Short Stuff: Zambonis!

Most companies achieve success by responding to what their customers want and consistently pursuing higher profits. However, when confronting certain innovations, the strategies that help companies thrive under normal circumstances can instead lead to their demise.

According to Clayton M. Christensen, these kinds of innovations—called disruptive innovations—don’t come along very often, but when they do, they change how companies make and market products, the types of customers that buy them, and how they use them. The Innovator’s Dilemma explains how to recognize disruptive innovations, why they cause industry-leading organizations to fail, and how to avoid the same fate. In this guide, we’ll lay out Christensen’s ideas and explore how they compare to those of other business and management experts who also advise on how to navigate innovative changes.

Before the White House and The Apprentice, Donald Trump was a real estate mogul whose large-scale projects made him one of the most well-known developers in New York City.

In this autobiography, Trump recounts his early life and career—from building low- and middle-income housing with his father in NYC’s outer boroughs to erecting luxury apartments in Manhattan. Trump outlines the eleven principles that guide his business decisions, and how they played out in the deals that defined his early career, including projects such as Trump Tower in New York, his first casino ventures in Atlantic City, and his gamble on the United States Football League.

From the first home computers to the smartphone revolution, Steve Jobs was a guiding force in the worldwide electronics industry. His innovations, his obsessions, and even his shortcomings impacted the way we use computers today. To understand Jobs’s life is to understand why the modern information landscape functions the way it does.

Walter Isaacson’s biography is considered to be the definitive work on Steve Jobs’s life. He was given full access to Jobs and those who knew him with no limitations on what he might uncover. The result is an intimate portrait of a man who was thoughtful and callous, insightful and blind, and whose passions left a mark on the world.

This guide gives an overview of Steve Jobs’s life, then explores the themes that emerge from Isaacson’s narrative—Jobs’s knack for innovation and his emphasis on design, coupled with a domineering personality and his will to reshape reality to his liking.

In The Art of Learning, chess prodigy and tai chi World Champion Josh Waitzkin argues that a passionate commitment to growth leads to both competitive success and a fulfilling life. He explains what he learned in becoming the U.S. Junior Chess Champion as well as World Champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands, arguing that excellence comes from unwavering focus, tenacious training, and creative self-actualization.

Waitzkin builds from basic to advanced strategies for both the psychological and technical sides of skill-building, showing that your growth as a competitor parallels your growth as an individual. In our guide, we’ll explain how to build any skill from the bottom up, from mastering the basic elements to developing high-level competitive tactics. We’ll also clarify and expand Waitzkin’s ideas with other perspectives on learning, from The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed, and others.

Though it takes time and tenacity to excel, Waitzkin’s lessons will improve your approach to learning and help you find fulfillment in mastery.

Dive into the awe-inspiring world of big wave surfing with the exceptional Laird Hamilton on the "Shawn Ryan Show." In this compelling episode, Shawn Ryan engages with the legendary surfer and innovator to explore the thrills and perils of carving through some of the most formidable waves on the planet, including the notorious JAWS. Hamilton shares how his pioneering of tow-in surfing has forever altered the sport, allowing surfers to chase waves that were once deemed impossible to ride.

Beyond the rush of giant swells, Hamilton and Ryan delve into pressing themes of mental resilience akin to that of military training, the importance of pushing industry barriers, and the necessities of environmental conservation. Honoring the interconnection between body, mind, and nature, Hamilton discusses his entrepreneurial journey with Laird Superfoods, rethinking dietary myths, and offers insight into holistic wellness practices. Join these two extraordinary individuals as they cover everything from the intricacies of controlled breathing and the holistic benefits of engaging with nature, to the personal challenges of parenthood and Hamilton's future aspirations in ocean exploration.

Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world. In Principles: Life and Work, he shares the guiding principles powering his success and Bridgewater’s.

Principles is a manual for rational thinking. The main theme is that finding truth is the best way to make decisions, and that ego, emotion, and blind spots prevent you from discovering the truth. Dalio shares his major strategies to circumvent these weaknesses, including total receptivity, extreme honesty and transparency, productive conflict, and credibility-centered decision making.

