Professional development is always a great idea; mainly because without it, your business and/or your professional growth can become stagnant. Many people become entrenched in ideas or beliefs and they stop striving to be the best version of themselves.
One fantastic way to remain in control of your career and at the top of your game is to read books. Not what you were expecting right? Don’t worry about the stress of walking into the library (yes, they still exist) and trying to find a book to read.
We’ve compiled 5 of the best business development books for you. Order them directly from Amazon, never leave your house and start flexing your development muscles!
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen Covey: First published in 1989, the book has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 25 million copies worldwide. The audiobook version has sold over 1.5 million copies and the book regardless of format continues to be one of the best selling business books of all time. If that doesn’t make you interested in getting your hands on a copy of the book, we’re not sure what will. Covey believes that by aligning yourself with the 7 habits he covers in the book, you will learn how to effectively attain your goals.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie: Another oldie but goodie, this book is considered one of the most influential books of all time (Time even included it on their most influential list!). First written in 1936 and updated over the years, the book aims to teach you a number of things. First the books lays out what exactly you’ll learn from reading it, and then offers up a number of fundamental techniques in handling people. You’ll learn how to make people like you, how to change others minds to your way of thinking, and finally how to be a good leader. The book’s most recent update was in 2011 when it was revised for the “digital age”. Pick up a copy and let us know if it works!
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg: Charles Duhigg, a New York Times Reporter, published this book in 2012 and watched it explode on the best seller lists. The book explores the science behind habits and offers up a guide on how to correct or “reform” your existing habits to be better. You can learn how to exercise regularly, eat better, and attain your goals if you understand how you build habits – bad or not and then you can reform them. Once you’ve reformed the habit, you’ll be able to move forward on the right path to success. It’s an interesting premise and one we hope you’ll try out.
- Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Senek: Simon Senek is a popular motivational speaker (check out his TED talk), author and marketing consultant and Start with Why is his first of 4 books. In the book Senek looks to leaders such as Martin Luther King JR. and Steve Jobs releasing that while they have little in common, they both sought to inspire others. This sets the groundwork for him to to elaborate on how leaders inspire people, and that this do this by asking why? Once Senek lands on what makes leaders different (inspiration vs manipulation), Senek then offers readers up how to inspire in their everyday lives.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, Mark Manson: With a bit of a different spin than the rest of the books on the list, Mark Manson, a blogger took the world by storm in 2016. Rather than offer up platitudes of optimism and the attitude that you can be anything if you just work hard, Manson believes that you have to be realistic; life sucks. Sometimes it sucks more, sometimes it doesn’t but the greatest strength you can have is to accept the struggle instead of sugar coating it. He argues that you’ll be most successful when you accept that life has ups and downs and you must power through them, because then, you have nothing left to fear. Millions agree with him because his book is #4 best selling book on Amazon and is found on many best seller lists.
Hopefully one of these books piqued your interest and you’ve already marched down to your local bookstore and ordered a copy. If not, get on it! What’s your favorite business development book? Tell us the title and what you learned from it in the comments!
Joe Schaefer is the Marketing Director at Digital Marketing Training Group. Digital Marketing Training Group offers a business opportunity for entrepreneurs that launches a fully-functioning digital marketing agency with full support and a team of white label, professional marketers who perform the heavy-lifting when it comes to implementing modern, forward-thinking, working digital marketing strategies. Apart from being simply the Marketing Director, Joe Schaefer is also the lead instructor of the 5-day, in-person digital marketing training that precedes the launch of an individual's digital agency.
