Books To Change Your Life And Your Business

Books are such a great source of knowledge and when you find the right books that interest you, you become an overflowing fountain, spilling over with great ideas and stimulated on to do good stuff whether at home or at work. Getting to the end of a great book and being topped back up with ideas and enthusiasm is almost like a drug for me now; books have become addictive in a good way.

These are just the highlights of my book reading over the past months and years, my top few because if I list any more, you may feel a little overwhelmed of which one to pick first. Of course your reading list will be different to mine, but these are my top-notch selection for now. I may not have even read the best book of my life as yet, who knows, maybe you can recommend one.

3 books to change your life

1. Choose the life you want by Tal Ben-Shahar is a simple book to make you think. Packed full of the possible choices you can make in your life and what doing the opposite will bring you, it’s a great way to realize that perhaps there is a better way to be you. One to keep and read several times over your life to make sure you are the track you want to be. Pick it up and put it down, or read it straight through.

2. The start-up of you by Reid Hoffman takes you through a thought process about developing the brand of you. The light bulb moment for me from this book was that I didn’t have to build a multi million-dollar company to be successful; it could just be me, the start-up of me and maturing beyond.

3. How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie is always high up on my list of all time classics for interacting with others. In my view, this book should be a staple in all schools across the globe because if children were taught Dale’s principles, I think the world would be a much friendlier place. Always keep a copy of this book through your life and revisit it often.

4 books to change your business

1. The E-Myth revisited by Michael Gerber has been around for many years as simply The E-Myth but like many great books, updated versions are required to take into account how we do business in the present day. Told as a fable, it’s again a very easy to read and extremely enlightening book on why people start businesses and why the majority find it tough. When you realize we all fit into 3 different categories it’s easy to see just which one you are and what you need to do to survive.

2. Contagious by Jonah Berger is filled with great examples about why things have caught on, what has made them so special that millions of people have shared with others and how can you do the same. Hoping that something goes viral is not a strategy for doing so, there is a science behind it and Jonah reveals all.

3. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini is a great follow up book to read after Dale Carnegies bestseller above. It’s not about manipulation, more about just getting the best result you can from a meeting or sale or interaction by getting the required 'yes’.

4. Made to stick by Chip and Dan Heath is a fascinating read again packed with real life stories. So what makes an urban legend stick, and some real life stories forgettable? How did some of our greatest movies get massive budgets to proceed when there was virtually no information available? How do newspapers get you to read on from the headline? Get the book and find out.