My Reading List
For anyone with an even an ounce entrepreneurial interest, or if you value emotional intelligence, or you're interested in sales, among many other things, you might enjoy my reading list.
“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries. This book was so encouraging and reassuring to me because everything that it teaches is exactly how my brain already works. And since it's so hard to find anyone with my ambition, intellect and social/emotional intelligence, it's easy to feel a sense of existential loneliness. “Am I crazy?” Often I just wish I had a small group of people to relate to about how I think and why I think the way I do. Especially in the entrepreneurial world. But for anyone and everyone who is an entrepreneur or who has ever thought about it for a split second, this is an amazing book to get you started! He teaches you how to start with the lowest stakes possible.
“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss. I read this book every 6 months. The skills he teaches about tactical empathy are skills you need to navigate every relationship in your life. With your kids, partner, friends, family, clients, coworkers, etc. Basically he teaches you how to talk to people so that they feel heard and understood, which in turn, keeps them talking to give you more information of what they’re really after. Instead of compromising the initial offer of each party, you get to the root of what they’re really after so that you can make it work so that you get what you want, and they get what they want. I highly recommend reading it multiple times to really hear and make it muscle memory the methods he teaches.
“Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman. I cried multiple times during this book realizing so many things about my childhood, my past relationships, my current relationships, my intentions as a mom, even my relationship with myself. I have PTSD so sometimes I felt like this book was taking me into dark rooms in a dark house that I never even wanted to know where there but it really is a good book. It covers more of the basics but the next book goes into how to integrate those skills more.
“Emotional Agility” by Susan David. I also cried many times reading this book for the exact same reason as “Emotional Intelligence.” It may or may not have the same effect on you, but whether you cry or not, I think it will help you realize things about yourself and every relationship you've ever had in your life. I believe that whatever you get from this book, it can only help you.
“Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell. This was a good book, I don't know when I will read it again and getting through it was yes interesting but not wow-ing me. But after I was done reading it I realize that my whole mentality about economics and business market and competition totally changed. One of the topics that he goes over is “displacement.” what was fascinating to me was that he was not talking about Business, he was talking about how police officers in Kentucky started targeting the highest crime areas in the city. They were very focused on certain areas which were generally very small and ended very abruptly at certain streets, no one thought it would work because the prostitutes, for example, could just go across the street and continue being prostitutes. But that didn't happen. Either because the other side of the street already had prostitutes, or going any direction would take them closer to their children's school, for many reasons the prostitutes that got caught didn't just down the block, they totally changed careers. Subsconciously in my brain, that registered as “if I am one more contractor in Washington state among tens of thousands of contractors already here, or if I am one more company offering cleaning services when there's already thousands upon thousands of cleaners, there will still be clientele for me.” Now that I write it out, I'm not sure how my brain registered it like that - but that's how I took it and it has honestly made me feel so much more comfortable being one of another one of many contractors. It comforts me knowing that I'm not stealing clients from other contractors, and I'm not infringing upon their services that they already offer. Somehow it's going to work out that in the market that each company has their clientele, their services, and their specialties. I really respect entrepreneurs and the space in the market that each company has worked hard to build so it's hard for me too just throw that respect out the window. I'm not sure if I'm making sense but I'm starting to get very off-topic.
That’s all for now; if you have read any of these books or if you do read any of these books because of this list please let me know! I would love to hear what you get from them!
My email is emma@evergreenstatecontracting.com
By the way I “read” all of these books in audiobook format. Any way you can better yourself by reading books do it! The one thing I like about listening to the long version of books instead of reading the cliff notes or listening to a podcast summarizing them is because reading they give you lots of examples of how you could use these skills, they really drill it into you. It helped me to see every possible scenario to use these skills, and again the repetition helps turn it into muscle memory.
