Brian Armstrong

Co-founder & CEO at @Coinbase Co-founder @GiveCrypto Building an open financial system for the world. Join us: https://t.co/Thnz1LlZw8

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Book Recommendations:

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Recommended by Brian Armstrong

Having trouble explaining COVID19 to your little ones? The Big Thing is a children's book about finding the silver lining in these trying times. Grab a copy on Amazon or read for free online. https://t.co/MBSDdbZA7A (makes a great gift too) (from X)

This is the magical, affirming story of brave Bea, as she learns about the coronavirus pandemic. With the help of her family, teacher, and friends, Bea discovers how to find the silver linings in the crisis and see the positives. 25 pages of vibrant illustrations and uplifting messages for all ages, completed by a team of writers, illustrators and translators from China, USA, Europe, Uruguay, and Nicaragua. As with the global effort to tackle COVID-19, this book exemplifies the communal spirit required to heal through hard times. All proceeds from the sale of The Big Thing will go to COVID-19 charities.

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Recommended by Brian Armstrong

I read an early copy of @bhorowitz's new book about company cultures, and thought it was great! Check it out: https://t.co/9RRcPI2qbs (from X)

Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and from modern organizational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. Ben Horowitz has long been fascinated by history, and particularly by how people behave differently than you’d expect. The time and circumstances in which they were raised often shapes them―yet a few leaders have managed to shape their times. In What You Do Is Who You Are, he turns his attention to a question crucial to every organization: how do you create and sustain the culture you want? To Horowitz, culture is how a company makes decisions. It is the set of assumptions employees use to resolve everyday problems: should I stay at the Red Roof Inn, or the Four Seasons? Should we discuss the color of this product for five minutes or thirty hours? If culture is not purposeful, it will be an accident or a mistake. What You Do Is Who You Are explains how to make your culture purposeful by spotlighting four models of leadership and culture-building―the leader of the only successful slave revolt, Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture; the Samurai, who ruled Japan for seven hundred years and shaped modern Japanese culture; Genghis Khan, who built the world’s largest empire; and Shaka Senghor, a man convicted of murder who ran the most formidable prison gang in the yard and ultimately transformed prison culture. Horowitz connects these leadership examples to modern case-studies, including how Louverture’s cultural techniques were applied (or should have been) by Reed Hastings at Netflix, Travis Kalanick at Uber, and Hillary Clinton, and how Genghis Khan’s vision of cultural inclusiveness has parallels in the work of Don Thompson, the first African-American CEO of McDonalds, and of Maggie Wilderotter, the CEO who led Frontier Communications. Horowitz then offers guidance to help any company understand its own strategy and build a successful culture. What You Do Is Who You Are is a journey through culture, from ancient to modern. Along the way, it answers a question fundamental to any organization: who are we? How do people talk about us when we’re not around? How do we treat our customers? Are we there for people in a pinch? Can we be trusted? Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say in company-wide meeting. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. Who you are is what you do. This book aims to help you do the things you need to become the kind of leader you want to be―and others want to follow.

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Recommended by Brian Armstrong

Matt has demystified growing a company by breaking it down into simple steps. These are the essentials that every company should implement to operate more effectively. (from Amazon)

The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building book cover

by Matt Mochary, Alex Maccaw, Misha Talavera·You?

Matt Mochary coaches the CEOs of many of the fastest-scaling technology companies in Silicon Valley. With The Great CEO Within, he shares his highly effective leadership and business-operating tools with any CEO or manager in the world. Learn how to efficiently scale your business from startup to corporation by implementing a system of accountability, effective problem-solving, and transparent feedback. Becoming a great CEO requires training. For a founding CEO, there is precious little time to complete that training, especially at the helm of a rapidly growing company. Now you have the guidance you need in one book.