Top 5 Books for Success (and more)

The path to success is paved with challenges, setbacks and hard work. And the best books for success and motivation can help you on this journey. Success books are one of the most powerful tools to learn, grow and achieve your goals.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of best books for success in life and business. These life success books will help you improve your mindset, develop new skills and build a successful life. These are some of the books everyone should read to be successful.

Top 5 Books for Success and Personal Growth

Dare to Lead, by Brene Brown

Dare to Lead is one of the best books for success many people read. It focuses on developing leadership skills, which can be useful in both life and business. Brene explores the idea that leaders should be vulnerable and courageous, and that they should cultivate a culture of trust and collaboration in their teams. The book also emphasizes the importance of empathy and emotional intelligence in leadership. It’s one of the best personal growth books, with practical advice on how to develop these qualities and create a positive work environment.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.
• At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of my life, I want to say I contributed more than I criticized.
• The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.
• Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.
• There are a million cheap seats in the world today filled with people who will never be brave with their lives but who will spend every ounce of energy they have hurling advice and judgment at those who dare greatly.

Buy Dare to Lead

Also Read: 6 Best Books for Leadership

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers is another of the popular and best books on success that explores the different factors that contribute to high levels of success. It’s more than a self-help book, and it states that success isn’t just a matter of individual talent or hard work. In this book of success, Malcolm says that success is influenced by factors such as opportunity, cultural background and timing. It offers a fascinating look at how seemingly small advantages or disadvantages can have a big impact on the outcomes.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.
• Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from.
• Those three things – autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward – are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.
• It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.
• No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.

Buy Outliers

Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss

Never Split the Difference is a guide to negotiation, a crucial skill for success in both personal and professional contexts. It’s among the best books for success in life by Chris, a former FBI hostage negotiator. The author draws on his experience to offer strategies for achieving win-win outcomes in negotiations. The book emphasizes on the importance of active listening, empathy and creative problem-solving in negotiation. It’s one of the best books for achieving success in the business world.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• He who has learned to disagree without being disagreeable has discovered the most valuable secret of negotiation.
• Conflict brings out truth, creativity, and resolution.
• Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea.
• If you approach a negotiation thinking the other guy thinks like you, you are wrong. That's not empathy, that's a projection.
• The beauty of empathy is that it doesn’t demand that you agree with the other person’s ideas.

Buy Never Split the Difference

Also Read: 14 Best Books for Communication Skills

The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking is one of the popular self-help books on success. It stresses on the power of positive thinking for personal growth and suggests focusing on your strengths and abilities. The book is all about the potential of positive thinking to transform lives. Norman says that by cultivating a positive mindset, you can overcome obstacles, achieve your goals, and live a more fulfilling life. It has practical tips and techniques to develop a positive attitude and mindset and energize your life.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.
• The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
• I place this day, my life, my loved ones, my work in the Lord's hands. There is no harm in the Lord's hands, only good. Whatever happens, whatever results, if I am in the Lord's hands it is the Lord's will and it is good.
• Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.
• Stand up to an obstacle. Just stand up to it, that's all, and don't give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it.

Buy The Power of Positive Thinking

Do Epic Shit, by Ankur Warikoo

Do Epic Shit is a call to action for anyone looking to make a big impact in their life or business. Ankur encourages readers to embrace risk, overcome fear and pursue their passions with energy and enthusiasm. With relatable anecdotes and short stories, the book is no doubt one of the good books for personal growth. The book provides advice and inspiration for setting ambitious goals, taking action, and staying focused on what really matters. It’s the best book for success you can follow.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Sit on as many chairs as you can before you find the one chair on which you feel you belong.
• The pro is the amateur who simply showed up every day.
• It takes effort to find love. It takes effort to feel fulfilled. It takes effort to be fit. It takes effort to be happy. Which is why most of us do not have love, fulfilment, happiness or fitness in our life.
• Who you spend time with will define the stories you hear. The stories you hear will define the stories in your head. The stories in your head will define you.
• Persistence isn’t a one-day miracle. It is a conscious choice translated into habit.

Buy Do Epic Shit

Other Best Books for Success and Personal Growth

Getting Things Done, by David Allen

Getting Things Done is one of the best success books that focuses on time management. It’s a guide to productivity in your daily life. David offers a comprehensive system for organizing and prioritizing tasks, making it a must-read life growth book. It emphasizes the importance of clarity and focus in achieving success and avoiding distractions. And it’s definitely one of the best books to achieve success that you must read. The book has plenty of tips based on the Getting Things Done (GTD) system to help increase efficiency.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.
• When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it “done.”
• Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.
• What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I just suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly.
• You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind.

Buy Getting Things Done

Also Read: 5 Best Books for Time Management

The One Thing, by Gary Keller

The One Thing is another of the best books for life success that emphasizes efficiency. It’s about focusing on the most important one thing to achieve success. Gary suggests identifying your priorities and staying focused on your goals. The book talks about how to focus and avoid distractions, making it one of the best books of success in business. It can help you prioritize tasks and increase work efficiency.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass.
• Success demands singleness of purpose. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.
• Multitasking is a lie
• Your next step is simple. You are the first domino.
• I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate.

