The Art of Doing

Read this book and found it to be pretty interesting.  It's broken into short chapters interviewing some rather famous people (Alec Baldwin, Martina Navratilova, a 12 year old gal who sailed around the world alone, etc) and what they have to say on getting things done.  I skipped a few of the entries, but found a few of these takeaways:

• Anna Netrebko, famous opera singer- No matter how big you become, you can never be self-satisfied and say, ‘okay, I’ve made it’ because the next day you have to go back and prove yourself again. 
• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappo, leading online shoe company- Great companies have  a strong culture of values.  It doesn’t matter what those value are; what matters is that you have them.  If you want your company to be great, you have to figure out what your value are.
• Michael Sitrick, CEO of one of the world’s top crisis management firms-  Almost all newspeople believe in the power of the “story”.  Regardless of how actual events occur, journalists believe that the best way to recount these events is in the form of a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, with drama, conflict and surprising twists. 
• Bill Gross, CEO of Idealab, responsible for the creation of nearly 100 businesses- There are so many problems in the world that beg for solutions.  Find the ones that you are passionate about and devote yourself to them.
• Guy Kawasaki, business guru and entrepreneur- Frequent communication doesn’t mean you communicate when everything else is done—you do it all the time.