So I didn’t hit the magic 100 this year, and fell short at 80 books. Largely I blame my recent passion in politics which does require time and energy glued to the 24/7 news cycle that we live in today. That said, it was yet another year of amazing books, and here I am sharing with you my top 25 list with some honorable mentions. Again, there was no way I was going to find the time to write 25 summaries, so I just copied the summaries from Amazon. If you want my personal opinion on each book, feel free to take me out for a beer. The links to…

  The Chinese have a saying: 读万卷书，行万里路 (dú wàn juǎn shū, xíng wàn lǐ lù): to read 10,000 books and walk 10,000 miles. I’m not there yet, but over the last five years, I’ve flown over 500,000 miles, and read over 500 books. While its never been easy, at the very least, I hope it has set a foundation for me to grow on, and if anything, it has made my life so very interesting. Welcome back if you’ve followed my annual book list for the last several years. I am very proud that I was able to get through 111 books this year to get me to 500 over five…

I’m very proud to have completed my goal of 100 books again in 2016, and here I share with you my top 10. I hope you find the same value in these books as I did, and wish you the best along your journey with them!   #1 Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike By: Phil Knight From one entrepreneur to another, hats off to you Phil! Business is hard; that is a simple fact, and as much as we want to glamorize the crazy dreamers and thinkers, I truly believe the greatest entrepreneurs first start as tremendous problem solves, one’s that never quit under the face…

“Remember, young man, experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher. By reading about the lives of great people, you can unlock the secrets to what made them great.”   I can very proudly say that I was again able to accomplish the audacious goal of reading 100 books in a year, and I’ve published below the top 10 books I read this year. Usually I publish a top 40 or 50, but while I realized that I love lists; I actually hate long lists. So in keeping with my own personal preference, and desire to make my posts as useful to my readers as…

This article is about a week late, but I’ve also already realized that I have zero time in my life, so the fact that I’m writing this at all is impressive to me. Anyway, love him or hate him, and most hate him, the facts are this, Floyd Mayweather is one of the most dominate boxers in the history of the sport, and easily the most profitable having pulled in a guaranteed $120 million, and a possible $250 million from the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight. Now here’s the thing, in most people’s general opinion, there is little to be learned from Floyd in terms of life skills, and the guy can make…

“Remember, young man, experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher. By reading about the lives of great people, you can unlock the secrets to what made them great.” Like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, if I had one super natural talent, I might choose the ability to read faster. The impact books have made on my personal and professional development is a feeling I find difficult to put into words. Last year, I set out and completed an audacious goal of reading 100 books, and found that rather tiresome so this year I kept my numbers at a respectable but sane level of 80…

Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending a salon discussion and art party for the great Chicago artist, Patrick Skoff. The event was hosted by IVY Connects, a group that has 10,000+ members in New York, DC, Boston, San Francisco, LA, and now Chicago. Special shout out to the group’s co-founders Philip Triebel and Beri Meric, and to their team, Paul Sabayrac, Julia Sommer, and Catherine Lowell for always putting up such great and fun events. Personally I hate networking, and just “meeting people”, but I am always pleasantly surprised by the types of interesting people I meet, and conversations that occur at IVY, so again, special shout…

  This past week, I took a trip out to Nanjing, China with a partner of mine to visit a dear friend, and former partner.  It’s been two long years since I’ve last seen him, and since then, another partner that ripped me off, and robbed me blind has gone into hiding, but in the process, left my friend with a mountain of business debt, and a crashed business. He’s since recovered a bit, but together we ate and drank; talking and joking about some of our fortunes, but mainly laughing of the ridiculous and now hilarious circumstances we encountered. The three of us have been cheated, stolen from, and…

A young student once approached his master in the morning of the New Year, gleaming with excitement as he could not wait to share to his wise old master his vision for the upcoming year. The young student approached his master and said, “Master, I have set my goals for this year!” The master, always patient in his response, asked the young student “Oh yes? What is the one thing you are committed to this year”? The young student with a puzzled look, quickly responded, “Master, I have many things I want to do, I will..”, and from there, the young student listed many goals, ranging from the marks he…

On October 28th there will be a helluva birthday celebration and I can guarantee a couple of things, first, there will be a lot of Crown Royal, Hennessey and MGD at that party and after that, a horde of friends and family will be there to spend time with a man that many know as Shorty, or that I know as Coach. Throughout my years in athletics I’ve had a lot of coaches in my day, none as influential and as close to me as the man that I refer to as Coach. Personally, I take a great deal of pleasuring writing this post and while most of my posts…