One-line Summaries of All the Books I Read in 2023
Here we go again, 365 days, 8,760 hours or 525,600 minutes later.
I’m grateful for the time I was given in 2023 and chose to spend some of it reading 61 books.
When you make it a habit to read daily without interruption, it really is not a big number.
Out of those books, I broadened my interest by reading genres I don’t usually read, such as fiction, memo, sustainability and economics.
I have to admit that I won’t remember everything I’ve read, but if each book gives me one thing I could take away from this year, that’s a win.
Soon enough, I might even re-read them again.
- 1–23 Marketing & Business Management
- 24–30 Nature & Sustainability
- 31–36 Psychology & Influence
- 37–38 Fiction
- 39–41 Memoirs
- 42–45 Economics
- 46–61 Other Self-Development
Marketing & Business Management
Why this genre: Every business needs Marketing, the more you know, the more you can create value and results.
1. Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders by Adam Morgan
The good thing about being a small, challenger brand is that there is more room for growth. And who doesn’t like backing up the underdog?
2. The Pirate Inside: Building a Challenger Brand Culture Within Yourself and Your Organization by Adam Morgan
Inspiring brands have inspiring people behind them, those who want to make a significant impact. What qualities do they have?
3. Better Brand Health by Jenni Romaniuk
When you go to a doctor, you’d hope that the doctor knows how to diagnose your health. Same with brand, Brand Manager needs to know how to measure the right thing, in the right way, with correct interpretation.
4. The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
More like a dictionary of all the terms you’d learn from an MBA course. Insightful nonetheless.
5. When Coffee and Kale Compete
How you define your category, competitors and job to be done (JTBD) will set you up for success. Should you have coffee or a kale smoothie for breakfast?
6. Future Demand by James Hurman
Building your brand among tomorrow’s customers can lead to sustainable growth. This book gives you a framework on how to and why.
7. From Marginal to Mainstream by Helen Edwards
There are growing segments that might be small now (marginal) but have potential growth to become mainstream that brands can tap into to grow with it.
8. Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains by Matt Johnson
Brands and brains are Marketer’s most romantic love story. We’re in the business of understanding the human brain to find room for our brand to fit in.
9. A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness by Roger L. Martin
It’s hard to pick one idea from this book because every chapter gives you lessons in different domains of management on how to set your organisation for success in this new era of work, where everything needs to be faster, efficient, effective and aligned with the strategic objectives.
10. Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking by Jennifer Riel and Roger L. Martin
Making choices is a part of running a business. Everyone brings something to the table and if we can combine the hidden gems from their ideas (integrative thinking) together, we may just found the best solution and make great choices.
11. What’s Your Problem? by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Problems are unavoidable but I like to believe that there’s never any problem that can’t be solved. When tackling a problem, we can approach it in multiple ways; if one doesn’t work, then we just try the other. Of course, that begins with identifying the right problem from the start.
12. The Song of Significance by Seth Godin
The purpose of a beehive isn’t to make honey. Honey is a by-product of a healthy hive. The purpose of work has changed. Nowadays, it’s not just about making money, it’s about creating value and feeling like we’re doing meaningful work. That will help demand the best version of you.
13. Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston
Profits should come, not from creating the world’s problems, but from solving them. Businesses cannot thrive in societies that fail.
14. Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit by Alex Edmans
It doesn’t always need to be a win-lose game. We can all grow together by growing the pie and values within the society.
15. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
The ultimate guide to goal setting for any business, starting with SMART objectives and outlining the Key Results that we need to achieve to get there.
16. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Todd Marshall
As we progress in our careers, soft skills become more critical. This book outlines those behaviour patterns that could stop us from achieving even more success.
17. Advertising of Skeptics by Bob Hoffman
A short book to test whether you truly understand advertising.
18. The Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick
A great introduction to Advertising and how it works.
19. Cult Status: How to Build a Business People Adore by Tim Duggan
Similar to the Lighthouse concept of building a challenger brand, rising brands give their customers meaning, and sometimes a sense of community, becoming a cult-like status. The book identifies the seven steps to get there.
20. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Some startups failed because they went too hard. The lean startup methodology provides a framework on how a startup can be lean, therefore, reducing the risk of failing hard.
21. Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Is your business idea able to create a breakthrough like never seen before, with enough market demand that no one else can copy and compete with you, that it will give you the monopoly of the market(similar to Blue Ocean Strategy). And do you have the capability to execute it and maintain it sustainably?
22. Go Luck Yourself: 40 ways to stack the odds in your brand’s favour by Andy Nairn
“Close enough consistently is more effective than the pursuit of perfection”.
