100 Business Books that have influenced 100 Business Owners (Part 8)
Author, social media content creator and mind coach, Vex King said: “your mind is a weapon of mass destruction or mass creation. Use it wisely. Don’t read into negative ideas that aren’t even there. Only entertain thoughts that will improve your life and make you feel good.”
I think that reading books, any kind, doesn’t have to be a specific self- care or self- improvement book, can help you create thoughts that will improve your life and make you feel good.
Welcome to part eight of our ‘100 Business Books that have influenced 100 business owners’ – we are getting close to the halfway mark!
Today we are starting off with Founder and CEO of Zedosh, Guillaume Kendall, who chose the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace. “Many will be familiar with the basic premise from the film adaptation with Jim Carey – a man decides to say ‘yes’ to every situation. My main take-away from this book is that if you say yes to something today, it could start a chain of events that lead to amazing opportunities that otherwise might have slipped you by. Certainly, there’s more chance of that being the case than if you say no! Starting my app Zedosh which put Facebook’s money into your pocket, is just such an example where I said yes to emailing the biggest hitters in the advertising game despite having zero experience in it. They all replied and most loved the idea. One ‘yes’ lead to another and here we are!” http://linkedin.com/in/guillaumekendall
Denis Egan, Owner/ Managing Director of Weston Facilities Services said that one book he found profoundly interesting when he was 18-19 was The Road Less Travelled by M Scott Peck. “Basic teaching is that life is intrinsically difficult and expecting it to be otherwise is unrealistic and people don’t develop the tools necessary to cope with life accordingly. It’s a curious book in that it combines some psychotherapy principles with spiritualism and has some great practical lessons on actual patient cases.” http://linkedin.com/in/denisegan
Guiding the Digital Transformation of Organisations by Vallabh Sambamurthy is what Co-Founder & CEO of Preview, Maxence Vidal chose. “It’s a very complete read on digital transformation, digitalisation, and information technology consulting. Very useful for understanding the way our digital economy works, like through pipeline and platforms organisations. Also good to understand digital architecture, ERP implementation, and my personal favourite: digitalisation risks.” http://linkedin.com/in/maxence-vidal-a61310157
Susan Johnson who is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Mooka Media Ltd, said she couldn’t choose just one book! “I read several business books as a part of setting up the company. The most useful was The Lean Startup by Eric Ryes. However, the most influential books would be those relating to the field I work in – the most notable being E-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth C. Clarke and Richard E Mayer. It’s a useful guide to the principles of designing multimedia learning. Two additional books that are definitely worth a read are Design for Kids by Debra Levin Gelman and Make it Stick by Brown, Roediger and McDaniel. http://linkedin.com/in/susan-johnson-a0a1b54
And finally this week we have Jeff O’Brien, Co-Founder of Zoidii. Jeff said: “I read about 12 business books a year and some of my favourites include Start with Why, Trillion Dollar Coach, Obviously Awesome, and Good to Great. The business book that has influenced me the most is Grit by Angela Duckworth. The book outlines why persistence and perseverance are more important in business than a great product, talent, intelligence, or luck. It really resonated with me as the first startup I was involved with was done and dusted only for the grit of the two founders. That business is now an industry leader and employs over 200 people. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to build a business, further their career, or achieve more in life.” http://linkedin.com/in/jeffobriensaas
Grit is the only other book, along with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, that has been mentioned more than once as a main book in this series so far- have you read either of these books? If the answer is no, then I recommend you do!
Keep an eye out for next week’s blog post!