Dressing, Reading, and Listening for Success

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I see that Brooks Brothers has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a result of changing tastes in business apparel aggravated by the Covid-19 lockdowns.  I’m reminded of something in Father, Son, & Co by long-time IBM CEO Tom Watson Jr.  (The best business autobiography I’ve ever read)

One of the many people mentioned by Watson in the book is a slightly older executive named Al Williams..much admired by Watson for the way he had worked his way up from a rough background in a coal-mining town to a high executive position at IBM.  When Watson asked him how he had done it–how he got so smooth, he seemed like a graduate of Yale–Williams said that his self-improvement program had three fundamental elements:

–buy suits at Brooks Brothers
–read the classics
–listen to classical music

(He also played tennis for an hour a day)

I wonder what an equivalent program might look like in the year 2020?  The Brooks Brothers element seems pretty much negated by that company’s financial results, although there are surely differences from industry to industry.  But what would be the present-day equivalents of reading the classics and listening to classical music?

Watching videos of TED talks, perhaps?

What is to be done? a quiet, fast, revolution

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Imagine a wheel. At the top, collectives — at the bottom, individuals.
That wheel must be made to revolve. Why? For all who value exploration, curiosity, imagination, wonder, venture, challenge, integrity. There are many of us. We will turn the wheel. Here’s how: We will tell stories of a new world, listen for adventures, share them, invest in the best of them, and from each we will draw power to turn the wheel. We will weave patterns of thought and action inspiring networks that change expectations. We will design for emergence, limit control, manifest strengths, live in freeorder. This is what is to be done.