Clarity: Business Wisdom to Work Less and Achieve More
FIND YOUR CLARITY AND SUCCESS WILL FIND YOU!
Clarity can mean different things to different people. For some, it arrives in the form of an answer or a direction. For others, it’s understanding the context of a complex situation. For most, however, clarity evokes a calm and focused state of mind with lower stress and diminished anxiety over what to do next.
As satisfying as it is to help people find clarity with their business problems, it’s far more rewarding to teach someone how to find their own clarity. That’s the purpose of this book – to describe how people can find the clarity to help manage, grow, and lead their businesses to greater success.
Any executive, leader, or owner can benefit from greater clarity regarding their business. Let Clarity show you how you can:
- Learn to quickly sift through distractions and address the real issues.
- Identify the core problems affecting your business and impeding your success.
- Develop the curiosity to destroy assumptions and find solutions.
- Enhance your awareness of the emotions and context that lead us astray.
- Improve your success with better sequencing, timing, and patience.
- Create Conscious Competence around the most impactful parts of your business.
- Develop your own Business Wisdom® to see the world clearly!
GROW WISER, WORK LESS, AND WIN BIG IN BUSINESS!
More info →Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life
Soul in the Game is a book of inspiring stories and hard-won lessons on how to live a meaningful life, crafted by investor and writer Vitaliy Katsenelson.
Drawing from the lives of classical composers, ancient Stoics, and contemporary thinkers, Katsenelson weaves together a tapestry of practical wisdom that has helped him overcome his greatest challenges: in work, family, identity, health―and in dealing with success, failure, and more.
Part autobiography, part philosophy, part creativity manual, Soul in the Game is a unique and vulnerable exploration of what works, and what doesn’t, in the attempt to shape a fulfilling and happy life.
More info →Life on the X: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Meeting Any Challenge with Courage, Confidence, and Readiness
Work, family, relationships—life is demanding. A high-stress situation, or being on the X where all the pressures converge, could be right around the corner. How will you confront it? Your ability to succeed in stressful and challenging situations and seize opportunities depends on how you show up to face these moments. When you’re up against obstacles, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed and underprepared. But the battles you face are won when you prepare for life on the X.
Life on the X shares strategies used by the world’s highest performers. In this guide, you will discover tactics that elite athletes, military special operators, and successful business leaders use to thrive under pressure and deliver world-class results.
You can triumph when you are deliberate in how you prepare for, execute, and assess your actions in the most important moments in your life. By learning the skills and methods of top-performers, you can meet the X with courage and confidence.
Are you ready to bring your A game to life?
More info →Naked at the Knife-Edge: What Everest Taught Me about Leadership and the Power of Vulnerability
Naked at The Knife-Edge, Vivian James Rigney’s compelling and often harrowing true account of summiting Everest, offers a unique window into lessons on leadership and what it takes to succeed in any circumstance.
Only a relatively small group of individuals has climbed the highest peak on each of the planet’s seven continents. Known as the Seven Summits, it is a feat that typically takes years and an enormous amount of planning, training, and effort, in some of the most inaccessible places on earth. But Vivian James Rigney was determined to do just that.
An executive coach and globally recognized authority on leadership and teamwork in business, Rigney relied on skills learned in the corporate world in addition to physical training to attempt these summits. Everest, his seventh and final peak, almost broke him. There, he and his team confronted wild storms lasting for days, near-vertical walls of ice, and a knife-edge ridge with fatal drops on either side. They endured avalanches, sub-zero temperatures, and tragedy unfolding around them. The roller coaster of pain, self-reflection, questioning, and above all, loneliness left Rigney with ego in tatters. It was then he discovered an awakening of what real purpose and legacy actually is.
