Reading List

A Voyage for Madmen - Peter Nichols

If I were to give a New York Timeseque book review for this it would be: "Gripping".  After searching the first few pages, it seems that "gripping" is not yet taken, so I am safe. 

Nichols, who is himself an accomplished sailor, tells the tale of nine men who in 1968 set about to race to be the first to sail around the world...solo...unassisted...and non-stop.  Indeed the difficulty of this race, which was sponsored by the English newspaper the Sunday Times and termed the Golden Globe Race (the precursor to the modern day Vendee Globe Race), cannot be overstated.  Telling of this is statement on the cover of the book: "Nine men set out to race each other around the world. Only one made it back".

The book chronicles the fate of each individual and is highly informative in terms of the technical aspects of sailing that are explained along the way. Each individual was driven by the fact it had never been done before, though the true motivations for each were deeply personal.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in sailing and an incredible story about a peice of history that I didn't know had even taken place.

Sealed inside their tiny craft, beyond the world's gaze, stripped of any possibility of pretense, the sailors met their truest selves. Who they were - not the sea or the weather - determined the nature of their voyages. They failed and succeeded on the grandest scale. Only one of the nine crossed the finish line after ten months at sea and passed through fortune's elusive membrane into the sunny world of fame, wealth, and glory.  For the others, the rewards were a rich mixture of failure, ignominy, sublimity, madness, and death.

Like the first ascent of Everest, it was a fear without any larger purpose than its own end. But like a trip to the moon, it was a voyage that provided Man with another benchmark of the far reach of his yearning endeavour. 

What Makes A Leader - Daniel Goleman (Article in Harvard Business Review)

Goleman argues that though a certain degree of technical and analytical skills are required for any successful leader, the real key that distinguishes outstanding performers is what he terms 'emotional intelligence'.  Emotional intelligence has five key components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. 

Using this as a frame, I thought about the leaders I interact with and have worked with in the past, and I whole-heartedly agree that the best leaders display these traits, particularly empathy and social skills.

Interestingly, Goleman notes that many of the traits that his research has shown to be crucial in distinguishing outstanding leaders have traditionally been viewed as either unimportant or actually weaknesses in the rough-and-tough world of business.

Though not exactly recent, this is an excellent article that I hope has penetrated the minds of hiring managers and executives throughout the business world.

It was once thought that components of emotional intelligence were "nice to have" in business leaders. But now we know that, for the sake of performance, these are ingredients that leaders "need to have".

Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource - Marq de Villiers

An excellent read for anyone interested in what is surely the most important, yet undervalued, resource on our planet: water. De Villiers gives an impressive, sweeping overview of the state of water resources in different places across the globe, and the current and looming challenges that exist in managing this resource, particularly when it is shared between different jurisdictions.

Importantly, de Villiers illuminates that the issue with water is not really one of supply (though acute water shortages do exist in certain regions) but really about how we manage it and even how we as a society view water.

How to Make Money and Change the World - Produced by dreamnow.org

Overview: Get past the cheesy title and this free e-book (available from dreamnow.org) is worth a read.  The premise of the book is simple: that people can change the world without compromising happiness, lifestyle, or passion and the information contained in it is based on interviews mainly with people in their twenties. The book discusses some key questions and emerging trends before outlining a six-step process for making money and doing good which are included below along with my annotations:
1) Start in the middle - it was refreshing to read that interviewees did not know exactly what they wanted to be doing in their life, rather, they started pursuing the idea of the moment and committed fully to the pursuit.
2) Be your future self - even something as simple as speaking in the active (e.g. "I am an entrepreneur developing plans to...") rather than the potential (e.g. "I hope one day to leave my job an...) will help build confidence and help you become your future self.
3) Become an expert - not in the traditional sense of spending your life in a school studying, as this can be achieved through active networking, using the Internet, and having time to pursue answers to questions.
4) Build your support - view each person you meet as someone you can learn from
5) Trust time - relationships take time
6) Identify the winner - many of the careers people chose were not ones advertised or formally promoted

The conversations from which this e-book was drawn were filled with debate about if and when compromise was necessary in developing careers that combine social contribution, personal meaning, and financial security. We've been left with a resonating sense of hope, of possibility and of an understanding that compromise is not necessary.

