Jason Calacanis
World's Greatest Moderator (TM), Angel investor: https://t.co/6leeScky9Y @twistartups @theallinpod @launch @inside
10+ Book Recommendations by Jason Calacanis
The Power Law
Sebastian Mallaby
From an award-winning financial historian comes the gripping, character-driven story of venture capital and the world it made Innovations rarely come from "experts." Jeff Bezos was not a bookseller; Elon Musk was not in the auto industry. When it comes to innovation, a legendary venture capitalist told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. Most attempts at discovery fail, but a few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives venture capital, Silicon Valley, the tech sector, and, by extension, the world. Drawing on unprecedented access to the most celebrated venture capitalists of all time, award-winning financial historian Sebastian Mallaby tells the story of this strange tribe of financiers who have funded the world's most successful companies, from Google to SpaceX to Alibaba. With a riveting blend of storytelling and analysis, The Power Law makes sense of the seeming randomness of success in venture capital, an industry that relies, for good and ill, on gut instinct and personality rather than spreadsheets and data. We learn the unvarnished truth about some of the most iconic triumphs and infamous disasters in the history of tech, from the comedy of errors that was the birth of Apple to the venture funding that fostered hubris at WeWork and Uber to the industry's notorious lack of women and ethnic minorities. Now the power law echoes around the world: it has transformed China's digital economy beyond recognition, and London is one of the top cities for venture capital investment. By taking us so deeply into the VCs' game, The Power Law helps us think about our own future through their eyes.hey everyone, we're live with @scmallaby to talk about the history of Silicon Valley & VC... from his amazing book The Power Law https://t.co/7do2nMegFI
Season of the Witch
David Talbot
@antoniogm Great book
Angel
Jason Calacanis
@garymfreedman @glennon “Only invest/gamble what you can afford to lose” is the best advice to give anyone considering angel investing or Vegas... also, please read my book (https://t.co/bhnGXzrQ1p) and take my free course on Angel investing: https://t.co/nZJlVHTGsx!
It's About Damn Time
Arlan Hamilton
"A hero's tale of what's possible when we unlock our potential, continue the search for knowledge, and draw on our lived experiences to guide us through the darkest moments."--Stacey Abrams From a black, gay woman who broke into the boys' club of Silicon Valley comes an empowering guide to finding your voice, working your way into any room you want to be in, and achieving your own dreams. In 2015, Arlan Hamilton was on food stamps and sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco airport, with nothing but an old laptop and a dream of breaking into the venture capital business. She couldn't understand why people starting companies all looked the same (white and male), and she wanted the chance to invest in the ideas and people who didn't conform to this image of how a founder is supposed to look. Hamilton had no contacts or network in Silicon Valley, no background in finance--not even a college degree. What she did have was fierce determination and the will to succeed. As much as we wish it weren't so, we still live in a world where being underrepresented often means being underestimated. But as someone who makes her living investing in high-potential founders who also happen to be female, LGBTQ, or people of color, Hamilton understands that being undervalued simply means that a big upside exists. Because even if you have to work twice as hard to get to the starting line, she says, once you are on a level playing field, you will sprint ahead. Despite what society would have you believe, Hamilton argues, a privileged background, an influential network, and a fancy college degree are not prerequisites for success. Here she shares the hard-won wisdom she's picked up on her remarkable journey from food-stamp recipient to venture capitalist, with lessons like "The Best Music Comes from the Worst Breakups," "Let Someone Shorter Stand in Front of You," "The Dangers of Hustle Porn," and "Don't Let Anyone Drink Your Diet Coke." Along the way, she inspires us all to defy other people's expectations and to become the role models we've been looking for.Don’t forget to buy @ArlanWasHere’s excellent new book... we are reading it for book club at 6pm PT Monday —- https://t.co/0rgm8dRxXd https://t.co/l8nhMtTX0L
Alchemy
Rory Sutherland
The legendary advertising guru—Ogilvy UK’s vice chairman—and star of three massively popular TED Talks, blends the science of human behavior with his vast experience in the art of persuasion in this incomparable book that decodes successful branding and marketing in the vein of Freakonomics, Thinking Fast and Slow, and The Power of Habit. When Rory Sutherland was a trainee working on a direct mail campaign at the famed advertising firm OgilvyOne, he noticed that very small changes in design often had immense effects on the number of consumer responses. Yet no one he worked with knew why. Sutherland began taking stock of each effective yet nebulous trick—”the thing which has no name”—he discovered. As he rose in the advertising industry, he began to understand why these things had no name: no one was interested in quantifying them, cataloguing them, or really investigating them. So, he did it himself. Like classic behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, Sutherland peels away hidden, often irrational human behaviors that explain how the world around us functions. In How to Be an Alchemist he examines why certain ads work and the broader truths they tell us about who we are. Why do people prefer stripy toothpaste, and how might that help us design retirement plans that young people would actually buy? Why do we think orange juice is healthy, and how does the same principle guide our feelings about nuclear reactors? Why do budget airlines advertise services they don’t offer—and what might insurance companies learn from them about keeping healthcare costs low? Filled with startling and profound conclusions, Sutherland’s journey through the world of advertising and its surprising lessons for human behavior is insightful, brilliant, eye-opening, and irresistibly fun.our second book in the @TWiStartups book club is "Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life" by @rorysutherland Monday May 11th and 18th at 6pm PT https://t.co/0rgm8dRxXd (join the #books room) https://t.co/6h40tNqLkF
Angel
Jason Calacanis
@MitchfromOhio it's only the top 7 investments... i've made over 200. :-) read my book https://t.co/aMsoEHSPER
Something Like An Autobiography
Akira Kurosawa
@drose007 two wildcards for you... https://t.co/FpaxjLclhk https://t.co/nldj1TpvHc
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X
REA's MAXnotes for Alex Haley's *The Autobiography of Malcolm X* MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot, the work's historical context, illustrations to convey the mood of the work, and a biography of the author. Each chapter is individually summarized and analyzed, and has study questions and answers. Amazon.com Review Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith Review Biography, published in 1965, of the American black militant religious leader and activist who was born Malcolm Little. Written by Alex Haley, who had conducted extensive audiotaped interviews with Malcolm X just before his assassination in 1965, the book gained renown as a classic work on black American experience. The Autobiography recounts the life of Malcolm X from his traumatic childhood plagued by racism to his years as a drug dealer and pimp, his conversion to the Black Muslim sect (Nation of Islam) while in prison for burglary, his subsequent years of militant activism, and the turn late in his life to more orthodox Islam. --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature@drose007 two wildcards for you... https://t.co/FpaxjLclhk https://t.co/nldj1TpvHc
Dark Towers
David Enrich
A searing expose by the author of The Spider Network of the most scandalous bank in the world, including its shadowy ties to Donald Trump's business empire. In January 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. As he delivered his fiery Inaugural address, a grey-haired woman named Rosemary Vrablic sat in the VIP section of the audience. Vrablic was an executive at Deutsche Bank, and without her, Donald Trump probably wouldn’t have been moving into the White House. This is the never-before-told story of how a 150-year-old German bank became the global face of financial recklessness and criminality, a history that traces back to its role helping the Nazis build Auschwitz. In the 1990s, a succession of hard-charging executives made the fateful decision to chase Wall Street riches—and set Deutsche Bank on an epic path of devastation. Its sins included manipulating markets, violating international sanctions, and laundering money for Russian oligarchs. Desperate for an American foothold, Deutsche started doing business with a self-promoting real estate magnate who most banks deemed too dangerous to touch: Donald Trump. Over the next 20 years, Deutsche executives—including a man with a damaged brain, the son of a Supreme Court justice, and Rosemary Vrablic—loaned billions to Trump and the Kushner family. Why? To unravel this mystery, the book traces the rise and fall of Bill Broeksmit, an American executive who was regarded as the conscience of Deutsche Bank. In 2014, he was found hanging in his London apartment. His son gets access to Broeksmit’s computer files and embarks on a wild quest to understand why his father killed himself. The answers he finds will help explain how Deutsche Bank became the financial equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction.I wonder if this @davidenrich book Dark Towers will shake some things loose https://t.co/sOUyJWLfda
Edge
Laura Huang
Laura Huang, a preeminent Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor. How do you find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable? How do you get people to take you seriously when they're predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off? Laura Huang has come up against that problem many times--and so has anyone who's ever felt out of place or underestimated. Many of us sit back quietly, hoping that our hard work and effort will speak for itself. Or we try to force ourselves into the mold of who we think is "successful," stifling the creativity and charm that makes us unique and memorable. In Edge, Huang offers a different approach. She argues that success is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, and skills, or our effort. Instead, achieving success hinges on how well we shape others' perceptions--of our strengths, certainly, but also our flaws. It's about creating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomings and turning them into assets that make others take notice. Huang draws from her