We have received many emails from subscribers requesting what's on Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough's reading list lately.
Below are 10 books Keith has read in the last three months.
1. Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughnesss
By Steve Magness
Steve Magness is a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes. In "Do Hard Things," Magness discusses "our broken model of resilience" and provides a new model based on the latest research from an array of fields, from sports psychology to neuroscience.
Magness focuses in on the four core pillars to build resilience:
- Pillar 1- Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality
- Pillar 2- Listen to Your Body
- Pillar 3- Respond, Instead of React
- Pillar 4- Transcend Discomfort
A smart read for high-performers looking to start cultivating resilience today.
2. Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within
By David Goggins
Hedgeye Nation recalls our fondness for Goggins' prior book Can’t Hurt Me, the autobiography teaches readers to dig down deep and push beyond their perceived physical limits. Goggins builds on this them in Never Finished. In it, Goggins takes you inside his "Mental Lab," and delves into the philosophy, psychology, and strategies underlying his own mental toughness.
David Goggins is a former Navy Seal, ultramarathon runner and mental madman. Grab this one to soak up the wisdom of a true high-performance practitioner.
Stay hard!
3. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
By Ryan Holiday
Many aspiring best-selling self-help books attempt to repackage the wisdom of the ancient "Stoics" into bite-sized platitudes for the masses.
The Obstacle is the Way is different. Ryan Holiday takes stories from giants of human history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—and how the lessons of the Stoics were applied to overcome difficult or impossible situations.
As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
4. Letters to a Young Athlete
By Chris Bosh
For basketball fans, Chris Bosh's reputation precedes himself. For those not athletically inclined, Bosh is an NBA Hall of Famer, eleven-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist.
In Letters to A Young Athlete, Bosh shares his personal journey toward self-mastery, and how he acquired the skills to perform at the highest level. Setbacks? Bosh has had a few. Bosh's storied basketball career was cut short at their prime by a freak medical condition.
Bosh reflects on his own setbacks and the lessons learned from basketball legends, from LeBron and Kobe to Pat Riley and Coach K.
5. Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game
By Gio Valiante
Dr. Gio Valiante is a pioneering sports psychologist. Valiante's primary focus has been on sources of an athlete’s fear. The lessons in this book have been applied in the real work. With Valiante's help golf pro Justin Leonard went from three consecutive missed cuts to three consecutive top tens. Valiante coached Chad Campbell from 98th in the world to 7th, Davis Love III went from zero wins in 2002 to four wins in 2003, and Chris DiMarco made the 2004 Ryder Cup Team.
Valiante's expertise and the lessons learned in Fearless Golf extend beyond just the sport of golf. Valiante served as Head Performance Coach of Point72, lead by legendary investor Steve Cohen.
Dr. Valiante draws on quotes and anecdotes from the best players in golf—including Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els, and other tour professionals — and combines it with the latest research into psychology and neuroscience for a truly unique read about the mental game of high-level performance.
6. Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn from Their Mistakes--But Some Do
By Matthew Syed
What's the key determinant of success or failure in any field? An individual's ability to acknowledgement and confront failures and weaknesses.
Matthew Syed digs deep into human psychology and organizational culture in Black Box Thinking to confront why people rationalize and explain away their own failures. Syed draws on anthropology, psychology, history and complexity theory to dissect our defensive response to human error with stories about David Beckham, the Mercedes F1 team, and Dropbox.
7. Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
By Tim Ferriss
New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss compiles the tools, tactics, and habits from 130+ of the world's top athletes, artists and billionaire investors. Ferriss structures the book as a series of short profiles in an effort to "help you answer life's most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life."
As Ferriss explains, "This reference book, which I wrote for myself, has already changed my life. I certainly hope the same for you."
8. Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself
By Tim Kennedy
No exaggeration. Tim Kennedy is an American badass.
From Green Beret sniper to UFC headliner, in this wild memoir, Tim Kennedy provides stories and life lessons on embracing failure and weathering tragic personal storms.
As Amazon puts it, "Kennedy reveals all the dumb, violent, embarrassing, and undeniably heroic things he’s done in his life, including multiple combat missions in Afghanistan, building a school in Texas for elementary kids, and creating two-multimillion-dollar businesses."
An inspiring story from a true Patriot.
9. Endure: How to Work Hard, Outlast, and Keep Hammering
By Cameron Hanes
Cameron Hanes is an expert bow hunter, an endurance runner and self-professed "average guy." In Endure, Hanes explains his long journey of self improvement and how discipline, sacrifice, resilience and hard work propelled him to bypass his own self-doubt.
"If Cam can do it, we all can. Everyone has what it takes to endure adversity so we can rise above average, be the best we can be, and enjoy living life to the fullest."
10. The Dynasty
By Jeff Benedict
In The Dynasty, Jeff Benedict recounts how the New England Patriots went from the laughingstock of the NFL (and near bankruptcy) to Super Bowl-winning juggernaut.
- How was the Patriots dynasty built?
- How did it last for two decades?
Through exhaustive research, Benedict provides answers to unanswered questions along with insights from exclusive interviews interviews with more than two hundred insiders—including team executives, coaches, players, players’ wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more.
