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.

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 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

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).

I almost didn’t make it through the first few chapters of The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business by Susan Wilson Solovic because I have no tolerance for books that waste valuable space telling women that it’s OK to have a million-dollar business. Of course it’s OK to have a million-dollar business. And if that’s what you’re worried about, then maybe you shouldn’t be launching a business in the first place.

Sidebar: When I was reading the beginning of the book, I kept having flashbacks to a golf seminar for women I sat through (barely sat through, actually). They spent the whole time telling women that it’s OK to be competitive on the golf course. You think? (Insert sarcasm here.) I walked out because it was clear I wasn’t going to get help with my chipping. While a few of my colleagues followed me out the door, the rest of the women were laughing and nodding knowingly. Maybe it was a generational thing?

Anyhow, if you can stomach the opening, the book does deliver some good stuff. Some of it is female-centric, but good. Here are some points I liked:

• p. 39. Solovic mentions how being an entrepreneur can alter your relationships, meaning that you won’t have time to socialize or that others might not appreciate the new you. I admit, I go through phases such as now, where I only want to talk to people about social media. Sometimes I have to remind myself that no one else cares about this stuff as much as I do.
• p. 41. Create a peer network. This is what I liked. She mentions a problem (altered relationships) and provides a solution. Personally, peer networks focused around a targeted issue work better for me than any random networking or mentor situation.
• p. 75. Hire the best candidate, not the best job seeker. That’s a great point.
• p. 83. Take emotions out of the workplace. She has a good discussion about how loyalty to original employees, etc. can harm your business plan, especially if they are no longer of value.
• p. 108-109. I liked the sections on media pitches and the importance of applying for awards (there’s some good basic advice here).
• p. 129-131. She offer tips about being strategic with banks and credit lines.
• p. 140. An interesting discussion about gender bias by venture capital firms.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: If you can get past the early fluff, it’s a good guide to read either before starting a business or when you need to take your business to the next step. This is why I wish she would have just stuck to the business advice.Besides, if you need the pep talk, there are other books that accomplish this, like the one below.

Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Journey to Business Success by Dr. Susan L. Reid. I preface this review with the fact that “motivational” and “new age-y” books are so not my style. But once in a while we all have to step out of our comfort zone. I have to admit, I did find some interesting ideas in here, although would’ve liked more discussion of samurais (somehow they’re much more appealing than the geisha discussion in Rules for Renegades). I thought the discussion of Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings (a book that she claims Japanese businessmen used for centuries) was interesting. That book has nine rules:

• Do not think dishonestly.
• The Way (path) is in training.
• Become acquainted with every art.
• Know the Ways of all professions.
• Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
• Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
• Perceive those things that cannot be seen.
• Pay attention even to trifles.
• Do nothing that is of no use.

While Reid gives an overview of each rule, I would’ve been interested to learn even more. I also liked the section on working with, not against, your multiple streams of passion; left and right brain thinking; and the Planets and Moon test (a test that can help make sense of your various passions. For more on that, you should also check out Marci Alboher’s One Person/Multiple Careers).

Another interesting section talked about how many times women would come to her because they have problems with their businesses. She would listen to their stories and show them that their issues were “resistance” and not always an indicator to throw in the towel (i.e. shades of Seth Godin’s The Dip).

Top Shelf Bottom Line: It’s an interesting motivational book. Not my norm, but while I would’ve wanted more stuff about samurais and Japanese business philosophy, it still had some interesting takes on becoming an entrepreneur.

If it hadn’t been written by Seth Godin, I probably never would have picked up The Dip because I thought it was one of those single concept books that can be explained in one sentence, e.g., The Secret, The World is Flat and The Long Tail. The latter two actually benefit from some good examples, although they did start to feel redundant after a bit. As for The Secret, my newer readers can click here to read what I really thought about that book.

Anyhow, I gave it a go, because I knew Godin would be entertaining. Besides, it was extremely short,  more of an essay than a book. On top of that, it covered a topic I could totally relate to–when should an entrepreneur quit, and when does one continue to push through a dip? With any entrepreneurial endeavor (and Godin argues almost any venture), after the initial launch, there’s always a plateau or down period where quitting seems the easier alternative. The Dip explores when to quit and when to push on.

Godin starts out by identifying why it’s so important to be number one in any business/enterprise. That’s an easy concept, especially when he uses Jack Welch’s six sigma as an example (quit any business in which GE was not one or two. Although I’m curious: Has any other company adopted that approach with equal success?).

