ROSS
When I first got started in the fitness industry, all my reading was on training and nutrition. That then parlayed into me attending seminars, workshops and courses where I’d essentially learn to become better at delivering results for people.
From there I moved into learning about marketing and sales (far too early) and began applying the stuff I learnt there. Thing is, I wasn’t a good enough coach at that point so I had to go back and learn more about coaching before I could really ‘cash in’ on the marketing knowledge. (NOTE: I’m still pretty pish at marketing so the word ‘knowledge’ is probably not justified.)
This past year I’ve been focussed on learning more about leadership, management, finance and ‘the bigger picture’; i.e. visions, expansion and growth.
It’s essentially stuff I always knew I should learn more about but avoided the responsibility because I’ve “never wanted a real job”. Alas, somewhat accidentally, I seem to have landed myself that ‘real job’ I’ve always avoided…and so I feel obliged to become at least semi-competent at it, because, I guess, I’ve got other people depending on me now.
Before I get kicked off, here’s a quick-fire list of books I read but didn’t feel the need to talk about at any length within this article. All solid books, just not as good as the ones mentioned later.
Selling The Invisible
Oversubscribed
Trust Me, I’m Lying
Growth Hacker Marketing
Profit First
Tools of Titans (only included here because I’ve just got my hands on it, but it’s fantastic thus far).
The following is a list of books I’ve read over the past year that have helped me become a better leader, and also helped me communicate my vision with my peeps, which has in-turn boosted our performances:
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
It’s a big statement and so I’m not going to 100% commit to saying that this is the best book I’ve ever read (well, listened to…I don’t have the attention span to actually sit still and read a book), but it’s certainly one of thee best books I’ve ever read.
I first stumbled upon Jocko on Tim Ferriss’ podcast and was blown away by everything he said for 2-3 hours. I hung on every word and thought: “where’s this guy been all my life?”
The podcast, and Jocko’s words, were exactly what I needed to hear at the moment in time I heard them. I downloaded his book immediately and have since listened to it at least 4 times. Whenever times are tough, I switch it on and get reminded in no uncertain terms that: “This is all your fault and you have to find a solution.”
It keeps me honest in a world where everyone’s looking to point the finger at someone else.
Legacy by James Kerr
For different reasons, Legacy also find its way into the ‘best books I’ve ever read’ list. It’s an account of New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team and beautifully details how they totally restructured their infrastructure when the results weren’t going their way.
They focussed on the simple principle of ‘Better people make better All Blacks’, and set about promoting leadership, team spirit, communication and ownership within their players.
The book served me with a reminder that just because I have a vision doesn’t meant the people around me can see it. And if they can’t see it they can’t be motivated to work towards it.
As a leader you have to work hard to develop those around you. You have to ensure they’re happy and motivated. And you have to promote free thought amongst them.
The highlight of the book was the All Black’s ‘No Dickhead’ rule, which is one we enforce at our gym. Even if a player was good enough to play for the team, they were not allowed to or not invited back if they were deemed a dickhead. Team spirit and unity is everything when working towards a goal/vision.
Business For Punks by James Watt
I like beer, I’m Scottish and I like hearing about business succeeding, so the story of BrewDog, as written by one of its founders was a no-brainer for me.
The main takeaways from this book for me were that you have to be brave and audacious to make a success of a business. It’s not a game for the weak and timid. You have to be willing to sacrifice your wages, your security and – from time to time – your sanity in order to make things work.
James Watt tells the story brilliantly about how they had barely enough money to pay staff but kept plugging away, whilst not being financially rewarded themselves (him and the other founder) because they believed deep in their hearts that they’d one day be rewarded. The believed in their vision when no one else did, and they refused to give up on it.
They also did a bunch of stuff without permission that they knew would get them into trouble. I dig that.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
I’ve got to be honest and say that I bought this book in paperback around 3-4 years ago when I was trying to learn more about the business side of things, but it just never hooked me.
