Business or Personal Development Books
Every Business Owner Should Read 

All the links are Amazon affiliate links and we may earn a commission if you purchase something.

Outwitting the Devil
By Napoleon Hill

“Napoleon Hill was one of America’s great, influential thinkers who continues to have an enormous impact today.” – Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine

Bestselling author Napoleon Hill reveals the seven principles of good that allow us to triumph over obstacles… and find success.

Using his legendary ability to get to the root of human potential, Napoleon Hill digs deep to reveal how fear, procrastination, anger, and jealousy prevent us from realizing our personal goals. This long-suppressed parable, once considered too controversial to publish, was written by Hill in 1938 following the publication of his classic bestseller, Think and Grow Rich. Annotated and edited for a contemporary audience by Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Three Feet from Gold coauthor Sharon Lechter, this book is profound, powerful, resonant, and rich with insight.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Think and Grow Rich
By Napoleon Hill 

“Think and Grow Rich” is a motivational personal development and selfhelp audiobook written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion from Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie. 

While the title implies that this book deals only with how to achieve monetary wealth, the author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help individuals do or be almost anything they want in this world. For instance, Jim Murray (sportswriter) wrote that “Think and Grow Rich” was credited for Ken Norton’s boxing upset of Muhammad Ali in 1973. 

The book was first published in 1937 during the Great Depression. At the time of Hill’s death in 1970, “Think and Grow Rich” had sold 20 million copies. It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill’s books, a perennial bestseller after 70 years (BusinessWeek Magazine’s BestSeller List ranked “Think and Grow Rich” as the sixth bestselling paperback business book 70 years after it was first published). 

“Think and Grow Rich” is listed in John C. Maxwell’s “A Lifetime Must Read Books List”.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Contagious
By Jonah Berger

Why do certain products and ideas go viral? Dynamic young Wharton professor Jonah Berger draws on his research to explain the six steps that make products or ideas contagious. 

Why do some products get more word of mouth than others? Why does some online content go viral? Word of mouth makes products, ideas, and behaviours catch on. It’s more influential than advertising and far more effective. 

Can you create word of mouth for your product or idea? According to Berger, you can. Whether you operate a neighbourhood restaurant, a corporation with hundreds of employees, or are running for a local office for the first time, the steps that can help your product or idea become viral are the same. 

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


The Firm of the Future
By Paul Dunn and Ronald J. Baker 

Provides accountants in small and medium sized firms the tool to expand services beyond attest and compliance functions. 

  • Shows how to transition to other professional services that clients value. 
  • Provides a pro-forma business plan for mapping a three to five year plan for the transition to a successful practice. 
  • Positions consulting as an extension to traditional services, not just an alternative. 
  • Includes many real world examples of accountants who have made a successful transition to new services, discussing the challenges and the results achieved. 
  • Focuses on quality of life issues and how to get there. 

Kindle Edition
Hardcover


The Culture Code
By Daniel Coyle 

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? 

In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind.

Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture.

Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded. 

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Eat That Frog!
By Brian Tracy 

Stop Procrastinating. Get More of the Important Things Done—Today! 

There just isn’t enough time for everything on our to-do list—and there never will be. Successful people don’t try to do everything. They learn to focus on the most important tasks and make sure those get done. They eat their frogs. 

There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re done with the worst thing you’ll have to do all day. For Tracy, eating a frog is a metaphor for tackling your most challenging task—but also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life. Eat That Frog! shows you how to organize each day so you can zero in on these critical tasks and accomplish them efficiently and effectively. 

In this fully revised and updated edition, Tracy adds two new chapters. The first explains how you can use technology to remind yourself of what is most important and protect yourself from what is least important. The second offers advice for maintaining focus in our era of constant distractions, electronic and otherwise. 

But one thing remains unchanged: Brian Tracy cuts to the core of what is vital to effective time management: decision, discipline, and determination. This life-changing book will ensure that you get more of your important tasks done—today! 

