"Tribe" by Sebastian Junger
Book summary and lessons from "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging” by Sebastian Junger.
Learn why being richer doesn’t equal being happier, why war boosts mental health and why soldiers miss war.
A fantastic book about tribes, PTSD, war and more.
Book Summary:
The book “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging” by Sebastian Junger combines history, psychology, and anthropology, to explore what people can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning.
“Tribe” explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians–war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. It also explains why people are stronger when they come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
Sebastian Junger is a New York Times bestselling author of Tribe, War, The Perfect Storm, Fire, and A Death in Belmont.
Book Lessons:
1) Richer doesn’t often equal happier
“People in countries with large income disparities–like the United States–run a much higher lifelong risk of developing severe mood disorders. ”
Most people assume that as a country gets richer, it’s citizens get happier.
While there is some truth in that belief, it’s also true that “people in wealthy countries suffer depression at as much as eight times the rate they do in poor countries, and people in countries with large income disparities–like the United States–run a much higher lifelong risk of developing severe mood disorders” (20).
And it gets worse, “urban North American women–the most affluent demographic of the study–were the most likely to experience depression.”
Why is this the case?
Poor people tend to share their time and resources with one another more often while wealthy people often isolate themselves which can lead to a “greatly increaded risk of depression and suicide” (21).
The same effect can be seen in the legal profession.
More than 6,000 lawyers were surveyed in 2015 and the study found that successful lawyers (those with the most billable hours) had zero correlation with levels of happiness and well-being reported by the lawyers themselves. “In fact, public defenders, who have far lower status than corporate lawyers, seem to lead significantly happier lives.”
Another interesting fact is that “Mexicans born in the United States are wealthier than Mexicans born in Mexico but far more likely to suffer from depression” (22).
However, the deeper one dives into the subject, it becomes clear that it’s not the war military members miss, but the feeling of being in an incredibly tight-knit tribe.
Why do wealthier countries and people tend to be less happy?
It’s because modern society seems to emphasize extrinsic values (money, status, beauty) over intrinsic ones (family, relationships, well-being).
Instead of chasing wealth, people should aim for the three basic needs described by self-determination theory:
The need to feel competent at what they do
The need to feel authentic in their lives
The need to feel connected to others
2) How war boosts mental health
“Communities that have been devastated by natural or man-made disasters almost never lapse into chaos and disorder; if anything, they become more just, more egalitarian, and more deliberately fair to individuals. ”
During World War II, English authorities predicted that German attacks would produce 35,000 casualties a day in London alone.
During the war, waves of German bombers flew over London for 57 consecutive days and dropped thousands of tons of explosives, killing hundreds of people at a time.
London residents would see the dead lying in ruble or watch as a bomb vanquished dozens of people in seconds.
And yet, there was no mass hysteria or widespread mental illnesses. “Psychiatric hospitals around the country saw admissions go down...admissions to psychiatric wards noticeably declined, and even epileptics reported having fewer seizures.” (47-48).
These positive effects of war on mental health weren’t just in England, “when European countries went to war, suicide rates dropped. Psychiatric wards in Paris were strangely empty during both world wars, and that remained true even as the German army rolled into the city in 1940” (48).
One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that “When people are actively engaged in a cause their lives have more purpose...with a resulting improvement in mental health” (49).
Interestingly, just a bombing London didn’t slow down its citizens when the Allies bombed the Germans, they found that “Industrial production actually rose in Germany during the war. And the cities with the highest morale were the ones...that were bombed the hardest” (51).
This doesn’t mean violence is the answer to improving mental health, but it does show that people feel better when they have more involvement with their community and a clear purpose.
3) Why soldiers often miss war
“In combat, soldiers all but ignore differences of race, religion, and politics within their platoon. It’s no wonder many of them get so depressed when they come home.”
War is a paradox. It is a complex operation, but it also simple to understand.
There are the “good guys” and “bad guys.” As Junger notes, in combat, it doesn’t matter what skin color or political views a soldier holds, as long as he’s on your side, he’s part of the team.
However back in the United States, people divide themselves among political parties, religion, and other ideologies.
In the war, there is also a strong sense of a tribe. Soldiers are constantly with one another, they eat together, they work together, they sleep near several other soldiers, rarely is one alone.
The tribal bond is so strong that in times of extreme combat, a soldier may risk his life or sacrifice himself to save his brothers. But when these men return from war and enter the civilian world, that tribal bond is no longer there.
Junger brilliantly explains this feeling by saying, “Soldiers experience this tribal way of thinking at war, but when they come home they realize that the tribe they were actually fighting for wasn’t their country, it was their unit” (110).
Conclusion:
“Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging” by Sebastian Junger finally explains the many paradoxes about war and soldiers.
By combining history, psychology and personal experiences, Junger teaches readers the many lessons of why people seek belonging and crave the chance to be part of a strong and connected tribe.
The book shines light and the positive effects of war, why PTSD develops and how to best combat it, and how people can come together in today’s divided world.
This book is a must read for anyone who has served in the military, knows someone with PTSD or is looking to learn more about war and soldiers.
Rating: 4.5/5
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The Best Quotes from "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho
Book summary and my favorite quotes from “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
At 197 pages, this book can be read quickly in as little as two or three days.
However, the passages you read from this book will likely stick with you for years or decades to come.
Book Summary:
The book tells the magical story of Santiago, a shepherd boy who longs to travel in search of a worldly treasure. Santiago experiences a recurring dream of a great treasure hidden thousands of miles away at the base of the Egyptian Pyramids.
Along the way, he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself a king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows exactly what the treasure is or if Santiago will be able to overcome the obstacles on his path.
Early into his journey, Santiago finds himself in a town where he doesn’t speak the language, is robbed and left completely alone. He contemplates giving up and turning around, but decides to carry on. He finds a job in a crystal shop and saves up money to return home, but then decides to risk it and continue his quest for the treasure.
Santiago meets a girl named Fatima who he falls in love with but must leave her to continue his journey. On his way to the pyramids, Santiago is taken prisoner by a local tribe. Santiago’s friend on this journey, tells the tribesmen that Santiago is a powerful magician and then tribe offers to set them free if he can prove it.
Santiago then asks the elements (stick with me here) to help him turn himself into the wind (yes, the wind) and somehow does it. This scares the tribesmen so they free Santiago and his friend.
Santiago finally makes his way to the Pyramid and finds some gold when he is attacked by robbers. When asked what he is doing there, Santiago replies that he had a dream of a treasure buried at the base of the Pyramids. One of the robbers laughs at him, and mentions that he has had the exact same dream, except that in his dream, the treasure was buried in an abandoned church in Spain (which is where Santiago first started his journey).
The story then jumps forward in time and finds Santiago digging a hole at the base of the tree where he had had his first dream. Sure enough, he finds a trunk full of gold–enough for him and Fatima to live happily for a long time.
The book is essentially a tale of the journey being equally important as the end goal, because of all the experiences and lessons one learns throughout their quest. Just like Santiago, the book encourages readers to find and pursue their life purpose, no matter how discouraged they may at times feel.
Santiago shows readers how to earn to trust their hearts, read the seemingly inconspicuous signs, and understand that as we look to fulfill a dream, the universe works with us to do the same.
Author Paulo Coelho.
Book Quotes:
The “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho was published over 25 years ago and has sold over 65 million copies to date. Although every reader will have their own opinion of what they enjoyed about the book, here are my personal favorite quotes from it:
“The problem is that they don’t even realize that they’re walking a new road every day. They don’t see that the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food and water. Maybe we’re all that way, the boy mused.”
““What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked, completely surprised. “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.” ”
“People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you’re talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don’t know how to continue the conversation.”
““When you want something, all of the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,” he had said.”
““I don’t want to change anything, because I don’t know how to deal with change. I’m used to the way I am.””