This unique and powerful journey reveals critical wisdom for individuals and leaders in any circumstance, including how to:
- Overcome the ego trap and get out of your head
- Triage what you can and cannot control
- Harness your intuition
- Create shared purpose and real followership
- Tap into the power of vulnerability and authenticity
In Naked at the Knife-Edge, Rigney uniquely combines the hands-on and reflective approach of one of today’s most respected executive coaches with adventure and a raw and revealing personal story.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Learn how to:
- make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- design your environment to make success easier;
- get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
More info →Hangry: A Startup Journey
Hungry and tired one night, Mike wanted a pizza, but getting a pizza delivered was a pain in the neck. He didn’t want to call a million restaurants to see what was open. So, as an avid coder, he created GrubHub in his spare bedroom to figure out who delivered to his apartment. Then, armed with a $140 check from his first customer and ignoring his crushing college debt, he quit his job. Over the next decade, Mike grew his little delivery guide into the world’s premier online ordering website. In doing so, he entered the company of an elite few entrepreneurs to take a startup from an idea all the way to an IPO.
GrubHub’s journey from Mike’s bedroom to Wall Street doesn’t fit into how business schools teach entrepreneurship. In Hangry, he details step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups that Mike learned on the fly as he piloted GrubHub by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his hunt for financing dollars, cliffhanger acquisitions, the near collapse of his marriage, a brutally difficult merger, and a pair of tumultuous quit/unquit moments, all to steer the company to become one of the most successful startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals hard-won truths about how startups succeed—and even harder-won truths about how startups fail.
Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United States in search of balance. But eventually, the grand vistas of America bring the lessons of the past into focus, driving the realization that for entrepreneurs a hunger for success doesn’t end, and he starts another company, even more ambitious than the first.
More info →In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
We live in the age of speed. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. Since the Industrial Revolution shifted the world into high gear, the cult of speed has pushed us to a breaking point. Consider these facts: Americans on average spend seventy-two minutes of every day behind the wheel of a car, a typical business executive now loses sixty-eight hours a year to being put on hold, and American adults currently devote on average a mere half hour per week to making love.
Living on the edge of exhaustion, we are constantly reminded by our bodies and minds that the pace of life is spinning out of control. In Praise of Slowness traces the history of our increasingly breathless relationship with time and tackles the consequences of living in this accelerated culture of our own creation. Why are we always in such a rush? What is the cure for time sickness? Is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down? Realizing the price we pay for unrelenting speed, people all over the world are reclaiming their time and slowing down the pace -- and living happier, healthier, and more productive lives as a result. A Slow revolution is taking place.
Here you will find no Luddite calls to overthrow technology and seek a preindustrial utopia. This is a modern revolution, championed by cell-phone using, e-mailing lovers of sanity. The Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word -- balance. People are discovering energy and efficiency where they may have been least expected -- in slowing down.
In this engaging and entertaining exploration, award-winning journalist and rehabilitated speedaholic Carl Honoré details our perennial love affair with efficiency and speed in a perfect blend of anecdotal reportage, history, and intellectual inquiry. In Praise of Slowness is the first comprehensive look at the worldwide Slow movements making their way into the mainstream -- in offices, factories, neighborhoods, kitchens, hospitals, concert halls, bedrooms, gyms, and schools. Defining a movement that is here to stay, this spirited manifesto will make you completely rethink your relationship with time.
More info →Leadership in Balance: THE FULCRUM-CENTRIC PLAN for Emerging and High Potential Leaders
This book is written for the new manager or anyone who aspires to become a leader. Whether you have just finished school or have been working for some time, you are in (or about to assume) your first real leadership position. Leadership in Balance will help you to see and understand your natural tendency in each of four essential leadership domains.
Once you’ve identified your true and natural tendencies, you become self- aware of your default position as a leader. Armed with that knowledge, and as you become situationally aware of your team and the environment, you will learn to see when the situation demands a shift in order to find balance between you and the environment where you lead.
More info →The Mental Workbook: The Daily Program To Transform From Who You Are Into Who You Need To Be
The Mental Handbook is an award-winning book. But I realize the book itself wasn't enough.I realize it's not enough to simply tell you how to build Mental Toughness, Confidence & Discipline. I know my daily Work On Your Game Podcast, though the best in its category and a giant step in the right direction, isn't going to permanently change you by itself. I know for a fact that changing your life from the inside-out, starting with your mindset and how you see YOURSELF, isn’t a second-person job. No matter how much I talk to you, inspire and motivate you, nothing I say to you will have a much impact on your life as what YOU say to you. Which is why I created The Mental Workbook. Setting goals and working hard are requirements for achievement. Many people falsely believe that's all there is to it. If that’s all it takes, why are so few people successful? There’s more — much more — to you reaching all your goals than just having them and working every day. The Good News is, I know the exact formula for creating anything you want in life. I explain in detail how and why it works. I walk you through each step of the program. And, most importantly, I put you in position to do it yourself instead of just reading or hearing about it. This is the exact program I follow myself, still to this day. I guarantee that it works. And I DEMAND that you follow it. It’s called The Mental Workbook. Let’s start now.
