88 Powerful Lessons from Influential Leaders

I find that books are more powerful than any other teaching medium. They are unique packages of an author’s wisdom that provide a different experience for every reader.

Because we all have different life experiences, we interpret what we read through the lens of our own distinctive experiences. This means that two people can read the same book and come away with completely different life changing insights! It also means that you can read the same book more than once over the years and learn something different from it each time!

That is why Timothy Ferriss’ Tribe of Mentors is such a powerful book. Through his insightful questions and powerful interviewing style, Ferriss has distilled the profound wisdom of more than 100 of the world’s most influential people into a single book. It is a treasure trove of wisdom!

Through my lens or worldview, I have selected 88 pieces of wisdom and advice from Tribe of Mentors which I share below. Acting on any one of these pieces of advice could make a profound difference in your life. Acting on more than one is guaranteed to change you!

The War of Art

Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

This week’s book summary is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

Pressfield does a stellar job of defining what “Resistance” is and how it prevents each of us from reaching our full potential. He has written this book in such a simple, yet profound prose, that anyone can read and understand it – and everyone will be motivated by it! Although the book does have a lot of metaphors and analogies that not everyone will agree with, I still think it is one of the most powerfully motivating books I have read!

My takeaway from this book is that each of us has unique gifts for the “sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter further along its path.” As Pressfield says; “Our creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

 

Note that I have previously reviewed the following books in 2018:

What is the Secret to Business Success?

Is your business already killing it this year or have you fallen behind and now have some steep hills to climb as you get back on track?

Or maybe a better question is, do you know where you are really at?

It may be possible that you are not measuring the proper indicators or that the tools that you are using to measure your results are not giving you the “story behind the story.”

One of the secrets to business success is knowing what to measure and how to interpret the results!

For this post, I will assume that you have selected the correct indicator. So the question that we need to address is; “How will you report, view, and interpret this key indicator?”

Although there are many answers to this question, one great solution is to use a Rolling 12 Month Trend report.

Rolling 12 Month Trend

How To Be Amazing And Make The Sale

Customer first service mantras have been around so long that we are sick of hearing about them . . . until we personally go through a new dismal customer service experience and are reminded how important the customer experience really is!

The truth is that business leaders must not only build a customer centric culture in their organization but they must constantly maintain this culture. It only takes one bad experience to tarnish a company’s reputation which can take years to rebuild!

My Honda Experience

WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us

The book review for this week is What’s the Future by Tim O’Reilly.

O’Reilly outlines the process he uses to understand and successfully identify developing trends that will make an impact in the future. He explains how to build this set of tools and mindset in yourself and in your organization. There are many great examples and personal stories provided to illustrate the concepts that he is teaching.

The last section of the book identifies a number of societal shaking trends that are developing and how we can position ourselves and our businesses to leverage these trends successfully.

My takeaway from this book is what O’Reilly calls the business model map for the new economy which consists of the following seven components outlined below and shown in his graphic: