I started writing summaries of business books from my parents’ basement. It was 2009, the recession was rolling at full speed, and I was licking my wounds from a failed business venture. My business had been wildly successful, and then disastrously unsuccessful, and I was struggling to explain to myself what had gone wrong.
I made a promise to myself: I would read one business book a week for a year, and I would put into practice at least one concept from each book. I knew I wouldn’t catapult to instant success overnight, so I focused on small, manageable, personal changes.
Writing the summaries and posting them online was a way to hold myself accountable to the changes I wanted to make. I started telling friends and family, hoping they would hold me accountable to my goals. Quickly, an interested and engaged community started to form around the ideas and actions stemming from the books I was reading. It turns out, there were many people out there, just like me, who wanted to take the theoretical concepts they were reading, and make them actionable in their day to day lives. The community started to attract team leaders and business consultants, and a business was born.
Today, we are celebrating the publication of 1000 summaries!! Actionable.co now has over 20 staff members spread across several continents. This is an exciting milestone that I am excited to share with such a smart, dedicated, and creative group of people.
I started out trying to improve myself, and quickly learned that my concerns were universal. Research shows that the vast majority of people are disengaged from their work. And yet, most people crave meaning and engagement—we spend too much time at work to simply check out, punch a clock, and go through the motions.
Alongside the team here at Actionable, I’m on a mission to improve the world of work. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with many incredible people with the same mission. I hope that you will join us in the years to come.
