The Week in Review #5

Another week flies by and we are already done with the first week of February. I am very happy to have included at least 2 – 3 hours of reading per day into my schedule this year. By putting time on your calendar to actively take the time out to read is one of the best investments you can make in yourself!

How to Struggle (Well) Umair Haq continues to write well about life and our journey. Lots of his pieces in the Harvard Business Review have been ear marked to reflect on when I am finding inspiration. This piece written on the value of struggle was another good one.

Are Élite Colleges Bad for the Soul? The entire institution of higher learning is coming under threat. Personally I believe that the 4 year college program does very little to prepare students for the world that they are going to enter. There is also very little emphasis on self development and students are expected to comply with set standard to ensure good grades. This article provides a detailed view on the state of higher education, particularly in the elite colleges of the world.

Zappos is bringing Uber-like surge pay to the workplace This was a very interesting article on how Zappos is experimenting with the concept of surge pay for it’s call center staff during high volume periods. There are concerns that this goes against the very values that hold Zappos together. It will be interesting to see the results of this experiment.

How Stripe Marketed to Developers So Effectively Stripe has been one of the runaway success stories coming out of Y Combinator. The article provides an in depth analysis of their growth as well as their marketing strategies. Lots of great takeaways.

From 0 to $1B – Slack’s Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy Slack is part of the batch of companies that experience exponential growth from the onset. In a market which had several competitors and very similar products, their growth has left many people stumped. This article provides some insight into how they launched their company to achieve the level of the growth they currently have.

What I Learned About Life After Interviewing 80 Highly Successful People If you didn’t subscribed to the James Altucher pod cast in 2014, I highly recommend that you put it on the list this year. There are some great interviews and almost every interview will leave you with some tangible bit of advice you can use. This post summarizes the first 80 interviews and what he learned from interviewing some of the most successful people in the world.

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!