Next, Godin asks you to identify whether your company is facing a dip (meaning, you will come out ahead after slogging through it), a cul-de-sac (i.e., a dead end) or a cliff (where you have slow and steady growth and then an abrupt drop-off). He uses smoking as an example of the “cliff,” but I’m thinking 8-track tapes, Beta video recorders, record stores, Blockbuster and even Netflix.

The focus of the book then shifts to quitting. When to quit and why you should be a quitter. His point is that the phrase “winners never quit” is a bogus statement because winners quit a lot of things or they wouldn’t be winners. He uses the example of athletes who quit playing the sports they weren’t good at to focus on the one they are the best at. Phew. I feel soooo much better about quitting my college tennis team, leaving a law practice after only three years and even hanging up my soccer cleats last winter (my knees feel so much better after the last one). The trick is not to quit everything but to quit the things that aren’t beneficial to moving you toward where you really want to be, so that you can focus on the activities that are beneficial. Maybe it’s a relationship, maybe it’s a job, maybe it’s a marketing campaign.

So, how do you know when to quit? I liked Godin’s simple test. You need to ask yourself, am I moving forward? Am I standing still? Or am I falling backward? If it’s the latter two, you’re never going to get where you want to go–so quit. But before you quit, you also need to determine whether you are simply panicking. How do you avoid making a decision in a panic situation? He recommends planning in advance what factors should lead to your quitting. A fortune 500 company comes out with the same product? You get an offer you can’t refuse? You’re so miserable you can’t get up every day? The bank is about to foreclose on your house?

He also points out some items that get in the way of intelligent quitting: childhood admonitions about never quitting, pride and money spent (i.e., my law school tuition). But, on an inspirational note, I liked his statement, “If it’s worth doing, there’s probably a dip.” My company is coming out of a dip right now, so I can honestly say it really was worth all the effort and the sleepless nights.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: While the first few chapters seemed a bit redundant, he does get into a few interesting examples. Overall, I liked the book because it helped make sense of some “quitting” I’ve done and got me to consider which factors will signal to me “it’s quitting time” in the future. I’ve also found myself referencing it to friends in the past two days. So maybe its significance is a bit more than one would think. In sum, this is a good book for any entrepreneur facing a dip to help focus on the right things and to look at the negatives in a positive light. However, don’t be expecting advice on how to get you out of your dip, as this is more of a macro view about how to manage dips in your business plan (although I do see how one could even apply this to personal relationships).

It’s only January, and I can’t believe I’ve found my favorite book of the year already: Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri (available in March 2008). Of course I’m biased, because branding is a huge focus for me at the moment. But it fits in with my all-time favorites because, at least two or three times mid-chapter, I put my advance copy down and ran to the computer to make changes to the draft of my new website (More on that later.)

It also makes my favorites list (see the whole list on www.womensdish.com) because it reads like a collection of Vanity Fair articles–entertaining portraits of individuals and how they built their companies. The six individuals are:

John Peterman (The J. Peterman Co.)
Craig Newmark (Craigslist)
Gary Erickson (Clif Bar and Co.)
Myrian Zaoui and Eric Malka (The Art of Shaving)
Gert Boyle (Columbia Sportswear)
Julie Aigner-Clark (The Baby Einstein Co.)
Roxanne Quimby (Burt’s Bees)

While I learned a bit from all of them, I have to be honest. The only profile I found lacking was the one on The Art of Shaving. Perhaps that’s because it was the only brand with which I was unfamiliar. Or maybe it’s because its market/retail aspect has no relationship to my business. I don’t know, but some of the highlights/insights from the rest include:

Craig Newmark/Julie Aigner-Clark. Not everyone is meant to be a CEO. Craig likes resolving the disputes on Craigslist (The idea of someone getting a personal admonition from Craig for misuse of the service just made me laugh, thinking of the person’s reaction) . Julie is back being a teacher after selling her company to Disney. While they both are still working when they don’t have to, they are pretty much back to their normal lives, with minimal interest in the material things in life. Note to Craig, though: It sounds like you have a very nice girlfriend, and you really should take her on a vacation. Craig and Julie both started a business to solve problems plaguing them and their friends. This is something that recurs in almost all the profiles and is a good question for any entrepreneur to answer: Is your widget/service solving someone’s problem?