““When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.” ”
““In pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage.” ”
““People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them.” ”
““The world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
”
Conclusion:
“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho is an enjoyable fiction book that anyone can understand. At first, the story may seem too simple: a boy leaves home on a quest to find treasure, encounters foes and friends, gets his treasure stolen by thieves, but then realizes the real treasure was right where he started.
And it is true, the story is simple. But perhaps that is what makes this book loved by millions of readers. A simple story with simple lessons that can be applied to anyone’s life.
Lessons such as: Life is about the journey, follow your dreams, it may not be easy but it will be worth it, what you’re seeking is also seeking you, and many more.
At 197 pages, this book can be read quickly in as little as two or three days. However, the passages you read from this book will likely stick with you for years or decades to come.
Rating: 4.5/5
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
For just a few dollars, a book can give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you improve your life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
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Unit 731: A book about evil and war crimes
“Unit 731 Testimony: Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program” by Hal Gold is a disturbing account of a top secret project named Unit 731.
The Unit conducted some of the most unethical and brutal human experiments during World War II.
Although this book is horrific, one must learn from the past in order to prevent it from happening again.
Book Summary:
“Unit 731 Testimony: Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program” by Hal Gold is a disturbing account of a top secret project named Unit 731, which conducted some of the most unethical and brutal human experiments during World War II.
Many people know about the battles and bombs dropped during the Second World War, but almost no one has heard of the cruel deeds performed by Japanese doctors and soldiers in Japan’s medical wards where prisoners were treated as human guinea pigs and underwent gruesome medical experiments.
The book is split up in two parts.
The first part retells the story of Japan’s history and involvement in WWII and how Japanese doctors went from fighting biowarfare to running experiments on humans in their own Unit 731 testing labs. The second half of the book involves interviews with actual former Unit 731 members themselves, who recount memories of cutting open pregnant women to injecting plague germs into healthy farmers.
Author Bio:
Hal Gold (1929 – 2009) was a writer, historian, critic, and long-time Kyoto resident. He lived in Kyoto for over 30 years, and was a well-known writer on Japan-related subjects.
Author Hal Gold (1929-2009).
Book Lessons:
1) The Start of an Evil Genius
“The middle makes and breaks you, and ending up on the right side of this line depends on how you manage everything in between. It requires immense perseverance, self-awareness, craftsmanship, and strategy.
”
Shiro Ishii was born on June 25, 1892 in a small village two hours from Tokyo.
He went on to study at the prestigious Kyoto Imperial University and earned awards from the United States and Europe for his work. He also received his Doctorate of Medicine in 1911.
Ishii studied bacteriology for his postgraduate work and married the school president’s daughter.
He also enlisted in the army and quickly rose to a lieutenant.
It was clear Ishii was a gifted and smart young man with a bright future.
Yet, about two years later, he responsible for running Unit 731, a “prison camp” that was used to develop biological and chemical weapons that were tested on prisoners.
When Ishii learned about the Geneva Convention of 1925, which prohibited biological and chemical warfare, he was encouraged by this notion since if something were “bad enough to be outlawed, then it must certainly be effective.”
However, just as it took years for Hitler to gain power and create the concentration camps, Ishii too played the long game.
By the 1930s, Japan was expanding its power on to the Asian mainland and the military needed to figure out ways to prevent diseases infecting their troops.
Ishii also worked on turning bacteria and gas into weapons, but animal research had serious limits in producing usable data.
Then in 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations, which had judged it wrong for its aggression against China. This severance of ties would play a big role in the creation of Unit 731 since the country no longer had promises to keep.
During this time, Japan’s Emperor had created a special police force called like kenpeitai, much like the Nazi SS or the Soviet NKVD.
Groups or individuals responsible for anti-Japanese resistance, were quickly captured by the kenpeitai. They were given jobs such as catching spies and interrogating suspects, and were “authorized to use torture” (pg 30).
All of the pieces were slowly falling into place.
Ishii in 1932. (Photo: Wiki)
2) The start of unit 731
As Japanese troops moved into Manchuria, they were concerned about a clash with Soviet troops along the Soviet-Manchurian border.
Ishii planned to use his specialty to overcome his side’s disadvantage.
In the city of Harbin, he set up a facility to focus on vaccines and other proper medical research. It would serve as a facade of goodwork.
However, about 100 kilometers to the South, he and his troops cleared out a local village and had Chinese laborers build a military complex. It was officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army, but later adopted the name Unit 731.
The laborers were paid almost nothing for their work, and one man reported that all of the workers were killed after the project was finished.
Once completed, the complex kept around 500 to 600 prisoners. Many of whom were treated well and were given rice, meat and vegetables.
Why?
A normal state of health would provide the most accurate data for their experiments.
However, the life expectancy at the prison was a maximum of one month…
The Unit 731 complex: two prisons are hidden in the center of the main building. Photo: Wiki
3) Prisoners used into experiments (women & children too)
“In the process of building a business–and in life, generally–you should manage expenses carefully. But sometimes frugality backfires.
”
Some prisoners had large amounts of blood taken every two or three days. This went on and on, while scientists kept careful records, until the prisoner was literally drained to death. Others, were injected with poison to see how they would react.
Other experiments were also performed on prisoners, including vivisections, which involved infecting a prisoner with a disease and then cutting them open while they were alive and without anesthesia, to study the effects of the disease. Patients were kept alive because the scientists thought it would give more accurate results.
For more research, several new satellite facilities were built in Xinjing, Beijing, Singapore and other locations.
Outdoor tests of plague, cholera and other pathogens were dropped on subjects while they were tied to crosses. Rats and fleas were raised for experiments to spread diseases and released in local villages.
One satellite facility had a large refrigerator la where subjects had their flesh frozen over and over again. Others used prisoners as bayonet practice for young soldiers.
One of the worst experiments performed was forcing a healthy prisoner to have sex with one who had syphilis. Anyone resisting would be shot. Researchers would track the infection progress every week, and employed live dissection on the infect patient to investigate how their internal organs were affected by the disease.
Countless more horrible experiments were performed in Unit 731. As Japan began losing the second World War, a secret order was issued to perform more vivisections to gather as much research as possible.
It’s estimated that over 10,000 people were killed during the 10 years Unit 731 and its sister facilities were in operation.
Unit 731 studied anthrax, cholera, and other pathogens by forcibly infecting victims. They experimented with the bubonic plague and tried to weaponize it by using infected fleas and various delivery systems. (Photo: Pixnio)
4) No justice for victims
You might be wondering how the scientists and guards of Unit 731 were punished for their crimes after Japan lost the war.
After WWII, Nazi leaders were charged with crimes and sent to the Nuremberg trials. But for Ishii and his fellow researchers, they were given a get out of jail free card.
The researchers involved in Unit 731 were secretly given immunity by the U.S. in exchange for the data they gathered through human experimentation.
Why were the members of Unit 731 granted immunity?
The U.S. believed that the research data was valuable, and did not want other nations (particularly the Soviet Union) to acquire data on biological weapons.
Conclusion:
“Unit 731 Testimony: Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program” by Hal Gold is a disturbing book to say the least. But it also serves as an important reminder to the world that life isn’t perfect.
The world can be a very dark and cruel place is people allow it. History will repeat itself if individuals don’t learn from the past and keep an eye out on the emergence of new evils.
Even today, similar concentration still exist around the world. For instance, the book, “The Aquariums of Pyongyang” by Chol-hwan, reveals the truth about North Korea’s concentration camps.
Although the things that happened in this book are horrific, it is important to learn about evil so that people will become aware of its existence, instead of turning a blind eye and pleading ignorance to a problem that still plagues the modern world.
Rating: Unrated
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
Here are a few similar books to “Unit 731”:
For literally a few dollars and hours of time, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
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"Living with a SEAL (David Goggins)" by Jesse Itzler
What happens when a multi-millionaire invites a Navy SEAL to live with him for a month?
"Living with a SEAL (David Goggins)" by Jesse Itzler
A hilarious book on fitness, not making excuses and challenging yourself to improve.
