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Sources of knowledge thanks to which I became an entrepreneur

Knowledge that helped me become an entrepreneur

As a beginner entrepreneur, I devoured hundreds of books, videos, training, podcasts and newsletters. Honestly, most of them weren't worth the time. The market for business knowledge is oversaturated. There's a lot of repetition, simple thoughts disguised as revelations, and motivational noise that sounds good but doesn't change much in the real world of running a business.

After years of winnowing, however, I was left with a few sources that really changed my way of thinking. Not because they were fashionable. Not because someone turned them into a bestseller on LinkedIn. They stayed with me because they helped me make better decisions, understand customers, build a team, sell, design services and endure moments when business requires patience.

The most valuable materials turned out to be not the most advanced ones, but the fundamental ones. Simple, specific and implementable. Over time, I see more and more that in business, the person who knows the latest technology rarely wins. The winner is more often the one who understands the basics well and can use them consistently.

Below is my personal, highly selected list of sources that helped me go from ignorant to more effective entrepreneur.

▪️Business and management▪️

Minimalist entrepreneur - Sahil Lavingia

If I had to choose one book for someone who wants to build a healthy, profitable company from scratch, I would start with this one.

This is a book about building a business without hysteria, without the cult of growth at all costs and without pretending that the company must immediately be a startup that will conquer the world or die. Lavingia shows a more sober approach: find a real problem, start with a small community, provide value, make money as quickly as possible and grow at a pace that does not destroy lives.

For me, implementing the thinking from this book translated into greater peace of mind in running my business. It helped me better understand that a healthy business is not only about revenue, team and number of projects. It is also the level of complexity, repeatability, profitability and lifestyle that the company creates for its owner.

  • Highest value: Build the house you want to live in. If you read it, you will understand it.

  • For whom: for people who are starting a business or want to simplify a company that has started to tire and spoil their lives.

  • Note: There are a few too many American anecdotes in places, but that's forgivable. The meaning remains very strong.

Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

This book taught me one of the most important things in business: the customer really doesn't care about the standards of your industry.

The industry tends to look inward. Compares price lists, processes, offers, languages, formats and scopes of services. The customer looks completely differently. He has a problem, a need, a frustration, or a goal. The one who meets this need better, easier or more conveniently wins.

"Blue Ocean Strategy" helps you get out of the thinking: "how to be a little better than the competition?" and move on to the question: “what really matters to the customer and how can we deliver it differently?”

  • The greatest value: teaches you not to copy the industry and forces you to think as a customer.

  • For whom: for people who design an offer, service, product or company positioning.

  • Note: the book is long. Its main idea could fit into a short lecture. Plus, like many business books, it sometimes sounds as if it has found a cure for all the world's diseases. It's worth keeping your distance. It's a very useful tool, but only one of many

Testing business models

Most business ideas don't fail because people are lazy or stupid. It fails because their assumptions have not been tested.

This book teaches you to look at business as a set of hypotheses. We assume that the customer has a given problem. We assume that he will want to pay for something. We assume that we will reach it through a specific channel. We assume that the margin will shrink. The problem is that assumptions are not facts.

The greatest value of this book is that it shows you how to reduce your risk before wasting your time and money. Instead of falling in love with an idea, you learn to test it.

  • The greatest value: it provides ready-made tools for verifying business ideas.

  • For whom: for people who want to launch a new service, product, startup or business line.

  • Note: it has an unusual format. For me, this is an advantage because it presents knowledge in an interesting way. For some, it may be less comfortable to read than a classic book.

Value Proposition Design

This is a very good position for anyone who wants to design their offer better. Not from the perspective of our own ambitions, but from the client's perspective.

The book teaches how to work on the value proposition: what the customer is trying to achieve, what blocks him, what he is afraid of, what he considers a real benefit and why he should choose your solution. These are simple questions, but in practice many companies don't ask them. Instead, they describe themselves, their processes and their advantages, which the customer often does not care about.

  • Greatest value: helps tailor the offer to the customer's real needs.

  • For whom: for people working on a product, service, landing page, sales or brand communication.

  • Note: Just knowing the tool doesn't do any good. You need to sit down, fill them out honestly and confront them with reality.

The Psychology of the Boss series - Jerzy Gut and Wojciech Haman

Before you hire anyone, read this series. Seriously.