John Peterman. His story was interesting because he had to handle a unique issue in which his exclusive brand suffered because it became less exclusive, thanks to Jerry Seinfeld. Yet, he was willing and had the drive to start over from scratch.

Gert Boyle. The beginnings of Columbia Sportswear could be traced back to creating a product to meet a client’s needs. Columbia also was asked by a customer early on to design a fishing vest, and that item made the business boom. I also found it interesting to hear the background behind the famous commercials showing Boyle putting her son through the car wash to test her gear. One could quite imagine that Gert might have thought about doing it for real.

Roxanne Quimby. While her honey and candles did great, it wasn’t until she dabbled in lip balm that the business exploded. She went with it. Like Boyle, she was open to what her customers were telling her and willing to change direction.

Gary Erickson. His chapter demonstrated how, sometimes, listening to your gut and your employees might help you in the long run because bigger doesn’t always mean better. At one point, he truly thought the next step was to sell out to a big company. But he decided to try it on his own and, buoyed by the launch of the Luna Bar, was able to grow his market share despite not having a fortune 100 behind the company.

Vinjamuri sums up the lessons to be learned as follows:

Rule No. 1 – Do sweat the small stuff.
Rule No. 2 – Pick a fight.
Rule No. 3 – Be your own customer.
Rule No. 4 – Be unnaturally persistent.
Rule No. 5 – Build a myth.
Rule No. 6 – Be faithful.

I wholeheartedly agreed with his list and felt I could check off four of the six items. But it was Rules No. 2 and No. 5 that made me drop the book and hit the computer. I realized in our “aboutâ€? section I had some bland “blah blah blahâ€? language describing the founding of the Downtown Women’s Club (It’s still up there.  The new site is coming later this month). Yet when I spoke to potential customers or journalists about the club, I told a completely different story about how existing women’s business groups at that time turned younger women away and even today don’t use technology to make networking convenient for my busy schedule–and those were the two primary reasons I founded my company. I also usually mention some of the more personal challenges I’ve had (the good, the bad and the funny) to demonstrate why I am my own best customer. So, thanks to Accidental Branding, in the new version of our website, I’ll be telling it like it was.

Will I build an extraordinary brand like the folks listed above? Who knows. But, it may be time to reread Made to Stick (another all-time favorite) to ensure I’m doing all that I can.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: Must read for any entrepreneur trying to build his or her brand. Enough said.

*Addendum. After hearing me rave, a friend gave me a similar book called Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers’ Trust from Wedgwood to Dell by Nancy F. Koehn. It’s similar in that it follows a handful of entrepreneurs who built extraordinary brands. As a Harvard Business School Press publication, it’s written more like a textbook than a collection of magazine articles. That has its advantages, as it contains more hard data. But I used a 4-Hour Workweek recommendation and only read the chapters that interested me–Estee Lauder and Starbucks–and bits of the other chapters that were interesting historically, as well as the wrap-up at the end. Since it was written pre-Web 2.0 and focused more on people selling products, it had more historical interest than utility for my business.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss topped the charts of business books in 2007. When I finally got my copy from the library, I didn’t quite know what to expect. In fact, I thought it would be more theoretical, with fewer concrete “how to’s.” And while there were a few things I liked, I was surprisingly lukewarm about a book I thought would be a “must read.” (Perhaps this suffered a bit from my falling in love with Accidental Branding, which I read just before 4-Hour Workweek and will review next as my first “must read” in 2008.)

What I liked: The book repeats in various ways over and over that you need to redefine your ideas about success. Just because others may judge your life (as well as their own) based on how much money you make, which car you drive, where you have your vacation home and the size of your McMansion, McBoobs or McWardrobe doesn’t mean that you have to. In fact, I loved the part where he says that what prompted him to take charge of his life was that he was horrified by the vision of himself turning into a “fat man in a red BMW convertible” (I’ll never be able to pass another one of those guys again without laughing my head off.) However, if that’s why you need to read this book, i.e., for a priorities realignment–you might want to check out either The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubormirsky or Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss. Both are on order for me at my local library.

I skimmed over the sections on getting over your fear of adjusting your lifestyle, as I’ve already done this. I run a company while my son is in school and in bed. So they could be helpful to budding entrepreneurs. I did like Chapter 2, which discusses “10 Rules That Change The Rules,” as it was thought-provoking:

1. Retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance;
2. Interest and energy are cyclical;
3. Less is not laziness;
4. The timing is never right;
5. Ask for forgiveness, not permission;
6. Emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses;
7. Things in excess become their opposite;
8. Money alone is not the solution;
9. Relative income is more important than absolute income; and
10. Distress is bad, eustress is good.

