Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 82
• Total blog posts published: 539

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed this week ending 9/28/25 (link to last week’s commitments):

• Read Positioning, a framework for thinking about perception and using it to own a position in the customer’s mind from a marketing perspective
• Added four more books to the library on this site—see more here; these, which I read in 2018 and 2017, were about financial crisis winners, open-book management, and mental clarity

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book
• Add four more books that I read before 2024 to the library on this site—see more here

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred eighty-seven was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles last week

What I learned:

• Last week I shared what I learned about Pipecat and Livekit, two open-source orchestration frameworks that can be used to build real-time voice and multimodal AI agents (see here). This week I learned about turn detection: “determining when a user begins or ends their ‘turn’ in a conversation.” Turn detection makes for polite AI conversations—AI and the user don’t talk over each other because the AI waits until the person is done before it speaks.
• The best conversations between entrepreneurs aren’t polite. They’re high-energy. Ideas are shared rapid fire. One entrepreneur’s idea sparks more ideas from the other. They interrupt each other. They talk over one another. These types of conversations, replicated using the above frameworks and paired with a library of knowledge from biographies and other books, could lead to entrepreneurs having great thinking or sparring sessions with AI.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

In 2024, I challenged myself to accelerate my learning by reading a book (usually a biography) a week. To date, I’ve done it for 82 consecutive weeks. I wanted to share what I was reading and also keep track for myself, which was difficult (see here), so I created a Library section on this site. I added to it all the books I’ve read since my book-a-week habit began in March 2024, and I’ve committed to adding my latest read to the Library every Sunday (see the latest here).

That left the books I’d read before 2024 unshared and untracked. I set a goal to add my old reading to the Library over time. It began with a Memorial Day Challenge to add five books (see here) and continued with my challenging myself to add two books every weekend until my backlog is gone. This month (see here), I decided to up the pace so I can finish this project well before the holidays—and begin another one!

This past weekend was my eighteenth weekend, and I added five more books:

• Principles by Ray Dalio
• Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart
• When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
• Margin of Safety by Seth A. Klarman
• King of Capital by David Carey and John E. Morris

That’s the latest update on my weekend goal. I hope that sharing these books will be of value.

Last week I shared the 22 timeless principles of marketing that I learned from Al Ries and Jack Trout’s book (see here). I enjoyed that book and wanted to learn more, especially about positioning (i.e., perception), so I read their book Positioning, which focuses on how to get noticed and be perceived in the way you’re trying to be perceived.

This book came out in 1981. Ries and Trout argued that positioning was a new way of communicating that works well for advertising, politics, and other areas. “Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect,” they said. “That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect.” It’s a way for companies, products, or services to be heard and seen in a world full of ads.

My key takeaway is that positioning focuses on leveraging what’s already in someone’s mind (instead of trying to introduce a new idea). You begin by concentrating on people’s perceptions and work backward to figure out how to message in a way that aligns with what they already think (this is the opposite of how most people approach marketing). Positioning “manipulates what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.” It leverages the fact that people are bombarded with so much information that they discard most of it unless it matches their existing knowledge or experience. Don’t try to jam something new into someone’s mind; reconfigure what’s already there.

The book went further, saying that oversimplifying is the key to being received and you should focus on being narrow and selective with your messaging.

The book has 23 chapters, each dedicated to a distinct aspect of the positioning strategy. Several case studies in each chapter support the concept being covered.

Marketing is foreign to me, but this book, combined with The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, was helpful. They lay out the principles and strategies of marketing, which I never understood. When I view certain marketing tactics through the lens of what’s in these books, things make a lot more sense.

If you want to learn how to get people to think about something in a certain way, consider reading Positioning.

‍

I’m making great progress on my weekend project. I estimate that if I add four to five books each weekend for the next three weekends, I should complete this project by the end of the third weekend. I’m excited to wrap this up and share my complete library with others. I really hope people find it helpful. I haven’t seen anything like this that caters to entrepreneurs or investors.

Now I have to narrow down my list of potential projects and pick the weekend project I want to work on for the next few months. I also need to figure out what the optimal length of time is for these weekend projects. This one will have taken about five months by the time it’s done. I feel like that might be too long. My gut tells me that something in the three- to four-month range is about right. That way, I can complete three or four weekend projects a year. I’ll think more about this over the weekend.

This week, I had a conversation with an entrepreneur who’s considering closing his business. The business breaks even or runs at a slight loss most months. When someone is considering closing a business, I wonder why, so I asked.

