Top Shelf Reading Picks:

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?

I‘m on LinkedIn — Now What???: A Guide to Getting the Most OUT of LinkedIn by Jason Alba (of www.jibberjobber.com) is a great read for anyone who’s put his or her resume up on LinkedIn and wondered, so what happens next? For some of us, all that happens is that a bunch of invites shows up. Some are fun, like the one I got from a guy I used to work with two careers ago; others were borderline spam from self-described “open networkersâ€? who value volume over quality. So I was accepting some and ignoring others (I was too afraid to decline as it seemed so rude; so many just sat there). But, could that really be what LinkedIn is all about?

Absolutely not, as Alba points out. After reading his book, even moi–the creator of several business networks–had to give myself a dope slap. I’m always preaching about how networking is not something that happens to you, it’s something you need to make happen for yourself. For some reason when it came to LinkedIn, I was very passive and just acted as if it were a public rolodex. So, while I was researching my own book about online networking, and reading books like Alba’s, I realized it’s not enough to sign up, just as in real life, you need to actually show up!

I’m on LinkedIn – Now What? is a quick read–which is all any of us has time for–but here are some of my favorite points:

• LinkedIn is a powerful tool, not a silver bullet.
• Get a “vanity urlâ€?–this is free, but you have to go to the edit profile screen to do it. Basically, you can change the generic one LinkedIn assigns you to one with “yournameâ€? in it. (This was a new one for me. And if you make your profile public, it’s more likely the search engines will pick it up).
• Write recommendations. This is the best way to not only get others to write recommendations for you, but it means your info shows up on others’ profiles with a link back to yours.
• Make sure you have the right e-mail address associated with the right account (i.e., if you’re jobhunting, you might want emails to go to a non-company e-mail address, such as a Yahoo! or Hotmail one).
• Alba also explains the benefits and how to use some of LinkedIn’s other functions, such as services, groups and answers (the latter is my favorite–it’s like a mini-focus group and actually the way I’ve made my best connections on LinkedIn).

For more about ways to use LinkedIn, you can see tips from both Alba and yours truly on http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: LinkedIn might not be intuitive for people new to social networks, and I’m on LinkedIn – Now What? is a great reference for someone who wants to make the most out of his or her experience. The real benefit is that the book is focused only on LinkedIn. This keeps it streamlined and focused. I highly recommend it for: anyone who’s interested in testing the social networking waters in a professional platform, anyone who is on LinkedIn and feels his or her experience is lacking and for people looking to get more out of it.

**For more LinkedIn tips, visit Jason Alba’s “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What? blog.“**

A friend sent over a copy of Wealth Building 101: Your First 90 Days on the Path to Prosperity, by Trump University. Despite sporting a picture of His Royal Trumpness on the front, it’s only edited by The Donald. It’s actually a compendium of essays from individuals who I assume teach intermittently at Trump U.

All right, I confess. I’ve always been intrigued by Trump, so I was a bit disappointed. You see, I loved the early seasons of The Apprentice and even enjoyed contributing to former wannabe-apprentice Amy Henry’s book, What It Takes: Speak Up, Step Up, Move Up: A Modern Woman’s Guide to Success in Business. Hmmm. Wonder what she’s doing now? I did a quick scan of Amazon reviews and noticed some people slamming her for writing a book despite finishing fourth. My thoughts–if you ever have a chance to write a book for whatever reason, do it! And, to anyone who rags on someone for finishing fourth, I have one word for you – Daughtry.

But, I digress. Back to building wealth the Trump way.

While part of me was looking forward to a big dose of Trumposity, I wasn’t totally disappointed to be hearing from some different professors, most of whom put a softer edge on the view from Planet Trump. The book is divided into seven sections:

1. Think Rich: How to Unleash Your “Inner Trump�
2. Plan Smart: Your Playbook for Financial Success
3. Act Now
4. Be the Boss: The Entrepreneur’s Path to Wealth
5. Own Property: The Real Estate Path to Wealth
6. Invest in Wall Street: The Stock Market Path to Wealth
7. Protect Your Wealth

It’s probably not surprising that my favorite part of the book was Donald Trump’s intro, where he sets forth 12 skills you need to be successful. Most of it is common sense and nothing new (just delivered in the way one would expect of Trump): Think big, take risks, etc. But, what caught me were the lines about being tenacious: “Very few things of worth are easy achievements. That’s just the way it works.� So very anti-The Secret that I loved it!

