I Guess We Are There... Kind Of?

More gym equipment.

In one of the posts from last year, I posed the question “Mom & Dad, are we there yet?” in reference to getting through this phase of our lives known as COVID[-19]. It appears in Seattle and in most of the places Marc and I frequent, the answer is “yes”. We’ve been vaxxed, have been able to take a couple of trips via plane, resumed seeing people and I have been able to complete the rehab on my hip (still a little bit of work on the knee/calf, but that’s minor). My sister and a couple of close friends convinced us to buy a Peloton because as regular followers of this space know, the Becks’ need more gym equipment. All positives.

As for many, COVID took a toll on me mentally and emotionally. When I had a chance to look back, I realized it started last fall and it wasn’t until late winter that I really identified that I needed to take some steps to deal with it. True to form, I had to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how. This led to me seeking some professional help on the mental health front as I did not have the tools to figure it out.

Look at those crazy kids on Patmos in 2002.

Long time readers of this space know that I saw the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center almost 20 years ago. At the time, I was working for a global investment bank which did not really tolerate “weakness”. Sure, they had counseling circles where employees could commiserate about the trauma they experienced, but no one actually trusted the system. We all likely thought that the facilitator would “rat us out” that we were “soft” and would get managed out of the firm. And especially as a ‘she/her’ on Wall Street, I was expected to “tough it out”. I did that and, by sheer luck, I ended up being ok and somehow met Marc less than a year later.

When I realized that I was feeling “off”, I realized that shame on me if I make the same mistake that I made all of those years ago knowing what I know now and not get some assistance. Fortunately seeking out mental health counseling does not have the same stigma as it used to have and I was able to find someone via referral to help figure things out.

I was going through my sessions and doing some homework via reading, etc. In the midst of all of this, Marc and I were able to go visit my family back in New York after not seeing them for 14 months. It was a wonderful weekend and really recharged me personally, which I was not expecting. [Random tangent: My Mom showed me this article, which made me laugh because my Rabbi used to give me these while I was prepping for my Bat Mitzvah back in the day.] That said, on the plane ride back home I had a sense of dread about returning to work that was more than the normal “ugh, it’s work tomorrow after being away.” In looking back, I realize that I had this feeling previously in the past few months but blocked it out because that was what I had always conditioned myself to do.

Hurricane Ridge - May, 2021.

The frustrating part was that I really liked the team I was on, enjoyed the work I was doing and had good leadership support behind me. It didn’t reconcile with the feelings I was experiencing. We were getting out for regular hikes, which I know has a positive impact on my mental health. I started examining my typical work day and seeing if I could identify any triggers. I was annoyed that I did not recognize this decline sooner so I could nip it in the bud. But that’s the thing - you’re living in the micro, and it is so easy to miss out on the macro things going on in your life.

What I was able to discern was that I switched roles in mid-October and that led to a steady cadence of 6am (sometimes earlier) meetings because the organization is more east-coast centric. By the time I would have dinner with Marc, I would be thrashed and was not good company because I had been working for 12+ hours. The schedule also made it more difficult for me to get my workouts in, which definitely impacts me mentally and physically. I also realized that I was pretty burnt out from doing 3 months of daily rehab from my hip surgery on top of my workouts and everything else. And I missed seeing my friends and having laughs in person.

My PT conjured up lots of games to keep me engaged with my rehab.

Right. OK. Fortunately more and more of our “people” were getting vaxxed so that was helpful in addressing the lack of social contact over the past 15+ months. The gatherings that I have been in have brought me true happiness. Hip rehab concluded in late April and I’m breaking records for mid-life career professionals hula hooping. Marc and I were able to resume a couple of traditions that had to be suspended due to COVID. That left addressing the proverbial elephant in the room - my current role, most of which I truly enjoyed except for the daily very early morning starts. That was the biggest issue out of all of it since it impacted my time with Marc.

With that, my last day at PwC is on Friday and I will miss the people I met at P-Dubs, who were generous with their knowledge and their time. They are smart and funny, and my last team, in particular, brought me tons of joy. I had the opportunity to influence many folks during my tenure at the firm in terms of teaching people about ‘product’ and mentoring a few people along the way on their career journeys.

Snowshoeing on Rainier - April, 2021.