Book Summary:
What do you get when you put a U.S. Navy SEAL and a millionaire entrepreneur in the same hous for a month?
Jesse Itzler, the book’s author, is a gritty entrepreneur who co-founded Marquis Jet (he later sold it to Berkshire Hathaway) and helped pioneer the coconut water craze with Zico coconut water (later acquired by Coca-Cola).
He is also married to Spanx founder (and now billionaire) Sara Blakely.
Itzler had it all.
Successful in just about every aspect of his life. However, he felt stuck in a routine.
Wake up, go to work, come home, have dinner, exercise, sleep. Then do it again.
“I wanted to get off it; I wanted to shake things up in a big way,” he writes.
And what better way to shake things up than by asking a SEAL to train you and push you to new limits.
That SEAL, we know now, is David Goggins.
Itzler was speechless when he saw Goggins (then weighing about 260 pounds) run a 100-mile race without any support staff, and he had to meet this incredible man.
Itzler ended up inviting Goggins to live with him in hopes of getting a bit of Goggins’ magic sauce.
Each day, Goggins came up with a new workout to show Itzler that he was nowhere near his potential. This included running with a 50-pound vest, doing 100 chin-ups in a row, swimming in a frozen lake, running 4 miles every 4 hours and much more.
By pushing Itzler physically, Goggins was also pushing him mentally.
Itzler thought many of the tasks where impossible, but by doing them, he realized his mind was playing it safe and was capable of doing more than he thought possible.
In addition to being about fitness and mental toughness, this book is also hilarious (look on the cover, Lebron James agrees). If you’re a fan of David Goggins or Jesse Itzler, you’ll enjoy this book.
Book Lessons:
1) Measure your foundation & track your progress
“If you don’t challenge yourself, you don’t know yourself.”
One of the first things SEAL (Goggins) did when training Itzler was giving him a fitness test and writing down all of his reps. It’s important to know where you are and what you’re capable of doing.
Once the foundation was set, Goggins started to push Itzler in all different types of workouts and at the end of each day, workout totals were jotted down.
After training with Goggins for a month, Itzler’s mile pace went from 9:20 to 7:50 (7 minutes and 50 seconds). A whole minute and a half faster per mile.
Here are Itzler’s workout totals:
222.5 miles run
6,488 push-ups
236 pull-ups
957 sit-ups
200 burpees
800 jumping jacks
50 box jumps
150 flutter kicks
14 fireman carries
Measure your current abilities and track progress every day to see concrete evidence of what you’ve done and how your performance has changed over time.
2) No one ever regrets a workout
“Every day is a challenge, otherwise it’s not a regular day.”
Goggins made Itzler do some crazy things:
Running in a snowstorm
Doing 100 burpees in the office
Jumping into a frozen lake
Jogging with a 50-pound vest
The list goes on…
Many of these workouts flat out sucked. A lot of them Itzler didn’t want to do and he even tells Goggins for him to write down “MISERABLE” in his journal during one workout.
However, Itzler never regretting working out.
He never said, “Man, I really wish I didn’t do 100 burpees today.”
Does Itzler complain that the workouts suck? Yes.
But, to be fair, many of the workouts would be extremely difficult for the average adult to complete and Itzler never said no to a workout.
Even after doing 100 burpees in a row, his legs shaking, but he couldn’t help but smile afterward.
Working out may suck, but no one ever regrets doing it.
Snowing? Cold? Tired? Doesn’t matter, when SEAL says it’s running time, it’s running time.
3) Excuses only exist if you make them
“Don’t get too comfortable. Ever.”
Have you heard these lines before or told yourself this?
I was going to exercise today, but:
It’s raining
It’s too cold out
It’s snowing
I’m sore
My shoulders hurt
I don’t have time today
I have to watch the kids tonight
Sound familiar? I know that I’ve said at least half of these lines to myself.
Here is the honest truth, when you tell yourself these “reasons” you can’t work out, no matter how “good” the reason is, it won’t help you reach your fitness goals. And, all of these reasons are actually excuses.
When Goggins and Itzler were traveling, Itzler didn’t pack an extra pack of underwear. Here is how that conversation goes:
Itzler: I didn’t bring any extra underwear.
Goggins: So what?
I: I can’t run without underwear.
G: Nah, bro, you can’t run without legs. It’s on.
Itzler ends up going “commando” style and the two go for an 8.3-mile run.
Whether it was raining, snowing, cold, windy, it didn’t matter to Goggins. They went running.
What happened when Itzler had to watch his kid? Goggins told Itzler to put the kid in a stroller and run with him. Goggins also gave Itzler a 50-pound vest for some extra fun.
You can have excuses or you can have results. Pick one.
Book Review:
This is one of the funniest books I’ve read. It’s two different worlds colliding, one from a strict, tough, military background, and the other from a business, luxury, laidback setting. And when two worlds collide, a lot of interesting things happen.
As a fitness book, Goggins no BS or excuses approach is inspirational. You won’t find workout plans or what foods to eat to get in shape, but you will learn not to make excuses, track your progress and to get creative with your workouts.
Goggins does curse a lot so this book may not be suitable for children, but if you’re an adult, you’ll find this book to be hilarious. It’s rare that I laugh out loud from reading a book, and yet this book made me do just that several times. You won’t find any deep life-changing lessons in this book, but if you’re looking for an entertaining book about fitness that will make you laugh one minute and motivate you to get off the couch and run the next, I highly recommend getting this book!
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
Here are a few similar fitness books:
For literally a few dollar a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our site or signing up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you!
"The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" by Robin Sharma
An inspiring tale about a rich lawyer that drops everything to pursue happiness and fulfillment.
Learn how to have a good mindset, why reading books is important and the 7 virtues of Enlightenment Living.
A great book for those seeking passion, purpose or peace.
Book Summary:
“The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny” by Robin Sharma is an inspiring tale that provides a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance and joy.
The book tells the extraordinary story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life, and the subsequent wisdom that he gains on a life-changing odyssey that enables him to create a life of passion, purpose and peace.
It teaches readers how to:
Follow Our Life's Mission and Calling
Cultivate Self-Discipline and Act Courageously
Value Time as Our Most Important Commodity
Live Fully, One Day at a Time
And more.
Author Bio:
Robin Sharma is one of the world's premier speakers on Leadership and Personal Mastery. For nearly 20 years, many of the most well-known organizations on the planet, ranging from Nike, GE, Microsoft and Oracle. Sharma has been ranked as one of the Top 5 Leadership Gurus in the World in an independent survey of over 22,000 businesspeople.
Book Lessons:
1) Search for the positive in every event
“No matter what happens to you in your life, you alone have the capacity to choose your response to it. When you form the habit of searching for the positive in every circumstance, your life will move into its highest dimensions.
”
In the book, the monk says that one’s outer world is a reflection of their inner world and that by controlling their thoughts, they can control the way they respond to events and thus begin to control their destiny.
Interestingly, the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ is comprised of two sub-characters: one that spells ‘danger’ and another that spells ‘opportunity.’
Every challenge, obstacle and hurdle may at first seem like a negative event, but it is actually an opportunity for you to grow as a person by overcoming it.
“From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher,” the author writes.
Negative experiences and mistakes aren’t all that bad if you look at them with a positive mindset and learn from the outcome.
“Every event offers you lessons. These little lessons fuel your inner and outer growth. Without them, you would be stuck on a plateau” (pg 47).
This mindset is quite similar to that of Jocko Willink, the best-selling author of several books and retired Navy SEAL of 20 years.
Bad experiences and events will happen in life. There is no way in avoiding it.
However, getting upset or depressed about it won’t improve the situation or make life better.
Instead, look at each experience and ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” or “What is one positive takeaway from this event?”
When Jocko and his team had their operation canceled, he said “Good, more time to plan the next one.” Or when he didn’t get the new high-speed gear he wanted, he said: “Good, we can keep the mission simple.”
Look for the positive in every event.
