5 Unique Self Development Books that Will Help You Build Up Successful Career

career self development

Hey! This is another book selection on our website, but today I want to talk not about technical literature, as usual, but about self-development. This list I personally compiled, of those books that helped me personally build the right attitude towards my time, my environment, my career, and what I do in general.

You will hardly find these books in other self-development collections, simply because not everyone sees in them the potential as material that can treat you more attentively to yourself, therefore, in any case, the material will be useful and perhaps even unexpected for you. If I manage to find these books in the open and free access, I will attach a link to each of them, as I always do.

Good to Great by James C. Collins

The author positions the book "From Good to Great" as business literature aimed at achieving great success in business through very deep analysis. The author, together with his team, did a huge analytical job in order to statistically, based on numbers, determine what should happen in the company, business, so that its results are not just good, but outstanding.

For me, this book is not only about smart company directors but also literature on self-development and even motivation. After reading it, I began to understand what kind of people I want to work with within the same team or in the company, I began to understand what kind of people I want to see around me and in my career. I have greatly changed my approach to finding a job and other career opportunities, namely, choosing a company not by the type of activity, but by the people who work in it.

Good to Great by James C. Collins (source)

I also got a huge dose of motivation after reading it. When I realized that the author and his analytics team spent many years analyzing a huge pile of company data, and I read their findings in one weekend, I felt the desire to study and work on my education again, which seemed to be gone after university.

Yes, this book is mainly about business and businessmen, but this is its advantage - to look at the engine of progress (people) through the eyes of serious people in suits, and businessmen and understand those outstanding talents are the main asset of the company. This idea can be traced throughout the book and I think that if you fully realize this, then you can always find exactly the right team, exactly the right place where you will feel comfortable.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

"The Compound Effect" is a fairly popular book on self-development, which teaches first of all not to give up and motivates to conquer new heights. I will say right away and honestly, I do not agree with all the thoughts and statements of the author. Some thoughts do not correlate with my worldview at all, and it’s even hard for me to read them. First of all, this concerns the author's thoughts about the personal environment and the construction of his environment. I would argue with many of his theses, but more on that some other time.

For me, this book is primarily about how not to lose motivation when your many efforts do not give any results, how to behave in such moments, and how not to go crazy from general injustice. The book does a great job with this. I applied some of the author’s methods in my life, for example, I taught myself to wake up early in the morning because after this text I realized why it is important and how it affects me, but not all methods and advice are suitable for me personally.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy (source)

The book has exercises after each chapter. To be honest, I do not really believe in these exercises (not only from this book but in general). I agree with the author's words that the compound effect works and I myself have come across its effect, but the exercises after each chapter are just an excuse for me to scroll through the book to the next chapter. I just don't believe in these exercises.

This book is a great resource for keeping yourself motivated to not give up and keep going despite the lack of results. By the way, my advice to you is to read this book as long as possible, so you will not lose the charge that this text gives for a very long time, constantly feeding it with a new chapter. I highly recommend it to those who are starting to give up something that does not bear results.

The Minimalist Way by Erica Layne

I am a minimalist by nature. To briefly describe my character, I am a person who does not want to become attached to certain things, or places and burden my life with unnecessary emotions because all this prevents me from living in the present. I became like this rather due to personal circumstances, but this text consolidated these thoughts in me and I realized that the principle of life that I chose for myself many years ago is ok and that it’s normal to live like this, there’s nothing strange about it. I realized that I am not a hermit and a freak, but a person who knows what he wants and what he does not want to waste his time and energy on.

It’s hard for me to talk about what this book will teach you since I already read it as a convinced minimalist and only confirmed all my conclusions about this life, but one thing I can say for sure is that you will not forget what you read. Even if you treat this book as easy reading before going to bed and don’t really delve into what is written, then questions will still arise in your head about the manner of your life - why do I need such a huge closet with winter clothes if I live in Barcelona, or - why do I spend so much time with someone with whom it is difficult to communicate for three minutes - and so on. These questions will arise subconsciously.

The Minimalist Way by Erica Layne (source)

Now there are a lot of things and people that can distract you from what is really important, from what is really worth spending time on (everyone has his own - work, family, friends, business. It's not for me to say what is important in life). And it is worth getting rid of some garbage, this garbage is worth sacrificing to achieve any results. Even the smallest ones. This book will teach you how to make such necessary and, in fact, invisible sacrifices correctly.

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Telling Lies by Paul Ekman

Did I mention that this is an unusual selection of books on personal growth? The question is rhetorical. I read this book when I was in university. Then I had friends from the Faculty of Psychology and they advised me to read this book and said - read this book as a textbook. So I read it like a textbook.

This book is a huge work done by the author on the analysis of the psychology of a person who lies - why he does it, what motives he pursues, and what he wants to achieve psychologically. To be honest, I do not like psychological literature, I find it very boring and useless, and this is probably the only book that does not fit this description, is an exception.

Telling Lies by Paul Ekman (source)

The most important thing this book has taught me is to treat lying in life, career, or relationships not as a betrayal, but as a psychological fact. Thanks to this, I more easily perceive the lies of another person and can easily determine whether they are lying to me when they tell me at work that the last edits have been made or the girl says that it was not she who ate all the cookies.

The very lie after reading for me becomes just another human feature, along with talent, knowledge, or feelings. I've become more comfortable with it. The book may seem a little boring, it's true, there is too much philosophy in it, in my opinion, but if you treat it like a textbook, as my friends advised me, then this is just what you need to better understand your environment.

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Anarchism: From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guérin

Yes, the collection is very unusual. I know. I did my best. Now we will not discuss anarchist movements or ideology itself in general. This could be the subject of dozens of books. I want to talk about this book as a resource for self-development and career building. For those who know what anarchism is, they also know that, first of all, an autonomous and independent society. This book is about just that.

For me, this book is about how the disorganization and lack of independence of people deprive us of the opportunity to create an ideal society (now we will not discuss whether it is really ideal, let's assume that yes), about the fact that modern man does not have enough humanism to relate treat others the same way you want to be treated. Therefore, a desire appears in us for someone to control us, whether it be the state or a boss at work.

Anarchism. From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guérin (source)

Treat this book not as a political textbook, but as literature that vividly describes all the human shortcomings that hinder our bright future. Treat this text from the position of cultivating in yourself such independence, organization, and care for others. This book will show you and tell you why this is important. Of course, it will tell you why this is important in a political sense, but I think that all readers will be able to extrapolate this to personal life, career, and relationships.

Conclusion

Today, I'm sharing with you an unusual selection of books that have helped me personally feel confident in relationships, my career path, and life in general. None of these books changed my life. I'm not at all sure that this happens. But I gained confidence and peace of mind about those of my beliefs that prevented me from accepting myself and, for example, choosing exactly the career path that is right for me.