I’ll be starting a new role at the end of next month, which I am really excited about. It also coincides with being back in the office in a hybrid capacity, which also makes me happy. More on that once I start up there with my new set of colleagues whom I am looking forward to learning from and partnering with to achieve great things.

And with that, onward!

Becoming Bionic and Being Thankful.

So you are working through a sports injury for a couple of months and in a matter of 3 days, you go from “hey, it is probably something that can be solved through cortisone shots” to “you need a total hip replacement”. Whaaa…..

The results came in before I had a chance to consult with the surgeon. I saw the MRIa (it’s a “special” MRI) report and while I couldn’t understand 50%+ of the words, any time you see the words ‘extreme’ and ‘severe’ in this context, it can’t be good. I decided to send it to 7 different medical professionals and they all independently came back with some form of “uh yeah, that’s a total hip replacement”.  Extra bonus for those professionals who were around me on a somewhat regular basis who made comments around the fact that I had no business functioning at the level I was in terms of hiking, weightlifting and cardio. Uhm, ok.

Lake Ollalie hike in between Christmas and New Year’s - 3 days before the news that I would be ‘becoming bionic’.

It took me about 12 hours to come to grips with this news, which included copious amounts of wine, frantic texts and manic web searches. I was fortunate to get an appointment with the person who is known as “THE” surgeon for hip replacements about a week later, and he was able to confirm that my hip was, in fact, in deep sh**. What was hysterical was that in the surgical consultation, he was trying to “sell me” on the replacement surgery with this gradual story and I just interrupted him to say “Hey, doc…. I’m already in. I talked to people and I know how bad it is. When can I go?”

[You can take the girl out of NYC….]

After some back and forth, I was able to get scheduled for surgery in 2 1/2 weeks. I am beyond fortunate that I work for an employer that was very supportive and has very established policies for taking time off for this kind of thing, and be fully compensated. So off to surgery we went and likely my inaugural step, in many to come, in “becoming bionic”. I did my research on devices - woohoo. I was fortunate to speak to a few people who had the surgery and I trusted. Two people in particular were a huge help. One is a cousin and one is a friend. Their feedback on the unwritten things was and continues to be so helpful. 

Torta Setteveli - if I only bought enough chocolate to cover the cake…. because enough chocolate wasn’t already included!

In between, we had to celebrate Marc’s birthday. I was trying to behave myself for 2 weeks in between the holidays and the surgery and that pretty much went to hell. Oh well, Marc’s birthWEEK celebration was fun and worth it, even with COVID - particularly on January 20th with a particular focus on the events of Washington, DC. PS - If you haven’t heard of Goldbelly, you should check it out. It’s not the same as going to that favorite restaurant for a special occasion, but it’s pretty awesome. I cooked and baked for Marc’s birthday knowing he was going to have to take care of me so here is my rendition of Prue Leith’s GBBO “Torta Settevelli.” Let’s give it up for finding a way to temper chocolate that didn’t make me insane.

January 20th - early am PT. If you don’t have anything nice to say….

Fortunately, no hiccups in any pre-op work (passed the COVID test) and I was rolled into the surgery suite where I saw lots of tools that you might see at a hardware store. They started “medicating” me pretty quickly so I didn’t have time to think about that…. Anyway they do the surgery and release you the same day. In between, they test you for walking and a few other basic life tasks. 

Enter stage left: Marc (aka Mr. WaterClown).

For the past month, Marc has been taking fabulous care of almost everything as I have recovered from surgery. And somehow I managed to NOT need to ring the literal cowbell to summon him to my beck and call (as opposed to ‘beckOn’) that we have from my running days. We were also so lucky to have a great support system to help the both of us - near and far with all sorts of “creative” gifts and food deliveries that made us laugh. Obviously with COVID, support is very different than under other circumstances. I put a strict no-chocolate/no sweets rule in place, but somehow that was circumvented because everyone figured Marc, the chocoholic, would need it since he was taking care of me. No comment.

One of the many crazy exercises that our Physical Therapist assigned me for rehab. Getting the left leg up is harder than it looks.

