Back again with a few more books I’m currently reading. I shared some of my recent favorites back in August in this post, but wanted to share some additional ones on my list. I haven’t actually finished all these yet but thought I’d share them regardless. Some of them I’m listening to via Audible and some of them I’ve got the physical copy and am highlighting like crazy! I love to do both – sometimes I’ll even listen AND read at the same time! Let me know if you’ve read any of these books yourself – I’d love to hear!

Well, first of all, I must say that Jordan Peterson is freaking brilliant. Like, wow. The way he writes is like a work of art. I mean, not really but just hear me when I say the dude’s intelligent. So that being said, I do have to read this one pretty slowly. I’ve found myself highlighting at least sometime on almost every page. I have a feeling I’ll be reading this book over and over again for many years to come. There’s just something so refreshing and empowering about reading things we already know but need to hear again, and again.

A good friend gave me this in the last week or so after a few conversations we’d had recently. From what I can tell so far, this book addresses issues that I’ve been actually looking to find community and reliability on for quite some time. And that is how to reconcile the seemingly contradiction between being someone who’s extremely ambitious and driven while also heeding to the Bible’s teachings on being a servant leader. Like, how can you actually have those feelings of wanting to be the best (that strong ambition) while also seeing yourself as a servant. I don’t think I’m really explaining this well, but in my head, it’s a very clearly defined conundrum that I’ve wrestled with for forever.

Back in January, I read another one of Covey’s books called The 7 Principles of Highly Effective People. It’s definitely not an easy read, but I got enough out of it that I wanted to read another one of his pieces. Plus, I found myself asking questions throughout the first book that I knew this book would cover. I really appreciated how this book challenged me to think about the overall design and trajectory of my life and how that blended in with who I am a leader and business owner.

Peter Drucker is one of those names that continues to come up once you start diving into business-based books.  After I heard enough people quoting him on some pretty brilliant insights, I felt like I had to get in on the action myself and ordered one of his most popular books on management, The Effective Executive. I’ll admit that it’s a bit dry – definitely not a book you’ll want to read all in one sitting. But I have gotten several takeaways from this book already. I think it’s really only applicable to those of you that are looking to start your own thing or manage people already and want to think about things more strategically.

Here are a few lines I had highlighted in the book that you might find interesting:

“Problem solving does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results.”

“The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail.  He can only be helped.  But he must direct himself, and he must direct himself toward performance and contribution, that is, toward effectiveness.”

Honestly, I needed to be reminded of this. Sometimes I feel so heavily the weight of being my own boss that I’ll do anything to have someone else just tell me what to do. It sounds weird and a little backward, but sometimes I really just want someone else to have to make the decisions. But I guess that’s the catch 22 of being an entrepreneur, right? It has its perks, but also there is most certainly a cost and responsibility that inevitably comes inevitably your own boss. Sometimes I just need a solid kick in the butt, you know?