Top Shelf Reading Picks:

Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. Hmmmm. The subtitle pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Surprisingly, I found this book to be more interesting than many others I’ve read on the topic. What I liked was that it was written by someone who is barely older than her subjects. For me, that gave it validity. I don’t want a book that tells me what Boomers think about Gen Y; I want to know what Gen Y thinks. 

Some of the takeaways I had involved the mixed messages we send this younger generation:

• Somehow “Free to be you and me” turned into “I am the way I am and if you don’t like it, I’ll tell my parents who think I’m perfect.”
• It is really hard on a generation when you tell them “they can do anything they want” and then as soon as they get into the workforce, you tell them “they can’t have it all.”
• It’s also hard on both Gen X and Gen Y when the generation before them (i.e., the Boomer generation) is the first generation to break the generational contract:  that those in power should be acting in the interest of those yet to come.
• Over-inflated self-esteem can be worse than lack of self-esteem. Just watch the auditions for American Idol. My guess is that all those kids got gold stars and trophies just for showing up, and not in recognition of any special talents.
• Sometimes too much choice is not a good thing.

But, it’s not all bad. Gen Y is more color and gender blind than any group ever coming through in the past. They’re tolerant on gay marriage; and with women outnumbering men in college, they’ll have the ability to change the demographics of an office, simply by showing up for work. 

Unfortunately, they’ve been so focused on the “me” that they aren’t motivated to make changes as a “we.” This might explain why they are less proactive about social change than most preceding generations. This may also have to do with a feeling that their vote doesn’t count. But, if that’s the case, why do they vote for American Idol? Clearly someone’s vote must count, or how else could one explain Sanjaya?

At the end, Twenge does provide some advice and recommendations for all generations. Whether they’re actually feasible is questionable; but at least she sets forth some great inter-generational topics for discussion.

The Bottom Line: Recommended for anyone whose business involves managing, working with, or marketing to Generation Y (especially if you happen to have a Generation Y’er in your family!). Remember, you have just as much of a chance of understanding what motivates them as your parents had trying to understand what motivates you!

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez is a story of the ultimate enterpreneurial challenge. Take one inexperienced businesswoman fleeing a bad marriage, put her in a country hostile to women, and then watch her empower powerless women and win over the locals, administrators, and other relief workers by teaching them how to apply highlights.

I’m not going to use my review space to talk about the cultural differences, because while interesting (and infuriating), that was not the part that intrigued me. Instead, I was looking for clues as to why she succeeded under the most extreme circumstances.

Entrepreneurs still need a team. Never once was Rodriguez convinced she could do this alone. Everything was a group effort. And most telling was that when she found out someone bigger, with more funding and more clout was attempting to do the same thing, she didn’t give up. She didn’t even get discouraged. Instead, she called them up to join forces. Personally, I don’t see this enough in my business – in fact everyday I see competitors fracturing a market when they could all be more successful if they teamed up.

Logistics can kill you. Literally in her case, what with everyone running around with machine guns. But, the majority of her hardships were logistical. It’s one thing to convince Paul Mitchell to give you several years worth of supplies, it’s another thing to ship them across the world into hostile territory. Simply throwing a party to celebrate the first graduating class proves a nightmare due to the fact that there is no phone system and no way to deliver invitations. Rodriguez throughout the book is nothing but resourceful and willing to fight for solutions to setbacks rather than give up (and part of that resourcefulness was having a strong team working with her).

Know when to delegate (or bring a translator). Setting up the school was only the first part of the venture. Next, Rodriguez had to teach women who were coming from a totally different place than her (literally and figuratively). Rodriguez realized at one point that after she finally got through to one student, it was better to let that student explain things to her peers. Sometimes even when we know our stuff better than anyone else, we may not always be the best one to deliver the message.

Empathy can breed success. Funny, but in an earlier review I downplayed a review of a book about empathy as not being relevant. I now take that back. Rodriguez was fleeing a man who basically held her prisoner. This meant that she could identify with the women she wanted to help. It also meant that she could take risks because to her they’re not necessarily risks. It’s almost as if she has no choice and nothing left to lose.

Dream big for yourself and for others. In some senses teaching 20 women a year to cut hair might not seem like a big dream. On the other hand, doing this half-way across the world in a country that’s war-torn and hostile to women may seem too big. This is why it’s helpful to share your entrepreneurial dreams with others, and when it involves huge benefits for others, that’s much easier to do!

