In this thoughtful Ted Talk entrepreneur Leticia Gasca calls for business owners to open up about their failures and makes the case for replacing the idea of ‘failing fast’ with a new mantra: fail mindfully.
Category Archives: Entrepreneur
I have a great idea for a book… what do I do next?
You have lots of great ideas that you want to turn into a book – that’s wonderful! Now the hard work starts. Much needs to happen before an idea becomes a full-grown manuscript. The first step is to hone your writing skills, through advice from other writers and from your potential readers too. Here are some ideas on where to get that support:
On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Part-memoir and part-masterclass, On Writing dispels any doubt that a wealth of knowledge and writing skills underpins Stephen King’s prolific output. He starts with a mini-autobiography, discussing his childhood, and the experiences and influences that helped him to become the author he is; this morphs into a section of advice to budding writers, drawn from questions he had been asked (and some he wished he had). The final section of the book is a raw and compelling description of his recovery from his near-fatal car accident in 1999. In serious pain and frustrated with his incapacity, it’s no exaggeration to say that the act of writing helped him to survive that difficult time.
20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias
This is a fascinating piece of literary analysis as well as a useful writer’s resource. Ronald B. Tobias shows how most powerful, engaging stories fall within 20 timeless and universal “Master Plots” – such as Quest, Adventure, Forbidden Love, and Transformation. Each chapter of this book examines one Master Plot, analysing and explaining how it works, illustrating with literary and cinematic examples, and concluding with checklists that keep writers on-track. Ronald B. Tobias also shows how to adapt and develop these themes to suit your characters, making your fiction more cohesive and convincing.
Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on why they Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature edited by Meredith Maran
Autobiography is the ultimate “writing about what we know”, but laying bare our lives and those of our circles is fraught with social and emotional risks. Here, 20 memoirists including Cheryl Strayed (Wild) and Ayelet Waldman (Bad Mother), tell us why and how they do it. Many of this diverse and talented group talk about a compulsion to write, hoping that their stories will resonate with and help someone else. Others dispense advice on how to handle the (both positive and negative) reactions to their work. Part bibliography, part personal reflection and part writer’s manual, Why We Write About Ourselves is inspiring and highly readable.
The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein
Cheryl Klein is an experienced editor at Scholastic Books, and this is her comprehensive guide to crafting great middle-grade and young adult fiction. Her advice ranges from writing and editing to pitching your idea, navigating the publication process and choosing an agent. A range of writing exercises will challenge you to analyse, critique and revise your work. The Magic Words offers a nice balance between encouragement with pragmatism, and the wealth of insider tips will help you refine your masterpiece into a compelling, publishable form.
Once Upon a Slime: 45 Fun Ways to Get Writing… Fast! by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
Once Upon a Slime encourages kids to have fun creating stories and playing with words. Drawing upon the skills of the hugely successful Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, this book can be enjoyed on many different levels – as an activity book, as a series of writing exercises, as Andy Griffiths’ story on how he became a writer, and also as a sneak peek at the creative processes of this mighty duo. Once Upon a Slime is simply fun to read, full of examples from Andy and Terry’s books. It speaks directly to kids and young people but is also useful for teachers and caregivers – make this your go-to guide for encouraging young people to start writing.
Using Social Media to Develop your Writing Career
The rise of social media has changed the publishing landscape profoundly. It has enabled authors to engage with potential readers even before publication; it has helped authors to connect and form supportive communities; and it has created new pathways to publication, either by self-publishing, or by attracting publishers through your profile as a blogger / social media influencer. Here are two writer- and writing-specific communities worth your attention:
Tablo (tablo.io) is a self-publishing platform that also helps writers engage with their readers – and for readers to discover new books and/or writers in their favourite genres. Writers can upload works-in-progress to seek feedback. Publishers also have a presence on Tablo, and there are communities offering advice to aspiring writers.