Kindle Edition
Hardcover


CPA Firm Mergers and Acquisitions
By Joel L. Sinkin and Terrence E. Putney 

Chances are you’re looking to buy, sell, or merge your CPA firm. Owners at firms of all sizes are seeking solutions to fund retirements or grow their practices. And, CPA firm M&A activity is only going to increase in the coming years —new deals are announced almost daily. 

Fortunately, there are steps you can take right now to position you and your firm for success. Written with both buyers and sellers in mind, this comprehensive resource aims to ensure that both parties to a transaction achieve their goals. 

Authors and transition experts Joel Sinkin and Terrence Putney demonstrate that it is possible to arrive at a reasonable deal where retiring partners are paid a satisfying price for the practice they’ve built, remaining partners make more than they did before, and new owners take on a practice that is poised for continuing success and potential growth. 

Paperback


The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
By Mike Michalowicz 

“Never started a company before? Struggling with little or no cash? Have no experience, no baseline to judge your progress against? Thank God! You’ve got a shot at making this work.”

So says Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, a business book that is so uniquely useful, so raw and entertaining, it reads like the brainchild of Steve Jobs and Chris Rock.

The founder of three multimillion-dollar companies, including Obsidian Launch, a company that partners with first-time entrepreneurs to grow their concepts into industry leaders, Mike Michalowicz knows what it really takes to spin your great idea into pure gold.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been at this for years, Mike’s “get real” approach to business is a much-needed, swift kick in the pants. In this book, you’ll discover:

  • Why a business plan is a total waste of your time
  • Why fulfilling your own needs is the first and last order of business
  • Which three sheets of paper you need to successfully launch, manage, and grow your business
  • How to get started in business with little or no money
  • How to find and exploit resources that no one else knows about
  • How to stop procrastinating and take action NOW!

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Take Charge of Your Life
By Jim Rohn 

The Jim Rohn Philosophy: Take Charge of Your Life

“When talking about personal success, I like to ask four questions. Why? Why not? Why not you? Why not now?” Why not acquire the means to travel first class through life, to see the Mona Lisa firsthand, to swim the crystal waters of the Bahamas, to sample the food in Paris or Africa? Why not do it all? There’s really nothing like a view from the top. 

Recorded before a live audience, this very illustrative program will teach you: 

  • How to make your life better by making some small but significant changes 
  • How to become more influential, wealthy, and powerful 
  • How to transform responses into results 
  • How to communicate effectively with everyone you meet 
  • How to choose your attitude 
  • How to affect people with words 
  • How to control your emotions 
  • How to be persuasive 
  • How to refine your sales abilities and leadership skills 
  • How to make the past more valuable 
  • How to be prepared for the inevitable 
  • How to study and analyze possibilities

Audible Audiobook


Lead The Field
By Earl Nightingale 

The Jim Rohn Philosophy: Take Charge of Your Life

Profit from the “Program of Presidents” in Lead the Field.

Hundreds of thousands of people have profited from the wisdom and savvy of Lead the Field

In fact, Lead the Field has often been referred to as the “Program of Presidents” because so many top executives have incorporated Earl’s guidance and wisdom into their management philosophies. 

When you listen to this landmark program you’ll be awestruck by the simplicity and timelessness of Earl Nightingale’s words and ideas. 

  • Double your mental capability. 
  • Recognize and easily overcome the biggest stumbling block to high achievement. 
  • Dramatically improve your luck by changing one simple thing. 
  • Make success unavoidable with an easy three-minute-a-day exercise. 
  • Assess your potential worth, and start increasing it now. 

Earl Nightingale grew up in California during the Great Depression. Because his family was very poor, Earl educated himself in his local library. His main focus: what makes people turn out the way they do, in terms of their wealth, their career achievements and their happiness. 

After beginning his career in the US Marines during World War II, Earl was hired as a radio announcer. He eventually became a popular daily broadcaster for CBS. Through his interest in both personal development and audio, he partnered with Lloyd Conant to form the Nightingale-Conant Corporation. At Nightingale-Conant, he focused on recording the ideas and lessons about success that he studied throughout his life.