The Bottom Line:  Great light read for anyone who has an interest in women’s issues in Afghanistan, or who has ever had someone tell them that their business plan will never succeed.

Hi!  Welcome to my new blog. O.k., it’s really my old Downtown Women’s Club Books & Stuff blog revamped for Entrepreneur.com. I’ve always been a voracious reader and my goal here is to read all the books and blogs that come my way, so that you don’t have too! 

I don’t guarantee that you’ll agree with me or my choice of books (but I hope you’ll comment with your own thoughts and suggestions). 

If you want a book reviewed, you can send them to:  DWC/Top Shelf Picks, P.O. Box 21, Cohasset, MA  02025. 

*Note that I’m only likely to review the ones that “float my boat” which means they mostly focus on , trends, marketing, leadership, entrepreneurship, web 2.0 technology, or they happen to be a bestseller “must read.” 

Another caveat is that I’m only human and can’t get to them all (I also only tend to post reviews of books I really like), but please note that all books will be donated to a women’s business center, similar non-profit organization or local library. 

As for blogs, please don’t submit them directly. If it’s really good and relevant to my interests, I’m sure I’ll find it on my own. Although, if you tuck them into a relevant (emphasis on the “relevant”) comment to a post about a blog or book, that’s one way to make sure I see it!

While I may toss in a few fiction book picks (and pop culture blogs) here and there, that’s just for fun. Because a savvy entrepreneur can’t be all work and no play!  After all, that would make Diane a very dull girl.

Future Inc.: How Businesses Can Anticipate and Profit from What’s Next, by Eric Garland, teaches you how to analyze trends of the future. I’m a sucker for any book that talks about future trends and I found Garland’s methodology and examples interesting and useful. My business plan is greatly dependent on cultural and technological trends and he covers the biggies here. So, if you, too, have a business that you think might be affected by a change in demographics or culture, then it’s worthwhile to pick up and work through the book as an exercise with your top management team or board of advisors. AND, if you have a business that you think will NEVER be affected by future trends, then you REALLY need to buy this book. Either that or you can apply for a job in a record store … oh yeah. They don’t have too many of those left, do they?

The Bottom Line:  It’s a good reminder and guideline for enterpreneurs to slow down for a few hours and focus on the “what if’s”.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams is another book about how future online trends are affecting even our in-person lives. For those of you web 2.0 and technology experts, like me, you probably won’t find much new information. However, I really enjoyed the section on the history of Wikipedia (one of my favorite sites in the whole world) and some of the difficulties they face in managing an online encyclopedia where anyone can go in and edit entries. It focuses on the principles of Wikinomics (”wiki” is collaborative software), which are being open, peering, sharing and thinking globally. These are all good things in my book, but often at odds with corporate America. (The lawyer in me still cringes at the thought of open-source software!)

The only problem with the book is that it was published in December 2006, which means – due to the slow publishing business – that most of the data was from 2004/2005 – almost a lifetime ago in online businesses. This meant that they were talking about behemoths like myspace, etc. as small little startups. Can’t recall if YouTube even got a mention. 

The Bottom Line:  Not a top favorite of mine, however, it’s a good overview of how “wiki” technology is affecting (and will affect) how you and I do business.   So, if you don’t know “what the wiki I’m talking about,” you might want to check it out.

Anonymous Lawyer is for any of you former lawyers out there, who, like me, have escaped for a much more entrepreneurial life, here’s one to help reassure you that you made the right decision! This novel is based on the Anonymous Lawyer blog that gained some notoriety a few years back, where Jeremy Blachman, posing as a hiring partner in a NY law firm, wrote a blog about life in a law firm. The fictional “hiring partner” he creates is such an amoral, antagonistic, self-promoting son of a b*tch, that you actually end up being charmed by the guy and almost root for him in his quest to be managing partner. Sort of like Survivor’s Richard Hatch without the naked dance.

It’s hard to describe what’s so funny, but there are some insights that Blachman slips in there that ring true through the satire:

• Law firms are a bit like extended adolescence, except without the popular kids and the jocks, which means that the individuals must recreate society to their liking and the result is sort of a Lord of the Flies with leather furniture, secretaries and computers. (I always felt law school was more like middle school with the mean kids and all, rather than high school or college where you could find your own group of seemingly normal friends.)
• Part-time means that you still do 100% of the work, just at 80% or less of the salary.
• It’s nearly impossible to have a life outside of the office and meet the billable hours requirements of the larger firms.

