Summer Reading: 9 brilliant business books you can read in an afternoon

I'm always looking for business, economics and marketing reading ideas. The Business Insider just had a post with some good ideas.

Read the whole thing here: 9 brilliant business books you can read in an afternoon

Or just download them from Kindle...

1.'Who Moved My Cheese?' by Spencer Johnson
2. 'As a Man Thinketh' by James Allen
3.'How to Lie with Statistics' by Darrell Huff
4. 'The Greatest Salesman in the World' by Og Mandino
5. 'The One Minute Manager' by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
6. 'The Investment Answer' by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray
7. 'The Richest Man in Babylon' by George S. Clason
8. 'Marketing: A Love Story' by Bernadette Jiwa
9. 'Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals' by Thomas Corley

Jeff Bezos Had His Top Execs Read These Three Books

Just read this interesting post on Farnam Street (a good blog to read).

Jeff Bezos Had His Top Execs Read These Three Books

One of the best parts of the interview is the detail given by Bezos about some of the books he’s shared with Amazon’s top executives — he uses these as frameworks for shaping the future of the company. 

1. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
2. The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen (Interestingly, the only business book Steve Jobs ever liked was The Innovator’s Dilemma, by the same author.)
3. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

This Recession is Boring

This recession is boring. I know we aren't really in a recession any more, but it certainly still feels like one. I am bored with the feeling. Time to flip the switch.

Businesses are waiting for smooth sailing before hiring and investing. Waiting for the idiots in the White House and Capitol Hill to behave a little less stupidly. Waiting for our European friends to deal with or ditch Greece, Italy and Spain, etc. Waiting for Americans to deleverage and pay off the debt of the 2000's. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

We can't wait forever. There are 17,000,000 Google results for "innovation during recession."  Everyone knows that the strong invest, innovate and take market share during tough times. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had no trouble taking over the consumer electronics space. Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) continues to rake in boatloads of cash. Read here:

I was just reading an interview of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey by USA Today. The most interesting part of the interview is his discussion of how Whole Foods is entering the health and wellness services business.

The company is open up 5 prototype stores with “Wellness Clubs” to expand their business into the services sector.

“We’re opening Wellness Clubs in five prototype stores. It’s potentially a new paradigm for people being healthy. All of the key diseases killing Americans can be largely avoided or prevented through healthy diet and lifestyle, but people don’t know exactly what to do. Whole Foods will help educate them."

I find this fascinating for a company with $8 billion in sales that is the clear market leader in its niche. Instead of resting on its laurels, it decides to innovate instead.

The whole economy is being held back by a lack of confidence, by just about everyone, consumers and businesses alike. Confidence, or animal spirits as economists like to call it, is a fragile thing and hard to build. When you don't feel confident, you should fake it until you make it.

The article How You Too Can Be an Optimist in Prevention points out, "In research at Wake Forest University, for example, scientists asked a group of 50 students to act like extroverts for 15 minutes in a group discussion, even if they didn’t feel like it. The more assertive and energetic the students acted, the happier they were".

Or...as Barney would say...