More info →Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert's story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
In many ways, the messages of Rich Dad Poor Dad, messages that were challenged and criticized 25 ago, are more meaningful, relevant, and important today than ever.
Rich Dad Poor Dad...
• Explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
• Challenges the belief that your house is an asset
• Shows parents why they can't rely on the school system to teach their kids about money
• Defines once and for all an asset and a liability
• Teaches you what to teach your kids about money for their future financial success
Crucible Leadership: Embrace Your Trials to Lead a Life of Significance
For leaders who believe they may not be maximizing their leadership potential, Warwick Fairfax is the trusted leadership advisor who helps readers uncover their own unique path to living and leading with significance, effectiveness, and authenticity in all areas of life.
In Crucible Leadership, he shares the power of embracing the crucible moments: those past trials, failures, and setbacks that can be seen as either roadblocks or as jumping-off points to leading a life of significance and purpose dedicated to serving others. Crucible Leadership comes alive through the unique framework of Warwick’s own story: how his legacy shaped his worldview and drove decisions that eventually led to his own crucible moment. He demonstrates to readers in an honest, self-reflective way how they can make sense of their own talents and trials to lead with authenticity in all areas of life. Warwick empowers readers to become the leader they were designed to be through his unique perspective, which has been shaped by three powerful touchstones:
- Hard-won insights and honest, self-reflective lessons learned from his own crucible moment, and the long road back from it
- Inspiring and instructive stories from his rich and iconic family history
- Time-honored leadership truths proven out by history’s greatest and most inspirational figures
The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions
The training to become a fighter pilot is among the most competitive and difficult in the world with less than one-in-a-thousand succeeding. Pushing a cutting-edge jet to its limits at over 1,000 mph means that every split-second decision can have catastrophic consequences. This extreme environment has forged a group of warriors who for the last 50 years have been considered at the apex of decision-making theory and practice.
In The Art of Clear Thinking Hasard Lee distills what he’s learned during his career flying some of the Air Force’s most advanced aircraft. Through riveting storytelling―both from his time as a fighter pilot and fascinating turning points throughout history―Hasard relates to the audience in a compelling and accessible way that makes the book as entertaining as it is useful.
Hasard has used and taught these decision-making techniques across the full spectrum of human endeavor and proved their effectiveness both in the cockpit and the boardroom. Those who have already benefited include CEO’s, astronauts, CIA agents, students, parents, and many others. The Art of Clear Thinking is a book that will change how you interact with the world around you.
More info →Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company
Creating a culture of learning and growth.
Growth is the goal. Helping people develop their potential—enabling them to articulate and become the self they want to be, are capable of being, and that best serves them and others in the short and long term—is what we as individuals and leaders strive toward.
But how do we grow? It turns out it happens in a predictable way, which means we can understand where we are in our growth and chart a way forward. In this compact, complete guide, Whitney Johnson dives more deeply than ever into the S Curve of Learning so that you can envision how growth happens and direct yourself and others in your organization to create a culture that fosters it.
The growth and learning journey comes in three phases: the Launch Point, the Sweet Spot, and Mastery. Compelling examples of successful people will show you when and why growth is slow, how to keep going, what to do when growth and learning are almost too fast to keep up with, and how to leap from one growth journey to another.
As individuals grow, so do organizations and societies. Growth is learning put into action—action that betters the world as we better ourselves and our small niches, both personal and professional, within it. Growth occurs when learning is internalized—when we try something new and invest the effort to move it from being something we do to something we are.
