“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”

Adventures of a Curious Character

My book review this week is Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman.

Besides winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965, Feynman was an eccentric, larger than life character with a list of achievements and accolades that are hard to fathom. He actively worked on the development of the atomic bomb, traded ideas with Einstein, Bohr, and Nick the Greek, cracked safes guarding highly sensitive atomic secrets, played bongo drums for a ballet, along with a host of other eclectic activities and accomplishments. This is a highly entertaining book full of funny stories, technical theory, and valuable life principles.

My takeaways from this book are the principles that Feynman discovered and exemplified throughout his life. I have listed a few of them below:

How to Get a Free Education from World Renowned Leaders

There is unlimited expertise available from world renowned leaders on every imaginable topic . . . and it is all available to you for free!

This treasure trove of knowledge is easily available to anyone, anywhere through podcasts. All you need to do is subscribe and set time aside to listen and learn!

I listen to podcasts when I am driving, jogging, flying, or whenever I have a few spare minutes to sit, listen, and learn.

I subscribe to an eclectic collection of podcasts covering topics like business, religion, health and wellness, technology, history, politics, marketing, blogging, copyrighting, and many more! I find the wide ranging topics not only help me to learn but increase my creativity by finding connections between the diverse topics.

This instant access to free expertise is unprecedented and we, as business leaders, are doing ourselves a huge disservice if we are not taking advantage of it!

I am often asked what podcasts I listen to, so I have listed them below. I do not listen to each episode of these podcasts because there is simply not enough time in the day! I pick and chose the episodes that interest me and I delete the rest.

Tools of Titans

The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

This week’s book review is Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferriss


Ferriss has compiled an extensive volume of advice from an impressive cast of high profile people on topics loosely categorized into health, wealth, and wisdom. Ferriss lives his life like “one big human experiment” and this book captures his experiences while leveraging the collective wisdom of all those who have influenced and impacted his life.

There is a ton of interesting material and wisdom in this book! There will also be some material that you do not find valuable . . . but that is the point of the book. You learn from what you can and ignore the rest!

My takeaway from this book is that I need to take more risks and challenges to grow in more areas. I also need to get a handle on cyber security and how it is impacting me and how it will impact me.

H3 Leadership – Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle

As a new feature of Thinking Business Blog, I plan to publish a brief, one paragraph summary of the business books that I am reading. This will be a very high level synopsis of the book and what I gained from it. I will publish these summaries as I complete the books and not on a predetermined schedule. I trust you will benefit from them.

The first book I reviewed was Procrastinate on Purpose.

The second review was Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice

The third review was Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto

The fourth review is H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick

This is a great leadership book written through the eyes of Lomenick as he transitioned from leadership of an organization called Catalyst to a lengthy sabbatical and then back into the marketplace. It is packed with great stories, meaningful insights and stunning wisdom. My takeaway from this book is his 20 components of H3 Leadership:

How Smart Thinking Can Improve Your Business, Engage Your Employees and Satisfy Your Customers

Leaders of successful businesses foster innovative work environments where their employees are able to creatively apply their knowledge and strengths to solve their customers’ problems. This sort of work environment is motivating for employees, results in happy, repeat customers that are happy to pay for your services and products. It is a win-win-win for everyone.

Back in the early 90’s I worked for a consulting company that had this mindset. Employees were encouraged to work with customers to identify areas in their businesses that could be improved. We then proposed a number of solutions to deal with these improvement opportunities and the customers would hire us to implement them.