Connecting the Dots by John Chambers is an excellent dive into his mind. I read a bit each day and just that impact made me feel like I was learning something new each day. The authenticity and the 1 on 1 kind of approach of the book feels like you are talkign with your Wise Advocate, who is teachign yo to ignore the dross and look at the 'pattern'.

I really enjoyed the near personal conversation it felt like you were having with John Chambers as you read, "Connecting the Dots". John does an amazing job of breaking down the book into four sections that any leader, not just in business can use to help build a legacy of their own and enrich the people that work with and for them.

CONNECTING THE DOTS by John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, is described as intending to provide advice and strategies for winning in a digital world, where "the ability to reinvent not only your company but yourself is the critical skill for every leader." Chambers focuses on business situations and notes for Cisco "four key strengths: an ability to anticipate and get ahead of market transitions, innovation processes that could be replicated at scale, a strong culture that was focused on customers, and a network architecture that gave us incredible flexibility to innovate and move into new markets." Offering advice on how to achieve and maintain strengths like those is a difficult task. Chambers, who also worked at IBM and Wang, has certainly had a successful career. However, this text could have been much shorter and more focused or perhaps re-written as a biography since it starts out (and spends considerable time) with his childhood in West Virginia and the values he learned there.

This book was very personal and insightful. I appreciated the author's first-hand account of taking Cisco from good to great. For everyone working in tech startup industry, there are many good pointers from the book.