A book list for the ambitious professionals and career trailblazers!

In today's fast-paced and ever-evolving job market, standing out and getting ahead in your career requires more than just showing up. It demands continuous learning, strategic thinking, and a proactive approach to personal and professional development. Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder, navigating the gig economy, or forging your own entrepreneurial path, having the right knowledge and tools at your disposal is crucial.

That's why we've curated this essential book list specifically for those trying to get ahead in their career, who are eager to excel and make a meaningful impact in your chosen fields. Each book in this collection offers valuable insights, practical advice, and inspiring stories that will empower you to take control of your career journey and achieve your goals.

From mastering the art of networking to developing a growth mindset, enhancing your leadership skills, and staying ahead of industry trends, these books cover a wide range of topics that are vital for career success. So, dive in, soak up the wisdom from these thought leaders, and get ready to propel your career to new heights.

Here's to your success and the exciting journey ahead!

Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

by Tali Sharot - Cass R Sunstein

This "smart and fun read, and a valuable way to revitalize your life" (Walter Isaacson) deftly explains how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate and reset our brains for the better.

Have you ever noticed that what is exciting on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even passionate relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. As easy as it is to stop noticing what is most wonderful in our lives, it's also possible to stop noticing what is terrible. People get used to dirty air. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.

Now, neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor (and presidential advisor) Cass R. Sunstein investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to "dishabituate" at the office, in the bedroom, at the store, on social media, and in the voting booth.

Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality

by Josie Cox

In Women Money Power, financial journalist Josie Cox tells the compelling story of women's fight for financial freedom, the social and political hurdles that have kept them from equality―and the work that remains to be done.

For centuries, women were denied equal access to money and the freedom and power that came with it. They were restricted from owning property or transacting in real estate. Even well into the 20th century, women could not take out their own loans or own bank accounts without their husband's permission. They could be fired for getting married or pregnant, and if they still had a job, they could be kept from certain roles, restricted from working longer hours, and paid less than men for equal work.

It was a raw deal, and women weren't happy with it. So they pushed back. Women, Money, Power is an inspirational account of brave pioneers who took on social mores and the law, including the "Rosies" who filled industrial jobs vacated by men and helped win WWII, the heiress whose fortune helped create the birth control pill, the brassy investor who broke into the boys' club of the New York Stock Exchange, and the namesake of landmark equal pay legislation who refused to accept discrimination.

Without a Doubt: How to Go from Underrated to Unbeatable

by Surbhi Sarna

"An inspiring blueprint to overcome challenges--and thrive" (Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive Global), on how to turn other's and your own doubt into rocket fuel to achieve your dreams, from entrepreneur, CEO, and healthcare investor Surbhi Sarna.

The very qualities that make you an outlier are, in fact, your strengths. Or so Surbhi Sarna discovered after a teenage cancer scare inspired her to reimagine healthcare, founding a medical start-up to detect early ovarian cancer. In Without a Doubt, she shares how she proved the doubters wrong. As a young, brown woman without a medical degree or Ivy-league or Silicon Valley contacts--and who had felt different throughout her life--she was often overlooked and underrated. Undeterred, Sarna used the naysayers as ammunition to help her surpass expectations--and achieve her dreams.

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything

by Nate Silver

NAMED A MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024 BY FT, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Signal and the Noise, the definitive guide to our era of risk--and the players raising the stakes

In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in this timely and riveting new book, Silver investigates "the River," the community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape--and dominate--so much of modern life.

These professional risk-takers--poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors--can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century. By immersing himself in the worlds of Doyle Brunson, Peter Thiel, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sam Altman, and many others, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI.

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

by Ethan Mollick

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From Wharton professor and author of the popular One Useful Thing Substack newsletter Ethan Mollick comes the definitive playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI

Something new entered our world in November 2022 -- the first general purpose AI that could pass for a human and do the kinds of creative, innovative work that only humans could do previously. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick immediately understood what ChatGPT meant: after millions of years on our own, humans had developed a kind of co-intelligence that could augment, or even replace, human thinking. Through his writing, speaking, and teaching, Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world.

