Self-Help & Efficiency

Perfectly Confident Book Summary: Balancing Overconfidence & Underconfidence

A certain balance of confidence is essential to inspiration and a willingness to take advantage of important opportunities. Over-confidence in competence and abilities can damage credibility and lead to poor outcomes. Underconfidence can result in lost opportunities due to hesitancy. The best path is to find a balance of confidence which equates to being perfectly confident.

Nudge Book Summary: How To Influence People

When faced with a decision, people generally know what the right choice is. However, instead of choosing what is best, people usually rely on irrational gut feelings. This book uses economics and psychology to uncover how we can all start making better choices for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our government.

Ego is the Enemy Book Summary: Behavior Secrets To Succeed

Confronting your ego is an important step in unlocking success. Ego can cloud judgement. You will also learn about the cycle of effort and how thinking big while living small leads to ultimate triumph. Concentrating on learning constantly can help keep your focus on stoicism and help you avoid complacency.

Tools of Titans Book Summary: Billionaire Business Secrets

Drawing on years of interviews with successful individuals across many fields, Ferriss gives you the tools of the titans to generate your own triumphs. These wildly successful titans are flawed people who focus on a few of their strengths while transforming their weaknesses into competitive advantages.

Think & Grow Rich Book Summary: Rules For Success In Life

Attitude is key on the road to acquiring wealth. Learn how to cultivate an assertive approach and how to use affirmations to reach your financial goals. Visualizing success is just as important as developing new ideas, constantly searching for fresh knowledge, and tenaciously pursuing opportunities.

The Workplace Engagement Solution Book Summary: How To Keep Employees Engaged

The traditional management mindset is no longer enough enough in the modern, rapidly-changing world. Because engagement happens when personal growth and organizational growth intersect, supporting employees through transparency and appreciation are important in cultivating a culture of engagement.

Winning Through Intimidation Book Summary: Negotiation Strategies

Not everyone will help you succeed. This book guides you through three types of people you will encounter. Some openly announce nefarious intentions, some harbor treacherous schemes but claim to be allies, and some have good intentions but betray you in difficult times are some of the people you will meet.

Winners Book Summary: How To Succeed

Buckets of talent do not always result in success. A winning strategy and hard work can lead to more winning than impressive amounts of talent. Entrepreneurs, politicians, and athletes all use the same strategies to achieve wins. Another secret to being a winner is to never stop believing in more success.

The Checklist Manifesto Book Summary: Why You Need A Checklist

Instead of being a crutch for mechanical task completion, checklists can encourage creative thinking and better communication. Checklists can focus on communication steps instead of procedural steps when complex processes are involved. A powerful tool, checklists used properly welcome discipline and teamwork.

Team of Teams Book Summary: How To Manage Without Micromanaging

Failure is the best place to start building a management structure from scratch. As big data changes the world, efficiency is no longer the highest goal. Giving everyone access to information and letting each person make decisions is far more adaptable and separates the successful from the unsuccessful.

Switch Book Summary: How to Change Your Life

“Switch” uses real-world examples to illustrate how to implement change. Turn failing systems into successes by learning about the three facets of behavioral change. Change works best in small steps and when emotions and rational thinking cooperate. When enacting change, cultivating resilience is necessary.

Stumbling On Happiness Book Summary: Learn To Be Happy

A great read for anyone who has ever been disappointed, this book discusses how your frontal lobe categorizes the world. By harnessing imagination, the human brain is able to predict future events. Understanding why it predicts a bad future and why dreaming brings joy are only a few of the ideas covered.

The One Thing: How To Achieve More

If trying to do everything at once is not getting you anywhere, try reading “The One Thing.” Success is built in small, consistent steps instead of unpredictable leaps. Achieving more is possible by changing your approach and narrowing your focus. In this book, you will learn which questions to ask to find your focus.

The No Asshole Rule Book Summary: Building A Nice Workplace

Assholes are part of everyone’s workplace experience. Take a quiz to find out if you are a “temporary asshole” (having a bad day) or a “certified asshole” (you have developed your mean-spirited character traits). You will also find strategies to help work successfully with these unpleasant people without losing your sanity.

The MECE Muse Book Review: How To Be A Great Consultant

How does not being too serious translate to success? The best way to build relationships is to be genuine instead of a formal simulacrum of yourself. Networking is the key to opening doors. Make sure to fulfill your deliverables 100% of the time and make cultivating good manners a competitive advantage.

