Did you read your last book back when you were a student? Let’s hope not, because if you don’t continue to learn from the mistakes of others, you’ll need to live long enough to make them all yourself…
The good news is there are some great books available to help learn the secrets of success and avoid all the dumb things that stifle our careers, stymie growth in our own businesses and doom our chances of succeeding, empowering us to enjoy the lifestyle we want so badly.
We are lucky enough to have Ben Pritchett, business owner, consultant and lifelong bibliophile agree to help us pick the key books we should read. Here is Ben’s story and his first recommendation.
Ben Pritchett
One of the toughest things in life is knowing what you don’t know! How’s that for one of the world’s top oxymorons? [quotes]By definition, we can’t know what we don’t know, can we?[/quotes]
A quick path to discovering the gaps in your knowledge is to find somebody who knows more than you and get help, but that’s not always possible. The next best thing is finding that knowledge in a book.
Ben says his best guess is that he has read 3,000 books on business topics over the 28 years since he started business school; he’s got a book to recommend on almost any business topic to help us go from muddling along to masterful execution.
There are plenty of places for you to get book reports and summaries if you like that sort of thing “Those are good” says Ben, “but that’s not my purpose. I’m going to tell you the books you should read on certain topics, and why you should read them.”
YOUR MONTHLY BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
This book has been around for quite a while, and while there have been other books on the topic – including ones by the same author – this is one of the best. This book shows you what makes us tick and what drives us to make the decisions we make, and then helps you understand how to use that knowledge.
Areas of influence are broken down into eight broad categories including things like Social Proof and the Law of Reciprocity. Cialdini has stories and examples to hammer home every point in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement manner.
Let’s face it, the ability to persuade and influence people is the very foundation of salesmanship, and salesmanship is the bedrock of business, so this book is a must for any serious student of business.
Available on Amazon.com
- Recommendation by Ben Pritchett