2) Never stop learning
“It centers around the whole notion of lifelong learning and expanding your knowledge base for the good of yourself and all those around. ”
The author encourages readers to become lifelong students. Not only that, but he says that people must apply what they’ve learned.
Knowledge is only potential power, it must be put to use to provide actual benefits.
One of the best ways to learn is to read books. Read 30 minutes every day and it will do “wonders for you.” Read philosophy books, great literature and classical works. Read books about amazing humans who have accomplished incredible achievements.
Why is reading so important?
It’s because the answer to almost every problem can be found in a book. How to become a better lawyer, friend or lover, there are tons of books on these subjects. All the mistakes and problems modern day people face have likely been faced by people in the past who wrote books on the topic in order to help others.
“Read the right books. Learn how those who preceded you have handled the challenges you are currently facing. Apply their strategies for success and you will be astonished by the improvements you will note in your life” (pg 118).
3) The 7 Virtues of Enlightenment Living
#1) Master your mind
Cultivate your mind–it will blossom beyond your expectations.
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.
There are no mistakes–only lessons. See setbacks as opportunities for personal expansion and spiritual growth.
#2) Follow your purpose
The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
Discovering and then realizing your lifework brings lasting fulfillment.
Set clearly defined personal, professional and spiritual goals, and then have the courage to act on them.
#3) Practice kaizen
Self-master is the DNA of life mastery.
Success on the outside begins within.
Enlightenment comes through the consistent cultivation of your mind, body and soul.
#4) Live with discipline
Discipline is built by consistently performing small acts of courage.
The more you nurture the embryo of self-discipline, the more it will mature.
Willpower is the essential virtue of a fully actualized life.
#5) Respect your time
Time is your most precious commodity and it is non-renewable,
Focus on your priorities and maintain balance.
Simplify your life.
#6) Selflessly serve others
The quality of your life ultimately comes down to the quality of your contribution.
To cultivate the sacredness of each day, live to give.
By elevating the lives of others, your life reaches its highest dimensions.
#7) Embrace the present
Live in the “now.” Savor the gift of the present.
Never sacrifice happiness for achievement.
Savor the journey and live each day as your last.
Conclusion:
You’ve probably heard of the stereotypical story of the rich, high-powered lawyer who, although financially successful, is unhappy with his life. So, he drops everything and goes on a spiritual journey.
That is this book.
Today we see this story as a cliche: a rich person (CEO, lawyer, surgeon) who has a nice house, fancy car and expensive clothes, is unfulfilled in life so they sell everything and become a yoga teacher, priest or in this case, a monk.
Don’t get me wrong, this book is filled with great lessons and Sharma does an excellent job of telling a story and he gives readers lesson takeaways and action points. However, reading this book in 2018, it seems to be a bit dated. If I read this book 20 years ago when it was published, it would have gotten 5 out of 5 stars. For me personally, it’s not a life changing book, but it is still worth reading.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
Here are a few similar books:
For literally a few dollar a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our site or signing up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you!
"A Billion Wicked Thoughts" by Ogas & Gaddam
What can a billion internet searches tell us about sexual relationships?
Learn the difference between male and female desires.
Backed with real data, evolutionary psychology and extensive research, this book will change the way you look at the opposite sex.
Book Summary:
“A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships” by Ogi Ogas & Sai Gaddam explores the differences in male and female sexuality, human desire and attraction through extensive research into mountains of data provided by online searches.
The last great sex study was done in the 1950s and looked at about 18,000 people and found shocking results. In this book, neuroscientists Ogas and Gaddam examined over 400 million different searches and the search history of more than 650,000 people, providing a vastly more detailed and improved answer to the question, what do men and women really desire?
Here are a few lessons this book teaches readers:
What really turns men and women on
Why men love large breasts and butts
What makes the set up to a romantic evening so important for a woman
Why women’s desires are so hard to predict
And much, much more.
Author Bio:
Ogi Ogas studies computational models of memory, learning, and vision. He was a Department of Homeland Security Fellow. Ogi Ogas, Ph.D. He is the project head of the Dark Horse Project in the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Sai Gaddam studies large-scale data analysis and serves as a data mining consultant in India. Sai conducted his doctoral research at Boston University on biologically inspired models of machine learning.
Authors Ogi Ogas (left) and Sai Gaddam.
Book Lessons:
1) Why men like large breasts and butts
“Visual cues trigger desire in men. If a man’s brain decides a picture is arousing, he swiftly experiences physical and psychological arousal.
”
What cues do men specifically desire?
Breasts, hips and butts are the main cues, along with feet and feminine facial features.
The authors write that across many species (humans included), more attractive female parts are associated with greater health, fertility, and offspring survival. These body parts also signal to a man how many years of healthy childbearing remain in a woman’s lifetime.
Interestingly, all of the things men are attracted to are influenced by the same molecule: Estrogen.
Why estrogen?
“Unhealthy and underfed women produce less estrogen and therefore may not be able to bear children, or may bear unhealthy children” (pg 56). It also indicates if she is getting enough to eat and how much stress she is experiencing.
In addition to estrogen, women need a specific kind of female-only fat called gynoid fat that supports the energy demands of pregnancy and lactation. This fat is also only used during childbearing.
And where is the gynoid fat stored?
In the breasts, hips, butts and thighs.
Usually the larger these parts are, the more gynoid fat they have. For instance, levels of gynoid fat in breast positively predict all aspects of female lifetime reproductive capacity, including conception probability, probability of successful pregnancy and offspring quality.
Since these body parts are the best indicators of a woman’s long-term reproduction value, it’s no surprise that these ornaments have evolved to become the most potent visual cues for men.
2) Women experience sexual arousal differently from men
“The results were very clear. Men experienced a strong correlation between the arousal of mind and body. Women did not. ”
In a study by one of the world’s leading researchers on the neuropsychology of female desire, researchers measured how aroused women were while looking at different images (straight sex, gay sex, lesbian sex, etc).
Researchers measured how psychologically aroused women were by asking them, and also how physically aroused they were by measuring their blood flow to their sexual organs. The same experiment was performed on men.
The results?
If a man was physically turned on, he was also psychologically turned on. However, that was not the case for women.
Women were physically turned on by all of the images (even ones of monkey porn), but were only psychologically turned on by specific images (images of heterosexual sex generated the greatest arousal, monkey porn generated zero arousal).
Thus, it’s clear that there is a dissociation between the conscious arousal of the mind and the unconscious arousal of the body for females. This is why some women even report having an orgasm during unwanted or coercive sex.
Why the mind body split?
It’s because women have to consider the long term consequences of sexual intercourse.
Sex for a woman can result in pregnancy, nursing and more than a decade of child raising. These commitments require enormous amounts of time, resources and energy. Sex with the wrong guy can lead to single motherhood, an abusive spouse or a weak father that can’t protect his offspring.
Females are like detectives, they look for clues and information about mates before committing to one.
Women want a man that is financially stable, nice to children, self-confident, physically and mentally healthy, and makes her feel safe.
While a man only needs one cue to become aroused (she has a thick behind), a woman needs several cues such as personality, commitment, kindness, status and many more pieces of information.
3) Why women love vampires and werewolves
“Over the past decade, sexy vampires, lusty werewolves, and a wide variety of supernatural beasties have replaced mere mortals as the most popular romance heroes and heroines.”
”
Why do women love Edward the vampire or Jacob the werewolf from “Twilight” which has sold over 100 million copies worldwide?
It’s because these paranormal heroes are supernatural males, alphas among alphas.
They are exceptionally strong, often immortal, know how to fight off evil beings, can protect the ones they love, are often rich, and live in a mansion or castle. Essentially all the traits that females desire, but to the max.
Another cue that turns women on is irresistibility. “One of the most fundamental and influential psychological cues for women is irresistibility: the feeling that you are sexually desirable” (pg 109).
This explains why so many women have fallen for Edward Cullen. Not only does he display all of the traits listed above, but he also lusts after Bella’s blood which he can’t let himself give in because he loves her.
