5 Books that Changed My Income and My Life

The list of books below contains titles I heard about in podcasts, read about on forums, or were recommended to me from friends. These books had a profound impact on my life. They encouraged me to follow my passions and taught me skills that I used to promote my professional status. If you are looking to make changes in your career path, I would encourage you to start with these amazing resources.

This list is not encompassing of every great book that I have read, but it does include 5 that helped me realize my true potential. The authors of these books resonated with me, and it is my hope that they will resonate with you.

The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy

Are you a New Year’s Resolution person? Have you set out a lofty goal that you worked hard on for 2 weeks and then missed a day and gave up? If this describes you, do not worry as you are not alone. That was me for a long time until I read this book.

The Compound Effect helps you understand how little decisions made everyday can compound to either hurt you or help you. If you reorient your goals to focus on completing one small action, you can greatly increase your chances for success.

For example, let’s say you have always wanted to floss every night before bed. You may have set out to attain this goal before and have been successful for weeks at a time before stopping and not starting again. What if you changed the goal from “floss every tooth” to “just floss one tooth?” If you are tired, had a bad day, or just don’t feel like flossing, at the absolute minimum you force yourself to complete the small goal of flossing just one tooth.

What will likely happen when you do this? You will probably channel your inner Forest Gump - “Since I come this far, might as well keep going.” You will end up flossing every tooth. That is the power of The Compound Effect. Little choices and actions everyday can lead to big results.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink

What is better for motivation, the carrot or the stick? Are you familiar with that analogy? Maybe I will ask it this way, are you motivated by more money, or the fear of losing your job? Or is it something else entirely that motivates you?

Drive explores the different things that motivate us and why. If you are a manager, this book is essential for understanding the different ways in which your team finds motivation. If you are not a manger, this book is important because it helps you understand what motivates you, and helps you understand what motivates your manager and colleagues. This book has something for everyone, and it helped me think about what motivates me.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0, by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

Do you have a coworker that annoys you to no end? Do you fear that you are that coworker? Do you find it hard to communicate with certain people? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, please consider buying this book.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 starts with an assessment to find your EQ or Emotional Intelligence. Unlike your IQ, this number can increase over time. You can use the EQ score to help you assess your abilities to communicate effectively with others.

This amazing book gives you steps and actions you can take to increase your EQ overtime, and help you deal with difficult social situations. For managers and team members alike, this book is a must read.

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, by Jeff and JJ Sutherland

This book will show you what Agile and Scrum are and how you can apply them to getting twice the value out of half the work. I know this sounds too good to be true but it is not. If you know what Agile is, you already know the magic. If you don’t, I would encourage you to read this to see how Agile and Scrum can change your life.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, by Mark Manson

This book will help you understand what is worth caring about. Often times we put too much thought into things that don’t deserve our attention. We let toxic people live rent-free in our heads. This book will help you realize that you don’t need to give a f*** about every single thing you are involved in.

This book helped me realize that I spent way too much time invested in ideas about myself that were just not true. When I came to this realization, I was able to stop caring about things that were not bringing anything positive to my life.

Want to Learn More?

Feel free to join our mailing list to get updates on future articles.

You can also head over to our Candidate Services page for more information.