Top Shelf Reading Picks:

While I wish I were reviewing the actual book, I’m going to instead focus on the mini-series. But I will duly note that I’ve spent the last two months (and much of the past five or six years) giving myself dope-slaps for not reading David McCollough’s masterpiece, John Adams. But too late now. The mini-series became an event in my home that kept us riveted to the TV much the same way Roots did 30 years ago.

I’ve also seen Adams’ letters, which were on exhibit at the Boston Public Library last year, and driven by his home not far from my house (to which I can expect to chaperone many a school field trip over the next few years). So I’m not sure I’m going to feel as compelled to go back now and read it–but I hope some of you do.

Why review John Adams in a column about entrepreneurial books? Because the guy helped launch a whole new country under a whole new style of government. One doesn’t get much more entrepreneurial than that. The storyline encompasses so much (50 years of American history). And yes, there were inaccuracies that HBO had to create to compress the story into seven hours of viewing. For a list, visit Wikipedia and http://loadedquestions.blogspot.com/2008/04/john-adams-book-vs-miniseries.html. But I have limited space, so I will just set down some stream of consciousness thoughts that the miniseries sparked for me about leadership and entrepreneurs and the strong tie between the two.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I think the U.S. has gone a bit off track thinking that leaders need to fit into a certain pre-existing mold. The Founding Fathers were not leaders selected because they fit into an existing schematic. They were elected because the people trusted them to come up with a whole new plan. Hence, they were the ultimate entrepreneurs.

This reminds me of something I once read about law schools in the Boston area. Certain ones prepare you for taking the bar exam (and as a result have higher pass rates) and others  focus on preparing lawyers to create legal systems from scratch. While there is a need for both, I’d rather have graduates of the latter serve as leaders than the former (but, if faced with a particular legal situation, I might prefer the former to the latter!).

The Founding Fathers were not people who your average Jane or Joe Schmoe would want to drink a draught of ale with on a Saturday night. These were highly educated intellectuals who were, for the most part, men of wealth. While I might have wanted to be a fly on the wall at a dinner with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, I’m guessing it wouldn’t be most people’s idea of a rockin’ Saturday night. I find it absolutely disturbing that candidates in our current election are being attacked for having these traits.

Related to this point, I recently discussed whether to friend or not friend your boss on Facebook. I think there is a line here that shouldn’t necessarily be crossed between leaders and the people that they lead. A leader, whether he or she is a CEO, manager or Founding Father of the United States, needs to be above the people in order to have respect. It doesn’t mean that leaders should be out of touch, but they need to be above the fray on several levels to be effective. Am I the only one who thinks that the U.S. has been taking this “man of the people” thing a bit too far?

Didn’t every entrepreneur feel JA’s pain when he was trying to get credit from the Dutch?

Entrepreneurs cannot work in isolation. They work best when surrounded by other entrepreneurial thinkers. While JA had falling outs with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin and others, they all needed the contrasting opinions and theories to create the most appropriate result.

One of the contrasts I loved best was when, as he watched the first hot air balloon launch in Paris, JA says something along the lines of “it will never fly,” to which TJ replies, “Yes, but what if it does?” Maybe this statement, not to mention the handsome actor who plays him in the mini-series, was the reason for my new-found crush on TJ. Gotta love a brilliant optimist! Although not sure I can reconcile the whole slave thing–something which also tempered Abigail Adams’ fondness for him. But it just goes to show that even the most brilliant individuals have their blind spots, and that is why they need other brilliant individuals to broaden their focus.

And in a total non sequitur: The things HBO will do to spice up a historical drama. I have to admit, the scene where Abigail and JA reunite in France was a bit jarring. First, because maybe, like with your parents, you just don’t want to think about a Founding Father’s sex life. But second, I found myself wondering whether I was going to be faced next month on Showtime with “The John Adams Sex Tapes.” Then I remembered that Ben Franklin had invented a lot of things in his day, but the hidden video camera wasn’t one of them.

Top Shelf Bottom Line. I really wished now that I had read the book first. But if, like me, you can’t see yourself lugging that tome along with you on your next vacation, then at least check out the HBO mini-series.

I don’t know whether it’s the state of our current presidency or the never-ending presidential nomination process, but I’m a victim of “leadership fatigue.” This is why whenever I pick up my mail these days to find yet another major tome on leadership written by a retiring boomer, espousing all the virtues of “command and control” leadership, I shuffle it right off to the “donate to library” pile.

I have a real problem with the idea that leaders have to fit a certain mold. Yep. Here in the U.S. we have a president who “fit the mold.” That worked out real well, huh? And now we have to listen to how a presidential candidate can’t be a woman, can’t be black, can’t be old, needs more experience, needs less experience, needs to keep his or her preacher, husband and/or staff under control. Needs to be more positive, needs to be more negative, needs to be . . .

The idea of fitting leaders into a preconceived notion of how they should be has always struck me as strange. If Sony or Apple had relied on focus groups and asked Joe and Jane Schmoe on Main Street how they wanted to listen to their music, we would never have had the Walkman or the iPod. How could we have known that’s what we wanted? And this is how I feel about leadership.

