Best Leadership Books Recommended by World’s Top Entrepreneurs
Best Leadership Books Recommended by World’s Top Entrepreneurs
Best Leadership Books – recommended by the best entrepreneurs and managers
Are leaders born or made?
How is leadership correlated to authority?
What to look for to recognize the great leaders from the mediocre ones?
How can leaders identify and improve their skills?
Should they focus on their strengths or eliminating weaknesses?
What are their mental models, how do they make decisions? And, more importantly how do they make decisions when everything goes wrong?
What are the best practices in leadership? What happened to the leaders who decided to ignore such things and disrupt the industry they were working in? What about the most disastrous decision?
We are wondering about some of these questions as well. And we talk about it every week in our really good newsletter. You can see HERE one example and you can subscribe as well. So click here and subscribe! Now onto the list!
Driven by the mission to identify the best books about leadership, we looked into whose words influenced the most successful people in the world. What else to work as a better curation filter, right? By the way, did you know that Seth Godin (YES, THAT Seth Godin) has a Leadership Workshop available online? Click here to read more about it!
However, keep in mind that correlation is not the same thing with causation. Just because all the leaders in the world read and recommend the same books, doesn’t mean that by reading them you’ll become as successful as them (just as how dropping college won’t turn you into the next Mark Zuckerberg).
We identified three main types of books that will help you learn more about leadership:
Biographies. These are probably the most useful ones – not only you have practical examples of how leaders act and take decisions – both the good and the bad, but you can also peek over the thinking process behind them. Books written by leaders. These are also filled with valuable advice and tackle various subjects related to leadership. Fiction books. Yes, you can learn a lot about what makes a leader from fiction books as well.
You can find the whole list below. We’ll continue to update it as we identify more titles that shaped and influenced the actions of world’s leaders.
If you think there’s anything we missed and should be on the list, please use the comments section and let us know.
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11 Best Inspirational Books That Can Change Your Life
If you want to change your life, you are going to have to do things differently. And sometimes, you can look to inspirational books to create a positive change in your life.
If you desire change, you are going to have to step out of your comfort zone. As Anthony Robbins points out:
“All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief. You must feel deep in your gut that not only has this belief cost you pain in the past, but it’s costing you in the present and, ultimately, can only bring you pain in the future. Then you must associate tremendous pleasure to the idea of adopting an empowering new belief” — Anthony Robbins
In order to transform your life, you will experience discomfort and pain. Change can be a painful process, but the rewards of going through the change are priceless.
Before I focused on running my own Lifehack business, I was a full-time manager in a software company. I was offered another promotion after succeeding in a project. But I wasn’t thrilled about the opportunity. That was when I realized something wasn’t going quite right in my life. Why would I not be excited about such valuable opportunity? Wasn’t that what I wanted?
I felt like all these times my effort in my job was wasted because it didn’t seem to be what I wanted most for my life.
I was lost and didn’t know what to do, so I started to look for ways to get out of the rut. The shrinking free time remaining was spent poring over hundreds of books about motivation, productivity and communication.
And through reading, I found my purpose in life and how to break free from my limitations to live the life I truly want.
Benefits of Reading Inspirational Books
Motivation plays an important role in helping you achieve your biggest goals. Inspirational books create optimism and positivity in your life. They boost confidence and enable you to develop a positive outlook. Reading books will help you realize how powerful you are.
As you are going to see, there are lots of successful authors who have written inspiring and motivating books to transform your life. Some of the benefits that you’ll enjoy by reading the best inspirational books include:
Living in the now
Most of the time, we spend a lot of time and energy thinking about our past or what might happen in the future that we forget to live in the present moment. Reading a good inspirational book will solve this problem immediately. Living in the past won’t change anything.
Worrying about your future will only make you anxious and powerless. All you have is the present moment. Reading a few pages of the best inspirational books will transform your reality. Life is in the present moment. Make every moment count. Let these books add color and meaning to your life.