In the interim, I have been fastidious about rehab and rest, along with taking care of some Beck projects. I’m doing lots of cycling on the assault bike and making Rocky montage videos. (DRAGO!!!!!!!) OK, I have watched a ton of TV shows too, which is not a normal thing for me. But the comedy was a much needed relief for me so it was the right call (thanks, B(J)S, for keeping me on task there). We received so many well wishes along the way via text/email/DM from family, friends and colleagues — all of which were really appreciated. Some of the text threads have really kept me laughing in their absurdity… in a good way! We also have our outdoor COVID friendly set-up, which has helped a lot with people coming to say hi. 

I head to work on Tuesday with much to do from a rehab perspective, but THANKFUL that I was able to build a base on which to continue my progress from, as well as have the support of so many folks. Ups and downs will continue throughout the process. With respect to COVID, I hope that we are closer to the end than we are the beginning but if you know of someone going through a situation that would normally be helped with some hugs and human contact, also know that regular engagement also makes a huge difference when you can’t be together in person. Onward with a pic from a video that I recorded this evening for a good friend’s birthday.

Keeping it classy, as always.

Mom & Dad, Are We There Yet?

Me and/or my 2 siblings: Mom and Dad, are we there yet?

Mom and/or Dad (sometimes simultaneously): You ask me that one more time and I am turning this car around NOW! And I REALLY mean it this time!

When all of this started, I do not know what I envisioned but I am pretty sure that I was not planning on this lasting for as long as it has. This being COE-VID. [Side note: I have a friend who has somehow made it 2 words and she has hand gestures to go with it.] We are now coming up on 7 months into this very frustrating situation and I am guessing we have another year to go before things remotely get back to whatever “normal” will be “post-COE-VID”. It’s tempting to ask the question “are we there yet” or even “are we ALMOST there yet” but that seems to be a fruitless exercise at this stage for a variety of reasons. So off we go as life goes on….

I hope this finds all of you and your loved ones relatively happy, healthy (in all facets) and sane. If you are not in a good place for whatever reason, then PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME NOW and I WILL HELP! Remember that “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

How are we doing and managing COE-VID? As regular readers of this space know, we tend to be, uhm, very sports oriented and don’t get into episodic TV. Given that it took awhile for the respective professional sports leagues to figure out how they were going to manage player safety with competition, Marc and I needed to figure out a new post-dinner strategy. And I definitely needed to create a hard barrier between work and personal given the long-term work from home situation.

One day, Marc just compiled a list of shows that he thought might be interesting to check out. We came up with a plan where he would pick a show to watch and we would watch a season, I would pick a show and then we would jointly pick a show that we were interested in. Rotate through until we finished the series. It’s been entertaining as it’s been years since I cared about a show on an episode-by-episode basis. The plan has somewhat worked out.

Marc’s choices, which have actually all been very good, were Altered Carbon (I liked 1st season better than 2nd), The Umbrella Academy (I liked the 2nd season better than the 1st), The Americans (about to start season 5 and Keri Russell might be one of the more underrated actresses of our day), Veep (as much as I love and adore JLD, I had to stop as it was making me think of reality too much), Dear White People (overall very good) and I’m probably missing something else. Next up is Watchmen.

The ones we choose together tend to be cooking or travel related. We’ve watched Ugly Delicious, The Chef Show and Great British Bake Off. GBBO has LOADS of seasons so it is going to take awhile to get through all of them. But I actually like GBBO the best of all of the cooking shows that I have ever watched. The drama is purely about the end product and if the cake will collapse or not. It’s not about manufacturing BS between the competitors. We tried to get into Somebody Feed Phil and we both found it rather annoying. Loved Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat, but technically that was pre-COE-VID.

I’m still doing the podcast thing and I continue to suffer from having too many on my rotation. This one by Scott Galloway on “Algorithms and the Threat to Democracy” was a really good listen. The podcast subjects are mostly a mix of sports, entrepreneurship, fitness/health, tech/product, food and news. Many of them crossover into some of those other lanes. I’d say my faves are as follows:

• Sports (The Old Man & The Three with JJ Redick, Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy, 30 for 30 from ESPN and Bill Simmons from The Ringer - the ‘Parent Corner’ segments are definitely humorous, especially to this non-parent)

• Entrepreneurship (How I Built This with Guy Raz and Founded & Funded from Madrona Venture Group)

• Fitness/Health (The Ready State with Juliet and Kelly Starrett, Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman and The Mind Muscle Project with Raph and Lach)

