Read your way to success

Read your way to success

Entrepreneurs need to constantly reinvent their business and keep their teams spirited. Learning from the gurus is an excellent way to effectively strategise business decisions, revive that spark called profit and deliver exceptional quality. Here are five books that have literally changed the game of business and can change the mind-set of any entrepreneur. These five books mould and fine tune your perception of business, take your business to great heights and boost your personal development.

 The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: First published in 1989, it has since sold 25 million copies worldwide. This book truly revolutionised the approach to personal and professional management. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls ‘true north’ principles of a character that are universal and timeless. The powerful lessons in the book can assuredly change an individual’s personality from reaction to proaction and from ‘doing things right’ to ‘doing the right things’. The book consists an elucidation of seven practices of any effective leader and a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and touching anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, 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. It must be pointed out that this book is not for those looking for a shortcut route to success but teaches a steady transformational approach to life and business.

 The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino: This book serves as a guide to a philosophy of salesmanship and success, telling the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who achieves a life of abundance.  A parable set in the time just prior to Christianity, The Greatest Salesman In The World weaves mythology with spirituality into a much needed message of inspiration. The book was first published in 1968. Mandino believes that to be a good salesperson, you must believe in yourself and the work you are doing. Mandino’s clear, simple writing style supports his purpose-to make the principles of marketing known to a wide audience, especially those who close sales for living. If Mandino’s suggested reading structure is followed, it would take about 10 months to read the book and emerge successful in the field of business.

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson: This book of around a hundred pages tells a story recounting three techniques of an effective manager: one-minute goals, one minute praising and one minute reprimands. Each of these takes only a minute but is purportedly of lasting benefit. The book published in the year 1982, has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. The One Minute Manager is a highly recommended book for leaders and managers and those who may be responsible for collective productivity of their team. The message is clear and the techniques though easy to implement give astonishing results as far as team productivity is concerned. The book is an effective tool to develop leadership at the workplace.

 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Though first published in 2008, Outliers:The Story Of Success has created a sensational buzz in the field of personal development, entrepreneurial success and among business academicians. Gladwell takes the readers on an intellectual journey through the world of ‘outliers’, the best, the brightest and the most successful geniuses and puts a question across the readers ‘What makes them different?'. His outliers include The Beatles, Bill Gates, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Outliers has helped individuals learn the measure of effort and opportunity required to achieve something worthy. This book is supposedly very much recommended for budding entrepreneurs and those who wish to learn the ways of geniuses and skyrocket to success in their respective fields.

 Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill: This is one of those books that are written to transform a generation. Having sold 70 million copies since 1937, this book enjoys immense popularity and is recommended by many business stalwarts and management gurus. The book teaches you everything you need to know to empower yourself for success. Drawing on the experiences of not only the author, but famous U.S. businessmen, Hill teaches real-world lessons which anyone can follow. Hill lists 13 steps as a formula to achieve anything in the world. Certain millionaires attribute their success to the lessons in the book and advice budding entrepreneurs to make a thorough reading of it. Think And Grow Rich has aptly been called as the ‘Granddaddy of all motivational literature.’

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