“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders must be readers.”  ~ President Harry S. Truman

I aspire to fall into the latter group, so I tend to view myself now as being the catalyst of my own personal and professional development.  As I’m sure you can relate, being an entrepreneur is a choice we all make, so our development is an ongoing, evolutionary process where reading and study should form a cornerstone in our foundation.  

I tend to average somewhere between 15 and 30 books consumed annually, depending upon their size (pages), scope (subject matter) and magnitude (exploratory thought and provocation).  I turned 55 in December and if I live another 30 years, that’s only around 600 books left to consume…which doesn’t feel like many.  Yet another lesson in the “quality over quantity” argument.  

I’m constantly looking to add “worthy reads from credible sources” to my personal reading list, so if you have some good ones to share, please send me an email with a few of your favorites along with a sentence or two about why you liked the book(s) you’re recommending.  We all “get better together.”

All of that being said, here are the best books I read in the last 90 days(ish) and would recommend them as part of your professional development and worthy of your personal evolution…

“The Daily Laws” by Robert Greene

Robert Greene seems to have written a hundred books all dealing with something about “The Laws of Power.”  Honestly, none of the titles have ever resonated with me and I feel like many are manipulative in some sort of way, so I’ve avoided buying any of them.  That being said, this book is fantastic.  Let me explain how I used it…

The book is a compilation of his different philosophies and subject matter grouped into twelve “buckets” (months) and then shared over 28 to 31 entries (days).  Some of the months had zero relevance to me or what I’m doing, but they were mildly interesting to read.  Other months, however, were thought-provoking and highly enlightening.  I started to use the book as more of a journal.  Each daily passage was a catalyst to deeper thinking on that subject and unlocked both clarity and creativity for me in an intense way.  I loved it.  And I got a lot out of it.  

For example, the first three months carry the titles:

“Your Life’s Task: Planting the Seeds for Mastery”

“The Ideal Apprenticeship: Transforming Yourself”

“The Master at Work: Activating Skills and Attaining Mastery”

These were all deep dives into a wide variety of subject matter and thinking exercises that left me writing volumes in the margins.  A lot of us struggle to journal consistently because it’s hard to start each entry.  I get it because I suffer from the same “failure to launch” syndrome.  My advice is to pick a “daily lesson” type of a book and use the daily entry as a prompt to start scribbling in response to what the author shared.  You’ll be amazed at what you can unlock inside of you.  “The Daily Laws” is a good one to consider.  It was great for me.    

“Wisdom Takes Work” by Ryan Holiday

I must confess that I view Ryan Holiday as a bit of “pop psychology.”  That being said, I’ve read almost all of his books.  And I subscribe to his Daily Stoic and Daily Dad newsletters.  I don’t read them for his take on Stoicism, rather for his historical citations and storytelling.  Before Holiday became a writer, he was Robert Greene’s research assistant (see above).  He has a remarkable way of pulling together teaching points through historical references – most with which I’m unfamiliar.  

His ”Stoic Virtue Series” are all good, easy reads based on the four cardinal virtues of Prudence (Wisdom), Justice, Fortitude (Courage), and Temperance (Moderation or Discipline).  These are nice, gentle reminders of how we’re all wired intrinsically and offer compelling guidance on the way we should strive to conduct ourselves.  While I don’t necessarily read these books for a deep dive into philosophy (I leave that to the philosophers themselves), I do enjoy his books as some mix of history and storytelling with an aspect of underlying philosophy.  For books of non-fiction, I actually enjoy them.  

It’s also worth noting that I do deeply admire “the business” that Ryan Holiday has created for himself.  He’s a thought leader and has built a very successful business around what he loves doing (writing and speaking) based on a subject matter that he loves (Stoic philosophy) in a way that compliments the lifestyle that he wants to lead (a young family on a ranch outside of Austin, TX).  A solo-preneur could pick worse heroes to emulate.  

“How God Makes Men” by Patrick Morley

We all deal with failure and hardship in our life.  The problem is, we think we’re the only one – or that whatever we’re confronting is unique to us.  As men, we tend to “go it alone.”  Call it “rugged individualism” or “self-reliance” or “internal fortitude” – or whatever you’d like.  As high achievers, it serves us very well…until it doesn’t.  

Women seek counsel and consolation in others, which is a very healthy thing.  Men do not.  And that’s a shortcoming.  I’ve referenced the book “From Strength to Strength” by Arthur Brooks on numerous occasions because it helped me unpack and deal with a crisis period in my life that I later came to discover was “right on schedule” as I was rounding through my late forties.  It was biological.  Part of Brooks’s diagnosis for recovery is based on Faith. Morley’s book closes that loop.  The crisis period was equally spiritual.  

“How God Makes Men” is a wonderful walk through ten pretty epic stories in the Bible and relates them each to present-day scenarios that we often confront in isolation.  I found myself relating to many of them generally and a few directly.  One of the hardest things we deal with as high achievers is demanding the answer to “why” something is happening to us when we seem incapable of solving it.  Brute force and an indomitable will only get you so far.  

