# Reza Saeedi

> Growth strategist and advisor. 12+ years working inside early-stage companies and with 100+ startups. Advises founders and early teams on positioning, brand, growth, and go-to-market; coaches creators and mid-career professionals through their next move. Writes Open Loops every Thursday. Site: reza.so. Newsletter: Open Loops at letters.reza.so.

## Bookshelf

Books distilled into a personal take, core insights with key quotes, and how to apply them.

- [Bookshelf](https://reza.so/bookshelf/): Books that have shaped how I think, work, and live. Each one comes with my highlights and interpretation.
- [The Creative Act — Rick Rubin](https://reza.so/bookshelf/creative-act/): This book didn't teach me anything new.
- [The Courage To Be Disliked — Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-courage-to-be-disliked/): This book arrived at the right moment.
- [Letting Go: The Pathway To Surrender — David R. Hawkins](https://reza.so/bookshelf/letting-go/): I picked this up in a stretch of life where I had become very good at managing my feelings, and very bad at actually feeling them.
- [Tuesdays with Morrie — Mitch Albom](https://reza.so/bookshelf/tuesdays-with-morrie/): Albom's old sociology professor is dying of ALS.
- [The One Thing — Gary Keller and Jay Papasan](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-one-thing/): Most productivity books give you more to do.
- [How to Live — Derek Sivers](https://reza.so/bookshelf/how-to-live/): This is the book I keep returning to, and each pass teaches me something different.
- [Do The Work — Steven Pressfield](https://reza.so/bookshelf/do-the-work/): This book gave me a name for the thing that had been stopping me for years.
- [Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman](https://reza.so/bookshelf/thinking-fast-and-slow/): This book changed how I make decisions.
- [Four Thousand Weeks — Oliver Burkeman](https://reza.so/bookshelf/four-thousand-weeks/): This book hit me in the gut.
- [The Greatest Salesman in the World — Og Mandino](https://reza.so/bookshelf/greatest-salesman/): Don't let the title fool you.
- [Meditations — Marcus Aurelius](https://reza.so/bookshelf/meditations/): If someone asks me to recommend one book, this is it.
- [The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen Covey](https://reza.so/bookshelf/7-habits/): Most people know this book by reputation and assume they already know what's in it.
- [The Third Door — Alex Banayan](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-third-door/): I read this during a stretch where I kept waiting for the right moment to make moves.
- [As A Man Thinketh — James Allen](https://reza.so/bookshelf/as-a-man-thinketh/): This is one of those books that says in 30 pages what most self-help books take 300 to circle around.
- [High Output Management — Andrew S. Grove](https://reza.so/bookshelf/high-output-management/): Andrew Grove ran Intel through some of the most turbulent decades in tech history, and this book reads like someone distilled that entire experience into a manual for thinking clearly about work.
- [The Four Agreements — Don Miguel Ruiz](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-four-agreements/): This book hides a lot behind its New Age presentation.
- [Conversations with God — Neale Donald Walsch](https://reza.so/bookshelf/conversations-with-god/): The form of this book is strange enough that most people either bounce off it hard or surrender to it completely.
- [The Brand Gap — Marty Neumeier](https://reza.so/bookshelf/brand-gap/): I spent a decade getting paid to think about brand.
- [The Magic of Thinking Big — David J. Schwartz](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-magic-of-thinking-big/): This book reads like something your ambitious uncle would hand you at a family barbecue, and that might be why I almost didn't finish it.
- [Flow — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi](https://reza.so/bookshelf/flow/): Most books about happiness tell you what to pursue.
- [The Richest Man in Babylon — George S. Clason](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-richest-man-in-babylon/): There is something disarming about receiving financial wisdom from characters in ancient Babylon.
- [Purple Cow — Seth Godin](https://reza.so/bookshelf/purple-cow/): Seth Godin wrote this book in 2003 and somehow it's still the most concise case anyone has made for why playing it safe is the riskiest strategy there is.
- [Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor E. Frankl](https://reza.so/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/): This book split open a question I thought I'd already answered.