More info →Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership
In organizations, as in life, human behavior is often irrational -- and problems do not easily lend themselves to the simplistic answers and gimmickry offered in the myriad business "self-help" books and management training programs available today. In Management of the Absurd, Richard Farson zeros in on the paradoxes of communication, the politics of management, and the dilemmas of change, exploring relationships within organizations and offering a unique perspective on the challenges managers face.
More info →Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems
Life is full of paradoxes. How can we each express our individuality while also being a team player? How do we balance work and life? How can we improve diversity while promoting opportunities for all? How can we manage the core business while innovating for the future?
For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty.
There's a better way.
In Both/And Thinking, Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis help readers cope with multiple, knotted tensions at the same time. Drawing from more than twenty years of pioneering research, they provide tools and lessons for transforming these tensions into opportunities for innovation and personal growth.
Filled with practical advice and fascinating stories—including firsthand tales from IBM, LEGO, and Unilever, as well as from startups, nonprofits, and even an inn at one of the four corners of the world—Both/And Thinking will change the way you approach your most vexing problems.
More info →Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus
In the current digital age, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to stay focused. Smartphones, tablets, smart watches, and other devices constantly vie for our attention. In both business and life, we are constantly bombarded with tweets, likes, mentions, and a constant stream of information. The inability to pay attention impacts learning, parenting, prioritizing, and leading. Not surprisingly, attention spans have gotten shorter. Already being pulled in a dozen directions every minute, managers and business leaders often struggle to address important issues and focus on everything that needs attention.
Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus teaches managers and leaders how to help themselves and others sharpen their focusing skills. In this follow-up to his first book Brief—the proven, step-by-step approach to clear, concise, and effective communication—author Joseph McCormack helps readers cut through the static and devote their attention to what is important. This engaging, informative book will help you:
- Apply effective, real-world techniques to hone your focus and reduce interference
- Learn the lessons taught to organizations such as Harley-Davidson, BMO Harris Bank, MasterCard, and the US Army
- Understand how modern technology can actually strengthen your focus if used correctly
- Avoid becoming a casualty of “weapons of mass distraction”
Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus is a valuable resource for leaders and managers seeking to develop laser-sharp focus and apply it to everything you do.
More info →Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
The only way to survive in business today is to be a lean communicator. Busy executives expect you to respect and manage their time more effectively than ever. You need to do the groundwork to make your message tight and to the point. The average professional receives 304 emails per week and checks their smartphones 36 times an hour and 38 hours a week. This inattention has spread to every part of life. The average attention span has shrunk from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight in 2012.
So, throw them a lifeline and be brief.
Author Joe McCormack tackles the challenges of inattention, interruptions, and impatience that every professional faces. His proven B.R.I.E.F. approach, which stands for Background, Relevance, Information, Ending, and Follow up, helps simplify and clarify complex communication. BRIEF will help you summarize lengthy information, tell a short story, harness the power of infographics and videos, and turn monologue presentations into controlled conversations.
- Details the B.R.I.E.F. approach to distilling your message into a brief presentation
- Written by the founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners, which specializes in message and narrative development, who is also a recognized expert in Narrative Mapping, a technique that helps clients achieve a clearer and more concise message
Long story short: BRIEF will help you gain the muscle you need to eliminate wasteful words and stand out from the rest. Be better. Be brief.
More info →How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters
“Piercingly frank, funny, gorgeous, vulnerable, and ultimately really damn helpful.”
― Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult
How to Begin is for you if…
You’re ambitious, but feel you’ve never been given full permission to find and strive for what’s possible for you.
You’ve achieved things in your career, and it’s now time to “climb the second mountain” and think about legacy.
You’re unhappy with how the world is working right now, and you want to change your part of it for the better.
You’re a coach, and you want to support your clients to be great and do great things.
You’re at the start of your adult life, and you’re fired up to live a life of meaning and impact.
You’re ready to begin, and to start doing something that matters.
We unlock our greatness by working on the hard things.
With The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier wrote the bestselling coaching book of the century. With The Advice Trap, he showed you how to tame your Advice Monster. Now, he’s here to help you reclaim your ambition, figure out what you should dothat matters… and begin.
This is your practical guide to finding the focus and courage to set a Worthy Goal: one that lights you up, compels you to grow, and serves a bigger game by being thrilling, important, and daunting.
