Book Review: The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead

The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead by Richard Branson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Never happier than when I am at a beach (or on a boat, or sitting in the back yard) with a book by Richard Branson that I have not read. Color me hard-to-please, but I don't have enough opportunity to read for pleasure and learning at the same time. Sir Richard consistently delivers on both counts, and I could not be more grateful for his efforts.

I love it that he's never read a book on leadership. It's just another one of those things that he has taught himself to do... like develop a business, jump out of a falling hot air balloon, conduct a conference call from a hammock... Clearly, he has many natural talents, but it is his effort to hone skills, try things, fail, ask others for advice, throw a party, and try something different that set him apart. How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead is a good subtitle for Branson's whole life. How to Persevere, Persist, Persuade and Prevail would work just as well.

Among the many lessons in this book is the idea that competing with the big boys is possible... as long as we remember to play a different game, choose a different niche. (This is also the point of Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath.) When an entrepreneur fills a need that customers are actually experiencing, s/he can be successful. Virgin Mobile doesn't lock customers into contracts, Virgin's airlines don't heard people around like sheep, and Virgin Money focuses on social responsibility. All were once small, start-up businesses, getting into a market crowded with huge, well-established corporations.  Good customer care is a brand promise for Virgin, and that goes a very long way.

Above all, The Virgin Way is about following our own passions and letting the chips fall where they may. The fact that life is good for Sir Richard (who turned 65 last week) is a testament to his way of being. He's an excellent role model and teacher. I hope he keeps churning out books for many more years to come. I highly recommend the book, but if you want to test drive it first, here's a two-page summary written by me.

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Book Review: Like a Virgin

Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You at Business School by Richard Branson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Among the many, many reasons why I enjoy having a book by Sir Richard to read is that his writing style is punchy and fun. He never dwells on tedious points and does not worry about building complex arguments to make his case. He just says what he thinks.  Let others spin their wheels proving him wrong. He's got other stuff to do.  Like making a multi-million dollar deal from his hammock at Necker Island. 

The subtitle here says it all: Secrets They Won't Teach You at Business School.  Can't get more clear than that.  Branson is an alum of the University of Been There, Done That... and he has graduated with honors.  In 76 chapters of about four pages each, Branson provides wisdom on everything from taking risks, innovating, and making change to office relationships, leadership, and listening to frontline staff.  He writes of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and putting family life first.  He advises us all to follow our passions and have confidence the money part will follow.  Focusing on money gets us nowhere. All golden.

Like a Virgin is liberating... Branson not only encourages readers to break with conventional wisdom in a host of ways, he also gives us permission to follow our own lights.  Make it up as we go.  Focus on what we think is important. Mess up. Try again. Have fun. Give back.  It's OK Mom (Boss, Mr. Banker) Sir Richard said I could.

Here's my two-page summary for free download.

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Book Review: Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Wonderful!  I am so glad I read this.  I had been looking for a book on customer service to round out my Option C Leaders program, so I found this one on my list and took it to Florida with me.  Great choice for beach reading... fun, fast, informative.  Hsieh writes in a way that makes the reader feel like she's hanging out with a new friend.

Tony Hsieh makes the case that focusing relentlessly on WOWing customers made Zappos the multi-billion dollar company it has become.  That, and taking care to make sure the quality of work life was high for everyone involved.  His case is compelling, though not terribly fleshed out.  He does provide the Zappos 10 Core Values and says a bit about how each was expressed, but there is not enough meat there to satisfy me completely.  Is it really just as simple as empowering employees to use their judgment? Maybe.  It just seems like there must be more to it than that.  What, for example, might be done with a supervisor who just could not get off the backs of his direct reports? Hsieh describes how the hiring process was used to bring in people who would fit the culture, but how would they handle an employee who just didn't get it? What then?

Perhaps I'll find my answers as I further explore the tools Hsieh and co. make available through www.deliveringhappiness.com, which includes a guide for establishing core values that I am sure to use in my consulting practice.

This is a fabulous contribution to the "do good to do well" literature.  It makes me wish I was twenty years younger! I did a two page summary that you can download for free here.



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Book Review: Secrets of Self-Employment

Secrets of Self-Employment by Paul Edwards

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


So I was asked recently to recommend a good book for someone just starting out in business.  Those are my favorite kinds of questions, and certainly I wanted to help.  It only took a second to suggest The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.  (See my July 27, 2014 blog for a review and a link to a two-page summary.)  If I had read that one book before striking out on my own in business, those early years would have been a lot easier. 

