In Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals, physical pentester and social engineer Maxie Reynolds describes the mental model of a typical hacker. Reynold argues that to successfully fend off attacks and stay ahead of them is to be able to think like those who would seek to attack us.
War is 90 percent information.—Napoleon Bonaparte
The attacker mindset (AMs) is a set of cognitive skills applied to four laws:
In Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel, American Billionaire, and Real Estate Entrepreneur Sam Zell shares his story of how a restless, curious boy who grew up in Chicago made it to the Forbes 400. He describes the risks that paid off and those that didn’t and what he learned in the process. Sam is best known for building several commercial real estate companies with investments also in other industries such as energy, manufacturing, retail, travel, logistics, and health care.
Sam is the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Poland to escape the Holocaust and come to the United States. A former lawyer, he is the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm, founded in 1968. According to Forbes, Sam has an estimated net worth of USD $5.2 billion as of March 2023.
In The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, American Journalist Nicholas Carr argues that instead of enhancing our intelligence, the internet is degrading it. The book is an expansion of his 2008 essay in The Atlantic – Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains! Carr notes that the internet is affecting our ability to concentrate and contemplate. The Web and the internet affect our cognition and ability to do Deep Work.
In DIE Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day, founder and CEO of Accidental Creative Henry Todd provide a framework for having a sense of urgency and doing our most important work every day.
Everyone’s health generally declines with time, and sooner or later we all die, so the question we all must answer is how to make the most of our finite time on earth.
In Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, American hedge fund manager and author Bill Perkins presents a practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life.
Die With Zero Book Premise
You should be focusing on maximizing your life enjoyment rather than on maximizing your wealth. Those are two very different goals. Money is just a means to an end: Having money helps you to achieve the more important goal of enjoying your life. But trying to maximize money actually gets in the way of achieving the more important goal.
In Intentional Living: Choosing a Life That Matters, leadership author John C. Maxwell describes the process of living an international life. Maxwell notes, “When you live each day with intentionality, there’s almost no limit to what you can do. You can transform yourself, your family, your community, and your nation. When enough people do that, they can change the world. When you intentionally use your everyday life to bring about positive change in the lives of others, you begin to live a life that matters.”
There are four major characters in nearly every story: the victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide.
In Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life, American author, and Entrepreneur Donald Miller examine the role of story and finding meaning in our daily life. Miller uses Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey as a metaphor for our life story.
Abiola Bawuah was recently appointed to become the first female CEO of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Africa operations. With her appointment, she joins the UBA Group Board as an Executive Director, overseeing the Group’s operations across the African continent, outside Nigeria. She was formerly the regional CEO of UBA, in charge of six countries (Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone).
Coach Woodens Pyramid Of Success: Building Blocks For a Better Life is based on former UCLA basketball team coach John Wooden’s framework for victory and success in life. The Pyramid reveals that success is built block by block, where each block is a crucial principle contributing to lifelong achievement in every area of life.
Coach Wooden should know a thing or two about the principle of success. His UCLA Bruins team won ten NCAA national championships, seven of them in consecutive years, and had four undefeated seasons, including an 88-game winning streak. John Wooden had a 620-147 record during his 27-year tenure.
In Government Cheese, author Steve Pressfield narrates his roller coaster journey of becoming an author, how he dealt with resistance, the multiple jobs he undertook (Marine Corps reservist, truck driver, secretary, orchard picker, copywriter, cab driver, Golf Caddie, Janitor), navigating the challenges of becoming a creative and the mentors that guided him on his path to greatness.
Steve Pressfield’s story is an excellent reminder of what a lot of creatives go through before they eventually get their breakthrough. Pressfield dealt with shame, poverty, resistance, self-doubt and rejection. But in spite of all these challenges, he persevered, endured, kept showing up daily and eventually achieved his goal of becoming a writer.
In The Self-Aware Leader: Play to Your Strengths, Unleash Your Team, leadership author Dr. John C. Maxwell asserts that lack of self-awareness is the single greatest obstacle leaders face in their development, effectiveness and advancement. When leaders don’t see themselves clearly, understand their strengths & weaknesses, or recognize their negative interactions with their team, they. limit their influence & undermine their own influence.
A company of one resists and questions some forms of traditional growth, not on principle, but because growth isn’t always the most beneficial or financially viable move.
In Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business, author and entrepreneur Paul Jarvis argues that staying small provides one with the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life―and avoid the headaches that come with traditional growth-oriented business. The core philosophy of Company of One: Start small, Define growth, and Keep learning.
In Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, Coach Wooden shares timeless wisdom about every aspect of life, his personal philosophy on family, achievement, success, and excellence. Coach John Wooden won 10 NCAA champions in his 12 years reign as the UCLA Bruins, including seven national championships in a row: 1967, 1968, 1969,1970, 1971, 1972, 1973. He is considered one of the most successful National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) coaches.
“People don’t remember what we think is important; they remember what they think is important.”
In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently, master communicator and leadership author John C. Maxwell shares five principles and five practices to develop connection skills needed to become an effective communicator. He also highlights strategies for connecting with people one-on-one, in a group and in an audience. He recommends communicating in ways that consistently build potent connections. Maxwell asserts that everyone communicates, but the authentic communicator takes the time to know their audience, hone their message and present it in a simple way that the audience would quickly grasp.
In Embrace the Suck: The Navy SEAL Way to an Extraordinary Life, former Navy SEAL Brent Gleeson shares his experiences from SEAL training, combat, business, and life in general. The phrase “Embrace the Suck” is a metaphor for leaning into the suffering and getting comfortable with being very uncomfortable.
Embrace the suck is a book about resilience. It provides tools and frameworks for dealing with adversity. In early 2000, Brent decided to leave his job as a financial analyst with a global real estate development company to join the United States Navy. He joined the Navy to become a Navy SEAL, one of the most challenging special operations training and selection programs in the world.
“Resilience is like any muscle. With focus and determination—you can strengthen your mind to overcome any obstacle, crush goals, dominate your battlefield, and live an extraordinary life.”
