Week Ahead: Black History Month, Show Your Work & Zero to One
The Week of February 1st on the Invisible Mentor: Black History Month, Show Your Work, You’ve Achieved Subject Mastery, Now What?, Zero to One and Zora Neale Hurston
Sarah Arrow’s 30 Day Blogging Challenge is reminding me to plan ahead. February is Black History Month and I usually observe it by reading and reviewing books by black authors as well profiling blacks who have made significant contributions to the world. Interestingly enough, although they have made significant contributions, many of them remain virtually unknown.
Monday – Celebrating Black History Month: Over the years, I have profiled many black historical figures and reviewed books written by a few. This post is curated content from my blog archives. For instance, Maggie Lena Walker was the first female bank president in the United States and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
, gives us a glimpse into what life was like in the 19th Century, before slavery was abolished.
Tuesday – Review of Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. This book has been on many of the must-read book lists over the last three months. I bought and read Show Your Work because when I read the book description, it sounded like it would make a great complement to Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future by Godin, Seth (2010)
by Seth Godin, Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination
by Hugh MacLeod and Do the Work by Steven Pressfield. As I was reading Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
, I saw how it related to the other books.
Wednesday – You’ve achieved Subject Mastery, Now What?: I have written about subject mastery several times, but surprisingly, I have never thought about what happens after you have achieved mastery. This blog post is inspired by Show Your Work. In his book, Kleon writes that after you have achieved subject mastery, you begin again, that is, begin your journey to mastering another subject. This makes sense, because the world is moving so quickly that skills become outdated, or even obsolete.
Thursday – Review of Zero to One by Peter Thiel: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
is another book that has been on many lists of must-read books, so I decided to give it a shot. Although the book is thoughtful, it is an easy read, and filled with a lot of really good information. For instance, we have heard a lot about more jobs becoming obsolete because of robotics and big data. And that’s one of the main reasons why I am hosting The Invisible Mentor 2015 Reading Challenge. On the one hand, you have the fear mongers who wants us to slow down progress to protect humans, and on the other hand, you have the futurists who want to get rid of the jobs and use machines. But Peter Thiel thinks there is a better way because machines are incapable of performing certain tasks, so why not create an environment where man works with machine to achieve exponential progress – computers are tools, not our rivals.
Friday – Mini Biography of Zora Neale Hurston: Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American writer, who penned Their Eyes Were Watching God
, a book that is often found on the list of the best books of all time. This post is also a celebration of Black History Month.
Get Started Here – I want to help you get started on your learning journey. Join The Invisible Mentor 2015 Reading Challenge today, connecting the ideas from the books you read!
In the meantime, THANK YOU for your time… Thank you for sharing this post, and thank you for connecting with me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter! What was your biggest takeaway from today?
Brought to you by Avil Beckford – dedicated to helping you grow and blossom professionally. You’re never alone!
Book links are affiliate links.