Another short sound bite from his intro that I found intriguing was his take on negotiating. It’s really not what I expected.

Negotiating isn’t about calling all the shots–it’s about ability: the power to convince people to accept your ideas. Present your ideas in a way that won’t intimidate them. Let them think the decision is theirs. Bulldozing people into accepting your ideas is a recipe for disaster.

If this is the definition of negotiating, then I’m actually pretty good at it. As a born marketer, I spend most of my time convincing people that my ideas were really theirs to begin with.

Of interest in the next chapter, “Learn Millionaire Habits” by Marshall Sylver, the author actually talks about the importance of balance. He states that you need to create and maintain mental, physical, relational and financial balance (in that order). Guess that’s a millionaire mindset because that’s certainly not what we learned from the billionaires.

I didn’t find much new in most of the other chapters that involved reducing your debt, creating monthly financial statements, investing in real estate or the stock market, but that doesn’t mean you won’t.

The best part of the book besides Trump’s intro was the Opportunity Screening Checklist in the “Start Your Own Business” chapter by Michael E. Gordon. While it is meant to help you preview entrepreneurial ideas, I found it useful to run my own business plan through it.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: If you haven’t read a book on managing your personal finances, this one is pretty useful as it covers all the bases, and the addition of the entrepreneurial chapter is a bonus for those with their own businesses.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert was one book I’d been avoiding, as I tend to shy away from anything “spiritualâ€? (See my post, “That’s The Secret?”) or reeking of an “Oprah” pick. But it finally got enough recommendations from people I trust that I just had to pick it up. And I’m glad I did, because this became my second book in my “what does religion have to do with entrepreneurship?” series.

Eat, Pray, Love is the story of a woman who recovers from her divorce by eating, praying and loving again while she traveled the world–specifically to Italy, India and Indonesia.

Again, this is not a book for entrepreneurs, but it did give me some entrepreneurial inspiration. The author was often making choices that did not follow the normal path of getting married, having children, etc. This is similar to the life of an entrepreneur, who steps out of the “norm� of corporate America to try something new and different. It’s a very hard thing to do and with every new entrepreneur I meet, I try to feel him or her out as to whether he or she can handle a day where everyone tells them they’re crazy, nuts and/or completely wrong. (I had one of those the other day and, fortunately, today was quite the opposite …)

But, this book had one section that really struck me as a great entrepreneurial lesson. The author is a lover of language and words and, while she was in Italy learning Italian, her friend told her that there is always one word to describe a city. The one word to describe Rome was “sex.� She decided the one word to describe New York City was “achieve,� and LA was “succeed.� Other people in the book contributed their suggestions that Stockholm was “conform,� and Naples was “fight.�

I thought about this with regard to Boston (my current town) and the word that popped into my mind was “provincial� as in “something that lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness.� Hmmm. Not a great place for me to be launching a global business, is it? But it might explain why my biggest supporters have usually been outside this province that natives like to refer to as the “Hub of the Universe.�

Fortunately, my business is internet based, so my location is fairly irrelevant. Yet, in the book, the author took this concept beyond cities and onto individuals. What is the one word for you or your family? And, this is where I want to challenge entrepreneurs: What is the word for your company? Does it match the one for you? I once did a similar exercise and came up with the word “catalyst.� I like to make changes and empower others to do so, too. And I try to make my company live up to that, too. And, hey, why not be a catalyst in a provincial town? It could be interesting.

So, what’s the word for you and/or your company, or even your city?

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: This book is a really fun and entertaining read and, as for the spiritual aspect, it’s not too “New Agey.” I was won over by the author’s first “conversationâ€? with God, which was kind of a matter-of-fact interaction from the floor of the bathroom where she had been sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the night over her inability to make a major life decision. The great commandment from “Godâ€? was a simple statement: “Liz, go back to bed.â€? Sometimes we all could use such a reality check.

