My Top Three Reads of 2020

My Top Three Reads of 2020

My Top Three Reads of 2020

30

DECEMBER 2020

Samuel Osho

Do you remember shopping for Christmas as a kid? Everything in the store is screaming at you, “Pick me! Please, pick me!” If you’ve ever been to those crowded stores, you will agree that choosing a dress is not an easy task at all. Well, the decision paralysis ends when one of your parents intervenes, “Esther, pick this dress. It looks good on you.”

I was like a restless kid shopping for Christmas wear as I hunted for the top three reads of 2020. As I reflected on my journey in 2020, the voices of some authors stayed with me. The works of these authors moved me and their words found a space in my heart. It was either their stories that influenced my thoughts or their counsel that made my light shine brighter.

Brene Brown showed me how to lead from the heart as a leader. Clark’s Writing Tools helped me to become a better writer while Austin Kleon revealed ten ways to share my creativity with the world. These books made it into my top three because they made me become a better version of myself.

My Top Three Reads of 2020

1. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, Ph.D.

Brene Brown is a research professor with over two decades studying courage, shame, vulnerability, and empathy. Her TED talk — “The Power of Vulnerability” — is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world, with more than fifty million views.

Dr. Brown’s book, “Dare to Lead” is a treasury of abstract ideas in concrete form, capable of making daring leaders. I learnt how to embrace tough conversations within and outside the workplace. I loved how she defined courage, empathy, shame, resilience, trust, vulnerability, and transformational leadership. While defining courage, Dr. Brown wrote:

“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.”

This definition resonated deeply with me — an offshoot of Theodore Roosevelt’s iconic quote popularly tagged “Man in the Arena.” It’s been a long time since a book tugged to my soul and gripped my heart. I could see myself on the pages of the book and ultimately, the path from my struggles into the light. Stories and insights from her research work with outstanding organizations provided varied perspectives on the subject of courage, fear, and vulnerability.

I picked up new tools: giving permission slips, delegating duties with clarity because to be “unclear is unkind,” asking my co-workers what help or support on a project means to them, and admitting the stories I make up in my head about people and situations. I also did a personal reflection and selected my top two values — faith and excellence — that serve as drivers for everything I do.

This is a book that every daring leader passionate about transformation should read. It will help you lead with grounded confidence.

2. Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark is a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, one of the most prestigious schools for journalists in the world. He has taught writing at every level — to high school students and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors — for more than thirty years.

I have always believed that writing is a craft which means that it can be learnt. Clark’s book offers tools, not rules. This paradigm shift made the book highly engaging and easy to use for all classes of writers. The book addressed writing in different genres — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, and technical reports. Clark shared more than 200 examples from diverse writers to reinforce the explanation of how the tools are used.

From the book, I learnt new techniques for making my writing pop and also got name tags for my favourite writing styles. I became more confident critiquing my work and offer advice to young writers. The tools taught me the art of X-Ray reading which is needed to understand the structure used by some of my favourite authors.

In Writing Tools, Clark shares decades of experience through fifty-five tools that writers can use daily. He advised against using all the tools at a time. Start with one and move to the other. In no time, you will have a full workbench and your writing will become more polished and effective.

Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

3. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is the author of the bestselling book, “Steal Like an Artist.” Kleon in “Show Your Work,” unleashed ten revolutionary ideas that every artist can use to share their creativity with the world. It’s a concise book that you can finish easily in two days, but the ideas are so powerful that I kept coming back for more inspiration. Artist is a broad word used for writers, singers, actors, poets, graphic illustrators, sculptors and other creators of art.

Artists struggle to share their works because of the expectations from fans and admirers; everything must be perfect. But Kleon advises artists not to wait until they are experts before they start sharing. It’s encouraging to know that amateur artists can share their imperfect works with the world, so they can find their voice in the process. Kleon drops the bomb:

“You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it.”

I totally agree with this quote. As a budding writer, you need to be fearless when sharing your flawed works with readers regardless of their expectations. That constant sharing spurs you to stay productive and receive feedback on your work.

Kleon advised artists to share their works but to refrain from oversharing. Kleon wrote:

“The act of sharing is one of generosity — you’re putting something out there because you think it might be helpful or entertaining to someone on the other side of the screen.”

