Articles
I write about books, business, habits, and ideas that age well — the kind of insights that compound over time.
Explore the full archive below, or jump into a topic that interests you most.
Looking for a place to start?
→ Entrepreneurship — Lessons from building and studying businesses
→ Books — Notes, reflections, and curated reading lists
→ Friday Five — A weekly dispatch of five things worth your time
Latest Articles
-
Tony Hsieh Zappos Lessons: How Zappos Was Built
The Zappos business model, selling shoes online, looks obvious in hindsight. But the real Tony Hsieh Zappos lessons come from how it was actually built—through iteration, mistakes, and deliberate choices. Founder Tony Hsieh learned a few lessons building Zappos. One: learn by doing, not overplanning. Two: never outsource your core competency. Three: invest time, money,…
-
Happiness Before Success: What Zappos’ Tony Hsieh Taught Me About Freedom
Tony Hsieh founded Zappos, an online shoe company that Amazon eventually bought for over a billion dollars. Before that, he co-founded Link Exchange, an ad network Microsoft bought outright. Somewhere between these two exits, Hsieh arrived at a counterintuitive conclusion: happiness before success mattered more to him than anything else. Delivering Happiness is deceptively simple…
-
2025 Reading List: My 52 Best Books of 2025
What a rewarding and fulfilling reading year this has been. I hit my goal of reading at least 50 pages a day, and along the way, I also permitted myself to stop reading books that didn’t hold my attention. The result is a 2025 reading list I’m proud of—one that spans history, business, philosophy, sports,…
-
December Reading List: 4 Best Books I Read in December 2025
December gave me space to look back at what I’ve read over the past year and where that reading is leading me next. My December reading list includes Land’s Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It, Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations, Hetty: The Fascinating Story of America’s Richest Woman,…
-
November Reading List: 4 Best Books I Read in November 2025
The Thanksgiving holiday, like Christmas, gives me a natural pause to reflect on what I’ve read this year and where I want my reading to take me next. My November reading list includes Sam Walton: Made In America, The Red Bull Story: The Unbelievable Success of Dietrich Mateschitz and His Energy Drink Empire, It’s How…
Want new posts delivered to your inbox?
I send a short email every Friday (Friday Five) with five things worth your time — books, ideas, tools, or insights from the week.