With Michael’s trademark humor, compassion, and laser-focused clarity, you’ll walk through a tested process to:
- find and strengthen your Worthy Goal to the very best it can be;
- get absolutely clear on your commitment so you know what you’re up for;
- develop the resources to cross the threshold, so you don’t have to travel alone;
- build momentum, progress, and impact.
Don’t regret a life half-lived. Use this book to start doing something that matters.
***
“Piercingly frank, funny, gorgeous, vulnerable, and ultimately really damn helpful.”
― Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult
“Of particular appeal for those of us who instinctively recoil from self-help woo-woo and just want to get on with doing Great Work that leaves the world a bit better than we found it.”
― Courtney Hohne, chief storyteller for Moonshots, X (formerly Google X)
“A friendly voice and a guiding hand.”
― Austin Kleon, New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist
“Eminently practical, clever, delightful, and beautifully rendered––a non-fiction Where the Wild Things Are for adult dreamers and doers.”
― Whitney Johnson, bestselling author of Smart Growth and Disrupt Yourself
“I loved this book, and that’s coming from a gal who’s never been big on goals.”
― Liz Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of Impact Players and Multipliers
“Powerful, magical, and compelling. We don't need more time, we simply need to decide.”
― Seth Godin, author, The Practice
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.
Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky's nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre's latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man's hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
More info →When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man
Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower East Side, the wilds of Alaska, or the hills of Hollywood--he has found a way to put on a show and sell tickets at the door. "All life was a theater and I wanted to put it up on a stage," he writes. "I wanted to set the world under a marquee that read: 'Jerry Weintraub Presents.'"
In When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead, we follow Weintraub from his first great success at age twenty-six with Elvis Presley, whom he took on the road with the help of Colonel Tom Parker; to the immortal days with Sinatra and Rat Pack glory; to his crowning hits as a movie producer, starting with Robert Altman and Nashville, continuing with Oh, God!, The Karate Kid movies, and Diner, among others, and summiting with Steven Soderbergh and Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen.
Along the way, we'll watch as Jerry moves from the poker tables of Palm Springs (the games went on for days), to the power rooms of Hollywood, to the halls of the White House, to Red Square in Moscow and the Great Palace in Beijing-all the while counseling potentates, poets, and kings, with clients and confidants like George Clooney, Bruce Willis, George H. W. Bush, Armand Hammer, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, John Denver, Bobby Fischer . . .well, the list goes on forever.
And of course, the story is not yet over . . .as the old-timers say, "The best is yet to come."
As Weintraub says, "When I stop talking, you'll know I'm dead."
With wit, wisdom, and the cool confidence that has colored his remarkable career, Jerry chronicles a quintessentially American journey, one marked by luck, love, and improvisation. The stories he tells and the lessons we learn are essential, not just for those who love movies and music, but for businessmen, entrepreneurs, artists . . . everyone.
More info →Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
In little more than twenty-five years, Richard Branson spawned nearly a hundred successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), and others ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none. Many of his companies were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, "Don't do it." But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent.
In this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Branson has written his own "rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in his life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories, including:
- Crash-landing his hot-air balloon in the Algerian desert, yet remaining determined to have another go at being the first to circle the globe
- Signing the Sex Pistols, Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Boy George, and Phil Collins
- Fighting back when British Airways took on Virgin Atlantic and successfully suing this pillar of the British business establishment
- Swimming two miles to safety during a violent storm off the coast of Mexico
- Staging a rescue flight into Baghdad before the start of the Gulf War
And much more. Losing My Virginity is the ultimate tale of personal and business survival from a man who combines the business prowess of Bill Gates and the promotional instincts of P. T. Barnum.
More info →The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey
The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.
Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.
From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.
More info →Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression
The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization—and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of “progress.” Nowhere was the glitz and froth of the Roaring Twenties more excessive than in Florida. Here was Vegas before there was a Vegas: gambling was condoned and so was drinking, since prohibition was not enforced. Tycoons, crooks, and celebrities arrived en masse to promote or exploit this new and dazzling American frontier in the sunshine. Yet, the import and deep impact of these historical events have never been explored thoroughly until now.
