Stephen A. Smith is one of, if not the most recognized name in all of sports media. This month, he released his first memoir, Straight Shooter, where he opens up about many aspects of his life and career: his relationship with his absentee father, his respect and love for his late mother, his rise through the ranks at ESPN, and more.

I am a huge Stephen A. fan. When I was studying for exams in college, I would routinely listen to his long-standing sports debate show, First Take, during its glory days, when he sparred with Skip Bayless. If you’ve ever heard SAS go on a rant, there is something so unique and refreshing about his voice, tone, demeaner, and just the way he says certain phrases. My personal favorite: “The Dallas Cowboys ARE A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN!!”

Despite my fandom, this book left me wanting a bit more. It’s not bad, and definitely worth a read, especially if you’re a fan, but I wish SAS focused a little more on his career and unique experiences he’s had being such a prominent sports media persona. Instead, the book focused more on his rough upbringing and general distaste for his father, who seemed like a real piece of poo. I know this is necessary and what he wanted to right about but the points he made about his relationship with his father felt a bit repetitive and belabored the point.

While he did discuss his mindset and approach to his work, the scenes that were major career altering moments for him felt too crammed and lacked the message and context he was intending to deliver. He discussed just three moments in his on-air career where he faced public backlash from live comments he made and what he learned from them. However, those anecdotes felt like they were shoved in there just so he could be on the record defending his true intentions and character that was blown out of proportion due to his misguided articulation on sensitive topics. They were very interesting, but would have been better if he gave readers more interesting moments and perspective on what it’s like to be a sports ‘insider’, even if it wasn’t just about defending himself or leaning from a mistake. He lives such an interesting life, especially to sports fans, and I just wished he could have included more.

In spite of my qualms with the memoir as a whole, there was plenty of good lessons and morals to take away. Stephen A. showed us how a minority could rise to ultimate prominence in an industry dominated by old white executives. He showed humility while reminiscing on his transgressions, and that you are allowed to make mistakes so long as you learn from them. He stressed the importance of having a team and support system, even though his career has been spent building up his own name.

I was a fan of SAS before I read the book, and feel like he is more relatable to me, a younger white guy, now that I have took a peak inside his mind without the Disney filters on.

When Charles Duhigg published The Power of Habit in 2012, it was an instant best seller and became widely regarded in the psychology and business reading communities. As the title suggests, the book focuses on the science of habits and how we can utilize them to our advantage. I know I’m about 10 years late here, but the book still holds up today as the lessons can be applied to multiple aspects of life and business.

I often find self-help books to jump all over the place, often failing to focus on one main message. Duhigg, on the other hand, does an excellent job of creating a linear flow, as each chapter builds upon each other, allowing the reader to follow along and learn as the book progresses. Below I will outline the major points Duhigg brings up, but I do strongly recommend giving this book a full read. You can order it on Amazon with this link.

How Habits Work

The first part of the book discusses how habits are formed, and how the brain uses a system to create them, for better or worse. He describes “The habit loop”, which is essentialy a cue which triggers an action that is followed by a reward. For instance an alarm clock cues someone to wake up and go to shoer, brush their teeth, and have a coffee without butch though which they are then rewarded by feeling ready to start their day. He uses many different examples of habit loops, and how the brain can turn tasks that can be at first complex to the brain, but get turned into habits as the brain gets more accustomed to the loop.

Changing Habits

After educating the reader on how Habits work. Duhigg goes on to demonstrate how people can effectively change habits if they so desire. The main point is that habits can be changed if you keep the cue and reward the same but change the habit. For instance someone who is trying to stop smoking may be cued by seeing someone else light up a cigarette, they then light and smoke one themselves, and are rewarded from the feeling of destressing from smoking. If someone wanted to change that habit instead of smoking a cigarette they could have a few cups of coffee or a piece of nicotine gum. The cue and rewards are the same, but the action is different. Habits are tough to change at first but the more you get your brin accustomed to the new loop, the change becomes possible.

Keystone Habits

The next lawyer, Duhigg introduces is Keystone Habits. These are the important habits that when changed can have a domino effect on other habits. The example he uses is someone that starts an exercising habit can see other habits begin to form as a result. They might start to eat healthier, do drugs less, and so on. When it comes to business, identifying keystone habits within and organization that can have a major ripple effect on other habits the organization has fallen into is how successful CEOs make change.

