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18,242 a day or what I read when I am running

Roman FitbBit data

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I’m obsessed with numbers, so getting a FitBit one year ago was a natural progression of my data-driven life.

What interesting information can we glean from the data?

On average:

  • I spend 4,000 calories a day. Bearing in mind that FitBit doesn’t track my strength training sessions, martial arts or swimming, nor does it take into consideration the amount of energy my brain needs to keep going during those marathon brainstorming sessions at Splento, I have a sneaky suspicion that I spend north of 5,000 calories a day, but 4,000 a day is a good baseline.
  • I take 18,242 steps a day (both walking and running).
  • Last year I’ve travelled by foot 5,380km – the distance equivalent to that from LA to NY and then a short walk down to DC 🙂 Not a lot, so should be able to beat it next year.
  • However, what FitBit doesn’t show is the number of hours I spend on my feet – that precious “me-time”, when I listen to audiobooks.

Some people prefer listening to music or radio during their “me-time”, I love audio-books. Combine that with running or brisk-walking and you get my favourite past-time.

Below is the list of books I’ve read last year during my walks and long-runs in counter-chronological order from August 2018 back to September 2017.

Some of these books, like Matt Blumberg’s “Startup CEO”, I religiously re-read year after year, as Splento grows in step with the progression of chapters in his book. To others I return in search of inspiration for particular solutions, like Ries & Trout’s “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” for marketing and Patrick Lencioni’s books for leadership and organisational health.

A few books on this list (Who: The A Method for Hiring, High Output Management, Measure What Matters, Sam Walton: Made in America), unfortunately, aren’t available in audio-format, but I’ve included them here, because they were some of the biggest revelations for me last year and are absolute MUST-READS for everyone (not just entrepreneurs).

In this list below I’ll just note down the titles and authors, without going into too much detail.

Over the coming months, I’ll group them into subjects and write short summaries about different ones topics and how every book touches upon this subject. So stay tuned.  

  1. The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
  2. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
  3. High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil
  4. Street Smarts by Jim Rogers
  5. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink by Daniel H. Pink
  6. Subscribed by Tien Tzuo, Gabe Weisert
  7. Radical Focus by Christina R. Wodtke
  8. Getting Things Done (The Art of Stress-Free Productivity) by David Allen
  9. Why We Sleep (The New Science of Sleep and Dreams) by Matthew Walker
  10. Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
  11. High Output Management by Andrew Grove
  12. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
  13. The Art of Startup Fundraising: Pitching Investors, Negotiating the Deal, and Everything Else Entrepreneurs Need to Know by Alejandro Cremades and Barbara Corcoran
  14. Straight Talk for Startups: 100 Insider Rules for Beating the Odds – From Mastering the Fundamentals to Selecting Investors, Fundraising, Managing Boards, and Achieving Liquidity by Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman
  15. You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself by David McRaney
  16. Debt – Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
  17. The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin
  18. Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness
  19. Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
  20. Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  21. StandOut 2.0: Assess Your Strengths, Find Your Edge, Win at Work by Marcus Buckingham
  22. The E-Myth Enterprise by Michael E. Gerber
  23. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
  24. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
  25. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
  26. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer
  27. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge
  28. The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
  29. The Art of Thinking in Systems: Improve Your Logic, Think More Critically, and Use Proven Systems to Solve Your Problems – Strategic Planning for Everyday Life by Steven Schuster
  30. Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  31. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni
  32. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
  33. How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know by Byron Sharp
  34. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
  35. Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni
  36. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
  37. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni
  38. Lying by Sam Harris
  39. On the Shortness of Life by Lucius Seneca
  40. Meditations on Violence by Sgt. Rory Miller
  41. Free Will by Sam Harris
  42. Go Pro – 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional by Eric Worre
  43. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
  44. Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni
  45. TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks by Akash Karia
  46. The Three Big Questions for the Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
  47. Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding the Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty by Patrick Lencioni
  48. The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
  49. The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
  50. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
  51. Sam Walton: Made in America My Story by Sam Walton
  52. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
  53. Startup CEO – Matt Blumberg

 

What are the business lessons learned here? We are creatures of our habits. To average 20k steps a day or read/listen 50 books a year, I don’t need to do anything extraordinary when it’s part of my daily routine.

Businesses are the same. Once you engrain certain habits (hopefully positive and productive), you can achieve zen of entrepreneurship: do more than anyone thinks possible… with less than anyone thinks possible.

 

by Roman Grigoriev


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