I’m always interested in what books people are reading and what they like. I always try to read books that people recommend to me. Lately, my brother and I have been recommending spy novels and thrillers back and forth. A few years ago, I gave him a Robert Ludlum book and he stayed up all night reading it. That started us on passing books back and forth.
There are two books that I’ve read recently that I highly recommend for the audience of this blog.
The first is Gerry Riskin’s The Successful Lawyer – a great collection of practical wisdom on a variety of subjects involved in the practice of law or any other profession. It’s also available with a companion audio CD through the ABA Law Practice Management book store.
Earlier in my career, I had the chance to participate in the Edge Group’s rainmaker education program at my law firm. I’d rank it among the very best training I ever received as a lawyer. I mention this because this book includes the core principles from that rainmaking course. They’re solid, practical and well-supported by my experience.
The book has 49 short chapters, each of which is packed with a punch and great practical tips. In fact, each chapter is like the conversation you would have liked to have with a mentor or experienced colleague during your career. It’s a book that you can read quickly, if you want, but also one that you will want to return to again and again and work through the ideas and exercises in it. Add me to the long list of fans of this book. It’d be a great gift for yourself or for a lawyer you know.
The other book I want to recommend is Bob Burg’s Endless Referrals, just out in a third edition. Ironically, I met Bob recently via email when I committed one of the cardinal sins of emailing people you don’t know – accidentally using the wrong name in the salutation to the email. Even worse, I didn’t realize who Bob was until he sent me a polite reply and we exchanged a few emails and got to know each other a bit.
Finally, I realized that Bob was the author of Endless Referrals, a book that I had found quite valuable when I began my solo career. Bob told me that a new edition of the book was out and asked me if I wanted to get an early review copy. Of course, I would.
Bob sent me a copy and I devoured it in one setting. I think that this is a gem of a book that is required reading for anyone who has customers or clients or works with other people. That, I believe, would be everyone. The book is about principles of business networking, but it goes far beyond that.
The money quote:
All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.
Think about blogging in that context.
Like Riskind’s book, this book is full of practical information that you can really use, including suggested language for certain conversations. I dog-eared a lot of pages in this book. I was also surprised to see how much of Burg’s advice from the earlier editions I had internalized and made part of what I do. Even if you have read the earlier editions, the third edition is still a must-read.
As an aside: I’ve been sounding out a few people about using Skype chat to create a book group to discuss books like these on a regular basis. Let me know if you might be interested.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog)]
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