Success is often measured by what we see on the outside. But, of course, rich and miserable isn’t much of a goal. The same is true for being passionate and living in a storage closet. Success is a big prize you can better score with a blend of rewarding attributes. It’s a combination of a position of power, the ability to make an impact, and a sense of purpose. These 10 powerful books put those goals at your fingertips.
They’ll help open your mind, inspire better habits, build more wealth, sharpen your negotiation skills, embrace change, make better choices, and get the inspiration to pursue your goal all the way to the winner’s circle.
10 Books to Help You Be More Successful
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For Determination
1. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
If you want to know what a real path to success looks like, you’ll find it in Phil Knight’s story. It’s one that began with sheer determination. Knight made a deal to import Onitsuka Tiger running shoes from Japan that grossed his company, Blue Ribbon, $8,000 his first year. It led to founding the Nike brand, which, 60 years later, is an absolute behemoth.
His detailed account of the twists and turns offers valuable lessons, from needing to feel an attachment with the product you’re selling to remembering anything can be learned (“I had no idea how to run a factory,” he writes of the decision to open Nike’s first, “but I was willing to try. I was willing to learn.”) Bill Gates calls the book, “a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like: messy, precarious, and riddled with mistakes, endless struggles and sacrifice.” Knight even discusses coming back from the edge of bankruptcy on several occasions.
A takeaway: “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”
On Negotiation
2. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss
You may have the best product and be the best person to deliver it—now put the best deal-making power in your hands. Based on research on emotional intelligence and cognitive bias, former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss arms you with the tools you need. The key? Negotiating with people, not against them. He explains how doing an “accusation audit” (calling out the other person’s negative perceptions of you) can diffuse a problem; how getting someone to say a “calibrated no” will make them feel more in control; how proposing odd numbers seems to make people believe you’ve reached your bottom line; and how writing your best-case goal down helps you from falling victim to your own BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), which might be the lowest cash offer you already have. “Never be so sure of what you want,” writes Voss, “that you wouldn’t take something better.”
A takeaway: “The goal is to identify what your counterparts actually need (monetarily, emotionally, or otherwise) and get them feeling safe enough to talk and talk and talk some more about what they want.” Courtesy image On Critical Thinking
3. Principles: Life & Work by Ray Dalio
Mark Cuban calls this book by billionaire hedge fund investor Ray Dalio “a bible.” Dalio shares what led to his rise from his middle-class Long Island upbringing to founding Bridgewater Associates investment firm that’s made more money for its clients than any hedge fund in history. And with it, he provides a framework for how to evaluate opportunities and make better decisions yourself by sticking to a set of principles that will protect you from flawed thinking. Dalio built his company culture around this, he says with “an idea meritocracy” that is based on radical open-mindedness and transparency. By identifying your own weaknesses and opening your mind to differing opinions, you are able to make rational choices rather than emotional ones. “Evaluate accurately, not kindly” writes Dalio of making successful decisions. Follow his principles and you can, too.
A takeaway: “Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones.” Courtesy image On Productivity
4. The 5am Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life by Robin Sharma
Apple CEO Tim Cook famously wakes at 3:45 am. Author Robin Sharma suggests joining the ranks of the highest-level performers like these by waking early yourself for a “victory hour” first thing in the morning during the time of least distraction, when your brain’s prefrontal cortex (that does all the analyzing and worrying for you) is temporarily shut down. He proposes waking at 5 a.m. and following a 20/20/20 formula: Spend 20 minutes exercising to lower cortisol and accelerate the formation of neural connections; 20 minutes reflecting, by mediating or planning; and 20 minutes learning, reading, or studying to help you grow. Also vital to the plan: Banning electronic devices in the bedroom so your screens don’t keep you awake at night, and your work messages aren’t the first thing you check as soon as you wake up. Rest, wake, then start your day with energy and purpose.
A takeaway: “The soreness of growth is so much less expensive than the devastating costs of regret.” Courtesy image On Leadership
5. Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle
The late Bill Campbell was a Jedi master in management methodology who coached some of the biggest tech players in Silicon Valley—including at Apple and Google in their rise. He was a college football player turned college football coach who transformed his career by going into business in his forties and quickly climbing the ladder. And though he passed away in 2016, more than 80 people who knew him share what they learned. Campbell, for example, was a proponent of bringing your whole self to work, believing that humanizing one another gets the most out of the team. And he knew the power of really listening to people and encouraging autonomy—which is why a manager telling Intuit engineer what features to build in a product made him furious. (“Tell them what problem the consumer has,” Campbell said, “then let them figure out the features.”) And he kept his eyes open for employees on the bench, perhaps not speaking up in meetings, whose talent deserved a chance to flourish.
