The World's Best Book Summaries
Would you like people to perceive you as powerful? How can you take better control of the impression you make? People are watching you, and they’re making judgments. That’s a fact you can’t change. But, according to Robert Greene, you can influence their judgments to a higher degree. He offers recommendations in three areas of your professional and social life. Read more to learn how to appear powerful to others.
Are you just starting out—and wondering where to start? How do you choose a company to work for? How long should you stay there? In Build, entrepreneur Tony Fadell shares his wisdom for succeeding in every stage of your career. When you’re just starting out, he says, you need to figure out what you want to do, work for the right company, pay attention to the broader goals of the company, and know when to quit. Keep reading for Fadell’s advice on how to start your career.
When you’re at work, do you have time to develop ideas? How effective is “innovation time”? In Where Good Ideas Come From, best-selling author Steven Johnson explains how good ideas grow from minor inklings to groundbreaking inventions. He shows how you can use this knowledge to come up with the best ideas possible, and he discusses how to encourage innovation in the workplace. Read more to learn about workplace innovation time.
Do you tend to micromanage people? How should the type of decision impact the way you make a decision? What’s the best way to win over your company’s leadership? Entrepreneur Tony Fadell’s book Build is part career encyclopedia and part memoir. He draws on his years of entrepreneurial and corporate leadership to provide insights that can help you manage people and decisions more effectively. Keep reading to learn Fadell’s advice on how to be a great manager, which can be valuable regardless of where you are on your career path.
How does a CEO impact every level of the organization? What should a CEO’s attitude be toward other companies? How should you go about selling or merging your company? In his book Build, serial entrepreneur Tony Fadell offers advice for succeeding in every stage of your career, whether you’re just starting out or a CEO. He draws on his experience as CEO at Nest and Build Collective as well as the journey he took to get to the top. Continue reading to learn Fadell’s advice on how to be a good CEO.
If you embrace the idea that it’s okay to change your mind, what might you say “yes” to now? Could you be missing out on golden opportunities because you’re too focused on one thing? Matthew Dicks wants you to reach your full potential so you can become as successful as possible, as soon as possible. In Someday Is Today: 22 Simple Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life, he warns that you might be closing yourself off from your potential if you’re not living a well-rounded life. Read more to learn how to be well-rounded and maximize life’s opportunities.
How broad is your knowledge? Do you deliberately repurpose works that you’ve already created? In Someday Is Today: 22 Simple Actionable Ways to Propel Your Creative Life, Matthew Dicks discusses ways to free up time to maximize your creative potential. He specifically recommends boosting your creativity by consuming varied content and reusing your old work. Continue reading to learn how to become more creative in these two ways.
Do you surround yourself with people who support where you’re going in life? Are they willing to speak up when you get off track? If you want to achieve extraordinary things, you must find a group of people to support you. In Someday Is Today, Matthew Dicks explains that your own personal support group will help you progress toward your goals by holding you accountable and providing encouragement and feedback. Learn how to find your people and why it’s so important to do so.
What are the secrets to being successful in your career? What’s the best way to start? How can you finish strong? Entrepreneur Tony Fadell answers these questions and more in Build. The book is part career encyclopedia and part memoir, detailing Fadell’s extraordinary journey inventing the iPhone and then starting his own wildly successful companies. He shares the career lessons he learned along the way. Read more to learn how to build your career, from the bottom to the top.
What’s the difference between a vocation and a career? Which do you have? David Brooks tackles the “vocation vs. career” question by asking it in the context of two different approaches to life: individualism and relationalism. He connects careers to individualism and vocations to relationalism. Continue reading to understand how vocations and careers reflect different purposes and, thus, garner different rewards.