- [Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert B. Cialdini](https://reza.so/bookshelf/influence/): Most books about persuasion teach you how to sell.
- [The Almanack of Naval Ravikant — Eric Jorgenson](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-almanack-of-naval-ravikant/): This is less of a book and more of a compass.
- [Primed to Perform — Neel Doshi & Lindsay McGregor](https://reza.so/bookshelf/primed-to-perform/): A friend recommended this one, and I couldn't put it down.
- [Alchemy — Rory Sutherland](https://reza.so/bookshelf/alchemy/): Most books about business and marketing try to make things more logical.
- [Zero to One — Peter Thiel](https://reza.so/bookshelf/zero-to-one/): This is the book I wish someone had handed me before my first startup.
- [Leaders Eat Last — Simon Sinek](https://reza.so/bookshelf/leaders-eat-last/): I came to this book skeptical, because the title sounds like the kind of thing that gets quoted on a LinkedIn post and never thought about again.
- [Contagious: Why Things Catch On — Jonah Berger](https://reza.so/bookshelf/contagious/): For most of my career I've been the person founders ask "how do we grow this.
- [Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell](https://reza.so/bookshelf/outliers/): I went into Outliers thinking it'd be a fun pop-psych read about exceptional people.
- [Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality — Anthony de Mello](https://reza.so/bookshelf/awareness/): This book reads like someone grabbed you by the collar and said: you're asleep, and everything you call suffering is proof.
- [Anything You Want — Derek Sivers](https://reza.so/bookshelf/anything-you-want/): Derek Sivers built CD Baby by accident.
- [Linchpin — Seth Godin](https://reza.so/bookshelf/linchpin/): I picked this up while trying to get more efficient at work that, if I'm honest, almost anyone could have done.
- [The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Ben Horowitz](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things/): Most books on building tell you how to set the goal, hire the people, draw the org chart.
- [Leading — Alex Ferguson & Michael Moritz](https://reza.so/bookshelf/leading/): I didn't expect a football memoir to read like a management book, and that's exactly what makes this one land.
- [How To Love — Thich Nhat Hanh](https://reza.so/bookshelf/how-to-love/): I picked this up expecting a book about relationships and got a book about attention instead.
- [The Power of Your Subconscious Mind — Joseph Murphy](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-power-of-your-subconscious-mind/): This is an old book with a dated frame, heavy on prayer and affirmations and a bit repetitive, so I read it more for its one durable idea than for its packaging.
- [The Obstacle Is the Way — Ryan Holiday](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-obstacle-is-the-way/): It's easy to turn Stoicism into a personality where nothing gets to you and every setback becomes a chance to prove how tough you are.
- [The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck — Mark Manson](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-fuck/): The title makes this sound like a book about caring less.
- [Turning Pro — Steven Pressfield](https://reza.so/bookshelf/turning-pro/): I used to think the gap between wanting to make something and actually making it was mostly about time, talent, or the right plan.
- [Psycho-Cybernetics — Maxwell Maltz](https://reza.so/bookshelf/psycho-cybernetics/): Psycho-Cybernetics helped me see that lasting change is not only a matter of trying harder.
- [Storyworthy — Matthew Dicks](https://reza.so/bookshelf/storyworthy/): Storyworthy changed the way I look for stories.
- [The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-prophet/): Most books explain.
- [Nonviolent Communication — Marshall B. Rosenberg](https://reza.so/bookshelf/nonviolent-communication/): Most conflict changes shape when I stop asking who is right and start asking what each person is feeling and needing.
- [Marketing Rebellion — Mark Schaefer](https://reza.so/bookshelf/marketing-rebellion/): I keep returning to the distance between the marketing a company sends and the story a customer repeats.
- [How Brands Grow — Byron Sharp](https://reza.so/bookshelf/how-brands-grow/): How Brands Grow challenged how easily marketing teams confuse intensity with scale.
- [The Cold Start Problem — Andrew Chen](https://reza.so/bookshelf/the-cold-start-problem/): Network effects sound inevitable when we study companies after they have already reached scale.
- [Positioning — Al Ries & Jack Trout](https://reza.so/bookshelf/positioning/): Most companies describe themselves from the inside out: what they built, how it works, and why they believe it matters.

