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“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” – Harry S. Truman

My short list contains a small sample of book and podcast recommendations. The list touches on a number of themes to include leadership, personal finance, mindfulness, fitness and history.  I like to strike a balance among competing schools of thought, challenging my own biases, assumptions and comfort levels. Read the gamut, and then make up your own mind what you want to believe.   

The most successful people are curious, lifelong learners. Make reading a priority if you want to be successful.


Disclaimer: This list is not intended to imply official endorsement of any author, creator, or specific product. Nor is purchase or consumption of the materials a condition of employment.

Readings

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy

By Thomas Stanley and William Danko
Link to E-book

Most of the truly wealthy in the United States don’t live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue. They live next door.

America’s wealthy seldom get that way through an inheritance or an advanced degree. They bargain-shop for used cars, raise children who don’t realize how rich their families are, and reject a lifestyle of flashy exhibitionism and competitive spending. In fact, the glamorous people many of us think of as “rich” are actually a tiny minority of America’s truly wealthy citizens—and behave quite differently than the majority.
 
At the time of its first publication, The Millionaire Next Door was a groundbreaking examination of America’s rich—exposing for the first time the seven common qualities that appear over and over among this exclusive demographic. This edition includes a new foreword by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley—updating the original content in the context of the financial crash and the twenty-first century.


The Daily Stoic

The Daily Stoic

By Ryan Holiday
Link to E-book

Why have history's greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today's top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.

The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.

By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.


Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living

Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living

By David Fideler
Link to E-book

In Breakfast with Seneca, philosopher David Fideler mines Seneca’s classic works in a series of focused chapters, clearly explaining Seneca’s ideas without oversimplifying them. Best enjoyed as a daily ritual, like an energizing cup of coffee, Seneca’s wisdom provides us with a steady stream of time-tested advice about the human condition―which, as it turns out, hasn’t changed much over the past two thousand years.

 


The Elements of Style

The Elements of Style

By William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Link to E-book
 In his classic reference book The Elements of Style (1920), William Strunk Jr. explains that writers must first understand writing’s rules before they can break them. He offers clear, instructive advice on proper sentence composition. Strunk composed this book in 1918 and self-published before seeking traditional publication. The book was originally intended to be a textbook for his own English class, but the principles proved to be widely useful. It was later edited and developed by a former student, E. B. White.
Six Frigates

Six Frigates

By Ian Toll
Link to E-book

Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military became the most divisive issue facing the new government. The founders―particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams―debated fiercely. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect from pirates or drain the treasury and provoke hostility? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships.

From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliff-hanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and the narrative flair of Patrick O'Brian.


Endurance

Endurance

By Alfred Lansing
Link to E-book

The book details the almost two-year struggle for survival endured by the twenty-eight man crew of the ship Endurance. The ship was beset and eventually crushed by ice floes in the Weddell Sea, leaving the men stranded on the pack ice. All in all, the crew drifted on the ice for just over a year. They were able to launch their boats and somehow managed to land them safely on Elephant Island. Shackleton then led a crew of five aboard the James Caird through the Drake Passage, and miraculously reached South Georgia Island 650 nautical miles away. He then took two of those men on the first successful overland crossing of the island. Three months later, he was finally able to rescue the remaining crew members they had left behind on Elephant Island.


Outliers

Outliers

By Malcolm Gladwell
Link to E-book
 In Outliers, Gladwell delves into what it means to be successful and examines how successful people reach their pinnacle. He makes the case that talent and hard work are not enough—true outliers also need family, culture, community, and some good luck to make it to the top.
Eat Bacon, Don't Jog

Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life

By Bill Perkins
Link to E-Book coming soon

Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It’s intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one’s so-called Golden Years.
 
In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins’ plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you’re fully engaged and enjoying what you’ve worked and saved for.
 
You’ll discover how to maximize your lifetime memorable moments with “experience bucketing,” how to convert your earnings into priceless memories by following your “net worth curve,” and find out how to navigate whether to invest in, or delay, a meaningful adventure based on your “spend curve” and “personal interest rate.”
 
Using his own life experiences as well as the inspiring stories and cautionary tales of others—and drawing on eye-opening insights about time, money, and happiness from psychological science and behavioral finance —Perkins makes a timely, convincing, and contrarian case for living large.


The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

By Morgan Housel
Link to E-Book coming soon

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.

In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the different ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.


The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

By Peter Zeihan
Link to E-Book coming soon

For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.
America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.

The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world - from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all - is about to change.

In customary Zeihan fashion, rather than yelling fire in the geoeconomic theatre, he narrates the accumulation of matchsticks, gasoline, and dynamite in the hands of the oblivious audience, suggesting we might want to call the fire department.

A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.


Podcasts

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.

Listen to the podcast here.

 


Conversations with Tyler

Conversations with Tyler

On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, esteemed economist Tyler Cowen engages with today’s most underrated thinkers in wide-ranging explorations of their work, the world, and everything in between.

Listen to the podcast here.

 

 


The Ezra Klein Show

The Ezra Klein Show

Named a best podcast of 2021 by Time, Vulture, Esquire and The Atlantic. Each Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness? What does sci-fi understand about our present that we miss? Can our food system be just to humans and animals alike?

Listen to the podcast here.

The EQ Leadership Podcast

The EQ Leadership Podcast explores the critical role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership. Hosted by Tolu Adebekun, each episode features a conversation with a top leader from various industries, discussing their personal stories and experiences, and how they've enhanced their emotional intelligence to lead with greater impact. Join us on this journey to discover practical tips and tools that can help you become a better leader.

Listen to the podcast here.  

The Rest is History

The Rest Is History" is a popular history podcast hosted by British historians Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland, where they explore a wide range of historical events, figures, and topics with an engaging and often humorous approach, aiming to make history accessible and interesting for listeners by delving into both well-known and lesser-known stories with insightful analysis and lively discussion.

Listen to the podcast here. 

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