Books like Eyes Wide Open — picked by fans

A timeless meditation on purpose, suffering, and the human spirit. While not about entrepreneurship, this book is essential for anyone seeking to understand the deeper meaning behind their work. Frankl’s insight—that we can find meaning even in suffering—is profoundly relevant for founders navigating hardship and uncertainty. 

What struck me most about it was how Frankl captured the Holocaust not just as a historical event, but as a raw, existential landscape. I’ve seen many films and documentaries about that era, but Frankl’s account stands apart. His lens is philosophical, not just historical. His insight that meaning, not pleasure or power, is the primary driver of human life resonated deeply.

I've focused on the idea myself that many entrepreneurs pursue ventures not for wealth or control, but as a way to fill a deeper existential hole. Frankl’s writing felt honest, profound, and necessary. This is a serious and enduring book I’ll return… show more.

What stays with me is not the survival story, but the change that followed.

Louie’s struggle with anger and pain after the war felt familiar. This story shows that endurance by itself is not enough. Freedom comes through forgiveness and faith.

The movement from anger to grace stood out to me. It made me consider that even when hard experiences influence us, they do not have to decide our future.

I want to hug this charming, wise lady! 

She went through a hard time by believing she had choices. I admire her for not being defeated. 

Now a celebrated psychologist, trauma specialist, inspirational speaker, and all-around loveably cute grandma, her story was gripping and moving, especially her brave trip to return to the Auschwitz concentration camp, to face the trauma of her time there during World War 2.

I was awestruck and impressed by how she confirmed her choice and life’s mission to be happy and helpful, no matter what. I was inspired, to say the least. It convinced me that if she can do that, I can tackle a few challenges too.

She is my new sweet Nana.

An engaging story of how a person can transform her life through travel and formal education.

While teaching English at a community college, I assigned this memoir to my students. Many of my students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and could identify with the childhood hardships and abuse experienced by Tara Westover.

I was delighted to share a story that resonates with my own life and demonstrates how a young person, even against overwhelming obstacles, can overcome insecurities, transform personal views, and navigate beyond the limitations imposed by one’s childhood.

Since I spent part of my childhood living within an hour of Cambridge University, I also enjoyed the part of the story that transpired in the halls and turrets of an old English institution.

We come more up-to-date with my third book recommendation. However, this book was no less transformative for me. Richard Koch’s books around the 80/20 principle were a paradigm-shifting fork in the road for me personally. They came at a time in my life when I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed and really needed them. I credit them with being one of the main reasons I became invested in my own simplicity journey.  

This book (and others by the same author on 80/20) had such a profound effect on me that they influenced the name of my own company when I set it up 10 years ago. 80/20 is a concept I return to often in my own writing and I believe it is a close relative to simplicity. A powerful tool we can all learn to leverage. 

Kaplan debunks everything you were taught about luck. If you’re like me, you were taught that some people were lucky and others weren’t. Have you ever heard someone say, “Well if I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!”? That’s a ridiculous thing to say because why would anyone associate luck with something bad? This is exactly what Kaplan brings an awareness to. 

Lucky people create their own luck; anyone can do it if they believe they are lucky. That’s it. Certain behaviors create luck, and those behaviors are fully outlined. For example, place affects luck. The book explains that “To get lucky, you have to be in a place where opportunities are going to be around you” (p. 53). Opportunities will elude you if you’re hanging out at the same bar with the same people for twenty years in a row. But opportunities will fall… show more.

This book gave me the confidence to follow a dream that I thought was frivolous and silly: to be a professional speaker. As I read this book, I realized that following my heart was difficult for me, as I am a veterinarian and driven by science. As a result, I lost touch with my intuition and my confidence in doing what was true to myself, not what others expected of me.

When I read the part where she talks about thinking that your dream couldn’t be that because it seems too big and following that little voice that says, “What if?” It put me on the path of taking a chance on a dream, regardless of what it looked like to other people. 

Anthony Robbins is the world's most famous success coach.

With Unlimited Power, he has made Neurolinguistic Programming known outside of therapy in management.

Anyone who wants to break through beliefs that prevent success and wants to get many valuable suggestions at all levels of success, can not get past Anthony Robbins. His books have inspired and motivated me.

Anyone who really wants to be successful should read his books. In Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical & Financial Destiny! you get a very good summary of his thoughts.

I love the stories. Author Robert Greene’s stories about Semmelweis and William Harvey show the nasty consequences of ‘not suffering fools gladly.’

His notion of 10,000 hours to achieve mastery cuts through the challenges I face with each new book: I hate the feeling of not knowing what I’m doing, dislike feeling out of control, and get antsy when something I’m working on doesn’t fall into place easily.

Suck it up because that’s precisely how I feel each time I think about my new book on the early life of King David.

Whenever I feel inadequate, insecure, overwhelmed, and diminished, I come back to this book. Errol was a Navy SEAL Commander. He should be dead by now. His survival is due to a gripping tale of control and recovery through a unique process that can be applied by anyone struggling with life and wondering whether they will ever be able to get anywhere under their own steam.

Errol has a way of writing that makes what he says memorable. The effectiveness of what he says is testified to by his own survival of a traumatic brain injury that should have made him one of the statistics. Reading his account is humbling and eye-opening.