3 Best Biography Books I Read in 2020 (Business Section)

2020 was the year that triggers my love for books all over again. I read a lot, a lot, of great books. But that year I started something different — I read some biography books!

Lucky me, I picked up amazing ones.

My most favorite got to be Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

Phil Knight is such a great storyteller, I got to give him that. I didn’t feel like reading a biography book, it almost felt like a book that a comedian would write 😂 He’s a superb marketer too. I finished reading this book feeling madly in love with Nike lol. The brand really is have an amazing story!

So the story begins when Phil was still young, I think when he was in college; he was a runner. He admires his running coach so much, the coach was like an SME in running shoes. The coach would spend time trying to modify running shoes and make his team members try them to see how it can improve their run. I didn’t know runners take running shoes this seriously!

What I like about this book is that Phil tells his side of stories when he’s in the bottom a.k.a struggling moments. He’s really brave and walk-the-talk kind of guy. He’s an American, cannot speak Japanese, yet he’s gritty enough to go to Japan and make a negotiation with Onitsuka company.

In the first chapter of the book, he says that in 1962, he told himself this advice.

“Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.” and he says it’s the best — and maybe the only advice — any of us should ever give.

P.S. I always remember this saying by Phil Knight about not stopping and don’t give up whenever I’m running 😂

This book motivated me so much! Phil Knight is someone that is not afraid to dream. The first time he bought sample shoes from Onitsuka, he even pay them with his dad’s money. But he believes in himself. Always. He experienced a lot of rejection and challenges, but just like he said. Just don’t stop.

I also highlighted this one.

“The art of competing, is the art of forgetting. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, and your past. You must forget that internal voice screaming, begging, “Not one more step!”.

Remember that whenever you’re out of breath running or doing HIIT, guys.

My second favorite is Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance.

Omg!! This book is so interesting. I love how Vance tell stories of Musk but reading about Elon is definitely the most interesting part.

Elon Musk is not your usually CEO-kind-of-man. He’s charismatic, yes. But I think he’s not really a people person. There’s a lot of stories where Elon Musk made his workers work really hard (really hard is an understatement). I mean they were making something that was almost impossible — making rocketships with tight budget, and electric cars!

He’s the type of person that knows what he wants and he knows he can and HAVE to get it. So he makes every one around him helping him achieve that.

There’s this story when Musk just hired a new employee — a college student I think. Musk is giving instructions and (if I’m not mistaken) the boy doesn’t do his work according to what Musk wants. So Musk told him to do what he instructed him too, and apparently it was too harsh.

Later it was added that Musk doesn’t have the time to always know who are the new employees. He knows when something is wrong, and he got to blurt out everything he wanted to say to make it right. The style of the command is not important for him!

My favorite story got to be about Elon Musk and his tight schedule that he even count his workers’ time by seconds and minutes! The writer wrote that he pees fast 😂 so he expects everyone to do the same. Brogan (his coworkers) says to him, “Elon, sometimes people need to take a long dump.” 🤣🤣🤣

Oh and he’s so detail-oriented and so hands-on that even the floor design of Tesla (or SpaceX??)’s office have to go through his approval.

My last but not the least favorite biography book in 2020 is…

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

Now this one is a must-read for all leaders in the world. It’s different from the other two — Robert Iger has more structured and lessons learned stated in his book. He even put a final chapter special for his lessons learned!

What interested me the most is his story about how he was almost not chosen by the Disney boards to be a CEO. Disney was a family business and so of course, that’s a pretty unique dynamic company. The case between him and Roy Disney even went to a court. The days of Robert Iger is so full and a lot of problems here and there, that reading it was making me out of breath, too! 🤣🤣

But it’s a fun book to know and to learn leadership from. I might not used the lessons learned from this book for now. But maybe in the future 🤔

I summarised three traits that I found similar in these three amazing leader.

• Perseverance (re: never give up, knows what they wants and how to get there, fall once get up twice)
• Courage (re: I’m not afraid people dislike me, I know my goals are and not afraid to achieve them)
• Passion (re: I have clear vision. There’s something I want to achieve in everything I do, in everything my company aim for)

Wdyt? What are your favorite biography book? 🤩