## Blog

Essays on clarity, growth, startups, work, thinking, relationships, and the choices that shape a life.

- [Blog](https://reza.so/blog/): Essays on clarity, growth, startups, work, thinking, relationships, and the choices that shape a life.
- [Aims over goals](https://reza.so/blog/aims/): Goals obsess over the finish line. Aims obsess over the path.
- [Accumulate failure](https://reza.so/blog/failure/): Your ceiling isn't set by talent. It's set by how much uncertainty you're willing to handle.
- [Enough](https://reza.so/blog/enough/): Stop building a kingdom you are too tired to inhabit.
- [Seeds](https://reza.so/blog/seeds/): Ten years from now, your future self will thank you for a seed you planted today.
- [Alignment](https://reza.so/blog/alignment/): You don't lack ambition. You lack alignment.
- [Give it space](https://reza.so/blog/space/): Life was never breaking down. It was building someone who could carry more.
- [Finite](https://reza.so/blog/finite/): Time keeps moving, even when you're not.
- [Not behind](https://reza.so/blog/not-behind/): You're just early in the chapter where it still hurts.
- [Return to yourself](https://reza.so/blog/return/): Your job isn't to become them. It's to return to them.
- [Second-order thinking](https://reza.so/blog/second-order-thinking/): Most people stop at the first consequence. Second-order thinking zooms out.
- [Build your stack](https://reza.so/blog/stack/): Most successful people aren't the best at anything. They're the only person with their particular combination.
- [Play](https://reza.so/blog/play/): Nobody can beat you at being you.
- [Change your mind](https://reza.so/blog/change-your-mind/): Intelligence isn't about being right initially. It's about being less wrong over time.
- [The paradox of desire](https://reza.so/blog/desire/): Your life is happening today. Not in some perfect future when everything finally works out.
- [Constraints](https://reza.so/blog/constraints/): Limitations aren't the enemy of creativity. They're the fuel.
- [Never enough](https://reza.so/blog/never-enough/): The better things get, the less satisfied we become.
- [Intersections](https://reza.so/blog/intersections/): Forget being the best. Be the only.
- [Tuesday evening](https://reza.so/blog/tuesday/): Sometimes the most valuable investment is as simple as clearing a Tuesday evening for friends.
- [Consistency](https://reza.so/blog/consistency/): Moments don't make legends. Consistency does.
- [35 questions I ask myself every year](https://reza.so/blog/reflection/): As 2024 comes to a close, it's the perfect time for a deeper look back.
- [The right people](https://reza.so/blog/people/): The biggest unlock in life isn't a new strategy or skill. It's the people around you.
- [Everything I know about fitness and nutrition](https://reza.so/blog/fitness-nutrition/): Key lessons on mindset, nutrition, training, recovery, and supplements.
- [Wisdom of nine decades](https://reza.so/blog/wisdom/): So much of what he said resonated with me. So much of it I knew, but had forgotten.
- [Work that matters](https://reza.so/blog/work-that-matters/): How much of your work is in alignment with your personal values?
- [Share it](https://reza.so/blog/share/): Your opinions, ideas and perspectives all matter. They're your contribution.
- [Fresh perspectives](https://reza.so/blog/perspectives/): Don't underestimate the power of fresh perspectives over years of experience.
- [What can't you resist?](https://reza.so/blog/resist/): The things you hate not doing are probably a few. And they're the ones worth pursuing.
- [Two mistakes](https://reza.so/blog/two-mistakes/): You can only make two mistakes along the way: not starting, and not going all the way.
- [Do it for you](https://reza.so/blog/for-you/): Before taking a shot at it, ask yourself, what if it took off?
- [Stay in your comfort zone](https://reza.so/blog/comfort-zone/): Cherish the place you have taken the time to get to.
- [Being and doing](https://reza.so/blog/being-doing/): Life has nothing to do with what you're doing and everything to do with what you're being.
- [Needing nothing](https://reza.so/blog/needing-nothing/): Needing nothing, attracts everything.
- [The real you](https://reza.so/blog/real-you/): The world needs more of you. The real you.
- [Done over perfect](https://reza.so/blog/deadlines/): Done is almost always, better than perfect.
- [Five minutes](https://reza.so/blog/five-minutes/): If working out for 45 minutes is too big of a commitment, how about 5 minutes?
- [Comparing is draining](https://reza.so/blog/comparing/): Focus on how you can beat yesterday. Your yesterday, not someone else's.
- [Embracing randomness](https://reza.so/blog/randomness/): The only way to get more clarity is through being open to randomness.
- [Mind input](https://reza.so/blog/mind-input/): You have control over your life, because you can choose that initial input: your thoughts.
- [Binary](https://reza.so/blog/binary/): It's easy to think the outcome of every situation should be binary.

## Pages

- [Home](https://reza.so/): Reza Saeedi grows ambitious people and companies through strategic advising and coaching.
- [Now](https://reza.so/now/): What I'm focused on right now.
- [Open Loops podcast](https://reza.so/podcast/): For the curious and the ambitious. Pulling on the threads of work, ambition, health, relationships, and what comes next.
- [Open Loops newsletter](https://reza.so/newsletter/): A weekly letter on growth, work, and the long game. Every Thursday.
- [Coaching](https://reza.so/coaching/): 1:1 coaching for people making their next move.
- [For Founders](https://reza.so/founders/): Strategic GTM advisory, marketing team mentorship, and launch sprints for seed and Series A founders.
- [Work with me](https://reza.so/work/): How to work together — coaching for professionals, advisory for founders.

## Newsletter archive

- [Open Loops](https://letters.reza.so)
- [Open Loops archive (Beehiiv)](https://letters.reza.so/archive)

## Profiles

- [https://instagram.com/rezadotso](https://instagram.com/rezadotso)
- [https://threads.net/@rezadotso](https://threads.net/@rezadotso)
- [https://linkedin.com/in/rezasaeedi](https://linkedin.com/in/rezasaeedi)
- [https://youtube.com/@rezadotso](https://youtube.com/@rezadotso)
- [https://x.com/rezadotso](https://x.com/rezadotso)
- [https://letters.reza.so](https://letters.reza.so)

## Optional

- [Full content corpus (llms-full.txt)](https://reza.so/llms-full.txt): Concatenated markdown of every bookshelf entry and blog post for direct LLM ingestion.