A leader should be someone with the ability to think differently–someone who can change a system that has become dysfunctional because he or she is not tied to the original system. Such a person might not know now exactly how he or she is going to change it, but I’d like to think we are a country where leaders are people with the will and insight to make changes where needed.

For me, it’s a bit like the difference between running a small business and being an entrepreneur. Right now we are a country run like a small business. The franchise exists, and we’ve been trying to find the right person who fits the franchise. An entrepreneur, on the other hand, looks at the current business model and changes things, brings efficiencies to an outdated system and challenges us to try new things.

So this week and next I’ll look at two books about presidents who did this. Were they the best presidents? That’s definitely open for debate. Were they the worst? Far from it. We’re arguably living that at the moment, which is why we’ve become a franchise operation desperately in need of a new business model and leadership plan.

While you may not agree with their politics, here’s the first of two books I think we need to consider for our business and for our country.

Written by John A. Barnes, John F. Kennedy on Leadership: The Lessons and Legacy of a President is a look back at how Kennedy changed the rules of the presidency to fit his persona and build his legacy. I read this book two years ago, but I’m still drawn to it. Maybe it’s because of my statements above. JFK didn’t ask what he could do for the U.S. franchise. Instead, he questioned whether the franchise was really doing it for us. (O.K., I’m no JFK when it comes to speech writing, but I just had to toss that in there.)

One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that I always like learning a little history along with some business skills. The book takes us through the Kennedy years and shows how JFK changed the rules of compaigning, challenged tradition, turned weaknesses into strengths, worked positively with the media, wrote speeches that reached his audience and crafted a particular image. At the end of each chapter is a summary of lessons to be learned if you want to do the same.

A few of the takeaways that have stuck with me:

1. Questioning the status quo: Progress is change, and no leader ever became great without breaking rules.
2. Turning liabilities into pluses, making the best of miscalculations and misjudgments, and staying educable: There is value in mistakes, and there is always more to learn.
3. Making decisions: Although you solicit and incorporate many viewpoints, know that the buck stops with you.
4. Presenting an idealized view of what the future can be: Some may feel that “vision” is a tired concept, but properly crafted and communicated, it is a powerful motivator.
5. Finding your own “Bobby”: In building your team, surround yourself with people who not only are trustworthy and competent but also who make your job easier.
6. Being the coolest person in the room: In times of crisis, take the reins. Your people will be looking to you; give them confidence.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: Whether you are an entrepreneur, a business leader, politician or simply a deep thinker, there are some great leadership lessons here that transcend all styles.

Next week: John Adams.

I received Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers by Michael A. Banks as a freebie at the BlogHer Business Conference last month. Since I was in the midst of rethinking the Downtown Women’s Club blog, I figured it might be helpful to read what the experts had to say.

While there are no “secrets” or “shortcuts” to successful blogging–most of the material boiled down to “write good content and hopefully readers will find you”–it was helpful to learn from others’ experiences. However, much of the material seemed redundant by the 20th interview.

Nevertheless, there were occasional thought-provoking points. For example, PR people are really missing the boat when they assume bloggers are similar to traditional journalists. Bloggers generally are writing in their own voice on topics that interest them. They’re allowed to have biases and preferences. Traditional journalists, on the other hand, are mercenary in that most of the time they’re writing a story their editor told them to write or that they are being paid by a client to write.

Another point to ponder is that almost none of the most popular blogs started out with a goal of being the most popular blog. They were just individuals writing on topics in which they had an interest or expertise.

Some of the blogs discussed in the book were BoingBoing, Scobleizer, LifeHacker, The Long Tail, Gizmodo, and ParentDish. While the bloggers and blog topics greatly differed, there were some consistent themes.

• Good content makes for a good blog. Hype without content won’t work.
• Find a niche topic that you are passionate about and stay focused on it.
• Grow a thick skin because people will criticize you. Be professional in your response (even if it’s a personal blog).
• Don’t put yourself under pressure thinking you have to have a successful blog right away. Take some time to find your voice and focus.
• Don’t promote your blog until you’ve been up and running a bit.
• Blogging can take less time than you think. You can do a little bit every day or write a bunch of posts for future use.
• Don’t write about what you’re trying to sell; write about what you know.
• Most successful bloggers read and comment on other blogs.
• Link, link, link.
• Allow comments; reader feedback is part of becoming a popular blog.
• Unless you have a good reason, don’t hide your identity. People like to relate to the people behind the blogs.
• Blogging is more intimate and conversational than print media.
• Those who have the best writing and work the hardest are usually the most successful.
• Growth does not happen quickly.
• Be original.
• If you go into blogging with the idea that you’ll make a fortune, you’ll be frustrated.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: If you’re looking to start a blog or, like me, revisiting an existing blog, it’s a worthwhile read to get a gist of what the blogosphere is all about.

In honor of next week’s Boston Marathon, I’m running an updated review of The Last Pick: The Boston Marathon Race Director’s Road to Success, written by David J. McGillivray.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of book clubs, because books for me are an escape–which means I choose the ones I want and read them at the pace I want. So when my newly adopted small hometown had a “One Book, One Town” reading event where we were all supposed to read the same book, The Last Pick, I tried to ignore it. But when your 7-year-old tells you. “It’s our town now, too, Mom. You need to participate,” and then offers to buy you the book out of his allowance, what can you do? I caved. And I’m glad I did.

