2000 Books for Ambitious Entrepreneurs - Author Interviews and Book Summaries

1) How to design our days so that we give our very best when we are at work? 2) How can we enjoy guilt free play? 3) How to stop feeling like yet another day just went by without any real sense of progress and fulfillment? 4) Why Hard edges are important in our days 5) Moving from compulsive to conscious behavior

Perfectionism can be our biggest enemy - because it hinders us from TAKING ACTION. If we wait for the perfect moment to take perfect action, we can end up waiting forever and lose out in the game of business and in life. In today's interview I will endeavor to learn why we need to abandon perfectionism and how we can become much more ACTION oriented by embracing Imperfectionism. Get this Audiobook for free at: http://www.2000books.com/free 90 day Mental Toughness Course: http://www.2000books.com/tough

Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, getting a promotion, or getting a pink slip. It's essential to be pitch perfect—to get the right message across to the right person at the right time. We cover: 1) The importance of Preparation 2) The pasta sauce principle 3) Importance of Certainty 4) How to deliver the perfect pitch under high pressure.

Big Ideas: 1) Why slow is fast and fast is slow? 2) You can't connect with people when you are going fast. 3) Thinking fast and thinking slow 4) Controlling the Rhythms of life 5) Action Items

How do we move from blame, fear and victim mindset to radical responsibility, trust and empowerment? 3 commitments we discuss: 1) Taking Radical Responsibility 2) Learning through curiosity 3) Feeling all the feelings Jim Dethemer is a Co-Founder of the Conscious Leadership Group (CLG) a leadership consulting and training organization. Throughout his career, Jim has coached leaders from Fortune 500 companies to early stage entrepreneur. Today we are talking about his outstanding book: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

Key Ideas : (1) Plant the right seeds: Don't waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. (2)Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst. (3)Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and over deliver on every single promise.

How can we sell more by selling less? Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new business approach that cuts through the clut­ter: marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life. Jay Baer provides a groundbreaking plan for using information and helpfulness to transform the relationship between companies and customers.

Originals are made - NOT BORN. They don't have better ideas than their peers. They just keep trying and trying. Einstein had 248 other papers that nobody knows about. Edison had 1000 patents BUT only 6 that really matter. Originals try a lot of ideas to get to a few good ones. Quantity and Quality are correlated. Originals persist instead of quitting. That's the biggest difference. Dean Simonton's research: Originals are not better. They just produce more work. Odds of producing an influential or successful idea are positively correlated to the total number of ideas generated. Periods when we generate the most ideas are when we also create the best ideas.

The obstacles that we think prevent us from realizing our deepest wishes can actually lead to their fulfillment. Starry-eyed dreaming isn't all it's cracked up to be, and as it turns out, dreamers are not often doers. While optimism can help us alleviate immediate suffering and persevere in challenging times, merely dreaming about the future actually makes people more frustrated and unhappy over the long term and less likely to achieve their goals. In fact, the pleasure we gain from positive fantasies allows us to fulfill our wishes virtually, sapping our energy to perform the hard work of meeting challenges and achieving goals in real life. Based on her groundbreaking research and large-scale scientific studies, Oettingen introduces a new way to visualize the future, calledmental contrasting. It combines focusing on our dreams with visualizing the obstacles that stand in our way. By experiencing our dreams in our minds and facing reality we can address our fears, make concrete plans, and gain energy to take action.

