Reboot – Jerry Colonna

Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up – by Jerry Colonna
Date read: 3/4/20. Recommendation: 9/10.

This one surprised me in all of the best ways. And it was a book that I just happened to read at the right time. Reboot focuses on self-inquiry and challenges us to consider the question: “What do I believe to be true about work, leadership, and how we may live our lives?” Colonna emphasizes that better humans make better leaders. But first, you must learn to lead yourself. That means looking at the reality of all that we are–not fixing blame to ourselves, but understanding with clarity what’s really happening in our lives. Colonna discusses his ideas on personal growth, stillness, purpose, self-worth and self-inquiry. The book also includes dozens of thought-provoking journaling invitations. Pick this one up when you feel like you’re at a point where you’re ready to have difficult conversations with yourself.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Focuses on the question: “What do I believe to be true about work, leadership, and how we live our lives?” Better humans make better leaders. 

Writing:
“Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you that there is magic in it.” Dorothy Allison

“To speak of such things without being willing to reveal your own actualization, your own journey to adulthood, would be hollow and empty.” JC

“To live well is to see wisely and to see wisely is to tell stories.” Pádraig Ó Tuama

“I am living with aliveness when I write, regardless of whether my words are published.” JC

Self-inquiry:
“Slowing down the movie of our lives, seeing the frames and how they are constructed, reveals a different way to live, a way to break old patterns, to see experiences anew through radical self-inquiry.” JC

Trace forward to reframe these beliefs. But choosing a new path forward requires an awareness and knowing. 

“Listening opens that which pain has closed.” JC

“Listen and don’t fix.” JC

“To be free, each of us must come to understand the causes and conditions of our childhood. For these gave rise to the rules by which we, as adults, live.” JC
^Rules that kept you safe as a kid, like stay small, don’t stand out, careful now, don’t make mistakes.

Strong back, open heart:
“The back of the warrior is strengthened by knowledge of knowing the right thing to do. The soft, open heart is made resilient by remembering who you are, what you have come through, and how those things combine to make you unique as a leader.” JC

“Learning to lead yourself is hard because it requires us to look at the reality of all that we are—not to fix blame on ourselves but to understand with clarity what is really happening in our lives.” JC

“The call to lead well is a call to be brave and to say true things.” JC

Growth:
“Growth is painful; that’s why so few choose to do it.” JC

The goal is to buy low and sell high, not buy lowest and sell highest.

“We forge our truest identity by putting our heads into the mouths of the scariest demons, the realities of our lives.” JC

“When we fail to grow, we hold back others.” JC

Stillness:
“The forest knows / Where you are. You must let it find you.” David Wagoner

What are you not saying that needs to be said?

“Slow down. Stand still. Breathe. Let the first find you. Then you can begin to ask yourself the hardest questions: Who am I? What do I believe about the world? What do success and failure mean to me (and not to everyone else)?” JC

“When we stand still, we run the risk of remember who we are. When we stop the spinning, we run the risk of confronting the fears, the demos who have chased us all our lives.” JC

“You might as well show up, as you are.” 

Jerry came to this realization during a conversation with his son when his son noticed something was off. Son said, “Dad, you might as well tell me what’s going on, because if you don’t. I’m going to make shit up and it’s gonna be negative about me.”

What’s within your control?
“All beings own their own karma, their happiness or unhappiness depends on their actions, not my wishes for them.” Sharon Salzberg

The path towards purpose:
“The path to a purpose-grounded life is messy, muddy, rock-strewn, and slippery.” JC

Those in their 20s hold themselves to an unrealistic standard of a non-messy, straightforward unfolding of their lives. This is not how things play out. 

“Discovering your purpose, feeling your way into that aliveness, requires clambering up rocky cliff faces, leaping chasms, tucking oneself deep into clefts and deeper and deeper into the Earth. It demands the willingness to dip into the crack of the tree as well as the bravery to step out of it.” JC

“Aliveness comes from living a life of personal integrity in which our outer actions match our inner values, beliefs, wishes, and dreams.” JC
^Similar to Naval Ravikant’s, “Self-esteem is just the reputation that we have with ourselves.”

“I can’t think of a sadder way to die than with the knowledge that I never showed up in this world as who I really am. I can’t think of a more graced way to die than with the knowledge that I showed up here as my true self, the best I know how, able to engage life freely and lovingly because I had become fierce with reality.” Parker Palmer

The Conquest of Happiness – Bertrand Russell

The Conquest of Happiness – by Bertrand Russell
Date read: 2/23/20. Recommendation: 8/10.

An accessible introduction to the work and philosophy of Bertrand Russell. In many ways, The Conquest of Happiness is a predecessor to the self-improvement genre that exists today. The book is broken down into two main sections, causes of unhappiness and causes of happiness. I got the most out of the second section as he discusses finding in harmony the stream of life and developing a zest for life. As Russell suggests, “The secret to happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the thing and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.”

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Teach and be taught, rather than judge and be judged mindset:
“The secret to happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the thing and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.”

Expand your interests:
“The more things a man is interested in, the more opportunities of happiness he has and the less he is at the mercy of fate, since if he loses one thing he call fall back upon another.”

Alex note: Every year that passes, life should be more enjoyable. You discover more of the things you love and are able to recognize more things that you don’t. 

Alex note: With age, there’s a diminishing preoccupation with yourself. Take yourself less seriously, get out of your own head, avoid tricking yourself into believing that you are the center of the universe, and you will be happier. 

“But the monk will not be happy until the routine of the monastery has made him forget his soul.”

Zest:
“The man who has the zest for life has the advantage over the man who has none. Even unpleasant experiences have their uses to him.”

