Inspiration

Sage Parklub was created as a response to my years of interest in entrepreneurism and technology. Even before beginning the process of earning my master’s degree in business communication, with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, my reading habits included heavy doses of “you can do it, too!” books by the authors listed below. The more I read and the more I listened to podcasts with any number of these “gurus,” the more I realized there are legitimate authorities on the subject, one-in-million oddities, and outright frauds.

In an effort to help shed some light on many of them, here are my opinions. I’ve divided them into legitimate Inspirations and Parklub-spelled-backward, a category that includes both the exceptions to the rules as well as the snake-oil salespeople because in either case, following them is unlikely to spawn success.

– Jason Hackett, creator of SageOffstage

Inspiration

 

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

This book is the real deal. If you want to supercharge your motivation, hone in on your purpose and pursue personal excellence, this may be the only book you need.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
Godin convincingly explains how an ancient concept, tribes, is woven into our DNA and takes a new and important meaning in today’s online world. Understand how tribes work and you can understand how to reach people in a meaningful way — and, of course, sell to them.

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
A brilliant, biting, motivating, funny, and often off-color book by an ad-man-turned-cartoonist/blogger. MacLeod kicks you in the backside while making you laugh at life and yourself.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
Along with Godin’s “Linchpin,” this is a must-own book for anyone interested in online entrepreneurism. Anderson approaches genius in his explanation of how the web disrupted old-guard media and the opportunities available to anyone with even a tiny bit of tech savvy.

Free: How Today’s Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing by Chris Anderson
Anderson’s follow-up to “The Long Tail,” “Free” provides multiple illustrations and variations on the concept of giving away content, art, product in order to build relationships and, eventually, business clientele.

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
This is the man and his book that motivated and inspired Godin’s thoughts behind “Linchpin.” Pressfield, a successful author, explains his craft, process and the mental enemy of each: The Resistance. Pressfield brilliantly describes our natural tendency to avoid risk and in doing so selling ourselves short, then he explains how to overcome The Resistance. You will not sit idly by after reading this one.

Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
This is the short follow-up to “The War of Art.” The directness of the title is reflected throughout. It’s a morning cup of coffee for the soul of a content producer.

33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking by Juliette Powell
Possibly getting a bit dated in the section explaining certain social media terms, this book is nonetheless interesting in its explanation of “microcelebrity” and how to leverage an online network of followers to build your own success. A quick and invigorating read.

 

Parklub-spelled-backward

 

The 4-Hour Workweek: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content. by Timothy Ferriss
Possibly the most revolting “entrepreneurial” book ever written. Cynical, exploitative, self-centered, and self-indulgent, Ferriss offers great tips for climbing to the top of one’s own self-determined mountain while stepping on others to get there. This is one of the primary sources of inspiration for the creation of the Sage Parklub character and the idea of mocking “entrepeneurs” who buy crap (untested pharmaceuticals) from Asia, slap a focus-grouped label on it, jack up the price, use SEO tricks and Google analytics to drive the “marketing” and then hire a bunch of third-world neo-slaves to do all the hard work then automate the shoveling of profits to one’s bank account.
Ferriss is a master of finding society’s loopholes and walking the fine line between legitimate business and ill-gotten gains. Truly disgusting.

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
While Gary Vee is impossible not to like, his story — while interesting and fairly inspiring — is almost as impossible to replicate. He’ll say that anyone, with enough dedication and hard work, can do what he did, but statistically speaking for the rest of us, that’s just not true. This book is even a bit dangerous because it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking “yeah, I could work from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. and build my side business.” For anyone who’s not in their indefatiguable early-to-mid 20s and has other professional responsibilities, that’s simply unsustainable. It’s nice to think we could do it, but not everyone has caffeine coursing through their veins instead of blood, the way Gary Vee does.
The cornerstone of Gary Vee’s success was his fateful recognition of YouTube’s potential and the clever way he used it to fill a niche. For the rest of us, it’s too late to be a YouTube pioneer, plus most of us don’t have the lifelong knowledge of an unfilled, unidentified niche that Gary Vee had. He’s a product of circumstance as much as all the hard work he espouses in his book.
It’s a nice story: One that will make a good movie someday. But the thing about movie stories is that they’re one of a kind. That’s what makes them compelling. In other words, effectively a fairy tale.

Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future – by Dan Schawbel
I’ll be honest, I never finishe reading this one. The “personal branding guru” title on the cover was the first of many alarm bells that rang early in my reading of this book. It is followed, inside the book, by a near-endless stream of cliches and definitions of simple internet terminology like that found at Answers.com. The lack of depth becomes a bit easier to understand once Schawbel lets us know just how young and inexperienced he really is. At that point, it’s clear he’s no “guru” at all. And worth satirizing at SageOffstage.com.