1) What happens when you don't make your goals - You can either act like an inner ally or an inner enemy. Self compassion makes you an inner ally. 2) 3 components of self compassion: Kind towards ourselves Sense of common humanity Mindfulness

In this interview, Jessica Jackley tells us the story of founding of Kiva. Kiva is a p2p lending platform that helps underprivileged entrepreneurs in developing world through micro loans from common people like you and I. Kiva has enabled over 1 Billion $+ of lending on it's platform so far and is constantly growing. In this interview Jessica and I talk about: What is Entrepreneurship in it's truest sense? How Jessica got the idea of Kiva How Jessica and her co-founder funded the early stages of the company Why the co-founders got told by 20+ lawyers to not go forward with their idea and what Jessica did about that How Kiva stayed true to it's mission and values by turning down $10 million from a corporate social responsibility group in early days. What's the single biggest trait that stands out in Jessica Jackley? Mental toughness: This one trait is the biggest indicator and predictor of success in all entrepreneurial ventures. And mental toughness can be nurtured and developed. Come join us for our powerful 2x Mental Toughness Course and get over 90 videos and tools that will take your mental toughness to a whole new level! http://www.2000books.com/tough

3 keys to making meaningful, long lasting connections with people we have just met.

What really makes a successful entrepreneur? What they do, how they act...and how to find your best path to business success. Get the 3 "Ws" right from the start What will you sell, who will buy it–and why will they buy it from you? Unlike other books on entrepreneurship, this book focuses on the crucial operational issues associated with consistent profitability. You'll learn how to identify the right opportunities and customers; design winning products and services; set the right prices; overcome customer inertia; avoid common day-to-day management mistakes; find and keep good employees; and finally, smoothly manage growth. Throughout, the authors draw on real life entrepreneurial experiences, case studies, and leading-edge research.

A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; its "too small to fail" nature makes it weightless, deceptively powerful, and a superior habit-building strategy. You will have no choice but to believe in yourself when you're always moving forward. The barrier to the first step is so low that even depressed or "stuck" people can find early success and begin to reverse their lives right away. And if you think one push-up a day is too small to matter, I've got one heck of a story for you!

In a noisy world where it seems everything's been said—and shouted from the rooftops—how can your ideas stand out? Fortunately, you don't have to be a genius or a worldwide superstar to make an impact. Drawing on interviews with more than fifty thought leaders in fields ranging from business to genomics to urban planning, Dorie Clark shows how these masters achieved success and how anyone—with hard work—can do the same. Whether it's learning to ask the right questions, developing and building on an expert niche, or combining disparate fields to get a new perspective, Clark outlines ways to develop the ideas that set you apart. Of course, having a breakthrough insight is only half the battle. If you really want to share your ideas, you have to find a way to build an audience, communicate your message, and inspire others to embrace your vision. Starting small is fine; Clark provides a step-by-step guide to help you leverage your existing networks, attract new people to your cause, and, ultimately, build a community around your ideas. Featuring vivid examples based on interviews with influencers such as Seth Godin, David Allen, and Daniel Pink, Clark shows you how to break through and ensure that your ideas get noticed. Becoming a thought leader in your company or in your profession is the ultimate career insurance. But—even more important—it's also a chance to change the world for the better. Whatever your cause, perspective, or point of view, the world can't afford for the best ideas to remain buried inside you. Whether it's how to improve the educational system or how to make your company more efficient, your ideas matter. The world needs your insights, and it's time to be bold.

Based upon his weekly Harvard Business Review columns (which is one of the most popular columns on HBR.com, receiving hundreds of thousands of unique page views a month), 18 MINUTES clearly shows how busy people can cut through all the daily clutter and distractions and find a way to focus on those key items which are truly the top priorities in our lives. Bregman works from the premise that the best way to combat constant and distracting interruptions is to create productive distractions of one's own. Based upon a series of short bite-sized chapters, his approach allows us to safely navigate through the constant chatter of emails, text messages, phone calls, and endless meetings that prevent us from focusing our time on those things that are truly important to us. Mixing first-person insights along with unique case studies, Bregman sprinkles his charming book with pathways which help guide us -- pathways that can get us on the right trail in 18 minutes or less.

