Who Moved My Cheese

An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life

Life is full of changes. The book uses a parable to illustrate how should people look at change and how to best adapt to it in their lives and work.

Strategize

Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age

It has all the famous frameworks and execution plans on how to create a winning product strategy and implement it successfully

Show Your Work

10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered

Like many others, I also do not like too much self-promotion.

This book "Show Your Work" gives advice and inspiration on why and how to tell our story without feeling embarrassed.

Outliers

The story of success

We all think that some people are born genius. But the book challenges that assumption and proves why success is the result of complex mix of internal (talent + effort) and external (age, heritage, social environment, money etc.) factors. 

the four

The hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google

These 4 companies together touch the lives of billions, have the power to disrupt nations and transform industries. They also share many similarities, but their business approach and practices are very different from each other. The book goes into their unique business models, culture and positioning that has contributed to their eventual success. 

Turn the Ship Around!

A true story of turning followers into leaders

Traditional leader-follower models do not work in today's complex and rapidly changing world. In this book, David Marquet takes us through his experiences while developing and implementing an empowerment based leader-leader model which helped him take submarine USS Santa Fe from being the worst to being the best.

Never Eat Alone

And other secrets to success, one relationship at a time

We are by nature social animal. This book shows how relationships, networking and collaboration can be leveraged in the right way in achieving success.

Winners Dream

A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office

I picked up this autobiography after watching Bill in one of SAP's annual meetings. His charisma is extraordinary and after reading his book I got to know the journey which made him what he is today.

Never Split The Difference

Negotiating as if your life depended on it

We negotiate all the time with others be it partner, family, friends or at work. This book shares some interesting negotiation strategies and fundamental ideas which can help in our day to day negotiations.

Blink

The power of thinking without thinking

A big majority of the decisions we make are subconscious. In general, for serious or big decisions, we avoid taking quick decision and have a tendency to really think a lot before we make the final call. The book challenges this idea to a certain extent by supporting the benefit of subconscious decision making.

The Effective Executive

The definitive guide to getting the right things done

In this information and AI age, effectiveness of knowledge workers is critical to the success of any modern organization. The book talks about clear ideas on who is an effective knowledge worker and how to become one. 

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

The book explores history of humankind from the first appearance of Homo sapiens to the modern era, touching upon key topics like the development of language and agriculture, the rise and fall of empires, the impact of scientific revolutions, and the future prospects of humanity. It tells us not only the things Humans did right, but also the things we did wrong which have led to our current reality. 

Range

Why generalists triumph in a specialized world

Throughout my life, I have delved in and out of various topics and industries. I always loved switching to new topics and learning new things. This book finally gave me some evidence that I am not just crazy but many others have done it too and to great results for themselves and society. 

Give and Take

Why helping others drives our success

There are primarily 3 styles of reciprocity - giving, taking, and matching. 

The book argues that although selfless giving is considered wrong success strategy by many, IF done correctly, the act of giving can be the best way to achieve long term success.

Ikigai

The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

It is very hard to define what personal actions can lead to a long and happy (or fulfilling) life!! By studying the population of Okinawa in Japan, the authors tried to figure out the main ideas why the residents of the city have such a long and seemingly happy life.  The book shares some of the concept and fundamental ideas these long living and happy residents have in common.

Continuous Discovery Habits

Discover Products That Create Customer Value and Business Value

Modern software product development is highly complex and hard due to rapidly changing technology and customer choices. The book is inspired by Marty Cagan's philosophy of Product Operating Model and proposes ideas on how to do product discovery to build the best products.

Inspired

How to create tech products customers love

I came across this book to understand what differentiates a brilliant software tech company from an average one and it didn't disappoint. In the book, Marty Cagan talks about a lot of misconceptions which plague software development across the industry and how best teams & companies do the same things differently and why.

Coaching for Performance

The principles and practice of coaching and leadership

Beyond the hype of coaching, there is solid scientific structure of logic why and how coaching works. This book provides all the details through the lens of experience directly from the expert and one of the pioneer of modern coaching - Sir John Whitmore.

The Coaching Habit

Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

Coaching is a mindset and this can be included in every conversation we hold. This book breaks down coaching habits to certain fundamental practices which can make us have more impactful conversation on a daily basis.