I used to buy 3-4 books at a time, read one and then forget about the others before ordering another bunch of books. The E-Myth Revisited was one of the one’s I always knew was there but had no motivation to read. After all, a book about systems and operating procedures isn’t particularly sexy, is it?
But after hearing yet another recommendation about it, I don’t even remember who from, I forced myself to download it and listen to it.
It came at a time I knew there was a bunch of things missing in my own business, and I knew that the problems were all my fault (Extreme Ownership, remember?!). We had no systems and everything was either in my head and not communicated or communicated badly to the extent that things didn’t get done properly…if at all.
After reading The E-Myth Revisited I spent around 2 weeks writing a Systems & Operating Procedures (SOPS) manual that ensures (well, hopefully ensures) if anything happens to me and I can’t make it into work, shit will still get done the way it should get done.
I also came up with a bunch of checklists for the gym that we’ve just started implementing to make sure the ‘i’s are dotted and the ’t’s are crossed. (I know that probably seems really simple, but I’ve got zero corporate experience…or any actual ‘real job’ experience, so it wasn’t obvious to me.)
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
Around September time, I was down in London for a weekend seminar with some of the best independent gym owners in the UK and on one of the breaks we all got started talking about books. (Rock’n’roll, I know. I promise we drank triple whiskeys later that night!)
Delivering Happiness came up a few times and was referred to as “the bible for customer service”.
I’d seen the book in shops and never really bothered with it, but after it got that high praise from guys I trusted I knew I had to read it.
It documents the rise of Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, and – similar to James Watt of Brewdog – starts off with stories of their struggles. How they had to lay off multiple staff, sacrifice their own wages and essentially just battle failure for a damn long time.
Thankfully, and similar to Watt’s Brewdog again, they overcame their issues and prospered, thanks to their customer-centric approach to their business.
The biggest takeaway from the book for me was to try to put an individual stamp on everything that you do within your business. Whether that’s saying something quirky in an email, trying to make people laugh in a serious meeting or – for me – writing something hugely inappropriate on the white board in the gym for our members to read.
Personal Training is a very customer-service driven business. After all, people pay us to train them. We’re always customer-facing. However, as a Personal Training business expands (certainly for myself anyway), there’s more and more to do ‘behind the scenes’, and therefore more balls to be dropped.
For the first half of this year, I dropped these balls time and time again. But, thankfully (well, hopefully) I’ve been able to learn, develop and apply to the point where there’s at least far fewer balls being dropped, and our customer service is better than ever.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
I first heard about this book a while back when reading a blog that Mark Fisher (of Mark Fisher Fitness) wrote. He said the book was compulsory reading for any new member of staff at MFF and that there was a YouTube video available as well.
I had a look at the book on Amazon and the cover didn’t particularly tingle my taste buds (yeah, my attention span is really that short). I looked up the video on YouTube and just never got around to giving it the best part of an hour of my time.
One day earlier this year I was getting pissed off at my team, which then meant I got pissed off at myself for not leading them well enough (thanks to what I read and learned in ‘Extreme Ownership’) and decided to heed Mark Fisher’s advice and read Lencioni’s work.
The book focuses around the five dysfunctions (funnily enough), which are stated as being: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.
When reading the book, I realised that there were two problems (that I could see). The first was that there wasn’t any commitment to a bigger goal. It was simply: here’s a gym, here’s some members, let’s show up every day and do our best. And that just isn’t a good enough motivator for daily excellence.
I realised I had to better communicate my vision with Ally & Rachel so as they could see why I’m driven to bust my balls every day. Once I did this, I feel our performance increased dramatically (which was also reflected in the performance of the business).
I think we’ve got some way to go, but we’ve certainly set the foundations for a strong team to move forward with. A team of 3 should be simple enough to manage; even for me. But, I think I’ll be re-visiting this book often as our team increases.
