Top Shelf Reading Picks:

Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success by Chris Matthews was one book I expected to be trashing on this blog. At first glance, I found the idea of applying political campaign strategies to your life a tad bit Machiavellian, and figured it was meant to spawn another generation of Richard Hatch-like “survivors� (minus the naked dance).

So why read it? Because politics and business are interconnected. The most successful entrepreneurs have benefitted from political alliances, so perhaps there was something to be learned here. Moreover, it’s hard to avoid politics in any work environment. This was best described in one of my favorite quotes from Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist:The New Rules for Success.

Here is a message for people who say they can’t stomach office politics: you will die a slow, painful career death. That’s because there’s no getting around office politics, and mastering it is essential to being able to steer your own career because the out-of-office corollary to office politics is networking.

Despite my original misgivings, I really enjoyed Life’s a Campaign. Perhaps because it’s similar to my last political pick, JFK on Leadership, which took lessons from a presidential campaign and applied them to business. This book, expands on that theme by having lots of lessons from lots of political figures with a little bit of Chris Matthews’ background thrown in. (By the end of the book, I have to admit I was starting to really like the guy. His life’s anecdotes were often as interesting, or more interesting, than the Presidential examples.)

Here are a few of the highlights that all entrepreneurs could use:

• From Bill Clinton – “He survived because he learned early how to take a punch.â€? He didn’t let what people said define him. He had an innate ability to accept that people will both like and dislike him. Clinton embodied the idea that not everyone was going to like him, and he didn’t waste efforts on those who would never like him.

• From Tip O’Neill – People don’t mind being used, they mind being discarded. Matthews’ inclusion of a favorite poem of Tip’s was schmaltzy but it worked.

• From Joe Biden – Keep good company. Early on, Biden successfully used his associations with some high ranking politicians to convince people that he belonged there.

• From Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama – People want to hear upbeat information and messages of hope.

The Bottom Line: As I read the book, I was focused on how these lessons would be applied to business or local politics where competition comes with the territory. It’s up to the reader to decide if they should apply these to their non-work life. But I’d like to think one would focus more on fun and enjoying the ride and tone down the campaigning when not focused on business.

*****

Bonus books: Want to have some fun with politics? Here are a few White House stories (notably with a chick lit twist), I’ve read over the past year. While novels, they do offer insights into the political process, so you can actually learn a few things.

• The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler. Based on the blog that rocked Washington, the concept and the story (and subsequent lawsuits) may be more interesting than the book itself.

• Sammy’s Hill by Kristin Gore. Liked this first effort at political chick lit.

• Boomsday by Christopher Buckley. I LOVED this book, which at times was laugh out loud funny.

• Sammy’s House by Kristin Gore. Just started, not digging it so much, but maybe because Boomsday just blew it away.

Just finished Marci Alboher’s One Person/Multiple Careers: How “The Slash Effect� Can Work For You, and finally feeling like someone actually “gets� me. You see, according to Alboher, I have a “slash career,� meaning I’m a writer/entrepreneur/speaker. While I’ve always seen the interconnection between the three (the outside slashes feed the inside one – literally and figuratively), sometimes others don’t get that and think I should pick one or go back to having a “real job.� 

I’ll be honest; I wondered how much could be said about this topic. However, I found out there was quite a bit, because having a slash career permeates way beyond what’s on your business card.  Here are a few highlights/tidbits from the book:

While my piles of books to review keeps growing, I realized that a certain group was moving quickly to the bottom. Now I wouldn’t normally write about the books that I don’t review, but what struck me was that I noticed they all shared a similar theme. So, I’m sitting here wondering why I can’t bring myself to read books on leadership.

First off, I have to admit that most of them are bit “textbook-like” and I’ll be honest, I like a little pizzazz in my books on work trends. But, there are other “textbooks” that remain in my “to be reviewed” pile. So, maybe it’s that as an entrepreneur, I don’t focus on being a leader, as I’m too busy trying to keep day to day operations running and staying on top of trends that may affect my business plan. So books that deal with marketing, economic/cultural trends, and technology are more helpful at the moment.

