There are a lot of books on leadership, small business, and entrepreneurship these days. There are even a good number of books by Dave Ramsey. EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches attempts to combine all these elements in one tightly packaged book. In typical Dave Ramsey tone, the book is straightforward; Dave Ramsey drives home his points, leaving dissenters in the dust. Yet, there is also a warm tone of happy reflection wedded to Dave’s strident passion for strong leadership, debt-free living, and out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to business. The book contains many personal stories from Dave’s failed, foreclosed real estate ventures all the way to his current multi-million, multi-faceted company, The Lampo Group, LLC.  Financial advice, leadership counsel, and productivity make up core themes of the book. Entrepreneur is a broad term, and this book narrows in on a certain type of entrepreneur: small business entrepreneurs whose businesses will include multiple employees and, specifically, addressing those businesses which will be run in a brick-and-mortar location. Of course, there’s also the big fundamental for Ramsey: such businesses won’t plan to go into debt for their start-up. Those who fall outside these parameters will still benefit from a good portion of the book, though, and many of the lessons are applicable beyond business. For those who have read or listened to Dave Ramsey before, this book will sound similar to much of Dave Ramsey’s speaking and writing, yet it has a special perspective looking at things from the business owner side of Dave’s desk. Although Dave’s strident tone sometimes comes across to me as brash, overall I generally appreciate and benefit from his writing and speaking (even if I don’t like the way his message comes across). This book left me with a similar feeling. I have read a good number of entrepreneur-focused business books in the past few years, and although it’s not my top pick in the genre (not to mention the books I enjoy most on business have the focus of more out-of-the-box business ideas), it’s probably a good read for anyone who will be leading a team as they build their business. Table of Contents:   

Leo Babuata of Zen Habits fame has written a brief book on productivity, in which he claims his system to be the ultimate of simple productivity system. Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System builds on several productivity systems, particularly those described in Getting Things Done and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (my review here). Personally, although I am at least 10 times more productive now than I was six or seven years ago, I still have a long way to go before I feel like I have a streamlined system. (Ironically, I’ve grown more productive as I’ve been more reproductive–an marked increase with the addition of each child! ;)) I have learned a lot simply from being married to a man who already had healthy, well-established habits of  productivity, efficiency, and organization; but I have also learned a lot from reading various books. While I appreciated Getting Things Done, I did find the system to be a little overwhelming, especially at the point  in life when I read it (when I was already overwhelmed with a hectic schedule and marginless living). As time has progressed since we first tried to integrate Getting Things Done into our lives, we’ve also come to realize that at it’s core, organization (for us) is about simplification. And that’s what I really appreciated about Zen to Done: simplicity and productivity are wed together, rather than one obscuring the other. Babuata refers to Getting Things Done so frequently that he simply uses the acronym GTD when referring to it (this is common among many who’ve read the book, though, and not unique to Babuata) and he uses ZTD to refer to his own system. He brings up the fact that sometimes the GTD method focuses on the minutia while losing sight of the big picture. With a more simplistic view, ZTD focuses on making sure we are being most productive where and when it really counts. Going Back to a Simple Notebook One recommendation that Babuata makes for his system over GTD is to eliminate all the extra systems, organizers, and binders and simply use one pocket notebook (he prefers a moleskine). Likewise, he recommends paper over technology, but does concede that if such a system works best for some, then go ahead. I think this was the impetus I needed, and feeling like I should just keep notes online/on my phone was actually a barrier to my productivity. I’ve been going through this year…