As we prepare to say goodbye to 2021 our team wanted to share some of our favorite business books from 2021.
Uncommon Leadership
– Ben Newman
In Uncommon Leadership, performance coach and motivational consultant Ben Newman takes you inside the minds and hearts of eleven exceptional individuals: athletes, coaches, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and others whose unrelentingly high performance has made them not only the best in their fields but also unquestioned leaders in sports, business, and life. Ben breaks it down, honing in on the core qualities that drive these trailblazers to push for the best in themselves and others, every single day.
If you’re looking for more in your life-your career, your relationships, your industry, or your personal performance-Ben Newman’s Uncommon Leadership will give you the keys you need to unlock your best self. You’ll learn how to adapt the principles of proven leaders to maximize your own potential. You’ll see how some of today’s top-performing people have tapped into their own core strengths, and with Ben’s advice, you’ll gain focus for identifying and tapping into yours.
If you want to unleash the champion inside you, there’s no better way than to study and imitate other champions who have paved the way. Let Ben Newman’s Uncommon Leadership give you the inside track to becoming all that you can be.
Simplify: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed
– Richard Koch & Perry Marshall
For the past 40 years, Richard Koch has wanted to uncover the simple, elemental, elegant and parsimonious principles that are needed to create great new businesses. To qualify, a principle must be so overwhelmingly powerful that anyone can reliably use it towards extraordinary results. Is there any principle that can tell you how to do that consistently and with a high chance of success?
Working with venture capitalist Greg Lockwood, his coauthor on Superconnect, and supported by research from the elite firm of OC&C Strategy Consultants, Koch has the answer.
The principle Koch and Lockwood have discovered behind extraordinarily successful businesses is simplifying. Some simplify on price – take Ryanair’s budget flights, which still take you from A to B but so cheaply that nearly everyone can afford them, multiplying the size of their market – and some simplify on proposition, such as Apple’s decision to cut down on the number of their product lines and focus on perfecting only a few devices. With case studies of famous companies in all different industries from finance to fast food, the authors show how anyone can analyze their business’ potential to become a simplifier and which route they should take to maximize the impact.
Becoming Bulletproof
– Evy Poumpouras
Former Secret Service agent and star of Bravo’s Spy Games Evy Poumpouras shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world to help you prepare for stressful situations, instantly read people, influence how you are perceived, and live a more fearless life.
Becoming Bulletproof means transforming yourself into a stronger, more confident, and more powerful person. Evy Poumpouras – former Secret Service agent to three presidents and one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor – demonstrates how we can overcome our everyday fears, have difficult conversations, know who to trust and who might not have our best interests at heart, influence situations, and prepare for the unexpected. When you have become bulletproof, you are your best, most courageous, and most powerful version of you. Poumpouras shows us that ultimately true strength is found in the mind, not the body.
Courage involves facing our fears, but it is also about resilience, grit, and having a built-in BS detector and knowing how to use it. In Becoming Bulletproof, Poumpouras demonstrates how to heighten our natural instincts to employ all these qualities and move from fear to fearlessness.
How Rich People Think
– Steve Siebold
In this 1-hour read of How Rich People Think, author Steve Siebold compares the financial habits and philosophies of the middle class and the world-class and outlines the beliefs and strategies that will give you the best shot at becoming a millionaire. The secret is not in the mechanics of money but in the level of thinking that generates it.
This short book of inspiration is a small gift book format meant to INSPIRE! With beautiful color internals created to feel like a Ted-Talk in your hands, unlock a money-mindset that is guaranteed to accumulate wealth.
Based on decades of interviews with some of the richest people in the world, this candid book will challenge every belief you’ve ever had about money, and if you’re not careful, it may just make you rich.
Think and Grow Rich
– Napoleon Hill
An oldie, but forever a “goodie”.
This edition of Napoleon Hill’s Classic Think and Grow Rich is a reproduction of Napoleon Hill’s personal copy of the first edition, the ONLY original version recommended by The Napoleon Hill Foundation, originally printed in March of 1937.
The most famous of all teachers of success spent a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort to produce the Law of Success philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized and explained for the general public in this book.
In Think and Grow Rich, Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. This book will teach you the secrets that could bring you a fortune. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it. Once you learn and apply the simple, basic techniques revealed here, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success.
Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, loving family relationships, understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one true peace of mind! All who read, understand, and apply this philosophy will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these spiritual values.
BE PREPARED! When you expose yourself to the influence of this philosophy, you may experience a CHANGED LIFE which can help you negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding and prepare you for the accumulation of abundant material riches.
Go Beyond the Job Description
– Ashley Priesant Lesko
What do you do well that you don’t use at work? In Go Beyond the Job Description, HR professionals and general managers will learn how to increase individual and team contributions by using what they already know and demonstrates in step-by-step style how to increase productivity, motivation, and engagement in individuals with a proven 100-day project called Talent Engagement Optimization (TEO). TEO is using more of what people already have, but are not using, in their jobs. It looks beyond the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities and considers in depth the employee talents, opportunities, and development now and in the future, and incorporates them in practical and meaningful ways that benefit the employee and the organization. Features include an online assessment to learn your own Talent Engagement Zone, a Development Plan, Strategic Program Transition Plan, and Additional Resources and Tools. A methodical and insightful book with detailed guidelines for any HR manager looking to optimize employee talent and build sustainable engagement, especially those with limited time and funds.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
– Susan Cain
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled “quiet,” it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society–from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.
Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the 20th century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.
Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts–from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a “pretend extrovert.”
This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.
Winning the Contractor Fight
– Tom Reber
Of course, any contractor business book list must include Winning the Contractor Fight by our fearless leader Tom Reber.
“The Contractor Fight” is what HGTV host and best-selling author Tom Reber calls the battle between your ears. We all have stories and experiences that have formed us into who we are. We are what we think, and the battleground is our mind.
The Fight is not with the people you think are “cheap customers.” It’s not with the unlicensed competitors or the “illegals,” as many contractors think.
The Fight is with yourself.
Sadly, most of the struggles contractors have are self-imposed. It’s friendly fire. The negative ways we think about ourselves and our worth… friendly fire. The growing debt, working too much, small bank account… friendly fire.
Winning the Fight is a choice.
You’re noble and full of integrity. You bend over backward to serve your family and clients. You have taken it on the chin more times than you can count. Now, it’s time to get yours. Earn what you’re worth. Create a business that serves you and energizes you, instead of one that beats you down.
Choose to own your crap and get better today.
Grab your free copy here (just pay to ship): https://thecontractorfight.com/book/
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”
-Ronald E. Osborn
