Books and Magazines About Keeping Individual Focus in Business
These three books and the following two magazines share the importance of keeping a focus and searching for originality, whether it be in business, public speaking or everyday life.
Authenticity for the Win
by Adam Grant; Viking (February 2016)
Pioneering author Adam Grant quotes George Bernard Shaw on the first page of his inspiring and entertaining book Originals: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Throughout the business book, Grant, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, illustrates the role that courage plays in innovation with contemporary stories of businesses that have cut against the grain.
Warby Parker’s founders, for instance, knew from day one that their business idea would face enormous obstacles — would anybody really want to buy glasses online without trying them on in a store? Would consumers care if the company provided glasses to the poor?
Grant turned down the opportunity to make an early investment in Warby Parker and says he has regretted it ever since. His mistake, and the self-discovery that resulted from it, was the inspiration for this book.
Throughout Originals, Grant presents research and case studies that help illustrate how original ideas come to fruition. He looks at the unlikely success of the essentially shapeless narratives of TV show “Seinfeld.” He examines the motivations that led Martin Luther King Jr. to galvanize the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
He concludes that nearly everyone has original ideas, but the vast majority of people are not sufficiently motivated by self-discovery to pursue them in the face of criticism. Grant asserts that we need original ideas to propel innovation, and he offers an engaging guide to the ways pioneering innovators have been inspired — and empowered — to change the world.
Speech Schooling
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
by Chris Anderson; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 2016)
Powerful speeches can educate and inspire, and have apparently done so since the origin of language. Some of the greatest orators in human history — think Cicero, Sojourner Truth and Winston Churchill — changed the world with the spoken word.
TED Talks, named for the hugely successful conference and video series, is a top-to-bottom guide to effective public speaking.
The author offers a formulaic approach for focusing your narrative, connecting with your audience, preparing visual references, and practicing until you’re bulletproof. His premise is buttressed with advice from some of the most popular TED talkers to date.
Modest and Mighty
Small Giants, 10th Anniversary Edition
by Bo Burlingham; Portfolio (October 2016)
Bigger isn’t always better — certainly not for the 14 small but powerful companies described in Small Giants. The business leaders in Bo Burlingham’s business book turned down growth opportunities to retain their control, manage self-discovery and preserve their vision of success. In some cases, they even abandoned their growth trajectories and reorganized to limit their businesses’ expansion. The results? Each business profiled is a renowned customer favorite, including Anchor Brewing, Clif Bar, and Ani DiFranco’s wholly owned music label, Righteous Babe Records.
Fritz Maytag, former owner of Anchor Brewery in San Francisco, says in the business book’s first chapter, “Just because it’s the best around doesn’t mean you have to franchise or even expand. You can stay as you are and have a business that’s profitable and rewarding and a source of great pride.”
Inspiration Personified
Founded in 2004 and released quarterly, Australian magazine Dumbo Feather tells the stories of inspirational changemakers.
Each issue contains five profiles, some of famous visionaries, such as Jane Goodall, Seth Godin and Ira Glass, and others of people you may never hear of if not for Dumbo Feather. Those profiled are revealed through enlightening but down-to-earth conversations. After reading each article, you’ll find yourself not only feeling a surprising intimacy with the subject, but also feeling more confident that every individual contains the power to change the world.
Better-Behaving Businesses
Conscious Company was founded in 2014 by Maren Keeley and Meghan French Dunbar to foster conversation about conscientious, or “conscious,” businesses. Originally a quarterly, this year the publication switched to bimonthly, and has focused on topics such as women in business and millennial culture, while profiling numerous companies from Eileen Fisher and Whole Foods Market to Hampton Creek and Kind.
Speaking largely to social entrepreneurs and their customers, the magazine provides uplifting examples of how some company leaders are creating a more sustainable, ethical environment for business.
This article originally appeared in the “Medium” department of the Fall 2016 issue of B Magazine.
