One of my favorite things to do, when I was growing up, was walking over to the library and immersing myself among the stacks. The silence enveloping me as I searched for my next great adventure. Reading always swept my imagination away, but it also fed my desire for more information and my desire to learn. Reading introduced me to new ideas, even in fiction. As a momtrepreneur, keeping up with ideas and information is still an important skill. You need to pick the best business book, so you learn and don’t waste your time.
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Even now, my kids and I will spends the summer visiting the library and checking out stacks of books. My library excursion is not as quiet as it was growing up, but it is still an adventure we look forward to. The hardest part now is finding the time to read.
Pick the Best Business Book because Your Time is Precious
As a momtrepreneur, it is not always easy to find time—between juggling clients, juggling schoolwork, and everything else that we have to do—to sit down and read. Like everything else it requires intentional planning and good recommendations.
At the end of every year, I sit down and stare at my overflowing bookshelf, and then I scroll through my Kindle trying to decide the best business books to read in the new year. I am not in short supply of books to read. And I’m not even including the books in my Audible account. Erasmus says it so well, “When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes.” My library is bursting with books, but, unfortunately, my day is not overflowing with time.
Reading is the Key to Success
But we need to read, right? That’s what everyone tells us. Warren Buffet has said that reading 500 pages a day was the key to success.
I agree with Mr. Buffet’s statement. I have personally reaped the benefits of reading widely, reading a variety, and reading a lot. And I confess, I am an information junkie, so I love saturating my brain with knowledge.
My biggest peeve with all this, is wasting my time on a bad book. I confess, I get frustrated when I hear so many rave reviews about a book. I get so excited about reading it, and then it falls flat. If I hear a lot of rave reviews, it actually turns me off to the book because I’ve been disappointed so many times. As momtrepreneurs, we don’t have a lot of time to spare, so when a book ends up being a fail it really hurts.
How to Pick the Best Business Book
Since our time is a precious commodity, we need to pick the right books to read. Here are some general tips on the books to read:
1. Books for how to do it
Momtrepreneurs are amazing people, and we know a ton of stuff. I mean we are going through school again, and relearning everything we forgot from elementary school, middle school, and high school. But we don’t know everything, and it is good to hear from others. It is a great way to spark new ideas, learn from mistakes, and learn new trends.
The more information you feed your brain, the better-equipped it is to tackle challenges and to pull solutions from a deep reservoir of knowledge. Reading fills our minds with new ideas and concepts. When we read from a variety of sources, our brain starts pulling these ideas and concepts together to spark new ideas of our own.
2. Books to never give up
It is time to be brutally honest with each other. How many times do you feel like giving up? In another blog post, I talk about why feeling like we are winning for life is so important on this momtrepreneur journey. Part of feeding your soul is reading stories and books that illustrate triumphs through hardships.
But they don’t just need to be story books. I had an ah hah moment listening to Grit by Angela Duckworth. She was talking about Nietzsche’s statement, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” She was referring to scientists who have debunked this idea. You can read about it on page 187 in her book. It made me realize that sometimes bad things happen, and they don’t make us stronger. They make us more resistant to taking chances. At the time, this was revolutionary for me to hear because there were difficult circumstances that haven’t made me stronger. They’ve actually caused me to shy away from things. Reading this gave me permission to see that it was ok. These circumstances didn’t make me stronger, but it was time to get up and jump the fence. It was time to see those circumstances for what they are and choose to get up and keep moving.
Life is not always rainbows and skittles. And that is true for everyone. Read books that will push you to keep moving forward.
3. Books to avoid
Avoid books that are going to waste your time. Give yourself permission that if it is falling flat, you don’t need to finish it (I am compelled to finish books that I start, no matter how bad it is). You really don’t have time to waste on a bad book.
There are a lot of books out there that come highly recommended, but they just fall flat. As a general rule, I avoid books that are over-hyped. It takes a lot for me to read a book that “everyone” is talking about. In our social media culture, this is a major marketing tool to get people to rave about your book online. Maybe the book is good, but I find I have a 50-50 success rate. Don’t get me wrong, I have read hyped books and was pleasantly surprised. But not all the hype leads to a good book.
Conclusion
If you are ready for some book recommendations check out My Top 8 Best Business Books. These books were so good, I listened to the audio and then bought the physical book.
Let me know in the comments below. How do you choose the best business book to read? How do you decided what to invest your time and money in to?
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