What I read on the holidays

As you know, part of what I like to do on this solopreneur blog is share info on recent books I’ve read – to share key takeaways and make recommendations (or save you from reading crap).

Anyway, while I was away on my trip over the holidays, I read 4 books.

4 books in 10 days, not bad eh?

Here they are:

  1. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
  2. Tribes, by Seth Godin
  3. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, by Duncan Clark
  4. ‘Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King

3 about business, 2 biographies about entrepreneurs, and 1 fiction.

Have you read any of them? Any thoughts?

I thought they were all great reads, so good that the first 3 on that list were actually re-reads.

I usually re-read most of the business books that I like every 2-4 years, because I find I forget half of the books I read within a month or two, and I also find that I usually have different takeaways or lessons when I re-read a book at a different time in my life or solopreneur business.

I’m not going to do a full review of each here because I don’t want these solopreneur blogs getting too long, but if you want to read a short summary and my verdict on each of them, check out my LinkedIn article here.

Overall, I think my favorite of the 4 was Alibaba, for a few reasons:

  • Jack Ma is an interesting character, and came from a pretty non-privileged childhood to become one of the richest men in the world
  • learning about how he started the company, and the way China and the internet was evolving during that time, was very interesting
  • lots of great little stories from every phase of the company – Jack growing up, founding the company, growth, expansion, etc.
  • I think he has a great mindset and approach to business, a lot of which is probably worth mimicing

If you’re interested in Tribes, I also did a full review and summary of the book years ago here.

That’s it for me today, would love to hear if you’ve read any of the 4 books, any feedback, and/or any book recommendations I might like.

Have a great day and keep grinding.

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