16 Business Tips & Lessons from the Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf

You’ve heard you are what you eat, well we believe that you are what you read. Teach a CEO presents lessons from our bookshelf on how you can improve and grow your venture. We have taken nuggets from our library and provide them for entrepreneurs and business owners.

1. The implications for your health alone are worth making the shift [from a zebra to a lion], because if you are constantly in survival mode you are operating out of ‘fight or flight,' which has serious consequences on your immune system and overall levels of health. For the sake of your potential, your dreams, your health and your family, you must start developing the mindset of a lion and get out of survival mode. (Hustle)
2. Some businesspeople and lawyers ponder and argue a lot about whether proposed contract terms would be fair. I think that's an unhelpful view of contracts for two reasons. First, it's hard or even impossible to define “fair” in contract negotiations. Second, a focus on what's fair may lead you to reject deals that make economic sense or to accept deals that don't. The better question is: would doing the deal under these terms be more profitable than not doing it? (The Tech Contracts Handbook)
3. Goals actually allow you to shirk responsibility. But a mission? Only the person in the mirror can stop you from living that out. (Chop Wood Carry Water)
4. Everyone has big dreams, but the best indicator of whether or not you will have a shot, not a guarantee, but a shot at making your dreams come true is the truth about how much you are willing to suffer. (Burn Your Goals)
5. One advantage of owning my own business was that it allowed me to make trade-offs with other business owners for services that we both needed, otherwise known as bartering.
6. The quickest path to becoming ignored is to ask people to give you stuff. (Hustle)
7. In professional service deals, the independent contractor clause should also confirm that the vendor's employees won't be considered employees of the customer and that the vendor remains responsible for their benefits and pay. (The Tech Contracts Handbook)
8. Don't worry about a lack of resources. Instead, focus on using whatever you do have to hustle after what really matters: falling in love with the process of becoming great. (Hustle)
9. What you don't see happening is what is taking place beneath the surface. Beneath the surface, a massive, dense foundation of roots is spreading out all the throughout the ground to prepare for the rapid growth that the bamboo will experience. So, you keep watering it and watering it, and eventually, after five years of seeing nothing at all happen above the surface, the bamboo tree shoots up to over ninety feet tall in just six weeks. (Chop Wood Carry Water)
10. But the thing is it's not about thinking. Everyone has great ideas. Most people aren't willing to habitually, and consistently act, fail, learn, and repeat outside the box. (The Spirit Told Me What the Doctors Couldn't)
11. Everyone has big dreams, but the best indicator of whether or not you will have a shot, not a guarantee, but a shot at making your dreams come true is the truth about how much you are willing to suffer. (Burn Your Goals)
12. Intellectual property law lets creators monopolize certain products of their intellect. Because of IP law, you can own an invention you've developed. You can also own software or a story you've written, a photograph you've take, music you've written or recorded, a sculpture you've carved, a name or log you've used in commerce and various other types of intangible property. And your ownership covers more than just physical products. If you build a better mousetrap and get a patent, you can monopolize the invention so that no one else can build mousetraps like yours. (The Tech Contracts Handbook)
13. Be careful who you get advice from. Many people have a vested interest in seeing you fail. If you succeed and show that it's possible, then they no longer can say it's impossible. (Hustle)
14. Your membories are not created thrugh your experiences, rather they are created throught the stories you tell yourself and others about your experiences. So, if you leave a practice or a match and you tell everyone how poorly you played, and you focus on all your mistakes, then that is what your brain remembers. Most people undermine all the hard work they are putting in by telling really negative stories and blocking out all the growth that is happening. (Chop Wood Carry Water)
15. My goal is to heal and tell my story in order to help others. That is why I have written this account, so that others can ride the waves when their lives get thrown into a storm. (The Spirit Told Me What the Doctors Couldn't)
16. It's easy to believe, or at least paint the picture, that people who execute at the highest level have something special that we weren't born with. No one is born with “it.” We are all born with certain things and “it,” whatever “it” is, is developed over time through deliberate practice, intense training, repeated failure, and immense sacrifice. (Burn Your Goals)

Books from the Bookshelf

Summaries from Amazon.com

• The Tech Contracts Handbook: Cloud Computing Agreements, Software Licenses, and Other IT Contracts for Lawyers and Businesspeople – The Tech Contracts Handbook is a practical, user-friendly reference manual and training guide on cloud computing agreements, software licenses, and other IT contracts. It's a clause-by-clause “how to” resource, covering the issues at stake and offering negotiation tips and sample contract language. The Handbook is for both lawyers and businesspeople — including contract managers, procurement officers, in-house and outside counsel, salespeople, and anyone else responsible for getting IT deals done. Perhaps, most important, it uses clear, simple English, like a good contract.
• Hustle: The People at the Top of the Mountain Didn't Fall There – A real world guide to greatness in the new world of work.
• Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great – Guided by “Akira-sensei,” John comes to realize the greatest adversity on his journey will be the challenge of defeating the man in the mirror. This powerful story of one boy's journey to achieve his life long goal of becoming a samurai warrior, brings the Train to be Clutch curriculum to life in a powerful and memorable way.
• Burn Your Goals: The Counter Cultural Approach to Achieving Your Greatest Potential – Our counter cultural approach to mental training has helped transform leaders in sports, business, and education. The stories, strategies, and tools within will leave you encouraged and inspired. If you are looking for a quick fix, look somewhere else. If you are looking to achieve your greatest potential on the journey of life, you have come to the right place.
• The Spirit Told Me What the Doctors Couldn't – After a fifteen year battle against an elusive enemy, Jody Williams was finally able to put a name to the disease that had been ravaging his body for so long. The Spirit Told Me What the Doctors Couldn't is the inspiring story of Williams' battle against Cushing's disease and his miraculous journey to recovery. Cushing's is a deadly disease that afflicts its target with many of the common side effects associated with obesity—high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, and many other varying symptoms. These symptoms can all be treated separately without ever identifying the disease that hides itself deep within the endocrine system. Unfortunately, for many individuals the disease is never uncovered, leading to fatality as they never receive the necessary treatment.  If you or someone you know is suffering with any of these symptoms and seeking answers in the battle, be encouraged—there is hope!