Audible Audiobook
Hardcover


The Third Door
By Alex Banayan 

Forbes #1 Career Book to Read in 2018
The National Best Seller

The larger-than-life journey of an 18-year-old college freshman who set out from his dorm room to track down Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, and dozens more of the world’s most successful people to uncover how they broke through and launched their careers. 

The Third Door takes listeners on an unprecedented adventure – from hacking Warren Buffett’s shareholders meeting to chasing Larry King through a grocery store to celebrating in a nightclub with Lady Gaga – as Alex Banayan travels from icon to icon, decoding their success. After remarkable one-on-one interviews with Bill Gates, Maya Angelou, Steve Wozniak, Jane Goodall, Larry King, Jessica Alba, Pitbull, Tim Ferriss, Quincy Jones, and many more, Alex discovered the one key they have in common: they all took the Third Door. 

Life, business, success…it’s just like a nightclub. There are always three ways in. There’s the First Door: the main entrance, where 99 percent of people wait in line, hoping to get in. The Second Door: the VIP entrance, where the billionaires and celebrities slip through. But what no one tells you is that there is always, always… the Third Door. It’s the entrance where you have to jump out of line, run down the alley, bang on the door 100 times, climb over the dumpster, crack open the window, sneak through the kitchen – there’s always a way in. Whether it’s how Bill Gates sold his first piece of software or how Steven Spielberg became the youngest studio director in Hollywood history, they all took the Third Door.

Audible Audiobook
Hardcover


Building a StoryBrand
By Donald Miller

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions.

If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue.

In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers.

The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.

In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses.

His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you:

  • The seven universal story points all humans respond to;
  • The real reason customers make purchases;
  • How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and
  • How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media.

Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

Audible Audiobook
Hardcover


The Traveler’s Gift
By Andy Andrews

The Traveler’s Gift effectively combines self-help with fiction… sustaining momentum while simultaneously passing on instructions for positive thinking… an exemplary job at providing positive suggestions for overcoming life’s obstacles.” – Publishers Weekly

“Andy Andrews will challenge you to reach your fullest potential.” – John C. Maxwell, Founder, The INJOYTM Group

The Traveler’s Gifttouched me in a way no other book ever has.” – Barbara Johnson, Humorist and Best-Selling Author

Only a few months ago, he was a successful executive. Now he’s a desperate man. But a divine adventure is about to unfold. Join David Ponder on an incredible journey that will help you discover the Seven Decisions for Success.

In the tradition of best-selling books by Og Mandino, The Traveler’s Gift is destined to become a classic.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Blink
By Malcolm Gladwell

From the #1 bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, the landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making.

In his breakthrough bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant–in the blink of an eye–that actually aren’t as simple as they seem.

Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work–in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance.

Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”–filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Good To Great
By Jim Collins

Built To Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. 

But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? Are there those that convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? If so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

Over five years, Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don’t. The findings include:

  • Level 5 Leadership: A surprising style, required for greatness.
  • The Hedgehog Concept: Finding your three circles, to transcend the curse of competence.
  • A Culture of Discipline: The alchemy of great results.
  • Technology Accelerators: How good-to-great companies think differently about technology.
  • The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Why those who do frequent restructuring fail to make the leap.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Born to Win
By Zig Ziglar

Zig has poured all of his best insights into one book, Born to Win. This is absolutely a must-read for anyone in business or anyone who just wants a better life!
—Dave Ramsey, Host of The Dave Ramsey Show, Best-selling author of The Total Money Makeover

As the last book written by the late Zig Ziglar, he will reveal your surest path to success and help your untapped greatness become visible. After writing more than thirty books, nine of which are best sellers, Zig again delivers life changing wisdom.