The Last Pick is the life story of Boston Marathon director Dave McGillivray. I’m sure you’re shrugging like I did: So what? Well, I found out so what. In the 1970s this guy was known as “the runner” who ran across the country from Medford, Oregon, to Medford, Massachusetts, to raise money for The Jimmy Fund. Perhaps the most interesting part for me was the flashback to what life was like before cellphones and computers: The stories about McGillvray getting lost, the difficulties of arranging press conferences and having to limit phone calls home due to the high cost of long distance.

Another point that made me think was the title, “The Last Pick.” This was based on McGillivray’s long history of always being the last pick when it came to sports because he was “vertically challenged.” This is what drove him to overachieve in long-distance running and triathalons. To this day, he still directs the whole marathon all day and then, after it’s done, runs the entire course himself. I find it interesting, especially now that my son is participating in pickup games, that when one gets picked on the playground can alter our entire life perception.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: It doesn’t surprise me that many entrepreneurs I meet are runners. For me, it’s an escape, and I tend to get my best ideas while running, although I prefer to compete in team sports (I always was a reluctant entrepreneur). However, what is fascinating is the uphill battle to turn the Boston Marathon into what it is today and the enormous drive it took to do it. Recommended for runners, Bostonians and anyone who ever had a moment in his or her life when he or she was “the last pick.”

I just had to get my hot little hands on Christopher V. Flett’s book, What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook, after it was labeled controversial and lumped in with Nina DiSesa’s Seducing the Boys Club (a previous Top Shelf “must read” pick - click here for my review). And, Flett was nice enough to send me one personally.

Now, here’s the thing. I liked the book. A lot. I’m just not sure what all the hoo-haa was about.

As promised, Flett gives us a view of business from the Alpha Male perspective. Having spent the first two-thirds of my career running with the Alpha Males, it’s dead-on. So I am a bit surprised that people find their behavior shocking.

Now, before the angry emails start, let me just say that like Flett, I’m not condoning this behavior or even endorsing it. It is simply a fact of doing business in today’s world where Alpha Males still run the show. Will they run the show forever? Hopefully not, as information and execution is usurping influence, and we’re warming up to the Obama style of leadership. But, in the meantime, Gordon Gecko’s “greed is good” is still the big biz mantra, and if you want to play with the big boys, and don’t get that, then you need to read this book (or at least rent Wall Street and The Godfather Trilogy).

There is so much in the book that’s ripe for discussion, but here are just a few that caught my attention:

• Women are busy networking while men are building powerful networks. Now, as the founder of a women’s network, I could’ve taken this personally and slammed the book down and called it ridiculous. But, then I would be acting like the silly female with whom most alpha males wouldn’t want to do business. The truth is that I wholeheartedly agree with Flett on this issue. I created the DWC networking platform so that women would have opportunities to build themselves a powerful network. Yet, I continue to see women mistaking the networking organization/platform for a “network” when in fact, it’s simply the catalyst (I’d like to think a necessary one!). The women who get this are the ones join the networks to find others with whom to build their own powerful network.
• On a related note, Flett points out that men and women build networks differently. Men don’t need to like the person to do business with them. They just need to know they can deliver.
• Some of the controversy stemmed from Flett using the term “breeders” for women who have children and inconvenience the office with their special needs. While crass, the point he’s making is that if you handle your pregnancy and family obligations in a professional manner - so that it doesn’t cause more work for others than is absolutely necessary - then you can avoid being labeled a breeder. He even provides tips on how to do this.
• Women give too much information. Not only did he discuss this in the context of women not knowing how to keep company secrets, he also makes some very good points about how women could get away with a lot more if they didn’t announce that they were late because the baby got sick/had to go to the doctors, etc. Just walk in, apologize without saying why, state that it won’t happen again and leave it at that! Use a similar strategy when you have to leave early. I long ago discovered that I could leave anytime I wanted to play golf or soccer (meaning I’m the one actually playing, not my kid) with no consequences. But, if I mentioned that it was for a kid thing … it wouldn’t matter how long I’d been outperforming everyone, I’d be right back on Mommy track.
• The difference between Alpha and Beta Males. Alpha Males are the top dogs, the rainmakers, and generally the ones who call all the shots. The Beta Males are of two sorts. The first group wants to be Alphas, but can’t (and aren’t too happy about it). The second group doesn’t want to be Alphas and are content to play a support role. The business world needs both Alphas and Betas, and the Alphas know this. What was interesting to me here is that Flett warns women to be wary of the unhappy Beta Male. They are much more dangerous than Alphas. In fact, when not sucking up to the Alphas, they are malicious bullies to everyone else, especially women. I was fascinated to go back through my career history and found that while Alpha Males liked me and were my biggest supporters, it was always Beta Males and a certain type of Alpha Female with whom I would clash.
• Speaking of Alpha Females. As an Alpha Female, I think Flett hit it on the head. It’s only the unhappy Beta Males (i.e. Alpha wannabes) who are intimidated by an Alpha Female. The Alpha Males don’t mind her if she’s useful, although they are always wondering whether she’s the real deal or is she going to sabotage herself and/or other women in the office. (On a side note, a few of my Alpha Female friends concurred with me that our best personal relationships were with Beta Males of the nicer type, i.e., the ones who would never want to be an Alpha! Who knew Flett’s book could help with dating too?)
• Men will help a guy when he’s down, women will stomp on other women. Throughout the book, Flett points out how women will attack other women even if it means that they themselves go down in flames O.k., that may be a bit extreme, but I can’t disagree. See my comments about Charlotte Allen, who wrote an editorial in the Washington Post about “Why women are dumb.” No man would’ve thrown their entire gender under the bus for sport as she did. Women will still be their own worst enemy most of the time, and the Alpha Males know this and therefore keep their distance, and actually enjoy the spectacle.
• Flett had some good insights into how to communicate with Alpha Males. Ironically, it was somewhat duplicative of DiSesa’s controversial advice with regard to stroking their egos while making your point so that they can save face. Yet, DiSesa, as a woman, got criticized for recommending “flirting” and using sex for basically doing what Flett recommends. (Of course, some of that might be due to the title of the book, but most of that criticism seemed to come from other women … some of whom never even read the book. hmmmm.)

