If you want to get perspective on how hard it is to build something out of nothing, read The Shoe Dog. This is a memoir by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, but above all, it is a story about perseverance in a messy and chaotic journey riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. I am not a Nike fan, but this book was good! This is the type of motivational book I enjoy :)
My Life in Full is about a complete human with her own challenges, victories, happiness, and sadness. A human that had grit, determination, smarts, courage, and heart. What I admired the most was Indra Nooyi's courage to make decisions in both work and personal life. You will learn how you can have it all if you win the life lottery and make some good decisions.
Matsushita Leadership is the story of the guy who founded what is now Panasonic. This reading will make your problems look so small compared to this lesson in resilience. Plus, Matsushita said cool stuff like "people before products" and "your subordinates are superior to you in different ways" at the start of the 20th century. I wish more companies would say that today!
Whether you are building your own business or building a journey inside a company, you will get a lot of value from reading From Start-Up to Grown-Up. This book by Alisa Cohn will give you a perspective on how other people ask for help, have doubts, and learn to work through them.
The Leadership Pipeline is the best leadership book I’ve read. It clearly explains what it means to lead at every organizational level. No fluff, just practical insights. This is the only book you need to read to understand the people side of your business.
If you have ever considered radically changing your career, I encourage you to read Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career. A career change can take years, and reading the examples of many other people who succeeded in this process could be reassuring. The process involves small experiments and actions (vs. spending too much time in deep internal self-reflection).
If you understand (and agree with) the concept that nobody is an overnight success, The Long Game by Dorie Clark will be a good company for you. When you plan for the long term and are willing to adjust and adapt, you can create extraordinary experiences. Big goals often seem – and frankly, are – impossible in the short term. But with small, methodical steps, almost anything is attainable.
I was both surprised and inspired by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s career journey (current CEO at Xerox). Choose Possibility is packed with examples of how she navigated her path, taking multiple calculated risks, some successful, some not, and kept moving forward regardless. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to expand their thinking about what’s possible in their career.
If you think changing your career is unique and impossible, just read Work From The Inside Out. You will be immersed in the stories of 22 people who did exactly that - changed their careers (sometimes more than once!), so this means that you can do it too! This book shows that anyone can make a career pivot regardless of fear-based beliefs, responsibilities, and background. It takes work and time, but if others did it, you could do it too!
Another practical book that can help you discover your career path is Finding Your Element. Ken Robinson has the most-watched ever TED Talk, and this book is a continuation of that. This was for me one of the most powerful sentences from the book: "Regardless of the distance, once you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s essential that you figure out a way to get there."
If you have ever considered a generalist vs. a specialist career path, check out Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. The book makes a case for diverse experiences and interdisciplinary exploration. It encourages you to consider going for range first in your career and not specialize too quickly. The book argues that while we will always need specialists, we will need fewer of them.
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