Wattpad (wattpad.com) is a reading app with social networking features that helps writers interact with readers and promote their work. Wattpad has become a huge repository of user-generated stories, some of which have been adapted into successful TV series and movies. Wattpad also hosts writing contests and has helped secure book deals for their most popular contributors.
Top 5 Books Leadership Books to Read in 2018
They say that some people are born natural leaders… but given the boom currently occurring in the business section genre of books we are starting to think that perhaps great leaders are actually mentored and curated. Regardess, before you can lead someone else, be it a group or a company, you must first be able to lead yourself and that requires discipline, self-actualisation, sense of purpose, and humility.
There are a plethora of titles available on the topic of leadership and we have found our top five.
Let’s dive in and get inspired…
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it–and your obligation.
Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor.
Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity.
This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of.
Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.
Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just 5 days by Jake Knapp
Entrepreneurs and leaders face big questions every day – What’s the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? What will your idea look like in real life? How many meetings and discussions does it take before you can be sure you have the right solution? Now there’s a surefire way to answer these important questions: the sprint. Designer Jake Knapp created the five day process at Google, where sprints were used on everything from Google Search to Google X. He joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky at Google Ventures, and together they have completed more than one hundred sprints with companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more. Sprint is a practical guide to answering critical business questions. Sprint is a book for teams of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits. It’s for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.
Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Nurture Talent by Sydney Finkelstein
Superbosses exist in nearly every industry, from the glamorous to the mundane. They are defined by consistent success in their fields and their approach to finding, nurturing and developing talent. If you study the top fifty leaders in any field, as many as one third will have once worked for a superboss. After ten years of research and more than two hundred interviews with superbosses including technology CEO Larry Ellison and fashion pioneer Ralph Lauren, Finkelstein explores this previously unidentified phenomenon and shows how each of us can emulate their best tactics to create our own powerful networks of extraordinary talent.
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
What links a call centre in Bangalore, the 2010 Chilean mining accident and the New England Patriots? The answer: all are examples of successful organisational cultures, where individuals bond together to form a motivated, cohesive and cooperative team. In Culture Code, Daniel Coyle employs the latest psychological research to investigate how successful cultures are created and what we can learn from them. Drawing on examples from business, sports, the arts and family life, he reveals how high-performing cultures ignite motivation and encourage cooperation by tapping into a common language of subconscious signals to which we’re built to respond. As in the case of the Chilean mining accident, a culture built on trust and cooperation can be the difference between disaster and salvation. In business, the effects are scarcely less drastic according to a recent Harvard study, a strong, aligned culture can increase revenues by 516 per cent and net income by 756 per cent. Culture Code reveals for the first time the building blocks and shared language of successful cultures, and shows how we can all follow the same basic principles to improve our community.
and finally, one of our all time favourites…
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek has one of the most popular Ted Talks ever unearthing why some people are more successful than others. You can view the Ted Talk here.
Why are some people and organisations more inventive, pioneering and successful than others? And why are they able to repeat their success again and again? In business, it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters why you do it. “Start with Why” analyses leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and Steve Jobs and discovers that they all think in the same way and they all started with why. Simon Sinek explains the framework needed for businesses to move past knowing what they do to how they do it, and then to ask the more important question – Why? Why do we do what we do? Why do we exist? Learning to ask these questions can unlock the secret to inspirational business. Sinek explains what it truly takes to lead and inspire and how anyone can learn how to do it.
Enjoy!
The best books for those wanting to start their own business
Now that the New Year festivities are behind us, it’s the time of year when people are heading back to work with either a spring in their step or with growing anticipation to take the plunge and start their own thing.
It can be daunting to make the decision to work for yourself so we have scoured the world of books and have come up with a list of great titles (some are old time favourites and others new) that can help you follow your dreams.
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss
When facing life’s questions, who do you turn to for advice? We all need mentors, particularly when the odds seem stacked against us. To find his own, bestselling author and podcast guru Tim Ferriss tracked down more than 100 eclectic experts to help him, and you, navigate life. Through short, action-packed profiles, he shares their secrets for success, happiness, meaning, and more. No matter the challenge or opportunity, something in these pages can help.