People management is full of situations that seem unique, strange or personal to a young entrepreneur. Someone isn't delivering. Someone is avoiding responsibility. Someone says one thing and does another. Someone gets offended by feedback. Someone needs support but is unable to ask for it. Someone keeps crossing the boundaries.

After time, you discover that these are not unique dramas of your company. These are repeatable mechanisms of working with people. Gut and Haman describe them in simple language and provide specific tools for conversations, setting boundaries, delegating and resolving conflicts.

  • The greatest value: practical management knowledge without the corporate fluff.

  • For whom: anyone who employs people or manages a team.

  • Note: Some examples may seem anachronistic and firmly rooted in manufacturing companies. But the basic human mechanisms haven't changed that much. Even in the creative and technological industries, people can act with very simple, sometimes primitive motivations.

Economics for Everyone - Thomas Sowell

Economics without charts and equations sounds suspicious. And yet this book does exactly what a good popular science book should do: it explains complex phenomena so that the reader actually begins to see them in the world.

Even though I graduated from Warsaw School of Economics, it was this book that most shaped my way of thinking about the economy. Sowell shows the fundamental mechanisms: incentives, opportunity costs, prices, supply, demand, the consequences of regulation and the fact that good intentions do not override the laws of economics.

This thinking is very useful in the company. It helps to understand that every decision has a cost. Every promotion changes something. Every process creates stimuli. Every compensation system influences behavior. Every "free" solution is financed by someone.

  • The greatest value: teaches you to see economic mechanisms in everyday business decisions.

  • For whom: entrepreneurs, marketers, managers and everyone who wants to better understand the world.

  • Note: May be too popular for those looking for an academic textbook. For me, that's why it works.

Systems thinking. Introduction, Donella H. Meadows

The company is a system. Not a collection of random tasks, emails, people, projects and fires, but a system. And systems have their rules.

This book helps you move from working "in the company" to working "on the company." You start to look not just at individual problems, but at dependencies. Why is something coming back? Why does the team behave in a certain way? Why does one process fix a problem locally but break something elsewhere? Why does a quick fix sometimes make the disease worse?

This is a very important change for an entrepreneur. First you put out fires. Then you need to understand who, where and why these fires are regularly lit.

  • The greatest value: teaches you to look at a company as a system of causes and effects.

  • For whom: for people who already have a company, team or repetitive organizational problems.

  • Note: For someone familiar with systems thinking, some things will be obvious. But as an introduction to the topic, the book is very good.

Bartek Pucek's newsletter

For me, Bartek Puck's newsletter is a good way to keep an eye on what is happening in the most innovative companies and technological trends.

But there is also a lot of fundamental advice on business and life. This is the only newsletter that I read from A to Z.

  • The greatest value: allows you to track the directions of changes in technology, business and AI.

  • For whom: for people who want to be closer to modern business.

  • Note: read and that's it.

Podcast Mała Wielka Firma - Marek Jankowski

At the beginning of my journey, I found many answers to problems that seemed new to me at the time.

This is one of the most famous Polish business podcasts and this is hardly surprising. Marek Jankowski is a very good presenter. He is able to talk, organize the topic and bring out practical things from the guests.

  • The greatest value: a wide range of topics related to running a small business.

  • For whom: for beginner entrepreneurs and small business owners.

  • Note: There are a lot of materials, so sometimes it's difficult to find exactly what you need at a given moment. For a larger company, some episodes may be too basic.

YouTube channel SellFirme.com

I appreciate this channel for changing my perspective: a company can be a product.

This approach is still quite new in Poland. Many entrepreneurs build companies as an extension of themselves, their own effort and their own control. The problem is that such a company is often difficult to sell, difficult to scale, and difficult to run without an owner.

Thinking about the company as a product forces you to organize processes, finances, team, offer and repeatability. Even if you never sell it, building a sellable company usually means building a healthier company.

  • Greatest value: teaches you to look at the company from the perspective of values, processes and marketability.

  • For whom: for business owners who want to build something bigger than their own self-employment.

  • Note: The videos can be long and cover many topics. It's worth listening selectively.

YouTube channel and podcast of Szymon Negacz

If you are involved in B2B sales, sales management or building a commercial process, Szymon Negacz's materials are a must-have for me.

