Book Summaries 2024

https://amzn.to/4bZGEDHEvery day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly.Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown PhD, MSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity.She writes: “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.”“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”

https://amzn.to/3KCuvJjIncentives send powerful signals that aim to influence behavior. But often there is a conflict between what we say and what we do in response to these incentives. The result: mixed signals.Consider the CEO who urges teamwork but designs incentives for individual success, who invites innovation but punishes failure, who emphasizes quality but pays for quantity.Employing real-world scenarios just like this to illustrate this everyday phenomenon, behavioral economist Uri Gneezy explains why incentives often fail and demonstrates how the right incentives can change behavior by aligning with signals for better results.Drawing on behavioral economics, game theory, psychology, and fieldwork, Gneezy outlines how to be incentive smart, designing rewards that are simple and effective.“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.”

https://amzn.to/3ytB11WAs endowments and fundraising campaigns have skyrocketed in recent decades, critics have attacked higher education for steeply increasing its production cost and price and the snowballing debt of students. In Wealth, Cost, and Price in American Higher Education, Bruce A. Kimball and Sarah M. Iler reveal how these trends began 150 years ago and why they have intensified in recent decades.In the late nineteenth century, American colleges and universities began fiercely competing to expand their revenue, wealth, and production cost in order to increase their quality and prestige and serve the soaring number of students.From that era through today, the rising wealth and cost of higher education have continued to reinforce each other and spiral upward, increasing the heavily subsidized price paid by students.Kimball and Iler explain the strategy and reasoning that drove this wealth-cost double helix, the new tactics in fundraising and endowment investing that fueled it, and economists' efforts to understand it.Using extensive archival, documentary, and quantitative research, Kimball and Iler trace the shifting public perception of higher education and its correlation with rising costs, stagnating wages, and explosive student debt.They show how stratification of wealth in higher education became tightly interwoven with wealth inequality in American society. This relationship raises fundamental questions about equity in US higher education and its contribution to social mobility and democracy.“If over the past three decades car prices had gone up as fast as tuition, the average new car would cost more than $80,000.”

https://amzn.to/3R0H9p4In a highlight reel, microwave world — we’re led to believe success is right around the corner.It’s not working.Not only is it not working with our ability to achieve our goals, we’ve never been more frustrated, stuck and unfulfilled.But what if there was a way to shut out the noise, fall in love with the process and take one step forward every single day — leading to an undeniable confidence as we paint our life’s masterpiece.Enter The 1% Rule — a daily system designed to help you close the gap without the crushing pressure that leads most people less inspired, and more stuck.“When you truly love who you’re becoming, you become unstoppable.”

https://amzn.to/3R2i5xEFear and greed are among the strongest motivators. They influence all our decisions.Every day, we see the lives of the fabulous and famous in the press, on TV, and on social media, and we envy them for their luxurious lifestyle. We want it all too!Games of Greed reveals how some of these people let greed get the better of them.This book connects the dots between the Panama Papers, Bernie Madoff, famous rough traders, and con artists like Nick Leeson, Jérôme Kerviel, Billy McFarland, and Jordan Belfort, the real Wolf of Wall Street.It reveals the excesses of Main Street and Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and even loafing Las Vegas—art heists, stock markets, bitcoins, and festival fraud.In this insightful book, Torsten Dennin demonstrates the pitfalls of greed through many examples of people who, like Icarus, flew too high and fell with catastrophic consequences.In the current day and age of increasing financial tensions and fewer planetary resources, his analysis of greed is both relevant and timely.“Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.”

https://amzn.to/4by3dPRGinni Rometty led one of the world's most iconic companies, and in Good Power she recounts her groundbreaking path from a challenging childhood to becoming the CEO of IBM and one of the world's most influential business leaders.With candor and depth, Rometty shares milestones from her life and career while redefining power as a way to drive meaningful change in positive ways for ourselves, our organizations, and for the many, not just the few—a concept she calls "good power."Rometty's "memoir with purpose" combines the experiences that defined her life—personal hurdles, high-stakes decisions, passionate advocacy—with the actionable advice of a coaching session to highlight lessons that shape authentic leadership.Behind-the-scenes stories and practical guidance offer us a blueprint for how we can all use good power to advance our careers, inspire our teams, improve our companies, and create healthier societies.The book begins with raw, vivid memories from Rometty's youth and early professional years as she recalls the trauma and the role models that formed her belief that how we lead is as important as what we achieve.She learns early on that good power is a choice available to everyone, even to those without money, status, or impressive titles.“Ginni Rometty delivers a powerful combination of memoir, leadership lessons, and big ideas on how we can all drive meaningful change.”