You will learn; the three books legendary investor Ray Dalio recommends most often, lessons and tips from elite athletes like Maria Sharapova, Kelly Slater, Tony Hawk and Dan Gable, how and why Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz says ‘no’ to most incoming requests, the meditation and mindfulness practices of David Lynch, Jimmy Fallon, Sharon Salzberg, Rick Rubin, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and others, why TED curator Chris Anderson thinks ‘pursue your passion’ is terrible advice and why actor Ben Stiller likes to dunk his head in a bucket of ice in the morning.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell.
Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it’s as much about where we’re from and what we do, as who we are – and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone. Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
This book comes with a lot of recommendations…and we mean a lot! ’If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship, read this book.’ Randy Komisar, founding director of TiVo. Most new businesses fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach to business that’s being adopted around the world. It is changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. The Lean Startup is about learning what your customers really want. It’s about testing your vision continuously, adapting and adjusting before it’s too late. Now is the time to think Lean.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters.
What valuable company is no one building? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg both offer praise for this book with Zuckerberg commenting ‘When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic’.
The Working Woman’s Handbook by Phoebe Lovatt
I’ve been dipping in and out of this book since I bought it and it’s great. It’s the ultimate guide to job satisfaction, filled with practical advice on developing and driving a working life you love. Bursting with actionable tips, this book outlines an agenda for making and managing money, setting goals, and establishing success-oriented routines, with worksheets, exercises, and fool-proof “how-to” sections to help chart your course. From the lowdown on launching your own venture to a bullet-point checklist for an essential self-care regime, it will teach you to manage any dilemmas that crop up, and take the stress out of setting a budget. This no-nonsense manual comes packed with author Phoebe Lovatt’s personal insights from her own career as a successful freelance journalist, moderator, and founder of The WW Club, the leading digital resource and global community for working women worldwide. It also includes words of wisdom from various creatives and industry leaders, such as Teen Vogue editor Elaine Welteroth, WAH Nails founder Sharmadean Reid, The Gentlewoman’s Editor-in-Chief Penny Martin, and rising fashion designer Sandy Liang. Whether a first-time freelancer, budding businesswoman, or dedicated professional looking to enhance your prospects, The Working Woman’s Handbook is a go-to career and lifestyle guide for ambitious young women everywhere.
Purpose: Find your why and the how will look after itself by Lisa Messenger
I unwrapped this goodie on Christmas morning and it was read by the New Year…one of the joys of buying your own Christmas presents! Imagine if you could wake up every morning feeling energised, vibrant and excited for the work day ahead of you. If you could accept every challenge, hurdle and setback because you knew the end goal would be worth it. If you could walk your career path with courage, faith and determination. Because you know, without a doubt, that you’re going in the right direction. This is what happens when you find your PURPOSE. And that is exactly what I want for you. As the founder of Collective Hub, a multimedia platform that aims to help people unleash their full potential, Lisa Messenger has turned her passion into a profession – and now she’s on a mission to help millions of people across the world find a career with meaning. Her secret? Instead of settling for a play-it-safe career, she delved deep, thought big and disrupted an entire industry. And all because she discovered the magical feeling, the vital reason, the one powerful sentence that made her work-life worth living. Now, it’s your turn. In this soul-searching book Lisa discusses her own path to purpose, mixed with guidance and interviews from inspiring entrepreneurs and creatives who have followed their ‘why’ to a place of joy and fulfilment. Drawing on her own experiences and ground-breaking research that shows a sense of purpose makes us happier, healthier and even live longer, Lisa guides readers to find the illusive ‘why’ in their lives, so they can reinvigorate their ambition, unleash their inner rebel and make a real impact in the world.
Enjoy!
The Best Gifts For Everyone On Your Christmas List
Pack away the pumpkins and break out the festive tunes…it’s nearly the BEST time of the year!!! Christmas is only SEVEN weeks away and we have saved the day with our top picks for everyone on your Christmas List…you’re welcome!