But, perhaps there’s something more here? Maybe some of us have become so disenfranchised with the individuals who are identified in the media as “leaders,” that I’m not so sure it’s enticing to be one anymore. Anyone have any thoughts on whether interest in “leadership” might be waning? Tom Friedman touched on this topic somewhat last week, when he discussed Generation Y’s reluctance to protest and become activists.

But, I realize leadership is still an important topic. So, while I may not be reading books about leadership at the moment, here’s my classic pick for the best one I’ve read to date: John F. Kennedy On Leadership: The Lessons And Legacy Of A President

I always like learning a little history along with some business skills, and since JFK did pre-date me, it was interesting to learn more about our former president. The book takes us through the Kennedy years and shows how JFK changed the rules of campaigning, challenged tradition, turned weaknesses into strengths, worked positively with the media, wrote speeches that reached his audience, and crafted a particular image.

Each chapter is focused on a different aspect of leadership.

1. Vision
2. Breaking the rules
3. Resilience
4. Charisma
5. Communication
6. Speechwriting
7. Commitment to learning
8. Team building
9. Decision-making
10. Miscalculation and mis-judgments
11. Crises management
12. Faults and failings

At the end of each chapter is a summary of lessons to be learned if you want to do the same. Of note is that one of the Amazon reviewers stated that this was not a book on leadership, but rather on marketing. He may have a point, but then again, that might have been why I liked it. Perhaps the key to being a good leader is to be a good marketer.

The Bottom Line: Great book for anyone doing anything entrepreneurial, political and otherwise high-profile, and may want to build a following.

As I can’t possibly read enough new books to keep this going, I like to get outside input from the very same authors whose books I review.  Today’s recommedations come from Christine Comaford-Lynch, author of the book, Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality which I reviewed last month.  Click here to read my review, but see below for some of her recommended reading for entrepreneurs.

She recommends:

Thanks Christine!

This post is inspired by a fabulous book I just finished, Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan. This fictional history (my favorite type of book!) focuses on Mamah (pronounced “May-muh”) Cheney, the wife of a client of Frank Lloyd Wright who falls in love with him and then abandons her family to run off with the brilliant architect. 

Mamah endures a difficult life faced with difficult choices that result from her loving a man so bent on changing the world of architecture and so flawed as to be his own worst enemy. SPOILER ALERT:  Before the tragic ending (the ending is true, so not really a spoiler if you know anything about FLW; but this is a part of his life that until now wasn’t talked about much), the story incorporates bits of FLW’s rise to prominence (and intermitten falls from grace) as well as Mamah’s interest in the early roots of feminism.

I actually hadn’t thought about reviewing this here, but as I was about to finish, the following passage jumped out at me. This excerpt comes from a chapter near the end of the book where Mamah is trying to talk with FLW just before the opening party for the Midway Gardens, his first “public” building in Chicago.

She knew he didn’t need her advice.  It took immense ego to build an enormous structure the likes of which had never been seen before, all the while assuring doubters that it would turn out brilliantly.  But it took courage and vision, too.  What he needed was her support, and she gave it without condition.

Sounds like an entrepreneur to me. So, my first thought on this was where I draw the line between business owners and entrepreneurs. If you leave a law firm to start your own practice, you are a business owner. If you leave a law firm and completely reinvent how law firms do business (like that firm in Boston banning hourly fees!  It’s about time that somebody realized the billable hour structure benefits neither the firm, the attorneys or the clients – but I digress) then you are an entrepreneur. So, FLW who turned the world of architecture on its head – working with nature, not against it - qualifies as a bonafide entrepreneur.

Next thought – how tough it must be to love someone so focused on such a great quest. Any entrepreneur is going to spend a lot of time fighting the doubters and nay-sayers. My favorite response to people who tell me “I don’t see how you are going to make this plan work,” is “If it was so easy that someone like you could see it, then it would’ve been done already.” Which leads me to conclude that being an entrepreneur is really, really hard. And, I agree with Mamah’s statement in the book that it takes an immense ego to withstand the constant negativity.