This entrepreneur has had his business for about a decade. He’s no longer excited by it and hates the thought of going back to being involved in its day-to-day operations. He’d rather spend his time on new entrepreneurial pursuits, which he’s already doing. This makes sense to me. Around the decade mark with my company, I began to lose enthusiasm and remove myself from certain aspects of the operations. I’ve heard other entrepreneurs share similar experiences.

Next, I wanted to understand the issue with the business. Why wasn’t it generating a profit? Operationally, it’s running smoothly with a small team. The work gets done as expected and customers are happy. But they’re not getting enough customers through the door to generate the revenue needed to turn a profit. I asked how they acquire customers and let customers know they exist. It turned out that the entrepreneur hasn’t done any marketing in a few years. He did big marketing pushes years ago, which were successful, and he’s been coasting on word of mouth ever since. But word of mouth is dwindling, and the result is fewer customers.

Marketing is just like other business functions, with one important difference. When you stop operations, you notice immediately because the work isn’t getting done and customers are mad. When you stop marketing, you often don’t see the impact right away. Awareness of your business gradually declines. Revenue gradually declines. One day, you realize you don’t have enough business.

I told this entrepreneur that it seems like he’s got a marketing issue. If he can dedicate himself to a few months of restarting his marketing function and incorporating metrics that quantify his return on marketing spend, he’ll likely see a profit again in a few months. Instead of closing the business, he’ll have a good shot at getting marketing running smoothly without him—just like the rest of the business—and then selling the business. Instead of getting nothing and walking away, he may be able to sell it, get a nice chunk of change, and pursue his new entrepreneurial ideas with a clear mind and capital to fund them.

Today I read an article (see here) about James Dyson’s annual dividend from the namesake company he founded decades ago. He reportedly owns 100% of the firm and received a 2024 dividend of $303 million (converted from British pounds). He received a $1.5 billion dividend in 2022, and over the last four years he’s received a total of roughly $5.39 billion. That’s an astonishing amount considering that he still owns his company, Dyson, outright, and that ownership is worth well over $10 billion.

I read Dyson’s autobiography last year (see here), so I know that his journey to building his company was anything but smooth. What stands out to me is that after all these years, he hasn’t sold it. He created and continues to own a valuable asset that generates substantial annual dividends, which he invests in diversified assets.

That’s very unlike today’s entrepreneurial culture, which celebrates exits (i.e., selling a company). When you look at the entrepreneurs who’ve created the most wealth for themselves, they didn’t exit. They built great companies that are wildly profitable, and they continue to hold significant stakes in them.

As I added books that I read years ago to the library section of this site, I realized that I didn’t retain a lot of what I read. That makes sense, given that I read some of them seven years ago, in 2018. But I want to retain more of the important concepts and ideas in the books I read. I try to review my notes from books, but that hasn’t been effective because I haven’t been consistent and intentional about digging them up and reading them.

I’m starting to think that reviewing things I’ve learned by rereading them isn’t the best method. To read, I have to focus and not be doing anything else, which means carving out time to do it. That’s proven to be easier said than done.

I’m starting to think that although reading is a good way to introduce a new idea or concept to my brain because I’m focused and able to fully absorb it, it isn’t the best method for later review. Audio might be better. I can listen and do things at the same time, and I can easily fit that kind of multitasking into my schedule. The audio doesn’t have to be super in-depth—just enough information to spark my recollection of a concept.

I’ve been thinking about this more. I’ll try to test it to see if my hypothesis holds up.

In 2024, I challenged myself to accelerate my learning by reading a book (usually a biography) a week. To date, I’ve done it for 81 consecutive weeks. I wanted to share what I was reading and also keep track for myself, which was difficult (see here), so I created a Library section on this site. I added to it all the books I’ve read since my book-a-week habit began in March 2024, and I’ve committed to adding my latest read to the Library every Sunday (see the latest here).

That left the books I’d read before 2024 unshared and untracked. I set a goal to add my old reading to the Library over time. It began with a Memorial Day Challenge to add five books (see here) and continued with my challenging myself to add two books every weekend until my backlog is gone. This month (see here), I decided to up the pace so I can finish this project well before the holidays—and begin another one!

This past weekend was my seventeenth weekend, and I added four more books:

• The Big Short by Michael Lewis
• The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman
• The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham
• Declutter Your Mind by S.J. Scott and Barrie Davenport

That’s the latest update on my weekend goal. I hope that sharing these books will be of value.

