Tuesday, May 19, 2015

24 Of The Most Popular Business Books In 2015 Summarized In One Sentence Each

This is a list of books you perhaps did not have opportunity to read yet, but that you will see mentioned again and again, many times over, in business magazine articles, blog articles and even other books. Are they any good? Well, some are. Some, made me laugh, or zone out.

Once you've read them you'll realize that there is basically just one strong idea each of these books tries to get across.

Perhaps buy and read ones that you think you will like, but if you do not, at least now you will know what basic idea of each book is. To me, most of it is common sense, and I actually read all of these, but it appears that to a lot of people things are not as obvious as they would benefit greatly from reading these books in entirety.

Clicking on a book name will take you to Amazon page for version of the book that I would recommend. However, there are multiple versions of some of these books, and in some cases my preferred version is no longer sold, so we have to settle for what is available.

Good example would be Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People, where I would prefer to offer you opportunity to acquire original 1936 version, as what is sold now is far too streamlined for my taste. Its still a good book, you just miss out on about a third they removed which, in my opinion, should be left in because it demonstrates different time Dale Carnegie lived in when he wrote the book, compared to now, 80 years later.

1. Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success

Givers (people who try to benefit others in their interactions) are the most successful people because they create long lasting business relationships.


2. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Brands only exist in mind of the consumer, so brands need to stand out and be different from one another.

3. How to Win Friends & Influence People

To succeed in business you have to network.

4. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Overconfidence leads to biases in decision making which leads to possibly inferior choices.

5. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Split up your long term goals into a series of short term goals which are easier to achieve to have a stress free life.

6. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Intelligence needs to be supplemented with self control and perseverance.

7. My Years with General Motors

Decentralization leads to innovation.

8. The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

Employees require small successes on daily basis to remain motivated.

9. Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

People are irrational.

10. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Introverts can be creative.

11. The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business

Only The Paranoid Survive.

12. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition

Reciprocity, Commitment, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity are the main  principles of persuasion.

13. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Long term success is not accidental nor luck.

14. The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harper Business Essentials)

Executive effectiveness can be learned.

15. Rework

You need lot less than you might think you need to succeed.

16. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Autonomy motivates more than other incentives.

17. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Fulfill customers needs with your business.

18. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Women are just as good in business as men.

19. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't

Technology and information overload both helps and hinders making accurate predictions.

20. The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: "On Robustness and Fragility" (Incerto)

Overconfidence leads to downfall.

21. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)

Smaller teams function better and are more productive.

22. Man's Search for Meaning

Meaning is main motivator of people.

23. Outliers: The Story of Success

Secret of success is all in the luck and timing. 

24. Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable--Includes new bonus chapter

You need to be unique.

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