Meeting Recap for August 6, 2012
Already exhausted your summer reading list? Bill Mohr has a few excellent suggestions if you’re interested in reading about the pursuit of excellence.
Mohr, CEO of Oakland-based real estate investment firm Mohr Financial, was Rotary Club of Sacramento’s guest speaker Monday at the Woodlake Hotel.
A 1975 graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in architecture, Mohr has taught in the UC Berkeley Extension system and through the Certified Commercial Investment Member institute.
Introduced by Chair of the Day Bob Rosenberg, Mohr offered Rotarians a bibliography of 15 books he believes capture the essence of the pursuit of excellence:
• Outliers The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwill)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People (Stephen Covey)
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg)
• Serious Creativity (Edward de Bono)
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
• Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite Them All (Jim Collins and Morten Hansen)
• The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
• Ascent of Money (Neil Ferguson)
• Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (Michael Lind)
• The Start Up of You (Reid Hoffman)
• The Presidents Club (Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Michael Lewis)
• California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (Joe Mathews and Mark Paul)
Just reading those books (which are not listed in any particular order) is not enough according to Mohr. In order to get the most from them you need to:
1. Write a summary of no more than 100 words.
2. Highlight five to ten insights you have gained from reading the book.
3. Write down how the book is relevant to you or your organization.
And ideally, Mohr says, get others—friends, associates, family—to read the same book and do the same. Then get together with them to discuss your ideas.
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The Centennial Moment was a brief presentation by Tanya Kravchuk, Resource Development manager for Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento, which RCS helped to found in 1944.
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Dave Higdon sponsored the pre-meeting wine reception, Dave Cohen provided the Thought for the Day and Dick Osen led the club in singing “California Here I Come.”