The rule of thumb is to ask if what you are about to share is useful or interesting. If you have your doubts, just toss it into the trash can or hit “save as draft.” If you are scared of sharing your works with the world, this is the book you need for that push towards action.

Show Your Work

Conclusion

For a list of my favourite books, you can find them here

 

It’s your turn, please share with me in the comments section – what are the best books you read in 2020?

Do you have an idea that you would like to share with me?

My 5 Best Reads of 2019

My 5 Best Reads of 2019

My 5 Best Reads of 2019

28

DECEMBER 2019

Samuel Osho

Asides my love for writing, I am a voracious reader that devours books both for relaxation and education. Reading helps to relax tense mental muscles and amplify imagination, it’s also an avenue to gather information on a new subject. 

In 2019, I read more books than I have done in previous years, and I am excited to share some of my best reads with you. I hope you find these books inspiring. The books on my list were necessary not published in 2019; in fact, some are quite old, but they are still relevant in their respective fields. 

5 Best Reads of 2019

1. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott’s compendium of instructions on writing is a superb blessing for any passionate writer. The book uncovered some nuggets via personal stories blended with humour. 

Lamott insists that to become a superb writer, you have to write more and don’t judge your competence based on your first drafts. You will have terrible first drafts. The earlier you know that, the better for you. For storytellers, Lamott’s advice is to keep writing until you unravel the hidden gems – the profiles of your characters, the dialogue forms, the setting and many more. The book offered tasks you can do to warm your writing engines before embarking on the “big” writing project. 

To finish a story, if you need the help of experts on unfamiliar subjects, don’t hesitate to reach out. Get those conversations going, and the perfect words might just come to you. Lamott also emphasized the essence of joining writing groups and seeking constructive criticism from editors or writers that believe in you.

2. The Dip by Seth Godin

Success requires lots of dedication, hard work and resilience. Everyone knows that, but Godin introduces a new angle, which is knowing when to quit a project, a company, a relationship so that you can win in other things.

Godin describes those tough times before success as either a dip or a cul-de-sac. In a cul-de-sac, you recite the mantra of resilience and perseverance, but it’s a ploy to drain your energy and resources – it’s a dead end. While a dip mirrors the same climatic conditions you face in a cul-de-sac, except that it’s going to lead you to a bright side – things get better if you push hard enough. 

A dip is a shortcut to success and weeds out your competitors. Still, it takes intuition, wisdom and sometimes, data to know the difference between a cul-de-sac and a dip. If you spot a cul-de-sac early in your journey, quit the race, save your energy and resources for better ventures. That’s how you quit to win.

“What a blessing it is to love books.” – Elizabeth von Arnim

3. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

This is a must-read for anyone interested in today’s style of entrepreneurship and start-up business. Peter Thiel is a highly intelligent founder and entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience in pioneering innovative technologies. The book makes a case for the true meaning of technology and demonizes the word “globalization” as copying what others are doing.

Thiel goes deep into business secrets that every entrepreneur needs to explore before making entry into new and existing markets. The book contains logical arguments fit for discourse in our ever-evolving world. Although the book tilts towards collaboration between businesses and paints unhealthy competition as idiotic, it has answers for entrepreneurs in both monopoly and competitive terrains.

What takes any business from zero to one is doing what others are not doing – creating new solutions and not merely repackaging what others are doing. I love the part that delved into how to set up a mafia team for a start-up, how to distribute and sell a new product, how to build a company with a robust culture. 

4. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Ramit Sethi’s expert advice on personal finance is a brilliant place to start if you are bent on living a life of financial freedom. Management of personal finances requires one to take charge; don’t be reactive but be proactive. The book propels you to take necessary actions towards your long-term financial goals. You will learn the rules of optimizing my credit card(s) and how to enjoy the perks that come with it. 

The book shows practical ways to supercharge your negotiation skills and avoid unnecessary bank charges. It went deeper into practical strategies for investing and how to start immediately. Ramit shows how to create a conscious spending plan after looking closely at your monthly spending behaviour. And then the exciting part kicks in with using automation as a smart way of saving more money. 

