Recommended Reading

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience
by Carmine Gallo
“The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” reveals the operating system behind any great presentation and provides you with a quick-start guide to design your own passionate interfaces with your audiences.” — Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points and The Activist

The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business
by Peter Coughter
Occasionally, a great idea will sell itself. The other 99% of the time, you have to find a way to persuade others that it is, in fact, a great idea. Most executives spend the vast majority of their time creating their work, and almost no time on the presentation. Through an engaging and humorous narrative, Peter Coughter presents the tools he designed to help advertising and marketing professionals develop persuasive presentations that deliver business. Readers will learn how to hone their individual natural presentation style, how to organize a powerful presentation, how to harness the elegant power of simplicity, how to truly connect with an audience, how to rehearse effectively, and most importantly, how to win.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
by Sheryl Sandberg (also a website leanin.org)
Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In “Lean In”, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.

You Can Negotiate Anything: The World’s Best Negotiator Tells You How To Get What You Want
by Herb Cohen
Every day, you negotiate for something: prestige, money, security, love. This straight-talking guide will show you how to get what you want by dealing successfully with your mate, your boss, MasterCard, your children, your best friends and even yourself. As Herb Cohen counsels, “Power is based upon perception — if you think you’ve got it then you’ve got it. Be patient, be personal, be informed — and you can bargain successfully for anything.

Based on his book that spent over nine months on the New York Times bestseller list, the author presents specific guidelines, personal anecdotes, and practical advice drawn from his three decades of successful negotiating experience. Here is a wealth of information and the motivation that you need to succeed.

Verbal Judo: The Art of Persuasion
by George Thompson
“When you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control. “Verbal Judo” is the classic guide to the martial art of the mind and mouth that can help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation, whether you’re talking to a boss, a spouse, or even a teenager. For more than a generation, Dr. George J. Thompson’s essential handbook has taught people how to communicate more confidently and persuasively in any situation. “Verbal Judo” shows you how to listen and speak more effectively, engage others through empathy (the most powerful word in the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters, and use proven strategies to successfully express your point of view— and take the lead in most disputes. This updated edition includes a new foreword and a chapter featuring Dr. Thompson’s five universal truths of “human interaction”:

People feel the need to be respected
People would rather be asked than be told
People have a desire to know why
People prefer to have options over threats
People want to have a second chance

Stop being frustrated and misunderstood. Stop finding yourself on the losing end of an argument. With “Verbal Judo” you’ll be able to have your say—and say what you mean.

Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?
By Seth Godin
In bestsellers such as Purple Cow and Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is about you-your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose.

There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.

Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. They may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom.

As Godin writes, “Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”

Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need
by Harvey Mackay
Now in paperback, “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty” is Harvey Mackay’s last word on how to get what you want from the world through networking. For everyone from the sales rep facing a career-making deal to the entrepreneur in search of capital, “Dig Your Well” explains how meeting these needs should be no more than a few calls away. This shrewdly practical book distills Mackay’s wisdom gleaned from years of “swimming with sharks,” including:

What kinds of networks exist
How to start a network, and how to wring the most from it
The smart way to downsize your list–who to keep, who to dump
How to keep track of favors done and favors owed — Is it my lunch or yours?
What you can do if you are not good at small talk

“Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty” is a must for anyone who wants to get ahead by reaching out.[/acc]

The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
by Bob Burg & John David Mann
“The Go-Giver” tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman.

Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of “go-givers:” a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the “Connector,” who brought them all together. Pindar’s friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving.

Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving—putting others’ interests first and continually adding value to their lives—ultimately leads to unexpected returns. Imparted with wit and grace, “The Go-Giver” is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “Give and you shall receive.”

Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
“Think and Grow Rich” is a motivational personal development and self-help book by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion from Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie. While the title implies that this book deals with how to get rich, the author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help people succeed in all lines of work and to do or be almost anything they want. Jim Murray (sportswriter) wrote that Think and Grow Rich was credited for Ken Norton’s boxing upset of Muhammad Ali in 1973. The Reverend Charles Stanley writes, “I began to apply the principles of (Think and Grow Rich) to my endeavors as a pastor, and I discovered they worked!” The book was first published during the Great Depression. At the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold more than 20 million copies and by 2011 over 70 million copies had been sold worldwide. It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill’s books.

Start with Why
by Simon Sinek
“Start With Why” by Simon Sinek is a book in which the author explains how to inspire with ideas. The golden circle, the celery test, and the split test are three ideas that Sinek talks about on how to get people to follow one’s idea.