Kevin Bell

Book Highlights - Frankl, Fathers, Traction

By Kevin Bell (1)


This is one of those books that you hear talked about EVERYWHERE. Millions of copies sold over the last several decades and It felt like it was following me around from book to book with how many other authors reference it. Rightfully so. It's incredible.

I first started ​Man's Search For Meaning​ By Viktor Frankl with the audio book about a year ago, as I would drive into work in the morning... But It just wasn't doing it for me then. The narrators voice was so soothing that it was almost putting me to sleep as I drove. I found myself zoning out and missing key parts. I decided that I needed to read the physical copy of this one.

Fast forward a year and dozens of other books that have been opened and read since then, I am finally getting around to reading this amazing work of art. This is also partly due to the fact that I really want to read ​Dietrich Mateschitz: Wings for People and Ideas: Red Bull and Viktor Frankl’s search for meaning​ about the founder of Red Bull and it would only make sense to read ​Man's Search For Meaning​ first.

With that said, most of my reading this week has been with ​Man's Search For Meaning​.


Books Of The Week

​- ​Man's Search For Meaning​ By Viktor Frankl ​- The Intentional Father​ By Jon Tyson


frankl

  1. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him —mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.
  2. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.
  3. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
  4. The prisoner who had lost faith in the future his future-was doomed.He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how

intentional father

  1. Being a father is one of the most sacred responsibilities a man can have.
  2. The intentional father is deeply invested in discovering who his children are and how he can help them reach their redemptive potential. He seeks to understand the children God has given him and wants to form them into young persons who can fulfill their purpose. He sees parenting as central to his call before God and does it with all of his might. This kind of father leaves multigenerational blessings in the lives of his children.

traction

  1. Traction is basically quantitative evidence of customer demand. So if you’re in enterprise software, [initial traction] may be two or three early customers who are paying a bit; if you’re in consumer software the bar might be as high as hundreds of thousands of users.
  2. Traction is growth. The pursuit of traction is what defines a startup.
  3. Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don’t have a good distribution strategy. Even worse is when they insist that they don't need one, or call [their] no distribution strategy a “viral marketing strategy.”

Until next time...

Readers are leaders,

kevin sig