https://amzn.to/450CPvOMany of us spend our lives on autopilot: work, bills, chores, sleep, repeat, in a never-ending cycle. We live the life that others expect us to, and not the life we desire.In Best Version Ever: Discover the MAGIC of Becoming Extraordinary, Josh Painter provides an action-oriented and inspirational roadmap to escape the cycle of experiencing random motivational moments and then falling back into the same old routines.By following the M.A.G.I.C. formula (Mindset, Aim, Gameplan, Immersion, and Consistency), you’ll learn how to shift your thinking from negative to positive, identify and narrow down goals, and develop lifelong habits that will make your changes sustainable.While other personal development programs offer short-term progress, the M.A.G.I.C. formula focuses on meaningful, lasting change. Best Version Ever is a lifelong roadmap to help you become extraordinary.“What would you do if you had nothing holding you back?”

https://amzn.to/3VkNL44For twenty-five years Dan Lyons was a magazine writer at the top of his profession--until one Friday morning when he received a phone call: Poof. His job no longer existed. "I think they just want to hire younger people," his boss at Newsweek told him.Fifty years old and with a wife and two young kids, Dan was, in a word, screwed. Then an idea hit. Dan had long reported on Silicon Valley and the tech explosion. Why not join it? HubSpot, a Boston start-up, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. They offered Dan a pile of stock options for the vague role of "marketing fellow." What could go wrong?HubSpotters were true believers: They were making the world a better place ... by selling email spam. The office vibe was frat house meets cult compound: The party began at four thirty on Friday and lasted well into the night; "shower pods" became hook-up dens; a push-up club met at noon in the lobby, while nearby, in the "content factory," Nerf gun fights raged.Groups went on "walking meetings," and Dan's absentee boss sent cryptic emails about employees who had "graduated" (read: been fired). In the middle of all this was Dan, exactly twice the age of the average HubSpot employee, and literally old enough to be the father of most of his co-workers, sitting at his desk on his bouncy-ball "chair."“Maybe the best way to do something really innovative is to hire a bunch of young people who have no experience and therefore no preconceived notions about how to run a company.”

https://amzn.to/3R7srfWWouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes.Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of health span, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.“You should forget about diets, and focus instead on nutritional biochemistry.”

https://amzn.to/3V0DxV9Have you ever wished for a step-by-step guide to designing your life for financial freedom, lifestyle flexibility, and making a major impact? Do you want to go from being stuck and complacent to being courageous and capable of creating a business that offers you the time and financial freedom you never thought was possible?Amy Porterfield, host of the top-rated podcast Online Marketing Made Easy and an entrepreneur who built an 8-figure online business on her terms, shares her tried and true strategies, inspiring stories, and mindset shifts to help you achieve your goals.Amy reveals that you don’t need to know exactly what your business is going to be to get started. She provides tips to navigate the 5 most common boss traps, including self-sabotage and “superwoman syndrome.” Additionally, she shares how to use your 10 percent edge to build a foolproof marketing plan and the keys to set up your business to avoid trading your time for money.Amy believes that you can have more time, flexibility, recognition, income, and impact. She encourages you to believe in yourself and your potential. You’re capable of achieving more than you realize. With her guidance, you can take the first steps towards designing a life that aligns with your vision for the future.“Saying yes just means you believe in yourself—and your ability to build a business—just a little bit more than you don’t.”

https://amzn.to/3wYoenSIn the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable.In this groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.He describes the near-term benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman AI.He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage.If the predicted breakthroughs occur and superhuman AI emerges, we will have created entities far more powerful than ourselves.How can we ensure they never, ever, have power over us? Russell suggests that we can rebuild AI on a new foundation, according to which machines are designed to be inherently uncertain about the human preferences they are required to satisfy.“With AI tutors, the potential of each child, no matter how poor, can be realized. The cost per child would be negligible, and that child would live a far richer and more productive life.”

https://amzn.to/3VnlytmWhat made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, How Minds Change is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation.When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone’s mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own.But then a diehard 9/11 Truther’s conversion blew up his theories—inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, How Minds Change explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing.Told with McRaney’s trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it’s an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists, from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California—that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?An expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative, How Minds Change reaches surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, to demonstrate the rare but transformative circumstances under which minds can change.“If you really want to shift long-held beliefs, you have to listen.”

