Increase Your Focus 🎯 Control Your Money 💰 Fight Your Demons 👿 - 6 Books for 2022

These are the books that grew Founders last year.

If you're quick (and you are!), you'll notice a theme in this year's most impactful books. But what would you call it? 'Discipline' isn't quite right. Maybe...

Discernment -- the ability to judge well.

The ability to start to see which feelings are true and which aren't; what's important and what's not; and what's getting in your way.

Founder Tip:

There are

3 Surprising Benefits of a Team Book Club

(to increase leadership and reduce churn)

get 'em at the bottom of this article!

The Books

1 Atomic Habits

Key Point: Small Adjustments Lead to Massive Transformations, over time.

More than 50% of your actions on any given day are automatic actions, or habits. These habits have been formed through repeated actions over the course of your life, and some serve you and some work against you. Because of their significant role in your life, understanding what habits are, how to change them, and how they shape who you are is important. In Atomic Habits, James Clear provides every aspect involved in forming new habits, breaking bad ones, and transforming your life for long-term success.

2 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Key Point: Essentialism is defined as the consistent and focused pursuit of less but better. 

We’re constantly trying to do too much and to be all things to all people. Yet when someone makes a request, we say yes without thinking in order to avoid conflict or hurt feelings. We feel we have to do it all.

Because we’re stretched thin and going in too many directions, we make little progress. We feel overworked but underutilized because most of what we’re spending our time on isn’t really important. The way out of this trap is to practice essentialism: “do less but better.”

By the way, Toni PROMISES you that there is more to this book than just the title.

3 Eat That Frog: 21 Habits to Stop Procrastinating

Key Point: Identify the hardest thing, and do it first.

You’ll never get caught up or get ahead on everything you have to do, author Brian Tracy contends in Eat That Frog. The only way to take charge of your time is to ignore most things—instead, focus on your most important task first and do it quickly and well.

If you’re able to get the most important things done consistently and efficiently, you can outperform the smartest person who fails to follow through. Mark Twain had a metaphor for getting hard things done: if you have to eat a live frog, do it right away and everything after that will be easier by comparison.

Your most important and consequential task—the one you’re most inclined to put off—is the frog.

4 The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

Key Point: We sabotage new successes to come back down to the level we are familiar with

Tips, tricks, and techniques don't matter if you're just going to sabotage yourself anyway.

Gay Hendricks says each of us has an inner thermostat setting that determines how much love, success and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy. That thermostat setting usually gets programmed in early childhood. And, once programmed, our Upper-Limit thermostat setting holds us back from enjoying all the love, financial abundance and creativity that’s rightfully ours.

Although Hidden Barriers seem real, they are based on fear and false beliefs about ourselves. The fact that we unconsciously accept them as real is the barrier holding us back. We take them as real until we shine awareness on them. Then the barriers dissolve, and we are free.

I was delighted to hear #1 CEO Coach, Alisa Cohn, say that she gives this book to all of her clients.

P.S. This article by the author is great place to start.

5 Will by Will Smith

Key Point: Will Smith is a real-life manifestation of the principles in the other books.

Looking at Will Smith's life is like looking at the manifestation of the above books -- Atomic Habits, a Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Eating that Frog, and overcoming Upper Limits. The man seems to have mastery in all these areas.

Today, you might forget that he began as an adolescent sitcom star, not unlike a hundred others of his era, and none of them rose to Smith's level.

6 Profit First

Key Point: Owner's Pay and Profit are different. And if you can't afford both, you don't have a business.

You know WHAT profit is... but do you know what to do with it?

Money is the foundation of any business. Without money, you can’t deliver your solutions, spread your message, create an impact or gain your financial freedom. Yet, many businesses don’t make money. Entrepreneurs sink in all their time and resources only to end up with a cash-eating monster and no profit.

This is a HIGHLY TACTICAL book that had Alex in the accounting spreadsheets for hours!

Bonus: More Books!

In compiling our fav books for founders, I noticed that we didn't interact with many books outside of one demographic - mostly men, mostly white.

The importance of collecting ideas from a diversity of backgrounds is that they bring forth a diversity of ideas and experiences. Powerful!

Personally, I'm interested to read Alisa Cohn's From Start-up to Grown-Up, and would love some other recommendations?

This list seems like a great place to start: 17 Best Business Books By Women

Thank you Toni Adams!

We give gratitude to Toni Adams -- the Number One Operations Facilitator at En Blazes and the Number One Reader!

Toni curated this list from last years readings and recommendations to founders, and we've added it to the En Blazes Targetted Reading List.

Thank you, Toni!!

3 Surprising Benefits of a Team Book Club

It's been amazing to see a handful of team book clubs this year, and what each of them have created. Here's why:

The Benefits

Build Culture - by coming together to do something outside of the usual work

Develop a Shared Language - When we've read the same book, we can call back to ideas, terms, frameworks, and expressions, that now everyone understands. Huge for efficient and aligned communication.

Give the Gift of Professional Development - If you can help your team make the connection between the book and their own careers -- how it's going to grow them into stronger professionals wherever they go -- your team sees an organization that cares about them. "When I work here, I grow!"

Wait! I want you to be very careful that you treat this as an invitation to your team, not as homework. 😤

Ready to get started? You might also like 8 Ways to Facilitate Group Discussion with Adults

Does This Resonate?

We maintain a Targeted Reading List for Founders

covering finance, product strategy, mindset.

if you would like to get access

Comment or DM me, "Reading List Please!"