Which brings me to my third thought. Perhaps the only thing tougher than being an entrepreneur is being the partner of an entrepreneur. Maybe it’s more than a coincidence that this topic came up in my post on How to be a Billionaire (where I noted that the author said one commonality between the billionaires was that they neglected their families) as well as in another Top Shelf review book, Rules for Renegades, where the author recounts a date with a very single-minded Bill Gates. Makes one wonder what Melinda must go through.

Hmmm. Maybe this is why I tend to keep my dance card empty. I actually had a life coach pal point out to me a few months ago that my work schedule (while my son’s in school and then late at night and on weekends) didn’t really allow for time to date. Assuming that I may have been missing out on something, I tried to go on a few dates. But the whole time I was thinking, “I could have been getting so much work done right now …”

So, what do you all think – what’s life like dating/marrying entrepreneurs?  Does it work better if entrepreneurs date entrepreneurs? If so, has anyone launched a website for that yet? Just imagine. We could meet for coffee in Starbucks and share business plans. The only problem might be trying to determine whether you like the person or the business plan better? 

The Bottom Line: Loving Frank is a wonderful book with insights into a great American legend, seen from the eyes of the woman who loved him. However, Mamah is not your average woman of the time period as she was an early feminist who frequently called FLW on his weaknesses, and that was what he loved most about her.

 ** Addendum — Seems I’m not the only entrepreneur with dating issues.  Here’s an article from the Entrepreneur website that answers my question about dating sites for entrepreneurs! 

For those of you who have a blog (for your business), or are considering launching one for your company, Debbie Weil’s book “The Corporate Blogging Book” is a great introduction and guide as to how, why and who your audience would be. I thought she covered a lot of basics in easy to understand language, and had some really terrific examples of how a company can benefit. It was very interesting as to what types of blogs “caught on.” Usually it’s not the one that’s expected.     

I also loved the section where she quoted the response from an executive who was asked how he found time to blog. His answer? “It’s no more time-consuming than sending emails to my friends.” Also useful is the chapter on how to write for a blog, including the importance of links, writing for search engines and being conversational. This section of the book alone is worth the cover price and should definitely be read before launching your own blog! 

One blog writing tip that I would add is to read everything you write out loud, and if that’s how you’d say it, then write it that way. (Provided you speak in fairly proper English, or whatever language you might be blogging in.) A really cool example of how effective “writing like you speak” can be is not from a blog, but from Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. If you’re a major fan of the film, and like me can quote all the dialogue from the movie, pick up the book. You’ll be amazed how much of his dialogue they used verbatim in the movie. The interesting part is that often different characters in the book (as opposed to the movie) are saying the same exact lines.

As for whether a blog is worth the effort. It depends on your business, time and talents. Last year, I pulled our original DWC Scoop blog (a blog of announcements for Downtown Women’s Club members), out of our website where it was embedded, and renamed it www.womensDISH.com. We added more content relevant to women and business (in addition to press releases and the news for members) and doubled our web traffic to our main site (www.DowntownWomensClub.com) in the first month. For us, the blog was a stand-alone marketing piece.

The bonus was that most of that traffic came from technical types who understood the value of our online networking/marketing services and therefore they were easier to convert to paid members than our existing “in-person” members, who only attend our networking meetings (and have little interest in online opportunities).  We also use blogging technology to run our resource and partners pages which need continuous updating. It saves us time and money not to have to outsource those functions.

As for the time issue, I opted to bring in guest bloggers, so it’s more of a group blog, and the pressure is off of me. However, I enjoy writing, and do it for a living so blogging is probably easier for me than most. But, even if you don’t blog yourself, you can network and meet people through blogs by writing comments to the authors. (Note to readers – bloggers love to read comments!)

The Bottom Line: If you’re thinking of starting a blog, or wondering how you can give your company blog a boost, it’s a good overview.