https://amzn.to/4aKQSH1Eli J. Finkel's insightful and ground-breaking investigation of marriage clearly shows that the best marriages today are better than the best marriages of earlier eras.Indeed, they are the best marriages the world has ever known. He presents his findings here for the first time in this lucid, inspiring guide to modern marital bliss.The All-or-Nothing Marriage reverse engineers fulfilling marriages—from the “traditional” to the utterly nontraditional—and shows how any marriage can be better.The primary function of marriage from 1620 to 1850 was food, shelter, and protection from violence; from 1850 to 1965, the purpose revolved around love and companionship. But today, a new kind of marriage has emerged, one oriented toward self-discover, self-esteem, and personal growth.Finkel combines cutting-edge scientific research with practical advice; he considers paths to better communication and responsiveness; he offers guidance on when to recalibrate our expectations; and he even introduces a set of must-try “lovehacks.”This is a book for the newlywed to the empty nester, for those thinking about getting married or remarried, and for anyone looking for illuminating advice that will make a real difference to getting the most out of marriage today.“When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.”

https://amzn.to/4bEKJNPHow is it that we are able to so radically and rapidly change our daily behavior in order to follow the social distancing and stay-at-home policies during the pandemic, and yet--pandemic or not--we typically find it difficult, if not impossible, to reach smaller personal goals like dieting, getting organized or changing destructive habits?The pandemic is life-threatening, so it ignites our survival instincts, activating that part of our brains charged with speedily and efficiently getting us to safety.But cholesterol, alcohol, and physical passivity are all life-threatening, and many of us humans have done a lousy job changing in regard to these issues, even when we have reliable information that they are killing us. Why do we struggle to change what would so obviously help ourselves individually?Ross Ellenhorn’s book, How we Change (and the Ten Reasons Why We Don’t) gives a fascinating answer. A clinician and thought leader in the mental health and addiction fields, he suggests that we’re often looking in the wrong direction when we try to decipher the factors that support human change.He suggests that it’s much more fruitful to look at why we don’t change, than figure out why we do. By looking at the reasons we don’t change, we give ourselves the best chance of actually changing in meaningful ways.“The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed a very big secret we’ve been keeping from ourselves and each other: We can be remarkably agile in the face of change.”

https://amzn.to/456AXBnA story explains who you are, what you want, and why it matters--better than any other communication tool in your arsenal.In this fully updated second edition, author and vibrant keynote speaker Annette Simmons teaches you how to narrate personal experiences as well as borrowed stories in a way that demonstrates authenticity, builds emotional connections, inspires perseverance, and stimulates the imagination.Whether you are leading a presentation, in a department meeting, or having lunch with a potential customer, you will learn how to relate a compelling story to the topic at hand and make an invaluable impact that could not be made otherwise.“The right story told at the right time has the power to persuade, promote empathy, and provoke action.”

https://amzn.to/4c1MGn4Trust is the fuel for all of life. We are wired biologically, neurologically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically to trust.Trust is the currency that drives every relationship, beginning with the foundational bond between infants and their mothers, extending to the trust networks that undergird every human endeavor – art, science, commerce – and binding together every relationship we have ever had or ever will have. Nothing in our world works without trust.It is tempting to think that trust is simple, that we should be able to spot a lack of trustworthiness relatively easily. But we all have our stories about misplaced trust. We either missed clear or subtle warning signs or there just were not any warning signs to see. Everything looked good on the surface, and maybe it was. But we got burned anyway.And sometimes we struggle to earn and keep the trust of those around us when trust bonds fail to form or are broken. When trust breaks down, so does our ability to move forward.Dr. Cloud explores the five foundational aspects of trust that must be present for any relationship to function successfully and helps us to understand how to implement them. He also guides us through the difficult process of repairing trust when it has been violated and broken, even when restoring trust feels impossible.Rich with wisdom drawn from decades of experience in clinical practice, business consulting and research, Trust is the ultimate resource for managing this most complex and fundamental of human bonds, allowing us to experience more fruitful and rewarding relationships in every area of our lives.“Understand and manage trust for successful relationships through five foundational aspects.”