 In the end, I enjoyed the comments on saving for a wedding, getting a prenup, buying a house and buying a car. I am more confident about my finances and equipped with the information to make better decisions.

5. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Jean Greaves and Travis Bradberry

Greaves and Bradberry teamed up to create an instant supercharger for Emotional Intelligence. The book is a robust tool for anyone interested in learning about Emotional Intelligence and seeking practical ways of improving their Emotional Intelligence Quotient.

The introduction gives an eye-opener on how the emotional part of the brain continually overrides the rational part of the brain. It explains why the default response of human beings is usually a gust of emotions and not a series of logical and thoughtful reasoning. The scheme of emotional hijacking as many call it. 

The book further emphasizes the impact of High Emotional Intelligence on personal and professional pursuits. I learnt that Emotional Intelligence could be seen through four lenses: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management. Asides painting what it looks like being in the top or bottom percentile of each category, there were several daily practices you could start immediately to increase your emotional intelligence.

Conclusion

For a list of my favourite books, you can find them here

 

It’s your turn, please share with me in the comments section – what are the best books you read in 2019?

Do you have an idea that you would like to share with me?

Beta Life Series – No Substitutes for Preparation

Beta Life Series – No Substitutes for Preparation

Beta Life Series

No Substitutes for Preparation

Samuel Osho

Award-winning American novelist, Sidney Sheldon was once asked, “What did you do before you wrote your first novel?” 
 
And there he goes, with an epic answer: “I was busy writing other things. I wrote 28 motion pictures, 250 television scripts and 8 Broadway plays.”

 

Perhaps this explains why his books smashed a plethora of literary records. Maybe this underpins citations that list Sheldon as one of the top ten best selling fiction writers of all time. He remains the only writer to have won an Academy Award, Tony Award, and America Edgar Award. 
 
Great things don’t just happen. Many things happen by luck or perhaps by mistake but true and lasting success is not one of them.   
Spectacular products don’t fall from the heavens. 
 
Every good thing requires process and preparation. 
 
Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I am given eight hours to cut down a tree, I will use six hours to sharpen the axe head and use the remaining two hours to cut down the tree.” 
Robust preparation improves your ability to spot opportunities and takes your execution game to a completely new level. 
 
It took Bill Gates decades of coding and hard work before earning his billions. 
It took Usain Bolt six years of running before he got his first Olympic Gold Medal. 
Barack Obama roamed the streets of Illinois for 12 years before he was handed the ticket to represent Chicago in the Senate. 

 

As technology comes with bigger promises of getting things done easier and faster, we must stay true to the timeless principles of preparation and diligence. 

Beta Life Series – Go Back to the Basics

Beta Life Series – Go Back to the Basics

Beta Life Series

Go Back to the Basics

Samuel Osho

Why bother about the union between a noun and an adjective when you don’t know what a verb looks like? 

How can you create lovely sounds when you can’t differentiate musical notes?

There is a reason why we started our journey in kindergarten. 

Kindergarten (German) means children’s garden. A garden captures the journey of a seed into tiny flowers in a nursery pot.  

In the garden, seeds are nourished, nurtured and nursed until they are ready for the unpredictable clime of the forest. 

In kindergarten, you learnt the basics. From alphabets to numbers to drawings to speech; all layers of the human faculty were stirred and engaged by seemingly simple tasks. 

Kindergarten so important and that’s why it’s at the base. Yes, it precedes everything else. 

We learn the alphabets before creating sentences.

We learn how to make bricks before we build. 

We learn logic before we start to code. 

If there is anything so important that deserves your steadied focus all the time – it is learning the basics.  

Everything can go wrong when you ignore the basics, you can’t perform at your best. 

Of what importance is the height of a skyscraper with a faulty base, it is going to collapse anyway. 

So, why not take some time and focus on the basics. 

When you master the basics, you can do exploits and replicate success. 

It’s easy to dream about being the world’s best musician when you know how the musical notes work.

And knowing nouns, verbs, and adjectives even in their disguised apparels can make a hell of a writer out of you. 

Go back to the basics. 

