The World's Best Book Summaries
Why did you start your business? Are you clear on your purpose? Business startups already have a ton of unknowns. Your business’s purpose shouldn’t be one of them. When you’re clear about the reason you started your business, you’ll be more fulfilled and motivated to stick with it—and your chances of success will go up. Keep reading to learn more about getting clarity on your business’s purpose.
When it comes to business success, do you need both hard work and luck? What mindset should you have toward these factors? In The Unfair Advantage, authors Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba discuss the role of hard work and luck in business. They contend that you must simultaneously believe that hard work pays off and acknowledge that luck can be the difference between success and failure. They offer advice on how to balance these two beliefs. Continue reading to learn Ali and Kubba’s views on hard work and luck in business.
Do your employees lack ambition? How can you light a fire under them and get them motivated and engaged? Some employees just don’t care. They show up and do the bare minimum. As a result, the workplace mood and your bottom line suffer. This is what Stage 2 culture is like. The book Tribal Leadership helps you understand this stage and shows you how to cultivate individual ambition in your team so that it can progress to Stage 3 culture. Keep reading for Tribal Leadership advice on how to deal with disengaged employees.
Is confidence the key to success, or is it overrated? How should you treat yourself when you fail? In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker contends that confidence can cause you to attempt things beyond your ability, ultimately leading to failure. He believes you should trade confidence for self-compassion. Be realistic about your abilities, and be kind to yourself when achievements are beyond your grasp. Barker says that self-compassion is a superior way to get what confidence offers: a better mood and increased performance. Continue reading to learn how to be compassionate to yourself, especially in the workplace.
Does kindness have a place in the office? How can you be kind without being taken advantage of? Conventional advice regarding success contradicts itself in its recommendations surrounding kindness. Some people argue that being nice is for chumps, while others argue that being nice will get you far. So who’s right? According to peak performance expert Eric Barker, they all are. You can be both kind and successful—but you have to be smart about it. Here’s how to practice kindness in the workplace while keeping people from walking all over you.
Is your organization rife with ladder-climbing sharks? Are people working together or against each other? According to Tribal Leadership, Stage 3 is the most common work culture, and it’s where most professionals spend much of their careers. Stage 3 features shark-like competition, office politics, and high-powered professionals striving to dominate their workplaces. Authors Dave Logan, Halee Fischer-Wright, and John King explain how to determine whether your organization is in Stage 3 and how to progress to Stage 4. Keep reading to understand unhealthy competition in the workplace and to learn how to move your organization beyond it.
Why are there so many different rules regarding success? Is there only one way to succeed? In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, peak performance expert Eric Barker explains that the key is often not whether the path to success is right but whether it’s right for you. Therefore, an essential key to success is to know yourself and act accordingly. Different things work for different people, so he outlines a way to figure out what type of person you are (your working style) and what you’re good at (your strengths). Keep reading for Barker’s advice on how to find your
What’s Stage 4 culture? What do cohesive teams have in common? How do you create one? According to Tribal Leadership, any organization succeeds or fails on the culture of its tribes—groups of individuals that share ways of thinking, interacting, and working—and we can improve our organizations by upgrading the cultures of those tribes, progressing from one stage to the next. Stage 4 culture involves a cohesive team. Tribal Leadership outlines three characteristics of cohesive teams and three strategies for building one. Keep reading to learn these characteristics and strategies for how to build a cohesive team in your organization.
What’s The Almanack of Naval Ravikant about? What are some of the book’s quotes that give insight into the overall message? Many everyday people strive for wealth and happiness, but most of us struggle along the way and very few seem to achieve both. Still fewer share their insights about how to get there. Entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Naval Ravikant has become known for doing this online, via Twitter, podcasts, interviews, and blog posts. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a collection of those insights on wealth and happiness compiled by business blogger Eric Jorgenson. We’ve pulled together several The
What’s Barking Up the Wrong Tree about? What quotes from the book capture its essence? It’s hard to tell what the key to success is when so much success advice is contradictory. Some say you should be kind, while others say that being nice is for losers. Some believe you should spend every waking hour at work, while others advise you to focus on work-life balance. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, peak performance expert Eric Barker examines the research on every option—and shares what he believes are the secrets to success. Keep reading for some of our favorite Barking