I’m afraid the book did bring back a few repressed memories for me. For example, we used to joke at my firm that the elevators talked to us more than the partners (although the elevator dialogue was limited to what number floor we were getting out on).  There was also a partner who didn’t like “binder clips” and if you didn’t hand in your 50 page memo stapled, he would take off the binder clip and toss it in the air causing you to have to pick them all up. (Word to the wise, if you were nice to his secretary, she gave you this valuable information before you walked into his office.)

And, after reading Anonymous Lawyer, my first attempt at a novel doesn’t seem so strange in retrospect — a new associate working late accidentally sees a junior partner watch passively as a senior partner chokes to death on his takeout Chinese, and then spends the rest of the novel trying to convict that junior partner, who’s benefitting from taking over all of the dead partner’s cases.

“‘after all we aren’t savages really…’”
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies

The Bottom Line:  Great beach read for any attorneys (former or existing!)

Social Intelligence, The New Science of Human Relationships, by Daniel Goleman was interesting as it takes human relationships and focuses on the brainwaves that make these happen (or in the cases of Narcissists, not happen). I guess I was attracted to this book because I felt that social intelligence and being able to read people you are negotiating with, might be helpful. Much of it was technical, and sometimes it seemed a bit redundant and not always connected (I think one reviewer on amazon wrote how it seemed like each chapter was written by a different grad student). One section I found interesting was the focus on Narcissists whose lack of empathy makes it difficult for them to connect with others. He points to a sliding scale for Narcissists which at the dark end includes psychopathic serial killers. Scary stuff! 

The Bottom Line:  Not as helpful as I would have thought for business, but recommended for psychology majors.

Addendum:  I may have underestimated the role that empathy can play in the business plan of a successful entrepreneur.  See Kabul Beauty School Top Shelf review.

I actually hesitated to read Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, as it looked like a boring textbook at first glance. But, as I got into it, I found it to be quite a provocative read that brought up some interesting points that applied to both men and women. Here are a few highlights that struck my fancy:

Chapter 1 – Why Mess with the Male Competitive Model. Good way to start a book. I think we’ll be hearing more about this as generation y gets further into the workplace. While a hardcore minority will stick to the traditional Gordon Gecko “greed is good” model, we’ll see countless others rebel against the values of the generations before them (as all generations before rebelled against their parents values).

Chapter 2 – Looks at how large a factor elder-care already plays in women’s lives.  In fact, it’s larger than child-care as this affects all women.  This is only going to increase as Boomers start being the ones needing care.

Chapter 3 – Extreme Jobs, Extreme Demands. Thought this chapter could make a whole book. It’s a great overview of how corporate America has changed. I have a friend whose parents were both big executives at major companies, yet all the time growing up, she swears that both made it home for dinner almost every single night. This is practically unheard of even for middle management these days.

The latter half of the book gives examples of companies who are launching innovative programs to resolve the situation. 

The Bottom Line:  Why include this in a blog for entrepreneurs? Well, many of us made the choice to become entrepreneurs because of some of the very same reasons listed above. And, here’s hoping that we’ll soon be leading the large companies of tomorrow and providing as many on-ramps as possible. Personally, on-ramps are a large part of my own growth plans.

I picked up Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body mostly because I had the pleasure of meeting the author, Courtney E. Martin, and found her to be a wonderful spokesperson for Generation Y.  But, also because despite the fact that I have a son, I’m very aware of how this is affecting young girls.  I have a friend whose truly amazing 12 year old daughter is suddenly refusing to eat and has in the past year dropped 10 lbs off her already under 100-lb frame.  So I expected to be intrigued, but not necessarily engaged.   Until I read it.  And I include it here because this is something affecting the brightest young girls and women in our country.  The very same young women we want to be our future leaders.  But, how can they lead or launch companies if they won’t eat????

“I’ve never had food issues,” I thought as I picked up the book, mentally noting that I’ve been blessed with skinny genes that help me fit into my skinny jeans, and that I have a fairly active lifestyle as a single mom constantly chasing after a young son.  I also credited my weight non-issues with the fact that I never eat or crave candy or junk food, etc. and that when stressed I tend to exercise. 

Although come to think of it, I don’t eat candy or junk food because the guilt related to the empty calories I would be inhaling so far outweighs the pleasure of chocolate or a really good potato chip, so that it’s never made it worth it.  Huh?  I’m letting guilt over food ruin the opportunity to savor a Godiva chocolate?!  That’s a bit sad, isn’t it?  On the times when I do indulge, I confess, I hear the tape running through my head (”it’s o.k., I’ll just add a mile onto my run tomorrow”). 

