Investing in yourself isn’t reserved for people that have the money for a university degree, it’s for anyone that has the motivation and drive to be successful. Improving your knowledge and skills will go a long way to helping you reaching your career goals and you should always be looking for ways develop as a professional. The more you learn, the more valuable you will be to your company and the more confidence you will have when looking to take the next step in your career. To get you started, here are 6 books that will help the growth of your career.
1. Never Eat Alone
Keith Ferrazzi, a master networker, discovered early in his life that the difference between the highly successful and everyone else is the way they utilise their relationships with people to benefit all involved. Ferrazzi outlines specific steps and inner mindsets that he uses to reach out and connect with colleagues, friends and coworkers.
Never Eat Alone will give you the tools to build strong networking skills and the knowledge to leverage of this network to help grow your career. A must read for any entrepreneur or professional looking to take the next step.
2. Escape From Cubicle Nation
Pamela Slim was a former corporate training manager and left her job around 12 years ago to pursue her dream of professional independence. This book is based on her blog, escape from cubicle nation, and gives readers the ins and outs of launching a business and how to cope with leaving the corporate world.
Slim’s book is perfect for the reader looking to pursue a career of their own, it draws upon stories from her coaching clients and readers to help them be successful should they decide to take the leap.
3. Steve Jobs Biography
Steve Jobs’ biography is based on more than 40 interviews that were conducted over 2 years and became an instant best seller. It showcases the up and down lifestyle and intense personality of a man who was passionate and driven to be successful.
This biography gives a great insight in to how to deal with success and failure. Everyone can learn something from someone who revolutionised technology as we know it.
4. 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
7 Habits Of Highly Effective People is recognised as one of the most influential books ever written. It looks into your attitude and behaviour, and challenges you to change your ways for the better. Taking on the habits of those that are highly effective will ultimately help you to be successful.
Stephen Covey’s book will certainly alter your perspectives and allow you to get rid of the bad habits that have been holding your career down.
5. How To Win Friends And Influence People
Written by Dale Carnegie, this book will help you to influence people and move up the ladder to success. Carnegie covers everything you need to be successful in this book and is great for those interested in improving their networking skills.
It teaches fundamental techniques in handling people, how to make people like you, ways to make people come around to your way of thinking and how to change people without arousing resentment. These are all skills that can help you in your career.
6. The Start-Up Of You
Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, and Ben Casnocha show you that you don’t have to run your own company to be classified as an entrepreneur and that you should think of everyday as your own start-up.
The Start-Up of You shows you how to accelerate your career in a world that’s extremely competitive. The book is based on the idea that entrepreneurs are nimble. Entrepreneurs invest in themselves, network to build up their connections, they take intelligent risks and make uncertainty work to their advantage. These are all skills that professionals in any industry need in order to get ahead today.
These 6 books are a great place to start when looking to improve your career. Of course there were countless other titles that could have made it onto this list, but these are some of the most influential and refined books ever written. It’s never too late to invest in yourself and build for a better professional career, you just need to take the first step.