Encore

I finished reading "41" A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush.  This biography by a son who admires and adores his father chronicles the life of our 41st President and reflects on how he influenced said son who became the 43rd President.  George H. W. Bush was an amazing American who piloted torpedo bombers in WWII, graduated from Yale, founded his own Texas oil company, was a congressman from Texas, Ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador to China, Director of the C.I.A., Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Vice President to President Ronald Reagan, and finally President of the United States.  This book gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for George Bush Senior.

I also just finished reading Encore: Secrets of Serial Entrepreneurship by Derek Sauder.  Derek was hired in 2001 as Engineer #1 at Precision Planting in Tremont, his uncle Gregg's start-up planter attachment company.  Precision Planting grew rapidly to to become an international innovator and supplier in the planting (and harvesting) business, and was eventually purchased by Monsanto.  Derek helped create product designs that improved and revolutionized every category of planter performance.  He shares many lessons, antidotes, and theories on building a successful start-up business.  Having watched PP grow, having purchased and used many of their products, and personally knowing many of their engineers and employees, I found it a very interesting and informative read.

In 2011 Derek was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.  He wrote much of the book sitting in doctors offices and while getting and recovering from his treatments.  At the time of his death in June of 2014 at the age of 40, Derek held 31 patents.
And he was a graduate of the University of Illinois.

The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.
2 Chronicles 2:14