There are way too many other points to mention here. But I’ll close with one that hit home.

• Why do men like dealing with other men? Because there is no drama. I couldn’t agree with Flett more. Although I think it’s more the “fear of drama” as not all women are going to cause drama. It’s just unfortunate that our entire gender gets labeled based on the actions of a drama queen or two. But, this stems back to the basic problem the Alpha Male has, which is that he doesn’t understand women. This means that he is never sure how they might react to something, and therefore it’s simply easier to deal with men who will react predictably and in the same manner as they would.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: I’m adding this one to my must-read list for women (and Beta Males) who want to build successful companies. As you grow your company, you will no doubt run into a few Alpha Males along the way. They may be financing you, working for you, or negotiating with you. And when you do, it will help you to understand their thought process. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with their thought process, but it gives you a huge advantage when you know what someone thinks about you. Hence the phrase, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.”

Even if, like me, you think you know it all, it’s still a useful book. Despite the fact that I had a good bead on the Alpha Male all those years, Flett really helped me understand the problems I’ve had working with unhappy Beta Male types. In fact, I couldn’t help but think back to grammar school when the Alpha Males were picking teams at recess. If the game was soccer or kickball, I was always picked before most of the boys because the Alpha Males didn’t care what gender I was as long as I delivered. Based on Flett’s book this scenario hasn’t changed much.

Of course, there is still discrimination and a gender gap and a whole lot of bad stuff that result from this Alpha Male attitude. But resolving that was not Flett’s goal with this book, he just wanted to start a dialogue.

In any event, I’d like to offer the one piece of advice that helped me succeed when I worked among the Alpha Males. Only work for Alpha Males who have daughters (especially older ones). It’s amazing how their view of the world changes the first time somebody slams a door in their own daughter’s face.

For more from Christopher V. Flett, check out his interview with my partner, Anita Bruzzese on our BlogTalkRadio show – “Smash the Ladder.”

I picked up Eric Weiner’s book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, because I needed a break from business books. I figured that, as an entrepreneur, business is my life most of the time, so a little insight into happiness might be a good thing.

Weiner, a longtime NPR correspondent, claims not to be a naturally happy guy. In fact, he describes himself as downright grumpy, which does make for some of the funnier parts in the book as he travels the world to visit a collection of the happiest and least happy countries. His dour approach was greatly appreciated, as who wants a happiness tour guide who is already “Perky Polly?” Blech.

I definitely found the book thought-provoking and, in some cases, reassuring. But I also discovered that many things about being an entrepreneur are the antithesis of bliss. Here are some of the quick insights I pulled out of the book (which I enjoyed listening to as an audio book).

• Switzerland. Happiness for the Swiss is being content with your lot in life and current situation. They also enjoy the minor things (like trains running on time) and, of course, the major things like chocolate! However, he also noted that they do not throw their money around because they fear that it could provoke envy in others. As stated frequently throughout the book, envy appears to be the greatest enemy of happiness.
• Bhutan. Make happiness a national priority because happiness is relational and not personal. In addition, Weiner was also told in Bhutan that to be happy, you need to set aside a few minutes a day to think about death. I suppose this is so that one can appreciate the little things in everyday life.
• Thailand. In Phuket, one does not think about death. In fact, they’ve perfected a society where “not thinking at all” is bliss.
• Iceland. The cold inspires people to cooperate, which leads to limited envy, no stigma for failure, an increase in optimism and, ultimately, bliss.
• India. Despite extreme poverty, they are more able to accept contrasts, i.e., that no one or nothing is perfect. This is one of the secrets to their bliss.

On the other hand:

• Moldova. The extreme poverty bred envy and mistrust, which is the antithesis of bliss.
• Quatar. Too much money and lack of national culture can be a problem. It can cause isolation and envy (and isn’t isolation a response to mistrust of others?). I found it telling that Weiner talked about how the more money we have, the bigger lots of land we buy, the bigger walls we put up, all in a quest to prevent our having to interact with other people (i.e., a typical wealthy American suburb). Yet this is in direct contrast to the recipe for happiness found in almost all of the countries above.

