With the holidays rolling around, you hopefully will have a little time on your hands to catch up on some reading. While there is nothing wrong with keeping up with news and trends via internet blogs and posts, taking the time to read a good book is great for stimulating your thinking and your ideas.
Here is a round-up of some of our favorite new business-related books.
Business Books: MONEY Master the Game
Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins (Simon & Schuster (released Nov. 18, 2014)
“How you deal with money reflects how you deal with power,” writes Tony Robbins in his new book Money: Master the Game. “Is it an affliction or a blessing? A game or a burden?”
Due to the huge celebrity status he has received as a life coach and self-help author, Robbins knows a thing or two about money. For this book, he uses his own perspectives, his research, as well as his personal interviews with about 50 international financial experts, including Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio and Steve Forbes, to create a basic seven-step plan for financial freedom.
The plan is designed for anyone to use, not just those who are already wealthy. One of the themes Robbins discovered as he interviewed his subjects is that financially successful people are less concerned with making money than they are with not losing money.
In addition, Robbins, who is donating all proceeds from the book to his philanthropic organization which focuses largely on hunger issues, said that true financial freedom only comes when you can master money rather than letting it master you.
Business Books: The Motivation Manifesto
The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard (Hay House, Inc. released Oct. 28, 2014)
What motivates you? Really motivates you? Burchard contends that personal freedom is the basic motivation for all mankind. He explains that the two main roadblocks to our personal freedom are external in the form of social oppression and internal in the form of our own insecurities and fears.
In order to attain full freedom, Burchard – in all caps, no less – challenges us “For this, we now declare: WE SHALL MEET LIFE WITH FULL PRESENCE AND POWER.” This book lays down a poetic gauntlet for readers to put aside their petty worries and to work to become the best they can be. If you would like to tackle 2015 with a bold new attitude, this book may be just what you need.
Business Books: Hooked
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal and edited by Ryan Hoover (Portfolio, released Nov. 4, 2014)
If you have ever looked at a successful product and thought “Why didn’t I think of that?” or “How did that simple idea take off like that?” this book is for you. Why do certain good ideas flop while others are wild success stories? Is there some sort of a pattern to what products or technologies gain public acceptance? This book answers those questions.
Author Nir Eyal reveals a four-step process that many successful companies use to influence customer behavior. These so-called “hook cycles” bring users back again and again without costly or aggressive advertising. Based on both research and practical experience, Hooked is designed for marketers, product managers, designers, start-up founders and anyone else who would like to learn more about how products can influence day-to-day behavior.
Business Books: The 5 Choices
The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity by Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill, Leena Rinne (Simon & Schuster, release date: Dec. 30, 2014)
Time. All of us want more of it. Yet in a world filled with distractions, many of us feel we have less and less time. As a result, we often feel frustrated and unfulfilled.
In this soon-to-be-released book, the time management experts at FranklinCovey share five techniques for paying more focused attention to the goals and tasks in our lives. The techniques are:
- Act on the important; don’t react to the urgent.
- Go for extraordinary; don’t settle for ordinary.
- Schedule the big rocks; don’t sort gravel.
- Rule your technology; don’t let it rule you.
- Fuel your fire; don’t burn out.
Business Books: Creativity, Inc.
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace (Random House, released April 8, 2014)
Whatever your line of work, creativity can mean the difference between success and stagnation. Ed Catmull, a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, has put together a fascinating look at the creative process. By giving us a look at Pixar and how it came to produce some of the most beloved animated films of all time such as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, we learn some energizing business lessons.
The book can be seen as a manual on how to build a creative workplace culture. The book is about defying convention and what can happen when great minds are given the freedom to develop new ideas. It is an encouraging and enlightening journey.
