What I'm Reading - 4/13/25

Apr 13, 2025

After two weeks of travel and business meetings, I was in desperate need of a chill weekend to rest and catch up. It’s also Master’s weekend, one of my favorite events of the year. I assure you a few golf naps were had.

On Friday night, I started reading “There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift” by Kevin Evers of the Harvard Business Review. It’s a look at Taylor Swift’s career, her business decisions, and the evolutions she had to make along the way. I found it fascinating as a Swiftie and an entrepreneur. Here are the themes from the many things I highlighted:

Reinvention is a strategy, not a crisis.
Taylor Swift’s creative rebirths every few years aren’t flukes—they’re deliberate overhauls designed to keep her art and audience evolving. It made me think about the natural rhythm of transformation in our own careers—especially when your work is in the public eye or constantly shifting terrain.
Authenticity requires energy.
There’s a myth that being “yourself” is effortless—but as Jeff Bezos noted, it takes serious stamina to maintain distinctiveness. Swift’s success lies in showing up consistently and generously, while staying tethered to a fiercely calibrated internal compass.
Stories that engage opposition are more powerful than those that ignore it.
In a polarized world, Taylor doesn’t just sing to the choir—she engages with tension, contradiction, and backlash. This reminded me of how organizations (and individuals) must navigate the reputation vs. reality gap, not by avoiding conflict, but by storytelling with strategic empathy.
Strategic innovation often begins where others see risk.
From pioneering MySpace promotion to redefining what a pop star sounds like during a pandemic, Swift saw opportunity where others saw constraints. That mindset—of questioning assumptions and experimenting with form—is a north star for anyone trying to lead, create, or disrupt.
Your catalog is your legacy—and your power.
Swift’s Eras Tour isn’t just a victory lap. It’s a reclamation, a reflection, and a reintegration. Her full body of work became a story only she could tell, which made me think about how we honor our past work while also allowing space to evolve.

I highly recommend the book! I hope you have a lovely Sunday.

What I’m Reading

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