Buy The One Thing

Also Read: 11 Best Books on Willpower

Atomic Habits, by James Clear

Atomic Habits is about building good habits and breaking bad ones. James throws an idea that success is not a matter of willpower or motivation, but rather a result of the small habits we repeat every day. It’s among the top books for success, with a glimpse into the psychology of habits to make lasting changes. The book has advice, strategies and stories for building positive habits, overcoming obstacles and staying motivated.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.
• You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
• You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
• When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.
• Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Buy Atomic Habits

Also Read: 6 Best Books for Self-Development and Growth

The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel

The Psychology of Money is the best book for financial success. It explores how money influences our decisions and behaviour. In the book, Morgan states that success is not just a matter of financial wealth, but also a matter of mindset and behaviour. It provides valuable insights into the psychology of money, including the role of emotions, biases and expectations in shaping our financial decisions. It also emphasizes the importance of patience and discipline to achieve financial success. It’s the book of success to help achieve financial independence.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Realize that not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when judging people, including yourself.
• Money’s greatest intrinsic value – and this can’t be overstated – is its ability to give you control over your time.
• Spending money to show people how much money you have is the fastest way to have less money.
• The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want to, pays the highest dividend that exists in finance.
• Things that have never happened before happen all the time.

Buy The Psychology of Money

Also Read: 9 Best Books for Finance to Help Entrepreneurs

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is another book about personal finance and money mindset. It’s another of the best books on financial success, with valuable insights into the mindset and strategies of successful investors. In the book, Robert compares his rich dad’s approach to money and investing with his poor dad’s approach. Through this approach, this book for success provides practical advice for building wealth and achieving financial freedom.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes.
• Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.
• You’re only poor if you give up. The most important thing is that you did something. Most people only talk and dream of getting rich. You’ve done something.
• If you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you’re that kind of person, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for something that never happens. Then, you die a boring old man.
• Emotions are what make us human. Make us real. The word 'emotion' stands for energy in motion. Be truthful about your emotions, and use your mind and emotions in your favor, not against yourself.

Buy Rich Dad Poor Dad

Also Read: 5 Best Books about Cash Flow Management

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow is one of the most read books about success in life. It explores the psychology of decision-making and how our thinking processes can influence our success. This one book for life success reveals how our minds work, and provides insights into how our biases and heuristics can lead us astray. It’s considered one of the best books for success in life. And it will help you make better, smarter decisions at work, at home, and in everything you do.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.
• Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.
• Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.
• If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do.
• Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.

Buy Thinking, Fast and Slow

Also Read: 7 Best Books for Growth Mindset

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People is the best book for personal growth and as well as business relationships. The book is about interpersonal skills and how they help us achieve success in life and business. In the book, Dale provides practical advice for building positive relationships, communicating effectively and influencing others. It’s among the best books to read for success in life that emphasizes the importance of collaboration and mutual benefit.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.
• Don't be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.
• You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
• Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
• When dealing with people, remember you are dealing with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.

Buy How to Win Friends and Influence People

Also Read: 12 Best Books for Personality Development

Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon

Steal Like an Artist is among the best books for successful business in creative terms. It’s about creativity and how to generate new ideas by borrowing from other artists and sources. In this best book on success and creativity, Austin explains how nothing is truly original and that the best way to develop your own style is by copying and remixing ideas from others. The book provides practical tips and strategies for sparking creativity, developing your own style, and sharing your work with others.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.
• If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.
• You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.
• Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else--that's how you'll get ahead.
• Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.

Buy Steal Like an Artist

Also Read: 25 Best Books for Artists and Creatives

The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now is the best personal growth book with a focus on being mindful. It explores how mindfulness can help us achieve success in life and business. It’s among the best books for personal growth that suggests focusing on the present moment. And it’s counted one of the best books for motivation and positive thinking. The book emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and self-reflection to achieve inner peace and fulfilment. It contains exercise to help readers be present in the moment.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.
• Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now.
• I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.
• Love is not selective, just as the light of the sun is not selective. It does not make one person special.
• Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time.

Buy The Power of Now

Also Read: 31 Best Books to Read for Life

Build, Don't Talk, by Raj Shamani

Build, Don't Talk is one of the books about success in entrepreneurship. It suggests that the key to success is taking action and building something, rather than just talking about it. The book shares Raj’s stories about building his businesses. Along with such stories, the book also shares the way to turn your ideas into successful businesses. It’s one of the best books on personal growth, too. It emphasizes the importance of perseverance and hard work to achieve success.

Buy Build, Don't Talk

Also Read: 31 Best Books for Business Owners and Startup Founders

OK, those were all the books to read for success in life that I have for you today. Apart from the list of best books for business success, you’ll also find some of the best books for personal growth and development. Both are interconnected to achieve ultimate success in life.

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