Chris Brogan is starting a Three Book Diet (#3BD)–reading only three books over the course of the next year.
Given how much I like books–I easily buy 20 a month–I’m sure I couldn’t stay focused on three. I would get bored way too easily.
That said–I like repetition in reading. I’ve been stuck on how to incorporate repetition and indexing in my reading so I can increase retention. Reading the same three books over the course of a year is a great start–but I also need variety to keep the habit going. But what if I could look at the next year in terms of cornerstone books and spoke books? What if I could decide on my own supertexts & metabolize them for 6 months, then spend the other months dedicated to reading new books?
This split introduces some repetition for the books most important to me. And like planning my days–the less I set out to do, the more I can accomplish.
I’ve talked before about the books that got me where I am online–but this is about the books that will help me take the next step in my life journey. The books that will help me expose my inner saboteurs and limiting routines–and show me the way to become a successful entrepreneur.
So for my version of the Three Book Diet–I’m going to focus on the following three books:
1: Leadership: The Leadership Challenge
Now in its Fifth Edition–this book will surely become a 50 Year Text. It sets the foundation for the craft of leadership–almost every other leadership book I’ve read could be placed in context of the Five Practices.
How I lead is based on what I believe. If I don’t challenge and grow that belief–I’ll be left behind. If I’m left behind too long–I’m no longer a leader. I’m a follower in the wrong position. The Leadership Challenge asks the right questions, take a holistic stance on leadership, and sets a stage that anyone striving to be a leader can step on. The Leadership Challenge has helped me challenge and refine my leadership beliefs.
My most important job as a leader is to better prepare those around me for their own next leadership and personal challenge. This book humanizes that for me–and keeps me from speaking esoterically or abstractly about the craft of leadership. One thing I’ve learned–I can talk a great game, but can I play one? How do I continue that progression from charlatan to martyr to hustler? This book is the key.
2: Leadership: Turning Pro
The master’s final premise on becoming better and greater. Turning Pro is awesome–and it came out at exactly the right time for me. I read it the week it came out–all in one sitting. It was poignant, challenging, and a refreshing take on what I need to become.
I was really torn by this and “The Flinch” for the ass-kicking book in my Three Book Diet–but this one worked out for me just a little better. And I already carry around a page of Flinch quotes. Turning Pro almost requires you to sit down, stop doing anything else, and read it start to finish. I feel like defending Sparta when I finally put the book down.
Turning Pro lambasts the amateur life–the shadow life. It paints such a comprehensive picture about the amateur stage–I felt like a fish realizing he’s swimming in water. It was a powerful shock to read about the lulled civility amateurs enjoy. But behind the gated fence of the saboteurs and the gremlins–the professional awaits.
I write down constantly the day I turned pro–because it reminds me of three things. First–it reminds me I want to become successful in my night job. Second–it reminds me of the pace it has taken for me to break orbit from my monthly salary and subsequent addictions. Finally–it reminds me of “memento mori”. It’s my grim reminder someday the clock will run out.
3: Business Model You
Turning pro means becoming a business. It’s about expanding yourself beyond just your paycheck and expenses. Marketing channels–strategic propositions–inputs & outputs. Business Model Generation has make business design accessible to organize your life in its second iteration, Business Model You.
And it does it in such a simple, graphic way–anyone can do it. Really, anyone. Actually–everyone should do this once a year. It’s much more revelatory than just doing your New Year’s Resolutions.
Business Model You is a template to ask the hard questions about myself:
What is my unique value/strategic proposition?
Who are my customers? Whose the community do I serve?
What are the key activities I need to accomplish to be successful?
The model takes my life, and places success against a canvas where I can track myself. It allows me to scale my strategy and engagement, helps me stay lean, and lets me live the experimental life. Excellence shouldn’t require an MBA–but it is a design discipline. Business Model You allows me to apply excellence toward my life through a validate, insightful design.
To know what and where I want to be–this book is the key. I plan to memorize the model so I can apply it as easily as the other consulting models I use. Especially as I work towards designing my morning, day-long, and three-day long workshops that will be a key in my hustler strategy for succeeding in 2014
*** Fourth: Four Hour Chef
Yes–the alliteration is intended.
The Four Hour Chef contends to be Tim Ferriss’s opus on expertise development and mastery–framed in the context of cooking and the culinary art of becoming a chef. As a foodie–it’s impossible to resist the title.
As a Tim Ferriss fan–I have to round out the series. I have so much trust in his work–he’s built enough permission with me through his other books–I’m willing to make this a cornerstone text for the next year sight unseen (besides the first chapter preview).
I’m extremely interested in expertise development. I think mastery is the next challenge we as a society and species need to undertake if we’re to maintain our exceptionalism. There is no room for mediocre anymore–and you can only be a novice for so long until you enter the progression of apprentice, journeyman, expert, then master.
The search and effort for mastery will change my life.
Mastery
So I’m modifying the Three Book Diet just a little. Four books that I’ll repeat over the year. I plan to read both of them twice–three times if the other new books I read work fast. Each book is a cornerstone to how I’ll accelerate my transition to 2014 and become the best at what I do.
If you focused your reading on three books over the course of the year–what would you read? What skill would you master? How would you transform that information into knowledge and practice?