But there is another one on my shelf as well - just as old but not quite the classic. Though much of it is outdated now, Secrets of Self-Employment was helpful to me in that it provided a laundry list of things to think about, from motivating myself to surviving the emotional roller coaster to the right timing for hiring help.  Most significant to me was the emphasis the Edwards' put on making the mental paradigm shift from worker in someone else's shop to business owner.  To really make it on our own, we have to quit thinking in terms of paychecks and begin thinking in terms of profit.  What we do in our own brain space has as much to do with success or failure as any other factor.

The authors' list of "Twelve Mental Shifts" is contained in the two-page summary of the book you can download for free by clicking here.  

I also highly recommend anything by Richard Branson for any budding entrepreneur.  His stuff is always golden - substantive, easy to read, and entertaining all at once.  For reviews of four of his books, with links to summaries, check out my July 20, 2014 blogpost.  I've got more by Sir Richard on my reading list for this summer.  Stay tuned.

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Book Review: The Carolina Way by Dean Smith

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching by Dean Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always dreaded basketball days in gym class.  It terrified me that someone might pass the ball to me and I would have to do something with it.  Running track was OK, until they introduced relays. The idea of letting down teammates was what I just couldn't stand.  Still can't, really.  So I truly admire athletes who want the ball - the ones with the confidence to know they can contribute when the hopes and dreams of others are riding on it.

Apparently, though, the skills and style that get one noticed by college basketball scouts - outstanding individual accomplishment and big numbers - have to be overcome to be successful at the college and pro levels.  According to the great coaches, including Dean Smith, basketball is a team game and success only comes to those who share.  In the chapter called "Breaking Bad Habits" he says "Many good high school players are taught to be selfish. They're used to being 'the Man.'  They're the best players on their teams, so sometimes the coaches encourage them to take the most shots and not too worry too much about playing defense."   They had a rigorous re-orientation program for North Carolina freshman. Play hard. Play together. Play smart. 

John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, and Phil Jackson also wrote of this phenomenon in their books on leadership, but Smith stands out because he worked in conjunction with a business professor who put Smith's coaching principles into a business context. On breaking bad habits, Dr. Gerald Bell had this to say: "...the fact is that when recruits come to work, their knowledge is often very limited. They often have great intellectual ability and academic knowledge but little wisdom. They lack the people skills and the judgment to work with others to implement solutions to business problems. There's a large gap between where they are and where they need to be, but they can't see it." He then describes some on-boarding exercises to help young professionals grow into their roles.  This was a brilliant idea for a book executed with wisdom and care.

Dean Smith died last weekend and will be well remembered by many grateful people, including some of the world's most successful basketball superstars (Michael Jordan) and also by at least one random Ohio woman who grew up afraid of the ball.

My two-page summary is posted and ready for downloading.

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Book Review: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a terrific resource that is getting to be a few years old now.  But when something is considered the best of "all time" what difference does a few more years make? I first picked up this compendium of great business writing in 2010 and for the balance of that year, and then throughout 2011, most of the book summaries I compiled were recommended by these authors as one of the 100 best.  I especially like the way Covert and Sattersten divide out their categories ("Leadership," "Strategy," "Enterpreneurship," for example) and I have made it my business to read something from each chapter over the course of the last few years.  I think that has helped me broaden my reading.  Some of their choices were already favorites, like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The Tipping Point and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  Others I only learned about because they appear here: Moneyball, Losing My Virginity, and The E-Myth Revisited.  To date, I have read 16 of these books and have another 11 on my list.  I hope to hear from others on how they experienced this collection.  I enjoyed it very much.



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Book Review: The E-Myth Revisited

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Here's the one I wish I had read BEFORE I started my own consulting practice, BEFORE I had spent $42,000 to have an assistant doing all the tasks I dislike, BEFORE I fell flat on my face trying to be all things to all clients. 

The "E" for those who haven't read this one stands for Entrepreneur.  And the "E-Myth" is the belief that everyone who opens their own business is an entrepreneur at heart.  Turns out, most of us aren't... but we need to be.  Or, at least, we all need to perform that function if we want to avoid becoming a statistic. 

I am a big believer in self-employment.  The freedom, the income potential, the quality of life are superior to any way of earning a living I know of.  I've told anyone who asked that they should do it.  Figure out what you are good at.  Figure out how to get others to pay you for doing what you are good at.  Set out a shingle and go.  Just do it.

Now I tell them to run to the bookstore and get The E-Myth Revisited.  Gerber spells out all the classic mistakes, describes all the things a new business owner must think through, all the roles that must be filled - even in one-person operations.  It's an MBA, mother's advice, and 10 years of on-the-job training all rolled into one.  Thanks Mr. Gerber! 

