Frank Blake's Top Book Recommendations
Want to know what books Frank Blake recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Frank Blake's favorite book recommendations of all time.
When a friend told Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank that, "You've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe," they thought he was crazy. After all, both had just been fired. What the friend, Ken Langone, meant was that they now had the opportunity to create the kind of wide-open warehouse store that would help spark a consumer revolution through low prices, excellent customer service, and wide availability of products.
Built from Scratch is the story of how two incredibly determined and creative people-and their associates-built a business from nothing to 761...
moreRecommended by Frank Blake, and 1 others. Frank BlakeVery meaningful to me, not only because it’s the story of the founding of the Home Depot, but also because of my start as the CEO of Home Depot. (Source)
Recommended by Frank Blake, and 1 others. Frank BlakeI wanted to read Proust, but I didn’t know French so I started with [this book] and start learning French. (Source)
There will come a time when people decide you’ve had enough of your grief, and they’ll try to take it away from you.
Bad art is from no one to no one.
Am I happy? Damned if I know, but give me a few minutes and I’ll tell you whether you are.
Thank heaven I don’t have my friends’ problems. But sometimes I notice an expression on one of their faces that I recognize as secret gratitude.
more
Frank BlakeBounces around with different observations, some of which you go, god, that’s brilliant and some of it, eh. (Source)
Austin KleonI had a couple of magical Manguso readings this year: On a summer trip to San Francisco, I bought this in the morning at Christopher’s Books in Potrero, and then read most of it later that afternoon in the Yerba Buena Gardens. Later in the year, I found a used copy of Ongoingness: The End of A Diary in a market in Antigua, Guatemala, and read that in one sitting, too. (Source)
Andrew HuiSarah Manguso is a contemporary American author, and I think she is the 21st-century La Rochefoucauld! She is an astute and profound observer of our digital lives today, and how much of our lives are mediated in electronic forms. (Source)
Frank BlakeSuch a great observer of different writers, and it makes you want to read all of the source material that he’s writing about. (Source)
Lucas WittmannA must read book for all wannabe polymaths is James's 'Cultural Amnesia'. Genius unclassifiable book. (Source)
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.
But what about the company that is not born... more
Jeff Bezos"Collins briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book before its publication. Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts," Stone writes. (Source)
Dave Ramsey[Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website.] (Source)
Max Levchin[Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?"] (Source)
Don't have time to read Frank Blake's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.