You’ll create your destiny
Life changing books help you realize that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. They help you take control of your life.
Only people who care about you will influence you to avoid feeling powerless or like a victim. You need to rise and get to work to make your dreams a reality. Inspirational books will empower you and boost your confidence.
You’ll understand people
Books are treasures that help you understand emotions, feelings, and other important aspects of human relationships. Your success in life is highly influenced by the quality of your relationships.
Motivational books help you learn how to nurture relationships by understanding people. By understanding people clearly, setting boundaries, and forgiving them, you’ll get to create meaningful and lasting relationships.
You’ll feel strengthened
No therapy, movie, or food will make you feel courageous and happy than a good inspirational book. Reading several pages, a day will help you feel hopeful and strengthen you to keep on keeping on.
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When you are feeling awful, you need someone to hear you out without judgment. Filling your words with motivation and wisdom will reassert your confidence and self-worth. Best motivational books will help you get through obstacles, and give you the motivation that you need to succeed.
You’ll never feel lonely
In human life, struggle, anxiety, and depression are inevitable. During such times, most people isolate themselves and suffer alone. If you’ve ever felt lonely, you probably know that it is not the best feeling in the world.
When you have books that will change your life, you’ll never feel isolated. By reading a few pages every day, you’ll start feeling like you have someone who listens to and understands you. You’ll feel less anxious and peaceful as you move towards your goals.
You’ll learn from your mistakes
Making mistakes is part of life. You cannot move forward if you don’t make mistakes. However, a huge mistake can create a negative outlook on your life. To avoid this, you should read inspirational books to become optimistic. Books that change your life will help you realize the importance of making mistakes and learning from them.
11 Inspirational Books That Can Change Your Life
Here’re the 11 motivational books that will inspire your life:
1. Awaken The Giant Within, by Anthony Robbins
The inspirational message from this book is how you have the power right now to control how you think, how you feel, and what you do. Anything you want or desire in your life, you already have the power to achieve it.
“You and I have that same power at our disposal every moment of the day. At the moment, the questions that we ask ourselves can shape our perception of who we are, what we’re capable of, and what we’re willing to do to achieve our dreams” – Anthony Robbins
Print | eBook | Audiobook
2. Screw It Lets Do It: Lessons in Life, by Richard Branson
Reading other people’s stories about their journeys in life can give you better perspective of what the journey of change can be about. Richard Branson is into reinvention and as a result, he embraces change.
This book will fuel your enthusiasm to give things a go. It will show you how to sort out the self-limiting beliefs that stop you from stepping up and taking on the challenge of change.
“As soon as something stops being fun, I think it’s time to move on. Life is too short to be unhappy. Waking up stressed and miserable is not a good way to live” – Richard Branson
Print | eBook | Audiobook
3. The Art of Happiness, by Dalai Lama
There is not a person I know who is not in the pursuit of happiness.
“The Art of Happiness” is a book that will encourage you to practice the discipline of self-reflection. The more you reflect on your life, the deeper you look into your inner self (your soul). This is where you discover what happiness truly means to you.
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Knowing what happiness means to you, gives you purpose. With purpose, you’ll have clarity, focus, and a vision. These are the foundations that will empower you to embark on the journey to change your life.
“Both these people illustrate the essential point that happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by external events.” – Dalai Lama
Print | eBook | Audiobook
4. The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz
“The Four Agreements” are Don Miguel’s code for life.
“The Four Agreements” provide an inspirational code for life, for the way you handle your relationships, how you behave, and how you communicate with others. If you want to change your life, read “The Four Agreements”. This book will show you how to attain a happy fulfilled life.
“If you live in a past dream, you don’t enjoy what is happening right now because you will always wish it to be different than it is. There is no time to miss anyone or anything because you are alive. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self pity, suffering and tears.” – Don Miguel Ruiz
Print | eBook | Audiobook
5. The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J Schwartz
According to Dr Schwartz, to create change in your life and to attain all that you desire, you need to change your thinking and your attitude.
