How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs


Guy Raz - 2020
    Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).   Award-winning journalist and NPR host Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea, to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their own dreams a reality.

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive


Noah J. Goldstein - 2008
    But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.Cowritten by the world's most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader. Why did a sign pointing out the problem of vandalism in the Petrified Forest National Park actually increase the theft of pieces of petrified wood? Why did sales of jam multiply tenfold when consumers were offered many fewer flavors? Why did people prefer a Mercedes immediately after giving reasons why they prefer a BMW? What simple message on cards left in hotel rooms greatly increased the number of people who behaved in environmentally friendly ways?Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little-known but proven wisdom.Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, or sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.

Speak with Impact: How to Command the Room and Influence Others


Allison Shapira - 2018
    Find your powerful voice, and step into leadership. Speak with impact. Every day, you have an opportunity to use your voice to have a positive impact -- at work or in your community. You can inspire and persuade your audience -- or you can distract and put them to sleep.Presentation styles where leaders are nervous, ramble, and robotic can ruin a talk on even the most critical topics. As your performances become weak, your career prosects start to dim. To get ahead and make an impact, you need to deliver well-crafted messages with confidence and authenticity. You must?sound?as capable as you are.Public speaking is a skill, not a talent. With the right guidance, anyone can be a powerful speaker. Written by former opera singer turned CEO and TEDx speaker Allison Shapira, Speak with Impact unravels the mysteries of commanding attention in any setting, professional or personal.Whether it's speaking up at a meeting, presenting to clients, or talking to large groups, this book's easy-to-use frameworks, examples and exercises will help you:Engage your audience through storytelling and humorUse breathing techniques to overcome stage frightStrengthen and project your voice by banishing filler words/uptalkUse effective body language and build your executive presenceCompose a clear message and deliver confident, authentic presentationsLearn to conquer fear, capture attention, motivate action, and take charge of your career with?Speak with Impact.

The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level


Gay Hendricks - 2009
    Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.

What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done


Matt Perman - 2012
    It’s about getting the right things done—the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. In our current era of massive overload, this is harder than ever before. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity?When we take God’s purposes into account, a revolutionary insight emerges. Surprisingly, we see that the way to be productive is to put others first—to make the welfare of other people our motive and criteria in determining what to do (what’s best next). As both the Scriptures and the best business thinkers show, generosity is the key to unlocking our productivity. It is also the key to finding meaning and fulfillment in our work.What’s Best Next offers a practical approach for improving your productivity in all areas of life. It will help you better understand:• Why good works are not just rare and special things like going to Africa, but anything you do in faith even tying your shoes.• How to create a mission statement for your life that actually works.• How to delegate to people in a way that actually empowers them.• How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you.• How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day.• How your work and life can transform the world socially, economically, and spiritually, and connect to God’s global purposes.By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God’s purposes and plan, What’s Best Next will give you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do.

Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, And Build a Successful Business


Pat Flynn - 2019
    How many likes? How many purchases? How many email subscribers?But as entrepreneurs, we have to remember that there are people behind all that data. People who are looking to us to be a leader, to give advice, and to care. They are looking for trustworthy tools and resources, and for someone to help them to achieve their goals. In this dog-eat-dog world, these are the people who are looking for someone who they can trust, and who they know have their best interests in mind.These are the people, if you connect with them in the right way, who will become Superfans.Followers may "like" an Instagram post. Customers may buy a product. But "Superfans" will be your biggest supporters. They will promote you and your products because they know you have made a difference in their lives. They will tell their friends. They will send you encouraging emails. They will connect with you and your other fans.Whether you're a shy YouTuber just starting out, or the leader of a Fortune 500 company, your superfans are out there waiting for you to connect with them. You just need to create that journey, to pave the yellow-brick road that will guide them surely and steadily to superfandom.You don't need to change the entire world to build a successful business; you just need to change someone's world.People don't become superfans the moment they find you. They become superfans because of the magical moments you create for them over time.This book will help you do just that.

The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking


Dale Carnegie - 1962
    Now streamlined and updated, the book that has literally put millions on the highway to greater accomplishment and success can show you how to have maximum impact as a speaker--every day, and in every situation that demands winning others over to your point of view.

Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business


Gino Wickman - 2015
    Integrators make those ideas a reality. This explosive combination is the key to getting everything you want out of your business. It worked for Disney. It worked for McDonald’s. It worked for Ford. It can work for you.From the author of the bestselling Traction, Rocket Fuel details the integral roles of the Visionary and Integrator and explains how an effective relationship between the two can help your business thrive. Offering advice to help Visionary-minded and Integrator-minded individuals find one another, Rocket Fuel also features assessments so you’re able to determine whether you’re a Visionary or an Integrator.Without an Integrator, a Visionary is far less likely to succeed long-term ,and realize the company’s ultimate goals—likewise, with no Visionary, an Integrator can’t rise to his or her full potential. When these two people come together to share their natural talents and innate skill sets, it’s like rocket fuel—they have the power to reach new heights for virtually any company or organization.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It


Chris Voss - 2016
    Never Split the Difference takes you inside his world of high-stakes negotiations, revealing the nine key principles that helped Voss and his colleagues succeed when it mattered the most – when people’s lives were at stake.Rooted in the real-life experiences of an intelligence professional at the top of his game, Never Split the Difference will give you the competitive edge in any discussion.

