The Boston Business Journal Executive Pursuits column featured thoughts from Larry Gennari, partner at Gennari Aronson. Larry shared highlights from some of the business books he has been reading as curator of the annual Authors + Innovators Business Ideas Festival.
Below is an excerpt from this article with a link to read the entire piece in the Boston Business Journal.
Executive Pursuits: Springtime fishing brings questions, answers
by Larry Gennari
Spring arrives, as the late poet Mary Oliver wrote, “year after year, humble and obedient.” For the philosophical among us, the change of seasons reminds us to number our days and to seek out that which truly matters with the time we have left. For the more business focused, more daylight just means greater productivity, fewer cancelled meetings, and a commute that doesn’t end in the dark.
So, what can the thoughtful executive do now, at this time of year, to balance the needs of the head, the heart and the practical day-to-day? I have a suggestion: Go fish. Lucky for you, April 1st marks open-water fishing season on all lakes and ponds in Maine.
While you are planning, you also might want to grab a great book. I enthusiastically recommend Langdon Cook’s Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table, a must-read for those who want to learn more about the natural history of this majestic fish and the varied efforts to protect its habitats and the fragile supply chain that brings it to our tables.
For C-suite executives navigating this volatile and changing global economy—you need to read Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, by Columbia University Professor Adam Tooze, an ambitious and sprawling book that details the predictable reasons for and the troubling aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. As an essential (and much shorter) companion read, you also must pick up Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World (now in paperback).
As my favorite character, Ishmael, accurately observed in Moby Dick, the greatest fish story ever written, “Ignorance is the parent of fear.” That’s a lesson worth keeping in mind as you read these insightful books.
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Lawrence Gennari is a business lawyer, law professor, and chief curator for Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.