https://amzn.to/3yKlPObYou might believe you’re thinking clearly in the moments that matter most. But in all likelihood, when the pressure is on, you won’t be thinking at all. And your subsequent actions will inevitably move you further from the results you ultimately seek—love, belonging, success, wealth, victory.Clear Thinking gives you the tools to recognize the moments that have the potential to transform your trajectory, and reshape how you navigate the critical space between stimulus and response. As Parrish shows, we may imagine we are the protagonists in the story of our lives. But the sad truth is, most of us run on autopilot.Our behavioral defaults, groomed by biology, evolution, and culture, are primed to run the show for us if we don’t intervene. At our worst, we react to events without reasoning, not even realizing that we’ve missed an opportunity to think at all. At our best, we recognize these moments for what they are, and apply the full capacity of our reasoning and rationality to them.Through stories, mental models, and more, Parrish offers the missing link between behavioral science and real-life outcomes. The result is a must-have manual for optimizing decision-making, gaining competitive advantage, and living a more intentional life.“Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to think clearly. Yet few of us recognize opportunities to think in the first place.”

https://amzn.to/3WZaX9eIn Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Jotform Aytekin Tank delivers a can’t-miss blueprint to help you make the most of your most precious asset: time.You’ll explore what’s possible when you offload repetitive tasks, why automation has democratized innovation, and how you can use cheap―or even completely free―no-code automation tools to transform your ability to focus on what truly matters in your business and life.In the book, you’ll discover:Why the future of business is no-code, and how you can use an automation-first mindset to unlock your productivity potentialHow to move from busywork to less work, and finally to having the time you need to accomplish your most important workHow you can use delegation and automation to achieve “timefulness,” the state of having enough timeA must-read handbook for every entrepreneur, founder, business owner, and freelancer who just doesn’t have enough hours in the day, Automate Your Busywork will also earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, and other business leaders looking to maximize their most valuable resource.“If you correct your mind, your life will fall into place.”

https://amzn.to/453pmTEImagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care.Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a "Circle of Safety" that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

https://amzn.to/459hIXZThe Energy Bus, an international best seller by Jon Gordon, takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment at work and at home.Jon infuses this engaging story with keen insights as he provides a powerful roadmap to overcome adversity and bring out the best in yourself and your team.When you get on The Energy Bus, you’ll enjoy the ride of your life.“You haven't failed until you stop trying.”

https://amzn.to/3R4Qa08In this iconic bestseller, popular business blogger and bestselling author Seth Godin proves that winners are really just the best quitters. Godin shows that winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt—until they commit to beating the right Dip.Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out fun…then gets really hard, and not much fun at all. You might be in a Dip—a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a Cul-de-Sac—a total dead end. What really sets superstars apart is the ability to tell the two apart.Winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can beat the Dip to be the best, you’ll earn profits, glory, and long-term security.Whether you’re an intern or a CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. The old saying is wrong—winners do quit, and quitters do win.“A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.”

https://amzn.to/4aCQxWIPoorly handling crucial conversations — discussions with high stakes, different opinions, and strong emotions — is the cause of many of our most painful problems in work and home life. These stressful conversations can rapidly go awry, with people behaving at their worst - yelling at each other and sniping sarcastically, or on the other side going silent and withdrawing. When this happens, little progress is made, and resentment builds. Moreover, we often deliberately avoid having these conversations because we’re afraid we’ll make matters worse.Crucial Conversations teaches you an array of dialogue principles and practical skills, explained and demonstrated through numerous examples. After this book, you’ll be able to talk to anyone about virtually any topic, no matter how sensitive. When you learn to handle crucial conversations effectively, the quality of your relationships and your effectiveness in your career will improve dramatically, and you’ll be able to help get everybody what they want. Specifically, there are seven key dialogue principles to learn.

In our daily lives, we all negotiate with others for things we want, whether the context is business or personal. For instance, at work we may negotiate a contract with a supplier, while at home we may negotiate with siblings over the division of family heirlooms or with a spouse over where to go on vacation.Getting to Yes, a 30-year-old classic updated in 2011, presents an alternative to adversarial bargaining — principled negotiation, a process focusing on finding creative options that serve mutual interests (some have referred to it as win-win negotiation). Their method continues to be taught in many U.S. law and business schools.In addition to walking you through their method, the authors offer numerous tips and techniques for handling challenging negotiations. Anyone can use their method, under any circumstances.

Do you get irritated, angry, anxious, or emotional more easily than you would like? Do you find yourself drawn into vicious cycles of negative emotions and wish you could extricate yourself on demand?Mindfulness meditation may be worth trying. The practical goal of meditation is to create mindfulness in your everyday conscious life. You observe your thoughts and emotions as they arise, without succumbing to your typical kneejerk reactions. You discover the roots of your anger, greed, and selfishness, and you learn to banish these psychic irritants. Ultimately, you become more at peace, and friendlier to other people.Mindfulness in Plain English is an approachable introduction to mindfulness and meditation. Written by Buddhist monk Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, this is practical, mostly secular, and truly written in plain English with little spiritual mumbo-jumbo. Inside are practical tips on how to start meditating and deal with common problems.