The Brain

The story of you

It is fascinating how amazing our brain is. Even with all the technological advances of the entire human civilization, our brain still functions as a far superior machine than any computer we know of. The book goes into many aspects of brain, its functioning and how it influences all of us day in and day out.

Empowered

Ordinary people, extraordinary products

I picked this one to learn about leadership in tech companies. The basic idea is that many times it is not the individuals who are brilliant, but the leadership which creates these best performing teams. So, definitely a good read for leaders and future leaders. Almost 25% of the book talks about coaching. This was another confirmation that good coaching is a big differentiating factor between success and failure for individuals as well as teams.

Transformed

The culture of a product driven company

If your company is planning to transform to Marty Cagan's product operating model (POM), this book will help you bridge the gap between theory and how to actually implement it in real world. To do that, it talks about the most essential aspects of POM, typical anti-patterns to look out for, and a few successful transformation case studies. 

Poor Charlie's Almanack

There are only a few people in the world who I respect a lot for their wisdom. Charlie Munger is one of them. This book is an attempt to capture a lot of his wit, wisdom and mental models through some of his selected talks. In coaching, we talk about creating self-awareness and self-accountability in our clients. In his speeches captured in the book, I see his mastery in both. Rest in peace Charlie! 

Master Your Time Master Your Life

The Breakthrough System to Get More Results, Faster, in Every Area of Your Life

As I am growing older, I am more and more realizing that time is a very expensive resource and I should utilize the remaining ones as effectively as possible. Therefore, this book is a good one to understand how to make the most of it!

Influence

The Psychology of Persuation

Through learning and practising coaching, I got introduced to this amazing world of Psychology. This book breaks down day to day psychology for non-psychologists. If you want even more reason to read this book, Charlie mentions this book in his book "Poor Charlie's Almanack" as a highly insightful book. I agree!

Co-Active Coaching

Changing Business, Transforming Lives

For me, coaching is all about learning how I, as a coach, can help people achieve their best. There are many different schools of thought on how to do this effectively. Co-active coaching is one of the famous approaches where the focus is on client's whole life, values, and potential rather than just problem-solving or performance.

Storyworthy

Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change your life through the power of storytelling

Stories are how our brain remembers information. That is why, the people who tell the most engaging stories, become some of the most remembered leaders in our lives.

I read this to learn this art better, but I must say that it is quite a lengthy read.

Expecting Better

Why the conventional pregnancy wisdom is wrong - and what you really need to know.

To become a better partner, it is important to understand what is going on when a woman goes through the journey of pregnancy. This book explained to me most of the critical points the way I like - scientifically with research and facts!

The Unfair Advantage

How you already have what it takes to succeed

I really like this saying from Naval Ravikant:

"The best way to escape competition is through authenticity". 

This book tells you how.

Cribsheet

A data-driven guide to better, more relaxed parenting, from birth to preschool.

After reading Emily Oster's first book "Expecting Better", I figured that her style of storytelling matches exactly with how I like processing new information. That is why cribsheet was an obvious continuation for me to prepare me from birth of the baby to the first few years.

The 5 Types of Wealth

A transformative guide to design your dream life

Since my childhood days in India, due to scarcity of money in my family, I was always made to believe that money is the biggest indicator of success. This changed once I started working and later moved to Germany. I realised that beyond money, there are other parameters which define a good life. 

This book gave me a simple framework to explain this highly complex but important insight!

The Millionaire Fastlane

Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime

The book has an extremely fluffy name and usually I avoid these kind of books. Still, the book does make a lot of sense if rather than focusing on the title and the tone of the author, you start focusing on the insights.

Will it make you a millionaire, most probably, no. Was reading this worth my time, yes!

The science of Mom

A research based guide to your baby's first year

There is a huge overlap between Emily Oster's "Cribsheet" and this book. Still, the style is very similar and the content is highly informational. I still read both the books because honestly the whole thing with pregnancy and babies is so so complex and there is so much to learn that even multiple books are not enough to cover every facet of this journey.

Brain Rules for Baby

How to raise a smart and happy child from zero to five

As a father, there is only so much you can do during pregnancy. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the mother (creation, growth, delivery). But once the baby is born, there is a bigger role to play as a father. I read this one to understand how can I play my father part the best way possible :)