The Happiness Advantage Book Summary: Why Positivity Leads To Success

Being happy is possible for anyone. Any money is not the cause, but happy people tend to be more successful. This book shares daily mental exercises that can be applied to change your brain and make you happier.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Book Summary: Control Your Stress

Stopping the constant worry is possible. Implement a strategy to live in the present without dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Discover concrete ways to retrain your brain to find the positives. Because fighting the inevitable is a recipe for disaster, learning to embrace the inexorable is another key to stop worrying.

Range Book Summary: Generalist vs Specialist

Experimentation can lead to as much expertise as specialization. This book will show you how broad experiences can lead to greater innovation. Because we live in a complex world, specialized experts can fail to take all factors into account. Redefine achievement and learn how to broaden your focus to become a generalist.

Outliers Book Summary: How To Succeed

What if success has less to do with your IQ than you think? Being successful is about seizing opportunities and a great deal of practicing. Because they depend on timing, birthdate, and birthplace, opportunities are beyond your control. Learn why 10,000 hours of practice is enough to turn goodness into greatness and mediocrity into excellence.

Make Your Mark Book Summary: How To Start Your Own Business

Build a business with impact by attracting customers and developing products that work like magic. The first step is to refine your personal purpose by defining what you want to accomplish. Then, identify a group of customers who want and need what you have to offer. Another key is to develop a team that embraces innovation.

Linchpin Book Summary: How To Make Yourself Indispensable

How do you become a linchpin? The first steps are selflessly giving people your time and energy, developing new talents, creating opportunities, and consistently delivering on your promises. Learn how to prevent your “lizard brain” from ruining your chances at success by always putting your best foot forward in your workplace.

It’s Called Work for a Reason! Book Summary: Book To Teach You To Work Hard

What is the key to ongoing business success? Simple things like service, ethics, being invaluable, and focusing on processes will lead your organization to triumph. Because modern workplaces put so much emphasis on results, we sometimes forget to look at the process. This leads to lower expectations.

Influence Book Summary: How To Get People To Say Yes

Did you know there are triggers that will result in an automatic “yes”? Influence teaches you about the psychology behind decisions with emphasis on those that end with a “yes.” Develop six weapons of influence to become a master of persuasion and to defend your opinions from other master persuaders.

How to Win Friends and Influence People Book Summary

Business success is often tied more to people than performance -- if people like you, you will go further. This book is a cornerstone to understanding the best practices to interact with people and how to be convincing. After reading, you will be a better leader because you will understand the right way to deal with people.

Grit Book Summary: The Secret To Success

What motivates grit? Combining passion, perseverance, and hard work is more likely to lead to success than talent alone. Moving forward after failing is an important attitude to adopt in order to achieve success. Learn to look beyond your title and to embrace hard work as a more consistent means to success.

Getting Things Done Book Summary: Effective Time Management

If you often find yourself overwhelmed with the work ahead of you, this book offers some solutions. The first steps are to prioritize your task list so that you feel good about it. Then, you should break tasks down into manageable pieces. The strategies in this book will help you plan projects and stay focused during change.

Essentialism Book Summary: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less

If you frequently find yourself losing focus, you may be trying to please too many people at once. Instead of investing resources and energy into tasks that do not matter, narrow your focus only to what is essential. Essentialism is more than a principle -- it is a way of life that means living by design.

Drive Book Summary: Team Motivation Incentive Ideas

Motivated people might be the biggest factors in a company’s success. However, there is a big difference between what science has shown us about how people are motivated and what businesses actually do. Reading Drive will teach you simple things that you can do to change your organization’s practices to reflect the science behind motivating people.

Big Dreams, Daily Joys Book Summary: Smart Goal Strategy

Setting good goals is about prioritizing and managing your time. This book describes how conquering procrastination can foster productivity. Developing a timeline and breaking your goals into smaller steps are the next steps to success. Discovering what works best for you can mean some failures and learning when to say “no” when it needs to be said.

Antifragile Book Summary: Failure Is Part Of Success

We live in a complex world filled with confusion. Fragile businesses fail in times of uncertainty because they are volatile. Antifragile companies gain more capacity when under stress. Success and failure serve as important feedback loops. Learn about systems that thrive in chaos and how you can help your company be more antifragile.

The 4-Hour Workweek Book Summary: Escape 9 To 5 Job

Can working less actually lead to increased productivity and higher income? Tim Ferriss shares his company’s experiences and shows how starting an automated online business can lead to this success. Some ways to be successful include defining your goals, testing ideas inexpensively, and automating systems.