When I first launched Designing an MBA, one of my favorite things to do was highlight the many, many business books I was reading. But over the last few years, as I started spending increasingly more time on my phone, I noticed my reading time had gotten progressively less.
So in 2019, I set out to change that. If I had a mantra for the year, it likely would have been “less screen time, more read time.”
And so as I celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Designing an MBA, it seems only appropriate to get back to my roots and share the best books I read (plus a few I listened to in audiobook form) in 2019.
The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax
I started the year feeling like all this hype around the “retail apocalypse” was greatly exaggerated, and I looked for books that proved that real life experience isn’t as dead and gone as people were making it out to be. (A feeling that is being confirmed at the end of the year by the fact that my wholesale sales are actually up over last year.) While not a tactical business book, this one is a great reminder for all of us who make physical products for a physical world that there’s still plenty of interest (and money to be made) in the real, non-virtual world.
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee
This one is technically not a business book (it was actually in the psychology section) but it’s another really useful read for those of use who make things. The book argues that our physical environments (including the stuff we put in them) really do have a profound impact on our emotional well-being, and then outlines ten aesthetics of joy that dive deeper into this premise. And this is where I think this book really shines for artists and makers. I’ve spent years arguing that our work doesn’t need to “solve a problem,” and that instead we should focus on the emotion and experience our art and products bring. Joyful is basically a roadmap for how to talk about our products in a concrete way while appealing to customers’ emotions and sense.
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
This is the book I dove into when I started feeling like my screen time was out of control. I’ve always been a Cal Newport fan, and pretty much anxiously counted down until this one came out. While it is worth noting that not all of Newport’s strategies work for those of us who run businesses that are pretty solidly online, it did give me enough ideas and tools to carve out more time in my own life to actually write my own ebook!
The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture & Drive Long-Term Growth by Eric Ries
I listened to the audio version of this book on a long drive to North Carolina this spring, when I was craving a book full of real business strategy. I am of fan of Ries’s earlier book, The Lean Startup, and was curious how this newer book stacked up. While not all of it is applicable to those of us running solo creative businesses, there’s enough solid business advice to get the wheels churning.
Turning the Flywheel: Why Some Companies Build Momentum and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
This is a short book that expands upon one of my favorite principles from one of the most classic business books of all time, Good to Great. While Good to Great is probably more in-depth than most artists and makers need (though if you’re a business nerd like me, it’s totally worth reading), Turning the Flywheel is a much more manageable chunk that you can solidly apply to really understanding what drives your business. (And what you can let go of!)
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
This is probably the opposite of a business book, but I think it’s such an important read for artists and makers. (And humans.) I tend to describe it as “Digital Minimalism, but written by a biracial woman artist” though that doesn’t quite do it justice, and the book is really much more nuanced than that. Ultimately, in a society that encourages us to do more, more, more, this book helps us learn to slow down, do less, and really experience the world around us. Which is also what good art and craft should help us do.
Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody by Michael J. Fanuele
This is probably the best book I read on marketing all year. It’s also a really useful book for motivating yourself to get more done. (Though I think my ebook is pretty good for that too!) Ultimately, stop making sense is a book about inspiration and a toolkit for how to inspire your customers. Since inspired customers become your biggest fans and advocates, it’s really worth understanding how to use your art, products, and marketing to inspire, which Stop Making Sense really gets to the heart of.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
I’d seen this book kicking around the Internet, but decided to listen to the audiobook after hearing it mentioned on a running podcast. I then immediately bought a hardcover copy to give to my husband, who always complains that his weakness is that he’s a “jack of all trades, master of none.” But this book actually shows why that can be a superpower in today’s world. It’s a must read for anyone who feels frustrated that they came to their art and craft late in life, but it was also incredibly valuable for someone like me, who discovered metalsmithing at 17, but has always had a lot of disparate interests.
Indulge Your Senses: Scaling Intimacy in a Digital World by Michael Dorf
I started the year reading about the value of real world objects and experiences to business, so it makes sense that I’m wrapping up my year in the same vein. Indulge Your Senses falls into the category of what I call “business biography” – a narrative of one person’s business journey with key ideas pulled out. It’s not the most profound business book ever, but it’s a good reminder that as the Internet becomes more prevalent, there’s still plenty of money to be made focusing on offline experiences.
Aesthetic Intelligence: How to Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond by Pauline Brown
I’ll admit that I’m only half way through this one, but it’s already a must read. Especially after this excerpt I shared on Instagram from the introduction clearly struck a nerve. In many ways, Aesthetic Intelligence covers similar ground to Joyful, but this books takes the very clear position that aesthetic experience is good for the bottom line. Paired with Joyful, which argues that aesthetic experience is good for our well-being, this book shows that our creative, soulful personalities as artists and makers aren’t the antithesis to business success, they might just be the key, especially in a our overly digitized world.
Of course, I read (or at least started reading) many other business books this year, but these are the ones that really resonated with me. And other than a few outliers, it’s clear that the dominant theme in my reading for the year is that real world experiences do matter and that art and handmade products have an important role to play (which means money to be made) in our increasingly digital world.
And all of that makes me super hopeful for 2020, especially as I embark on the next ten years of Designing an MBA. Because if we artists and makers can use the skills and tools we have at our disposal to position our art, products, and services well, there are plenty of opportunities for us to succeed!
