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- My Top Reads of 2024
Hey friend,
As the year comes to a close, I thought it’d be valuable to share my top reads of 2024 and highlight a few favorite passages from each.
All quoted passages are sourced directly from the credited books.
Go support the author if something sparks an interest.
Naval Ravikant is one of the most important business minds in the world— celebrated as a renowned investor, entrepreneur, and philosopher.
This ‘Almanack,’ compiled by Eric Jorgenson, encapsulates Naval’s wisdom across life, business, happiness, and wealth.
It’s a comprehensive guide that everyone has something to learn from.
Here are three standout passages.
“I only really want to do things for their own sake. That is one definition of art. Whether it’s business, exercise, romance, friendship, whatever, I think the meaning of life is to do things for their own sake. Ironically, when you do things for their own sake, you create your best work.”
“Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can convert peace into happiness anytime you want. But peace is what you want most of the time. If you’re a peaceful person, anything you do will be a happy activity.”
“There’s a great definition I read: ‘Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts.’ It means enlightenment isn’t something you achieve after thirty years sitting on a mountaintop. It’s something you can achieve moment to moment, and you can be enlightened to a certain percent every day.”
THE CREATIVE ACT: A WAY OF BEING BY RICK RUBIN
The Creative Act is quickly becoming my answer to Tim Ferris’ famous interview question, 'What book have you gifted most to others, and why?’
Why? Because I believe that all humans are wired to create.
The book beautifully presents 1-3 page meditations on the creative process, drawing from Rubin’s extensive experience working with the biggest musicians in the world.
Three sections I found most resonant:
“Beware of the assumption
that the way you work
is the best way
simply because
it’s the way you’ve done it before.”
“Living in discovery is at all times preferable
to living through assumptions.”
“A work of art is not an end point in itself.
It’s a station on a journey.
A chapter in our lives.
We acknowledge these transitions
by documenting each of them.”
THE SURRENDER EXPERIMENT BY MICHAEL SINGER
Michael Singer’s Surrender Experiment pulled me in like no other book this year.
In it, Singer recounts his life journey, revealing the profound shift that occurred when he committed to surrendering to the “universal flow.”
“My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself - because it was.”
This state of surrender // unconditional acceptance transformed his life as a homeless yogi to the founder & CEO of Medical Manager - a publicly traded software company - and a best-selling author.
In the face of both success & challenge, Singer humbly explains that he “just kept letting go and practicing nonresistance, whether I liked what was happening or not.”
This book reads like fiction yet is packed full of wisdom. Highly recommend.
THE HEART OF BUSINESS BY HUBERT JOLY
The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism by Hubert Joly is a compelling exploration of leadership in the 21st century.
Drawing on his experience as the former CEO of Best Buy, Joly advocates for a purpose-driven, human-centric model of business.
A few of his insights for engaging with conscious capitalism:
“I believe that the key to business success and addressing our world’s most burning challenges - those that bother my children and so many in their generation - entails embracing and mobilizing customers and vendors and communities and shareholders in pursuit of a chosen noble purchase. Doing so happens when a company’s employees connect with all of them with heart.”
“We can choose to treat work as what I feel it is: an essential element of our humanity, a key to our search for meaning as individuals, and a way to find fulfillment in our life. Like poet Khalil Gibran eloquently said in a poem dedicated to work, I believe that work is love made visible.”
INWARD BY YUNG PUEBLO
“Inward” is a beautiful collection of poems exploring universal themes of love, healing & growth.
This book adorned my bedside throughout the year, offering a perfect pre-sleep meditation.
Three favorites:
“measure
your success
by the growth
of your freedom”
“movements change the world, but just as it is
important to be a part of and build movements to
create a world where human rights are a reality
for all - a world where systemic forms of social
and economics oppression no longer exist - so it is
equally important to build our own intimate internal
movement that focuses on healing the greed, hatred,
and fear within ourselves that cause so much chaos
in our lives and are the actual underlying roots of the
societal chaos we experience.”
“releasing,
learning,
expanding–
i am happily a
work in progress”
BIG MAGIC BY LIZ GILBERT
Liz Gilbert, known for the monster success of Eat Pray Love, published Big Magic a decade later in 2015.
This book was my first dive into her work and it left me thoroughly impressed.
Her writing, both playful & wise, invites readers to embrace ‘Creative Living Beyond Fear.’
Big Magic is a captivating exploration of creativity & inspiration that I’d recommend to anyone. A creative life is a good life.
Here’s a crucial point that captures the essence of Gilbert’s philosophy in Big Magic.
“In conclusion, then, art is absolutely meaningless.
It is, however, also deeply meaningful.
That’s a paradox, of course, but we’re all adults here, and I think we can handle it. I think we can all hold two mutually contradictory ideas at the same time without our heads exploding. So let’s give this one a try. The paradox that you need to comfortably inhabit, if you wist to live a contented creative life, goes something like this:
‘My creative expression must be the most important thing in the world to me (if I am to live artistically), and it also must not matter at all (if I am to live sanely.)’”
RAPTURE BY NICK NURSE
Nick Nurse is the new head coach for the Philadelphia 76ers and his book Rapture chronicles his path to the NBA.
Coming from humble beginnings, Nurse worked his face off– coaching 15 teams before earning an assistant coaching position for the Toronto Raptors– where he eventually won a championship.
One of the ideas that really stuck with me is an acronym he shared with his players:
FEAR = Face Everything And Rise
Basketball fan or not - this is a great story about overcoming challenges & pursuing the things you love.
And if you’re a 76ers fan, it’s a must listen that’ll make you bullish on the seasons ahead.
LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING BY YVON CHOUINARD
Earlier this year, Patagonia was ranked as the most respected brand by Inc.com.
High praise for a family-owned outdoor clothing company.
What made this possible was their commitment to their mission statement: ‘Make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.’
In Let My People Go Surfing, Founder Yvon Chouinard shares the history, philosophies, and strategies that made Patagonia the company it is today.
In many ways, it’s a blueprint for ethical business & hope for the future.
“This is the story of an attempt to do more than change a single corporation—it is an attempt to challenge the culture of consumption that is at the heart of the global ecological crisis,” writes Naomi Klein (in the foreword.)
Here’s a handful of Chouinard’s perspectives on business:
“I think of Patagonia as an ecosystem, with its vendors and customers as an integral part of that system. A problem anywhere in the system eventually affects the whole, and this gives everyone an overriding responsibility to the health of the whole organism. It also means that anyone, low on the totem pole or high, inside the company or out, can contribute significantly to the health of the company and to the integrity and value of our products.”
“Studying Zen has taught me to simplify; to simplify yields a richer result.”
“Doing risk sports had taught me another important lesson: Never exceed your limits. You push the envelope, and you live for those moments when you’re right on the edge, but you don’t go over. You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means. The same is true for a business. The sooner a company tries to be what it is not, the sooner it tries to “have it all,” the sooner it will die.
“There are different ways to address a new idea or project. If you take the conservative scientific route, you study the problem in your head or on paper until you are sure there is no chance of failure. However, you have taken so long that the competition has already beaten you to market. The entrepreneurial way is to immediately take a forward step and if that feels good, take another, if not, step back. Learn by doing, it is a faster process.
THANK YOU FOR READING
What was your favorite book you read this year?
Wishing you & your loved ones a happy holiday 💙
With gratitude,
Aidan