Lead. Grow. Focus. Survive. Teach. Ideas are the currency of the future; reading informs and develops concepts. Abandon bad reads and read great books twice or more.
Read excellent books. Here are annotated well-written books with great content. I won't recommend a poorly written book with great content (they're out there).
Legacy by James Kerr (I've read this three times.) Legacy, the story of the New Zealand All-Blacks, eclipses a sport focus with advice that crosses many domains.
"Never be too big to do the small things that need to be done." ("Sweep the sheds.")
"Are the things around you helping you towards success? What do you need to rid your daily routine in order to become a better you?"
"...train to win with intensity to accelerate personal and team growth."
"...champions do extra because life is brief and anything we do should be really excellent." Unrequired work separates elite from excellent.
Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown... Brown weaves a tapestry of Depression-era America, the US Olympic rowing team, and the rise of Nazi Germany in the early 1930s.
"The very problems you must overcome also support you and make you stronger in overcoming them.”
“It’s not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it’s a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you.”
"There were too many days when they rowed not as crews but as boatfuls of individuals. The more he scolded them for personal technical issues, even as he preached teamsmanship, the more the boys seemed to sink into their own separate and sometimes defiant little worlds.”
“You had to give yourself up to it spiritually; you had to surrender yourself absolutely to it. When you were done and walked away from the boat, you had to feel that you had left a piece of yourself behind in it forever, a bit of your heart... And a lot of life is like that too, the parts that really matter anyway.”
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
"Trade-offs can present a significant opportunity for essentialists. By weighing both options and selecting the best one for us, we increase our chance of achieving our desired outcome."
"In every set of facts, something essential is hidden. We don’t have the capacity to explore every single piece of information we encounter. Discerning what is essential to explore requires us to be disciplined in how we scan and filter all the competing and conflicting facts, options, and opinions that are constantly vying for our attention."
"One essentialist craft is editing. Editing involves eliminating the trivial, unimportant, or irrelevant. The next step involves becoming an editor in your life and leadership." Our job is to advance the story. Eliminate waste; champion efficiency.
Essential reminds me of St. Exupery's quote about perfection.
Deep Survival:Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonsalves
Some books, stories, or shred of knowledge save lives. "Deep Survival" achieves that. Outcomes sum skill and luck. Our choices and adaptations may define life or death. Climbers connected by ropes are more likely to die, as one falls producing domino effects. Hikers disappear on Hawaiian hiking trails as decayed foliage gives way to deadly plunges. Climbers ascend Colorado mountain trails in August and die in freak snowstorms.
"Many people who in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, died simply because they told themselves that everything was going to be all right. Others panicked. Panic doesn't necessarily mean screaming and running around. Often it means simply doing nothing. Survivors don't candy-coat the truth, but they also don't give in to hopelessness in the face of it. Survivors see opportunity, even good, in their situation, however grim."
Survival advice that works for teams
- Perceive and Believe
- Stay Calm – Use Your Anger
- Think, Analyze, and Plan
- Take Correct, Decisive Action
- Celebrate your success
- Be a Rescuer, Not a Victim
- Enjoy the Survival Journey
- See the Beauty
- Believe That You Will Succeed
- Surrender
- Do Whatever Is Necessary
- Never Give Up
Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense by Dean Smith.
Smith shares his decades of experience in this book for coaches. He informs his use of analytics ahead of his time, his defenses and calls, and multiple offenses. Among others, he discusses the Passing Game, the Shuffle Offense, and more. He explains how Carolina led the ACC in shooting percentage, partly because they held scrimmages with 'shot quality' scoring. Gain or lose (turnovers) points according to whether you took layups, open jumpers, or contested shots.
Honorable mention to James Clear's Atomic Habits. "We make our habits and our habits make us." Clear suggests ways to improve our habits by making positive ones easier and negative ones harder. Watch too much television? Move your favorite chair away from the TV. Sequester the clicker in another room. Then move the batteries somewhere else. Alan Stein's podcast with Clear shares many of his ideas. "Professionals are the architects of their habits. Amateurs are the victims of their habits."
Honorable mention, Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Harari puts 70,000 years of human history under the microscope. Beauty and ugliness triumph. Humans arrived in Australia in 45,000 BC and most large animals become extinct within two millennia. Because we 'clear cut' the continent with fire. We are an invasive species. "We spend huge amounts of money on food, and then we spend huge amounts of money on diet products, doubly supporting the growing economy."
Summary:
- Summer is a great time to catch up on reading.
- Abandon bad books.
- Read great books multiple times.
- Capture the essence of great work.
- "Legacy" by James Kerr
- "Boys in the Boat" by Daniel Brown
- "Essentialism" by Geoff McKeown
- "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonsalves
- "Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense" by Dean Smith