Reads of the Recommended Kind

I don’t really consider myself to be too much of a “reader,” but much more of  a magazine flipper, educational book skimmer, short story browser.  However, when it  comes to reading books to help me grow as a business owner, artist, photographer, or thinker, I am all over that like white on rice.  Sticky rice, cause that’s my favorite.  Anyway, there are a handful of books that I keep right next to my desk, accessible at any time because they changed me.  They motivated me and after reading a few chapters would make me want to give an AMEN I CAN DO THIS cheer and chest pump the closest person.  They helped shape my business and make me smile just recommending them by title and author because they are the ones I read in the very beginning…. the beginning of may dream becoming my reality.  And the ones I will continue to reread and reread again.

Here are the books and their back cover descriptions:

The Likeability Factor:  How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams (Tim Sanders)

Are you wondering how you can improve your relationships with your friends and family?  Are you curious how to get or keep the job of your dreams?  Do you want to become a more popular person?  This book will show you how to do all that by raising your likeability factor—or how much other people like you. After all, life is a series of popularity contests. The choices other people make about you determine your health, wealth, and happiness. And decades of research prove that people choose who they like. They vote for them, they buy from them, they marry them, and they spend precious time with them. The good news is that you can arm yourself for the contest and win life’s battles for preference. How? By being likeable.  The more you are liked—or the higher your likeability factor—the happier your life will be. This book will show you how to raise that likeability factor by teaching you how to boost four critical elements of your personality.

Quitter (Jon Acuff) - seriously one of my favorite books of all time.

Have you ever felt caught between the tension of a day job and a dream job? That gap between what you have to do and what you’d love to do? I have.  At first I thought I was the only one who felt that way, but then I started to talk to people and realized we’re becoming the I’m, but generation. When we talk about what we do for a living we inevitably say, I’m a teacher, but I want to be an artist. I’m a CPA, but I’d love to start my own business.   I’m a _____, but I want to be a ______.  All too often, we hear that dreaming big means you quit your day job, sell everything you own, and move to Guam. But what if there were a different way?  What if you could blow up your dream without blowing up your life?  What if you could go for broke without going broke?  What if you could start today?  What if you already have everything you need to begin?  From figuring out what your dream is to quitting in a way that exponentially increases your chance of success, Quitter is full of inspiring stories and actionable advice. This book is based on 12 years of cubicle living and my true story of cultivating a dream job that changed my life and the world in the process.  It’s time to close the gap between your day job and your dream job.  It’s time to be a Quitter.

48 Days to the Work You Love (Dan Miller)

48 Days to the Work You Love is not about finding a new job. It is about finding out what you are going to “be.” According to Dan Miller, failing to make that fundamental discovery is why so many people find themselves in jobs they hate. But the great news is this book will lead you to the vocation you will love. Dan Miller will help you see clear patterns form from which you can make successful career and job decisions by understanding your God-given skills and abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions. These patterns create a compass for you. Finding the work you love is finding the fulfillment of your calling.

Love is the Killer App:  How to Win Business and Influence Friends (Tim Sanders)

Are you wondering what the next killer app will be? Do you want to know how you can maintain and add to your value during these rapidly changing times? Are you wondering how the word love can even be used in the context of business?  Instead of wondering, read this book and find out how to become a lovecat—a nice, smart person who succeeds in business and in life.  How do you become a lovecat? By sharing your intangibles. By that I mean:
Your knowledge: everything that comes from all the books that I’ll encourage you to devour.
Your network: the collection of friends and contacts you now have, which I’ll teach you how to grow and nurture.
Your compassion: that human warmth you already possess—in these pages I’ll convince you that you can show it freely at the office.  What happens when you do all this?  * You become a rich source of information to all around you.  * You are seen as a person with valuable insight. * You are perceived as generous to a fault, producing surprise and delight. * You double your business intelligence in one year. * You triple your network of personal relationships in two years. * You quadruple the number of colleagues in your life who love you like family.  In short, you become one of those amazing, outstanding people to whom everyone turns, who leads rather than follows, who never runs out of ideas, contacts, or friendship.  Here’s the real scoop: Nice guys don’t finish last. They rule!