Watch this video to find out the four great business books Jonathan recommends for business and personal growth.
I read a lot of books and I listen to a lot of audio books and I thought I’d share with you four that are favorites that I’ve read over the last probably four months. I’ve read quite a number of books in the last four months and I’d say this four stand out. I have a couple others but I’d go with these four.
This book here, The Rational Optimist, is an excellent book. I really liked this one. I think there is a risk if you read the news, and you listen to too much talk radio, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do either, but if you do, you predominantly hear the negatives because the negatives sell, the negatives make for great headlines which sell advertising which get the writers paid. As a result, it’s easy to get beat down and when you own a company, you need to stay optimistic. You need to look out into the future and try to guess where things are really going, not what everybody is telling you is going to happen because most of the time they’re wrong. This is a book that, like it’s title says, can give you some hope and reason to be optimistic by looking way back in the past and seeing how we got to where we are today. You may not agree with everything in it, no problem, but I think even if you disagree with parts of it, you’ll be able to walk away after reading the book with a new sense of optimism and being positive for all the technology and changes and everything that’s coming, and how it might affect your future, and the future of your business.
This book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, is an excellent book. This is a book that your entire team should read especially the management team. I would say that going through this book, I realized that many, many, many of the things that are in this book, are things I’ve worked on myself to become better at for probably fifteen plus years. Because I have learned some of these things from other articles, I’ve learned them from observation, I’ve learned them by just realizing that if I wanted to grow as a better business owner then I better perfect and improve different aspects of how I communicate and act and talk. This book will challenge you to continue to improve. If you want to be a CEO, manager, leader of your company, you want to grow a great company, this is a really, really excellent book to read. I recommend it.
This book, Essentialism, is another great book. Obviously all four of these are. Essentialism is a book that I describe as being about focus and simplicity…what is most important, not just in business but also in your personal life, in your family, and so many different aspects of your life. I found more success the more focused I’ve become, both in my business and across the number of businesses that I have. Often I see so many people that get frustrated with their one business and they want to start another and another and another. They think the solution is adding service lines, or adding more businesses. I’d argue that that’s probably not the case. I realize I have two businesses, but at one time I had four. I found success in doing a little bit less and focusing and being better. I fight the tendency to do more all the time and I wouldn’t say that I’ve nailed it, but as I’ve improved, things have become better and better. This is a good book and I think you’ll enjoy it.
This book is less of a business book. This one is a little bit more of a story. It’s a true story, and it’s written by a guy that passed away from cancer, I believe at 51, and he wrote the book I believe in the year preceding his death. It talks about his life what he’s going through as he knows that he’s dying and was preparing for that. He’s assessing the life that he lived. Great book. I read this book over about a period of a month. I usually read at night before I’d fall asleep. It took me a while to get through the book only because I read it so slow, but I really enjoyed it and I looked forward to reading it. I think you’ll find it to be a good book as well.
I hope you enjoy these four, if you choose to read them. If not, I’d really encourage you to at least be reading something that gives you energy, optimism, and new knowledge to become a better and different person.