Last week, I read Invested, the autobiography of Charles Schwab, founder of the namesake firm. One of my big takeaways was how well Schwab understood marketing and leveraged it heavily to acquire customers. Marketing and technology were huge differentiators for the company and led to success.

Several months ago, I bought the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I decided to read it after learning how critical the market was to Schwab. The book discusses 22 laws that distill marketing to its bare essence in a way non-marketers like me can understand.

Here are the 22 laws:

1. Laws of Leadership – It’s better to be first in a category than to have the best product in a category. “Marketing is a battle of perception, not products.”
2. Law of the Category – If you can’t be the first person in a category, find a new category you can be first in. Amelia Earhart was the third person to fly over the Atlantic Ocean solo, but she’s remembered as the first woman to accomplish this.
3. Law of Mind – It’s better to be first in the prospect’s mind than the first to market with your product. Being first to market with a product is important only because it allows you to be first in the mind of the prospect. “If marketing is a battle of perception, not product, then the mind takes precedence over the marketplace.”
4. Law of Perception – Marketing isn’t a battle of products or product quality; it’s a battle of perception. What matters most is the perception of your product in the minds of people. Studying how perceptions are formed in the mind is key.
5. Law of Focus – The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind. You can “burn” your way into a prospect’s mind by narrowing your focus to a single word or concept.
6. Law of Exclusivity – Two companies can’t own the same word in a prospect’s mind.
7. Law of the Ladder – The marketing strategy you use depends on where you rank on the ladder. If you’re not number one, that’s OK, but your marketing strategy can’t be to market as if you’re number 1. You must own your number 2 position and market accordingly.
8. Law of Duality – In the long run, most markets are dominated by two companies.
9. Law of Opposite – If you want to own the second rung on the ladder, study the number 1 company. Find its strength and present the customer with the opposite. Don’t try to beat it at its game; try a different angle, try to be different.
10. Law of Division – Large categories will, over time, split into subcategories.
11. Law of Perspective – The true effects of marketing take place over a long period of time. The short-term effect is often the opposite of the long-term effect. Discounting boosts revenue in the short term but decreases margins and long-term revenue by conditioning customers to buy only when there’s a sale.
12. Law of Line Extension – Line extension is taking the brand name of a successful product and applying it to a new product. This seems logical and is irresistible because it’s the easy way to jump-start a new product, but it often doesn’t work.
13. Law of Sacrifice – You have to give up something (i.e., you have to focus) to be successful. Being focused allows you to become known for something in the prospect’s mind.
14. Law of Attributes – You must have an idea or product attribute that you own and can focus your efforts on. Don’t emulate and try to own attributes that others own, especially the market leader.
15. Law of Candor – Admitting a negative about yourself is disarming to your prospect, and they automatically accept it as truth. It opens people’s minds and makes them more receptive to whatever you have to say.
16. Law of Singularity – One marketing effort will likely produce the vast majority of your results. This law is similar to the Pareto Principle (i.e., the 80/20 rule).
17. Law of Unpredictability – Marketing plans based on predictions about the future will usually fail. You can’t predict the future, so don’t try to predict how your competitors will react or what the future state of your market will be.
18. Law of Success – Successful people often become less objective. Success breeds arrogance, and arrogance can breed failure. Always focus on what the market wants, not what you think.
19. Law of Failure – Failure is inevitable and part of the journey. Expect it and accept it. Recognize when you’ve made a mistake or failed, and cut your losses early.
20. Law of Hype – “The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.” Things that are going well don’t need hype. “Revolutions don’t arrive at high noon with marching bands and coverage on the 6:00 P.M. news. Real revolutions arrive unannounced in the middle of the night and kind of sneak up on you.” “Forget the front page. If you’re looking for clues to the future, look in the back of the paper for those innocuous little stories.”
21. Law of Acceleration – Long-term success isn’t built on fads; it’s built on trends. If you think you’re in a fad, one way to keep long-term demand high is to never fully satisfy the demand.
22. Law of Resources – Marketing is a battle fought in the prospect’s mind. You need money to get into their mind and stay there. Marketers with money get more money because they have the resources to “drive their ideas into the mind.”

After reading this book, I thought about several marketing mistakes I’ve made. If I’d understood these laws, I would’ve made different decisions. If you’re like I was and could use a marketing-principles-for-dummies book, consider reading The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.