This week I finished:
Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies, by John Adams: This pamphlet is shorter than some blog posts, but covers a major part of what became the Constitution. Adams wrote it in the spring of 1776, after Common Sense and before the Declaration of Independence, which Adams helped write.
I understand that Adams was mailing people his ideas of how a republic could work and endure. He wasn’t the first. Colonists up and down the coast were taking on that challenge. He promoted three branches with two legislative bodies, checks and balances, limited terms, and more that found its way into the Constitution.
If you’re curious how the Constitution formed, this document shows how people thought and a big step in development. I think anyone would enjoy learning more about how the world’s longest standing written Constitution came to be and endure.
Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future, by Jonah Sachs: This book wasn’t about stories. It’s for beginners in advertising and marketing. The book club for the alumni of my workshops picked it. You never know until you read it what a book’s contents are.
This one teaches you how to fulfill a client’s request to motivate people to buy from them, not to tell better stories or to live them.
I didn’t find it authentic. It’s not about values or living them. It builds up to developing “authenticity teams.”
It uses the word “integrity” once. It reminds me why people consider leadership sneaky, tricky, or creepy. The author Jonah Sachs helped create The Story of Stuff videos, whose Executive Director Michael O’Heaney has been on my podcast. I hosted a discussion on The Story of Plastic, which that group produced, so I value some of his work.
I don’t have a problem with companies advertising, but this book portrays itself as helping you develop great stories. It barely talks about what creates stories: living your values with integrity. Nike, Patagonia, and Ben & Jerry’s do the opposite of that practice, but this book treats them as successes.