Negacz explains in a very accessible way sales, B2B marketing, the work of salespeople, managing a sales team, processes, funnels, CRMs, prospecting and all this less glamorous, but absolutely crucial part of running a company. His big advantage is that he doesn't sell sales as magic, charisma, or a set of manipulative techniques. It shows it as a system that can be designed, measured, improved and developed.

  • The greatest value: it explains sales and sales management in B2B in a very accessible way.

  • For whom: for business owners, sales directors, salespeople, B2B marketers and people who want to stop treating sales as improvisation.

  • Note: There is a lot of material, so it's best not to watch it randomly. It is worth starting with the problem that you really have in your company: prospecting, sales process, salesperson management, CRM, offer, lead qualification or cooperation between marketing and sales.

Marshmallow Test - Walter Mischel

In business, delayed gratification is one of the most important skills.

The actions you take today will often produce results months or years from now. Building a brand, SEO, relationships, product, processes, team, reputation or customer base takes time. The problem is that the brain likes quick reward. He likes immediate results, quick transfers, easy orders and an apparent sense of progress.

This book helped me better name a mechanism that appears all the time in business: you need to be able to endure the time until the harvest.

  • Highest Value: Demonstrates the importance of self-control and delaying reward.

  • For whom: for people who have problems with consistency, patience or switching between ideas.

  • Warning: the book is long-winded. However, the idea itself is very important.

Business studies at a good university

In my thirties, I went to graduate school in e-business at the Warsaw School of Economics.

It wasn't because I needed paper for my CV. I wasn't looking for a job, a promotion, or formal confirmation that I "knew business." I already had years of running a company and that's why I approached these studies in a completely different way.

Many younger colleagues were mainly interested in what the grades would be, how much they had to learn and what they had to do to move on. I was interested in one thing: what I could learn and what I could then implement in the company.

This changes the study experience a lot. When you deal with the real problems of an entrepreneur, suddenly accounting, management, marketing, law, technology, business models and data analysis are no longer abstract subjects. You start to see where your company is lacking. Czasem małe, czasem irytujące, czasem takie, które przez lata przykrywałeś intuicją, energią albo improwizacją.

For me, business studies were not a life breakthrough in the film sense. They were more of a polish. They filled in minor gaps, organized some of my knowledge and gave me a broader, more holistic perspective on business.

And that's why I think good business studies make sense. Especially when you go there for the experience, not for the experience.

  • The greatest value: holistic organization of business knowledge and filling in gaps that are difficult to notice when you learn only from practice.

  • For whom: for entrepreneurs who already have several years of experience and feel that intuition and practice have led them far, but do not complete everything.

  • Note: studies alone will not make anyone an entrepreneur. But for a person who already runs a company and knows why they are there, they can be a very good tool to refine their thinking.

▪️Behavioral economics and correct thinking▪️

The scientific method, critical thinking, and cognitive biases

There is no single book, movie or course that deals with the topic of rational thinking. It is rather an area that you need to be interested in regularly and that you need to slowly implement into your own life. Scientific method, critical thinking, heuristics, cognitive biases, logic, statistics, working with data, the ability to change your mind under the influence of facts. This may all sound academic, but in practice it is one of the most business-related competencies you can develop.

Running a business means constantly making decisions. Who to hire? What offer should you create? Which client should I enter? Which project should I give up? Should you raise prices? Is this problem an exception or a system signal? Do I believe something because I have the data or because I really want it to be true?

In business, it is very easy to confuse emotion with intuition, intuition with experience, and experience with truth. Sometimes a decision seems right just because it reduces anxiety. Sometimes we defend an idea because we have already spent time and money on it. Sometimes we choose a client that sounds good but will be terrible operationally. Sometimes we turn down a good opportunity because it violates our ego or old beliefs.

And this is why understanding the scientific method is so important. It creates the habit of asking: what do I know, what do I not know, what data do I have, how can I check it, what would have to happen for me to change my mind?

Good, rational decisions develop the company. Emotional, reflexive, status and defensive decisions can silently destroy it. It doesn't matter whether you run a small service company, a startup, an agency, an online store or a large organization. In the end, the winner is the one who recognizes reality better and corrects his own mistakes faster.

  • The greatest value: teaches you to seek the truth instead of defending your own beliefs.

  • For whom: for every entrepreneur, leader, strategist, salesperson and marketer, i.e. for everyone who regularly makes decisions under pressure.

