For small business owners who are looking for some inspiration, or maybe just a good entertaining read that you can tell yourself is for work, here are our top three books on career success.
How Successful People Think by John C Maxwell
This one is a short read of about 100 pages, based on Maxwell’s previous book, Thinking for a Change. you’ll be guided through Maxwell’s “11 secrets successful people know” in easy to digest bullet points.
We found this book entertaining and interesting to read the first time around, but it was more valuable on second reading, when it can be used to examine the way you think and make practical changes.
Overall, we found this book easy to read through quickly and understand the concepts, with a wealth of easily actionable advice to work through and implement.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey
The idea of a simple method that will offer a profound mental paradigm shift and change the reader’s life is something of a holy grail in the “self-help book” space, and there are many titles offering exactly that. They also often come with a title offering a short list of less than ten “things”. Nevertheless, we were persuaded to give this one a go, mostly because it’s one of the most famous and best-selling books to attempt this trick.
It's unusual for a career-success manual, in that it takes a holistic approach, suggesting principles that the reader is advised to live by in their personal and professional life, the aim being that they will become more secure, wise and adaptable, and therefore will be better placed to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Managing Up by Mary Abbajay
You might think a guide to managing your boss is a strange thing to recommend to someone who’s building their own business, but we found this to be an invaluable resource for managers.
If your business has employees, this guide will help you to be more aware of how your behaviour impacts those you’re leading. If you’re working on your own at the moment, these insights can also be applied to client relationships and networking opportunities.
We found it an easy and entertaining read, with valuable insights to help you navigate the corporate world.
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