Have too much stuff, and not sure how best to get rid of it? Marie Kondo is a world-renowned expert on tidying, and this book teaches you how to get past the most common barriers preventing you from decluttering. Go through the Konmari method once, and you may find your relationship with things to be changed permanently.Many of us have difficulty keeping our homes tidy because we were never taught how. But tidying is a simple act, and there are actually only a few reasons why we have difficulty tidying. People who can’t tidy fall into three categories: they can’t get rid of things, they can’t organize things, or a combination of both--most of us fall into the last category.

You're probably getting less sleep than you should be. Many people are more chronically sleep-deprived than they realize, and the punishments for this are severe – reduced productivity and happiness, and increased risk of a panel of diseases. Why We Sleep discusses how sleep happens, its major benefits, and the best ways to get better sleep.Don't fall for the trap of thinking that sleeping less means you get less time during the day. Invest in better sleep, and you'll be more productive in the hours that you're awake.

We’re constantly trying to do too much and to be all things to all people. Yet when someone makes a request, we say yes without thinking in order to avoid conflict or hurt feelings. We feel we have to do it all.Because we’re stretched thin and going in too many directions, we make little progress. We feel overworked but underutilized because most of what we’re spending our time on isn’t really important. As Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, puts it, many of us are majoring in minor activities.The way out of this trap is to practice essentialism: "do less but better." Essentialism is defined as the consistent and focused pursuit of less but better. It’s not about being more efficient or doing more with less (or less with less), as many companies demand of employees. It requires stopping regularly to ask yourself whether you’re spending your time and resources on the right things.We have numerous opportunities to choose from, and obviously we can’t invest our time and energy in all of them. Some may be good or excellent, but most are unimportant; few are crucial or essential. Essentialism means differentiating among the options and selecting just a few essential ones while eliminating the rest. It’s doing the right things as opposed to doing more things.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable explores how teams fail to work cohesively together through a dynamic, five-part model of dysfunction. The five dysfunctions are:absence of trustfear of conflictlack of commitmentavoidance of accountabilityinattention to results.Through identifying these root causes of poor teamwork, teams can develop specific strategies for overcoming each of them. By doing this, they will become comfortable with one another, be willing to engage in constructive debate, achieve clarity and buy-in around team priorities, hold one another to high standards, and focus on team results instead of individual ambition.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a renowned guide for how to engage in conflict and be successful in battle. Written more than two thousand years ago, Sun Tzu, a Chinese warrior and philosopher, details the nature of competition and psychology of leadership and provides strategies for how to approach both. Although his teachings are geared toward actual military conflict, the principles can be useful in all arenas of conflict or competition, even at a personal level.Sun Tzu’s principles guide you through the steps required to become a competent leader and fighter. They also teach you how to determine victory, when to engage in combat, and when to use intelligence and intimidation to dissolve conflict without confrontation. With these teachings, you will understand how to read conflict and opponents to determine the best course of action.

The One-Minute Manager is a guide for managers looking to empower their employees and teach them to succeed in their jobs, with minimal direct guidance. As the title suggests, most of what we consider "management" takes one minute or less.One-minute managers build their employees up by defining success through short one-minute goals and performance standards; providing immediate and direct positive feedback through one-minute praisings; and offering constructive criticism aimed at correcting behavior through one-minute redirects. This management style motivates employees and gives them the confidence and skills to become stewards and champions of their own success.

This book is for those who prefer to be players rather than pawns. To turn you from an amateur into a master player, Greene has codified 48 laws of power based on historical examples of people who’ve excelled or failed at wielding power, with glorious or bloody results (or both). Some key principles you’ll learn: Use your enemies, keep others dependent on you, say as little as possible, take credit for others’ work, control all the options, don’t take sides, create a cult following, and don’t get your hands dirty.You can choose to apply or dismiss these rules - but you can’t escape them.