As a result, Bella gets to be desired forever by a supernatural being, by a boyfriend who must continuously prove how much he loves her by controlling himself.
Werewolves share some similarities as vampires, but also some differences. Werewolves are known for having monstrous strength and refuse to back down from challenges. Wolf packs have a true designated alpha, a super alpha among alphas. They are also intensely loyal to protecting anyone that is part of the pack, including their human girlfriends.
These superheroes also have tough exterior shells, but inside they are soft and kind, which is something many women desire in a male.
In the end when you combine this huge mix of turbocharged cues of masculinity, few women are able to resist these supernatural beings.
Bonus: Interesting facts from the book
Popular adult pay-sites (i.e. Brazzers) attract an audience that is about 75% male and 25% female.
However, when it comes to actually paying for porn, the gender gap widens to about 98% male and only 2% female.
Indicating that men are much more motivated and are willing to pay for images of the opposite sex than females.
“Teen” and “young” are the most searched sexual keywords by men.
Breasts are the most popular body part in sexual searches in every country the authors looked at (including U.S., Russia, India, Japan and even Saudi Arabia).
Searches for butts are almost as popular as breasts.
Throughout history, about 80% of females reproduced, while only 40% of males have done so. Meaning the majority of men never had any kids. This may explain why men are more willing to task risks.
Sailing off to explore new countries, fighting in wars or starting a business are all risky ventures, but men need to stand out from one another and staying home, although safe, won’t help one reproduce.
For women on the other hand, the optimal thing to do is play it safe because odds are that multiple men will come along and offer sex. The woman simply has to pick the one she likes best.
Romance novels are essentially porn for women.
All hero professions (doctor, king, knight, etc) are associated with status, confidence and competence.
Women want their heroes to be like coconuts: hard and tough on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. “The hero is granted free reign to be a badass with everyone else, as long as he’s tender and attentive with the heroine” (pg 99).
Material resources are arousing to females all across the animal kingdom.
Women prefer men who are richer than them, female chimps prefer males with the largest quantity of meat, female pelicans prefer males that give them the most amount of fish.
Women want a man that is competent. When asked if they would date someone that didn’t know how to drive a car, most women answered no, while most men answered yes.
This explains why women mostly go for older men: first, older men have had more time to accumulate wealth and secondly, they have had more time to educate themselves and gather life experiences.
Women find married men attractive because it shows that another woman has vetted the man and approved of him in one form or another.
Women prefer bodies that are muscular, specifically the chest, arms and back, without being overbuilt; these features also indicate testosterone levels. Women prefer men that are taller than them. They also like men in uniform or well-dressed.
Men are wired for sexual jealousy, but women are wired for emotional jealousy.
Men are suspicious of a woman who has slept around many different men, while women are jealous of a man who has loved several women.
“Since a man pays no physical cost for impregnating a woman, evolution made it easy for him to get aroused. After all, any opportunity is precious. For a woman, however, a man is bound to show up eventually, but pregnancy entails a substantial investment. She doesn’t need to chase–she need to choose.”
Conclusion:
They say men are from Mars and women are from Venus, and in a way, that is true. “A Billion Wicked Thoughts” shines light on the ways men and women are wired and how even though they are part of the same species, heterosexual guys and girls desire and are attracted to vastly different traits.
Although the authors are scientists and probably love big data, they do a surprisingly fantastic job of explaining what they found from the data and combine it with evolutionary psychology to create clear and easy to understand lessons that readers can apply to their daily lives.
I’d highly recommend reading this book to both men and women because it helps people better understand the opposite sex through a scientific lens instead of simply saying “Guys are stupid” or “Girls are weird.”
There’s also a good Google Talk about this book done by one of the authors. You can watch that here.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
Here are a few similar books:
For literally a few dollars and hours, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our site or signing up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you!
"Subliminal" by Leonard Mlodinow
Do you know how much of your decisions are made by your unconscious?
Best-selling author Leonard Mlodinow returns to explain the many ways people are influenced without knowing it.
This book will change how you view yourself and the world around you.
Book Summary:
“Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior” by Leonard Mlodinow is an eye-opening book about how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world.
Over the past 20 years through neurological research, it has become increasingly clear that the way we experience the world--our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment--is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed.
In the book, Mlodinow employs his signature concise, accessible explanations of the most obscure scientific subjects to unravel the complexities of the subliminal mind. In the process he shows readers the many ways it influences:
how we misperceive our relationships with family, friends, and business associates
how we misunderstand the reasons for our investment decisions
how we misremember important events
And much, much more.
Author Bio:
Leonard Mlodinow has a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches at the California Institute of Technology. His previous books include three New York Times best sellers: “War of the Worldviews” (with Deepak Chopra), “The Grand Design” (with Stephen Hawking), and “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.”
Author Leonard Mlodinow (credit).
Book Lessons:
1) How the subconscious influences marriage
“The source of love has been pondered for eons by lovers, poets, and philosophers, but it is probably safe to say that none of them has ever waxed eloquent about this particular factor: the person’s name.
”
In the book, Mlodinow shows a table containing the five most common U.S. surnames for grooms and brides. The numbers in the table show how many marriages occurred between a bride and groom with the same last names.
Chart from the book “Subliminal.”
The chart shows how Smiths marry other Smiths three to five times more often than any other surname.
And in all five cases, the most marriages occur when the bride and groom share the same last name. Mr. Williams marries Ms. Williams more often that marrying Ms. Jones or Ms. Brown.
So what does this tell us?
“People have a basic desire to feel good about themselves, and we therefore have a tendency to be unconsciously biased in favor of traits similar to our own.” write Mlodinow.
“Even such seemingly meaningless traits as our name” (pg 19) can have an impact on our decision of picking a life partner.
2) How restaurants can influence customers
“In truth, environmental factors have a powerful–and unconscious–influence not only on how much we choose to eat but also on how the food tastes.
”
When visiting a restaurant many people believe they are making the choice of what they want to eat and drink, but is that really the case?
Say you go to an elegant restaurant that has a menu with fancy food descriptions, such as “velvety mashed potatoes” and “slow-roasted beets on a bed of arugula,” as if other restaurants only served non-velvety mashed potatoes.
Adding the word velvety to the menu doesn’t change the physical structure of the mashed potatoes, but it does change the customer’s mind.
Studies show that adding modifiers to the described foods tempts customers to order it and they rate that food as tasting better than the identical foods given only a generic listing.
Not only does the restaurant menu influence people, but so does the music.
In a wine study, four French and four German wines of matching price, were placed on the shelves of a supermarket. French and German music was then played on alternative days and a record was kept of which wines customers bought.
The results?
When French music was played, 77% of the wine purchased was French. When German music was played, 73% of the wine purchased was German. Music was clearly playing a major role in which type of wine shopper bought.
However, when researchers asked shoppers if the music had influenced their choice, only about one shopper in seven said it had.
My copy of the book “Subliminal.” (No hidden messages here folks…)
3) How Expectations can impact reality
“In one line of research he showed that teachers’ expectations greatly affect their students’ academic performance, even when the teachers try to treat them impartially.
”
In one study, researchers asked students in 18 classes to complete an IQ test. However, the teachers were given the results, not the students.
The researchers told the teachers that the test would identify individuals with high intellectual potential or “gifted.”
What the teachers did not know, however, was that the kids named as “gifted” actually had average scores.
Shortly after the exam, the teachers rated the non-gifted or average students as being less curious and less interested than the gifted students, and the student’s grades reflected their rating.
But, it get more interesting.
Eight months later, another IQ test was given.
Researchers found that about half of the average kids had some gain in IQ, however, about 80% of the “gifted” students had an increase of 10 or more IQ points. Even more surprisingly, about 20% of the “gifted” group gained 30 or more points!
Compare that to the “average” group that only had 5% of students with the same leap.
Labeling children as gifted had proved to be a powerful self-fulfilling prophecy, even when both the “gifted” and “average” student groups, had the same test scores!