  • Note: Mere knowledge of cognitive biases does not protect against cognitive biases. You can know the confirmation bias and continue to look only for arguments to support your thesis. You may know the sunk cost fallacy and still stick with a project that needs to be closed. Therefore, this is not about intellectual curiosity. It's about practice: testing assumptions, talking to data, admitting mistakes, and building systems that help you make better decisions.

Thinking Traps - Daniel Kahneman

This is one of the most important books for an entrepreneur who wants to better understand decisions: his own, his clients' and his team's.

Kahneman shows that the human mind is not as rational as we like to think of ourselves. We take shortcuts, succumb to heuristics, add stories, defend previous beliefs and confuse self-confidence with the truth.

This is especially important for an entrepreneur, because business often punishes wrong thinking with a delay. A bad strategic decision may seem reasonable for several months. A poorly rated customer may seem like a great lead.

  • The greatest value: it teaches humility towards your own brain.

  • For whom: for decision-makers, i.e. for every entrepreneur.

  • Note: the book is too long. It could be a fraction of the volume and still be very valuable.

The art of thinking clearly - Rolf Dobelli

If Kahneman is heavier and more scientific, Dobelli is more accessible and practical.

The book describes cognitive biases and heuristics, i.e. the repetitive ways our brain leads us astray. Confirmation bias, sunk cost fallacy, availability bias, overconfidence. Each of these mechanisms can cost an entrepreneur money, time and peace of mind.

  • Greatest value: concise descriptions of thinking errors that are easy to remember.

  • For whom: for people who want to spot their own intellectual traps faster.

  • Note: Just knowing cognitive biases doesn't make you stop suffering from them. But it gives you a chance to catch on faster.

A short film about truth and falsehood - SciFun

This is a very good introduction to the scientific method and critical thinking.

In business, it's easy to confuse opinion with fact. It's easy to believe an industry stereotype, your own gut feeling, or one famous example. The scientific method teaches the opposite: check, question, look for data, separate hypotheses from evidence.

Good business decisions rarely come from certainty. More often than not, they come from the ability to honestly test your own beliefs.

  • The greatest value: it explains the basics of sound thinking in an accessible way.

  • For whom: anyone who wants to make decisions based on something better than intuition and information noise.

  • Note: none. It's simply worth watching.

▪️Negotiations▪️

Never Split the Difference and Getting to Yes

An entrepreneur negotiates all the time. With clients, employees, subcontractors, partners, landlords, suppliers, and often also with yourself. Therefore, negotiations are not a separate, elegant competence for special occasions. They are the daily determination of the conditions of reality.

Therefore, it is worth knowing two approaches: a very practical and tactical one from the book "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss and a more fundamental, calmer and systemic one from the book "Getting to Yes" by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton.

“Never Split the Difference” is great because it teaches you how to talk in tense situations. Voss, a former FBI negotiator, shows the importance of active listening, calibrating questions, pausing, tone of voice, naming emotions and understanding what the other side is really trying to achieve. This is a very practical book for an entrepreneur, because business is often not only about price. It's about fear, control, risk, status, feeling safe and saving face.

“Getting to Yes” organizes the negotiations from a more fundamental perspective. It teaches you to separate people from the problem, focus on interests instead of rigid positions, look for objective criteria and know your BATNA, i.e. the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. This is very important because many entrepreneurs enter into negotiations without knowing where their limits really are, what they can let go of and what they should not let go of.

For me, these two books complement each other well. “Never Split the Difference” gives you tools to talk here and now. “Getting to Yes” gives you a frame of thought that prevents you from turning your negotiation into an ego wrestling match.

  • The greatest value: they teach you to negotiate without chaos, submission and unnecessary aggression.

  • For whom: entrepreneurs, traders, leaders, freelancers and everyone who regularly sets the terms of cooperation.

  • Note: Negotiation techniques themselves can lead to slyness if you don't have a good foundation. That's why it's worth reading these books together. One teaches the dynamics of conversation, the other teaches rules and structure. In business, the best negotiations are not the ones that make you feel like you've outplayed someone. The best ones are those in which both parties understand the conditions, risks and sense of further cooperation.

▪️ Marketing and sales▪️

Don't make me think - Steve Krug

If you want to have an effective website, start with this book.

Krug explains UX in a brutally simple way: the user doesn't want to guess. I don't want to solve the mystery. I don't want to look for a button, decipher the menu or wonder what the author meant. The website should lead him to his goal as clearly as possible.

