100 books like How to Win at the Sport of Business

Captain Marquette’s YouTube video inspired me to create a highly productive team using independent thinking. Then, reading his book really spoke to me because it resonated with my first working experience outside the University of Massachusetts—namely, with the Pittsburgh Pirates as SVP of Business. The Pirates were the worst team in Major League Baseball then, losing over 100 games per season, drawing only 7,000 fans per game, and losing $10M annually. The staff were deflated and defeated.

After getting direct input from the senior staff, I planned the Pirates turnaround in three stages: 1. Stop the ship sailing in the wrong direction; 2. Turn the ship around; 3. Gain speed and momentum in the right direction. I think the key statement in Marquette’s book is, “It doesn’t matter how smart the plan is if the staff can’t execute it.”

I read this landmark book well after being at the Pirates… show more.

I have read numerous Jon Gordon books over the years, such as The Energy Bus, The Hard Hat, and The One Truth. They are always quick and simple reads that impart great points that I’ve found immediately implementable.

This one was a fun book to read, and it immediately got me psyched to have my senior staff implement its lessons. It particularly struck a chord for me because I know Gordon’s co-author, PJ Fleck, from his days as Head Football Coach at Western Michigan University. His analogy of “The Oar” as the source of the energy and “The Boat” as the team coming together in common sacrifice was particularly telling as I read the book shortly after seeing the movie, The Boys in the Boat, about the University of Washington 1936 Olympic gold medal-winning crew team.

At my organization, Aspire, we’ve incorporated these concepts, lessons, and philosophies into our… show more.

Twin Thieves is a true story whose main message is simple and reinforces what I know to be true—great teams are built first and foremost by great leaders. The focus is on overcoming the two biggest fears that most of us have as athletes, coaches, and/or leaders of teams—the fear of failure and of being judged unfavorably.

In reading the book, one of the first things that came to mind was the old adage: “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one is willing to die first.” The trick in applying this book to enhance my leadership style was to recall and tap into how I’ve overcome those fears in my life as an athlete, team member, coach, and executive. I personally learned how to get all, or at least the majority, of team members to channel those fears into positive energy.

I recently turned 75, and my son told me, “Dad, you’re now entering the 4th quarter of your life.” The book quite simply spoke to me and where my head has been for the last 2 to 3 years as I made the decision to sell my company, The Aspire Group. I had plenty of time to think through the lessons of this book—what did I really need and want from selling the business? What ongoing lifestyle did I want? What outcomes did I want, and how much money did it really take to achieve those goals and live that kind of life?

During three years of extreme pressure, there was a lot of introspection while getting the business into the right shape to put it out on the market and then negotiating the sale terms. The only way to continue to run my business, stay sane and afloat, and… show more.

I enjoyed reading Tobias’ book as a young adult because it was entertaining and engaging and focused on the big-picture concepts. His lighthearted tone and humor help to remove the stress involved with money and investing.

I appreciate the way in which the author communicates important themes concisely and with confidence. He’s a talented writer and a smart guy.  

In They Cleared the Lane, Ron Thomas, a journalist and HBCU professor, tells the stories of players and coaches who blazed a trail for African Americans back when only the ball was brown.

He introduces us to pioneers like Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, the “First Three” Black players who broke the NBA’s color line in 1951; Hal “King” Lear, Dick Gaines, Wally Choice, and Cleo Hill, who couldn’t crack the NBA’s racial quotas and stereotypes and starred instead in the Eastern League; John McClendon, who literally learned the game from its inventor, Dr. James Naismith, and is the acknowledged king of Black college coaches; and the first generation of Black superstars like Maurice Stokes, Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain.

If you want to learn on whose shoulders the modern NBA rests, this is the book to read. 

This is the behind-the-scenes account of the most-watched NCAA Final in television history, and the epic Celtic-Laker clashes of the 1980s. MacMullan had ultimate access and knows the game. In this work, she captures the voices of Magic and Larry throughout giving the reader primary source history on a golden time in the NBA. 

Jersey City hoops this time, but Wojnarowski’s book details the dedication of Bob Hurley (father of Duke star and NBA player Bobby Hurley) who is the head coach at a small Catholic school in Jersey City. Under his leadership, this tiny school wins championship after championship. For Hurley, the championships are a sidebar. His focus is on the players as human beings. He knows them--where they came from, where they are, where they could be headed--good and bad. Tough love at its best. A remarkable book about a remarkable man. The flip side of The Last Shot.

Ray Scott is a living bridge from the first generation of Black players in the NBA to the modern NBA that emerged in the 1970s.

Through high school in Philadelphia where he played against Wilt Chamberlain, to college in Portland where he first competed against Elgin Baylor, to his formative professional years in the Eastern League where his contemporaries were the league’s all-time stars like Sherman White, Wally Choice, and Hal “King” Lear, to his early years in the NBA where his mentor was Earl Lloyd, to succeeding Lloyd as an NBA coach and becoming the first African American named NBA Coach of the Year, Scott has soldiered through numerous affronts yet always emerged with grace, dignity, and hope.

“Coach,” as he is called, in this memoir written with prolific basketball writer and former Eastern League player Charley Rosen, demonstrates why he is respected and beloved as both a leader… show more.

I was on lunch break one day in 2010 walking through Union Station in DC when I saw a very tall, elderly Black man seated at a table in the B. Dalton bookstore with a stack of books in front of him.

I smiled at him and he back and me, and then the man with him said, “Do you know who this is?” I said no. The man said “It’s Earl Lloyd, the first African American to play in the NBA.” It occurred to me then, as it has many times since, that most Americans know about Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in professional baseball, but until that moment I didn’t know who did the same in basketball.

And it wasn’t until 10 years later, when I finally read the book that Mr. Lloyd graciously signed for me, that I wished I’d talked with him about his remarkable… show more.