Here are 100 books that Joy of Agility fans have personally recommended if you like
Joy of Agility.
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I'm the Founder and CEO of Intertech, an IT firm I started over 30 years ago. I've written three books and more than 100 articles on business, leadership, and technology. Intertech has won over 50 awards for growth, workplace best practices, and employee engagement including being named one of the Best 30 Employers in Tech by Fortune Magazine and one of the Top 10 Consulting firms in America by Consulting Magazine.
I learned from Verne firsthand at two separate multi-year courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that were held for high-growth entrepreneurs.
In Scaling Up, he lays out what needs to be done at different stages/sizes of an organization to move to the next level. Like the other books I've recommended, he provides candid advice and practical ways to implement the ideas outlined in the book.
Winner of the International Book Awards for General Business
Winner of the Readers' Favorite International Book Award for Non-Fiction Business
It’s been over a decade since Verne Harnish’s best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) is the first major revision of this business classic which details practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. This book is written so everyone — from frontline employees to senior executives — can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2008 and by 2015 I was a Sergeant who had made all the same financial decisions most service members make…tattoos, alcohol, cars, chasing tail, etc., and had a negative net worth to show for it. Then I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and the light came on. I started buying houses, and by 2021 I exited the military as a financially free millionaire and spend my time helping service members and veterans learn how to build wealth. The military is one of the best places to set yourself up for success, and these books will help you get started on that journey!
Profit First is a banking system that accounts for the inevitable human error of “ooh, there is money in my account, I can afford that”.
This book helped me set my businesses up so that I was actually able to keep some of the income that was coming in from them, rather than continually getting to the end of the month and wondering where the revenue I had generated went.
This is a must read for self-employed and small business owners, and a solid read for personal finances too!
Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability.
Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by…
I’m passionate about Sales with Soul because being sold to is awful. I’m passionate about leaders, by title, actually leading and it bugs me when the balance between getting work done and caring for the human is out of balance. There’s an elegant way to do both, and as someone who struggles with that concept, I have embraced my struggle and put frameworks and systems around the concept and teach it. We host clients, colleagues, and peers on our Rev Shots show to bring our content and discussions to life and share with our audience. I hope you enjoy the books and content as much as I have!
For every business owner, there’s the question of scale. I never wanted my company to be big. Our purpose is to make the world a better place and we can’t do that if we’re spread too thin; we’d lose our personal touch.
This book gave me ideas to use and wording to use to stay small and excellent in our craft; which was a huge salve to my heart.
How maverick companies have passed up the growth treadmill — and focused on greatness instead.
It’s an axiom of business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year. Yet quietly, under the radar, a small number of companies have rejected the pressure of endless growth to focus on more satisfying business goals. Goals like being great at what they do, creating a great place to work, providing great customer service, making great contributions to their communities, and finding great ways to lead their lives.
In Small Giants, veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable…
This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…
Hermann Simon is a world-renowned expert on price and profit management. He is the founder and honorary chairman of Simon-Kucher & Partners, the global leader in price and topline consulting with 1700 employees and 41 offices worldwide. He is the only German in the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame of the most influential management thinkers. In China a business school is named in his honor. Profit is at the core of Hermann’s writing and consulting activities.
This book is very basic and aimed mostly at small business owners or readers who are interested in the fundamental mechanics of profit. It’s a hard-hitting book and controversial, e.g. with recommendations such as, “Never pay your vendors on time. Wear your control-freak badge with pride.” It shows that many little things influence profit and should be observed. Useful for start-ups and readers with basic economic knowledge. The obsession with profit as the only priority is, however, somewhat exaggerated.
Now more than ever, business owners need a reality check. As we see the economy flattening and businesses struggling to stay afloat, "Profits Aren't Everything, They're the Only Thing" is a wakeup call for the 23 million small businesses across America who need to get their business fundamentals in order. George Cloutier reveals 13 no-nonsense, tough-love maxims that small businesspeople may not want to hear at first, but will thank him for in the end. Among his controversial (yet proven!) ideas are: forget teamwork, micromanage like crazy; pay raises are over; fear is the best motivator; and, if your business…
When I went back to school for my MBA, I was looking for a way to apply the passion I’d found for changing lives for a better world. Studying business started my journey toward founding Velentium, a medtech engineering firm, in 2012. The pandemic was a make-or-break season for every industry, medtech included. We were determined to do our part, but were faced with an unprecedented challenge: boost the world’s emergency ventilator production from hundreds per month to thousands per week—in just 28 days. We succeeded—and it was a spiritually moving experience. I wrote28 Days to Save the World in hopes of inspiring other organizations to punch above their weight class like we did.