For more than 50 years, in a style that is unquestionably his own, Zig Ziglar has used his quick wit, down-home charm, and abundance of energy to inspire excellence in people throughout the world. In Born to Win, Zig’s nonstop passion inspires and informs as Zig speaks to you as if you’re sitting front-row center in his sold-out seminar. In Born to Win you’ll learn:

  • To achieve balance by becoming a more complete person in seven key areas of your life 
  • How to develop and maintain a winner’s attitude and use it to achieve significant personal growth 
  • How to build stronger professional and personal relationships using your own unique behavioral style 
  • How to become a better leader, parent, and employee by learning the art of effective communications 
    And much more!

“It’s going to be the most fun and exciting trip you’ll ever take. It’s filled with more promise of reward than King Solomon’s mines. In short, this journey to the top, which you are going to be taking, is a tremendously exciting trip.”
—Zig Ziglar

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


The Noticer
By Andy Andrews

New York Times bestseller! From the author of The Traveler’s Gift comes a story of common wisdom based on the remarkable true story of “Jones,” a mysterious old man who has a knack for showing up in people’s lives at just the right time, providing priceless lessons about love, life, and the importance of perspective.

Orange Beach, Alabama, is a simple town filled with simple people. But like all humans on the planet, the good folks of Orange Beach have their share of problems—marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, businesspeople on the verge of bankruptcy, as well as the many other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses.

These situations can seem like dead ends, but to an old drifter named Jones with a gift for seeing what others miss, there is no such thing as a dead end. It only takes a little “perspective,” he says, to recognize the miracles in our moments, the seeds of greatness tucked into our struggles.

Appearing when things look darkest, the mysterious, elderly man with white hair carrying a battered old suitcase shows up when he’s needed most. “Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely,” he says.  “Don’t squander your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond measure… and they matter forever.”

The Noticer will provide you with:

  • A better understanding of life’s challenges and proper perspective for tackling them
  • Practical yet powerful methods of motivation, encouragement, and resolve for those struggling
  • A fresh and insightful perspective on how people can change their view of the world, find strength, and move beyond their problems

Based on a remarkable true story, The Noticer beautifully blends fiction and allegory in an entertaining and inspiring instruction manual for better living. The story of Jones continues in The Noticer Returns and Just Jones.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Customer Dreams
By Alex Glassey

Conventional business thinking causes small businesses to underperform and fail.
Which is tragic, because it’s so unnecessary.

Customer Dreams uses a wonderful story and a step-by-step guide to show you how a simple shift in thinking increases the creativity, innovation and profitability of any small business.

Customer Dreams tells you to forget all the conventional business advice you’ve heard. You know, the stuff that tells you to listen to what customers want and then deliver it. With a cherry on top.
It’s nonsense.

That advice inevitably leads you into a hyper-competitive “transaction box” that squeezes out your profit, your creativity, and your success.
Ain’t no cherries there.

That’s because there’s a fundamental conflict at the heart of all your customer relationships:
You want to get more cash.
They want to spend 
less cash.
This is a zero-sum game. And your customer controls the cash so it’s a game you’re going to lose.

There’s only one thing left to do: you need to change the game.

Customer Dreams will inspire and entertain you. But this is serious stuff, so you’ll also learn:

  • HOW a small business gets caught in the “transaction box”.
  • The BENEFITS of escaping the “transaction box”.
  • A step-by-step GUIDE that will make YOUR business more creative, more innovative, and more profitable.

Customer Dreams evolved out of Alex Glassey’s extensive experience with thousands of business owners in over 100 countries. It’s easy-to-read. It’s practical. And it works.

Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Purple Cow
By Seth Godin

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice. What do Starbucks and JetBlue and KrispyKreme and Apple and DutchBoy and Kensington and Zespri and Hard Candy have that you don’t? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last? 

Face it, the checklist of tired P’s marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed – Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few -aren’t working anymore. There’s an exceptionally important P that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow. Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or 10, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something.

Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat-out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff – a lot of brown cows – but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It’s built right in, or it’s not there. Period.

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 30th Anniversary Edition
By Sean Covey

New York Times best seller – over 40 million copies sold.
The Number One Most Influential Business Book of the 20th Century.

