Greetings from my last day of 2023 meetings before I’m nestled in my couch, buried under blankets with my wife and baby and dog, eating snacks and watching holiday movies.
It’s a tough job. But somebody’s gotta do it. 🙂
Before I dig into today’s email, I wanted to remind you that we’ve opened up a handful of spots for the Unicorn Society for 2024.
We’ll be accepting applications until Sun Dec 24th at 8p est.
We’re limiting this micro-batch to 5 spots only, because we’ve seen a lot of growth this year and we want to be sure all our new members get lots of attention and support.
Intrigued?
Just hit reply to this email with “2024” and I’ll get you the details.
NOTE: Most interviews will happen after the New Year, as we know everyone is busy with holiday stuff. So you’ll be able to apply and go back to seasonal shenanigans.
Ok, let’s talk books!
As you enjoy some holiday down time, I wanted to share my annual reading list. Perhaps you may be inspired to add some of my picks to your queue!
A few notes:
- Long time readers know I started reading VERY aggressively in the summer of 2010. While my pace has slowed in terms of the number of books read, my education in the past few years has been heavily supplemented with podcasts, YouTubes, and video courses.
- There’s an understandable pushback against “high intensity book reading” as sport. The claim is that a lot of people read books without taking action. I think this is fair. I know a lot of people who read a ton but don’t seem to change their behaviors over time or get very good results in general. Reading is great. But you gotta do stuff.
- Last year was a distinctly unsatisfying year for my reading. For whatever reason, very few books turned me on. 2023 was much better in that regard.
- I continue to dig into hard science fiction, but tend to only read it before bed and on planes. I think people like Neal Stephenson, Ted Chiang, and Isaac Assimov are foundational if you want to understand what’s happening in tech right now.
Notes on the List:
- I’ve bolded and linked my favorites of the year with a brief note as to why it was so impactful to me.
- Asterisks mean it’s a re-read.
- DNF means I didn’t finish it. Although I’m more willing than ever to stop reading, it didn’t happen too much as a percentage of books started.
2023 Reading List
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- Hell Yeah or No
- The Advertising Solution
- On Writing Well – DNF
- The Alignment Problem – DNF
- Spare
- Berlin
- Get Different
- Echophaxia
- Your Next Five Moves
- Growing Great Employees*
- Greenlights
- The Consciousness Instinct
- How to Get Rich – Naval Ravikant Podcast* – Literally 10th listen
- The R Factor Question
- Changing Direction – DNF
- The Power of the Other
- Exhalation – Ted Chiang
- Resonant Leadership* – VERY important book for leaders
- Let It Go
- What’s Our Problem?– A brilliant assessment of the challenges our society is facing from the author of the blog Waitbutwhy
- Buy Back Your Time – I didn’t want to like this book, as it’s another time management book. But I thought it was great.
- Power* – DNF
- Stories of Your Life
- Your Most Important Number
- The Committed Life – DNF
- How to Grow Your Small Business
- Second in Command
- The Happiness Advantage*
- 10x is Easier than 2x – Another powerful book from Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy, authors of Who Not How.
- You Can’t Screw This Up
- Peak
- Exercised – Charming and thorough analysis of our relationship with exercise as a species from an evolutionary biologist.
- 1 Page Marketing Plan
- The 6 Habits of Growth
- Happy
- Quicksilver – DNF
-
- Outlive – I know Attia is controversial to many. But I thought this book was awesome.
-
- Fire Yourself First
- Changing the Conversation
- From Strength to Strength – Powerful overview of how to embrace your evolving skill sets as you age.
- The 80% Approach
- Process
- Geometry of Staying Cool
- Four Thousand Weeks
- The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership* – I read this book years ago, and was shocked to find how much influence it had on how I look at culture and leadership.
- Your Table is Ready
- Million Dollar Coach
- Seveneves – To understand tech, you need to understand Silicon Valley. And to understand Silicon Valley, you need to understand hard science fiction. This is a masterpiece.
- Email Mastery – Fantastic book on email marketing from marketing legend Dean Jackson
- The Wealthy Consultant
- DNA Profit Multiplier
- Opportunity
- The Ultimate Marketing Plan
- Expert Secrets*
- The Family Board Meeting
Currently Reading
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- Wool
- Life Worth Living
- Seeing Like a State
- The Magic of Thinking Big*
Any books that knock your socks off this year?
Lemme know!
Snuggling up with you and a big cuppa coffee and a stack of books by the fireplace,
Mark
PS: I’m looking for 5 gym owners who want to add $5k or more to their monthly recurring revenue by April 1st.
NOTE: You must be doing $15k per month in revenue, have at least one team member to help you, and be willing and able to spend at least 2 hours per week executing.
5 spots only, closing down submissions on Sunday.
Reply back with the word “2024” and I’ll get you deets!