The 10 Best TED Talks for Writers

The 10 Best TED Talks for Writers

The 10 Best TED Talks for Writers

25

FEBRUARY, 2019

Samuel Osho
The evolution of TED over the years is a true testament to the potency of compelling stories. These stories are birthed from daily interactions with ideas, people and places. TED has not only provided a platform for storytellers to share ideas worth spreading, but it has also created an open library of intellectual resources. 
From its humble beginning in 1984, TED has evolved from a conference limited to topics on Technology, Entertainment, and Design to a wide range of issues – from governance to healthcare to business to psychology – in more than 100 languages. However, these short but powerful talks have served as a tool of change in influencing, educating and transforming the psyche of an unending audience.

 

In this vast library of insightful speeches, you will find stories that tickle your fancy as a writer. I have carefully rummaged through the endless stack of talks and searched for ones that will appeal to writers and authors. These talks are a blend of practical ideas and instructive insights. 

Let’s take a look at my curated list of TED talks for writers.

My 10 Best TED Talks for Writers

The best-selling author of 2016 memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the awkward things we expect from creative minds – artists, writers, and geniuses. Gilbert’s story hinges on the overwhelming burden of innovative minds – staying creative and consistently churning out incredible works. The talk was topped off with a deliberate demystification of the sacredness attached to “being a genius,” showing that every human has a genius in them.  

In this humorous talk, American writer Anne Lamott ponders on the timeless lessons she has learnt in her 61 years of existence. It is a bouquet of wisdom that equips your soul with inspiring insights on family, writing, death, the meaning of God, grace and what it means to be human in a chaotic world full of uncertainties.

Oscar-winning American filmmaker Andrew Stanton knows a lot about great stories and how to tell them, evident in the creation of “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” and “WALL-E.” His engaging talk is a map that shows you the path from the end to the beginning of compelling stories.

In a fast-paced world where charismatic and extroverted individuals usually take the front seats, it can be severe and daunting for introverts to be comfortable in their skins. However, in this exciting talk, Susan Cain extols the power of introversion while reflecting on how a massive chunk of creative minds – artists and writers happen to be introverts.

In a world of convoluted stories about Africa, award-winning Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie exposed the precariousness associated with believing a single story about a person, a country, and a continent. She told the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice as a writer while reading the works of other great writers. Adichie canvasses for well-rounded stories that have the power to heal our world and make it a paradise.

In this hilarious talk, writer and blogger Tim Urban shares about his ongoing struggles with procrastination including the adventures and the hard truths. He explores the logic behind procrastination and why the buzz of deadlines seems to suddenly reawaken a procrastinator’s dormant energy to complete tasks. While he is yet to find a solution for his chronic procrastination, his journey challenges us to think deeply about why it’s easy for us to embrace procrastination.

“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” – Lisa See

American psychologist and author Adam Grant delves into the unique traits of creative people and how they come up with great ideas. Grant shares his studies on “originals” – innovative minds who take responsibility for the ownership and actualization of their ideas. In this talk, you will be exposed to three unique habits of originals.

In the search for creativity, writers and artists go through pains, self-doubts, and fears. American novelist Amy Tan gives an in-depth analysis of the creative process while sharing her personal encounters with sheer serendipity on seemingly normal days.

 

Chicago-based Nigerian writer Luvvie Ajayi chronicles her fights with her phobias – from going on a solo vacation to swimming with dolphins to jumping out of a plane. The “professional troublemaker” talks about her rise to stardom as a blogger in the parlance of speaking truth to power. In her inspiring talk, Ajayi shares three questions to ask yourself if you are afraid of speaking up or keeping quiet.

American author of six novels, John Dufresne, delves into the art of storytelling in a way that appeals to fiction writers. The talk is a trip inside a writer’s mind and how a compelling story is created. Dufresne took his audience by the hands and showed them how to create a masterpiece that everyone wants to read and listen to. In fact, if you listen to this speech, you will be half-way into the completion of your short story.

 

In conclusion, writing is both a craft and a form of art. You can learn to be better both in honing your creative and imaginative skills. I hope you found my curated list inspiring and full of practical tips that you can start using straight away in your writing engagements.
 
Perhaps, I have omitted your favorite TED talk for writers, kindly drop a note in the comment section below stating your favorite talk.

I’d love to check them out!

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