Published Work

Summer Books on Business Love, Biotech and Secret Societies

I had been a business book "celibate" for more than a year. This was intentional.

During this time, I was writing my own book and didn't want to read another author?s work for fear that I might "borrow" some of his or her ideas and claim them as my own. For better or worse, the ideas you will see in my book ("You Need To Be A Little Crazy") next month are mine.

Having handed in a manuscript to my publisher in June, my self-imposed exile was over. I chose two books to read on my summer vacation. The first one was "Love Is The Killer App" by Tim Sanders.

Since e-mail came along, I have always been interested in the next killer application. We have tried everything else, so why not love? Besides, Sanders is the chief solutions officer at Yahoo! and has credibility. This book has large print and only 200 pages, so it was a good way to ease back into the business book world.

In the book, Sanders doesn?t believe that you should look at business as war where you need to crush weak opponents. He thinks you need not "protect everything you know--and everyone you know--lest your weapons fall into enemy hands."

Sanders professes that you need to become a "lovecat" to have a successful business life. He believes that the business world needs more love than greed. Business prosperity means you "offer your wisdom freely. Give away your address book to everyone who wants it. And always be human."

He further says that you need to share knowledge, network and be compassionate. Sanders recounts Mark Cuban's motto when he ran Broadcast.com: "make love, not war."

Sanders is realistic in his advice: "Business love isn't always smooth. Your defeats can sting. Sharing a network requires growing a network and then trusting it to others."

I agree with Sanders. Building a network of personal and business relationships is a critical process for all of us. Meeting new people and expanding your network takes effort and diligence. Still, networking as a verb should be eliminated from the English language.

Building a personal network doesn't mean shoving your business card into my hand and asking me what I can do for you. It happens much more slowly and evolves most effectively when you become a connector of people. Furthermore, you shouldn?t always try to extract value from making a connection.

A prime motivator shouldn't always be "what's in it for me." Many times, having your "hand out" can actually stifle a relationship before it even gets going. Even if you don't gain personally, you have helped create a culture for business to develop. Think of it as your contribution to a new ecosystem.

The second book I read was "What Should I Do With My Life?" by Po Bronson. Though this is always a good question for me, my wife had hoped that I would have figured it out by now at 43 years old.

Bronson is the guy who wrote the Internet bubble classic "The Nudist on the Late Shift." He spends part of this book apologizing for his last book, which romanticized life in Silicon Valley during the late 1990s. Bronson interviews some 50 people and asks the question: "What do you want to do with your life?"

Most of us probably had that figured out when we left college, but if you are like me, you not only had to go to plan "B" but you are probably now on plan "C," "D" and "E."

One of the people Bronson interviews is Noah. Noah has had 16 jobs in eight years and is currently (at the time of writing the book) unemployed. He asks whether the years before he finds his passion are a waste of time. In other words, he questions if "my real life won't begin until I find my place."

Bronson thinks this is "bogus" and everything you learn in your professional life is a tool that leads to finding your passion.

Then Bronson meets Heidi. The only reason she is not dead is that she was laid off from Cantor Fitzgerald the April before the attack on the World Trade Center. As Olson states in the book: "I had issues with [getting laid off], but the people I had issues with are all dead."

On September 13, 2001, Howard Lutnick, CEO of Canter Fitzgerald, asked her to come back to the company as chief administrative officer for the equities group. She had found her passion.

What books are other people reading this summer?

Nancy Sullivan at the Illinois Coalition read "From Alchemy to IPO" by Cynthia Robbins-Roth again. This book covers biotechnology from research to start-up to publicly traded biotech companies. Sullivan says she uses this book as a refresher on biotech formation, growth and investment.

She added: "The book helps me to bear in mind the 50,000-foot level of biotech without confusing non-scientific people with complicated details. This book is phenomenal for biotechnology enthusiasts [both] na?e and sophisticated."

Sullivan says the book helps her in her job, too.

"Robbins-Roth does a great job of showing how the promise of science in business rarely progresses linearly and often encounters unexpected hurdles," Sullivan said. "It helps me appreciate a founding scientist enthusiasm for their technology but arms me with important historical examples on unexpected hurdles encountered during the commercialization of known products."

Although Sullivan thinks the venture capital statistics are dated, she still believes that the principles discussed are sound.

"Most of the companies I am working with are seeking to raise money," she said. "Robins-Roth quantifies how the various steps of development impact valuation. It helps me manage the expectations of my clients by understanding what VCs and big pharma companies historically pay for technologies at various stages of development."

Sullivan uses the final part of the book to help her pick the right biotech stocks, which isn't something she learned at Northwestern when she got her master's. She added: "I use some of Robbins-Roth's stock theories for personal investing. While most of the information is common sense, she has done a great job of outlining what to look for when contemplating a biotech stock."

Dave Chicoine, vice president at University of Illinois, has been reading "Undaunted Courage" about the Lewis and Clark exploration. He said: "What I have [learned] from this book and my encounters this summer is there is no substitute for quality. It is all about quality of people, quality of ideas, the proposition, quality of organization and quality of execution."

By the way, what's the best fiction book of the summer? In my opinion, it's "The DaVinci Code," which is a great who done it where you also learn a lot about secret societies and of course Leonardo DaVinci. Now here was a guy who was 500 years ahead of his time.

There's one month left to summer. Read any good books lately?