The Home Lover
Plant Style by Alana Langan and Jacqui Vidal
Ferns are back in the bathroom, cacti are sitting on plant stands and hoyas are cascading from hangers. Indoor plants are the ultimate indoor accessory. Softening interiors and readily available, they are a stylist’s best friend.
However, it’s their power to transform a sterile space into an urban sanctuary that makes them more than just an inanimate prop – all you need to know is how to use them.
From the founders of coveted plant-wares studio, Ivy Muse, comes this charming guide on how to turn your home into a jungle-like retreat. With design-savvy tips and expert advice, you’ll learn all there is to know about decorating with plants and botanical styling plus the necessities like light requirements and when to water and feed. From bathroom to boudoir to every room in between, create your very own green oasis with Plant Style.
Home For Now by Joanna Thornhill
More people are renting now than ever before, but the rental market remains surprisingly unflexible, with many tenants banned from making even the simplest alterations, such as hanging a picture or painting a wall. Even those who have managed to take that first leap onto the property ladder often find themselves with no cash left to renovate, so their first home is just a short stop-gap to their “forever home”; they resort to a renter’s mindset, unwilling and unable to invest vast sums in the fabric of their property and instead “making do” with quick fixes. Home for Now provides a blend of both inspirational and practical advice, showing how canny tenants have transformed their stepping-stone abodes into stylish spaces.
The Dreamer
The Kinfolk Entrepreneur by Nathan Williams
Pairing insightful interviews with striking images of these men and women and their workspaces, The Kinfolk Entrepreneur makes business personal. The book profiles both budding and experienced entrepreneurs across a broad range of industries (from fashion designers to hoteliers) in cities across the globe (from Copenhagen to Dubai). Readers will learn how today’s industry leaders handle both their successes and failures, achieve work-life balance, find motivation in the face of adversity, and so much more.
Working Women’s Handbook by Phoebe Lovatt
In this book, millennial entrepreneur Phoebe Lovatt shares her knowledge with women everywhere who want to learn the best way to set up their own business or freelance enterprise. It’s the ultimate guide to job satisfaction, filled with practical advice on developing and driving a working life you love. Bursting with actionable tips, this book outlines an agenda for making and managing money, setting goals, and establishing success-oriented routines, with worksheets, exercises, and fool-proof “how-to” sections to help chart your course. From the lowdown on launching your own venture to a bullet-point checklist for an essential self-care regime, it will teach you to manage any dilemmas that crop up, and take the stress out of setting a budget. This no-nonsense manual comes packed with author Phoebe Lovatt’s personal insights from her own career as a successful freelance journalist, moderator, and founder of The WW Club, the leading digital resource and global community for working women worldwide.
The Student
Melts by Fern Green
Everyone loves a melted cheese sandwich – they are cheap, quick and easy to make, and don’t involve much cooking skills or special equipment. This book includes over 50 imaginative and delicious toasted sandwiches, perfect for hurried dinners, tight budgets, quick snacks or when you just don’t feel like cooking a big meal.Featuring a list of tasty bread suggestions, from filling sourdoughs and seeded multigrain to sweet brioche and fruity loaves, grilled sandwiches don’t need to be boring. Try a Bacon, guacamole and cheddar, Pulled pork and cheese or Corned beef with wholegrain mustard and gruyere. Meat-free delights include a Beetroot, rocket and goat’s cheese and a game-changing Kimchi and stilton that is to die for.They don’t all have to include cheese, either! A toasted Curry and mango chutney sandwich and a Peanut butter and honey will change the way you view this humble comfort food. And yes, there’s a whole section on sweet sandwiches that will have you drooling: Blueberries, honey and cream cheese, a Raspberry, Nutella and mascarpone, and, the most decadent of all, Roasted strawberries, brie and dark chocolate.Melted, grilled and piping-hot: it’s the only way you’ll want to eat a sandwich again.