So, back to my question about whether being an entrepreneur is the happiest career choice. I’m not so sure it really is, for the following reasons:

• If we were content with our situation or the way the world worked, we wouldn’t be entrepreneurs.
• As for focusing on happiness as a metric or not thinking, neither concept is part of the entrepreneurial equation.
• Nothing is more isolating than being an entrepreneur.
• If you are a perfectionist or fear failure, it’s probably not the best career choice for you, as it will definitely make you unhappy.

Hmmmm. Looks like I may be in the wrong business for happiness. And for the most part, the wrong country. One of the points Weiner makes is that countries other than the U.S. place higher values on the basics that make people happy–relationships and the small things in everyday life. On the other hand, if you have all those happiness basics in the rest of your life, perhaps entrepreneurship can add factors to further increase your bliss. For me, it’s the creativity, ability to help others and total freedom of schedule that counteract the isolation. So, yes, I am a happy entrepreneur, but it takes some work. However, I might have to plan a visit to Reykjavik real soon.

Top Shelf Bottom Line. The Geography of Bliss provides some interesting insights into happiness, and I found Weiner  amusing and the travelogue interesting, much as I did Eat, Pray, Love. However, if you’re at a point in your life where things don’t seem to be making you happy, it’s almost like a self-help book (without the touchy-feely parts) to get you thinking about whether any of the “happiness” factors he found in other countries could be something you could  incorporate into your life. Otherwise, it’s time to book a one-way ticket to Bhutan.

I love my “cultural trend” books, and my latest addition to my “must read” list is Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations by Clay Shirky. In the book, Shirky examines how the internet is changing society and business by allowing people to organize themselves and, as a result, siphon power away from institutions.

So what does this “power to the people” mean for business? It could mean the end to middle management. It also changes the status of professions such as publishing, journalism and photography. Is a blogger a journalist? Or not? Is someone who submits one photo to a stock photography site that is then purchased by a graphic designer a professional or not? Do we need publishers? Or are they simply middle managers soon to be extinct? These are only a few of the points that make you think that business as usual might soon end up as unusual business. Here are a few more:

• Shirky opens with a powerful anecdote about how one guy used the power of the internet to track down and force an individual to return a lost cell phone to its original owner. Along the way, he rallied the support of the national media, forced a change of policy at the NYPD and personalized for thousands the plight of a single lost cell phone.
• Companies such as Flickr do not coordinate users; they help them coordinate themselves. Not only does this undercut the traditional structure of businesses (less management, low overhead), but we have a whole generation of users (aka future employees) who are growing up coordinating themselves in a DIY fashion. They’ve never experienced “command and control.”
• Why is the blogosphere and Twitter-world difficult for some people to comprehend? Because we’re not used to seeing written material in the public domain that is not directly meant for us. With traditional newspapers, books, etc., we understand that they’re trying to reach us as an audience, whether we want them to or not. But what about a blog just to keep a small group of friends updated on your love life? Shirky points out that most “user-generated” content is not meant for general consumption any more than a phone call between you and your family. In essence the internet pushes the onus to filter what you want to read back to you, the individual. What’s the effect on business? We’re seeing it in print publishing–filters like newspapers and publishing houses are struggling. And we also see it on broadcast television. The networks no longer need to worry just about cable, but also about YouTube.
• Shirky has an interesting discussion/analysis of fame. Fame happens when it becomes impossible for an individual to respond personally to all the incoming communications. For example, Oprah can communicate to us through every possible medium she chooses, yet we can’t get to Oprah. So rather than wait around for Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes, I suppose I can consider myself famous when I get sooooo many comments on here that it would be impossible for me to respond. Hmmmm. Guess I have a long way to go.
• Online groups/collaborations allow you to lower the hurdle for participation. I’ve been noticing this phenomenon on Facebook, where it’s easy to join a cause and become a “fan” of a politician or product–you just need to click a button. If you only care a little, the internet allows you to participate only a little. The effect on business? I can speak to this one personally. I founded my company, www.DowntownWomensClub.com, because 10 years ago there were barriers preventing young professional women from joining exclusive women’s business organizations. These were cost, experience, geographic limitations and, ultimately, finding someone willing to nominate you. At the DWC, we’ve used technology to make the cost minimal and take geographic limitations out of the equation. We’ve also stood by our inclusive philosophy, thereby making participation easy (even from your computer at 1 a.m. from Belarus).
• Shirky also includes a discussion of social capital that echoes what I’ve read in a couple of other books. First, he talks about how people who have a lot of social capital (i.e., know their neighbors and have a healthy support system of interaction with others) are healthier and happier. This was part of the findings in Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss, which I’ll review soon. Second, he mentions how suburban sprawl is leading to a breakdown of social capital. In cities, people are codependent for existence. This is lost when people own McMansions with three-car garages on one-acre lots in towns with no sidewalks and where kids are shipped out to private schools (a topic that was tackled in one of my other must-read trend books: Nine Shift). Yet, this may be a factor in why cybergroups are popular. People are social animals; they want to be with other people.
• There was an interesting bit about the formation of Meetup.com and the most popular groups founded in its first year. These groups included “Witches,” “Bloggers” and “Ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Shirky’s comment on this was that people were not using the new tools to re-create existing groups such as Rotary clubs and Junior League, but they were organizing themselves around a whole new dynamic.
• Finally, he looks at what makes for success in this new realm. First, he admits that there needs to be some form of governance for any large group to work. Then he looks at three crucial elements:
  • Make a promise. You must promise something appealing to your users/customers.
  • Create the appropriate tools. You must make it easy for them to use.
  • Strike a bargain. You need to have an implicit agreement with your users/customers to deliver what you promise in a manner that is acceptable to them.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: Here Comes Everybody contains vital information for anyone running a business today–especially if it dabbles in the Web 2.0 space. However, if you’ve never heard of Flickr, Twitter, Digg and other Web 2.0 social media, it would probably be like reading a foreign language. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t stop you from learning about how the internet is changing work as we know it. So to dip your toe into what the future of business might look like.  You should at least read or understand the concepts behind these books (because in some cases, the future is now):

