CEO Diaries: Bozoma Saint John on Growing Through Grief & Leading with Purpose

Alex Banayan writes that success is like a nightclub with three doors: The first is the main entrance, through which you enter by working hard and playing by the rules. The line to this door is crowded and moves slowly. The second door is reserved for billionaires and celebrities and is off-limits to ordinary people. In The Third Door, he focuses on the last option—the door that allows regular folk to skip the line, find hidden opportunities, and think outside the box. He argues it’s the best—and really, only—route to getting ahead of the crowd.

Banayan interviews successful people from a wide range of fields to discover what insights, tricks, and motivations helped them find their unique paths to success. In this guide, we’ll review major themes he came across in his interviews, and we’ll explore how the insights he gleaned compare to theories of success from other thinkers.

You have a unique talent you were born to master, but knowing how to reach your creative and professional goals is not always easy. In The 5 AM Club, Robin Sharma explains how to discover your inner genius and maximize your abilities by adopting an early morning routine that activates your creative and productive potential. Your daily “Victory Hour” will enable you to narrow down your goals and reach them like a master. With this powerful tool you can become influential in your field and create a lasting impact on the world.

In Happy Sexy Millionaire, Steven Bartlett calls out the myth that you can find happiness, love, and wealth if you just follow three simple steps and a hack or two. Bartlett says the internet, social media, and algorithms have dazzled us into believing that we can have the perfect life if we just chase the “right” dreams—a lie that pulls us off the path of genuine contentment, meaning, and fulfillment.

Bartlett, a social media mogul and public speaker, was born in Botswana to a Nigerian mother and British father and raised in a predominantly white area in England. A university dropout, once so poor that he scavenged for food, Bartlett founded the successful internet company Social Chain at age 21 and was by all objective accounts “living the dream.” But when wealth and fame didn’t bring him happiness, Bartlett reevaluated his priorities. He wrote Happy Sexy Millionaire to warn against chasing false idols and encourage others to find contentment and success by being themselves and doing what has meaning to them.

Do you pride yourself on being the nicest guy in the world? Does your fear of disapproval lead you to people-please, avoid conflict, and repress parts of yourself? If this sounds like you, you might be what Dr. Robert Glover calls a Nice Guy. No More Mr. Nice Guy, by marriage and family psychotherapist Dr. Robert Glover, helps you understand and conquer the frustrating—and often manipulative—Nice Guy mindset so that you can become a fully realized and self-accepting “Ideal Man.”

This guide will explore the “Nice Guy” and the origins of his mindset, as well as the roadblocks that perpetuate his unproductive life approach and specific strategies to overcome them. We’ll also compare Glover’s work to various texts on masculinity and self-acceptance while integrating both scientific and historical research to support (or refute) his anecdotal findings.

Many people have lofty goals that they pine after but never achieve. As a result, they’re left feeling dissatisfied with their lives and critical of themselves. In Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman argues that you don’t fail to achieve your lofty goals because you’re incapable or uninspired; rather, you’re focused on the wrong things. Rather than clinging to unachievable dreams, striving for perfection, and fighting immovable obstacles, you need to embrace and work within your limitations.

In this guide, we’ll explore Burkeman’s four-step method to achieving success and happiness within the life you’ve been given—accepting your limitations, making progress toward your goals, releasing control, and focusing on the present moment. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Burkeman’s advice with insights on achieving success and happiness from other experts, like Mo Gawdat (That Little Voice in Your Head) and Matthew Dicks (Someday Is Today).

In This Is Marketing, entrepreneur and marketing expert Seth Godin challenges conventional marketing strategies. He argues that in today's media-saturated world, traditional marketing techniques are no longer effective. Instead, Godin emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with customers based on trust, authenticity, and empathy. Effective marketing, according to Godin, goes beyond mere sales and aims to bring about positive changes in people's lives.

In this guide, we’ll explain why Godin says old marketing techniques are no longer effective and outline his guiding principles for successful marketing in the modern age. We complement his suggestions with insights from his other books as well as those of other marketing experts such as Ryan Holiday (Perennial Seller), Byron Sharp (How Brands Grow), and Pat Flynn (Superfans).

If you have an idea to spread, Seth Godin believes you’re a marketer. All Marketers Are Liars offers a fresh take on marketing—one that focuses on connecting with your customer, rather than on catchy advertising jingles or gimmicks. Godin defines marketing as telling consumers a great story about your product, your political campaign, your job experience, or even just yourself. This book explores new marketing concepts that you can use to tell a better story in any area of your life.

In this guide, we’ll explore Godin’s ideas on marketing, authenticity, and telling a great story. We’ll also discuss how to understand your customer and common obstacles you’ll encounter in your marketing. Along the way, we’ll give context on his definitions and provide actionable tips from other marketing experts.

Never underestimate the power of a good story. In Stories That Stick, brand strategist Kindra Hall explains why stories are probably the answer to most of your business problems—from building a brand, to connecting with customers, or creating long-lasting impact. Whether you're an entrepreneur, marketer, or creative professional, this book will inspire you to harness the power of storytelling to communicate more effectively and bridge the gap between you and your audience. Drawing from examples of successful brands, Hall explains how storytelling can transform your marketing strategy and your business.

In this guide, we’ll discuss why stories are so powerful, explain what makes a good story, and introduce four core story models you can start using right away. We’ll also include prompts to help you build a stockpile of compelling stories. We’ll cite examples of companies using effective storytelling in their marketing and compare Hall’s advice with that of other marketing strategists like Daniel Pink (To Sell Is Human) and Seth Godin (All Marketers Are Liars).