How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk


Bruce Kasanoff - 2014
    Thanks to Bruce Kasanoff’s engaging writing and sage advice, this is an enjoyable book that’s full of new ideas to put into action immediately." -- Adam Grant, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Give and Take Do you feel uncomfortable blowing your own horn? Do you struggle to get your fair share of attention? If either is true, this little gem of a book is for you. It provides you with quick and effective tips on the most appropriate ways to make a name for yourself in our hyper-connected world. The book is organized around the author's "Simplify Your Future" framework for managing your career and life: Be generous and expert, trustworthy and clear, open-minded and adaptable, persistent and present.

How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It


Mark Cuban - 2011
    Using the greatest material from his popular Blog Maverick, he has collected and updated his postings on business and life to provide a catalog of insider knowledge on what it takes to become a thriving entrepreneur. Cuban tells his own rags-to-riches story of how he went from selling powdered milk and sleeping on friends' couches to owning his own company and becoming a multi-billion dollar success story. His unconventional yet highly effective ideas on how to build a successful business offer entrepreneurs at any stage of their careers a huge edge over their competitors.

Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth


Mika Brzezinski - 2011
    In "Knowing Your Value," bestselling author Mika Brzezinski takes an in-depth look at how women today achieve their deserved recognition and financial worth. Prompted by her own experience as co-host of "Morning Joe, " Mika interviews a number of prominent women across a wide range of industries on their experience moving up in their fields. Mika reveals how these women, including such impresarios as White House star Valerie Jarrett, comedian Susie Essman, writer and director Nora Ephron, Facebook 's Sheryl Sandberg, and broadcaster Joy Behar, navigated the inevitable roadblocks that are unique to women. Mika also uncovers what men think about the approach women take in the workplace, getting honest answers from Donnie Deutsch, Jack Welch, Donald Trump, and others about why women are paid less, and what pitfalls women face and play into as they try to get their worth at work." Knowing Your Value" blends these personal stories and opinions with the latest research and polling on issues such as equal pay, women in the boardroom, and access to start-up capital. Written in Mika 's brutally honest, funny, and self-deprecating style, "Knowing Your Value" is a vital book for professional women of all ages.

Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want


Martha N. Beck - 2011
    It’s a journey to the thing that so fulfills you that, if someone told you, “It’s right outside—but watch out—it could kill you!” you’d run straight toward it, through the screen door without even opening it. Life coach and bestselling author of Finding Your Own North Star Martha Beck guides you to find out how you got to where you are now and what you should do next with clear, concrete instructions on tapping into the deep, wordless knowledge you carry in your body and soul. There are certain people who sense that they are called to do something fulfilling and significant, but who often get caught in self-destructive, unproductive cycles. This is the book that will lead you to unleash your incredible creative energy—and fulfill your life’s purpose.With her inimitable ability to translate inner life into accessible, witty, sparkling prose, Beck draws from ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace their skills and create the life they really want. What she’s found is that these people with great passion, empathy, and creative potential often sense a higher calling—in a society where that calling isn’t even recognized as real. They often have within them a quiet power that could change the world; they lack only the tools. Beck offers real, actionable methods to tap into that power. She shows how to find your inner identity and your external “tribe” of like-minded people. She demonstrates the four simple tools for transformation: Wordlessness, Oneness, Imagination, and Creation. With clear step-by-step instructions and guided reflections, Beck shows how to drop into the wordless state of communion with nature and self, how to experience for yourself the oneness between yourself and the universe, how to be empowered by the spark of inspiration, and, finally, how to take action and realize creative potential to make a lasting impact on the world.Compassionate and inspirational, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is a revolutionary journey of self-discovery that leads to miraculous change.***From Finding Your Way in a Wild New World:The mother rhino paws nervously, and I feel the impact tremor in the ground beneath my own feet. She is huge. She is nervous. She could kill me as easily as I clip my fingernails. But my mind is filled only with wonder, distilled into two basic questions.Question 1: How the hell did I get here?Question 2: What the hell should I do now?Both issues seem equally mysterious. . . . But it all seems to clear now— it was my true nature that brought me face to face with a rhinoceros. . . . I’m finding out what it feels like to reclaim my true nature. It’s one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever experienced. And, because ecstasy loves company, I want you to experience it too. The wild new world of the twenty-first century is the perfect setting for reclaiming your true nature. And your life will work much, much better if you let it direct your choices. It will bring you freedom, peace, and delight; give you the optimal chance of making a good living; and help you create the best possible effect on everything around you. I’m not certain exactly how it will play out in your case, but here’s what I do know: it’s time you met your rhinoceros.

The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life


Brad Stulberg - 2019
    

How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don't Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up


Emilie Wapnick - 2017
    While seemingly harmless, the question has unintended consequences. It can make you feel like you need to choose one job, one passion, one thing to be about. Guess what? You don't.Having a lot of different interests, projects and curiosities doesn't make you a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none." Your endless curiosity doesn't mean you are broken or flaky. What you are is a multipotentialite: someone with many interests and creative pursuits. And that is actually your biggest strength.How to Be Everything helps you channel your diverse passions and skills to work for you. Based on her popular TED talk, "Why some of us don't have one true calling", Emilie Wapnick flips the script on conventional career advice. Instead of suggesting that you specialize, choose a niche or accumulate 10,000 hours of practice in a single area, Wapnick provides a practical framework for building a sustainable life around ALL of your passions.You'll discover:•  Why your multipotentiality is your biggest strength, especially in today's uncertain job market.•  How to make a living and structure your work if you have many skills and interests.•  How to focus on multiple projects and make progress on all of them.•  How to handle common insecurities such as the fear of not being the best, the guilt associated with losing interest in something you used to love and the challenge of explaining "what you do" to others. Not fitting neatly into a box can be a beautiful thing. How to Be Everything teaches you how to design a life, at any age and stage of your career, that allows you to be fully you, and find the kind of work you'll love.