Procrastination and lack of inspiration are quite working moments, familiar to each of us. Nevertheless, not everyone knows how to deal with them productively. The answer lies on the surface. Many psychologists and business coaches say that watching certain films and reading books increases our desire to work and achieve success. We decided to find out what exactly can be used as a source of motivation.
If we talk about useful motivational books, then these questions are best understood by well-known businessmen, CEO and founders of large companies. They should be aware of the latest developments and innovations, and therefore always have a few fresh publications in stock. We asked what exactly top foreign executives read and collected a short list of recommended literature for you.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and manager of Amazon:
1. "Made in America", Sam Walton - autobiography of the creator of Wal-Mart
2. "Memos from the Chairman", Alan Grinberg - it is thanks to this book that Bezos decided to write his famous messages to shareholders.
3. "Mythical man-month, or How software systems are created," Frederick Brooks and Hill Chapel - from this book, Jeff Bezos adopted the idea that complex software projects are best created by a small team of developers, rather than by the forces of a large staff.
4. "Lean Production", James Wumek and Daniel Jones - a story about the philosophy of the famous Toyota Corporation.
5. "Data-driven marketing," Mark Jeffrey - a book about everything, even the most incredible things, can be measured. Perhaps, this principle is taken as the basis of work in Amazon, since any statement of the employee should be supported by statistical data and calculations.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO:
1. "Contest over time," George Stock-ml, Thomas Hout - a study on the impact of time and its use of the technological process of production.
Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, CEO (until 2008):
1. "The best angels of our nature: why violence has decreased," Stephen Pinker-Gates himself admits that this is one of the most useful books for him, telling about the possibilities of achieving meaningful results and improving the social life of society.
2. "Einstein walks the moon. Science and the art of remembering, "Joshua Foer is a book on how to learn to train memory and remember the most important things.
3. "This time different: eight centuries of financial shortsightedness," Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff - the book is devoted to financing and the study of the emergence of crises over the past eight centuries.
Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter and CEO Square:
1. "Checklist Manifesto", Atul Gawande - a book about how important it is to make lists even in the most difficult situations and unpredictable areas of activity, such as, for example, medicine. This book Dorsey considers so important that it gives her every new employee Square.
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway:
1. "The bull: the history of boom and bust", Maggie Mahar.
2. "In this uncertain world: difficult elections from Wall Street to Washington," Robert Rubin, Jacob Weisberg.
Having understood what foreign top managers recommend reading, we decided to ask the advice of Ukrainian start-ups and asked which films and books they could recommend for motivation increase. Here are the answers we received.
Ekaterina Savina, founder of Liferia:
- How to choose books and films? No way. I am sure that books and films are chosen by us. And they come to our attention at a time when we are ready to receive the information they are trying to convey. Sometimes the phrase, casually thrown by the hero of the film, the title of the article, even the line in the song's verse can make us think, give us the answer to the question and do for us more than a dozen motivating books.
Of course, this does not mean that you need to give up reading the motivating literature. In the office, we have a shelf for books that are mandatory for reading. We are also big fans of TEDx and we admire the speakers' speeches covering a wide range of fields with admiration. All lectures, films and books about success, business, career, self-development, ultimately, boil down to questions, the answers to which help people realize the higher meaning of what they are doing.
Business needs motivation and rational component, but business will be most successful when the team loves their project and clients and therefore works on inspiration. "
List of books required to be read on the shelf of Liferia:
• Carmine Gallo «iPresentation»;
• Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Saimon «iCona Steve Jobs»;
• Harvard Business Review Classic Series "Leadership";
• Gleb Arkhangelsky "Time Drive";
• Tony Shay "Delivering Happiness".
Motivating films that the Liferia team likes:
• "Trainees";
• "Walk to the memory";
• "Untouchables";
• "The Pursuit of Happyness";
• "Knockin 'on Heaven";
• "The Devil Wears Prada";
• "Smile of the Mona Lisa";
• "Good morning".
Cyril Bigai, founder of Preply:
- It is necessary to read many books that develop the personality: the experience of successful entrepreneurs, their way to success. Such books will develop your right business thinking and approach to life in general.
The Preply command recommends reading:
• "Extraction", Daniel Yergin;
• "7 skills of highly effective people", Stephen Covey;
• "Atlas straightened his shoulders," Ayn Rand;
• Shantaram, Gregory Roberts.
• "Cash Flow Quadrant", Robert Kiyosaki;
• "Management", Richard Daft;
• "Black Swan. Under the sign of unpredictability, "Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
• "Inside the tornado." Strategies for development, success and survival in hyper-growing markets, "Jeffrey A. Moore.
• The Perfectionist Paradox, Tal Ben-Shahar.
From the films that Preply would advise to see:
• "Social network";
• "Pirates of Silicon Valley";
• "The Pursuit of Happyness";
• "The man who changed everything";
• "Silicon Valley" (series).
Ksenia Fursova, founder of the Travel Map:
- Despite the popularity of electronic and audiobooks, I prefer, nevertheless, books of paper. I necessarily mark out the most important points by the marker, I compose a list of actions after reading the book, in order to introduce something into life. I like to read the biographies of famous personalities of the past and the present, from such books you can learn many interesting and useful things, really track the steps to success, draw your own conclusions. Also, short documentary films or author's stories about the successes of various world companies and brands are motivated, whose products we see every day on the shelves in the stores and understand that everything also began with something.
When choosing a book or a film, you need to understand what task is before you, and in which direction you need to cheer yourself up and motivate yourself. Perhaps this is a regular exercise or struggle with the habit of putting things off for later? Answer this question, and then you can easily find a suitable book or film. And yet, talking with people who inspire and motivate you, ask them for their top 5 books. Maybe something will fall into your personal list.
Another tip for companies: be sure to collect the library, it is important that it was that look through a 5-minute break before the meeting or during lunch.
What to read:
• "My life, my achievements", Henry Ford;
• "Awareness. How to find harmony in our insane world, "Danny Penman and Mark Williams;
• "12 weeks of the year", Brian Moran and Michael Lennington.
What to see:
• "Not yet played in the box";
• "Slumdog Millionaire";
• "The man who changed everything";
• "Social network";
• "Always say yes";
Stas Matvienko, founder of Settle:
- I can recommend one motivating book - "Never eat alone other rules of networking" Keita Ferrazzi. This book is compulsory for reading to all entrepreneurs, managers or those who very much want to become them. The book tells how to openly and sincerely communicate with a variety of people, building a network of useful acquaintances. The book motivates us to realize our own ambitions, build a network of mutually beneficial ties in business and not only. And also teaches how to decorate your life with communication with interesting interlocutors. The author said: "If you're disappointed with your job, stop struggling and make resume writing online! Change your life by changing your terrible job and find terrific one."
As you can see, good books and films with real history - this is really a great way of motivation, allowing you to distract from worries, switch and find a solution for any job. Now you know exactly what to do in those moments when you need to return the desire to work and create.