I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn about Money

by Madeline Pendleton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A big-hearted, no-bullshit memoir from the TikTok superstar about her journey from living paycheck to paycheck to creating a multi-million-dollar business that offers a compassionate alternative to capitalism - Includes no-nonsense life and money advice, from negotiating pay and building credit to putting home ownership within reach

Imagine a job where you work four days a week and earn as much as the CEO. You also get full benefits, a gym membership, free lunch, and unlimited time off, no questions asked. Hard-won profits don't just end up in the CEO's pocket--they're distributed equally among all employees. The company even buys you your very own car. It sounds too good to be true, but this is the reality at Tunnel Vision, the clothing company that Madeline Pendleton built from the ground up.

Like so many Americans, Madeline used to struggle to make ends meet. Raised by a punk dad and a goth mom in Fresno, California, she spent her teens intermittently homeless, relying on the kindness and spare couches of the local punk community to get by. By her twenties, she was drowning in student loans and credit card debt, working long hours and sick of her bosses treating her as disposable. Then her boyfriend, struggling with financial stress, died by suicide. Capitalism was literally killing her loved ones--she knew there must be a better way.

Order Out of Chaos: Win Every Negotiation, Thrive in Adversity, and Become a World-Class Communicator

by Scott Walker

Learn how to become a world-class communicator and, in doing so, become the best negotiator you can be.

As one of the world's most experienced kidnap-for-ransom negotiators, Scott Walker has successfully resolved life-or-death crises, facing down gang leaders, pirates, cyberhackers, and extortionists. When he turned to help businesses with negotiation, he realized that the tools and skills he'd need were not so different from the ones he'd mastered in the high-stakes situations he successfully negotiated. Now he's bringing those lessons to you.

In this book you will learn Walker's essential negotiation principles and strategies, as well as his tools and techniques, all of which are supported by astonishing real-life case studies.

Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption

by Steve Dennis

Leaders Leap goes beyond the standard business playbook and teaches you the secrets to creating the bolder, faster, and essential transformation needed to avoid becoming irrelevant in an era of profound and accelerating change.

Renowned thought leader on business strategy and innovation Steve Dennis argues that most business transformations are doomed to fail due to two fundamental reasons: their leaders don't aim high enough, delivering mostly incremental changes rather than something truly remarkable, and they move far too slowly to keep up with the pace of disruption. This gap between what is required in a world of seismic shifts in technology and customer requirements and what is typically delivered risks putting many organizations on the road to extinction.

Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience, Creativity, and Connection--Now and in an Uncertain Future

by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman - Martin E P Seligman

A Greater Good magazine and Behavioral Scientist pick of 2023!

In recent years, workplace toxicity, industry volatility, and technology-driven turnover have threatened the psychological well-being of employees. When we can't flourish at work, both personal success and corporate productivity suffer. As we sit on the cusp of some of the most turbulent economic changes in history, many of us wonder how we can not only survive but flourish in our careers.

Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work

by Amy Diehl - Leanne M Dzubinski

Named a Library Journal Starred Review This revealing book shines a light on workplace gender bias. Through original research, Diehl and Dzubinski uncover the six barriers still holding women back using stories of prominent and everyday women. They explain how you can shatter these barriers to eliminate bias in your workplace, whether you are a leader, an ally, or an individual woman.

Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers

by Barbara Kellerman

Leadership from Bad to Worse is about how leadership that is bad, invariably, inexorably, gets worse--unless it is somehow, by someone or something, stopped or slowed. The process of going from bad to worse tends to be steady, as opposed to hasty. But once bad burrows in, it digs in. It digs in deeper and then deeper, making it difficult finally to extract or excise without getting rid of whoever and whatever is involved.

This work draws on four cases of bad leadership--two in political leadership, two in business leadership--to show how it goes from bad to worse. Kellerman finds that bad leadership and bad followership go through four phases of development: 1) Onward and Upward; 2) Followers Join In; 3) Leaders Start In; and 4) Bad to Worse.

All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive

by Rainesford Stauffer

From journalist and author of An Ordinary Age, an examination, dismantling, and reconstruction of ambition, where burnout is the symptom of our holiest sin: the lonely way we strive.

Ambition--the want, the hunger, the need to achieve--is woven into America's fabric from the first colonization to capitalism. From our first gold star assignment to acceptance at the "right" college to hustle and grinding our lives, we celebrate our drive, even as we gatekeep who is permitted to strive--and how visibly. Even as we burn out. When we can't even. When we know: work won't love us back.

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