• Tech/Product (a16z from Andreessen Horowitz and Product Talk from Products That Count)

• Food (Eater’s Digest from Eater and Foodcast from Bon Appetit)

• News (Next Question with Katie Couric, Modern Ruhles with Stephanie Ruhle, The Prof G Show from Scott Galloway and Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway)

Most of the time, I am listening to pods while I am working out as long as I am not doing some intense cardio where I need to be laser focused on my pace and my timing like my OPEX “Pain/Gain/Sustain” style workouts. Those efforts, plus my weightlifting prescribed by our coach, have also been a savior for me on all fronts.

Other things (outside of work) that we have been doing to stay sane while not being able to entertain as much as we typically do is hike where possible, The recent smoke and fires over a good chunk of the month have been a real bummer as September is typically a nice weather month in the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately we have been getting out for hikes and walks here and there, so that has been helpful mentally and emotionally for me.

I’ve been trying some other things like taking a couple of online classes, which I’ll get into more detail about at a later date. I also attempted to bake, which is not something I typically do. Regular readers of this space know that the other Chez Beck household member tends to do those things and he does them REALLY, REALLY WELL! Too much GBBO, me thinks.

Bringing it all back to “Mom & Dad, are we there yet?”, I think we’re about 1/3 of the way through this. So that means being really focused on how I can ensure I get the right amount of sleep, not work too much and not stress too much about things beyond my control. Making that clean break from my office upstairs to downstairs to the kitchen and family room to relax definitely helps with me winding down before bed. Yes, I realize that I am lucky that I have that space. All of the above activities help with that. I’ll close out with, once again, if you are struggling and think you need help, please ask.

Time To Cash In Those “Chits”

Becky Sauerbrunn paying homage awhile back….

What an absolute gutting way to end the work week. I am certainly not going to be articulating anything new or original on Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her legacy. I did enjoy this piece on her workout.

It’s tempting to delve into what her passing will do to an already polarized electorate ramping up for an election that already had pretty high stakes, but it is not something I am interested in at this point. The other thing is that if anyone actually purports to know what is going to happen between now and January 20th, 2021, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

I’ll focus on what I can do. I may not live in a state with something “major” at play (swing state for President or a flippable Senate race), but I know I have the ability to contribute in ways that expand beyond writing a check. COVID has forced us to be brutal about our choices and how we prioritize different aspects of our way of life. I have saved up a lot of “chits” over the past 6+ months.

I’m ready to cash them in. How about you? To kick things off, we are going to open a bottle of wine that personified RBG - a Shafer “Relentless” Syrah.

PS — “I can’t” is not a phrase that exists at this point in time.

Super Diva

Fitness Routine Disrupted? Now What?

Out and about on a walkabout in the Pacific Northwest.

Given what has taken place with COVID-19, many people are unable to leverage their gym, athletic facilities (e.g., swimming pools, tennis courts) or other place for fitness. State and local governments have taken steps to keep critical businesses open, and fitness facilities do not qualify. I’m not saying it wasn’t the right call, but fitness is definitely a stress reliever for many and now folks are trying to figure out an alternative.

Some folks are lucky to have something at home, whether it is Peloton, treadmill, dumbbells, elliptical, etc. Marc and I are fortunate to have an ‘at home’ option. We do some of our own programming but also have help from our trainer, who is fabulous. Given the recent stretch of good weather in Seattle, I have been taking the opportunity to take a meeting or two per day while on a walk, which has helped my state of mind immensely.

Last Sunday and today, Marc and I were lucky to get out on a hike with enough space to do social distancing….. most of the time. If someone is coming up the trail and you’re coming down, and the path is narrow, that makes it a tad more challenging. But everyone has been positive and people are working through it.

I have received some questions for ideas on home workout pointers. I’ll certainly share a few things that I have done without having any equipment, but I’ll also recommend these articles on OPEX and on WSJ. If you’re able to pick up a pair of adjustable dumbbells (Bowflex makes a good pair and they take up very little room) and/or bands (Rogue makes great quality ones), your range of exercises increases exponentially.

My sister told me Peloton is giving away 90-day free trials to their app. I have heard great things about Aaptiv as an app to use. Our trainer just told us about Stryde, which is cycling-based. I’m guessing some of you know of other alternatives that people can try out. Post in the comments.

