When you start working after graduation being new to the industry there are so many unknowns. Need to figure out how to swim in the corporate world. Not just to survive but to go up the career ladder. Excel and make it big. Competition is fierce, a 360-degree race where you compete with your peers, people above and below you. Everyone is in race with everyone else. Everyone fears everyone else. You want to learn the tools and tricks of the trade to get ahead. To be at the forefront. Who do you lean on for guidance? Peers are ruled out since they are competing with you!! You can rely on your mentors, if you have any. Even with mentors you may feel a gap. So, you turn to self-help and management section in bookstores. Self-help books are one of the biggest in books publishing industry. Gemini says self-improvement market (includes books, e-learning, life coaching, and workshops) is valued at ~$42-$46 billion as of 2024-25, with projections suggesting it could exceed $80-$90 billion by 2032-34!!

Taking the beaten path, I also got sucked in to reading self-improvement books when I entered the industry. Dale Carnegies and Stephen Coveys!! First 90 days, Leadership mastery, How to influence, How to win friends, How to read people, How to negotiate and always win, How to be a star at work, How to deal with difficult people, Don’t sweat the small stuff, Who moved my cheese, Rich Dad Poor Dad, etc. The all-time top seller Seven habits of highly effective people (habits didn’t last more than a week for me 🤣). I make it sound funny, but I do think these books have their place. For someone with no compass, they do provide valuable direction, insight, and pointers. What is hard though is to practice the suggestions and make it part of your system. That is a big if. While I found the books interesting most of these books get repetitive once you cross the 60-70% mark. Maybe the books had it, but I couldn’t grasp from the book how to put them in practice. Maybe the lack of hands-on experience in early phase of the career played a factor. Still, they are worth the read since I did manage to internalize few habits!! In that period few books stood out even though they may not necessarily fall into self-improvement category.

• Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove
• Who says elephants can’t dance by Louis Gerstner Jr.
• The Mythical man month by Fredrick P Brooks
• Talent is overrated by Geoff Colvin
• Chasing the Rabbit by Stephen J Spear
• Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M Christensen
• Five dysfunctions of a team by Partick Lencioni

Above authors stuck a chord in me. One reason could be they are written by authors from their personal experience. Second reason the topics are something which I saw in the industry as in Innovator’s Dilemma or experiencing them as part of my job at work.

Then I took a break from self-improvement and management books for nearly 2 decades. While exploring new topics came across The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Maybe 3 decades of corporate grind has taught few lessons and few of the improvement habits I have cracked myself, I was able to connect with the book immediately. Gave myself a pat on the back since I figured out a few myself and handful of others I got clarity from the author. That led me to google top selling self-improvement books in the last 10 years. Picked a few to read. Peak by Anders Ericsson, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Grit by Angela Duckworth, How minds change by David McRaney, Atomic Habits by James Clear, Deep Work by Cal Newport, Hyper Focus by Chris Bailey, Tyranny of Merit by Michael J Sandel. I observed books have improved with more research and data. Specifically Peak, Mindset, How minds change and Grit. Repetitiveness issue does persist once you cross the midway mark. Hands-on learning that has happened through my career did help immensely to connect with key points made by these authors – deliberate practice from Peak, positive and negative triggers from Atomic Habits and Hyper Focus, attention residue from Deep Work, facts/beliefs/identity/social belonging from How minds change, growth and fixed mindset from Mindset. Angela Duckworth combines growth mindset and deliberate practice and makes a convincing argument that Grit is a better predictor than talent or intelligence.

How much someone early in their career will be able to pick up from these books is a question mark. Still, I would recommend reading few self-improvement books. A good coach and mentor make a big impact than the books though. Don’t stop the search till you hit upon a good mentor. Coach, a good manager, and selected self-improvement titles is the combination to wish for 😀

I have tried to list down my key takeaways from personal experience, and books I have read. Gave more weight to personal experience since I got them to work with iterations.

• Goal setting
• Difference between passion, knowledge, skillset
• Mindset, Grit, Talent, Intelligence
• Getting in or out of a habit
• Deliberate practice
• Multitasking, Attention residue
• Success, hard work, luck, fortune, chance
• Fiscal, Physical, and Mental

Plan to pen my thoughts on above takeaways in future postings. Let me add a disclaimer that learning is an ongoing process and is never complete. A wise man once said strive to be superior to your former self.