Bonus: The importance of touch
“Touch seems to be such an important tool for enhancing social cooperation and affiliation that we have evolved a special physical route along which those subliminal feelings of social connection travel from skin to brain.
”
In fact, scientists recently discovered a nerve fiber in people’s skin that appears to have developed specifically to transmit the pleasantness of social touch.
So how does human touch impact another person?
It helps men connect with women:
In one experiment, three young handsome men approached 240 young women and spoke the same line to them:
“Hello. My name’s Antoine. I just want to say that I think you’re really pretty. I have to go to work this afternoon but I wonder if you would give me your phone number. I’ll phone you later and we can have a drink together someplace.”
The variable in this experiment, or the only difference between the control group and the experimental group, is that the men added a light one-second touch to the women’s forearm for half of the 240 women they talked too.
The results?
When the guys give a light touch, they only got the women’s phone number 10% of the time. But, when they did touch the women, their success rate was 20%, the light one-second touch doubled their results.
Helps servers make more money:
In another experiment which involved eight servers and hundreds of customers, servers were trained to touch randomly selected customers briefly on the arm toward the end of the meal while asking if “everything was all right.”
Can you guess what happened?
The servers that didn’t touch a customer were tipped an average of about 14.5% while those that did lightly touch the customer’s arm were tipped about 17.5%.
In another study, 60% of customers ordered the diner’s special after the server touched the customer’s arm while suggesting the special, compared to 40% of those who were not touched.
Why does touch seem to have such an influence on people?
On the subconscious level, “touch seems to impart a subliminal sense of caring and connection” (pg 136).
The author points out that in all of these studies, the touches were subtle and not gropes or forceful contact with a stranger. In fact, in a debrief after the studies, less than one-third of the subjects were even aware that they had been touched.
And that is what this whole book is about, how subtle and sometimes invisible actions can influence a person’s decision without them even realizing how their subconscious rules their behavior.
Conclusion:
“Subliminal” does a great job of providing readers with countless examples of how even the smallest of changes can affect a person’s mind. From food descriptions at a restaurant to setting expectations for students, the world is filled with tiny gears that can turn the wheel on our personal behavior.
The book is exceptionally well-written and Mlodinow does a good job of keeping readers engaged by telling countless stories from scientific studies. That being said, there are a lot of studies in this book so be prepared for lots of facts and figures.
With all of the studies and stories packed into this book, I wish Mlodinow gave readers a summary at the end of each chapter or action steps for readers to use the new information they’ve learned. Aside from that critique, there isn’t much this book is missing. If you’re interested in science, specifically psychology or neurology, you should definitely read this book.
And if you’re not, you may want to consider getting this book just because it has the coolest cover of any book I’ve seen.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
If you’re interested in getting the book, click here or on the image below.
Here are a few similar books to “Subliminal”:
For literally a few dollars and hours, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our site or signing up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you!
"The Messy Middle" by Scott Belsky
Creating something from nothing is hard, but the unpredictable journey can be even harder.
This book covers how to endure the low points of building a business to how to optimize the high points and much, much more.
If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur or manager, you should read this book.
Book Summary:
“The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture” by Scott Belsky, is an indispensable guide to navigating the volatility of new ventures and leading bold creative projects.
Creating something from nothing is hard, but the unpredictable journey can be even harder. People love talking about starts and finishes, but often ignore the middle stretch even though it is the most important and often the most misunderstood part.
The book has 100+ lessons and will help you:
• Endure the roller coaster of successes and failures by strengthening your resolve, embracing the long-game, and short-circuiting your reward system to get to the finish line.
• Optimize what’s working so you can improve the way you hire, better manage your team, and meet your customers’ needs.
• Finish strong and avoid the pitfalls many entrepreneurs make, so you can overcome resistance, exit gracefully, and continue onto your next creative endeavor with ease.
With insightful interviews from today’s leading entrepreneurs, artists, writers, and executives, as well as Belsky’s own experience working with companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Uber, and Sweetgreen, The Messy Middle will help you find your way through the hardest parts of any bold project or new venture.
Author Bio:
Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. He is currently Chief Product Officer at Adobe, serves as a board member to several early-stage companies, and is a Venture Partner at Benchmark, a leading venture capital firm based in San Francisco. He was previously the founder and CEO of Behance. He is also the creator of 99U, Behance's think tank and annual conference devoted to execution in the creative world.
Author Scott Belsky (all images credit to Scott Belsky).
Book Lessons:
1) It’s not about the start or finish, but the journey in between
“The middle makes and breaks you, and ending up on the right side of this line depends on how you manage everything in between. It requires immense perseverance, self-awareness, craftsmanship, and strategy.
”
People love stories about success, especially about how a small team that worked really hard with little funding was able to build a startup and sell it in just a few years for millions of dollars.
However, that story is missing one very important part, the messy middle.
The messy middle is about all of the obstacles and the signed deals, the disappearing customers and the move to pivot, the employee that stole secrets and the day the team signed their first major client.
The messy middle is the journey all creative endeavors encounter, from the highest highs to the lowest lows.
For instance, take Scott Belsky’s company Behance.
He founded the company in 2006 to connect and empower creative professionals. The team bootstrapped the business for five years before one of their products gained traction and he was able to raise venture capital. He used the money to grow the business and in 2012 Adobe knocked on their doors and acquired the company.
Simple and easy right?
On the surface, yes, but the true story went something like this:
There were years at Behance when nobody beyond the team could understand or care about the work they were doing. The company was on the brink of falling apart more than once. In the early days, Scott had to take anti-nausea medication because it was the only way he could keep an appetite. In the first year, there were only four employees, each unqualified for the journey ahead, but they were the only ones crazy enough to accept the risks and join the journey.
So how did Scott Belsky manage to survive the messy middle?
That is exactly what this book is about.
The Myth of how people believe building a business works.
The Real Journey of how building a business looks like.
2) Resourcefulness > Resources
“Too many teams hire when they should be optimizing the people they’ve already got. You can always get more resources, but resourcefulness is a competitive advantage. Resources become depleted. Resourcefulness does not.
”
As Scott was growing Behance, his engineers had a list of people they “absolutely needed” to hire. The problem was that the designers and community management and support teams, all had similar lists as well.
Since the company was bootstrapping and had very little capital to hire anyone, Behance’s head of operations, Will Allen, advised the teams to come up with a list of process improvements they could make with their existing time to improve productivity without having to hire a new person anytime soon.
Here are a few questions you can ask your team before hiring an additional team member:
Are there better tools that could be adopted?
Can some of the work be automated?
Are there time-consuming processes that can be killed?
Scott points out that by not having the resources available to hire more people, his teams would uncover serious inefficiencies and exciting opportunities to boost productivity.
The team became more efficient before they became bigger which allowed them to attract high-quality individuals because efficient people want to work in an efficient environment.
“Resources come and go, but resourcefulness is a muscle that kicks in throughout the life cycle of any business. Without it, capital cannot be used efficiently. Focus on building your team’s resourcefulness” (pg 102).
3) Be frugal with everything except your bed, your chair, your space, and your team.
“In the process of building a business–and in life, generally–you should manage expenses carefully. But sometimes frugality backfires.
”
The author goes on to write that there are a few things in life, and business, that you should not be frugal with. For instance, given that you spend about 30% of your life in bed and since sleep is so important to being healthy and productive, you should not try to cut costs on getting a good bed.
The same goes for office chairs and desks. So people spend more time in the office sitting in their chair at their desk than they do lying in bed, so go out and find the best chair you can find.
Scott also advises companies not to be frugal with their office space. The space should be designed based on making people productive and creative, not on focusing on the cost per square foot or logistical efficiencies.
One of Scott Belsky’s mentors, James Higa, spent a lot of time with Steve Jobs through his time at Next, Apple and Pixar. James said that Steve would fly around the world to acquire Japanese American sculptures and put them in the building’s lobby just so employees could have a “daily encounter with beauty.”
