By: Aaron Orendorff
“Books,” wrote Charles William Eliot, “are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
At the risk of contradicting Harvard’s most-distinguished president … I’d like to add a caveat: certainly, books are friends, counselors, and teachers.
However, books — particularly the best books for leaders — are anything but quiet. At least, they shouldn’t be.
Getting books to speak up takes effort. As my friend Jesse Wisnewski recently noted in The Observer:
“Reading isn’t the same as having a face-to-face conversation with someone you want to learn from.
“But if you want to learn lessons from the books you read, then you must become an active reader: someone who is ready to ask questions, review their notes, and then take action. This shift in the way you approach what you read will help you to treat books like your best mentors.”
To that end, I reached out to 10 of the best mentors in the ecommerce space and asked them for the best ecommerce books leaders should read in 2018, along with the best lesson and quote from that book.
But, don’t be fooled. These aren’t books about “ecommerce” — not all of them anyway. Nor are they a round-up of 2017’s most famous titles.
Instead, these books, lessons, and quotes span the worlds of business, sociology, history, psychology, and customer service. So, let’s explore …
1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Recommended by Tobias Lütke, Shopify’s Chief Executive Officer
From Phil Knight’s humble origins — selling $8,000 his first year from the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant — to topping $30 billion at the time of publication, Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike offers an autobiographical account of one of the world’s most recognizable brands.
Best Leadership Lesson:
“War is the most extreme of conditions. But business has its warlike parallels. Someone somewhere once said that business is war without bullets, and I tended to agree.
“One lesson I took from all my home-schooling about heroes was that they didn’t say much. None was a blabbermouth. None micromanaged.
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results.”
-Phil Knight
2. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Recommended by Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s Chief Operating Officer
Drawing inspiration from Marcus Aurelius’ 2,000-year-old quote — “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — The Obstacle Is the Way leads modern readers into the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism. “The Stoic,” Holiday says, “doesn’t look out at the world and try to change it; they try to change themselves — to orient themselves to be the best person they can in that world.”
Best Leadership Lesson:
“Failure really can be an asset if what you’re trying to do is improve, learn, or do something new. It’s the preceding feature of nearly all successes.
“There’s nothing shameful about being wrong, about changing course. Each time it happens we have new options. Problems become opportunities. And that means changing the relationship with failure. It means iterating, failing, and improving.
Read More at: https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/best-ecommerce-books-leaders
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