BOOKS

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

“Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. […] Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. A handful problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and enough time designing your systems.”

It’s well written and it is an easy read. If you've never read a book on habit building, read this book.

Learn to Lead Like a Navy SEAL

"If a leader wants to be in charge of everything, then he should try to be in charge of nothing. It is impossible to lead a team foward in a strategic direction when you are busy trying to direct and manage less significant tsaks that could be handled by subordinates. If the leader gets into the weeds in minuscle details of day-to-day operations, then they lose the visibility of the broader events unfolding, and the decisionmaking process falls apart."

There are leadership strategies and tactics that have been tested and proven on the battlefield, in business and in life. In my humble opinion, everyone is a leader. At least to himself. This book is step one towards becoming the commander of your own life. 

How to Think Neutrally and Gain Control of Your Life

"When planning, we start very simply. We identify the goal.
That may sound overly simplistic, but a lot of people say “I want to do this” without thinking about the behaviors and benchmarks required to reach that goal. [... ]Behaviors are not only what we do, but what we are willing to not do."

I really enjoyed this book. If you seek to improve yourself this book has a message you need to read.

Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload

"Typically, things get into trouble when too much has done by email. Work is not just about getting things done; it's a collection of messy human personalities trying to figure out how to successfully collaborate. "

In knowledge work era, it is very tiring to always work on a fire fighting mode, keeping glued with constant flow of emails. Cal deeply analysed and trying to convince the better alternatives.

Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It

"Negotiation is not an act of battle; it's a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible. "

It's not often that business topics can be written with such interesting real-world stories as the ones that Chris has in this book. Highly entertaining yet insightful and full of many pearls of wisdom.

Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

"Eventually, almos everyone loses the battle with willpower; it's only a matter of time. What may look like discipline often involves a carefully created environment to encourage certain behaviours. The people with the best defaults are typically the ones with the bes environment."

Clear Thinking gives you the tools to recognize the moments that have the potential to transform your trajectory, and reshape how you navigate the critical space between stimulus and response.

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

“The things that make a great job great, are rare and valuable. If you want them in your working live, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return. You need to be good at something before you can expect a good job.”

The book is about “Working right trumps finding the right work”. Pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work.

Combining a wide-ranging historical overview with a keen eye for the future, the authors bring to light 22 superlative tools and innovative techniques for the international marketplace. The authors examine marketing campaigns that have succeeded and others that have failed, why good ideas didn't live up to expectations, and offer their own ideas on what would have worked better. 

I would say despite its release date it’s still quite contemporary. Easy small and thin. An easy and fast read.

A Way of Being

"There are no shortcuts. We often take shortcuts without knowing it. In addition to the assumption that we are saving time, this shortcuts also avoids the discomfort of challenging our prevailling stories. And our worldview continues to shrink.

Consider how different your experience of the world might be if you engage in every activity with the attention you might give to landing a plane. There are those who approach the opportunities of each day like crossing items off a to-do list instead of truly engaging and participaiting with all of themselves. It's through deliberate action and repition that we gain deeper insight."
This book is a companion to anyone on the creative path.

"Little things, petty thinking, causes arguments.
So, to eliminate quarrels, eliminate petty thinking.
Ask yourself: "Is it really important?"

This book gets right down to the basic principles of how you should think about yourself and others in a positive way. Every chapter finishes with a review/ checklist and focuses your mind on future successes

The four-step playbook for getting better leads and bigger profits

"The first step towards gaining customers, increasing profit, driving growth, and attracting investors is your ability to secure warm leads. Scorecard marketing is the perfect tool to achieve this, attracting a steady stream of qualified leads and engaging with the right people."

This book provided great insights into marketing and consumer psychology in part 1. Then in part 2, it talked about a tool to implement the concepts mentioned earlier in the book.

A Guide to What Never Changes

"Stories are always more powerful than statistics.
The best story wins. Not the best idea, or the right idea, or the most rational idea. Just whoever tells a story that catches people's attention and gets them to nod their heads is the one who tends to be rewarded."

A Peak Performance Primer

"There's a little gap, no more than a millisecond, between the moment a thought arises and the moment our brain attaches en emotion to that thought. Once that feeling is attached, especially if it's negative, there's usually too much energy in the system to shut it down.
But if you can get into that gap between thought and emotion, you can replace a bad thought with a better one, neutralizing the stress response in the short term and reprogramming the brain in the long term."