In Bubble in the Sun Christopher Knowlton examines the grand artistic and entrepreneurial visions behind Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Miami Beach, and other storied sites, as well as the darker side of the frenzy. For while giant fortunes were being made and lost and the nightlife raged more raucously than anywhere else, the pure beauty of the Everglades suffered wanton ruination and the workers, mostly black, who built and maintained the boom, endured grievous abuses.
Knowlton breathes dynamic life into the forces that made and wrecked Florida during the decade: the real estate moguls Carl Fisher, George Merrick, and Addison Mizner, and the once-in-a-century hurricane whose aftermath triggered the stock market crash. This essential account is a revelatory—and riveting—history of an era that still affects our country today.
More info →Decision Points
George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.
Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor’s mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.
For the first time, we learn President Bush’s perspective and insights on:
• His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith
• The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials
• His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
• His administration’s counterterrorism programs, including the CIA’s enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program
• Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis
• His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge
• His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
• The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust
• Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements
A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American history—and on the man at the center of events.
More info →Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World).
“Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Praise for Dreams from My Father
“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow
“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here
“One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place
“Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman
Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success
The authors joined forces professionally when Kathy hired Shannon to be a member of her leadership team. This book describes the transformation they led to convert operations from traditional manufacturing to a lean enterprise.
Kathy (executive leader responsible for profitability) and Shannon (transformation leader) share the finer points of a comprehensive change process, the challenges and triumphs, and the real emotion involved during their quest for success. Each describes the professional journey from their unique perspective and the highlights of an endearing friendship that was formed along the way.
This story will inspire female leaders in any organization, showcasing an example of high-performing women thriving in an intense and fast-paced world. Kathy and Shannon are role models for those juggling intense, fulfilling careers, alongside life’s complexities such as dual-career marriages and raising children.
Their story provides a powerful case study of women supporting each other in the workplace to drive positive culture and significantly improved business results by leading with authenticity and inclusivity.
More info →Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff . . . and It’s All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life
Put challenges in perspective, reduce stress and anxiety through small daily changes, and find the path to achieving your goals with this groundbreaking inspirational guide—a self-help classic.
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and It's All Small Stuff is a book that tells you how to keep from letting the little things in life drive you crazy. In thoughtful and insightful language, author Richard Carlson reveals ways to calm down in the midst of your incredibly hurried, stress-filled life.
You can learn to put things into perspective by making the small daily changes Dr. Carlson suggests, including advice such as "Choose your battles wisely"; "Remind yourself that when you die, your 'in' box won't be empty"; and "Make peace with imperfection". With Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... you'll also learn how to:
- Live in the present moment
- Let others have the glory at times
- Lower your tolerance to stress
- Trust your intuitions
- Live each day as it might be your last
With gentle, supportive suggestions, Dr. Carlson reveals ways to make your actions more peaceful and caring, with the added benefit of making your life more calm and stress-free.
More info →We Need to Talk: 24 Simple Insights for Relationships
Do you want to create the relationship you have always desired? In her new book, Dr. Laura Bokar uses her thirty years of experience to share common issues that affect relationships and the practical approaches to resolve them. Whether you are married, planning to be, or are looking for a relationship, her practical insights will begin your journey to the loving relationship you want in your life.
In these pages, Dr. Laura presents twenty-four invaluable insights into difficulties people have at various stages of a relationship. Presented in an honest yet gentle way, you can use this book as a guide to examine behaviors, analyze actions, and resolve issues that may have created a barrier between you and your partner that you never realized existed. A new sense of hope and optimism will open the door to conversation with your partner using the Practical Insights and free downloadable worksheets listed at the end of each chapter.
More info →Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you?
All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It's not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than 80,000 companies have discovered what EOS can do.
In Traction, you'll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You'll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment. Successful companies are applying Traction every day to run profitable, frustration-free businesses—and you can too.
For an illustrative, real-world lesson on how to apply Traction to your business, check out its companion book, Get A Grip.
More info →The EOS Life: How to Live Your Ideal Entrepreneurial Life
The EOS Life will help you to discover, clarify, and customize the life you want to live: one where you do what you love every day, with the people you love doing it with—while at the same time making a huge difference and impact, getting compensated very well for doing it, and still having plenty of time to pursue other passions, hobbies, and interests that energize you.
