A friend recommended the book, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I read it over the weekend and it was, well, disturbing, tremendous and provocative all at the same time. It's pretty overwhelming.

This quote appears in the first chapter. It actually belongs to Foer's dad but the context is more important than the ownership. Foer's dad said this to him when his son was born. He was conveying the feeling that there was an incredible future ahead. A chance to rectify old regrets or teach lessons that were never taught. Another opportunity to be someone for someone else. The rolling sensation that your life's path is now altered forever -- and for the better.

I have no idea what that feels like but I'd like to hijack that line and use it for other smaller victories.

When is the last time you had a moment like that? When you felt like everything was possible again?

Photo Credit

"You wouldn't be riding a motorcycle if you weren't an optimist."

~Matthew Crawford, Shop Class as a Soulcraft 

Aaron Goldman is the author of the forthcoming book, Everything I Learned From Marketing I Learned From Google. Wait. Before you say, "Great, another book on Google" check out this video. His book isn't at all about telling the story of Google. It's about taking something as simple as "googling" and turning it into strategy that companies can use creatively.

When you're thinking like a consumer, answers are easy to search for. When you're thinking like a company, knowing what to search for isn't that easy.

He sums it up nicely in this quote on his site, "If Google’s mission is to 'organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,' then my mission is to organize all the marketing lessons learned from Google and make them universally accessible and useful."

I'll be chatting with him about his new book today and will post the interview later this week.

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Notes

I knocked out REWORK on a three hour flight. It really only took about one hour but I took some breaks and notes.

Rework is a very short but useful book packed with tons of information. I didn’t agree with everything they said but they didn’t write the book to make everyone happy. They shared what worked for them and why.

Each chapter is ultra-short. Usually one or two pages. One of the themes in the book is going against the stadard. Fried and Hansson aren’t just trying to be different. They provide reasons and examples to support their point. It’s a really fun book because of the brevity and illustrations.

They argue that the resume is dead.

I agree. Anyone can make their resume look good if they try. It’s just not a great way to determine “who” that person is or how well they can perform. It’s a document of the past and doesn’t always represent what people can do in the future.

They argue that you shouldn’t hire talented people just because they’re talented.

I’m not quite sure where I stand on this one.

They argue that working late is actually wasting time and less productive.

Again, I have a hard time coming to terms with this but I suspect they are probably right. I’m just not that efficient yet.

They argue that culture can’t be created. And it takes time.

This is a pretty interesting concept because there are some very young companies who would argue they have culture. I think they defined “culture” in way that’s completely understandable and reachable.

I highly recommend reading this book. It’s simple way to re-examine routinization and productivity throughout your day.

Quotes

“Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.”

“Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small of the business model it’s almost negligible. The real question is how well you execute.”

“Culture is the by-product of consistent behavior.”

“Make a dent in the universe.”