A takeaway: “Work the team, then the problem.” Courtesy image On Habits
6. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Whether you’re trying to meditate, train for an Ironman, or launch your side hustle, Clear’s book can help you develop the good habits that will get you there. His advice is based on studies that show most of our behavior follows a predictable pattern of cue, craving, response, reward (as in: see the cake; imagine tasting it; devour it; feel glorious for a few short seconds). Clear walks you through how to work with the four laws of behavior change by making what you want obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying (as in: replace the cake with fruit; make it visible, cleaned, and ready to eat; feel healthy; be proud of yourself.) And if you make a chart marking off every day you follow the desired habit, you can watch your small changes lead to big success.
A takeaway: “Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.” Courtesy image On Wealth
7. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by M.J. DeMarco
Like Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad for a new generation, author M.J. DeMarco aims to shake up old-school thinking about money. Yes, he says, you can “get rich slow” using the default template for success: Get a job, invest in your 401K, and spend frugally. But this is his pep talk on moving from a mediocrity mindset to a wealth one much faster. The secret is similar to what Tim Ferriss outlined in The 4-Hour Workweek: Detach the hours you work from the money you earn by creating a path to passive income, or what DeMarco calls “a real, living fruit-bearing money tree.” The way to do that, he says, is by thinking like a producer. Instead of consuming products you want, study them: the packaging, the messaging, the feeling that makes you want it. Then learn from that and use it yourself.
A takeaway: “Stop thinking about business in terms of your selfish desires, whether it’s money, dreams or ‘do what you love.’ Instead, chase needs, problems, pain points, service deficiencies, and emotions.” Courtesy image On Change
8. Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change by Beth Comstock
As post-pandemic life continues to shift where and how we work, Comstock’s guide to mastering change is more relevant than ever. In Imagine It Forward, she shares what she learned about innovation through three decades of working at GE and media giants including NBC and CBS. Among her practical advice: Don’t be held back by bureaucratic bottlenecks and “gatekeepers” who see divergent thinking as a threat and try to hold onto the power they have. Pull in forward thinkers and change agents who think differently than you. Have an uncompromising faith in experimentation and talk about your new ideas to people—because the more you do, the clearer it becomes. And rather than letting time or budget constraints hamper you, allow them to fuel your creativity instead.
A takeaway: “A spark is a person, usually an outsider, whose unique perspective—the more different, the better—challenges the team to think differently.” Courtesy image On Character
9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
This classic has sold 40 million copies for a reason. It’s a guide for aligning your goals with your actions to build integrity, character, and success. The book is worth it alone for his “put first things first” idea, in which Covey explains how tasks fit into one of four quadrants ranging from “urgent and important” down to “not urgent and not important”—and how most of us spend the most time on the latter that we should either delegate or eliminate altogether. Covey also believes in beginning with the end in mind (offering a funeral exercise to identify how you want to be remembered), in having an abundance mentality over a scarcity one, and practicing real listening with an intention to understand rather than reply. Learning to be both independently and interdependently effective is his secret to success.
A takeaway: “Until a person can say deeply and honestly, ‘I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,’ that person cannot say, ‘I choose otherwise.’ ” Courtesy image On Purpose
10. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s book has become a primer on pursuing your purpose through responsible business practices. His compelling account follows how the avid rock climber turned his small business selling alpinist equipment into a $3 billion success and one of the most environmentally conscientious companies on earth (the ownership of which he recently transferred to a trust dedicated to protecting land combatting climate change). And he did it by making unconventional choices. Not only did he encourage his employees to live rich, full lives (“We run a flexible workplace,” he writes, “and we have ever since we were a blacksmith shop that shut down whenever the waves were six feet, hot and glassy”), but he stayed true to his values of sustainability, like when he made the decision to produce his sportswear from 100% organic cotton. “Every time we’ve elected to do the right thing,” he writes, “it’s turned out to be more profitable.”
A takeaway: “In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture and the philosophies remain constant.” Courtesy image