Lencioni’s latest work gave words to inner frustrations that I’ve felt my entire life. Six Types of Working Genius finally gave me permission to admit that I’m not tenacious! As a leader, I need to lean into the geniuses I have and build a leadership team that complements me and shores up my weaker areas. And, I need to do the same at every level of my organization.
This book will be key to leaders for years to come, giving them the tools they need to build and grow teams that will be more enthusiastic, more energetic, and more effective than ever before.
New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni unveils a truly groundbreaking new model that will change the way we think about work and teams forever.
The 6 Types of Working Genius is the fastest way to help people identify the type of work that brings them joy and energy, and avoid work that leads to frustration and burnout.
Beyond the personal discovery and instant relief that Working Genius provides, the model also gives teams a remarkably simple and practical framework for tapping into one another’s natural gifts, which increases productivity and reduces unnecessary judgment.
I’m Heather Smith and I love writing. I love Accounting and AccounTech. I gratefully sit at the Ikigai inflection point, where my profession, passion, vocation, and mission intersect, and I can use my explanation skills to empower others in the accounting industry. Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. Believing Accountants don't save lives, Accountants save livelihoods; I use my superpower of explanation to educate the accounting profession about accounting technology and modern accounting practices. I do this through many channels including my latest book Xero for Dummies, 5th edition.
This book provides entrepreneurs with a practical, user-friendly guide to understanding their businesses' numbers. Being a Chartered Accountant, I often see entrepreneurs who have the drive, ideas, and passion for their businesses, but fall short when it comes to the numbers. I recommend this book to anyone who is working to create a business they love but needs a little help with the numbers. With no jargon, and easy-to-follow guidance, you'll discover how you can grow your business.
Break free from the 'time for money' treadmill and build a business that works for you!
Too many business owners work too many hours for not enough pay. They don't have time or the energy for family, friends, hobbies and relaxing. If they don't work, they don't get paid. You may think you own a business but, if these points ring true for you, chances are you actually own a job.
In The Profits Principles Steven Briginshaw draws on his vast experience as a chartered accountant and business mentor to show exactly what you need to do to...
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
I’m Heather Smith and I love writing. I love Accounting and AccounTech. I gratefully sit at the Ikigai inflection point, where my profession, passion, vocation, and mission intersect, and I can use my explanation skills to empower others in the accounting industry. Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. Believing Accountants don't save lives, Accountants save livelihoods; I use my superpower of explanation to educate the accounting profession about accounting technology and modern accounting practices. I do this through many channels including my latest book Xero for Dummies, 5th edition.
Della has a way of simply explaining what’s practically needed to run a modern practice. Like Della, I’ve built a modern practice and she has laid the steps to start and thrive in a clean and easy-to-follow manner. Hudson's writing style is engaging and accessible, making it easy to understand and apply the concepts presented. With personal anecdotes and asides littering the narrative, the book reads like a quiet meeting between friends over a nice cup of tea. Overall, The Numbers Business is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to build a successful cloud accounting practice.
This is the manual every qualified accountancy professional needs to read before setting up their own practice. Having applied her corporate experience to building a modern cloud accountancy practice, Della Hudson presents her road map to help you to do the same. Here, she shares her hard-earned knowledge so that other accountancy professionals can grow their own successful, scaleable and even sellable businesses. This book is a road map that will help a qualified professional to: start a successful business from scratch with no personal or business contacts; move from the kitchen table to an office space; recruit and train…
I have done some pretty cool things in the arts. To share a few, I’ve given TEDx talks, I have produced and co-starred in a film that made it to Cannes, I have written 11+ books (one of which was a Barnes & Noble # 1 best seller), I have spoken at SAG/AFTRA and Writer’s Guild, I am an entertainment attorney, and I have an album up on iTunes/Apple Music/Spotify, etc. I really love inspiring people, and helping them to achieve life dreams. I hope this list will help inspire some of you to go after your dreams, too, and with a passion!