What is the key to being a great leader? Is it about having the right personality type, training, or team? Former U.S. Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, authors of Extreme Ownership, argue that the best leaders take responsibility for every aspect of their team and every task they’re working to accomplish. Extreme Ownership requires a leader to own her team’s mistakes and failures — without blame or excuses — and objectively assess what works and what doesn’t in order to constantly improve. As Willink and Babin warn, the concept is simple but not easy.Willink and Babin honed the leadership principles of Extreme Ownership while serving in Ramadi, Iraq, the deadly and hostile center of enemy insurgency, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After their military careers, they helped companies apply the same tenets in a corporate context through their business consulting firm, Echelon Front.Each chapter of the book examines a different aspect of Extreme Ownership and is divided into three sections — one explaining the core principle, another illustrating how it proved pivotal on the battlefield in Ramadi, and the last showing how it applies in a business setting.

In Coach the Person, Not the Problem, Marcia Reynolds seeks to expand people’s understanding of coaching. She argues that coaching is a partnership in which coaches help clients examine and challenge deep-seated beliefs that limit them, rather than a surface level, problem-solving exercise in which an expert doles out advice.Reynolds is a leadership and executive coach who has advanced degrees in education, communications, and organizational psychology. Through working with a range of clients—including corporations like AT&T and American Express, universities, and government agencies—she discovered that lasting change comes only when people confront the underlying assumptions and emotions that have led them into the same, problematic situations time and again.This guide examines Reynolds’s approach to coaching, five practices she uses to empower clients, and techniques to hone your coaching skills. Additionally, we provide expert perspectives that support, counter, and contextualize Reynolds’s work.

In Built to Sell, entrepreneur and small business expert John Warrillow teaches you how to build a business you can sell. As someone with first-hand experience creating and selling a small business, Warrillow claims that a sellable business is one that can function without the owner. To create such a company, he provides a step-by-step process any business owner can follow.In this guide, we’ll explain why a self-sufficient business is more attractive to potential buyers and why you should strive to build such a business regardless of whether you intend to sell it. We’ll also explore each step of Warrillow’s process, including how to find and market a unique product or service, find the right salespeople, incentivize upper management, and finalize a sale of your business. Throughout the guide, we’ll compare Warrillow’s strategies with those of other business experts.

According to progressive media and politicians, climate change constitutes an existential threat to humanity, requiring drastic cuts in carbon dioxide emissions to avoid catastrophe. However, Bjørn Lomborg argues that, while climate change poses a significant threat, it’s not cataclysmic.In his 2020 book, False Alarm, Lomborg concedes that climate change will have a notable impact if left unchecked. However, he argues that climate activists’ proposed approaches, like sharply reducing fossil fuel consumption, have unintended economic costs that must be balanced with the effects of climate change alone. Instead, Lomborg outlines several more modest recommendations that, he claims, represent the best approach to climate change.In this guide, we’ll discuss Lomborg’s arguments about the impact of climate change, along with his assessments of unsuccessful approaches to climate change and his suggestions for alternatives. We’ll also examine counterarguments from climate scientists and discuss some real-world implications of Lomborg’s arguments.

In the age of science, we’ve turned our backs on the myths our ancestors believed in. However, could it be that in giving up those stories, we’ve lost a crucial part of the human experience? In Maps of Meaning, Jordan Peterson argues that mythology provides a psychological tool that helps us create meaning in a chaotic world. Beneath their fanciful trappings, creation stories and heroic quests give us the moral foundations of society and the tools for adapting to life’s challenges. Perhaps even more importantly, myths teach us to recognize our individual capacity for good and evil.In this guide, we’ll examine Peterson’s arguments on how myth affects the mind, mythology’s fundamental archetypes and stories, and how to apply the lessons of myth to live a more well-rounded life. We’ll also look at alternative interpretations of mythological stories, what science says about the intersection of myth and cognitive development, as well as how the symbols of myth have taken new form in the stories of today.

Right now, you’re not only reading these words. You’re also engaging in self-talk: your thoughts taking the form of words, all within your mind. Self-talk is the encouraging voice that tells you, "Nailed it!" after you rock an interview, as well as the inner cynic that grumbles, "You’re a failure" after you bomb a first date. In Chatter, neuroscientist and psychologist Ethan Kross highlights this last type of voice—negative self-talk, which he believes interferes with your happiness, health, and success. He argues that you can improve your life by quieting your negative self-talk.In this guide, we’ll present Kross’s insights on self-talk and share his research-based strategies for managing its negative form. For instance, you’ll learn why seeking support from others may make you feel worse and why feelings of amazement quiet your inner critic. Throughout this guide, we’ll compare Kross’s ideas and strategies to those of other experts on self-talk. Furthermore, we’ll provide additional actionable steps for quieting your negative self-talk.