Takeaways

This book does an excellent job of explaining how habits can be used effectively, by using tremendous examples from both life experiences and real-world business examples including a dysfunctional hospital, the King’s Cross fire of 1987, and how CEO Paul O’Neil transformed the aluminum producing conglomerate, Alcoa.

We all know the story of Netflix: a DVD mailing service that exploded to becoming one of the most valuable corporations on the planet. But what we don’t know about (or at least I didn’t) is all of the complicated decisions and obstacles that the early Netflix leaders were faced with and overcame, that allowed their company to foster a healthy culture and build it’s historic success. In his new memoir, That Will Never Work, Netflix’s co-founder and first CEO, Marc Randolph, tells his compelling narrative in a very candid and friendly manner that should serve as a source of inspiration for any reader whether you are an aspiring businessperson, or just like a feel-good story.

The book covers the time period ranging from 1997, 15 months before Netflix launched, up through 2002 when the company went public. Randolph describes the early days and conundrums of Netflix’s founding and all of the complicated decisions they made. Randolph is a gifted and entertaining writer which is exemplified as he recounts his experience, providing both comedy and general business advice that is applicable for almost any company.

Randolph comes off as a remarkably selfless person who was simply fueled by a passion for building and problem solving, while treating his employees with the respect they deserved. Randolph didn’t necessarily have an overwhelming passion for movies or TV, but as a serial entrepreneur, he had a passion for coming up with ideas and turning them into a reality, no matter how many people (including his wife) told him, “that will never work.” GET IT?! THATS THE TITLE!

What I think separates this book from most other entrepreneurial memoirs is the choice of topics Randolph highlights in his text. Instead of a typical rags to riches story that shoves the importance of work ethic down your throat, Randolph focuses on other important topics like culture, respect, self-awareness, and strategy that makes this account so inspiring. He reveals how he and his partners were able to preserve the friendly small-team start-up culture even as Netflix grew into a massive conglomerate.

Netflix’s constant attention to employee morale completely revolutionized the way most companies (try) today to treat their employees with what are now common-place perks like unlimited paid time off, flexible expense accounts, working remotely, and so on. One of the scenes that stuck out to me most was when Randolph was working for his previous company, Pure Atria (now Pure Software), he overheard his employees complaining while they were in a hot tub. He realized then that it didn’t matter how many parties, luncheons, or hut tubs you gave your employees, what makes them happiest at the end of the day is being treated like an adults. Randolph hired people based on their talent and work ethic, and then gave them the freedom to work and complete their tasks without being watched under a microscope.

Another quality of Randolph that becomes evident during the book is his self-awareness. He made the incredibly difficult decision to step down as CEO from the company he founded, handing the reigns to Reed Hasting (still the CEO), because he knew that Reed’s skill set was better suited for the direction the company was heading.

Their are much more great lessons, quotes, and shocking events that Randolph sprinkles through the pages. He even caps it off it with an extremley helpful epilogue that summarizes all of the lessons he tried to shine a light on through his story.

Spoiler alert: It worked.

Part of maximizing your potential as an entrepreneur is to learn as much as you can from those who have traveled down the road before. A great and bountiful source of this knowledge are books. An avid reader and writer myself, I have read many books that have helped me launch my own business, and also provide insight for my clients. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, I strongly suggest reading some of these books to broaden your knowledge.

The first Skyview Book of The Month is the 2016 memoir, Shoe Dog, by Nike founder, Phil Knight. We are all familiar with Nike the brand, but Phil’s recollection of the company’s origin and his persistence over the company’s initial decades offer a strong perspective on the uncertainty and resilience required to create a successful enterprise.

Phil did not invent a shoe, but he he saw an opportunity and jumped on it. Upon graduating from business school, he borrowed $50 from his father to start his company that focused on importing low-cost shoes from Japan. At the time, the U.S. shoe market was completely dominated by ADIDAS, but over the next few decades, Phil turned Nike into the world’s most popular shoe brand.

What I love most about this book is that Phil faced so many different moments of adversity that seemed impossible to overcome. Despite the obstacles in his way, Phil somehow managed to work his way around them and keep his company afloat even by the slimmest of margins. A common misconception when it comes to starting a business is that you should know every step of execution for the foreseeable future, but that is simply impossible when it comes to entrepreneurship. Successful businesses don’t reach their heights because they had a great model or plan when they started out, but that they were able to pivot and execute swiftly when the times called for it.

Shoe Dog is a must read for entrepreneurs to gain a better understanding of the tough calls and decision making that come with running a business with large goals.