The stuff in this book is so good that I used his very techniques to end up co-writing a book with the author!
This book helped me to recognize that my success in show business (and indeed, in any field) was not going to be due to my talent (of which I have in excess supply!) but because of how well I could market that talent, and share it with the world.
Guerrilla Marketing was my trusted friend when I was starting out, and its lessons ring true 20 years later as I continue acting, producing, coding, speaking, and more. In fact, the lessons in this book helped me to book my first TEDx talk just this year (2024).
The book that started the guerilla marketing revolution, expanded and completely updated for the twenty-first century.
Jay Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing revolutionized marketing strategies for the small-business owner with his take-no-prisoners approach to finding clients. Based on hundreds of solid and effective ideas, Levinson’s philosophy has given birth to a new way of learning about market share and how to gain it. In this completely updated and expanded fourth edition, Levinson offers a new arsenal of weaponry for small-business success including strategies for marketing on the internet (explaining when and precisely how to use it); tips for using new…
I have worked with startups since 2000, when I joined ShareBuilder, ultimately sold to Capital One in a $9.5 billion deal – one of my five successful startup exits to date. I am currently an officer of seven startups. Startups drive global job creation and problem-solving innovation. But 90% fail, often for preventable reasons. I am helping entrepreneurs beat those odds. I wrote Startup Law and Fundraising to help entrepreneurs build on a solid foundation, avoid common legal and regulatory mistakes, and fund their vision. My books are used globally in law and MBA schools, and I speak constantly on entrepreneurship-related topics, including recently to groups in Istanbul, Ramallah, and Tehran.
I love Dave Parker’s book, Trajectory: Startup – Ideation to Product/Market Fit, because it provides a clear, but detailed roadmap to guide entrepreneurs through and over all of the necessary steps and obstacles to entrepreneurial success. The nature and degree of the best practices and practical insights laid out in Trajectory: Startup is somewhat similar, but even more granular, to that found in my own book but for the business side of things instead of the legal, governance, or regulatory side.
There is a lot of intellectual and procedural handholding in these pages, including checklists, to-do lists, and template forms for gathering and analyzing research and data, that first-time entrepreneurs will find indispensable and that even experienced entrepreneurs will find illuminating and useful. In the book’s Introduction, Parker summarizes what he hopes to help aspiring entrepreneurs do: create value with your product or service; decide on primary and secondary…
Listed #1 in "The 13 Best Business Books of 2021" by HubSpot
Have a startup idea? Want to launch it fast?
People often spend years on working on startup ideas that fail-and they could have known long before, had they asked the hard questions earlier. Five-time tech founder Dave Parker has been there, and in Trajectory: Startup he offers a path to get you from ideation to launch and revenue in just six months.
With a track record of starting companies from scratch, raising both angel and venture capital, and participating in eight exits as founder, operator, and board member,…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
I love building businesses. I’ve built several businesses, ranging from a one person consultancy to a venture-backed tech company to an 8-figure marketing agency to a managed HR marketplace to a virtual memorial services company. The only thing I love more than building businesses is building and helping create new entrepreneurs. These books have helped me tremendously in my journey and I hope they help you as well!
Built to Sell is the perfect parable that taught me how to build a scalable business with processes and predictable revenue. I read it, I shared it with our leadership team, who all read it, and then we built and sold a company for 8 figures. Whether or not you plan to sell your company, this is the most important book for all entrepreneurs to read.
Most business owners started their company because they wanted more freedom—to work on their own schedules, make the kind of money they deserve, and eventually retire on the fruits of their labor.
Unfortunately, according to John Warrillow, most owners find that stepping out of the picture is extremely difficult because their business relies too heavily on their personal involvement. Without them, their company—no matter how big or profitable—is essentially worthless.
But the good news is that entrepreneurs can take specific steps—no matter what stage a business is in—to create a valuable, sellable…