I also found his section on eliminating information interesting. He gives suggestions, such as asking yourself, “Will I definitely use this information for something immediate and important?” and practicing the art of nonfinishing. This used to be a tough concept for me, until I just couldn’t get past the beginning of Cold Mountain. This was literally the first book that everyone else liked that I didn’t, and it marked the first time I didn’t finish a book I had started. This was actually a very “freeing” moment in my life and even today helps me review business books. I don’t read chapters that don’t pertain to my immediate needs.

The outsourcing section was also quite good because Ferriss gave clear details on how to do it. I’m actually going to look into the phone services he mentions. I already outsource my website to India (which only works due to the incredible project manager over there–when he wasn’t on the project for a while, it was a total disaster). I may see about using India for further isolated research/database work.

I liked his challenge to prioritize your work (and eliminate the rest) by shortening your hours. If you only have four hours to work today, what would you do? Not that I needed help here. Ask any working parent. So, for those naysayers who think a working parent (mom or dad) can’t get it all done in less time, this book is a good one to show your boss/investors/employees, etc.

All in all, there was a lot of good information in here. Especially the fact that, like Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist, it goes against almost every boomer-led company philosophy based on the value of face time and defining yourself through your career. Not that I don’t like boomers. I just love when people shake up the establishment (and, yes, I’m celebrating the results in Iowa).

But, back to the topic at hand:

There were two big detractors in the book. First, it reminded me of Keith Ferrazzi’s book, Never Eat Alone. It had a lot of good information, but the whole time I was thinking, “Only Keith could pull all this off.” That’s sort of my feeling with Ferriss’ book. Only Tim Ferriss could do this because of his personality, energy, lack of dependants, etc. Second, I did find some useful tidbits, but I’m an entrepreneur who can dictate my own schedule and, in some sense, income. I also run a company that is designed to be more and more automated every day. I’m not sure how this would work for an employee (He does devote a lot of pages to that issue–but it’s under the premise that you can persuade your employer to accept this). Or, if you’re someone who bills by the hour, beyond the outsourcing chapters, I’m not sure what else you can do except get a new career.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: 4-Hour Workweek is an interesting footnote in business, as it documents a change in our society and our attitudes about work and culture (which I would argue is for the better). There are definitely some good takeaways for entrepreneurs who need ideas on how to further automate their businesses or for anyone needing to realign his or her priorities. But it didn’t make me put down the book and rush over and redo my business plan (which generally is a factor in making my “Must Read” list). However, that may be because I have already implemented much of what he says. So I would love to hear your input on this one since, based on sales, everyone must have read it (and no doubt helped Tim make it to a one-hour workweek).

**Sidenote: I had to laugh the other day as I caught a episode of The Jetsons and George’s job is literally to push a button a couple of times a day. Tim Ferriss would be so proud.

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer is the book that I so wanted Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell to be. Not that I’m dissing Gladwell, but it just didn’t address what I wanted to know about going with your gut in a business setting. Most entrepreneurs live on gut instinct. If we didn’t, we’d be duplicating others’ efforts and ideas. In essence, it’s our gut decisions that help us innovate, and I wanted to know 1. when to trust my own; and 2. how to influence my customers’ gut instincts.

At the outset of the book, Gigerenzer dabbles in the realm of Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less when he talks about how too much choice can cause indecision or lack of satisfaction. This is a philosophy I wholeheartedly believe in (and not just because I survived my child’s pre-k years).

Lesson for entrepreneurs: Clients want choice, but if you give them too many, it may prompt indecision, inaction or less satisfaction with the choice they made.

Gigerenzer also discusses name recognition and how that can play into decision making. Hence the basis for the old marketing adage that people need to hear your message at least three times and sometimes in three different mediums to make an impact. This section brought to mind a conversation I once had at a networking event where I met a young woman who worked at a PR firm that had, just that week, made headlines for a blatant, high-profile conflict of interest. A third woman had joined us and enthusiastically said, “Hey, I saw something about your company in the paper this week. Congrats, that’s great.â€? Clearly she had seen the PR company’s name, but either she hadn’t read the article or didn’t recollect it at the time. It just goes to show that having your company’s name in the paper even for bad reasons–unless it’s on par with Enron–can help with name recognition.