Breddos Tacos by Nud Dudhia and Chris Witney
Breddos Tacos revels in being a non-traditional but incredibly inventive taco cookbook with the over 75 recipes taking flavour combinations and ingredients from cuisines from almost every continent in the world, in order to create the ultimate combination of one perfectly cooked taco piled high with complex layers of flavouring. The recipes cover tacos, tostadas & plates and are divided into beef, poultry, pig, seafood, lamb and vegetables, featuring dishes such as Barbecoa beef cheeks, Yucatan Chicken with mango habanero sauce, Green Chorizo& duck egg and Scallop Aguachile. However, the breddos recipes don’t just cover tacos (although most of the recipes can be piled onto taco-esque’edible plates’) as they also offer street food staples such as the Iberico ham cheese burger and Yucatan spatchcock chicken with Dong’s flatbreads. The guys also share the breddos story to ultimate taco-dom fame; detailing their epic taco-fuelled Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas-esque road-triparound Mexico, Miami, the Deep South and Los Angeles devised solely to discover the greatest flavour combinations in all America – on a taco. This book will sate even the greatest taco fanatic whilst also revolutionising the ingredients and dishes you can create from the miniature taco hero.
The Gentleman
More Men in This Town by Guiseppe Sanataria
More Men In This Town is an extension of Gieuseppe Santamaria’s successful first books Men In This Town and Women In This Town. In this, his third book, his focus is once again men’s fashion, but seasonally based – winter (polka dots – representing snowflakes) and summer (pin stripes – representing sunbeams).
He has once again travelled broadly to capture candid street shots of men in Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, London, Paris, Florence, Madrid, New York and LA. As well, the book includes written profiles (mini interviews on style and fashion choices) with men in different cities and notes on his subjects’ different style directions.
Man Made by Dan Jones
With the rise of perfectly preened sports stars, online dating, and the dreaded selfie stick, every man worth his salt wants to look his best. Male grooming is no longer about being vain: it s essential. A real man has a stylish haircut, conditions his beard, manscapes, moisturises, wears decent shoes, takes the right vitamins, and is probably hitting the gym right now to hone his physique. Feeling confused? Fear not, because Dan Jones is here to guide you through everything you ever needed to know about personal grooming. From man-buns and mustaches to eye cream, facials, and buying a decent suit, this is a dapper DIY guide for all men, from teens to dads, who want to look their best year-round.
The Crafter
Roped In by Gemma Patford
Let Gemma rope you in to create a range of fun, accessible DIY projects all aimed to help you dress up the everyday. Gemma employs her famous ropework and all around craft genius to offer a range of projects and crafty tricks to make your life more fabulous. Looking for a macramé plant hanger to spruce up your living room? Want to create a swanky dog lead for your favourite pet? Looking to give your next dinner party some added class? Keen to make yourself a beautiful blouse that will have your friends demanding one of their own? This book is full of fun, accessible DIYs to help you decorate, entertain, and celebrate in style, no matter your skill level or the size of your living space.
Sunshine Spaces by Beci Orpin
Sunshine Spaces is about bringing a little of the outdoors into your home. Inspired by the colour and beauty of nature, designer Beci Orpin shares her ideas and guides you step-by-step through fun projects for indoors, outdoors, party and play. Featuring some of Beci’s favourite materials, including wood, fabric, plants and recycled objects, Sunshine Spaces will tell you everything you need to know about bringing the sunshine into your life and home. Sunshine Spaces is Beci’s fourth book see her others here.
Enjoy!
Trying to get your head around tax? Our top titles to make tax time a breeze
Yikes! It’s that time of year, the 30th of June is looming and Australians everywhere are scrambling to get their documents together…but we have a few titles that can help you approach tax time in a cool, calm and collected manner…and a few more to help you get in better shape for next year.
The Australian Tax Handbook by Robert Deutch
Okay, so this one may not end up on your Christmas Wish List but it will help you if you are tackling your tax solo or if you’re an accountant. Covering the full spectrum of income tax law and related taxes this book features clear overviews, concise explanations and worked examples to make the tax system easier to understand and apply in practice. The Australian Tax Handbook 2017 highlights all the important changes over the last 12 months.