How do we springboard from adversity to strength? New scientific research suggests that resilience isn't something with which only a fortunate few of us have been born, but rather something we can all take specific action to develop. To build strength out of adversity, we need a catalyst. What we need, according to Dr. Alex Lickerman, is wisdom―wisdom that adversity has the potential to teach us. Lickerman's underlying premise is that our ability to control what happens to us in life may be limited, but we have the ability to establish a life-state to surmount the suffering life brings us. The Undefeated Mind distills the wisdom we need to create true resilience into nine core principles, including: --A new definition of victory and its relevance to happiness --The concept of the changing of poison into medicine --A way to view prayer as a vow we make to ourselves. --A method of setting expectations that enhances our ability to endure disappointment and minimizes the likelihood of quitting --An approach to taking personal responsibility and moral action that enhances resilience --A process to managing pain―both physical and emotional―that enables us to push through obstacles that might otherwise prevent us from attaining out goals --A method of leveraging our relationships with others that helps us manifest our strongest selves Through stories of patients who have used these principles to overcome suffering caused by unemployment, unwanted weight gain, addiction, rejection, chronic pain, retirement, illness, loss, and even death, Dr. Lickerman shows how we too can make these principles function within our own lives, enabling us to develop for ourselves the resilience we need to achieve indestructible happiness. At its core, The Undefeated Mind urges us to stop hoping for easy lives and focus instead on cultivating the inner strength we need to enjoy the difficult lives we all have.

To make people truly care about what you have to say, you need more than just a good idea, trust among your audience, or a certain number of followers. You need a potent mix of all of the above - and more. As traditional channels for marketing and selling disappear and more people interact mainly online, the very nature of attention is changing. Use the Impact Equation to figure out what you're doing right and wrong. Apply it to a blog, a tweet, a video, or a mainstream advertising campaign. Use it to explain why a feature in a national newspaper that reaches millions might have less impact than a blog post that reaches a thousand passionate subscribers.

Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren't born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the "F" word – focus – is crucial to a startup's success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it's not just about technology Whether you're a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

To achieve unimaginable business success and financial wealth—to reach the upper echelons of entrepreneurs, where you'll find Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sara Blakely of Spanx, Mark Pincus of Zynga, Kevin Plank of Under Armour, and many others—you have to change the way you think. In other words, you must develop the Entrepreneur Mind, a way of thinking that comes from learning the vital lessons of the best entrepreneurs. In this riveting book written for new and veteran entrepreneurs, Johnson identifies one hundred key lessons that every entrepreneur must learn in seven areas: Strategy, Education, People, Finance, Marketing and Sales, Leadership, and Motivation. Lessons include how to think big, who makes the best business partners, what captivates investors, when to abandon a business idea, where to avoid opening a business bank account, and why too much formal education can hinder your entrepreneurial growth.

In DEEP WORK, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill. We dive into both the parts of this book during our interview.

In a world inundated with sales books on getting to yes, this book recommends just the opposite, focusing on how increasing your failure rate can greatly accelerate your movement toward ultimate success. In this interview, we discuss 3 key ideas: (1) You have to be willing to fail more in order to succeed more (2) Intentionally increase your failure rate (3)The Worst NO that we will ever get

"Never started a company before? Struggling with little or no cash? Have no experience, no baseline to judge your progress against? Thank God! You've got a shot at making this work." So says Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, a business book that is so uniquely useful, so raw and entertaining, it reads like the brainchild of Steve Jobs and Chris Rock. The founder of three multimillion-dollar companies, including Obsidian Launch, a company that partners with first-time entrepreneurs to grow their concepts into industry leaders, Mike Michalowicz knows what it really takes to spin your great idea into pure gold.

In the past five years, the business world has seen the birth of a new breed of company―the Exponential Organization―that has revolutionized how a company can accelerate its growth by using technology. An ExO can eliminate the incremental, linear way traditional companies get bigger, leveraging assets like community, big data, algorithms, and new technology into achieving performance benchmarks ten times better than its peers.

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Listen to my interview with Dan Pink as we unpack all these different kinds of motivations and learn how you can harness the power of all different kinds of motivations in business and life.