award-winning research on entrepreneurial intuition, persuasion, and implicit decision-making, to impart her profound findings and share stories of previously-overlooked Olympians, assistants-turned-executives, and flailing companies that made momentous turnarounds. Through her deeply-researched framework, Huang shows how we can turn weaknesses into strengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneur scored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreign accent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters' doubts about his physical disabilities. Edge shows that success is about knowing who you are and using that knowledge unapologetically and strategically. This book will teach you how to find your unique edge and keep it sharp.On the latest episode of @twistartups, @LauraHuangLA share why she wrote the book "Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage" and talks about overcoming disadvantages based on race, ethnicity & gender plus more. Watch the full episode 🎥: https://t.co/4mmxnTkN7P https://t.co/dwVjTWAyVS
The Threat
Andrew G. McCabe
if you haven't read Andrew McCabe's book about a life in the @fbi, it's exceptional. Would be a great character for a series @briankoppelman Audiobook is the way to go https://t.co/FJVkddOjcy https://t.co/Bzl4UP1VgW
Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour..@jbrowder1 and I talk about his father Bill Browder, his remarkable life & book "Red Notice", and reasons why Bill has had a red notice sent on him 12 times. Part 5 of 7 Full discussion 👇 https://t.co/mPjUlmdBOt
Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour..@jbrowder1 and I talk about his father Bill Browder, his remarkable life & book "Red Notice", and reasons why Bill has had a red notice sent on him 12 times. Part 5 of 7 Full discussion 👇 https://t.co/RkRq3M8M2O
Season of the Witch
David Talbot
Salon founder David Talbot chronicles the cultural history of San Francisco and from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when figures such as Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, and Bill Walsh helped usher from backwater city to thriving metropolis.@jacobkostecki Read Season of the Witch
What is Manipulative Insincerity? @kimballscott describes it in her book Radical Candor as - passive aggressive & backstabbing behaviour - where toxic work behaviours come in and often builds up to a point & becomes obnoxious aggression. Learn more 👇 Part 6/8 https://t.co/hxZKPpqdEQ
- One of the start-up world’s most in-demand executive coaches—hailed as the “CEO Whisperer” (Gimlet Media)—reveals why radical self-inquiry is critical to professional success and healthy relationships in all realms of life. Jerry Colonna helps start-up CEOs make peace with their demons, the psychological habits and behavioral patterns that have helped them to succeed—molding them into highly accomplished individuals—yet have been detrimental to their relationships and ultimate well-being. Now, this venture capitalist turned executive coach shares his unusual yet highly effective blend of Buddhism, Jungian therapy, and entrepreneurial straight talk to help leaders overcome their own psychological traumas. Reboot is a journey of radical self-inquiry, helping you to reset your life by sorting through the emotional baggage that is holding you back professionally, and even more important, in your relationships. Jerry has taught CEOs and their top teams to realize their potential by using the raw material of their lives to find meaning, to build healthy interpersonal bonds, and to become more compassionate and bold leaders. In Reboot, he inspires everyone to hold themselves responsible for their choices and for the possibility of truly achieving their dreams. Work does not have to destroy us. Work can be the way in which we achieve our fullest self, Jerry firmly believes. What we need, sometimes, is a chance to reset our goals and to reconnect with our deepest selves and with each other. Reboot moves and empowers us to begin this journey.
.@JerryColonna's book Reboot is dedicated to his 3 children. Having shared his deepest struggles in the book, Jerry shares what their reactions were to the book. Part 5 of 6 https://t.co/qxjM93YQdG
Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Michael Ovitz
If you're going to read one book about Hollywood, this is the one. As co-founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Michael Ovitz earned a reputation for ruthless negotiation, brilliant strategy and fierce loyalty to his clients. He reinvented the role of the agent and helped shape the careers of hundreds of A-list stars and directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Sean Connery, Steven Seagal, Bill Murray, Robin Williams and David Letterman. But this personal history is much more than celebrity friendships and bare-knuckled deal-making. It's an underdog's story: How did a kid with no connections work his way into the William Morris mailroom, and become the most powerful person in Hollywood? How did a superagent also become a power in producing, advertising, mergers & acquisitions and modern art? And what were the personal consequences of all those deals? After decades of near-silence in the face of intense controversy, Michael Ovitz is finally telling his whole story in this blistering, unforgettable memoir.I recently finished Mike Ovitz’s “Who is Mike Ovitz,” and I was blown away. I’m actually listening to it a second time, and he’s committed to coming on the podcast this year. Continue 👉 https://t.co/ysV8VHWolc https://t.co/RDWOqvxjal