January Reads
A short, but hopefully valuable, post this week as I look to keep my 10 week writing streak intact.
This week was full of travel for work so I didn't have the morning routine that eventually leads to a post.
For this week, I'm passing along a few books I read during the month that I really enjoyed.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
I enjoy history books that take the form of a narrative, and this one is quite close to that format which makes an exciting story even better. Endurance follows polar explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew's journey across the Antarctic.
The crew was set to be the first to cross the continent by foot in 1915 and fell a day short of reaching its destination before being entrapped in ice. That day short turns into a nearly two year journey.
The book is worth a read for anyone looking for a good story, but more than that I think it highlights a few things about human nature: we take the small things for granted, we can persevere much more than we imagine, and good leadership can propel people forward.
On that last point, Shackleton's leadership throughout the journey is what makes the book more than just another history book. For nine months after getting stuck, the crew sat in complete uncertainty about what might happen to them. When Shackleton finally made the decision to abandon ship, the crew was actually relieved because at least they knew what was happening, even if what lied ahead was treacherous. People crave certainty, even when certainty means hardship.
He also insisted on being treated the same as his men, doing every chore they were asked to do. It reminds me of Michael Jordan in The Last Dance, "I didn't ask anyone to do anything I wasn't doing myself."
That combination of decisiveness and accountability helped create a culture that kept 28 men alive.
Who Knew
Barry Diller has made the podcast rounds over the last few months promoting his autobiography and I'm a sucker for autobiographies of business leaders so I picked this one up.
It's a great story of someone who, despite coming from a privileged background, struggled a lot early in life with family issues and insecurity. This line was really powerful to me, "I waited 22 years for someone to have expectations of me - I would kill myself rather than to disappoint him."
Diller shares several lessons of his career that I've lived as well and that's why it gets a recommend for me. Those lessons include knowing when to take smart risks, building something is the best way to learn about it, and that debate is the cornerstone of a productive team.
The building lesson stuck with me. I've helped build a few businesses now and the thing you learn quickly is that no amount of research prepares you for what actually happens in the wild. Diller figured that out early.
Oddly, the debate point ties these two books together and I've written before that when we read lessons from two totally different books we should really internalize them.
Diller believed the best ideas came from people willing to argue honestly, and he built teams around that. Shackleton had a crew member, Hurley, that was becoming a problem in camp. He didn't ignore him. He pulled him into meetings on big decisions so he could control the conversation rather than let resentment spread. Different people, different times, different circumstances, but same lesson: don't avoid conflict, channel it.
I'm also about halfway through House of Morgan and really enjoying that one, but the significance of that book and family deserves more than a cursory post.
The streak lives on.