When Breath Becomes Air is the beautiful and heart-wrenching memoir of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgical resident diagnosed with lung cancer in the last year of his training. When the life Paul and his wife Lucy imagined for their futures ceases in the face of his diagnosis, he works to understand what his new life will look like and how long it will be. Through various treatments, his struggle to return to work, and the birth of his first and only child, Paul details his personal journey of discovering the meaning of life, death, and the thin line separating them. He explores what it means to save a life---not only his patients’, but his own, as well.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells the stories of a small company of American soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. Through the narrative, the book blurs the line between autobiography and fiction, leaving the reader unsure as to what is fact and what is myth. In reading these stories, we explore the harrowing physical and psychological toll of warfare and the dehumanizing and brutalizing effects of combat on human beings. We see these men engage in shocking acts of cruelty toward Vietnamese soldiers, civilians, each other, and even themselves. We see how the high chance of sudden death makes life a cheap commodity for the soldiers.We also see the transformative power that narrative and storytelling have to help us make sense of our experiences and give meaning and clarity to even the most shocking, chaotic, and traumatizing events. Telling stories enables them to objectify their experiences, to make them seem more distant, third-party, and remote—and thus, more bearable. But creating a narrative around their experiences also brings the war and the people whom they lost to it back to life. Telling their stories makes them immortal.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is a distillation of his life lessons and experiences. Written with reporter Jeffrey Zaslow, the best-selling book is an expanded version of a "Last Lecture" Pausch gave in 2007, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.The "Last Lecture" series was a tradition in which professors presented their philosophy of life, as if it were their last chance to share what was important to them. It truly was a last chance for Pausch, who had only months to live. His book and lecture, which went viral and has been viewed by millions, are about his life lessons and living your dreams.Besides discussing the importance of pursuing your childhood dreams, Pausch used his Last Lecture to recount other lessons he’d learned or taught throughout his life, including the value of honest feedback, how to push through brick walls, and why you should be a Tigger, not an Eeyore.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis examines the spiritual and social decline of the Appalachian white working class through the life story of its author, JD Vance. Growing up in a post-industrial Ohio town, Vance encountered the symptoms of community and familial dysfunction—drug and alcohol abuse, unstable marriages, lack of education, and evasion of hard work—that underscore the failing values of the culture from which he came.Although Vance eventually escapes the poverty and dysfunction of his roots, attending college and Yale Law School, he finds that even economic mobility can never permanently erase the social markers of his hillbilly upbringing.

Educated: A Memoir is writer Tara Westover’s autobiography. In it, she shows us her transformation from being the daughter of survivalist, fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-medicine, and anti-education parents, to becoming a Cambridge-educated historian. Westover gains the strength to break free from the ideological chains of her youth and discovers the agency to make her own choices about how she sees and experiences the world.While it is about one individual’s journey, Educated speaks to universal themes of self-liberation, the power of education, the perils of extreme ideology, and the trauma of domestic abuse.

In The Bezos Blueprint, business communication expert Carmine Gallo explains how to improve your communication by internalizing the principles that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos uses in his writing and speaking. Gallo says that if you follow Bezos’s communication "blueprint," you’ll set yourself apart from your competition, pitch your ideas more effectively, and inspire others to follow your lead.Gallo analyzes decades’ worth of Bezos’s shareholder letters, speeches, emails, and other communications to derive a set of principles that anyone can use to become a more effective communicator. These principles include surprising insights such as why you should start a project with a press release and why Bezos banned Powerpoint in favor of storytelling. In our guide, we’ll explain each principle and show you how to implement it in your own writing and speaking. Along the way, we’ll expand on these principles by comparing them to advice from other business and communication experts.

Daniel Goleman argues that attention is a complex and underappreciated cognitive resource in our modern society overrun with distractions. In Focus, he explores how you can understand, strengthen, and effectively use your attention to lead a more fulfilling and productive life, as well as to connect better with others and have a positive impact on the world.A renowned psychologist and New York Times science writer, Goleman is the author of international bestsellers on emotional intelligence and leadership. In this guide, we’ll explore his theories on how harnessing the power of inner, other, and outer focus can help you excel in everything you do. We’ll look at actionables he recommends to help, including mindfulness meditation and digital attention training games as tools to improve habits, skills, and overall success. We’ll also provide additional context to help you better understand the book’s concepts, and we’ll compare the author's insights to those of other psychology and neuroscience experts.

