Let My People Go Surfing

The subtitle of this book is “The education of a reluctant business man” and Yvon Chouinard definitely falls into this category. He practices MBA, or Management by Absence which has meant that everyone in his company has to have a strong idea of what they are trying to achieve. It’s difficult to ask your boss for guidance when he’s halfway up a peak in the Himalaya.

The first half of the book deals with the history of Patagonia, from its start in the back of his truck through to being a multinational equipment and clothing manufacturer.

It should be a tale of how not to do it, with itinerant climbers promoted to senior managers and a staff that has permission to disappear when the surf gets big. However the tale reads as an adventure yarn, with a real feeling of teamwork, tolerance and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking. Instead of despairing at the ineptitude of the participants, you realise that this may be an alternative way of doing business.

In the late 80s, Patagonia started struggling and Chouinard realised that they had overreached themselves. When he had to lay of 250 of his workers, he decided that he needed to clarify in his own mind why he was running a business. The book goes on to explain the “philosophies” that were created to guide the company onwards.

The philosophies are like a 50 page mission statement, split into categories like “Product Design” and “Environment” and are there to guide any member of the company in making the best decision for the company. While his goals won’t be applicable to anybody else’s company, the process of setting those goals will be. If you want to see how important the environment is to Patagonia, look at their philosophies. If you want to know how they expect their suppliers to be treated, looking at the philosophies.

Every business person who aspires to create, run or work in a business that isn’t a nine-to-five, cubicle farm, sweatshop should read this book.

Links to buy: Patagonia and amazon.co.uk

The Four Hour Work Week

Tim Ferris

978-0091923723

Tim Ferriss has trouble defining what he does for a living. Depending on when you ask him he might answer: ‘I race motorcycles in Europe’, ‘I ski in the Andes’, ‘I scuba dive in Panama’, ‘I dance tango in Buenos Aires’. He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the ‘New Rich’, a fast-growing subculture that has abandoned the ‘deferred-life plan’ and instead mastered the new currencies – time and mobility – to create a new way of living. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing first class world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with no management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

Recommended by James

“Made me think about what I wanted to achieve from life aside from looking towards retirement”

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Three Cups of Tea

Greg Mortenson

978-0141034263

In 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants’ kindness, he promised to return and build a school. “Three Cups of Tea” is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome.

Recommended by Nick and Eeva

“Taught me not to accept the limitations and that with perseverance it is possible to achieve anything”

“A great, inspiring story”

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Complete Prose

Woody Allen

978-0330328210

Complete Prose brings together Allen’s three outrageously funny collections, Without Feathers, Getting Even and Side Effects. A collection of 52 pieces of writing displaying Woody Allen’s own brand of humour.

Recommended by Billy

“A book that shows you that everyday life is not only ridiculous but funny.”

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Quarantine

Greg Egan

978-0575081727

It’s late in the 21st century and bioengineering is now so common that people are able to modify their minds in any way they wish. Now, you can be whatever you want to be, and do whatever you want to do. One night, thirty three years ago, the stars went out. ‘The Bubble’  appeared in the sky, isolating the solar system from the rest of the universe. For thirty-three years, humanity has lived with the religious cults and terrorism which spawned in the wake of the darkness. We are now alone. Humanity has been cut off Quarantined.

Recommended by John

“Mind-bending ideas about the nature of identity”

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Let My People Go Surfing

Yvon Chouinard

978-0143037835

Part memoir, part manifesto — legendary climber, businessman and environmentalist Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc. describes his life and his start in business as an itinerant climber selling pitons from the back of his car. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman offers a look at the guiding principles that Chouinard used to build Patagonia into a global business — a business that has an environmental mission and is a fun place to work.

Recommended by Sam

“This book made me realise that making a profit was a tiny part of running a business”

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Effortless Mastery

Kenny Werner

978-1562240035

Effortless Mastery is a book for any musician who finds themselves having reached a plateau in their development. Werner, a masterful jazz pianist in his own right, uses his own life story and experiences to explore the barriers to creativity and mastery of music, and in the process reveals that “Mastery is available to everyone,” providing practical, detailed ways to move towards greater confidence and proficiency in any endeavour. While Werner is a musician, the concepts presented are for every profession or life-style where there is a need for free-flowing, effortless thinking.

Recommended By Mark

“I’ve taken stuff from it about mental processes and performance”

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McMafia

Misha Glenny

978-0099481256

For three years, Misha Glenny has been recording the stories of gun runners in Ukraine, money launderers in Dubai, drug syndicates in Canada, cyber criminals in Brazil, racketeers in Japan and many more. During his investigation of the dark side, he has spoken to countless gangsters, policemen and victims of organised crime while also exploring the ferocious consumer demand for drugs, trafficked women, illegal labour and arms across five continents. The journey begins with an appalling and inexplicable murder in England’s stockbroker belt and continues with stories that are often horrifying, sometimes inspiring, usually bizarre and occasionally funny. But together they build a breathtaking picture of the shadow economy that has grown so fast that it may now account for about 20% of the world’s GDP.

Recommended by Billy

“An interesting look at organised crime and how it crosses over with the legitimate world”

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Who Runs this Place?

Anthony Sampson

978-0719565663

Anthony Sampson has spent forty years dissecting the power-structure, with unique access to people at the top, to produce his best-selling Anatomies of Britain. Now in this intensely topical book, he surveys a much more troubled scene with more anger and impatience. He looks at the whole panoply of power, from an embattled Number Ten to the murky intelligence spooks, from corporate boardrooms to banks and pension funds. Everywhere he talks to the people who really know their inside workings.

Recommended by Sam

“After reading this book, I found it a lot easier to look beyond the headlines and have a better grip of the stories that appear in the news”

Buy from Amazon.co.uk