Creating a fresh reading list is a great way to kick off your fall. The six books below will inspire you to think deeply and act with intention to help ignite your own journey as an entrepreneur, a leader of your team, or a leader in your own life.
Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius by Jon Levy
Many leaders think they know the answer to how to build high-performing teams: hire high-performers. But, according to Jon Levy, that’s not how to build team intelligence. In fact, often that’s a counterproductive strategy. In Team Intelligence, Levy debunks common mythology about what makes great leaders and teams and in their place describes “the skills, attitudes, and habits that help leaders and teams become smarter and more effective together. To be better together than they ever would be there on their own.”
In answering the question how do leaders maximize a team’s intelligence, Levy asks and answers 3 questions: what makes a great leader; what makes a great team; how can you implement this inside of your complex organization. Some of the answers will have you nodding along (hire a coach) and some will surprise you (be delusional) but all of this highly readable book will make you think. And give you practical takeaways you can use immediately.
Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away by David Gelles
We admire entrepreneurs because of what they build despite the vast odds against them. Yvon Chouinard’s story contains all of that, as well as showcasing the incredible adventures he had as a pioneering climber and outdoors adventurer. Step by step he founded and built Patagonia, a company admired for the quality of its products as well as its’ north star of values: caring for the environment and its employees.
Journalist David Gelles, who covers climate for the New York Times, tells the story of how Chouinard embedded these concepts into his company from the start. His counter-capitalism approach counterintuitively made him something he never wanted to be: a billionaire. So his response was to give it all away by transferring ownership of Patagonia into trusts and non-profits, ensuring that its profits would be used to support environmental causes forever. This biography portrays a founder who grapples with contradictions and ultimately writes his own playbook about what capitalism can become.
The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich Doing Boring Things by Nick Huber
Another entrepreneur doing it his way is Nick Huber, author of The Sweaty Startup. Huber rejects common thinking that to be a great founder you have to have a radical new idea and raise a lot of money from venture capitalists.
The path to freedom, wealth and a great life can be found in “boring” businesses like moving companies, storage, cleaning services, and the like. Weaving in his own at times harrowing experiences building his own companies, Huber shares practical tools about how to get started, his core philosophies, and mindsets and skillsets you need to build your own path to success and financial freedom. Rather than raising a lot of capital, Huber advises aspiring entrepreneurs to learn how to sell, manage, build systems, and most importantly learn to handle discomfort.
The Compass Within: A Little Story About the Values That Guide Us by Robert Glazer
Speaking of values, Robert Glazer, an entrepreneur, speaker and author, believes that identifying his core values has been the secret to his success. His new book, The Compass Within, is a leadership fable which guides you to discovering and living by your core values.
Glazer tells the story of a rising executive navigating career and life decisions. It showcases struggles that many people will find familiar. And it’s also a case study for how easy it is to drift into misalignment at work where your company’s actions may clash with its stated values or in your life when you make choices shaped more by external expectations than by your internal north star.
In addition to an engaging story, you get a structured framework to uncover your own core values to help you make decisions that will lead you to the fulfillment that you seek.
Permission to Be You: Discover Your Purpose and Passions to Bring Your Best Self to Everything–and Everyone by Alaina Love
Alaina Love’s Permission to Be You gives you another way to think about your internal drivers. The book opens with a heartwrenching story about losing her sister and her mother suddenly only 4 months apart. This tragedy taught her that challenging times can be the start of understanding your deepest passion and purpose.
Love defines “Passion Archetypes” and helps you discover if you’re a Healer, a Builder, a Connector or an Altruist. She offers real-life stories and frameworks along with structured exercises for reflection and creating an action plan to guide you to become more of who you are. Throughout the book she addresses the need to give yourself permission. Permission to let go of past identities and narratives, permission to ask deep questions, and permission to follow your own unique path. It’s a radical prescription for anyone who is seeking more fulfillment.
Ultimate Questions: A Stakeholder Guide to the Business of Your Life by Andrew C. Wicks
In a world focused on video, engagement and “likes,” it’s good to pause and ask some deep questions. Who are we and who am I? Why are we here and why am I here?
These are some of the questions posed in Ultimate Questions by Darden Professor Andrew Wicks. But there’s poignant added context. Wicks wrote this book as he encountered his own mortality, by facing a neurodegenerative disease that he has been living with for almost a decade.
In this lens, Wicks shares the deep questions you can ask yourself to inquire into your own psyche. He also offers case studies from his students about how they addressed these questions so you can see examples of very different approaches. And finally he offers some reflection exercises you can use to guide your own inquiry, including “reflected best self” and “the why exercise” to help you mine for core values.
As Wicks says: “We can use these ultimate questions to make sure we are awake and aware, so that we can more fully embrace the odyssey of our journey through life.” That’s the opportunity he calls you into in this book.
These books will challenge your thinking and provide frameworks and stories that help you put those ideas into practice. If you’re ready to challenge your perspective and invest in your own growth, this list will give you the fuel you need.