Consumer Critique: Billion Dollar Paperclip and Plotting the Course

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

I recently had the chance to read two books that are great for anyone involved in business, marketing, or personal growth.

The Billion Dollar Paperclip: Think Smarter About Your Data (April 2014, Madeleine Books), is a new way to look at data for any business. It explores the question of why some products succeed while other virtually identical products fail. Using real-life business examples (Netflix, Amazon, Ford) he demonstrates how businesses and marketing professionals should be looking at data to maximize return on product investment. The author, Gregory Short, has experience maximizing data as the founder of EEDAR, utilized by all of the top twenty global video game publishers.

Plotting the Course: Life Lessons from the Sport of Sailing is appropriate for sailors and non-sailors alike. Author Rick Arneson connects sailing with business, politics, history, and other areas of life. By reading this book you'll learn a lot about the sailing world, but you'll also learn about cooperation and competition, growth, decision making and organization, and more.

I enjoyed both books, even though I'm not in a business field. I always make it a goal to do some reading in areas outside my field of expertise - I think it makes me a more well-rounded person. Plus, I think you can learn a lot from other areas. I was happy to have the opportunity for self-enrichment!