rules such as chess or sports, says the author. He calls these ‘kind’ environments.
But most of the situations in life are complex and require multidisciplinary thinking. The author terms these ‘wicked’ environments.
To tackle problems and bring innovation in such areas, a person must have a variety of skills.
The book also talks about the skill of drawing analogies. This can help people think flexibly by drawing parallels between apparently different scenarios.
“The precise person you are now is fleeting, just like all the other people you’ve been.”
The part about Van Gogh and others discovering their career later in their lives, e.g.
after their 50s gave hope to me.
Let’s learn from the Stoics of the past!
Marcus Aurelius’ book ‘Meditations’ has been covered a few times on Novel Nest. We have learned Marcus believed in Stoic ideas.
His book was his personal journal. It shows how he used Stoic philosophy in his personal and political life.
“The wise man is consistent in both his thoughts and actions.”
In this book, Donald Robertson introduces the reader to Marcus’ life in detail.
Starting from the death of the Emperor, the author goes on to discuss his stoic and psychological ideas. We also get to know the people that he learned from.
The book also goes into the details of Stoic psychology and how some of its principles are misunderstood.
“Living in agreement with Nature, in part, means fulfilling our natural potential for wisdom; that’s what it means for us to flourish as human beings.”
We learn about the strength of character, being true to ourselves and others, and holding back impulsive judgments.
For those interested in Stoicism, this is an important read.
A coffee table book, everyone should have.
The world seems like a bleak place if you take your information from the news.
We tend to forget that reporting news that sells like hotcakes is what brings money to the media organizations. This can lead to lapses in judgment and an inability to view the whole picture.
“Maintaining the current rate of poverty reduction would result in less than 5 percent of the world’s population living in destitution in 2030. ”
This book pulls us out of our self-made misery by telling us how the world is doing better.
Through figures and charts, we see ten trends that show the progress of the human world. Poverty is down. War is down. The food supply is up. Even the tree population is up.
“The global tree canopy increased by 2.24 million square kilometers (865,000 square miles) between 1982 and 2016”
I mean wow. This book really makes you rethink some of the things you might believe in.
What happens when employees are given freedom?
This book acquaints us with the company culture of Netflix. And honestly, it is beyond unusual.
“I hoped to promote flexibility, employee freedom, and innovation, instead of error prevention and rule adherence.”
The authors tell us about the ‘dream teams’ at Netflix. They are characterized by high talent density.
The focus is to get the best people for the job, pay them the best, and have high expectations of them. Wait, there is more.
There is a very open feedback policy which is referred to as ‘candor’. Employees and leadership at every level are supposed to give and take honest feedback regardless of whether it is positive or negative.
“I began encouraging everyone to say exactly what they really thought, but with positive intent — not to attack or injure anyone, but to get feelings, opinions, and feedback out onto the table, where they could be dealt with.”
There is no vacation or expenditure policy. Then how do people control themselves? By inculcating responsibility.
The whole idea is that when you give freedom, people act more responsibly.
For someone who is leading a company, this book will provide a valuable resource.
Buy No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer On Amazon
Learn from a billionaire!
The author admires Benjamin Franklin. The name of the book is inspired by Benjamin’s book ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’.
This book compiles the talks by Charles Munger, thanks to Peter Kaufman. Kaufman also wrote the introduction.
Some of the talks are followed by the Q&A that Munger held with the audience. We get to learn a lot from that as well.
We learn about life, marriage, business, and investing.
“No less a figure than Einstein said that one of the four causes of his achievement was self-criticism, ranking right up there alongside curiosity, concentration, and perseverance.”
Munger tells us how successful people read a lot. That makes sense, to be honest.
Munger gives examples and analogies. He also shares anecdotes from his own life and from the lives of others.
“It’s very, very important to create human systems that are hard to cheat.”
We also learn about decision-making and our cognitive biases of humans.
Munger tells us about not following others through the case of Columbia Advertising Company. It was a leader in the market. The manager Jack Welsh followed the real estate trend and invested a lot in building a hotel.
Sadly, that didn’t work out.
That serves as a lesson to never conform.
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If you enjoyed these book recommendations, check out the rest of my book lists on my blog- https://www.thenovelnest.com/blog
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