Category: Richardson Writing Initiative

The Richardson Writing Initiative is a dedicated space for writing, publishing, and editorial work on behalf of Eric Mathews. Through this initiative, I contribute to shaping and sharing Eric’s voice across platforms, helping translate ideas into impactful written content. Whether drafting thought pieces, refining messaging, or managing publication strategies, the Richardson Writing Initiative serves as the creative engine behind the scenes—driven by precision, clarity, and purpose.

Books don’t just inform—they transform

This year’s reading list represents the direct implementation of many methods for growth and improvement found in books apart of last year’s listing: Add These Growth Oriented Books, a list of books specifically focused on growth and development. I stayed committed to both the quality and quantity of my reading. Through my reading it has become evident that books have become more than a habit for me, they’ve become a cornerstone of how I evolve. I don’t just read to learn. I read to shift. To rethink. To rewire.

Books don’t just inform, they transform.

They expose blind spots. 

They spark conviction.

They push you to let go of what’s no longer serving you and step into something deeper.

My capacity to read more books each year has steadily grown. This year, I read 48 books that did just that. My secret to getting through this many books in a year is using every format available — physical copies, Kindle, and Audible — often juggling two to four books at a time. After finishing each one, I make a point to pass along the best reads to others. While I fell just short of my goal of 52 books this year, I’m glad I got through these amazing books.

The Listings

Without more delay, here is a list of the books I have read in the past year. Most of them were recommended to me and now I recommend them to you. Additionally, if you want to see the other prior lists head to my posts entitled Increase Your Quality Inputs and Readers are Leaders. If you ever want specific book recommendations, please reach out.

  • The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt
  • Adventure Capitalist – Jim Rogers
  • Good Energy – Calley Means & Casey Means
  • The Coming Wave – Mustafa Suleyman & Michael Bhaskar
  • The Fourth Turning – William Strauss & Neil Howe
  • Mastering the VC Game – Jeffery Bussgang
  • The Way of Integrity – Martha Beck
  • How to Develop Your Family Mission Statement – Stephen Covey
  • Economic Facts and Fallacies – Thomas Sowell
  • Stolen Focus – Johann Hari
  • The Art of the Deal – Donald Trump
  • Chasing Daylight – Gene O’Kelly
  • Eat That Frog – Brian Tracy
  • The 12 Week Year – Brian Moran & Michael Lennington
  • How Innovation Works – Matt Ridley
  • Buck Up, Suck Up… – Paul Begala & James Carville
  • How to Be Perfect – Michael Schur
  • Invisible Rulers – Renée DiResta
  • Moneyland – Oliver Bullough
  • Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence – Chalmers Brothers & Vinay Kumar
  • Cultures of Growth – Mary C. Murphy
  • The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Al Ries & Jack Trout
  • Hooked – Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover
  • Unreasonable Hospitality – Will Guidara
  • Getting to Yes with Yourself – William Ury
  • The Richest Woman in America – Janet Wallach
  • Empire Builder – Adam Coffey
  • Elon Musk – Walter Isaacson
  • Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds – Charles Mackay
  • Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth – Avery Carl
  • More Money Than God – Sebastian Mallaby
  • Possible – William Ury
  • I Will Teach You to Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
  • The Social Animal – David Brooks
  • You Need a Manifesto – Charlotte Burgess-Auburn
  • Marcus Aurelius – Donald J. Robertson
  • Trust Me, I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday
  • The Power Law – Sebastian Mallaby
  • The Creative Act – Rick Rubin
  • Side Hustle – Chris Guillebeau
  • How to Know a Person – David Brooks
  • The Practice – Seth Godin
  • The Comfort Crisis – Michael Easter
  • A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine
  • Vivid Vision – Cameron Herold
  • The 5 AM Club – Robin Sharma
  • Hidden Potential – Adam Grant

Measuring the Wrong Things Right

You’ve heard the cliche in business meetings “If you can’t measure it, you cannot improve it.” It’s nice to sound smart in a business meeting, but be careful. It maybe time to be an anti-conformist with the cliche use. You can measure the wrong things right.

Be care to not measure the wrong things right.

3 Considerations in Measuring Things Right

Here are 3 considerations on measuring the wrong things right in your business and in life:

1) You can improve things without measurement. You can evaluate periodically and decide are things getting better. For instance you can evaluate whether or not you are becoming a better manager or coach. There aren’t a lot of object measures for improvement on these personal areas of development but by occasionally reflecting and evaluating you know you are getting better. No measurement needed. No wasted energy and resources. Evaluating is enough in some cases.

2) When you do end up measuring a thing, you might actually only be improving the measurement, and not actually be improving the underlying thing. So now you are wasting energy and resources focusing on the wrong thing and not making any real progress. We don’t want to get better a measuring.

3) You can end up measuring the wrong things right. In this case you start steering the business in the entirely wrong direction and make things far, far worse. This is a HUGE issue that is a silent killer of businesses.

Conformity creeps into everything and is the enemy of authentic and real leadership.    We need the courage to think differently in our business meetings and not jump to cliche conclusions. Take a courageous path and not the well trodden pathway that has been portrayed as the road less traveled.  Take the time to reflect and evaluate before you jump into measuring the wrong things right.

Grab some other new #personal and #professional #insights from me here: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=d3a271ec25edc892d966d0973&id=3ffc1f5ae4