From Gino Wickman, creator of the Traction Library, TheEOS Life will give you practical, real-world, time-tested tools and insights to maximize your productivity, vitality, happiness, and work-life balance.
This book is a must-read for all entrepreneurs and their leadership team members interested in living their ideal life.
Entrepreneurial Leap: Do You Have What it Takes to Become an Entrepreneur?
There's a lot on the line, and you have to ask yourself difficult questions: Do I have what it takes? Is it worth it? And how the hell do I do it?
You need answers, not bullshit. This book has them.
Entrepreneurial Leap: Do You Have What it Takes to Become an Entrepreneur? is an easy-to-use guide that will help you decide, once and for all, if entrepreneurship is right for you—because success as an entrepreneur depends on far more than just a great idea and a generous helping of luck.
In this three-part book, Gino Wickman, bestselling author of Traction, reveals the six essential traits that every entrepreneur needs in order to succeed, based on real-world startups that have reached incredible heights. If these traits ring true for you, you'll get a glimpse of what your life would look like as an entrepreneur. What's more, Wickman will help you determine what type of business best suits your unique skill set and provide a detailed roadmap, with tools, tips, and exercises, that will accelerate your path to startup success.
Packed with real-life stories and practical advice, Entrepreneurial Leap is a simple how-to manual for BIG results.
Should you take the leap toward entrepreneurship? Find out today and let tomorrow be the first step in your new journey, whatever shape it may take.
More info →Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters
Today, our nation is like a ship being tossed in tumultuous seas. The winds and waves of change have divided and distanced our society, threatening to wash away the very principles our nation was founded upon. Now more than ever, our nation needs leaders with the moral courage to stand strong and steady-leaders capable of uniting people in support of a shared purpose by building the trust and respect necessary for organizations and their people to thrive.
In Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass, Admiral Sandy Stosz draws upon her forty years of extensive experience and wisdom to provide tools that will help leaders reach their goals and succeed at every level. Character-centered, proven leadership principles emerge from these engaging, personal stories that teach leaders how to find, and then become, an inspiring mentor; implement successful diversity, inclusion, and equity programs; successfully lead in a complex environment; and much more.
Leaders eager to make a difference by helping people and organizations be their best will find Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters their go-to resource.
More info →Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest
You've shed antiquated systems and processes. You went all-in on digital. Your teams settled into new, often better, ways of doing things. But did your organization change enough to stay competitive in the post-pandemic world? Did you fully leverage the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leap forward and grow stronger? Are you shaping the new environment to your advantage?
More info →The Fabric of Character: Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue
Most traditional accounts of Aristotle's theory of ethical education neglect its cognitive aspects. This book asserts that, in Aristotle's view, excellence of character comprises both the sentiments and practical reason. Sherman focuses particularly on four aspects of practical reason as
they relate to character: moral perception, choicemaking, collaboration, and the development of those capacities in moral education. Throughout the book, she is sensitive to contemporary moral debates, and indicates the extent to which Aristotle's account of practical reason provides an
alternative to theories of impartial reason.
Making a Necessity of Virtue: Aristotle and Kant on Virtue
This book is the first to offer a detailed analysis of Aristotelian and Kantian ethics together, in a way that remains faithful to the texts and responsive to debates in contemporary ethics. Recent moral philosophy has seen a revival of interest in the concept of virtue, and with it a reassessment of the role of virtue in the work of Aristotle and Kant. This book brings that re-assessment to a new level of sophistication. Nancy Sherman argues that Kant preserves a notion of virtue in his moral theory that bears recognisable traces of the Aristotelian and Stoic traditions, and that his complex anthropology of morals brings him into surprising alliance with Aristotle. She develops her argument through close readings of major texts by both Aristotle and Kant, illustrating points of congruence and contrast.
More info →STOIC WARRIORS: THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE MILITARY MIND
While few soldiers may have read the works of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, it is undoubtedly true that the ancient philosophy known as Stoicism guides the actions of many in the military. Soldiers and seamen learn early in their training "to suck it up," to endure, to put aside their feelings and to get on with the mission.
More info →