CheshTech Picks of the Month:
It’s that time of the month again! We are going to breakdown the #CheshTechPicksoftheMonth in this blog post as we go over a business and personal book that I read.
This month I found it a bit more challenging than usual as I had a big selection of books that I wanted to read. I decided to re-read This Is Marketing by Seth Godin for my business book.
For the personal option, I always struggle choosing because there are so many books out there that interest me. I think it’s important to read books all across the spectrum and expose yourself to many different viewpoints. This leaves me with a lot of options to choose from!
I chose Utopia For Realists by Rutger Bregman as my personal choice for this month. Let’s begin breaking down the books into a bit more detail!
Business: This is Marketing by Seth Godin
This is Marketing is far less about the specific actions you need to take for your business, and more about the changing and importance of present day marketing. Godin does a great job at describing the evolution of marketing and the importance of value and content based marketing in today’s world.
The internet has provided a global marketplace and has increased the competition, while giving opportunities to more people to start and run businesses. Due to this, the intense competition means that marketing more than ever is about providing value and content to your target market.
I think this is a good thing as you can help to eliminate some of the cheap entrepreneurs that are just trying to make a quick buck and that was especially common in the early stages of internet entrepreneurship.
Now, with reviews and the ability to spread the word fast about an unethical business or a business that provides immense value, online reputation means everything. Godin does a great job at helping you to understand that this needs to be a focal point of your business.
In today’s world, marketing is about providing valuable content to your target market and helping them achieve their goals. In turn, they will view you as an expert and be more likely to trust you and your work.
Personal: Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman
Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and I first found out about him through his conversation with Andrew Yang. This led me to discover this book and also intrigued me to read his other book about the history of humankind that has been compared to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari which is one of my favorite books.
Utopia for Realists is a really interesting look at how society should be changing and shifting focus within the following decades about our priorities. The book suggests ideas that certainly would be deemed radical including open borders, a universal basic income, and a 15 hour work week.
The arguments he uses are pretty fascinating because he uses his knowledge as a historian to point out the thoughts and expectations of famous historical figures such as John Maynard Keyes and others that often predicted that by 2021 we would already be having 15-20 hour work weeks.
His argument is based around the idea that we have developed a society that is the land of the plenty. Western nations have plenty of food, power, and opportunities to live a better life. That we have more than enough to share the wealth and bring balance back to capitalism instead of letting it run loose.
I enjoyed how he also admits that who knows if these things would really work, but that ideas such as women’s rights, civil rights, working less than 80 hours a week, and the 5 day work week were once all radical ideas as well.
Whether you agree or disagree with his ideas, this book is definitely worth reading for the different ideas and historical thoughts of some of our economic leaders.
Conclusion
4 months of reading down in the 2021 year! Gotta love it. This month I really enjoyed the books I read and have got my May picks ready to go.
Have any recommendations? Feel free to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and let us know what books we should read next!
For a complete video review of the April picks, you can check out Facebook. Here are the March Book Picks.
