Getting excited about decimals and keeping track of income tax adjustments isn’t everyone’s idea of fun.
(After seven years of studying to become a public accountant, you’d be a little funny, too.)
But anyone can take advantage of the small business support these three books have to offer. Let them inspire you to look at your finances–and yourself–in a whole new light.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Yes, this one is a classic. Because while Dale Carnegie originally published it in the depths of the Great Depression, it has remained a must-read for good reasons.
Covering topics like going after the job you want, improving the job you have, and making adverse situations work for you, this “simple country boy” from Missouri emphasizes the interpersonal soft skills that everyone is looking for.
He also makes it clear that the type of leadership and mentorship he’s describing isn’t revolutionary: it’s downright obvious.
While not everyone may hit it off with Carnegie’s writing style, it’s hard to ignore how solid and timeless his advice is. As a self-improvement book, it’s worth adding to your business library.
Four out of five stars.
Think Again by Adam Grant
“Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.”
In this engrossing read, organizational psychologist Adam Grant reveals that believing all our thoughts or internalizing all our emotions doesn’t have to be our norm.
As a researcher, he’s delved into the way we as humans think, and what lies behind our fundamental assumptions about motivation, generosity, creativity, and potential. Many folks read and shared his viral article for the New York Times on languishing in 2021.
In this book, Grant invites us to release the views that don’t serve us any more and to prize traits like mental flexibility, humility, and curiosity.
A highly recommended read!
The Simple Path to Wealth by J. L. Collins
If you’ve ever said, “I know money is important. I just don’t want to spend my life thinking about it”–this book is for you.
Based on a series of letters written for his young daughter, J. L. Collins’s The Simple Path to Wealth is a message to anyone who’s felt overwhelmed by finances.
According to him, “money is the single most powerful tool we have for navigating this complex world we’ve created, so understanding it is critical.”
With chapters covering debt, money mindsets, and the fundamentals of investing (among other topics), Collins makes this subject both simple and approachable. Some reviewers have even compared it to sitting around a campfire, swapping stories.
The author and financial blogger keenly points out that “complex investments exist only to profit those who create and sell them. The simple approach I created for my daughter is not only easy to understand and use, it’s powerful too.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Don’t fancy yourself much of a reader? All three of these books are available in audio versions.