23. Myths of Strategy: Dispel the Misconceptions and Deliver a Winning Strategy by Jerome Barthelemy
Because our industry is always about testing, learning and being the thought leader, sometimes it creates ‘myths’ that get passed on without correct validation. Eventually, they become the conventional thinking, despite not always delivering the best outcomes when zooming in closely.
Like Ehrenburg’s Bass Institute books, this book demystifies those misconceptions to show us a path to the real winning strategy.
Nature & Sustainability
Why this genre: We’re all surrounded by nature and after having learned enough about human’s psychology, we may find it fascinating as well to learn about other species in the same planet. They can always teach us something and it’s very important we also respect and protect them.
24. An Immense World by Ed Young
Unlike other animals, humans have the ability to understand and create tools that help them sense how other animals perceive the world. We’ve been given the gift, and it’s up to us to be mindful and use it to protect other species that share the same planet.
25. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
Everything in this world has a power to make an impact, even if it’s as small as Fungi. You’d be surprised how resilient, strong,versatile and influential they are, even if we don’t usually see them.
26. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Even trees have their own realm and ways of living that we might not know. They communicate and look after each other because a tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it.
27. The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben
Humans and other animals are similar in some ways. When we’re mindful of them, they might be able to teach us something.
28. Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking ancient innovation to solve tomorrow’s challenges by Sam Tatam
Nature always does wonder. It gives all living things exactly what they need to live, evolve and play their world in the ecosystem. Although new obstacles and challenges may arise, most solutions would already have been given by nature if we learned to pause, study, and connect the dots.
29. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
There is a lot to be done for the whole world to move towards zero emissions of greenhouse gases. We need to, not only start now, but also embrace the way of living towards a warmer planet.
30. Speed and Scale: A Global Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by John Doerr
The book presents objectives and key results between different areas to solve our climate crisis by zeroing out the emissions from the top sectors (including but not limited totransportation, food & agriculture, land use & foresty and industry) and inviting government, public, innovator and investor to help us move faster towards more sustainable world.
Psychology & Influence
Why this genre: I dislike not understanding people. And in order to influence them and navigate around the world, we should really learn to understand humans and why they behave in a certain way.
31. The Illusion of Choice: 16½ psychological biases that influence what we buy by Richard Shotton
Humans are fascinating creatures and sometimes you’ve gotta see them from behavioural science lens to understand them.
32. You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Powers of Persuasion, and Why It Matters by Vanessa Bohns
Humans are social animals, and most of the time, we can influence others positively and negatively, even when we don’t mean to. So, it may pay to understand how our actions and words impact others. We may not need to, but I’m sure others will appreciate it when we do.
33. Influence is Your Superpower: How to Get What You Want Without Compromising Who You Are by Zoe Chance
Most of our success will depend on how good we are at influencing people. And sometimes, the effort might not come naturally to us, but that can be changed, by firstly shifting the mindset.
34. Plays Well With Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong by Eric Barker
The meaning of life is about belonging. It’s about the meaningful connections we make with other people that last.
Most people aren’t intentionally being difficult to deal with, if only we try to understand where they’re coming from because our problems with others often start with our inaccurate perception of them.
35. The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Mayer
People aren’t rude for no reason. Maybe it’s normal for them and their culture. It’s the same when we may have said things that offended someone without knowing, because we didn’t tailor our messages and communications for the audience.
36. The High Potential Advantage: Get Noticed, Impress Your Bosses, and Become a Top Leader
It’s not enough just to be good at your job via technical skills to be promoted, we also need to lead and influence to be recognised as a high potential individual within the organisation.
It’s not easy to lead, from leading ourselves, top, down and sideways. That’s why not many people made it to the top because it takes skills, mindset and consistent practices.
Fiction
Why this genre: Sometimes it’s fun to get lost in an imaginary world. We all know that human has been loving stories since our brain started to develop. What a gift it is to be able to live in an imaginary/fantasy world, even just temporarily.
37. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
Some things in nature still can’t be explained but these stories of Greek Gods can still give us a sense of comfort from the uncertainty, and moral lessons.
38. Heroes: The myths of the Ancient Greek heroes retold by Stephen Fry
A journey of a hero is not for the faint-hearted and does not always end in a happy ending. But would you prefer to live a life that helps others and turns into a story that inspires and enlightens others?
Memoirs
Why this genre: It’s easier to get somewhere if someone who has already travelled that road shares their journey of getting there. And maybe if we follow their guide, we may end up where they are today?
39. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
Travel the world. Phil found out about this fascinating shoe in Japan, which he thought would go off in the USA. He tried, succeeded, had a few hiccups, kept fighting, aspired to be number one, came out on top and the rest is history.
3 Key Lessons in Business and Branding from the Movie AIR
40. Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonalds by Ray Kroc
We’re all on a different journey, racing with ourselves. And the only path to YOUR victory is to not give up and always keep an open mind.
41. Sam Walton: Made in America
Behind every successful business is a firm that focuses on serving its customers, people and partners.
Economics
Why this genre: Like it or not, we’re all impacted by the economy. So it may pay to understand how it works so that we can better navigate and influence.
42. 10 Rules of Successful Nations by Ruchir Sharma
Successful nations have similar patterns and behaviours. If the developing countries could follow, they might be able to catch up?
43. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
It’s through this book that I came to learn about ‘circular economy’, a system designed to reduce waste and make the most of the resources. And it takes a bit of mind-shift and rethinking to move towards a more sustainable and win-win economy.
44. Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo
We should take an evidence-based approach to understanding what actually contributes positively and negatively to the economy, rather than assummption, or the impact can be catastrophic.
45. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Deep down, we’re all economists, thinking about what we’ll gain or lose from the resources we’ve invested in. And sometimes, it only takes an incentive or unrelated factor to influence our decisions and result in unexpected outcomes.
Other Self-Development
46. Blackbox Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success by Matthew Syed
It’s normal to want to hide our mistakes because sharing it may feel like sharing our incompetence. But failure is a part of the journey, especially in an unknown territory.
We need to balance well between doing research and the work to reduce failure and embracing failure to try new things, to learn and experiment, where the consequence of failing is minimal.
By sharing, we will help others avoid the same mistake that we did. As well, we need to learn from the mistakes of others because we can’t live long enough to make them all ourselves.
47. Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed
As a part of nature, we’re all different in multiple ways, both shaped by nature and nurture. By surrounding ourselves with different people, others can help find our blindspots where we don’t usually look, hence, reducing failures and improving the final results.
“Humans are smart because we’ve evolved to connect with other brains — our collective brain — to build on each other’s solutions.”
48. Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
We all live in a system, consisting of elements, interconnection and function/purpose, where everything is influenced by each other.
Therefore, changing one thing may not entirely solve the problem if that thing is a part of a larger system.
49. Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life by Gillian Tett
As humans, we tend to get carried away by our tunnel vision, only focusing on what’s in front of us, with the lack of lateral vision.
Things can change depending on the context so it’s important that we become aware of our current environment and looking at things from different perspectives, via lateral vision, so that we can navigate around the world better.
50. Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Great Things
We often only pay attention to those ‘gifted’ children, but perhaps we’re all given the gift to thrive and unlock our potential if only we’re given the right tools, environment and coaches.
51. The Dairy of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life by Steven Bartlett
To master it, simplify and teach it (Feynman technique).
52. Resilient Project: Finding Happiness Through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness
Everybody has a story to share, and your story might chance someone’s life.
53. The Squiggly Career: Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career by Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis
With more options and fast-moving world, moving and squiggling around between jobs become a new normal and it’s not easy, unless we have a plan.
54. The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions by David Robson
As we learn and grow, our ego also might, feeling like we now know it all. It’s a trap. It’s important that we maintain our curiosity and growth mindset.
55. Mastering Uncertainty: How Great Founders, Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders Thrive in an Unpredictable World by Matt Watkinson and Csaba Konkoly
We live in a changing world with uncertainty. How can leaders provide and create an environment with psychological safety that allows the team to experiment and innovate for growth?
56. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
Live with purpose, live by priority and live for productivity.
57. The Life You Can Save By Peter Singer
All lives are equally valuable. Some aren’t as lucky to meet the standard of living, while some have more than needed that it becomes waste, the waste that could have changed or saved lives.
58. The Art of Living by Epictetus
Stoicism helps us make smart choices in a world full of options and inputs.
59. The Discourses by Epictetus
The Stoic philosophy, or ways of living, gives us the personal virtue, self-discipline, and rationality to lead a meaningful and contented life.
60. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
Lifespan doesn’t mean much without healthspan. And we can start prolonging our healthspan today rather than later.
61. Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
We’re biologically designed to sleep. Avoid it, and it may come at a cost. It’s through proper sleeping that allows us to live best when awake.
Next Step
For 2024, I intend to be more selective about what I read. So that I read it more in-depth and leave some time to application and reflection.
Did you read any of these books? Would love to hear your one-line summary of it.