• The World is Flat by Tom Friedman
• The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
• Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

When I received an advance copy of Peggy Klaus’ new book, The Hard Truth about Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner, I figured it was worth a gander. I’ve met Klaus, and she is an energizer who is not afraid to scream and yell and push people’s limits. I know this because I once ran a workshop at a conference right next door to Klaus. Apparently, I had drawn the short end of the stick because the other speakers knew that her crew would be bragging out loud… very loud.

Now I just wish that energy had transferred over to the book. While it is chock full of info, it was a bit scattered for me and some of the real “punchy” points were diluted and buried. I also had to keep checking back to the title/subtitle to see why these bits of advice were all interconnected. I’m not sure the title’s use of “Soft Skills” was the best description. Maybe it could have been titled “People Skills: How to Present Your Best Self So That Others Want to Play With You.” As that’s pretty much what this was about: skills that will help you deal with other people.

However, the whole scattershot approach abruptly disappears in chapter six, where she launches into a chapter on “Branding and Bragging.” All of a sudden, it’s the Peggy Klaus aka “Brag Lady” with whom I was familiar. The writing was better, the flow much smoother, and the energy was back and carried over into the final chapters on gender, generations and leadership.

As for the “soft skills,” there were some good points in the first two-thirds of the book, such as:

• “I swear if I hear one more person say [follow your passion], I’m going off a Swiss Alp.” This is the Klaus I like who tells it like it is. Following your passion is no guarantee of success. Sure, it makes it easier if your business involves some bit of your passion, but it involves a whole lot more than that. (Note: A good book about how you can work passion into your worklife is Career Bliss: Secrets from 100 Women Who Love Their Work by Joanne Gordon.)

• “If you want to stay competitive and ahead of the game, keep your hard skills sharp. Making this happen is not your employer’s responsibility, it’s yours.” Now this is one statement that I would jump up and down and shout about because every day I run into people, including entrepreneurs, who refuse to learn technology. There was an interesting article in The New York Times recently about how technology laggards still add value to the innovation process. But if you’re an entrepreneur, you should have a leading mindset rather than “nooooo, don’t make me learn something new.”

• “If you find yourself having to defend yourself and make an argument for why your behavior is really OK, then you’ve probably crossed what I’ve called the IC Divide–the IC here stands for integrity and character.”
• She has some good takes on risks, listening, grammar, apologizing and saying thank you.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: There were some good refreshers in here re: what she calls “soft skills.” These seem to be skills that help you be your best self and convey that and/or converse with others. But as stated above, you need to pull out relevant tidbits from the first two-thirds of the book and hang on until the last third of the book. The last third is the best part and includes info on creating your personal brand, bragging, generations and leadership. So if you didn’t read her first book, Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It, and you need a book to motivate you to get more proactive in promoting yourself, it’s worth picking up.

I picked Gordon Patzer’s Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined out of my review pile because it struck a nerve with me as a huge cultural issue. In his book, he focuses on “lookism,” as he calls it, from all different angles: in the family, the schools, the beauty industry and TV news. Yet what does it have to do with business?

When it comes to your career, he sums it up in a chapter chock full of studies that conclude that if you are “good-looking” or even “tall,” you have a better chance of landing that job, getting a higher salary over your lifetime and getting promoted more than an average or “PA-challenged” (physically attractive-challenged) colleague. However, if you are good-looking and mess up, you can expect to fall farther and harder. There were also subtleties, in that an attractive woman will have a harder time getting a masculine-oriented job. Yet attractive women are more likely to get a job that involves face-to-face contact with clients, unless it is a woman doing the hiring.

He even has data about how good-looking execs created more income than the cost to their companies of having to pay them higher wages. For the lawyers in the audience, maybe Denny Crane on Boston Legal had a point about hiring only attractive lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Patzer reports that they tend to fare better in court.

I’m sure there’s nothing new here for anyone who went to high school. The pretty girls are popular, the handsome athletes get the pretty girls. The rest of us count the minutes until we go to much larger, diverse colleges and universities, and ultimately into the workforce, where brains come a bit more into play. Yet it doesn’t change much even there, according to Patz’s resesarch.