In our Principles guide, you’ll learn how to get past your ego in pursuit of your goals, why you need other people to improve your probability of being right, and the five-step process for getting what you want out of life.

Before the White House and The Apprentice, Donald Trump was a real estate mogul whose large-scale projects made him one of the most well-known developers in New York City.

In this autobiography, Trump recounts his early life and career—from building low- and middle-income housing with his father in NYC’s outer boroughs to erecting luxury apartments in Manhattan. Trump outlines the eleven principles that guide his business decisions, and how they played out in the deals that defined his early career, including projects such as Trump Tower in New York, his first casino ventures in Atlantic City, and his gamble on the United States Football League.

Most companies achieve success by responding to what their customers want and consistently pursuing higher profits. However, when confronting certain innovations, the strategies that help companies thrive under normal circumstances can instead lead to their demise.

According to Clayton M. Christensen, these kinds of innovations—called disruptive innovations—don’t come along very often, but when they do, they change how companies make and market products, the types of customers that buy them, and how they use them. The Innovator’s Dilemma explains how to recognize disruptive innovations, why they cause industry-leading organizations to fail, and how to avoid the same fate. In this guide, we’ll lay out Christensen’s ideas and explore how they compare to those of other business and management experts who also advise on how to navigate innovative changes.

In Positioning, advertising consultants Al Ries and Jack Trout explore the concept of positioning—a strategy of framing your product, service, company, or self against your competitors and within your market. They examine not only how you can use positioning for your organization, but also how you can use it to achieve your personal career goals.

In this guide, we’ll look at what Ries and Trout mean by “positioning,” compare it to how others have defined the concept, and explore strategies and techniques you can use in a positioning campaign. We’ll also touch on a few positioning strategies that Ries and Trout caution against. Throughout, we’ll discuss ways that other marketing professionals have interpreted the strategy that expand on and amplify Ries and Trout’s insights.

Conventional wisdom says that starting a business requires outside investors, strategic plans, accountants, a board of directors, and many other "musts." But in Rework, entrepreneurs Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson explain how old-school thinking doesn't apply in today's new business paradigm.

If you're launching a company today, you can access online tools and technology that let you operate on a shoestring. You don't need a big staff of managers and workers. You don't need to take on huge financial risks. You don't need to work 100 hours a week. You don't need to advertise to find customers. You don't even need an office—your employees can work from home from anywhere in the world. Instead, reject old-school thinking, embrace simplicity, and run your company like a smart, frugal, well-oiled machine.

Dive into the awe-inspiring world of big wave surfing with the exceptional Laird Hamilton on the "Shawn Ryan Show." In this compelling episode, Shawn Ryan engages with the legendary surfer and innovator to explore the thrills and perils of carving through some of the most formidable waves on the planet, including the notorious JAWS. Hamilton shares how his pioneering of tow-in surfing has forever altered the sport, allowing surfers to chase waves that were once deemed impossible to ride.

Beyond the rush of giant swells, Hamilton and Ryan delve into pressing themes of mental resilience akin to that of military training, the importance of pushing industry barriers, and the necessities of environmental conservation. Honoring the interconnection between body, mind, and nature, Hamilton discusses his entrepreneurial journey with Laird Superfoods, rethinking dietary myths, and offers insight into holistic wellness practices. Join these two extraordinary individuals as they cover everything from the intricacies of controlled breathing and the holistic benefits of engaging with nature, to the personal challenges of parenthood and Hamilton's future aspirations in ocean exploration.

Most companies achieve success by responding to what their customers want and consistently pursuing higher profits. However, when confronting certain innovations, the strategies that help companies thrive under normal circumstances can instead lead to their demise.

According to Clayton M. Christensen, these kinds of innovations—called disruptive innovations—don’t come along very often, but when they do, they change how companies make and market products, the types of customers that buy them, and how they use them. The Innovator’s Dilemma explains how to recognize disruptive innovations, why they cause industry-leading organizations to fail, and how to avoid the same fate. In this guide, we’ll lay out Christensen’s ideas and explore how they compare to those of other business and management experts who also advise on how to navigate innovative changes.