Doing More With Less

At the beginning of the summer, I created a lofty reading list for myself. The summer is speeding by and how many books have I read? Less than 1. Seriously, I haven't even finished a book. But today, I figured out why.

My first book of choice was titled The Silicon Boys. This book details the history of Silicon Valley, starting with the discovery and creation of the transistor way back in the day and covers the birth (and death) of tech companies such as Atari, Netscape, etc. Of course, the Steve's are included, Wozniak and Jobs. Some of the info in this book was very interesting such as learning how Apple first got started (and almost collapsed). Boy how quickly things can change! But for the most part, I was very bored and had to force myself to continue reading. I still haven't finished the book.

Today, I picked up a second book called Zilch. My aunt recommended this book to me several months ago and I am grateful to her that she did. Zilch teaches you how to do something with nothing, the basic life of a not-for-profit organization. Its written by an extremely intelligent woman, Nancy Lubin, who has successfully created and currently runs two nonprofits. And does so with ZILCH. I'm so clever aren't I :) Imagine what multi-million dollar businesses could accomplish with all their money if they applied a few of the principles Lubin does with her nonprofits which achieve success with practically nothing.

Anyways, the point of this story is to say that today I discovered that I need to stop wasting my time attempting to educate myself on topics I care nothing about (for example, the history of current technology) and focus my energies on what I do care about (nonprofits, being passionate about your work, etc.). I have no doubt that I will finish Zilch by the end of this week. Why? Because I actually WANT to read it. Which, by the way, totally supports Mrs. Lubin's claim that "People who take pride in what they do -- and it doesn't matter if they're working on auto assembly lines or saving orphans -- produce better results."

I'm wrapping up this post with a list of companies that I hope to learn from, work for, or maybe one day emulate when I found my own company. Some are not-for-profit, some are for-profit. But all do very cool things and all were created by people who get out of bed in the morning excited to go to work and inspire change and creativity. Oh and they also employ people who actually LIKE what they do. Cool.

Zappos, Henderson, NV

TerraCycle, Trenton, NJ

The Martin Agency, Richmond, VA

Tom's Shoes, Santa Monica, CA

Hands on Gourmet, San Francisco, CA

Trader Joe's, Monrovia, CA

VolunteerMatch, San Francisco, CA

Kaboom, Washington, D.C.

Do Something, New York, NY