Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” and it becomes evident with books. Psychologists think we reread during transition periods in our lives to seek comfort and maintain a sense of continuity. Let’s read what our thought leaders say!
Table of Contents
Coelho’s Reflections Help Weed Out Negativity
The book that left a huge impact on me is “Like the Flowing River” by Paulo Coelho. I read the book in a really difficult phase in my life where I was juggling between work and chores at home. This served as a beacon of light in guiding the direction and wisdom to be attained. The book comprises several short stories that author experienced in real time along with the learnings and his philosophical view in seeing things differently. Under weeding the garden of doubt, he metaphorically explores the morality of deciding why grass is nurtured and weeds that have travelled from a long distance is removed. After being in a dilemma, he refers bhagavad gita and realizes that, like a gardener, the weeds (the negative habits and internal thoughts) need to be removed for the flowers to bloom. At every stage, at every time I revisit this book, my perspective changes based on my own experiences. There isn’t a perfect solution for every problem, sometimes protecting a problem from re occuring is also solving it.
Ankit Sarawagi, Curator, CFO Matrix
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The Obstacle Is The Way Cultivates Resilience
The Obstacle is the Way (Ryan Holiday) has evolved with me as I progressed in my career. In early stages of my career, it was used to serve as an instructional manual to flip business obstacles and barriers into opportunities. Later years, its value transitioned from being a practical guide to solving problems externally to be an overarching system for building inner calm; to transition an outside-in strategic tool into a strong system for developing inner resilience.
Adam New, Principal Owner, The Cash Offer Company
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Measure What Matters Aligns Teams On Priorities
I keep going back to Measure What Matters as AGO gets bigger. OKRs used to be about my own productivity, but now they get engineering, support, and product focused on fixing tickets automatically. It makes tracking progress much simpler than our old methods. It isn’t perfect, but if you are running a growing tech team, this helps everyone focus on what actually counts.
Damien Mourot, CTO, AGO
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Rework Validates Bootstrapped Paths And Sharpens Focus
I find myself referencing “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson over and over again. When I was founding my first company, the book encouraged me to bootstrap, knowing that it wasn’t inherently the “wrong way to play”. And currently at Acquire.com, I reference it to help the team to stay focused and minimize complexity which tends to bring the hard choices into sharp focus.
Andrew Gazdecki, CEO, Acquire.com
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Leaders Eat Last Drives Culture And Retention
Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last hit different after I started running Jacksonville Maids. At first, it was just about culture. Then it became a manual. We let our seasonal cleaners set their own schedules, and turnover dropped. My advice is to read something, put it down, then come back later. You’ll see what you can actually use.
Justin Carpenter, Founder, Jacksonville Maids
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Systems Approach Clarifies Loops Across Teams
I keep coming back to Thinking in Systems. At first, it was too abstract. I was trying to get ShipTheDeal off the ground and just couldn’t see how to use it. Then as the team grew, I realized our workflows were feedback loops, and suddenly it clicked. Now I use it to connect marketing and product planning. It’s worth revisiting a book with new questions. It usually fits what you’re dealing with now.
Cyrus Partow, CEO, ShipTheDeal
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The Innovators Highlights Collaboration Over Lone Genius
I’m going back to Walter Isaacson’s “The Innovators” again. My first read of it was about “genius,” but when you work in network development, you quickly realize it was about collaborative efforts among many people. When tech keeps on churning, you can come back and re-read these historical accounts when things become murky and gain your bearings of where you’ve been.
Jake Brander, President, Brander Group Inc.
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Atomic Habits Builds Discipline And Earns Client Trust
Atomic Habits saved me when I left healthcare and needed a study routine. Later, it helped me stop procrastinating on client emails for my business. The results took a while, but clients started trusting me because I finally did what I said I would. Try rereading old books when your schedule changes. You will pick up on tips that did not make sense to you back then.
Jacob Fullerton, Owner/Enrolled Agent, Settled Tax Relief LLC
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Small Giants Prioritizes Identity Over Flashy Growth
When we first opened our Birmingham workshop, Small Giants was my guidebook. It showed me a small business didn’t have to be flashy to win. Lately, as I think about the future for our family, the book’s message has shifted. It’s less about competing and more about protecting the weird stuff that makes us who we are. That’s a lesson every growing business has to keep relearning.
Ben Hathaway, CEO, Wedding Rings UK
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The Goal Refocuses Work On True Bottlenecks
The book I keep coming back to is The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. I first read it while I was buried in the minor daily activities of attempting to make every website update and marketing task go faster. I was overly literal back then with the idea of a bottleneck. I felt the solution was to plan better, to wring more work out of every day, to plan every hour better.
Now I read it in a different way. The lesson is don’t make yourself into a machine. It is to step back and locate the one item that is slowing everything else down. Sometimes, the fix is doing less, not more. Now that AI tools are making everything feel urgent, that part feels even more useful. It helps me to slow down and keep focused on the work that matters.
Phoebe Mendez, Marketing Manager, Check CPS
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Little Women Grows With Every Life Chapter
One of my all-time favorite books to return to is Little Women. It’s the earliest book I can remember reading as a child, and although it is a classic, there’s a sentiment that rings true in all four protagonists at different cornerstones of my life. As a child, I related to Jo. I had a drive to be a leader, to excel in my field, and to make a name for myself that defied gender barriers. Growing up, when I reread it as a wife and mother navigating my career, I found empathy in Meg’s challenges. When close family members passed away, there was a touching poignancy in Beth’s short life. Even Amy, who I despised as a child, I can now understand her struggles the best. Although the sentimental meaning of the book is still the same, it always amazes me how with each reread I can find common ground with a character I didn’t feel before. With Little Women, the words never change, but somehow the characters developed with me as I grew up.
Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP, Strategy and Growth, Coached (previously, Resume Worded)
About ‘What Experts Read’
In our unique series, ‘What Experts Read,’ discover the literary inspirations and must-reads of thought leaders and industry experts. Each article highlights the books that have impacted the viewpoints, tactics, and success of successful entrepreneurs and seasoned leaders in their respective areas.
Discover a wide range of sectors, including technology, finance, healthcare, and more, as professionals share their best book suggestions and talk about the significant influence these reads have had on their careers. Discover priceless information, expand your horizons, and gain insightful knowledge from experts at the forefront of their fields.
‘What Experts Read’ is an insightful look at the relationship between knowledge, experience, and the written word, and it may be of interest to anybody looking for motivation, strategic advice, or just to learn more about the reading preferences of prominent industry figures. Join us for this insightful tour of the most important leaders’ bookshelves of today.
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