Obvious Adams

The Story of a Successful Business Man

By: Robert Updegrafft

Narrated by: Don Amodio

Published in 1916, this story is over a hundred years old, yet its message is just as relevant today as it was in 1916. Perhaps even more so.

Why? Because never in the history of our society have we had greater access to information yet at the same time we’ve never been more deficient in common sense.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy believed this book changed his life and was so passionate about its message that he had his employees read it every year.

I’ve consumed the book a dozen times, and each time I pick up a new insight or piece of wisdom from it. It’s less a book about advertising, or even about Adams himself, as much as it’s a book about the power of mindset.

I encourage you to listen and re-listen to this book a dozen times, too. I can realistically promise you that you’ll glean some new wisdom from Obvious Adams each time you listen again.

Public Domain (P)2019 John Brubaker

A continual relevance in an overly complicated world

how seeing the world in simple ways is very helpful in communicating ideas, solutions, technologies, and how they all interplay. Sometimes people's choice to overly complicate a concept to appear intelligent or seem the better choice can just be a game of "spec-manship" that is unsustainable. Finding ways to simplify the concept is a greater challenge, and the consumer can feel better for the effort we made to simplify it for them.

Simple and Relatable

This book is an easy and quick read but is full of simple wisdom. Definitely worth reading... and of course, re-reading.

Good listen

this is a great book to remind us to look at the obvious, don't make everything so hard.

Simply obvious.

Sometimes we know things or see things and don't even realize it until someone points them out. They are so obvious that we don't think about them. Obvious Adams is an excellent example of mindfulness: he considers everything in the present and in his presence, including the things that are obviously overlooked by everyone else even though they are, or should be, aware of them. Very revealing and enlightening.