The importance of preparing your mind and your thinking for the journey of personal change is the key message of this book.
“Those who believe they can move mountains, do. Those who believe they can’t, cannot. Belief triggers the power to do.” – David J. Schwartz.
Print | eBook | Audiobook
6. The Full Life Framework – The Essential Guide, Leon Ho
Rather than a book that I’ve read, this is actually a book that I’ve written.
Back in 2005, I was a new entrepreneur trying to grow my aspiring blog Lifehack, which is what you’re now reading, into a real business and career. As it turns out, growing a business from scratch, while managing thousands of readers… while starting a family was a pretty tough balancing act. In my quest for success, I almost lost everything in the process.
Through it all, I learned a crucial, valuable, life-changing lesson — balancing your life for the sake of balance will get you nowhere.
In fact, when we try to “balance” everything… what happens instead is that we lose ourselves. We lose touch of what really matters.
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In this book, I will share my experience in trying to balance different life aspects so as to achieve the kind of success that I want. I will also share with you what actually takes to live a “Full Life,” so when you’re struggling like I did, you can try my tested method to live a happy and successful life on your own term.
If you order this book on our site now, you can get it for free! Grab your free copy here.
7. Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How To Create A New You, by Deepak Chopra
Deepak Chopra believes that personal transformation not only involves the mind, but also your body and soul. According to Chopra, you cannot transform your mind without transforming your body and soul.
Reading this book will encourage you to think about the potential energy force and power you hold within you. This energy grows when you are connected and aligned to your mind, body, and soul.
“The key to transformation is that you create the change you want to see in yourself.” – Deepak Chopra
Print | eBook | Audiobook
8. The Greatest Salesman In The World, by Og Mandino
This little classic has been around since 1968. Have you ever wondered what truly successful people have in common?
This book doesn’t really tell you how to be a great salesperson. It will; however, give you some fantastic tips on how to be an entrepreneur, how to self-motivate, and how to think like a successful person.
The underlying message is the power of positive thinking – that you become what you think, say, and do. This book has great tactics for those of us in the process of change.
“My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action.” – Og Mandino
Print | eBook | Audiobook
9. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson
This book helps you to manage the small stuff in your life that is usually creating the most pain in your life. This very supportive book is full of great practical suggestions on how you can live a more joyful and peaceful life.
“True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice, and to learn.” – Richard Carlson
Print | Audiobook
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10. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip & Dan Heath
Have you ever tried to lose weight or get fit and never reached your goal? You know that you have to make changes in your life, but you don’t know how?
If you are nodding in agreement, then you need to read “Switch“. If I had to recommend one book that shows you how to create and maintain lasting change in your life – then it would be “Switch“.
In this book, Chip and Dan share the Secret as to how you can create and sustain change in your life.
Hint: It has something to do with knowing how to “Direct The Rider”, “Motivate The Elephant”, and “Shape the Path.”
This book, without a doubt, will show you how to change your life.
“When you’re at the beginning, don’t obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.” – Chip & Dan Heath
Print | eBook | Audiobook
11. The Gifts of Imperfection, by Brene Brown
Do you ever feel that you are just not worthy enough, intelligent enough, or courageous enough to live a fulfilled happy life?
Do you have secret dreams that you hold deep inside of you that you don’t share in case someone thinks they are silly? Or are you too scared to follow your dreams because you fear that you may fail?
Brene Brown’s book, “The Gifts of Imperfection”, will show you how to find your courage, as well as rediscover your self-belief and self-worth.
This is the book that will get you prepared to embark on your journey of change. “The Gifts of Imperfection” is about you learning how to let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are.
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy — the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” – Brene Brown
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Bottom Line
These 11 books were key to helping me change my life. I rediscovered my purpose and my strength. I hope that by reading these books, you will find the same inspiration and motivation to your challenges in life.
Featured photo credit: Thought Catalog via