101 Ways to Save Money On Your Tax Legally by Adrian Raftery
This insightful guide sheds light on how you can increase your tax return by maximising your deductions. This practical guide explores how individual, family, property, education, employment, small business, investment property, shares, superannuation, medical expenses, levies, and other deductions can be leveraged to ensure that you receive the tax return you deserve, and that you do not overpay the government. You’ll also get advice regarding tax-effective investments, tax planning, and the best way to go about finding a great accountant.
The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
There’s a reason that this book has been on our most clicked list for most of the year…it’s seriously good. There is a growing number of people all over the country pulling out an orange debit card with ‘Splurge’ scrawled on it in black sharpie…and they are all excited – you’ll have to read it to find out why. This book claims to be the only money guide you’ll ever need. That’s a bold claim, given there are already thousands of finance books on the shelves. So what makes this one different? Well, you won’t be overwhelmed with a bunch of ‘tips’ … or a strict budget (that you won’t follow). You’ll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here, and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand. This book will show you how to create an entire financial plan that is so simple you can sketch it on the back of a serviette … and you’ll be able to manage your money in 10 minutes a week. This book is full of stories from everyday Aussies — single people, young families, empty nesters, retirees — who have applied the simple steps in this book and achieved amazing, life-changing results.
And if it’s all too late this year, here’s a few titles that will help for next year…
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint. This new updated and expanded edition includes more than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled their income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point, real world templates you can copy for eliminating email, negotiating with bosses and clients, how lifestyle design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times and the latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either.
You Are A Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero
This is the book you need if you’ve spent too much time watching money land in your bank account and then roll through your fingers. Jen Sincero went from living in a converted garage to traveling the world in 5-star luxury in a matter of years, and knows all too well the layers of B**S*** one can get wrapped up in around money, as well as what it takes to dig your way out. In this funny, fascinating and practical book she goes in-depth on how powerful our thoughts are and how our bank accounts are mirrors for our beliefs about money. Dinero combines laugh out loud comedy with life changing concepts, all boiled down into manageable, bite-sized tips so that you can put them into practice and get life changing results.
Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry
27-year-old personal finance expert Erin Lowry is the cash savvy friend every 20- and 30-something needs. Instead of complicated tax strategies and jargon filled debt advice, her hilarious, easy-to-understand guide is the perfect way for financial management newbies to get their money in order or elevate their personal finance know-how. Broke Millennial includes essential lessons in tricky money matters to take you from in debt and overwhelmed to informed and financially empowered, such as managing student loan and credit card debts, budgeting and reaching financial benchmarks, negotiating an entry level salary, splitting the bill with cash strapped friends and navigating financial issues in serious relationships. Broke Millennial is a fresh roadmap to financial literacy for a new generation.
Enjoy!
Thinking of Starting a Business? Our top 5 books to get you on your way
Starting your own business is an exciting time. But before you start, save yourself some time and money by being aware of what’s involved in running a business. Operating a small business is not just about working for yourself or working from home, it is also about having the necessary management skills, industry expertise, technical skills, finance, and of course a long-term vision to grow and succeed. Do yourself a favour and set some time aside to do a little research about business – it’s key to turning your dreams into reality.
Here are our Top 5 books to help you get ahead of your competition.
The Power of Broke
by Daymond John
Daymond John has been practicing the power of broke ever since he started selling his home-sewn t-shirts on the streets of Queens. With no funding and a $40 budget, Daymond had to come up with out-of-the box ways to promote his products. Luckily, desperation breeds innovation, and so he hatched an idea for a creative campaign that eventually launched the FUBU brand into a $6 billion dollar global phenomenon. But it might not have happened if he hadn’t started out broke with nothing but a heart full of hope and a ferocious drive to succeed by any means possible.
