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, […]
2025 Reading List: My 52 Best Books of 2025 Read More »
Finding work that feels like play is the holy grail of a career. Phil Knight returns to this idea again and again in Shoe Dog. To him, building something meaningful shouldn’t feel like a burden; it should feel alive. When work feels playful, it can feel like bliss. But at the same time, immersion can
Phil Knight packs Shoe Dog with leadership and entrepreneurial lessons—most of them learned along the way. The themes I keep coming back to are simple: don’t micromanage, manufacture motivation, obsess over craft, tell the truth, contribute, and find your calling. For Knight, leadership starts with a counterintuitive discipline: don’t tell people how—tell them what, then
How Nike Was Built: Truth-Telling, Shoe Dogs, and Phil Knight’s Calling Read More »
Legendary Nike founder Phil Knight has a simple mantra in Shoe Dog: just don’t stop. You’ll want to quit—everyone does—but you can’t let the urge win. The book circles a handful of themes: doubt, momentum, growth versus safety, fear of failure, and stubborn refusal to lose. Long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine captured it perfectly: “Somebody may
Just Don’t Stop: What Nike’s Phil Knight Learned About Winning Read More »
Nvidia’s operating system comes directly from its founder, Jensen Huang. His approach is simple but demanding: hire people smarter than you, move fast, and work with the intensity that compounds over time. The Nvidia Way shows how these principles shaped not just the company, but the pace at which it operates. “I owe whatever success
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Execution Strategy: Hire People Smarter Than You Read More »
Complacency kills companies. It’s why legendary coach Nick Saban preached against it for decades. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang felt the same way. He knew avoiding complacency would keep Nvidia alive. One way Jensen fought complacency was by building resilience. He believed resilience mattered more than intelligence. Another driver of success, in Jensen’s view, is using pain
Avoiding Complacency: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on Resilience and Future-Proofing Read More »
Some leaders avoid criticism. Jeff Bezos treated it like a mirror—leadership lessons to be learned at every turn. Ernest Holmes once wrote, “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” Bezos believed that idea at scale—experiment boldly, fail intelligently, obsess over customers, and be willing to change
Leadership Lessons: Jeff Bezos on Change When Critics Are Right Read More »
It’s Always Day One.” – Jeff Bezos Make it Cost Less Jeff Bezos built Amazon on a simple discipline: obsess over the customer. That obsession revealed itself most clearly in Amazon’s fixation on lowering costs—a cornerstone of the Day One mindset. “It’s always better to have lower costs,” Bezos said in Amazon Unbound—a line that could
Day One Mindset: Jeff Bezos on Keeping Your Company Alive Read More »
“The most important thing [is] trying to find a business with a wide and long-lasting moat around it… protecting a terrific economic castle with an honest lord in charge of the castle.” – Warren Buffett Warren Buffett’s castle-and-moat metaphor captures one of business’s most enduring ideas: build systems that protect themselves. Jeff Bezos did exactly that
Building Moats: How the Amazon Flywheel Reinforces Itself Read More »
October was an excellent reading month. I finished five incredible books in my October reading list—all tied together by a single theme: entrepreneurship. The first book was Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike. Phil Knight’s story is a masterclass in grit and vision—how a scrappy shoe startup became one of the most
October Reading List: 5 Best Books I Read in October 2025 Read More »