Download a two-page summary, written by me, by clicking here. 

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Book Review: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


So let me say that at the start that I am not an Apple person.  I am not an anti-Apple person, either.  It's just that when I got my first computer in 1995 it was a PC.  I still don't have a need for a smartphone... and my fourth desktop PC works just fine. 

But Jobs is an icon of American business, and Apple is off-the-charts successful.  The book was much in the news the year it came out, which co-occurred with Jobs' death.  It was to be an easy, breezy winter curl-up read. 

Oh, but it wasn't. 

The author has provided us with a book which is meticulously researched, painstakingly organized, and well-crafted.  The writing is clear and clean and the narrative moves along.  It's just that the subject matter was so disturbing to me that I couldn't enjoy it or recommend it to others. Jobs' personal story is really only useful as a cautionary tale.  It shows us that in our society someone can be highly regarded and hugely successful even when they treat others like dirt.

From beginning to end Steve Jobs was mean.  He belittled, abused, snarled, badgered and humiliated people.  He seems to be have been humble or charming only when it served some agenda he was working.  In scene after scene the author quotes Jobs' associates talk about the horrid behavior they and others tolerated in order to have access to the golden, inventive mind.  A thick skin was a requirement and withstanding regular verbal assault was the price of admission to the inner circle.

Isaacson concludes, "The nasty edge to his personality was not necessary. It hindered him more than it helped him.  But it did, at times, serve a purpose.  Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change."

I say "horse feathers!"  There is miles of distance between "velvety" and where Jobs was.  He wasn't merely insistent on his way, or sternly holding people accountable for achieving at a high level.  He was a tyrant of the highest order.  Did Apple grow to be ginormous with legions of raving fans around the world? Yep.  Did a few dozen people get fabulously wealthy?  Yep.  Was putting up with Jobs' behavior the thing to do?  No way.  There is no standard of excellence so high to justify abuse.  The world will never know what might have been created by Jobs and his colleagues if he had been kind, collaborative, affirming, partnering, nice.  He robbed us of that - and so did the people who made his excuses for him.

As I read, knowing Jobs had died only weeks before the book's publication, I kept waiting for the redemption moment... an indication Jobs acknowledged to Isaacson that he was sorry for the hurt he caused people.  But it doesn't happen.  Up to the last Jobs was a self-absorbed and hateful bully, the kind of person we tell our children to avoid.

There are some business lessons in here and I did my best to pull them into a summary which is available for download by clicking here.  Read Steve Jobs if you like, but I am going back to Richard Branson.(I'll embed summaries in an upcoming blogpost.)



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Book Review: Good to Great

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I understand why this one is a classic!  It begins from a simple research question: what do companies that sustain excellence over a long period have in common?  To answer the question one must first define "excellence," then define "sustained." Next, send your graduate students and research associates out to conduct interviews with hundreds of business leaders in companies who meet those two definitions to see what they have in common.  Finally, compare the great ones to companies in their field who did not sustain excellence.  The results are fascinating, relevant, and easily accessible to a non-MBA reader.  I list it as a must-read for those who are interested in improving their organizations.

For the record, the secrets are:

1. Leaders must take care to bring others along to carry on when they are gone.
2. Get the right people on the team - first. Everything else is secondary.
3. Eyes wide open - look at hard reality and plan to overcome any adverse facts.
4. If there is something you can do better than anyone else, do that. 
5. Blend a culture of discipline (first things first) with a spirit of entrepreneurship.
6. Embrace the power of innovation and new technology.
7. Stick with it... great changes don't happen overnight.

To learn more from my two-page summary, download it here.



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Book Review: Losing My Virginity

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It's true.  I am a 7-18er. Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela, John Glenn, and I all have the same birthday.  How cool is that?  Branson is an especially attractive figure to me, but not for the dare-devil, high-risk and high-yield lifestyle he's had.  I like him, and enjoyed his book, more because of how honest he is.  He was not born qualified to run a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.  But after running a student newspaper for a while, he was qualified to take on another business too.  Then another, and another and another.  Until he was running a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.  Oh, and having fun along the way.  What's not to like?  Thanks Sir Richard!  We appreciate the time and effort you put into chronicling your journey for us!

Click here for a downloadable two-page summary, written by me.  

Also highly recommended - follow Sir Richard on Facebook and LinkedIn.  He puts out great stuff daily, presumably with help from a wonderful staff.  Plus, his face always makes me smile. 

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