Similarly, at Apple’s new Spaceship campus, Steve wanted the bathrooms to be placed in the building’s center so that it would pull people together every day and promote “serendipitous idea exchange” when nature called.
Steve Jobs had many responsibilities, including leading Apple, and yet he chose to focus on office space because he knew the importance environment and design had on employees and the company.
Lastly, don’t be frugal when it comes to paying your team, writes Scott. Sure, a company can get away with underpaying someone in the short term, but great talent will recognize their value over time and at that point, the company will have to pay the price to either attempt to save them, or worse, have to replace them.
“Your team must feel taken care of and must have no doubt that they are being rewarded as best as possible for their achievements–and then a little bit more” (pg 142).
Conclusion:
“The Messy Middle” is a wonderful guide for the entrepreneur or business owner that is growing their business and is facing, well, the messy middle. The book teaches readers how to endure the low points of hard truths, facing failure and keeping the business alive.
It also talks about optimizing the high points of the journey including what to look for when hiring people, how to design office space, and how to continue scaling the business.
This is a very brief summary, there are countless more important lessons to learn from this book.
The book also isn’t one long story, but rather each lesson has a one to three-page mini-story from either Scott’s personal experience or wisdom gained from a close friend or fellow entrepreneur, which is great because it’s not just theory, but rather filled with real world examples.
To conclude, I would highly recommend reading this book, but only for a specific audience. For instance, if you are a founder, entrepreneur, business owner or manager, then you should get this book. It will teach you how to survive and thrive through the hardest parts of growing a business. If you have yet to start a business, put this book in your cart and buy it when you do.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
If you’re interested in reading the book, click here or on the image below.
If you’ve enjoyed this book, here are three similar great books:
For literally a few dollars and hours of time, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
If you enjoyed this article, consider supporting our site or signing up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you!
"The Compound Effect" by Darren Hardy
This is an incredible book that teaches the importance of small changes.
The book covers habits, productivity, and similar topics.
I’ve read this book twice and will read it many more times in the future.
Book Summary:
“The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success” by Darren Hardy is based on the principle that everyday small decisions shape your destiny. The little decisions you make on a daily basis, will either take you to the life of your dreams or to disaster.
Darren Hardy shares lessons learned from his personal experiences and lessons from some of the most successful people on the planet, including Richard Branson, Warren Buffett and many more.
Here are a few things readers will learn from this book:
How even the smallest actions can lead to a radical positive result over time.
How to break your bad habits (some you might be unaware of) that are derailing your progress.
The real, lasting keys to motivation--how to get yourself to do things you don't feel like doing.
How to capture the elusive, awesome force of momentum.
And much more.
Author Bio:
Darren Hardy has been a leader in the personal growth and success industry for more than 20 years. He has led three success television networks and for eight years, Darren led the rebirth of SUCCESS Magazine as its publisher and founding editor.
These positions have given Darren unprecedented access to interview, investigate and publish the stories of the most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders in the world, including Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Howard Schultz, Steve Wynn, Jack Welch and many more.
Businessman, publisher of SUCCESS magazine and author Darren Hardy.
Lessons:
1) Use the Compound Effect to your advantage
“The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. What’s most interesting about this process to me is that, even though the results are massive, the steps, in the moment, don’t feel significant.
”
Darren Hardy starts the book with a story about a magic penny.
If you were given a choice between getting $3 million in cash today or a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days, which one would you choose?
Darren points out that the majority of people would take the $3 million today because it not only looks like the better deal, but it also takes a lot longer to see the payoff for the magic penny.
In fact, the Compound Effect of the magic penny is invisible for much of the time.
For instance, if you picked the magic penny and your friend took the other option, on day 10 your friend would have $3 million in cold, hard cash, while you would have only $5.12.
On day 20, you would have $5,243, which is a lot better than $5 but still nowhere near the $3 million dollar mark.
By day 29, you’ll have $2.7 million, almost as much as your friend’s $3 million. However, it isn’t until day 30, that your magic penny bet pays off and is now worth $5.3 million. On day 31, the very last day, your penny doubles again and is now worth a total of $10,737,418.24.
About three times more than your friend’s, now tiny, $3 million prize.
This is the power of the compound effect:
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = Radical Difference
Let’s look at another example.
Suppose your friend puts away $250 every month into an IRA (that grows 8% each year) after getting their first job after graduating college at age 23. You, on the other hand, don’t start saving until you’re 40.
By the time your friend hits 40, she’ll never have to invest another dollar and will have more than $1 million by the age of 67. You, on the other hand, will have less than $300,000 in your account, even though you invested $27,000 more than she did.
Don’t waste another day waiting to start a good habit, the earlier you start, the sooner you’ll see a positive outcome.
Both you and your friend made a small and smart choice by putting away money for retirement, and both of you were consistent with putting away $250 each month, so why did your friend have nearly three times as much money in the end?
It’s because she were able to use time to her advantage. The Compound Effect multiples your efforts so the more time you invest into a good habit, the greater outcome you’ll see.
2) Own 100% of your life
“Everything in your life exists because you first made a choice about something. Choices are at the root of every one of your results...In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you. Every decision, no matter how slight, alters the trajectory of your life.
”
Darren Hardy goes on to say that choices can be our best friend or our worst enemy. They can deliver us to our goals or send us into a galaxy far, far away.
Every decision, no matter how small, can change the direction of our lives.
That is why it’s so important to own 100% of your life.
The author writes that too many people point fingers, play the victim, blame the government or expect someone else to solve their problems; that is not owning your life.
People that don’t own their life will say:
I was late to an important meeting because of traffic.
My co-worker messed up the presentation, not me.
My teenage son and I don’t get along because he’s a jerk.
However, people who do own 100% of their lives will say:
I should have left my house 30 minutes earlier to make sure I wasn’t going to be late.
I should have double-checked the presentation a few days before the due date to make sure the work was excellent.
I should read parenting books about teenagers and try to bond over common hobbies.
See the difference? (This lesson is also found in “Extreme Ownership” & “12 Rules for Life”)
Darren writes that “You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you...If it was to be, it was up to me.”
This empowering mindset revolutionized his life.
It’s easy to blame others, make excuses, say that the economy isn’t doing well or the President is doing a bad job, but none of that victimhood mentality will help you succeed in life.
You can’t control the world or other people, but you can control yourself.
3) Avoid the Trap of Instant Gratification
“Why are we so irrationally enslaved by so many bad habits? It’s because our need for immediate gratification can turn us into the most reactive, nonthinking animals around.
”
If you took a bite of a Big Mac and immediately fell to the ground from a heart attack, you’d probably never eat one again in your life.
And if you smoked a cigarette and all the sudden your face was wrinkled and your teeth turned yellow, you’d likely quit smoking forever. Or if you ate a piece of ice cream cake packed with chocolate and frosting, and it added 30 pounds to your frame, saying “no thank you” to dessert next time would be a piece of cake.
The problem, however, is that all of these actions involve an instant sense of gratification and your mind doesn’t concern itself about the long-term consequences.
Having a burger, smoking a cigarette or eating cake, provides us with pleasure and there are no apparent negative effects at the moment.
But, as Darren Hardy mentioned earlier, the Compound Effect is always in motion, for both good and bad habits.
Even the smallest change can have a huge difference.
For instance, imagine a plane leaves from Los Angeles to New York City. If the nose of the plane is just 1% off, the plane will end up about 150 miles off course and will arrive in either Albany, New York or Dover, Delaware.
Even a small change, such as a 1% change in direction, can result in a completely different outcome. Make sure your habits are taking you in the right direction.
The same goes for habits. A single bad habit may not look like much at the moment, but over time it can lead you miles off course from the direction of your goals and the life you desire.
There’s a great quote in the book by leadership expert John C. Maxwell that says, “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine.”
So look at the actions and habits you take every day and ask yourself, “Is this bringing me closer to my goals or away from them?”