The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans - Mark Lynas

Overview: Lynas' book defines nine planetary boundaries, of which climate change is one area, that humankind must not cross if life on the planet as we know it is to continue (the others being: biodiversity, nitrogen, land use, freshwater, toxins, aerosols, ocean acidification, and ozone layer).  Lynas works from the assumption that we are the dominant species on the planet and homo sapiens have already inadvertently interfered with and impacted major systems of the earth, from the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to pH level of the world's oceans, thus we now need to turn our attention to purposefully changing things to avoid catastrophe.  The author argues for a giant technofix, or rather a series of different techno fixes, to get ourselves out of the planetary destruction we have caused, whilst maintaining economic growth and ever increasing standards of living. It is perhaps this last assertion, that economic growth not only can continue unabated but should, that is most contentious.

Overall I enjoyed this read and appreciated the focus on other key areas being altered or destroyed by anthropogenic activity that are equal to or more important than climate change in importance, particularly biodiversity loss.

Using the tool of the gods, we were to become as gods. But unlike Zeus, we still live in ignorance about our true power. And time is running out, for the flames of our human inferno have begun to consume the whole world (p. 29)

Arabian Sands - Wilfred Thesiger

Overview: This is an excellent account by the British explorer and former soldier Wilfred Thesiger who spent five years travelling through a rugged and desolate region of Arabia known as the 'Empty Quarter'.  Thesiger would have been one of the first Europeans through this area, and had an intimate knowledge and appreciation for the various tribes with whom he travelled.

Extremely detailed in every account, I found the most interesting part to be Thesiger's disdain for the modern forces of the world that were coming and soon to change the region forever, namely the exploration for oil and the use of the automobile.  Thesiger also admitted he felt like he lived in two different worlds, one back in Britain and another with the tribesman in the sands, though he no doubt felt more at home in the hardships of the latter.

But there was a deeper reason that prompted me to take this journey. I had done it to escape a little longer from the machines which dominated our world. The experience would last longer than the few days I spent on the journey. All my life I had hated machines. I could remember how bitterly at school I had resented reading the news that someone had flown across the Atlantic or travelled through the Sahara in a car. I had realized even then that the speed and ease of mechanical transport must rob the world of all diversity (p. 278)

The Unbeatable Dream: The First 25 Years of the Napili Kai Beach Club - Jack, Margaret, and Dorothy Millar (as told by Brooke Brown)


Overview: This short book tells the story of how Jack, Margaret, and Dorothy Millar (relatives of mine on my Dad's side) turned the dream of a beach side resort in Hawaii into reality.  The story is one of perseverance, as the operation faced challenge after challenge in the form of floods, fire, rodents, and beyond.  It was interesting to read about how my grandmother had nearly been swept away by a rouge wave while visiting one year. I hope to visit this resort one day.

This nicely sums up the Napili Kai approach: Certainly, when one is enjoying him or herself in a special haven, time means nothing: the surroundings and the people one meets mean everything!


Losing my Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way - Richard Branson

See separate post on this book.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail - Bill Bryson

Overview: There is probably enough yarn spun in this book to put it in the 'Fiction' category, but that is OK, because Bill Bryson had me laughing all the way through.  This is a hilarious account of his attempt (being the operative word) to hike all 2,000+ miles of the Appalachian Trail, which needless to say, didn't quite happen.

An easy and light-hearted read, perfect for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and especially worthwhile for anyone who has stepped foot on the AT.

Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.

Life takes on a neat simplicity, too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again you get up, and everything in between is just in between. It's quite wonderful, really. (p. 100)