No One Left But All of Us

No One Left But All of Us, Stacey Roberts, Sons of Joy LLC, 2019

Here is one person's view of the troubles that currently afflict America, and what to do about it.

"Elect me, and I will fix (insert issue here) once and for all!" Every four years, Americans are told that this is the most important election of their lives. Politicians also say that this election is all about abortion, or trade or illegal immigration. Perhaps the American people should get together, and tell politicians that this election is about, for instance, the national debt, or getting all corporate money out of politics. Any politician who refuses to talk about such issues will quickly become an ex-politician.

The author advocates term limits for members of Congress. Before that happens, the term for members of the House of Representatives should be increased from two to four years. The increase is so that members of the House can spend more time legislating, and less time raising money raising money to stay elected.

In the past, there have been times when Americans came together for a common purpose, when country, and helping your neighbor, came first. A recent example of such civic-minded behavior was during World War II. Those days have certainly disappeared (forever?). Now, party comes first. All that matters is damaging the Other Party. Depending on whether a person considers themselves an R or a D, they are automatically a good person or an implacable enemy.

Agree or disagree with this book's point of view, but it is still a first-rate piece of writing. It is easy to understand, and written with a lot of passion. If this book can get even one person to start moving in the direction of Country First, instead of Party First, it will be a success. It is very much worth reading.

Zoom: Surprising Ways to Supercharge Your Career

Zoom: Surprising Ways to Supercharge Your Career, Daniel Roberts, Fortune Books, 2013

Based on Fortune Magazine's "40 Under 40" column, this book gives short profiles of some of the biggest names in American business, and how they got there.

Of course, the people that one would expect to see in any such book are here, including Marissa Mayer, Elon Musk, Tony Hsieh, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Also included are the CEO's of Rent The Runway, TOMS Shoes and Change.org, senior executives from Heineken and ArcelorMittal (one of the biggest steel producers in the world), and Lebron James.

It is very acceptable to want to take on Goliath (the dominant company in your field). It is just as acceptable to concentrate on doing one thing really well. These days, it seems to be fashionable to jump from one company to another during your career, never spending more than a couple of years in one place. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending your career at one company.

Some people are serial entrepreneurs. They thrive on getting a company established, or taking it public. Once that happens, they go one to the next one; they are less interested in actually running the company. What do you do after making a large, public blunder? Do you stay at the same company, withdraw from the public eye, and work to rebuild your image? Do you move to another company, and work to rebuild your image? Find something that you are passionate about, something that gets you up in the morning. It may be possible to find, or create, your dream job in that area, no matter how un-high tech it may be.

If they can do it, why can't you? This is a very inspiring group of portraits of today's business leaders. Each portrait is only a few pages long, so they are also easy to read. This is well worth reading for anyone in business, whether large, small or start-up.