OK on to the workout ideas that I have done on the road (outside of going on a run). All you need is a watch that counts on seconds to do this or you can find an app (we use SmartWOD):

• Every minute on the minute, do 8 burpees for 20 minutes. The goal is to have a little bit of rest per minute before the next minute arrives. Trust me when I tell you that you will be sweating. You do not need any equipment, except a watch.

• For 20 minutes, do a continuous loop of 10 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 air squats and 10 alternating lunges. If you’re struggling with your push-up, check out this link on how to build the strength to do them.

• Use the above movements and complete a “Grand Slam” tabata style workout. A tabata is 8 rounds of :20 seconds of work/:10 seconds of rest. After each tabata, do a plank (form counts). So your 1st tabata is sit-ups for 8 rounds and then a plank. Then you do 8 rounds of push-ups and then a plank. Continue on….

• 5 rounds for time of 100m run, 10 jumping squats, 10 split jumps, 10 v-ups, 10 burpees. Rest 2 minutes after each round. Increase pace per round.

** NOTE: I am not a doctor, nor do I have any active certifications around fitness, so please check with your medical professional if you have not been exercising as of late before you try the above.

If you have suggestions, please post in the comments. We’re all in this together and just remember: you’ll never walk alone.

Harv Turned 75 So We Visited To Eat, Workout, and Party

We landed and made our way to Gramercy Park Hotel. Once we unpacked, we went downstairs to Maialino for dinner with Razz, Bill, Danielle, and Owen. The food was good but I took a photo of the dessert. It was a s’more thing that was pretty good but it had a mysterious spice to the chocolate. Turns out that it was ginger which threw us all off and also might have been just slightly overpowering for the dish.

View fullsize

s’more -

We took the train out to Long Island from Manhattan on the actual birthday. Harv picked us up at the station and drove us over to CrossFit Rapture so that we could do his special birthday WOD. Jill’s sister Lisa came to workout with us and Harv’s wife Yvette came to watch all of the insanity.

The workout after the warm-up was an increasing weight Metcon of 6 sets.

• 3 Deadlift

• 2 Hang Clean

• 1 Jerk

Then “Harv” was 5 rounds of the following.

• 9 Shoulder to Overhead

• 22 Box Jumps

• 12 KB Swings

After those 5 rounds, there was the birthday cash out - 75 wall balls. Ouch! This was on Wednesday afternoon. I woke up on Saturday and my legs were still sore from that.

We went to Blackstone Steakhouse to celebrate with family and friends. The food was delicious.

The meal ended with some dessert!

We both worked on Thursday and Friday and went out for some great meals in the evenings. On Thursday we ate with Thom and Bob at Cosme. On Friday, we ate with Stef and Mike at Llama San. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by Volare to see Sal and have a glass of wine.

On Saturday, we rode the train out to Jersey City to have lunch with Madeline at Light Horse Tavern. That was a rare excursion into Jersey for us. On the way back, before the big Saturday night birthday celebration with lots of family and friends, we stopped by Hudson Yards to look at the Vessel. We didn’t climb the stairs since we didn’t have a reservation.

So for the wrap-up to the week, we threw another gathering and party at Marta with lots of the family and many friends. All of the young cousins were able to attend. And lots of laughs and stories were told. Here are some photos from that evening (click on the photos below to scroll through).

Book Report #1 - 2020

So far the year has gotten off to a good start on the reading front, even with binge listening to some podcasts. I am anxiously awaiting the release of Susan Fowler’s book “Whistleblower”, which is due to be released tomorrow. I’m wrapping up “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Definitely some food for thought in that one.

Other books that I have read this year include “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” by Casey Cep, “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All of the Facts” by Annie Duke, “The National Team: The Inside Story of the Women Who Changed Soccer” by Caitlin Murray and “Mission 27: A New Boss, A New Ballpark, and One Last Ring for the Yankees’ Core Four” by Marc Feinsand and Bryan Hoch. Duke’s book was definitely a great read and I’ve already been able to put some nuggets from that to good use.

