My Book Notes

Notes on books I have read

Start With Why - Simon Sinek 1. Think inside out (starting with why), not outside in (starting with what). Communicate the why as it fosters a sense of belonging. 2. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. 3. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. What you do simply proves what you believe. 4. Excited employees and customers who believe in your cause are the most powerful resources an organization can have. 5. Financial incentives or punishments do not motivate people on a deep and emotional level. 6. Customer manipulation may work in the short term, but it doesn’t foster trust and is ultimately counterproductive. 7. The Golden Circle consists of three concentric circles. The what is the outer layer, the how is middle layer, and the why is the core. 8. Making profit is a result of the what and the how, not the why. 9. The Law of Diffusion on innovation breaks down to 2.5% innovators, 13.5% early adapters, 34% early majority, 34% late majority and 16% laggards. If you want mass-market success, you have to achieve a 15–18% tipping point. 10. The early majority won’t accept something until early adapters have tried it and accepted it, and you won’t get early adapters until they believe in what you have.

Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell 1. To spread an idea, you must make sure it sticks first. It has to be something special, catchy, unique, and remarkable to cut through the market noise. 2. Keep the group smaller than 150 if the goal is to effectively spread a message. 3. The spread of ideas is similar in behavior to the spread of epidemics. 4. The tipping point is when ideas spread from an initial niche user base into the mass majority. 5. A select few types of people are generally responsible for ideas to spread: connectors, salesmen, and mavens. 6. External elements influence our behavior. Such influence is generally greater than what we perceive it to be. 7. Small changes in context caused by external elements can have a big ripple effect.

7 Habits - Stephen Covey 1. Effectively integrating into the world means aligning personal paradigms with universal principles. 2. “Sharpen the Saw” to stay effective. Stay physically fit by exercising. Stay mentally healthy by learning new things. Stay socially and emotionally engaged by developing positive relationships. Maintain spiritual health by confronting and reflecting on your own values. 3. Be proactive and take control of your own fate. 4. Begin with the end in mind and set long term goals with an understanding of your personal mission statement. 5. Visualize the outcome of every step toward your goal so it will be easier to translate into concrete actions. 6. “Put First Things First” by prioritizing things that bring you toward your goals and are consistent with your values or norms. 7. Practice the Win-Win mentality. It will create good relationships, mutual trust, and long term benefits. 8. Forming stable relationships means listening empathetically to others and understanding their personal paradigms so you can contribute and invest in their goals. 9. Engage in active listening by repeating back people’s own words, mirroring their emotions, and helping structure their thought processes. 10. Synergize with others by cooperating openly and respectfully. Collectives can achieve a result that is impossible for an individual. 11. Don’t say yes to everything. 12. Don’t view the world from a Win-Lose, competitive perspective. 13. To change, you have to address your character, not your behavior. 14. Our paradigms are our subjective perception of the world that shapes our habits. 15. If you want to be able to influence others, first seek to understand. Only then can you be understood.

Turn the Ship Around - David Marquet 1. Intent drives ownership and engages individual thoughts, skills, and judgement. 2. Leadership becomes something everyone does. 3. Only works with twin pillars of technical competence and organizational clarity. 4. In our modern world, when the most important work we do is cognitive, this Leader-Follower structure is suboptimal for intellectual work. 5. Achieve excellence –don’t just avoid errors is a mechanism for clarity. 6. Don’t move information to authority., move authority to the information. 7. The Leader-Leader practices fall into 3 areas –Control, competence and clarity. 8. Encourage a questioning attitude over blind obedience.

Zero to One - Peter Thiel 1. Think about the future as a definitive vision. This is a vision you want to focus on and attain. 2. When thinking about the future, think about the progress which stands between now and the future. 3. Finding ideas most people don’t know about, or agree with, is key to being successful. 4. The initial team members are critical. You must find the right mix of skills, vision, and personal connections with each other. This makes it easier to foster a strong company culture. 5. Two types of progress bridge the now and the future: horizontal progress (one to n) and vertical progress (zero to one). 6. Vertical progress is hard because it does not exist yet. It requires you to see the present differently. It also requires you to find a truth most people don’t see or agree with. 7. A startup has only one specific future vision leading to success. One must parse decisions relevant to specific conditions. 8. Founders tend to be strange people. However, the vision they have is indispensable because the decisions are made to realize that original vision.

Powell’s 13 Rules 1. It Ain’t as Bad as You Think! It Will Look Better in the Morning. Leaving the office at night with a winning attitude affects more than you alone; it conveys that attitude to your followers. 2. Get Mad Then Get Over It. Instead of letting anger destroy you, use it to make constructive change. 3. Avoid Having Your Ego so Close to your Position that When Your Position Falls, Your Ego Goes With It. Keep your ego in check, and know that you can lead from wherever you are. 4. It Can be Done. Leaders make things happen. If one approach doesn’t work, find another. 5. Be Careful What You Choose. You May Get It. Your team will have to live with your choices, so don’t rush. 6. Don’t Let Adverse Facts Stand in the Way of a Good Decision. Superb leadership is often a matter of superb instinct. When faced with a tough decision, use the time available to gather information that will inform your instinct. 7. You Can’t Make Someone Else’s Choices. You Shouldn’t Let Someone Else Make Yours. While good leaders listen and consider all perspectives, they ultimately make their own decisions. Accept your good decisions. Learn from your mistakes. 8. Check Small Things. Followers live in the world of small things. Find ways to get visibility into that world. 9. Share Credit. People need recognition and a sense of worth as much as they need food and water. 10. Remain calm. Be kind. Few people make sound or sustainable decisions in an atmosphere of chaos. Establish a calm zone while maintaining a sense of urgency. 11. Have a Vision. Be Demanding. Followers need to know where their leaders are taking them and for what purpose. To achieve the purpose, set demanding standards and make sure they are met. 12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers. Successful organizations are not built by cowards or cynics. 13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. If you believe and have prepared your followers, your followers will believe.

American Pendulum: Recurring Debates in U.S. Grand Strategy - Christopher Hemmer. First, how should the United States balance the trade-offs between working alone versus working with other states and international organizations? Second, what is the proper place of American values in foreign policy? Third, where does the strategic perimeter of the United States lie? And fourth, is time on the side of the United States or of its enemies? This framework can be applied to almost any strategy because we always have an option of being more or less inclusive, placing a high value on ethics, deciding if something is our responsibility, or if we have time to pause or most act immediately. As the United States looks ahead to an increasingly multipolar world with increasing complicated security issues, Hemmer concludes, developing an effective grand strategy requires ongoing contestation and compromises between competing visions and policies.