The adventurous enjoy even the unpleasant experiences…”It gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item.”

The Stream of Life:
“To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.” 

“The happy man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying freely the spectacle that it offers and the joys that it affords, untroubled by the thought of death because he feels himself not really separate from those who will come after him. It is in such profound instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest joy is to be found.” 

Alex note: Life is motion. The goal is to remain in harmony with that motion as best you’re able to.

“Success can only be one ingredient in happiness, and is too dearly purchased if all the other ingredients have been sacrificed to obtain it.”

Work:
“Even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness.”

“We are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more afraid of boredom.”

Unhappiness:
“I believe this unhappiness to be very largely due to mistaken views of the world, mistaken ethics, mistaken habits of life, leading to destruction of that natural zest and appetite for possible things upon which all happiness, whether of men or animals, ultimately depends.” 

Ten Caesars – Barry Strauss

Ten Caesars – by Barry Strauss
Date read: 7/20/19. Recommendation: 7/10.

Approachable introduction to the lives and reigns of ten Roman emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. It’s a great high-level overview that allows you to explore some of the most influential leaders of the Roman Empire. I enjoy books like these because they introduce different historical figures and help me find the most interesting ones who are worth exploring later, without investing 300 pages in a single person. There are some great lessons in power, strategy, ego, discipline, and philosophy. For the Stoics out there, the section on Marcus Aurelius is particularly insightful.

See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Augustus: The Founder
Empire: Augustus ended a century of revolution and replaced the Roman Republic with an empire that would last centuries.

Focus on internals: Lost his father at the age of four and one of his guardians plundered his inheritance. But he turned to the internal strengths in his life: his own resilience, his mother, and her family. One of his defining characteristics was self-control. 

Strategy: Turned pain into strategy and became one of the three most powerful men in the Roman Empire by age 20. He was master strategist, thought further ahead and in greater dimensions than everyone else around him. 

Gray area: Augustus ended a civil war, rid the sea of pirates and brought peace. But there were also murders, betrayal, and excess along the way. His successors would have trouble balance the competing (often contradictory) demands.

“Caesar and Augustus were two sides of the coin of Roman genius. Caesar was the god of battle who poured his talent and his ego into two literary classics. Augustus was the Machiavellian statesman who forged his power in blood and iron, and then went on to build a structure of peace and wealth that survived his passing for two hundred years.” BS

Nero: The Entertainer
Seneca (Nero’s tutor): Seneca was born into a wealthy, influential Roman family from Hispania. His father was a writer, his mother studied philosophy. Seneca rose in Rome as an orator, philosopher, essayist, and playwright. Argued that mercy should be the hallmark of Nero’s reign. Advocated eloquence and dignity. Nero would eventually order both Seneca and his mother’s deaths. 

Ego: For the first five years, Nero kept his promises and shared power with the senators. But he craved popularity above all else – he was insecure and vain. When he didn’t get his way, he sought vengeance.

Lack of discipline: Nero would often wander into the streets of Rome at night to party in taverns and brothels. Neglected his primary duties because he viewed himself first and foremost as an artist. 

Marcus Aurelius: The Philosopher
Meditations: Private journal (now best-selling book), where he documented his philosophy (Stoicism) and life. Saved complaints for his diary, never revealed them in public.

Justice and goodness: “As a general, he was conscientious rather than outstanding. And yet Marcus was great because, more than any other emperor, he ruled through a commitment to justice and goodness. He aimed at humanity, steered clear of cruelty, and frequently sought compromise.” BS

Challenges: Faced one of the most difficult times in the Roman Empire by inheriting wars on two foreign fronts, a smallpox epidemic (and shortage of labor that followed after millions died), natural disaster, and financial struggles. 

Preparation: Marcus didn’t come into power until age 40. He received top education in rhetoric and philosophy. His character was impeccable. Admired the philosophy of Epictetus (Stoicism) and achieving inner freedom. But the one thing he had never done, despite holding all the important public offices in Rome, was commanding an army. His principles, discipline, and sense of duty allowed him to rise to the occasion. 

Character: He was thoughtful, but not quick witted. Worked hard. Thrifty. Reputation for being firm but reasonable. Ruled in favor of slave’s freedom whenever possible. Respected the Senate and attended their meetings. Improved welfare for poor children. Carefully monitored grain supply. Cleaned and repaired the streets of Rome. Made gladiators use blunt swords. 

Diocletian: The Great Divider
Restoring stability: First great accomplishment in an empire trapped in violence. For the previous 50 years, 20 men were emperor (average reign < 3 years). “Diocletian was big, bold, brutal, and orderly. Finesse was not his way, but the times did not call for finesse. They demanded military muscle, a steel-trap mind, an iron will, and absolute self-confidence.” BS

Sharing power: Diocletian knew sharing power was the key to maintaining power. Knew it would discourage the ambitious and talented from revolting. Also kew that Rome’s problems were too big for him to handle on his own. Named Maximian co-emperor, and Constantius and Galerius as Caesars who played a military role, serving Diocletian and Maximian. Maximian and Constantius ran the West. Diocletian and Galerius ran the East. But Diocletian controlled overall strategy and had final decision. 

Military strategy: Made border forts smaller, thicker, and harder to access. Number of legions expanded from 33 to 50, but with fewer men per legion (similar to Genghis Khan’s strategy).

Taxation: Massive building campaigns and military budget demanded more money. For the first time in Italy’s history, it was no longer exempt from taxes. Even Rome and the senators had to pay. 

Retirement: First and only Roman emperor to retired. Lived in relative peace in his palace in Split, Croatia for 10 years. Knew it was better to go out on top than to linger and lose loyalty the moment he grew weak. “In victory, know when to stop.”