Speaking of exercise: when things get bad, I run.  Literally.  I put on my running shoes and can pound out five miles everyday for a week, or to the point where my knees hurt and I have on a few occasions dropped enough weight to miss my monthly visitor.   (o.k. one of the times I was pregnant, but what does it say about me when I didn’t think missing my period for 3 months was odd enough to take a pregnancy test?) 

So, maybe I do have a few issues – although clearly not in the category that Courtney outlines in her book.  However, she does mention that there is a rise in over-40 anorexia and bulimia. (although she points out that she is not covering that in her book). This wouldn’t surprise me when I look at my Generation X and Boomer peers racing between meetings and pilates classes with only a salad/no dressing to get them through the day. 

I bring my personal issues up, not to worry my mother (who almost everytime she sees me frets if she thinks I’ve lost a pound or two), but to show how I thought I had no issues with food.  Yet, it’s so ingrained in our culture that even those of us who supposedly know better and have healthy body images STILL have internalized the issues.  And that’s why I think anyone with daughters or who have flirted (or in fact battled) with food issues should pick up this book.   

So, here are some quick bullet point thoughts as to why I found this book so engaging:

• The author is a fabulous writer.  I read and review hundreds of books in a year, and while I may like a topic and therefore give it a good review, the writing is generally mediocre.  Courtney’s writing style surpasses any topic.
• This was not a scientific/medical text about eating disorders.  It’s a personal story of her exposure to the diseases some of the younger people interviewed in the book refer to as their friends “Ana” and “Bul.” While the author does not herself suffer from an eating disorder, she admits her own issues but details a startingly huge number of friends who struggled with it, as well as focus groups of high school girls from different classes and cultures.  This makes it flow more like a story, rather than a chronicle of a disease.
• She delves into the bigger topics like feminism and how her generation’s rejection of their parent’s view of feminism may also play into eating disorders with her generation.  She writes “The second the word feminism escaped my mother’s lips, I had a built-in reason to avoid it like the plague.”  Very interesting.  Would love to hear more on this topic from Courtney in the future.   
• While much of the blame has been heaped on mothers, and some of it well-deserved as we often tend to pass along our own eating issues, she also looks at the roles father’s can play in affecting their daughters’ body image.

The Bottom Line: A good book for young women to read about the issue. And, for those of you who are a bit older than the book’s demographics, the next time you meet with an intern or a young woman, set a good example by actually taking her to lunch and enjoying the meal yourself!

Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success is by Penelope Trunk, who’s Brazen Careerist blog, I love. I’ve always enjoyed her blunt, in your face, take on the workplace as well as her ability to upend the traditional mindsets in the office. And the book delivers all of that and more. While the focus of the book is on younger people, I enjoyed reading Trunk’s advice and then comparing it to how different it was from what I was given. (And I think she’s helping shepherd along a whole generation of entrepreneurs.) Here are only a few of the hundreds of gems:

“Create Uncertainty.” The only way to get unstuck from your career is to create instability … uncertainty is really another word for opportunity. (Diane’s comment — the words “uncertainty” and “instability” used to freak me out. But, looking back the best opportunities all came when I was forced into uncertainty and instability. And, isn’t that the life of an entrepreneur?)

Take an adventure. The bottom line about adventure is that there’s little difference between a good entry-level job and an adventure. Both are about learning, trying new things, and making sure you don’t starve.  (Diane’s comment — yep, I probably would’ve learned a lot more working in a bar in Tahiti than I did as a legal secretary. And all that extra money I made to pay for lawschool? I probably could’ve handled another $10,000 in loans, and had a lot more exciting stories to tell. Or figured out that law school was not my best career move.)

Find the right manager, not the right position. (Diane’s comment – all you have to do is watch one episode of The Office to know this one is true.)

Her message for people who say they can’t stomach office politics: ”you will die a slow, painful career death.” This is because it exists in every office and you need to build allies. Because if you don’t network, no one will be helping you.  (Diane’s comment – As a huge proponent of networking, I couldn’t have said it better myself. )

Towards the end Trunk tosses in a lot of very intriguing chapters – i.e. You only need $40,000 to be happy; The new American Dream is about time, not money; and Marrying for money is out, marrying for flexibility is in. Interesting concepts to consider if you’re creating a workplace of the future.

The Bottom Line:  While this is a career book, it provides great insights for entrepreneurs looking to hire gen y employees (and keep them!)