High achievers aren’t predisposed to “surrender.”  Let that statement sink in for a minute.  It took me a very long time to work through it.  I probably still am, to a slight degree.  You don’t necessarily walk away from everything you’re doing in life and in work, but all of it does take on a different, greater meaning.  Morley helps connect the dots on the “why” question in a wonderful way.  Once you start to crack the door and go through your own exploratory process, you inevitably arrive at a point of greater peace in your life.  Joy is truly a wonderful thing.  

“From Russia with Love” by Ian Flemming

Yes, that James Bond story…written in 1957.  Look, I love to read and tend to lean into mostly thought-provoking literature because I feel like I’m learning and growing and improving.  Sound familiar?  That’s all fine and good, but sometimes the way an author tells a story on a page stokes my mental powers of creativity in a way that a film or television screen cannot.  The story.  The plot.  The character arcs.  The internal monologue and the visceral feeling of it all.  

I grew up on the “Roger Moore as Bond” movies, but From Russia (starring Sean Connery) was great.  And this book is even better.  Let’s face it, it’s a very easy read: two cold war secret agents; one beautiful girl; a secret message encryption decoder; and the Orient Express.  C’mon!… Flemming’s storytelling is pure magic – to the point that I’ll probably succumb to another Bond novel in pretty short order.    

Here’s my gift to you for a goal in 2026: read a work of fiction or a novel that was written before you were born.  Could be a classic, like “The Sun Also Rises,” or it could be simply eye candy, like “From Russia with Love.”  Sometimes it’s nice just to sit on a couch in the evening silence with a glass of good red wine and get lost in it all.  Sometimes the least productive pursuits are the most self-helpful.  

The Book I RE-Read Last Quarter: “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

I have a ton of great books in my office – many of them from decades ago when I was climbing the ladder in the Corporate America world.  Most of these are books on “management” or “leadership” written in the zeitgeist of top-down corporate structures and less about the entrepreneurial or tech-based literature of today.  Almost all of you who read my writing or listen to my podcast are healthcare group or practice owners, and I can make a compelling case that the business literature of two decades ago has more meaning and application to your current role than any of the stuff you typically like to read.  

Why is that?   Well, because your business is tech-enabled, not tech-based.  You deliver healthcare services through your people to a typically anxious, relatively un-educated consumer.  I’m not saying your patients are dumb; I’m saying they don’t know how you do what you do.  Your people make the impact as to whether or not your patients view you as a commodity.  You make an impact as to whether or not your people can deliver on that promise.  If you follow my logic and if you think my assessment of your business is accurate, then you need to read more books about leadership, creating greater results through people, and well…execution.  

Larry Bossidy was the former CEO of the Fortune 500 company, Honeywell International Inc., a major American multinational technology and manufacturing conglomerate.  This is a book that defines the art of execution (thus the name of the book) and shares valuable insights into the traits a leader needs to create and sustain change in their organization.  His quote, “Behaviors are beliefs turned into action” is one that I fell back upon numerous times when I was that agent for change for the businesses I was leading.  

I read “Execution” back in September 2003 and the lessons are every bit as true in leadership today as they were 20+ years ago.  The second half of the book connects the People, Strategy and Operations processes of a company that executes successfully.  That stuff never goes out of style regardless of whether you’re running a Fortune 500 company or a group healthcare practice.  

Rolling into 2026, I’ve decided that every quarter I’m going to re-read one of the books from my personal library that I consider to be “timeless” in its impact.  I want to do that for me every bit as much as I do to share it with you, but I hope you’ll find some value in this approach as well.  There comes a point where the practice of reading must become the commitment of study, and where study becomes the impact of application.  

That impact of application is best described as: “Execution.”  

Public Service Announcement

I’m an entrepreneur like many of you.  I run a small business like many of you.  I marvel at corporations that change the economic landscape at scale…like many of you.  Amazon is one of those businesses, but I don’t buy books there unless I have no other means of finding them.  

I buy physical books because I love the practice of reading with a book in my hand and a highlighter and a pencil on my desk.  I highlight passages.  I make notes.  I underline things.  I come back and re-read passages repeatedly.  I realize you can do all of the above on a Kindle, but I spend far too much of my life in front of a computer, so reading for me is a release from that obligation.  

I also enjoy going into a bookstore and browsing the shelves.  I enjoy the inefficient task of buying a book for myself, not simply opening a cardboard box that appears “24 hours later.”  It makes me feel good to support local entrepreneurs who are trying to earn a living by sharing their love of books and taking a risk to create something that a corporation can’t.  Park Road Books in Charlotte is one of those stores.  

So, here’s my challenge to you.  Instead of downloading your next book off of Amazon, buy a physical book from your local bookshop.  Just try it once.  

Keep going.  Keep growing.  And keep grinding beans.