For me, this is one of those books that should be mandatory for all people dealing with marketing, websites, offers and sales.

  • The greatest value: teaches simplicity, readability and empathy towards the user.

  • For whom: for people designing websites, landing pages, stores, presentations and sales materials.

  • Note: If you're already deep in UX, many of the tips will seem obvious to you. But these are the foundations that are most often broken.

Azercell presented: Jack Trout - Positioning around the world

Jack Trout is one of the most important marketing figures of the 20th century. His book Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind is a classic that every marketer should know, but not necessarily… read. Why? Because in my opinion the following speech is much more valuable:

  • The greatest value: teaches you to think about the brand's position in the customer's mind.

  • For whom: for people working on brand strategy, communication, offer and campaigns.

  • Note: the speech is long and sometimes repetitive. If you're wasting your time, I've summarized the knowledge in this article: www.rekhouse.pl/post/pozycjonowanie-marki

Marketing - Philip Kotler

I debated for a long time whether to include Kotler on this list. On the one hand, it's a classic. On the other hand, the book is long, sometimes heavy and in many parts out of step with today's marketing pace.

Still, it's worth knowing. It's something like a classic marketing map. Even if you end up doing many things differently later, it's good to know what you're moving away from. To consciously break the rules, you must first understand them.

  • The greatest value: organizes the classic basics of marketing.

  • For whom: for people who want to have a solid foundation, not just a set of current tactics.

  • Note: It's not a quick read. I read it for a very long time.

Influencing People - Robert B. Cialdini

A classic worth returning to.

Cialdini describes the mechanisms of social influence that operate in sales, marketing, negotiations and everyday communication. The rule of reciprocity, social proof, authority, inaccessibility, consistency, liking. These mechanisms are simple, but their consequences are enormous.

Running a business without understanding social impact is like selling in the dark.

  • Greatest value: shows the basic mechanisms that influence people's decisions.

  • For whom: entrepreneurs, sellers, marketers, leaders and negotiators.

  • Note: This knowledge can be used for good or cynically. It's worth choosing well.

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

For me, this is one of the best sales books, even though it is not a typical sales book.

Carnegie teaches something that is harder in business than it seems: looking at the world through the eyes of another person. People want to feel important, noticed, understood and appreciated. It may seem like a cliché, but most sales communication still revolves around the sender, not the recipient.

  • The greatest value: teaches practical empathy, i.e. empathy that translates into relationships and sales.

  • For whom: for anyone who works with people.

  • Note: There are too many anecdotes in places, but the core of the book is very strong.

Become a Super Salesman - Brian Tracy

This was the first sales book I read. Years later, I still appreciate it, although I read it differently today.

Tracy lays out basic sales techniques in a very simple way. You may be angry at his style, but many of the principles still apply: preparation, recognizing needs, working with objections, consistent closure, activity, discipline.

  • The greatest value: provides a solid basis for sales.

  • For whom: for people who are starting to sell or want to get their foundations in order.

  • Note: I wouldn't look for finesse here. I would look for the basics that you need to know.

▪️Self-development▪️

Moral Letters to Lucius - Seneca

There is an episode of South Park called "The Simpsons already did it". The characters try to come up with something original, but it turns out that The Simpsons has already done it.

For me, the Stoics are the Simpsons of personal development. When I come across contemporary content about mindfulness, pressure, motivation, stress, goals, mental resilience or dealing with failure, I often see that the Stoics thought about it two thousand years ago.

Seneca is one of the best entries into this tradition. Not always easy, but very valuable.

  • The greatest value: shows how to maintain calm, common sense and character in difficult conditions.

  • For whom: for people who run a business and do not want to be slaves to every crisis.

  • Note: This is a text from two thousand years ago. There will be anachronistic language and passages that require patience.

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

Think you have problems? Imagine that you are the emperor of Rome and you have to deal with wars, famine, epidemics, politics, betrayals, riots and responsibility for the empire.

Marcus Aurelius wrote not for an audience, but for himself. And that's why this book is so powerful. It is a record of a man who tries to maintain internal order, even though the world around him is extremely difficult.

It is a very useful read for an entrepreneur. It teaches us to separate what depends on us from what we cannot control.

  • Greatest value: helps build calm and discipline under pressure.

  • For whom: for people who take responsibility and want to carry it better.

  • Note: some passages are very metaphysical or sound foreign today. It is worth extracting meaning and not fighting every sentence.