My podcast listening for the most part has been focusing on listening to one on functional medicine by Dr. Mark Hyman. When I listen to his talks with his guests, this is where I hoped we could eventually get to with technology when I was at a healthcare start-up a few years ago. Much of functional medicine is about the root cause of disease as opposed to the treatment of it. And based on my own experience, I know that I know my body better than anyone so it is incumbent upon me to not just own that, but to take actions that help me live a healthier life. Much of what he says lines up with a book I referenced in an earlier blog post called “ROAR” by Dr. Stacy Sims around hormones and how much they impact everything you do.

Trying to get my overhead squat on. It’s been a long time work-in-progress.

One of the things I have been working on since mid-November has been switching my workout mix from more cardio, which includes high-intensity interval training, with some strength to more strength with some cardio thrown in. This has been as a result of reading the book above. It’s definitely a mindset shift and also impacts my podcast consumption. Some of the podcasts I listen to are more technical in nature, so it’s hard to pay attention when you are going hard in a workout.

I’ll get into a list of podcasts I listen to in a later post, but spoiler alert: IT. IS. A. LOT.

2020: Any Good Reading Recos?

I find it incredible that 2019 has come and gone so quickly. How did that happen? I have been trying to do more reading after getting completely sucked into podcasts over the past 2-3 years. I have tried audiobooks but I find that I tune out and don't stay as focused as I would like. Perhaps if I car commuted a fair amount, I might think differently. Anyway I'll list out the books that I found enjoyable in 2019, and welcome any recos you all may have for me to check out in 2020.

My favorite read this year was 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King. I am definitely not a fan of King's genre, but know he is a very talented writer. But my friend who recommended it to me said it was different than the work of what he was typically known for. It has a number of twists and turns, and I did not find the ending predictable.

A close 2nd was ROAR by Dr. Stacy Sims. As someone who likes to be active, I get frustrated by the lack of studies on female athletes out in the public domain. Most studies are done on men and you learn in this book why (hint: men didn't want to account for women's monthly cycles in their studies). It definitely gave me much to contemplate in terms of my eating approaches around my workouts, as well as the type of workouts I do. I bought this book for a couple of training buddies as soon as I was done reading it. 

I finally got around to reading The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual by Kirsten Grind. Given that I worked there during some key events in the book and followed the bank closely after, it definitely got into the nitty gritty of how the bank ended up where it did. I went through it pretty quickly, although not as quickly as Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, which I read in 2018.

Probably the most disturbing read of the year came in from Jon Krakauer - Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violet Faith. It's about a true story about a young mother and her child that were murdered by family members. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it gave me nightmares, but it reminded me of the depravity of some people in this world.

If you're into food, whether as an amateur chef or just someone who loves consuming it, Ruth Reichl's Save Me The Plums was a really breezy read and very enjoyable. It was about her time running the helm at Gourmet (RIP). As a fan of the Pivot podcast, I was keen to check out the work of one of the co-hosts, Scott Galloway. The Algebra of Happiness is a decent read that I wouldn't say provides any new insights, especially if you listen to him on the pod or are on his email lists. 

Michael Ovitz, who was one of Hollywood's 1st 'superagents', wrote a memoir predictably titled Who is Michael Ovitz? What made this a fun read was reading the behind the scenes stories around some of the most popular movies ever made were put together in terms of casting, funding, storylines, etc. 

After listening to the Recode Decode podcast with Kara Swisher interviewing Kai-Fu Lee, who is the author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order, I decided to read the book. Many takeaways, but the biggest one was gaining insight into how China does business and thinks about entrepreneurship compared to the West.

As a Product Manager, I had been following Marty Cagan for awhile and decided to read Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. It is a solid read on why so many products fail because of a lack of customer understanding. Like Galloway, if you subscribe to Cagan's email lists, you'll find much of the same information in the book. Another good read on this topic is The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank.

I forgot how this book ended up in my Kindle queue but The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore was an interesting read. Montefiore talks in detail about the different personalities of each of the rulers such as Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Nicolas II. Lots of really intricate stories told in this book.

Lastly, I read Ray Dalio's Principles. It was a dense read, to say the least. While I think the book has many good concepts, it is a lot to take in and put into practice. I think that since I read this, Dalio has released a higher-level version of the principles he outlines. 

If you have any good reads for me to check out, I'm definitely game to hear your suggestions.

Happy 2020 to you and your loved ones!