One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated people for nearly three decades. It has transformed the lives of presidents and CEOs, educators, and parents – millions of people of all ages and occupations. Now, this 30th anniversary edition of the timeless classic commemorates the wisdom of the seven habits with modern additions from Sean Covey. 

The seven habits have become famous and are integrated into everyday thinking by millions and millions of people. Why? Because they work! 

With Sean Covey’s added takeaways on how the habits can be used in our modern age, the wisdom of the seven habits will be refreshed for a new generation of leaders. 

They include:

  • Habit one: Be proactive
  • Habit two: Begin with the end in mind
  • Habit three: Put first things first
  • Habit four: Think win/win
  • Habit five: Seek first to understand, then to be understood
  • Habit six: Synergize
  • Habit seven: Sharpen the saw 

This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity – principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Audible Audiobook


The Advantage
By Patrick Lencioni

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, Lencioni brings together his vast experience and many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books and delivers a first: a cohesive and comprehensive exploration of the unique advantage organizational health provides. 

Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified. Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave. Lencioni’s first non-fiction book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health – complete with stories, tips and anecdotes from his experiences consulting to some of the nation’s leading organizations. In this age of informational ubiquity and nano-second change, it is no longer enough to build a competitive advantage based on intelligence alone. The Advantage provides a foundational construct for conducting business in a new way – one that maximizes human potential and aligns the organization around a common set of principles.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


The Ideal Team Player
By Patrick M. Lencioni 

In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player.

In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. 

Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players.  Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Talking to Crazy
By Mark Goulston MD 

How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life.

Let’s face it: We all know people who are irrational. No matter how hard you try to reason with them, it never works. So what’s the solution? How do you talk to someone who’s out of control? What can you do with a boss who bullies, a spouse who yells, or a friend who frequently bursts into tears? 

In his book Just Listen, Mark Goulston shared his best-selling formula for getting through to the resistant people in your life. Now, in his breakthrough new book Talking to Crazy, he brings his communication magic to the most difficult group of all – the downright irrational. As a psychiatrist, Goulston has seen his share of crazy, and he knows from experience that you can’t simply argue it away. The key to handling irrational people is to learn to lean in to the crazy – to empathize with it. That radically changes the dynamic and transforms you from a threat into an ally. 

Talking to Crazy explains this counterintuitive Sanity Cycle and reveals: 

  • Why people act the way they do 
  • How instinctive responses can exacerbate the situation and what to do instead 
  • When to confront a problem and when to walk away 
  • How to use a range of proven techniques including Time Travel, the Fish-bowl, and the Belly Roll 
  • And much more 

You can’t reason with unreasonable people – but you can reach them. This powerful and practical book shows you how.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Hardcover


Leaders Eat Last
By Simon Sinek 

Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. As Simon Sinek noticed in his travels around the world, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. Some of these teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other.

As he did in Start with Why, Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories from a wide range of fields.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Paperback


The Big Leap
By Gay Hendricks

“Gay Hendricks is a great role model for true success. He enjoys abundance and a deep connection with his own spiritual essence, and at the same time has lived for three decades in a thriving marriage. Now, he shows us how to do it for ourselves.”
— Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Cracking the Millionaire Code

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Paperback


Talking to crazy

Talking to ‘Crazy’
By Mark Goulston

No matter how hard you try to reason with irrational people, it never works. So how do you talk to someone who just won’t listen? You can’t win by ignoring the insanity, and you can’t argue it away. However, you can stop it cold.

Top-ranked psychiatrist and communication expert Mark Goulston shows you just how to do so in this life-changing book for everyone trapped in maddening personal or professional relationships.

Goulston unlocks the mysteries of the irrational mind, and explains how faulty thinking patterns develop. His keen insights are matched by a set of counterintuitive strategies proven to defuse crazy behavior, along with scripts, examples, and exercises that teach you how to use them. 

Audible Audiobook
Kindle Edition
Paperback


One of your favourite Business
or Personal Development book didn’t make this list?