Personal Development
Updated April 5, 2025
Personal growth fuels business growth. Here are a few tools and ideas that have helped us — and might help you too (see links below).
This is the book that I personally find most useful on the subject of leadership. Written by Jocko Willink, a decorated veteran of the Seal Teams and his colleague Leif Babin.
Note: Because of the authors' military backgrounds, the examples and lessons in the book have a heavy military focus, although I think the authors do a great job of showing how these lessons can be applied in any organization (business, non-profits, government, etc.). I've found that this military context resonates with some people, but not others. For example, I thought the military examples provided a really easy-to-understand context for the lessons in this book. But, my wife found that she had an easier time relating to the lessons and examples in John Maxwell's podcast on leadership. So, that could be an alternative, if the military context isn't a good fit for you.
This book, by James Clear, made a big impact on how I personally approach my daily habits. It's very practical, and I found that I was able to implement a lot of his advice in real-time as I read through the book. One of the things he focuses on is how to make small adjustments to your habits, which end up making a big impact on your life. And practically speaking, that makes it easier to begin putting his teaching to practice, since you don't feel you have to totally "re-arrange your life," in order to follow his advice.
In this book, Tim Ferriss summarizes the most actionable takeaways from the guests in the first 200 or so episodes of the Tim Ferriss Show (hands down my favorite podcast). The guests range from actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger to successful entrepreneurs like Daymond John to accomplished writers, musicians, athletes, and more. It's a highly-accomplished group of people, and in the book they share the key habits, routines, and tips that have helped them achieve success.
I think it's a genius book. So practical. I took lots of notes in my copy of the book. (If you're a big "pencil and paper" note-taker, you may want the physical book instead of the Kindle version for that reason). Looking back, I think I took away at least 1 super-useful thing from every interview guest that would make a significant improvement in some area of my business or life.
A couple passages that were highlights for me:
- "Good" by Jocko Willink
- The chapter with Robert Rodriguez (director of "From Dusk Till Dawn" and other movies). I think I had a big "aha" moment in almost every paragraph from that interview.
Personal growth fuels business growth. Here are a few tools and ideas that have helped us — and might help you too (see links below).
This is the book that I personally find most useful on the subject of leadership. Written by Jocko Willink, a decorated veteran of the Seal Teams and his colleague Leif Babin.
Note: Because of the authors' military backgrounds, the examples and lessons in the book have a heavy military focus, although I think the authors do a great job of showing how these lessons can be applied in any organization (business, non-profits, government, etc.). I've found that this military context resonates with some people, but not others. For example, I thought the military examples provided a really easy-to-understand context for the lessons in this book. But, my wife found that she had an easier time relating to the lessons and examples in John Maxwell's podcast on leadership. So, that could be an alternative, if the military context isn't a good fit for you.
This book, by James Clear, made a big impact on how I personally approach my daily habits. It's very practical, and I found that I was able to implement a lot of his advice in real-time as I read through the book. One of the things he focuses on is how to make small adjustments to your habits, which end up making a big impact on your life. And practically speaking, that makes it easier to begin putting his teaching to practice, since you don't feel you have to totally "re-arrange your life," in order to follow his advice. I also found James Clear's online course to be really good - it basically expands on what he teaches in the book.
In this book, Tim Ferriss summarizes the most actionable takeaways from the guests in the first 200 or so episodes of the Tim Ferriss Show (hands down my favorite podcast). The guests range from actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger to successful entrepreneurs like Daymond John to accomplished writers, musicians, athletes, and more. It's a highly-accomplished group of people, and in the book they share the key habits, routines, and tips that have helped them achieve success.
I think it's a genius book. So practical. I took lots of notes in my copy of the book. (If you're a big "pencil and paper" note-taker, you may want the physical book instead of the Kindle version for that reason). Looking back, I think I took away at least 1 super-useful thing from every interview guest that would make a significant improvement in some area of my business or life.
A couple passages that were highlights for me:
- "Good" by Jocko Willink
- The chapter with Robert Rodriguez (director of "From Dusk Till Dawn" and other movies). I think I had a big "aha" moment in almost every paragraph from that interview.