My philosophy for a happy life | Sam Berns

Often, when I feel bad, I turn on this movie. It is not only uplifting, but also contains a huge amount of life wisdom. It allows you to look at your life from the perspective of a person who, despite unimaginable difficulties, has found a way to achieve happiness. Interestingly, all of Sam's thoughts can be found in Stoic philosophy and they work well in running a business. Nothing, just watch.

Daily Stoic Newsletter - Ryan Holiday

If 2,000-year-old philosophy seems overwhelming, subscribe to this newsletter. It contains accessible knowledge that is the sum of Stoic thought.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie

Running a business can be unhealthy. Not only because of work, but because of constant tension: what will happen to clients, the team, money, liquidity, sales, projects and the future.

Carnegie gives simple life advice on worrying. Some of them may sound old-fashioned, but many still work. Especially breaking down problems into specifics, action and acceptance of what cannot be changed.

  • The greatest value: a practical approach to reducing anxiety and overload.

  • For whom: for people who tend to worry about the future.

  • Note: there may be too many anecdotes, but the point is valuable.

Factfulness - Hans Rosling

The media feeds us mainly what is scary, conflicting and clichéd. After a while, you may start to believe that the world is just falling apart.

Rosling shows a different perspective: one based on data, not media fear. It's not about naivety. It's about seeing reality more fully. Also its positive side.

This is important for an entrepreneur because cognitive pessimism can paralyze decisions. If you see only threats everywhere, you start to act anxious or defensive.

  • The greatest value: it teaches you to look at the world through data, not media panic.

  • For whom: for people who want to regain a more realistic image of the world.

  • Note: none.

Want less. Minimalism in practice - Katarzyna Kędzierska

After reading this book, I sold a few hundred things on OLX, cleared my life of unnecessary baggage and really felt better.

For me, minimalism is not the aesthetics of an empty apartment. It is a tool for regaining attention. Every single thing, obligation, project, whim and unnecessary process takes up space in your mind. And an entrepreneur's attention is one of his most valuable resources.

I also introduced the principles of minimalism at Rek House. Less chaos, less unnecessary tools, less distraction. More focus on what really creates value.

  • Greatest value: helps reduce excess and regain space for thinking.

  • For whom: for people who feel that their life or company is overloaded with things, projects and stimuli.

  • Note: Minimalism is easily confused with aesthetics itself. For me, its impact on decisions, attention and peace of mind is much more important.

Atomic Habits, James Clear

This is one of those books that is very simple, even obvious in places, and yet can really change your life.

"Atomic Habits" is not a complicated book. There are a lot of anecdotes, examples and repetitions, as is often the case in American popular science books. But the main idea is very powerful: small, repeated actions can really change the trajectory of a life and a company.

For an entrepreneur, this is especially important because a business rarely develops thanks to one big gesture. In business, it's not about success, but about it being successful: regular prospecting, weekly analysis of numbers, daily monitoring of priorities, closing issues quickly, consistently improving the offer, better meetings, better follow-ups, better work hygiene.

Many people overestimate breakthroughs and underestimate systems. And it is the systems and habits that make good decisions not a one-time effort, but a natural element of everyday life.

  • The greatest value: shows that small habits, repeated consistently, can make a huge difference over time.

  • For whom: for entrepreneurs, leaders and creators who know what they should do, but have problems with consistency.

  • Note: the book itself is simple and sometimes long-winded. I wouldn't read it for intellectual enlightenment. I would read it to implement. One good habit that stays with you for years is worth more than ten underlined quotes.

How do I choose business knowledge today?

After years of reading, listening and testing, I have a few rules.

  1. Fundamentals are more important than trends. Trends change, but the customer, incentives, costs, attention, trust, sales, positioning and people management always come back.

  2. Knowledge only makes sense when it changes behavior. Reading alone does not give you an advantage. The advantage comes from implementation, even small ones.

  3. It is worth looking for sources that teach thinking, and not just provide tactics. Tactics without thinking become outdated quickly.

  4. Simplicity is underrated. The best ideas often sound trivial until you actually try to apply them.

  5. You have to be careful with knowledge that only gives you a sense of progress. Reading another book can be an elegant form of procrastination. Sometimes it's better to close the book and make one difficult conversation, one sales call, one margin analysis, or one decision you've been avoiding for months.