Patzer does cover the dark side of beauty, from plastic surgery to eating disorders. Yet his conclusion to the book is a bit depressing: “Good looks make a difference today and most likely always will.”

I suppose one way to conquer lookism is to have a more diverse point of view as to what constitutes good looks. One wonders why, with our 500 channels on TV and our ability to connect globally over the web, we still have a Ken and Barbie view of beauty. Perhaps if we had a larger variety of what people find attractive, we might be able to spread the looks around more.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: It’s a depressing read, but sometimes we need to read the unpleasant stuff that makes us squirm. As for entrepreneurs? It looks like the beauty or anti-aging industry might be the way to go.

To hear more from Gordon Patzer, listen in to my new blogtalkradio show, Smash the Ladder, with Anita Bruzzese and Diane K. Danielson. Click here to listen to Anita’s interview of Patzer.

Seth Godin’s Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas is a hodgepodge of his ideas and blog posts that seems disconnected, but there is a common theme through it all–treat customers and others with respect, and that is the secret to success. Sure, he talks about the advantages a small business might have: less bureaucracy, the ability to adapt quickly and be the new, new thing. Yet, it all comes back to what Aretha Franklin said: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T .Find out what it means to me.”

There are too many tidbits for me to recall and, since I listened to the audio in my car, I don’t have my trusty Post-its marking my favorite parts. However, I’ll point out a few that stood out. Note to readers: Seth read his own book, which I kind of liked as it felt like you were having a random conversation with him. In a similar vein, I previously enjoyed Sen. Barack Obama reading The Audacity of Hope and former president Bill Clinton reading My Life. Sometimes the voice can make or break an audio. I’ve listened to a few subpar chick lit books solely because I enjoyed the English accent of the reader. Or in the case of The Abstinence Teacher, I got a chill when Campbell Scott’s voice boomed out of my speakers. He was perfectly matched to the material.

Sure, I digress, although not really. A lot of what Seth talks about in Small is the New Big is the importance of the delivery of services and goods, whether it’s packaging, marketing or the actual product. As an example, note that I call him Seth. After listening to his monologue for the past two weeks in my car, I feel that we should be on a first-name basis. One example he uses of how the delivery of a message is almost as important as the message focuses on how JetBlue started selling a “safe journey.” The company simply redid its announcements in the airport. Rather than the garbled shouting, it trained gateway attendants to speak clearly and calmly, which can put otherwise cranky passengers in a much better frame of mind before boarding an aircraft with no food, no leg room and too many people putting oversized luggage into the overhead bin. (Thinking like Seth, I would say that airlines need to focus on the better delivery of checked baggage in order to increase their numbers of on-time flights. It’s the fear of waiting for, or losing, luggage that prompts too many people to take all their worldly possessions with them, slowing down boarding for everyone).

The JetBlue airline example hit home with me on one of my recent trips on USAir, which had the equivalent of an old-fashioned schoolmarm making the boarding announcements. She made clear when you would board, which side of the rope to walk on, and that you would be sent to the back of the line should you break the rules. Among the giggles of the business travelers who were undoubtedly having flashbacks to grammar school, we all marveled as the attendant ensured the quickest boarding of a flight I have ever experienced. Message from Seth: Setting the tone and people’s expectations can be done even if it’s with your tone of voice. This is what I remind myself as I start every customer service response with “Thank you for calling/writing.”

I also agree wholeheartedly with his statement that anonymity is the death of civilization. Anyone who regularly reads blogs has undoubtedly experienced the many irrelevant and useless comments of “anonymous.” There is a reason local newspapers only run letters to the editor if they are signed and verified–it helps maintain civility if you have to look your neighbors in the eye and stand behind your opinions. Unfortunately, we’ve created a world where people don’t need to know their neighbors anymore. This means less accountability and less civility. More on how our suburban sprawl has helped create a less accountable world in my review of Nine Shift.

Another interesting point was that Seth disagrees with Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week. Ferriss advises you to read only items and sections of items that are relevant to your work. Seth, on the other hand, proclaims that you should read something different and not relevant every week. Thanks Seth, I’ll feel better about keeping my subscription to US Weekly–I’m not sure you can get less relevant than that.

However, Seth agrees with Ferriss in his analysis of how Americans have confused working hard with working long. In other words, working hard is getting up at 4:30 a.m. and plowing the fields; working long is a lawyer sitting at a desk in an air-conditioned office for 20 hours a day living on take-out sushi. He touches on the idea that there is no glory in working long; it just means you’re working long.

I’ll end with a few comments about his section on “respectful marketing.” Since marketing and branding are my business loves, I found it amusing that “respectful marketing” often is seen as an oxymoron. Which brings us back to Aretha. Consumers are smart. They know when you don’t respect them. And, if your product needs to mislead consumers or “pull the wool over their eyes” to get them to buy, then you need to rethink your product. Seth’s test of a good product? Imagine an equal marketplace between you and your competitors. Would people still buy your product? If not, it’s time to rethink your business plan.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: While this was not my favorite Seth Godin book, he does put in some good tidbits–so worth listening to especially if you’re in a customer-service business. But then again, aren’t we all in the business of customer service? Each person will walk away with something different, and you can read it or listen to it in bits and starts. I’d love to hear in our comments below what captured your attention.

