Career Advice for Uniquely Ambitious People: A decision-making guide for uncommon success


Eric Jorgenson - 2018
    It's not likely to be advice you'll hear from anyone else. It is only about an hour to read, but the concepts will ring in your ears for years. [From the Book's Introduction] Many people have been incredibly generous to me throughout the first decade of my career. To return that good karma, I try to pay it forward… to be open and available for people who ask me for insight or advice or just have questions about where to go next. I find myself having many conversations about career decisions. Recently, many of these conversations have repeating many of the same pieces of advice. Over the years I’ve gotten enough positive feedback that publishing these thoughts seems worthwhile. After our conversations I’m often told that this advice was unique, counterintuitive, and valuable. That is a high compliment. And if more people would think the same, then I should put these thought somewhere more scalable and accessible. So, I’ve written them down here.

The Real Deal: My Story from Brick Lane to Dragons' Den


James Caan - 2008
    Armed with this advice, natural charm and the Yellow Pages, he built a market-leading business with a turnover of £130 million and swiftly became one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs.From Caan's childhood as a Pakistani immigrant to the phenomenal success of his first company and beyond, The Real Deal traces both his financial and personal achievements. It offers a frank account of what success at thirty really signifies and brings us right up to the present, including his impact on Dragons' Den and what his charity work, from saving a hospital in London to building a school in Lahore, means to him. Ultimately, it is a story of learning what money is really worth, told by one the country's most insightful businessmen.

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done


Jon Acuff - 2017
    I’ve started a million things, but I never finish them. Why can’t I finish?According to studies, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. You’ve practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals. For years, I thought my problem was that I didn’t try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly. Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off. Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We’re our own worst critics, and if it looks like we’re not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That’s why we’re most likely to quit on day two, “the day after perfect”—when our results almost always underper­form our aspirations. The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they’re based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more suc­cessful just by following a few simple principles. If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.

The Whuffie Factor: The 5 Keys for Maxing Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities


Tara Hunt - 2008
    Everyone knows about blogs and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and has heard about someone who has used them to grow a huge customer base. Everyone wants to be hands-on, grassroots, and interactive, but what does this mean? And more to the point, how do you do it?As one who has actually launched a company using the power of online communities, and who now advises large and small companies, Tara Hunt (named by the San Francisco Chronicle, along with luminaries Jimmy Wales and Tim O’Reilly, as a digital Utopian) is the perfect person to do this book.While The Whuffie Factor will traverse the landscape of Web 2.0 and show how to become a player, it is not just another book about online marketing. People see the huge business potential of the online world and the first impulse is: Let’s throw a bunch of money at it. To which Tara Hunt says: “Stop! Money isn’t the capital of choice in online communities, it is whuffie–social capital–and how to raise it is at the heart of this book.” In the Web 2.0 world, market capital flows from having high social capital. Without whuffie you lose your connections and any recommendations you make will be seen as spam–met with negative reactions and a loss of social capital.The Whuffie Factor provides businesspeople with a strategic map and specific tactics for the constantly evolving, elusive, and, to some, strange world of on­line communities. By connecting with your customers through community interaction, you’ll raise your social capital, create demand, and sell more product. Consumer loyalty is a direct result of whuffie. With great stories of online business successes and cautionary tales of major missteps–recording industry, anyone?–Tara Hunt reveals how social networking has more influence over buying decisions than any other marketing tool and how your business can tap into the vast world of Web 2.0 to build an unshakable foundation for twenty-first-century-style online success.For those without millions–even thousands–to throw around, here is a fresh perspective for using social networks to help build a business whether you are a start-up or a Fortune 500 giant. Even those in big rich companies need to learn how to be effective and not waste their money. For them–as well as the entrepreneur–The Whuffie Factor is an eye-opening guide to a world they probably don’t understand all that well.

Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World


Stuart Diamond - 2010
     Based on more than 20 years of research and practice among 30,000 people in 45 countries, Getting More concludes that finding and valuing the other party s emotions and perceptions creates far more value than the conventional wisdom of power and logic. It is intended to provide better agreements for everyone no matter what they negotiate from jobs to kids to billion dollar deals to shopping. The book, a "New York Times "bestseller and #1 "Wall Street Journal "business best seller, is based on Professor Stuart Diamond s award-winning course at the Wharton Business School, where the course has been the most popular over 13 years. It challenges the conventional wisdom on every page, from win-win to BATNA to rationality to the use of power. Companies have made billions of dollars so far using his new model and parents have gotten their 4-year-olds to willingly brush their teeth and go to bed. Prof. Diamond draws from his experience as a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at The New York Times, Harvard-trained attorney, Wharton MBA, U.N. Consultant in many countries and manager and executive in many sectors, including technology, agriculture, medical services, finance, energy and aviation. The ROI from reading "Getting "More will make it the best investment you make this year, says Rhys Dekle, the business development head of the Microsoft Games division, which produces X-Box. He added that the book was his team s best investment of the year too. The model was also used to quickly solve the 2008 Hollywood Writer s Strike. The advice is addressed through the insightful stories of more than 400 people who have used Prof. Diamond s tools with great success: A 20% savings on an item already on sale. An extra $300 million profit in a business. A woman from India getting out of her own arranged marriage. Better relationships with the family, including teenagers. Raises at work. Better jobs. Dealing with emotional situations. Meeting one s goals. Finding better things to trade. Solving cultural and political problems, sports conflicts, and ordinary arguments. The book is intended to be used in any situation. The most common response is life changing, beginning on page one. The most inspirational book I have read this year said David Simon, an attorney in San Francisco, CA. This book can change the world, says Craig Silverman, Investment Advisor, Long Island, NY"

Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy


Clate Mask - 2010
    They are struggling just to keep their businesses running, let alone actually growing their companies and experiencing the success they anticipated.Conquer the Chaos speaks to you as a small business owner by making sense of the overwhelming demands on your business and providing a twenty-first century recipe for success with sanity. With engaging stories, quotes, and examples, Conquer the Chaos leads you through the six strategies you can incorporate to bring order to your business today. Find the money, time, and freedom in entrepreneurship that inspired you in the first placeSuccessfully juggle customers, prospects, management of employees, marketing, sales, accounting, and more Get from just surviving to growing your company and experiencing success Conquer the Chaos gives you the no-nonsense, ready-to-go guide that gets your business exactly where you want it to be.

Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life


Ozan Varol - 2020
    A former rocket scientist reveals the habits, ideas, and strategies that will empower you to turn the seemingly impossible into the possible. Rocket science is often celebrated as the ultimate triumph of technology. But it's not. Rather, it's the apex of a certain thought process -- a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It's the same thought process that enabled Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind, that allows spacecraft to travel millions of miles through outer space and land on a precise spot, and that brings us closer to colonizing other planets. Fortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to think like one. In this accessible and practical book, Ozan Varol reveals nine simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life -- whether it's landing your dream job, accelerating your business, learning a new skill, or creating the next breakthrough product. Today, thinking like a rocket scientist is a necessity. We all encounter complex and unfamiliar problems in our lives. Those who can tackle these problems -- without clear guidelines and with the clock ticking -- enjoy an extraordinary advantage. Think Like a Rocket Scientist will inspire you to take your own moonshot and enable you to achieve liftoff.

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention


Reed Hastings - 2020
    It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people in over 190 countries. But to reach these great heights, Netflix, which launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service, has had to reinvent itself over and over again. This type of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning. Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility, one that has allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have simultaneously transformed.Hastings set new standards, valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. At Netflix, there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix, adequate performance gets a generous severance, and hard work is irrel-evant. At Netflix, you don't try to please your boss, you give candid feedback instead. At Netflix, employees don't need approval, and the company pays top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles, the implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period, their methods led to unparalleled speed and boldness, as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the world.Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world's most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings's own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world's most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

"Headhunter" Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!


Skip Freeman - 2010
    And be advised: Those who are the best prepared to effectively compete in today’s still dynamic job market will have the best chance to be hired for one of these new jobs.Here is another factor to consider in today’s job market: According to LinkedIn, up to 50% of currently employed men and women say they are interested in exploring new career opportunities. Altogether, then, it is estimated that as many as 70 million people are now (or soon will be) competing for a finite number of available jobs.If you count yourself among those who want to explore new career opportunities in today's expanding job market, are you adequately prepared to successfully compete? If not, top professional "headhunter" and best-selling job-hunting book author Skip Freeman can show you how to get prepared and land the job of your dreams!In "Headhunter” Hiring Secrets, Skip shows you how you can adopt and implement the time-tested tactics and strategies he has successfuly used for over a decade in his executive recruiting firm, The HTW (Hire to Win) Group, to turn your job search into a job found!Attesting to the effectiveness of his firm's approach and candidate coaching & preparation is this fact: Whenever candidates The HTW Group presents to hiring company clients go up against candidates either going it alone or being presented by other recruiting firms, The HTW Group candidates walk away with the job offer SEVEN out of TEN times! Using an easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, Skip shows you how to . . . Avoid the “shadows on the wall” syndrome (saying or doing something during an interview that makes the hiring manager uneasy about your candidacy). ”Lead the Witness,” i.e., the hiring manager, to take the interview in the direction you desire. Ask questions Superstars ask during a job interview. Answer tricky “Gotcha!” questions, e.g., “Tell me about yourself.” “How do you get along with your current boss?” “Why should I hire you?” Close the interview on a high note, making sure you not only stand out from the competition, but also that you stay in the game! And much, much more!Also prominently featured in ”Headhunter” Hiring Secrets are time-tested examples of . . . Job-winning resumes. Targeted, effective cover letters. A wide variety of telephone scripts that actually work. Direct mail letters to use in campaigns.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance


Angela Duckworth - 2016
    Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.

Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook To Generate Leads, Build Relationships, And Dramatically Increase Your Sales


Josh Turner - 2015
    We go to networking events, meet associates for coffee, or maybe even email prospective clients, but it’s never quite enough. The challenge that faces us, and the problem with these activities, is that they don’t scale. The number of people you need to need to meet in order to advance your business, build your influence, and fill the top of your sales funnel is simply too many to handle. This book contains the solution. In Connect, Josh Turner lays out a step-by-step process to meet and connect with the people that matter to your business at scale. The techniques contained in these pages will teach you to use new tools and marketing channels to build relationships without being confined by time.

300 Email Marketing Tips: Critical Advice And Strategy To Turn Subscribers Into Buyers & Grow A Six-Figure Business With Email


Meera Kothand - 2019
    You sit down every week staring at that blinking cursor wondering what to send your email list, and then a week becomes two or more, and you can’t remember when the last time you emailed them was.2. You have an opt-in incentive or lead magnet that’s pretty much doing nothing for you or your business.3. You have a haphazardly thrown together email sequence that doesn’t bring you sales or engagement.4. You silently cringe every month as you pay out your email service provider because you’re not using any of their features.5. You’re pretty much winging it with email. If you’re nodding yes, 300 Email Marketing Tips will give you more than a bare-bones framework to put in place an email marketing strategy for your business.The premise of this book isn’t about growing a big fat email list.  Email marketing is NOT list building alone.  You need a coherent, holistic strategy to be successful at it. Here’s what’s packed in this how-to guide: What branding has to do with email marketing and the #1 thing most solopreneurs ignore when it comes to their email list 7 things your welcome email must do (but probably doesn’t!) Why your lead magnet has to address THESE two critical points  3 ways to plan your email editorial calendar Answers to the questions           I have thirty thousand page views a month but get only forty-two subscribers for             an month. What am I doing wrong?(See section 3 for the answer.)          - My email sequence gets a lot of engagement and opens. Everyone says they           love my stuff, but I still get no sales for my e-book. Why?(See section 5 for the           answer.)            - I have a sequence of emails set up in my evergreen funnel, but I’m not getting             any sales. Is my product terrible? Should I just scrap it altogether? (See             section 7 for the answer.) Rather than flit from week to week wondering what to email your list...Imagine creating an email strategy that enables you to take the weekend off and still see your list grow, rake in testimonials, and make sales.

Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End


Rosabeth Moss Kanter - 2004
    . . and stay that way. Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again? There’s a fundamental principle at work–confidence–that makes the difference between winning and losing in any competition, be it a high school basketball game or a high-stakes business situation. In Confidence, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter shows why organizations of all types may be brimming with talent but not be winners. Based on her extraordinary investigation of success and failure in companies such as Continental Airlines and Verizon and sports teams such as the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, as well as the arenas of education, health care, and politics, Kanter explores a new theory and practice of success and provides people in leadership positions with a prescriptive program for maintaining a winning streak or turning around a downward spiral. Packed with brilliant, practical ideas, Confidence provides fresh thinking about success in all facets of life—from the factors that can make or break corporations and governments to the keys for successful relationships in the workplace or at home.

Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message


Tara Mohr - 2014
    Mohr’s work helping women play bigger has earned acclaim from the likes of Maria Shriver and Jillian Michaels, and has been featured on the Today show, CNN, and a host of other media outlets.   Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In gave many women new awareness about what kinds of changes they need to make to become more successful; yet most women need help implementing them. In the tradition of Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly, Playing Big provides real, practical tools to help women quiet self-doubt, identify their callings, “unhook” from praise and criticism, unlearn counterproductive good girl habits, and begin taking bold action.   While not all women aspire to end up in the corner office, every woman aspires to something. Playing Big fills a major gap among women’s career books; it isn’t just for corporate women. The book offers tools to help every woman play bigger—whether she’s an executive, community volunteer, artist, or stay-at-home mom.   Thousands of women across the country have been transformed by Mohr’s program, and now this book makes the ideas and practices available to everyone who is ready to play big.

Thinking Like a Boss: Uncover and Overcome the Lies Holding You Back from Success


Kate Crocco - 2020
    Maybe you feel the pull to start a business but deep down you're afraid that you don't have what it takes. Maybe you have a great idea but wonder if you're actually qualified to make it happen. Or maybe you want to expand your business, but you're worried about how it will affect your family. If that's you, it's time to start thinking like a boss.In this practical and encouraging book, Kate Crocco exposes the 12 limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your true potential, such as- I should have it all together and I don't- I'm not ready or qualified to start- I don't have enough time- It's already been done before- and moreWith plenty of inspiring true stories and actionable steps you can take--starting now--Thinking Like a Boss will help you turn your limiting beliefs into limitless opportunity.