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Dear <<First Name>>,
A few years ago, I read all of Warren Buffett's letters to the shareholders from 1965 all the way up to present day. This was at the same time I was reading The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. The combination of the two made for an exciting reading experience. I would read the bio to learn what was happening in Buffett's life at the time, what personal challenges he was having, and what kinds of deals he was making and then I could reference his shareholder letters to see the things he decided to highlight and the things he decided to omit. After getting a heavy dose of his background and his writing, the thing I came to most admire about Buffett was his unwavering enthusiasm for what he does–he loves the game of business and it's a never-ending source of fascination, excitement, and learning for him.
As I read the latest edition of Buffett's letter, I marveled at the longevity of Berkshire Hathaway and how gigantic it's grown over the years–a beautiful example of compound interest at work. I love how he lays out the five "groves" of business and especially highlights the growing collection of wholly owned businesses that are generating solid earnings. It's not sexy–no blockchain and no Silicon Valley tech–but it's massive stuff (e.g. railroads, utility, manufacturing, etc.) that create real value and provide real services to customers.
As I continue my work at Barrel (approaching 13 years), I remind myself that it's A) important to really enjoy and be enthusiastic about what I do and B) that there's no rush to reach a certain level or to grow to a certain size–just steadily build on top of what we have year after year, and I'll be more than pleased at the eventual outcome when I look back. Keep on climbing.
Consumed
Financial Windfalls: 15 Stories of the Money That Changed Everything (Topic Magazine)
"We asked over a dozen people how gifts, insurance payouts, the MacArthur Genius Award, book deals—ranging from $8,000 to over $1 million—were spent." One thing I noticed throughout this article: writers are not paid well.
How to run a more profitable services team by Paul Bellows (Medium article)
If you're in the web/creative agency business, this is a must read. The challenges he outlines could not have been more applicable to our business, and I really dig the focus on lead metrics as a way to impact the agency's financial performance.
Created
Managing Complex Change Applied to Projects
I wrote this back in 2017, but I found it very applicable to the work I've been doing at Barrel recently, which involves improving the way we gather requirements and scope projects. The graphic you see on here is one that my wife Melanie shared with me some years ago and a great reminder that having the right pieces in place is critical to rolling out complex change (or getting a project done well).
Cheers,
Peter
P.S. You can check out my list of books read right here. My hope is to get a good mix of challenging reads with some that are entertaining, inspiring, and instructive.
If you like what you've read, please share with your friends. They can sign up for the list here. Also, I always welcome recommendations of any kind–books, podcasts, movies, etc.
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