The Art of the Pimp by Dennis Hof
This one isn’t for the feint hearted, nor is it suitable for prudes. It charts the rise to riches of Dennis Hof, who started out as a child entrepreneur, ended up buying gas stations and then invested in brothels in Nevada.
The book essentially charts his brothel ownership, and is fairly graphic in parts. It will no doubt offend most people so probably best not to go near it if you are easily offended. In fact, never mind ‘easily offended’…if you get offended by anything just skip this.
I was attracted to it for two reasons.
The first is that I love any story about someone who started with nothing and forged financial success for themselves in business. I enjoy reading about their struggles, why they got started, what their intentions were and how they overcame and achieved, irrespective of what industry they made their living in. (In this list alone, I’ve got books about business owners in the beer industry, the wine and tech industry, the shoe industry and also, with this one, the sex industry.)
The second reason is because…well, what young dude wouldn’t be attracted by the title: ‘The Art of The Pimp: One Man’s Search For Love, Sex & Money’?!
It’s a bit of a weird read, because it’s pretty well documented that the sex industry is rife with exploitation, and so it’s hard not to think that most of the stuff he’s talking about is through his extremely rose-tinted glasses.
But the standouts for me were creating a safe and fun environment for your employees to work, to treat staff well and do all you can to make/keep them happy. He also spoke about having a standards bible that every new start had to read and adhere to. I think that’s a great idea and something I’m working on currently. Lastly, were his drive to grow and his ability to obtain mainstream media coverage to help raise awareness and get exposure for his businesses.
Whether you agree with his line of business or his moral compass as a human, you can’t argue with his business success. And from anyone who’s achieved anything, there’s lessons to be learned.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
The title of this book is very ‘click-baity’; i.e. it’s written so that you pick it up and buy it. Very similar to Tim Ferriss’ ‘The Four Hour Work Week’, in that it sounds too good to be true and so you can’t help but pick it up/buy a copy.
I was first introduced to Ramit Sethi’s work on Tim Ferris’ blog. He wrote an article on fourhourworkweek.com called ‘Real-World Blueprint for a 5-Million Week’ and it was so well written and convincing that I believed I was going to turnover £5million a few weeks later. (Needless to say, that didn’t happen!)
So when I had a spare Audible credit floating around, I figured I’d buy his book.
I didn’t really know what to expect from it, other than a few bits and pieces about money management…and that’s exactly what I ended up getting from it.
Rather than giving you a blueprint to become a millionaire, which is never going to be practical…is it? Sethi simply detailed ways of being more intelligent with saving, spending and investing. Again, it wasn’t so much a ‘how to’ for stocks and shares, it was more “if you’re currently not saving any money, start saving £5 per week and you’ll become richer”.
Very common sense orientated, but common sense ain’t all that common so definitely a good read for those who struggle with money (i.e. my good self).
(NOTE: I gave up on this about 75% of the way through. To be fair to myself, I was shocked I made it that far, so was happy enough with what I took from it.)
#AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
‘Gary Vee’, as he’s affectionately known by his followers, has released book after book of gold. He started with ‘Crush It’ (which I don’t think I’ve read yet), then followed up with ‘The Thank You Economy’ (which is very similar, at least in principle, to ‘Delivering Happiness’), ‘Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook’, which is a solid book on social media marketing, and his latest is #AskGaryVee.
This book is based off of it wildly popular YouTube show where he answers questions from business owners and entrepreneurs, and essentially sees him answer a silly amount of questions about every aspect of business ownership.
His views are very similar to Jocko Willink’s, in the sense that he’s a big believer in ownership and believes everything that happens in your world is your own fault.
Not making enough money? You don’t work hard enough. Not being given enough opportunities? You don’t deserve them. People hate you and you can’t figure out why? You’re a dick.
It’s refreshing to hear such an honest and straight forward approach to delicate matters in a time where people seem to be too scared to ask a question in case the answer hurts their feelings.