Last month I picked David Vinjamuri’s book, Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Created Extraordinary Brands, as one of my must-reads for the year. So I asked him to return the favor and send us a few of his favorites. I haven’t read any of these yet, but if you’ve read any of them, please fee free to give your own review in our comments section.

1. A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the Twenty-First Century  by Scott Bedbury. This is a work by a guy who saw both Nike and Starbucks grow from the ground up. He has as complete an understanding of branding as anyone I’ve ever read, and he is a much better writer than most.
2. The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers into True Believers  by Douglas Atkin. Atkin asks a fascinating question: We talk casually about brands as cults, but are they really? Do they meet the sociological definition? Then he goes inside both real cults and cult brands to find out, as well as interviewing sociologists. He has some surprising conclusions.
3. The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual  by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinburger. This 7-year old book accurately predicted how blogs would emerge and how the conversation between brands and consumers would be forever changed by the internet. It has a strident tone (and really does read like a manifesto), but it’s an excellent read.
4. Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers  by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. This book directly answers the question: Should your business have a blog? It comes from two of the best-known bloggers online (Scoble worked for Microsoft) and is very easy to read.
5. Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People  by Marc Gobe. Marc is known as a guru on design, and he helps uncover how much of good branding is actually great design. This book not only changed the way I think about branding, it changed the way I invest in stocks.

Thanks, David. I’ve got a few of them on order at my local library.

Nina DiSesa’s Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics from a Woman at the Top has surprisingly slipped onto my must-read list. I was a bit reluctant to read another “all guys suck” book. However, the title gave the impression that this was not going to be a “how I beat my head against the glass ceiling” book but more of a “how I beat the boys up the corporate ladder (while wearing high heels and dancing backward)” story. And DiSesa delivers.

Still, the reason this makes my must-read list probably was a matter of circumstance. I was on vacation and had a bunch of novels and magazines to read (My plan was not to tax my brainpower for a week). I read Seducing the Boys Club first because I liked the title. I was surprised to find that it reads a bit like chick lit, is at times humorous and actually delivers some fresh takes on how to deal with the old boys’ club. It was also a behind-the-scenes look at life in an ad agency (Think The Devil Wears Prada from the boss’s point of view, but with more of a plot and minus the annoying designer name-dropping). It was also interesting to read real-life stories about some memorable ad campaigns. Now that the writers are finished striking, the somewhat tepid Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle could benefit from of DiSesa’s obviously real, yet wacky, story lines.

DiSesa jumps right in and states matter-of-factly that the old boys’ club exists, so deal with it. No time is wasted on whining about how it hurt her career. When it comes to men, she says, “We have to seduce them without sex and manipulate them without malice. And we must like them.” She’s simply pointing out that if anyone (man or woman) knows you don’t like him or her, he or she is not going to like you.

This started the book off on a good note for me because, like DiSesa, I have always liked working with men. Despite my founding a company to help women in the workplace, I was guilty in an earlier career of firing an entirely female staff and hiring men because they were easier for me (and the rest of the old boys I worked with) to deal with. Ironically, my present company, the Downtown Women’s Club, was founded while I was working for a few of the oldest old boys in Boston, with their complete support and backing. I can’t recall getting anything but opposition from many of the senior women in town at the time (There were, of course, some amazing exceptions to this). DiSesa ends the intro by offering three lessons she’s learned:

1. Always “read” the room (You’re less likely to step in excrement);
2. Don’t wallow in anxiety (It makes you weak); and
3. Don’t confuse seduction with sex (One is a brilliant business tactic; the other isn’t).

The rest of the book follows her climb from entry level to the top at McCann, Erickson.

What I liked most is that she doesn’t pull punches (I’m sure more than one gentleman featured in the book probably has her face on his dartboard), and she doesn’t hide some of the bigger mistakes she made (even when it involved having a gusher of a nosebleed in the middle of a presentation–which she refused to leave despite making the clients queasy).

Through her adventures, misadventures and successes, we learn how to play office politics. I can see more than one female reader cringe at her recommendation to seduce (not sexually) and manipulate men. Yes, manipulation for the wrong reasons can be dreadful. But, as DiSesa points out, “Most people don’t mind being ‘handled’ as long as you don’t hurt them and (you) act magnanimously. They won’t resent you for manipulating them if you give them something in return.” One caveat here: She is in the advertising business, which manipulates consumers, so she’s gotta be a fan of manipulation.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: While Seducing the Boys Club focuses on a corporate environment, I think it’s relevant to entrepreneurs because she’s mostly in leadership roles throughout the book. And if you’re a female entrepreneur in a mostly male industry, you may be hiring good old boys or facing off with them across the negotiating table.

Of note in DiSesa’s conclusion are the five classic mistakes women make when we find ourselves leading the boys:

1. We get drunk with power;
2. We stop reading the room;
3. We become real witches;
4. We take the reins and don’t make rain; and
5. We forget that we have to be better than men.

This is a great book for all women to read or for anyone interested in what working in an ad agency is really like (or before you think about hiring an ad agency).