Conclusion:
There’s a reason this book is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller, it’s because this book is incredibly insightful. Darren Hardy does an excellent job of teaching readers the amazing impact of the Compound Effect and provides several analogies that really stick in the reader’s head.
The shocking part is that this book is only about 160 pages. There is no fluff or guff. It’s pure gold. I would recommend reading this book at least twice and make sure to highlight important passages, jot down notes and write down steps on how you can start changing your life for the better.
Definitely get this book, it will be going into my Book Hall of Fame.
Rating: 5/5 stars
If you’re interested in reading the book, click here or on the image below.
If you’ve enjoyed this book, here are three similar great books:
For literally a few dollars and hours of time, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically highway-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
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"Atomic Habits" by James Clear
Learn how tiny changes can lead to remarkable results.
Find easy and proven ways to build good habits and break bad ones.
This is one of the best books on productivity I’ve ever read.
Book Summary:
“Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear, provides readers with a proven framework for improving themselves in both their personal and professional lives.
Clear is an expert on habit formation and teaches readers exactly how to form good habits and break bad ones, and the importance of tiny changes.
Everyone has bad habits that they want to get rid of, this book teaches you the four laws needed to replace bad habits with better ones. Clear draws on proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.
Readers will learn how to:
make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
design your environment to make success easier;
get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.
Author James Clear.
Author Bio:
James Clear is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Time, and on CBS This Morning. He is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies and his work is used by teams in the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
His website receives millions of visitors each month and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his popular email newsletter at jamesclear.com.
Book Lessons:
1) Strive To Be 1% Better Everyday
“If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. ”
Clear starts his book with a story about the British cycling team, who, to put plainly, weren’t very good. Since 1908, British riders won just one gold medal at the Olympics and in 110 years, no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France.
Then in 2003, the team hired a new performance director named Dave Brailsford.
Brailsford’s strategy was to search for tiny marginal improvements in everything the team did. His idea was that if the team could get 1% better in every aspect of cycling, it would compound into a huge advantage.
So Brailsford and his coaches made every improvement, no matter how small:
They redesigned the seats for more comfort.
Added rubbing alcohol on the tires for better grip.
Gave riders electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature.
Switched racing suits for better aerodynamics.
But, it didn’t stop there.
They tested different massage gels for fastest muscle recovery.
They tested pillows and mattresses for the best night’s sleep.
And much more.
Each change made a tiny, tiny difference. But put together, the changes were enormous.
From 2007 to 2017, the British Cycling team won 178 world championships, 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and 5 Tour de France victories.
The same strategy can be applied to one’s personal life, constant small improvements over time accumulate into a major positive outcome:
Saving $250 each week isn’t much, but it multiplies into $1,000 a month and $12,000 saved by the end of the year.
Going to the gym 3 times in one week won’t get you in shape, but do it every week for a year and you’ll completely transform your body.
Reading 15 pages a day is not a lot, but it accumulates into 105 pages a week, 420 a month, and 5,040 pages a year. An average book is 250 pages, so you’ll end up reading 20 books a year just from reading a little bit each day.
So remember, becoming 1% better today may not seem like much, but with time, it can make a huge difference.
How much of a difference does 1% make? If you can get just 1% better each day, you’ll end up with results that are nearly 37 times better after just one year.
2) Focus on Your Systems, Not Your Goals
“It wasn’t the goal of winning the Tour de France that propelled the British cyclists to the top of the sport...The goal had always been there. It was only when they implemented a system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcome.
”
The idea of forgetting goals and focusing on systems instead is one of the most important lessons readers can learn from this book.
Here are a few problems that arise when people focus on goals:
#1: Winners and losers have the same goals.
Every athlete that goes to the Olympics has the goal of winning a gold medal, but only one will finish in first place. It isn’t the goal of winning that propels the athlete to the top of the sport, the goal had always been there.
It’s only when they implement a system of continuous small improvements (more training, better diet, etc.) that they create a competitive edge over the competition and win gold.
#2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.
Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal of cleaning it. If you can summon the energy to tidy up, you’ll have a clean room and achieve your goal, but if you continue following your old sloppy habits, the room will be messy again in no time.
You’re treating a symptom without addressing the cause. What you really need to do, is to create a system of habits that keep your room consistently clean (always make your bed in the morning, put your dirty clothes in the laundry bin every night, etc). Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.
#3: Goals are at odds with long-term progress.
Having a goal-oriented mindset and create a “yo-yo” effect. Many people set the goal of running a marathon and work hard for months, but after finishing the race, they stop running because they already achieved their goal.
You see this all the time when people have the goal of losing weight. They do crazy juice diets or insane cardio workouts and eventually lose the 15 pounds they wanted, but then after hitting their goal, they go back to their old habits of eating junk and sitting on the couch all day.
Clear has a great line in the book that says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (pg 27).
By creating a system of good habits, you’ll be able to achieve better results and create a stable long-term solution instead of focusing on reaching short-term goals that only provide a temporary solution.
Systems continue to provide results, while goals are hit-or-miss. (All images credit to JamesClear.com)
3) Design Your Environment for Success
“The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight. Some experts estimate that half of the brain’s resources are used on vision.
”
For this reason, what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do.
Clear tells a story about the energy crisis of the 1970s, where Dutch researchers looked at energy usage in a suburb near Amsterdam. They found that some homeowners were using 30 percent less energy than their neighbors–despite the fact that the homes were of similar size.
So why did some owners use less electricity and others more?
Researchers found that homeowners who had the electrical meter in the main hallway of their house could easily observe and track their energy usage while others had the meter in their basement where they rarely checked their usage.
This example shows how a person’s behavior can be easily influenced by their environment, often times more than they consciously realize.
Clear then applies this lesson to everyday life.
It’s easy not to practice the guitar when it’s hidden in the closet.
It’s easy not to read a book when the bookshelf is in the guest room.
It’s easy not to take your vitamins when they are hidden in the back of the top shelf.
Once Clear learned this lesson, he set out to find ways to apply it to his daily life.
For instance, he used to buy apples because he wanted to eat more fruit. However, he stored the apples in the back of his fridge, but because they were out of sight, he often forgot about them. By the time he remembered about them, they had were already rotten.
So, Clear decided to take his own advice and redesigned his environment for success. He bought a large display bowl and placed it in the middle of the kitchen in the open where he could see the apples and easily grab one. This simple change led him from eating no apples all week to eating multiple apples a day!
Here are a few more ways people can redesign their environment for success:
If you want to practice playing guitar more often, place your guitar in the middle of your living room so it’s easier to start playing it.
If you want to drink more water, fill up a few water bottles or containers, and place them in common locations around your home.
If you want to read more books, keep a book on the nightstand near your bed so you can easily grab it and get through a few pages before going to sleep.
And for bad habits, you want to do the opposite and make things harder to do:
If you have trouble staying off your phone, leave it in the other room and turn off notifications.
If you’re wasting too much time watching television, move it to a room that you rarely go into, or better yet, sell it.
If you’re playing too many video games, unplug the console and put it in the closet after each time you play it so it’s harder to turn on next time.
“Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one,” Clear writes.
Instead of summoning a new dose of willpower every time you want to do the right thing, your energy would be better spent optimizing your environment.
The goal of behavior change is to make cues for good habits obvious while making cues for bad habits invisible. That is the secret to self-control.
Book Review:
I’d put this book in the top 3 best productivity books I’ve ever read, it’s that good.
James Clear did an excellent job with this book. It’s an easy and entertaining book to read filled with personal stories as well as scientific studies. There’s a lot of information to absorb, but each chapter ends with a summary and important lessons are repeated throughout the book.
This will definitely be a book that I will be reading more than once, that’s how much value you’ll find in these pages. I’ve already started applying a few of Clear’s lessons to my life and started seeing small, but promising results.
If you’re looking for an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones (which is everyone), this book is for you. Read it, highlight it, take notes, and start applying the lessons to your life and achieve success that lasts.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to get the book, click here or on the image below!
If you already read “Atomic Habits” here are some similar books I’d recommend reading:
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