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
This book very nearly ended up in the ‘books I couldn’t get into’ list. Alas, despite me only listening to around 20% of it, I really feel I learned a lot from it.
I downloaded this just after my marriage ended and I had some major issues in the gym that I didn’t quite know how to deal with. To say it helped is a massive understatement. But, the thing is…and I find this with loads of books…I really don’t see what I’d have learned if I’d have kept reading.
The book centres around the Carnegie’s process of dealing with worry/stress, which is the following:
“What are you worried about?
Imagine the worst possible outcome to your current concern.
Emotionally accept that the worst-case scenario might actually happen. (Don’t resign yourself to it happening, but at least consider the possibility that it will.)
To help with accepting this negative outcome, answer these three questions:
1. What will be the real consequences if the bad thing happens?
2. How will you cope with those consequences?
3. What will still be good in my life?
Now that you’ve accepted the worst-case scenario, what can you reasonably do to prevent it?”
Once I’d got to that part of the book, I literally wrote that down and began kind of mind-mapping off the back of it. I ‘sorted out’ the problems I had going on at the time (on paper), accepted about 3 possible outcomes and then went back to ‘real life’ and dealt with them.
The book fulfilled the need I had at the time, and so I really didn’t feel it necessary to go back to it.
This is a belter for anyone who gets overwhelmed easily, or who suffers with stress and/or anxiety. (If you copy the above ‘process’ you’ll save yourself some time. That said, if you want loads of stories to reinforce the effectiveness of it, get the book and dive in.)
Books I downloaded but couldn’t get into:
The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
I downloaded this recently after hearing Jamie Alderton refer to it in a podcast, but just couldn’t
click with it. I think I’ve read so many self-help books over the years that my brain is kind of exhausted by the genre. With every passing word, I’m just nodding and internally saying “yup, yup, yup”.
I think I’ll give self-help/law of attraction stuff a break for a while.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius & The Tao of Seneca by Seneca
I’ve put these two together because I found them to be equally hard to get into, and they’re both on exactly the same topic: stoicism.
After reading a couple of Ryan Holiday’s books (Ego Is The Enemy and The Obstacle Is The Way, which I thought were decent enough but not really noteworthy enough for this blog…although, it’s entirely possible I just didn’t pay enough attention to them) and listening to a podcast with him and Tim Ferriss, I felt compelled to learn more about stoicism.
A quick Google search tells me that stoicism means “the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings and without complaint”. It’s a philosophical way of thinking…well, more a way of living, actually…that focuses on being content and happy with very little. The thought process is that if you are happy and content with little then no hardship or adversity in your life should be able to upset that happiness.
The problem for me is that I think I got the principles from Holiday’s books and their podcast episodes. So when I was listening to the books I was in a similar state I was in whilst listening to Psychocybernetics: “yup, yup, yup”. I also just found them really boring which tells me one of two things (or both): 1. They are boring; 2. I’m just not at a stage of philosophical understanding to appreciate them. Probably the latter.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
Seduction seems to carry negative connotations within society, but I really think it’s a positive. If you’re selling something you’ve got to be able to seduce people and make them desire what you’re selling. If you’re attracted to someone, you’ve got to be able to seduce them and make them attracted to you.
It’s only sinister if your intentions are sinister. Otherwise, you’re essentially just using influence to help people get what they want.
I was attracted to this book because I loved Robert Greene’s other books: Mastery, The 48 Laws of Power and The 50th Law, which he wrote with 50 Cent. Those are all fantastic books and so I figured The Art of Seduction would be no different.
However, I found it to be a bit seedy and deceitful. I didn’t really enjoy it and felt it was more about playing different characters in order to attract different people. I’m more a fan of becoming an improved version of oneself in order to then be more attractive to more people, rather than being a chameleon.
I may have totally gotten this wrong as I didn’t give it much of a chance. It probably got a lot better, as Robert Greene doesn’t publish shit books, but it just wasn’t for me…at this point in my life, anyway.
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