My last few posts were about political books, so I figured, what better time than the present to bring up some books that tackle the topic of religion? Seems many of our politicians can’t separate themselves from their religious backgrounds/beliefs, so it kind of goes hand in hand these days.

What do books about politics and religion have to do with entrepreneurship? Technically, nothing. But one thing I’ve found is that most of my best inspirations and ideas have not come out of books that teach “entrepreneurship.� Why is that? Because, being an entrepreneur is about thinking differently.

If all you do is follow the checklists set forth by others in entrepreneurial books, then are you really being entrepreneurial? Or are you going along with the crowd? Not to knock those books, as they are helpful for many reasons. But, often you need to come at your ideas from a different angle. And this month, for some reason, I’ve been reading two books that have a bit to do with religion–one angle I rarely consider but, needless to say, it got me thinking … Here’s the first book.

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
The other morning my son came into the kitchen and announced, “Mom, you have a really bad book.â€? Oh, dear, I thought. Did I leave Anais Nin or Colette lying around again? But then I quickly realized that his reading skills weren’t quite at that level, so I knew that he had to be referring to Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great. Now, I had this book on my reading wish list since the day it was published, as I like any book that questions the status quo (especially the religious one). Unfortunately, I find Christopher Hitchens at times incomprehensible (as in this case) and not very amusing. (Hence an earlier post about “Why Christopher Hitchens isn’t funny.â€?)

So, I love the concept of the book, but found it torturous to read and admittedly gave up after a few chapters. (Life is too short to read books that don’t grab me and suck me in!) However, I enjoyed the conversation with my son about how it’s OK to question the idea of God. And this book in particular focused on how people use the concept of God for their own purposes or to be exclusive of others and, in those situations, God is not great.

Then somehow we got onto the topic of the Pilgrims fleeing England in search of religious freedom, and I noted to myself (not to him) the contrast with today, where certain groups want to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. Add to this the fact that we were founded as the United States of America, under a very different governmental structure than ever before (how entrepreneurial of them!), yet now we’ve gotten back to the government proposing the equivalent of a “thought-crime� bill that would enable it to prosecute anyone criticizing it. (Thanks to my friend George over at “I’ve BeenMugged� for bringing that to my attention.)

Which brings me right back to my theory: Once the rebels become the ruling class, then they’re no longer rebels. Hence, the best entrepreneurs cannot simply follow an entrepreneurial handbook, because once they do that, then they are no longer innovating. And this is why I tend to look elsewhere for inspiration and ideas.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: Great concept (challenging the status quo); poor delivery (Hitchens is not my messenger of choice here).

Book Two coming later this week: Eat, Pray, Love.

While I’m on the topic of politics (must be that it’s November), I figured I’d mention my thoughts on one book by a political candidate that was compelling enough for me to pick up. I was very glad that I read Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama before tackling the Audacity of Hope (I later listened to the Audacity of Hope on CD and it didn’t have the same impact).

One might argue that Obama might have been contemplating a run for the presidency back when he wrote Dreams from My Father. (Surely we all know that many of our presidential candidates started contemplating their future the day they were pulled out of the womb.) However, this book does not seem calculated in any respect. What it does do is introduce us to an individual who has had quite an unusual life, and how he’s faced race and poverty issues both in the U.S. and abroad. His description of life in Hawaii and Indonesia are as compelling as the details of the work he tried to do in the slums of Chicago. And, of course, I have a fondness for any son raised by a single mom who turns out better than OK. Whatever your politics, it’s important to get to know the people who may be leading your country, so if there are books authored by them, it may help you form your own opinion on them.

The Top Shelf Bottom Line: No matter what your politics, we all should know a little bit about the individuals who may sit in the Oval Office. While I’ve only read/listened to the two Obama books, I intend to pick up most of the rest as the candidates are narrowed down.

• Barack Obama - Dreams From My Father; Audacity of Hope
• Rudy Giuliani - Leadership

• John Edwards - Four Trials

• John McCain - Faith of My Fathers

• Hillary Clinton - Living History; It Takes a Village

• Mitt Romney - Turnaround: Crises, Leadership, and the Olympic Games

In the meantime, if any of you have read any of the above, please give us your review below!

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.