In The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondson argues that for organizations to thrive in the complex knowledge economy, leaders must cultivate psychologically safe cultures where workers can ask questions, raise concerns, and make mistakes without fear of reprisal. But many companies rely on a fear-driven management approach that silences workers’ voices. They do so at their peril, stifling innovation and putting themselves in harm’s way.Edmondson, a professor of leadership and management, stumbled upon the concept of psychological safety while studying the relationship between teamwork and error rates in hospitals. She realized that groups that openly discussed failure without fear of repercussions warded off problems before they happened and took risks that fostered innovation.In this guide, we examine what psychological safety is, why it’s important, the detrimental effects of fear-driven work cultures, and ways leaders can cultivate psychologically safe environments to drive success. We also compare and contrast Edmondson’s work with the perspectives and work of experts in leadership and other fields.

We’ve all experienced situations that produce intense feelings of fear, blame, and disconnection and cause us to lash out at ourselves or others. Author and researcher Brené Brown explains that this intense feeling is called shame, and it’s a natural part of being human. However, allowing shame to control our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors wreaks major havoc on our health, happiness, and relationships. In I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t), Brown contends that to live a happy, empowered life—and help others to do the same—you must combat shame by practicing empathy toward yourself and others.This guide will explain what shame is, why it happens, how it impacts our lives, and the techniques and skills we can use to build empathy and combat shame. Throughout the guide, we’ll explore other expert opinions on the causes and impact of shame. We’ll also compare Brown’s ideas to similar concepts in books like The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach.

Candace Owens is rallying the troops—she sees the Democratic Party as modern-day slavery and is calling on all Black Americans to walk out in a mass exodus. In Blackout, Owens gives the history of Black politics, reveals hidden oppressions, and demonstrates how the Democratic Party has been keeping Blacks poor and needy for their own political gain. Specifically, Owens claims that Democratic policies have destroyed the nuclear family, created government dependency, and encouraged Blacks to embody victim mentalities. The only way out—Owens says—is to jump ship and join the Republicans.Owens is a conservative activist, political commentator, talk show host, and one of the most vocal supporters of Donald Trump.Our guide explores each of Owens’s arguments in turn and compares them to the most recent statistics and opinions of experts on both sides of the political aisle.

In Spare, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, explains why he made the extraordinary decision to leave the United Kingdom and the Royal Family, instead choosing to live in California with his wife, Meghan Markle. He provides a brutally honest look into the life of an English prince, particularly the struggles that come from being a younger son—not the heir-apparent, but merely a "spare."Harry talks frankly about his often difficult relationships with his family, his struggles with mental illness, and the seemingly endless harassment he suffers from the press and paparazzi. However, he also shares the high points of his life: His time in the military, his philanthropic work, and his marriage. In this guide, we’ll explore these major themes of the memoir. Our commentary will provide background information on the history of the Royal Family and insight into the monarchy’s response to the book’s publication. We’ll also compare Harry’s experiences to those of other royals, both his own family members and people throughout history.

https://amzn.to/4brWaIFAcross the world, from Papua New Guinea to Tokyo and Manhattan, humans compete for status.Through games of dominance, virtue and success, it’s an obsession that has driven the best and worst of us: the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as well as spree killers and tyrants at the gates of Europe.But what makes status an all-consuming prize? And how can we wield our desire for it to improve our relationships, win social media battles and be the best in the workplace?A breathtaking rethink of human psychology, The Status Game will change how you see others – and how you see yourself.“Whenever people use a word so often that they abbreviate it, it is clearly central to their moral and emotional vocabulary.”

https://amzn.to/4bQ2SI0When Carol Roth first heard that one of the World Economic Forum’s predictions for 2030 was “You will own nothing, and be happy,” she thought it was an outlandish fantasy. Then, she researched it.What she found was that a number of businesses, governments, and global elites share a vision of a future that sounds utopian: Everyone will have everything they need, and no one will own anything.From declines in home and vehicle ownership to global inflation and government spending, many of the trends of modern life reveal that a new world that is emerging—one in which Western citizens, by choice or by circumstance, increasingly do not own possessions or accumulate wealth.It’s the perfect economic environment for the rich and powerful to solidify their positions and prevent anyone else from getting ahead.In You Will Own Nothing¸ Roth reveals how the agendas of Wall Street, world governments, international organizations, socialist activists, and multinational corporations like Blackrock all work together to reduce the power of the dollar and prevent millions of Americans from taking control of their wealth.She shows why owning fewer assets makes you poorer and less free.“This book is essential guide to protecting your hard-earned wealth for the coming generations.”