In this book, this Shark Tank star shows that broke can actually be your greatest competitive advantage as an entrepreneur. Why? Because starting a business from broke forces you to think more creatively. It forces you to use your resources more efficiently. It forces you to connect with your customers more authentically, and market your ideas more imaginatively. It forces you to be true to yourself, stay laser focused on your goals, and come up with those innovative solutions required to make a meaningful mark.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up. Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited “not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.” Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek. There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.
The Founder’s Dilemmas
by Noam Wasserman
Often downplayed in the excitement of starting up a new business venture is one of the most important decisions entrepreneurs will face: should they go it alone, or bring in cofounders, hires, and investors to help build the business? More than just financial rewards are at stake. Friendships and relationships can suffer. Bad decisions at the inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder’s Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team.
Drawing on a decade of research, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them. He looks at whether it is a good idea to cofound with friends or relatives, how and when to split the equity within the founding team, and how to recognize when a successful founder-CEO should exit or be fired. Wasserman explains how to anticipate, avoid, or recover from disastrous mistakes that can splinter a founding team, strip founders of control, and leave founders without a financial payoff for their hard work and innovative ideas. He highlights the need at each step to strike a careful balance between controlling the startup and attracting the best resources to grow it, and demonstrates why the easy short-term choice is often the most perilous in the long term.
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
As it turns out, you don’t have to be a trust-fund baby, on the hook for a business loan, or just plain old lucky to start your very own enterprise. Guillebeau gives rousing examples of somewhat accidental entrepreneurs making success out of strife, opportunity, and circumstances mostly by turning a passion or hobby into something that can be profitable. He doesn’t necessarily encourage every knitter to open a craft store, but he does promote creative thinking about how you can leverage a natural talent or long-loved activity into a business model.
Get Your Sh*t Together by Sarah Knight
From the author who brought you the bestselling book everyone is talking about, The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: the no-fks-given, no-holds-barred guide to living your best life. Ever find yourself snowed under at the office or even just glued to the sofa when you really want to get out (for once), get to the gym (at last), and get started on that daunting dream project you’re always putting off? Then it’s time to get your sh*t together. In The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, ‘anti-guru’ Sarah Knight introduced the joys of mental decluttering. Get Your Sh*t Together takes you one stop further – organising the f*cks you want and need to give to help you quit your day job and move abroad, balance work and fun – and save money while you’re at it – or simply get out of the door for happy hour, every day.
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Enjoy!
6 Books Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Should Read
You are what you read, and if your goal is to build a successful company where you call the shots, you might want to start with the following books.
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
As it turns out, you don’t have to be a trust-fund baby, on the hook for a business loan, or just plain old lucky to start your very own enterprise. Guillebeau gives rousing examples of somewhat-accidental entrepreneurs making success out of strife, opportunity, and circumstances mostly by turning a passion or hobby into something that can be profitable. He doesn’t necessarily encourage every knitter to open a craft store, but he does promote creative thinking about how you can leverage a natural talent or long-loved activity into a business model.
The Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups From Their Founding Entrepreneurs by David Kidder
The title says it all. If you’re looking for a wide array of lessons learned and entrepreneurial experiences, this book is for you. Sharing insights from 41 different founders, The Startup Playbook covers everything from leadership lessons to finding one’s niche.
Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Conscious Capitalism is finding the win-win is what’s most profitable, and that no one has to lose. Business schools have discovered and studied it, and found that companies that practice it are more successful. This book is a great primer.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, and above all, following our dreams.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs in companies of all sizes a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
Daring and Disruptive by Lisa Messenger
It’s an insightful and soulful account of Messenger’s roller-coaster ride for those who want to succeed almost as much as they want to breathe, who want to make the impossible possible and the ordinary extraordinary. Messenger blends her personal stories with the important business lessons she has learned along the way, from why money is not the only currency to how to fail well.
This book will help you dig deep, stay on purpose, back yourself, be true to your ideas, and ensure that if you’re thrown to the wolves, you’ll have the strength to come out leading the pack.