Lesson for entrepreneurs: You need to build a recognizable and memorable brand so that you’re in customers’  unconscious. I’ll have more on how to do this next month when I do a review of what I’m guessing will be my favorite business book of 2008: Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Created Extraordinary Brands. I’m partway through my advance copy.

Other lessons for entrepreneurs: I really enjoyed Gigerenzer section on corporate culture as it looked at how leaders influence companies by the little things they do. If they’re on email 24/7, the company is on email 24/7. He also has some really great ideas about how to share success across a team and make sure everyone feels on an equal footing. Why is this relevant to gut instincts? Because leaders can influence their employees’ gut feelings. There was also another interesting section on social instincts that questions the often-stated idea that humans are basically selfish and self-focused. If this were the case, Gigerenzer argues, we would not have family instincts and community instincts, and most humans want to belong to one or both groups.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: Gut Feelings is an intriguing look into something we’ve often struggled to explain: “I don’t know why, but my gut says I should do this.� The one thing I took away is that my gut is usually telling me something for a reason. Now if I can just get my customers’ guts to follow my own, then I’ll be all set.

Last year I had the honor of being an editor of Consolidation of Banking: or How Five Banks Bought 50% of America’s Biggest Business by Arnold G. Danielson. (Note to readers: full disclosure–yes, he’s my Dad. And, somehow, we got over our editorial differences … i.e., he’s from the traditional school of writing and I write “chick lit biz books.”) But I wouldn’t include it here if I didn’t think it had some entrepreneurial or, as some might say, “intrapreneurialâ€? interest.

As stated before on this blog, I believe an entrepreneur is someone who runs his or her company in a new and innovative manner that creates efficiencies in existing markets, new markets or new products and services. That being said, banking is probably–along with the legal industry–one of the industries least open to entrepreneurial thinking. However, there were a few innovations along the way: i.e., ATMs and debit cards, and a few very “outside the bank windowâ€? thinkers who basically bought up the entire industry.

Today we have the five largest banks–Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Wachovia–holding almost 50 percent of domestic bank assets. This is up from 19 percent as recently as 1991. What is interesting to an entrepreneur is how some of the banks moved up the ranks through some creative and daring moves. Here are a few examples from the book of how Bank of America came to be.

Growth by acquisition and exploiting loopholes
Bank of America started as a small bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, which, like other aggressive banks at the time, grew by merger. But its growth was constrained by not being able to cross state lines until the early 1980s. Unlike other small banks with big ambitions, though, American Trust did not just wait for things to happen and always seemed to be a step ahead of others in making acquisitions work in its favor. In the 1970s, it used a loophole in banking laws to buy a trust company in Florida, and then in the 1980s argued and won its case that this trust company was really a bank, and that it should be allowed to buy other banks in Florida despite being based out-of-state. By then it had taken the name NCNB and was still relatively small but was on its way.

Profiting from crises and creative financing
In 1989, Bank of America, then-named NCNB, took advantage of a banking crisis in Texas to buy the biggest bank in that state, FirstRepublic–a bank bigger than itself–by persuading the regulators to let it do so using minimal cash and lot of tax credits. First Republic was the first bank bought by this method. Two years later, it was successful in a hostile takeover of its primary challenger for banking leadership in the South, C&S/Sovran–a bank of equal size–and by 1993, it was the third largest bank in the country. It also changed its name once more–this time to NationsBank.

A driven leader
In 1998, the predecessor of Bank of America (NationsBank) bought a struggling San Francisco-based Bank of America, took that name and made Charlotte a major banking center. Behind most of this growth was one man, Hugh McColl Jr., who was with the bank from the American Trust days until he retired as CEO of Bank of America in 2000.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: This book will be primarily of interest to readers who work in the financial-services industry; but if, like me, you lived through your own bank being bought four times (BayBank > Bank of Boston > Fleet > Bank of America) or are curious as to how the banking industry got to where it is now, you may also find it of interest. And, it just goes to show that even a staid old industry can make changes with the right leader and innovative strategy.

**Final note: While I appreciate the wonders of ATMs and online banking (both are driving factors for which bank I choose), here’s one more entrepreneurial thought for banks. Get rid of banker’s hours. On the rare occasion I have to go the bank in person, I can’t possibly be expected to remember that banks often close at 4:00 or 4:30 p.m. Other retail establishments don’t do that. What’s up with that?