What they’re reading now

Amanda Carroll
Principal and Technology Practice Area Leader, Gensler

What are you reading now, or what did you finish most recently? “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,” by Stanley McChrystal, a former U.S. Army general.

Has anything from the book stuck with you? This book is about leadership embracing change and the tools and techniques to get there. McChrystal outlines how our defense and intelligence agencies faced the rapid transformation of an established, centuries-old structure across siloed, independent organizations and cultures. Many of these lessons from his time serving as the leader of the Joint Special Operations Task Force were complemented by even larger and more historic examples of restructuring in the face of a challenge and the interest of innovation — a prime example being NASA’s leadership in developing their space program.

Would you recommend it? This book is combination of real tools and heroic stories; the lessons are easily relatable, despite the extreme circumstances of Al Qaeda and setting in Iraq. You don’t have to get to the end to have an “aha” moment either — 15 minutes in, there’s something to gain.

Zachary Vichinsky
Co-founder, Bespoke Real Estate

What book did you finish most recently? “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson.

What prompted you to read it? When I was a teenager, my father gave me Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” It was a catalyst for a framework of thinking that I still use today — I like to take the best details from the best “brands” and leave the rest. Funny enough, my father also kept pushing me to read this book. I’ll admit, I took quite a bit of time to finish, but it’s a book that doesn’t need to be binged like a TV show.

Would you recommend it? Yes. It’s a not only a great read, but it really says something about how you can transform an idea and turn it into a reality. People can talk all they want, but, at the end of the day, you need to be able to show your worth, and, as controversial as Jobs may have been, he was a real innovator. It kind of begs the entrepreneur in all of us to keep on keeping on and go beyond the box that sometimes limits us.

Josh Heyer
Real estate salesperson, Triplemint

What are you reading now, or what did you finish most recently? “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck” by Mark Manson. 

What has stuck with you from the book? We chose this as the inaugural book as a part of our team book club — I’m on the Whitman Team. The thing that stuck with me most was the chapter called “You Are Not Special.” Being relatively new to the industry, you feel like all of the successes, mistakes, happy and/or angry clients are unique to you. It’s a great reminder that when something goes wrong — and it will — it’s not unique to you. On the flip side, when you’re celebrating success, there are people out there you can still chase to achieve even greater levels.

Would you recommend it? One hundred percent — especially to those friends and colleagues who constantly need external validation. This is a book about realizing you are in control, that your circumstances are not unique and that everyone has experienced pain on the way to success.