12 Great Books I liked in 2017

Happy Holidays to everyone. As the year ends I wanted to share some of the books I enjoyed reading this year. I would say this year has been one of the best in terms of terrific books. I love reading and it is one of my favorite hobbies. Please check out my favorite books of 2017 below. Most of them are business books which is my preferred genre and I have also reviewed some of them so if you are interested you can check it out by clicking the related links. 

Principles by Ray Dalio – Ray Dalio is called the “Steve Jobs of investing.” I skipped part 1 of the book as it was about his journey. The second part is where the meat of the book is. It is about the principles of life. I found it to be useful. Basically, life doesn’t care what you like. It is up to you to do the things needed to get what you want. Set goals, diagnose the problem, put plans and act. You cannot do everything but you can choose the ones you want most. You can savor life or you can make an impact or you can do both. Another key is to be radically open-minded and transparent. Check out his TED talk. Ray Dalio TED talk

High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard – This was refreshingly good for me. If we follow these steps, we will be more successful. First habit it to seek clarity which is being totally clear on who you are and what you want. I think this is key to success which is to be absolutely clear on what you want in life. Second is to generate energy which is ensuring your physical and mental energy is high. Third is raise necessity basically deciding for whom you are doing all this. Fourth is about productivity focusing only on generating outputs that matter. All successful people are clear on what their prolific quality output should be. Fifth is influencing others and sixth is displaying courage. It is an incredibly practical book. I think we get caught up in what the routines of superstars are but I think it is more important to figure out what we want and what will work for our individual situations.

Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella – This was a delightful read. The thing that I liked was his authenticity. He also talks about the lessons he learned from cricket which were to be passionate, being a true team player and leading by example. He also talks about having a growth mindset for example which helped in the acquisition for Minecraft. He is certainly his own man and leads his own way which is the great takeaway for me. He also asked a pertinent question which we can all use. He asked, “What will be the world like if Microsoft didn’t exist.” This helps in clarifying the mission and can help us in our individual lives.

Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson- Yes, I skipped a couple of chapters as I am not that interested in knowing which paint was used for a drawing. Overall it is still an inspiring read. Someone born out of wedlock who didn’t have many advantages was able to rock the world with his art. There are also comparisons between Da Vinci and Michelangelo where the author clearly sides with Da Vinci as the superior artist with a greater aesthetic taste. The takeaway for us is to be curious, appreciate knowledge and have a child like sense of wonder.

The Four by Scott Galloway – This book may not resonate with everyone but I liked it. It is the way Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple are playing a greater role in our lives. He also provides some tips on building an illustrious career with some like having high emotional maturity and focusing on your talent not passion. If you are passionate but don't have talent for that activity you shouldn't focus on that.

What’s the future and why it is up to us by Tim O’Reilly – This was a brilliant book revealing what the future would look like. Of course, the usual suspects like Artificial Intelligence and Universal basic income is discussed. I loved the way the author weaves the story of the future in a very engage-able way. There are four takeaways I will never forget. They are work on something that matters more than money, create more value than you capture, take the long view and aspire to be better tomorrow than today.

15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman and Kaley – I had never heard of this book till it was mentioned in the book Tribe of Mentors and it was an awesome read. In fact, it is one of the most practical books I have read on leadership. Take responsibility for every situation in your life, let go of the need to be right, speak candidly, eliminate gossip, be in total integrity, focus on your personal genius, let go of the need for control, have an abundance mentality and be the resolution. This was a great read indeed. I especially like the way integrity is explained here. It is the flow of energy, congruence and alignment which is living on purpose.

Legacy by James Kerr – Again this is not a book released this year but the value of this book is enormous. One of the best resources on leadership. Read my review here. Legacy Book Review

Breaking bad habits by Freek Vermeulen – This is a delightful read and gives an alternative view on why best practices are not good. Some of the ideas are let go of benchmarking instead do reverse benchmarking. Basically, look at what everyone is doing, find out why they are doing it and do something different.

 Forged in Crisis by Nancy Koehn – This is a strong call for effective leadership in tough situations with real life examples from history that can leave you inspired. Three lessons I gleaned are great leaders too time to respond, they have a strong mission and they are resilient.

Blue Zones of Happiness by Dan Buettner and Ed Diene- I sometimes think do we really need to read about happiness to be happy. That is an interesting thought but still I did like this book. There are examples of Denmark, Singapore and Costa Rica where people are happier. Individual happiness can be improved by clearly knowing your values, having goals, exercising, being grateful and having a strong social network. It is an enjoyable book and has some useful suggestions that are applicable.

The Leader's Bookshelf by James Stevridis and R. Manning Ancell - This is my favorite recommendation for anyone serious about learning leadership. The book reviews 50 books and lot of it is based on historical leaders. Two articles I wrote based on this are 9 principles of military strategy and 9 Leadership lessons from George Marshall.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Please share the books you like reading this year. I had also written my favorite books of 2015 and 2016 which are below.

My favorite books of 2015

My favorite books of 2016

The views expressed in this article are my own and do not represent my organization. Thanks for reading this post.