Congrats #2, 3, 6, 7, 13; Microsoft in 2 sentences; Uber’s clever deal; 2pm ET today
October 10, 2014
GoPro’s Secret; Dumb Idea; Audi’s Breakthrough; Feeling Held Hostage?; See you in Vegas next week!
October 22, 2014

Komisar’s Nest deal; Mark Cuban’s Advice; Devin Schain’s Education Week

"…keeping you great"


HEADLINES:  

Kleiner Perkins' Randy Komisar — the guy who invested $20 million in Nest and then helped sell the company to Google for $3.2 billion ($800 million of that back to Kleiner Perkins); author of the business philosophy book The Monk and the Riddle and co-author of Getting to Plan B; and someone who lectures widely on minimalistic management is coming to Vegas to keynote our Growth Summit presented by Fortune. Here's a link to a recent BBW article detailing the Nest transaction and how it puts Google at the forefront of the "internet of things." We're super excited to have Randy join us. He's substituting for Ben Horowitz, who is trying to reschedule. Keep reading.

Andriy Kobolyev — he's the 36 year old CEO of 176,000 employee Naftogaz, a company that represents one-eighth of Ukraine's total GDP and is #4 on Fortune's Top 40 Under 40 list. Fortune notes "He doesn't have a mentor, and instead learned his leadership style from books." As Scott Nash, CEO of MOM's Organic Market noted in highlighting this fun fact about Andriy, "One book can change everything. And it happens all the time." I couldn't agree more. Keep reading.

Mark Cuban — I shouldn't have been surprised to read that billionaire serial entrepreneur and colorful owner of the Dallas Mavericks reads three hours per day – per day — something he says he had to negotiate with his wife Tiffany. No less than a dozen times in his book How to Win at the Sport of Business (great book – I have my teenage sons reading it now) he emphasizes how he has always been a big reader and how just one idea from a book was enough to make it worthwhile – and that one idea was enough to put him ahead of the pack. Keep reading.

Dr Peter Katzmarzyk — however, sitting for too long reading or doing emails is not healthy. In a study of 17,000 Canadians, Dr. Katzmarzyk found "Individuals who sat the most were roughly 50% more likely to die during the follow-up period than individuals who sat the least, even after controlling for age, smoking, and physical activity levels." So what is the one simple thing you can do to counter all this sitting? Take 1 minute to scan through this short article. Thanks to Carl Fowler with Life Code for sharing this article with me. Then sit down and keep reading.

Science Behind Reading — did you know research has found:

"Just six minutes of reading is enough to reduce stress by 68%, and numerous studies have shown that reading keeps your brain functioning effectively as you age. One study even found that elderly individuals who read regularly are 2.5 times less likely to develop Alzheimer's than their peers."

But not all forms of reading are created equal. This article details why reading paper books is better than reading on e-readers – FYI, more important if reading novels than biz books, so keep reading!

YPOer Devin Schain
— At $1.3 trillion in revenue, education in the US is big business. So, what happens when you mix educators, entrepreneurs, investors, established businesses, and policymakers? Serial entrepreneur Devin Schain is hosting National Education Week, beginning Nov. 10 in Washington, DC. The highlight is the Thought Leader Summit on Nov. 12 & 13 which is limited to 600 participants — at last year's summit 47% were CEOs. The speakers are top notch (with luminaries such as U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Joel Klein), but the real bonus is access to the other participants in a decidedly unstuffy atmosphere–no VIP-only receptions or closed-door sessions. Insight readers can register hereto receive 20% off, use the code ASSOCIATION.

Keep Reading and Learning!

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” and WEO’s “Advanced Business” executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0); Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual Leadership and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity. He is an investor in many scale-ups. A father of four, he enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.