I don’t read books. Well, not many. I don’t have a whole list of books for you to read to become the best ‘blah blah”. Or ‘the ten books you have to read this summer’.

I realize I probably should. But as Abe says to Mike Mc D “You can’t deny who you are” (Sean, that’s for you).

But there is one book I can read again and again and again. “The Hard Way” by Mark Jenkins. Stories of Danger, Survival and the Soul of Adventure”.

It is a collection of short stories from Mark about his adventure into the wilds, the jungles, the tundra, and the mountains. But it’s not about the adventure. It is about the soul he gets. The soul he has. The soul he learns from these adventures.

He’s a wildly talented adventurer but an even better writer. He’s so clear about the fact that at our hearts we are all explorers. Dulled by the modern world. But meet a fellow adventurer on the dusty trail, or the crumbling wall of a big mountain, or 85 miles into a 100-mile run and you have a different bond with them. A real, natural connection. Not always found in the ‘modern’ setting.

He crossed Russia on a bike in winter, scaled Everest, and ran the stairs at his local football stadium. He has a way of conveying that no matter what, the doing of it is everything. Sure there is risk but that’s part of the attraction.

As the LA Times said in its review of The Hard Way “Beautifully crafted stories…brought to life by a poetic and muscular style…Jenkins…traverses the most remote and literally forbidden parts of the globe, at the risk — and cost — of illness, and injury… But the lure is irresistible.”

What’s this got to do with WealthTech?
Nothing.
I just wanted to give you a list of books to read when you are not doing WealthTech.
Here is my list.
“The Hard Way”. By Mark Jenkins.

When you have read it, get back to building WealthTech.

Because that’s a wild adventure too.

Best,
Ned Phillips
Founder & CEO