The World's Best Book Summaries
What is an alter ego? Why does Todd Herman recommend creating one? In The Alter Ego Effect, athletic performance coach and leadership advisor Todd Herman reveals the trick that many professional athletes use to bring their A-game when it matters: adopting an alter ego. By doing this, you consciously decide which of your existing talents and skills to use to excel in your life. Keep reading to learn more about alter egos and when you need one.
What is the key to staying in the moment? What are the benefits of living in the present? In his book Keep Going, Austin Kleon says that to have a healthy creative process, you need to stay in the moment. His advice can also apply to anyone outside of the creative field. Learn how to stay in the moment by following Kleon’s three guidelines.
Are women conditioned to suppress their true identities? How does society feed into this problem? How can we make a change? Glennon Doyle’s Untamed shows how the author freed herself from the captivity of society’s expectations. The Untamed book offers insight on the issues of parenting, spirituality, empowering women, rejecting patriarchy and oppression, feminism, and sexuality. Read our overview of Glennon Doyle’s Untamed to find out Doyle’s advice for changing your life and living according to your own rules.
Why do most people give up trading? Is trading really that hard as it’s made out to be? What does it take to become a successful trader? One of the keys to achieving success in trading is simply a matter of trading a lot. Provided you have a sound strategy, over time you’ll become more adept at reading market patterns and predicting what happens next with ever-increasing accuracy. Here’s how to achieve success in trading.
What are the best quotes from The Alchemist? How can these quotes help you understand the messages of the book better? In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho teaches us, through the story of a shepherd boy who has the courage to follow his dreams, the power of transformation for our lives. To date, The Alchemist, published in 1988, is Coelho’s best-known work, and it was an international bestseller. Below are some of the top quotes from The Alchemist with analysis.
Does your company culture need improvement? If so, where should you start? What practical steps can you take to make lasting change? In the book What You Do Is Who You Are, Ben Horowitz shares three cultural leadership lessons taken from the story of Shaka Senghor. Senghor demonstrated transformational leadership when he served in prison. Horowitz discusses three lessons from Senghor’s story: take advantage of teachable moments, start necessary changes from the top, and meet daily to model changes. Keep reading to learn how to improve company culture.
What are the core economic assumptions? Do the current economic assumptions align with the ultimate goal of economics? According to Kate Raworth, economics has developed some core assumptions about human nature, what an economy exists to do, and what the social science of economics is meant to achieve. According to her, if the economy is to better serve humanity’s needs, these core assumptions need to change. Here’s why the traditional economic assumptions are flawed, according to Raworth.
What’s the difference between external and internal power? What kind of power is authentic? How can you get it? According to Gary Zukav, authentic power is internal power. In The Seat of the Soul, he explains that our spiritual souls are constrained by our material bodies. So, we tend to pursue external rather than internal power. Only the authentic, internal power can help our souls live out their purpose. Let’s take a closer look at Zukav’s view of authentic power.
How can companies encourage innovative thinking? What can you, as a leader, do to inspire creative ideation that translates into a useful innovation? According to Safi Bahcall, the author of Loonshots, companies focused on innovation should separate innovators from implementers. This is because innovation tends to occur in a climate that’s highly unstructured. Successful implementation, however, needs order and structure. Here’s how to encourage innovation in your organization.
In what ways are the traditional project management methods flawed? How does the Scrum method overcome those flaws? In his book Scrum, Jeff Sutherland compares the Scrum method to more traditional management methods, such as the Waterfall method. Sutherland points out that these traditional methods don’t work well because they’re based on unrealistic optimism, whereas the Scrum method is based on flexibility and reality. Let’s take a look at Scrum vs. traditional project management methods.