So much about management, marketing, and entrepreneurship centers around knowing your competitors and your client base. While understanding the layout of the field and the key players involved is crucial in reaching your goals, your attitude, outlook, and the daily practices you employ can easily undermine you. To help you keep ahead of the game, the following are 10 books which offer compelling insights, practical inspiration, and clear instructions to increase your chances for success.
1. Best Self: Be You, Only Better
Known as ‘Coach Mike’ to thousands of clients, best selling author Mike Bayer helps everyone from famous artists and athletes to top business executives unlock their unique potential. Best Self: Be You, Only Better outlines the seven spheres of life you need to focus on, with practical tips for uncovering the qualities that can hold you back from reaching your goals.
2. Take Control of Your Life: How to Silence Fear and Win the Mental Game
Mel Robbins is an internationally renowned author and motivational speaker whose TEDx Talk garnered more than 18 million views, making it one of the most successful of all time. In the follow up to her bestseller, The Five Second Rule, Robbins tackles the topic of fear, asserting that it is the single biggest obstacle for most people in achieving what they want out of life and their careers. Through funny anecdotes and immediate, practical takeaways, Take Control of Your Life provides a guide for finding your purpose and taking control of your life.
3. 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do
Based on a web post that went viral, 13 Thing Mentally Strong People Don’t Do (Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success) offers inspiring and affirmative tips for mastering mental strength and rooting out bad habits. Written by licensed social worker, psychotherapist, and psychology instructor Amy Morin, the book identifies common negative behaviors and how mentally strong people can avoid them. Through clear, concise instructions and practical examples, Morin helps readers embrace a more positive outlook, which can help overcome the personal and career obstacles we all face. Check out 7 Things Mentally Strong People Do for an alternate view.
4. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Named as one of the best books of the year by the Wall Street Journal, this instant classic from writer Charles Duhigg relies on extensive research in showing how habits are formed and how they can be changed or redirected. As a manual for living, The Power of Habit explains how to harness the power of positive habits and how to use that power to transform every aspect of life.
5. Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman is a bestselling author and Nobel laureate, known as a ‘guru to the gurus’ in terms of what makes people happy. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman shows how there are two types of thinking; fast and slow. He offers guidance on how to switch back and forth between them while avoiding the mental glitches that typically cloud the decision-making process. He also offers tips on tapping into your own intuition, transforming you from a mere follower into a thought leader.
6. The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
Writer Grant Cardone claims that in order to achieve what he calls ‘extreme success’ you have to take actions that lie outside the normal realm. He offers clear instructions and a practical step by step guide for setting intentions with The 10x Rule and how to push them towards fruition. The end result is to put you in charge of your life and career, eliminating any unrealistic reliance on luck or chance in determining your ultimate success.
7. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts
Brené Brown’s powerful, number one best selling book is based on her extensive research with some of the most successful leaders in a variety of businesses. Dare to Lead identifies and breaks down four specific skill sets that will help you be braver and bolder in going after and actually achieving the professional and personal life you want.
8. Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too
Author Gary Vaynerchuk knows something about success-he published four previous books all of which were listed on the New York Times bestseller list. In Crushing It!, Vaynerchuk uses case studies to illustrate points and gleans insights from entrepreneurs and leaders in different business fields, all of which broke the mold in building powerful brands and thriving successful businesses.
9. You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth
This funny, sassy book by best selling author Jen Sincero details her own experience and her transformation from being broke and living beyond her means to being successful in her business life as well as in her personal pursuits. The essays in You Are a Badass at Making Money provide a pick me up when you are needing motivation and provide clear, down to earth guidance in unlocking your career and earning potential.
10. Think and Grow Rich
Find out the secrets to getting ahead from some of the top leaders of the 20th century in Think and Grow Rich by best selling author Napoleon Hill. He skillfully guides you through each legendary story and identifies 17 principles for success that can help you enhance your productivity and leave your own mark on the world. This is the book that many of today’s top achievers credit with helping them build their own success.
Whether you are looking for insights, inspiration, or practical instructions on how to be successful in your business or marketing ventures, the above ten books should be at the top of your reading list. They offer proven strategies for eliminating bad habits and encouraging the kind of productive thoughts and actions that can help keep you ahead of the game.
