Books to be Inspired
Books can impact our decisions, and with that our lives, nudging us to follow a path that is meaningful to us. This list is here to inspire you, to nudge you to follow your dreams!
A moving autobiography: Nelson Mandela recognized that it is the system that makes people turn bad; you have to fight the cause behind it and not the people. Nelson Mandela has not let his environment and circumstances break him despite being imprisoned for 27 years. He was only released when he was over 70 but had not given up his ideas, becoming the first South African president elected by the country.
​"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." — Nelson Mandela
The book "Big Five for Life" is about defining the five big goals that you want to achieve in life. The author embeds this idea in a vivid entrepreneurial story. Although this story itself did not happen that way, it is based on many of the author's interviews and encounters with entrepreneurs who served as role models for the idea. The book asks an interesting question; what if we were to go through a museum at the end of our lives that had our life as its theme? The exhibition would be exactly how our life went. If we had spent 60% of our lives on work that we do not like, then, unfortunately, more than half of the museum would be on an issue that we would not enjoy. So how do we want our museum to look? What is important to us? Once you've defined that for yourself, it makes it easier to make decisions that do not just lead you on any path but on a path that is personally relevant to you.
The book raises some interesting questions. In it, it is argued that we are not an individual in the sense that we have a clear "I", but we are an ensemble of many different thoughts and interests that have to agree with each other. It also raises the question of whether we have any free will and, ultimately, that man is merely a product of biological algorithms. Because of its challenging claims, I find the book very interesting. The author extrapolates historical and contemporary processes into the future and thus tries to present a picture in which direction humanity might develop.
In the book Give and Take, different character types are analyzed to determine which form of an altruistic character is successful. It is roughly about three different types: The Taker, who wants to get as much as possible for himself, but hardly gives; the selfless giver who, no matter what he is asked, supports everyone; and the conditional giver who helps especially then if his time has a significant impact, but says no if it does not. I think the book presents an interesting approach, when it's good to help and when to say no.
This book shows when and why, in our economic system, the distribution of wealth changes. According to this book, this is determined by the discrepancy between economic growth and the profits that can be made on the capital market. If economic growth is higher than the average gains on the capital market, then on average, the salary of workers will grow faster as the value of the capital market increases. This has historically greatly reduced the gap between rich and poor. This was the case, for example, in post-war Germany or in China, when in both countries the economy was growing at a fast rate. The author describes an inherent design flaw in the economic system, as most of the time, the capital market growth rates are greater than the global average economic growth. Thus, the gap between those who have access to the faster-growing capital market and those who derive their wealth from a salary is increasing. For me, this is an interesting finding, as it points out how unjust our capital system is because it has tendencies to create greater discrepancies between rich and poor.
This book has opened my eyes to how we evaluate certain behaviors as irrational if we come from a different perspective and cannot understand them. Often only the reasons and assumptions behind an action are unknown to us, but when we bring them to light, then the logical connections arise. Sometimes the reasons for actions are so hidden that even the people who implement them cannot explain the deeper reasons for their actions. However, this does not mean that their behavior does not make sense, but it is more likely that we just cannot recognize the meaning behind it. I learned from the book that I should look for a deeper reason, especially if I am in a new culture and cannot understand certain behaviors or circumstances.
This is one of the books that inspired me in 2018 to take a risk and move to Ethiopia. I find the story extremely interesting. The author tells of his life, how he worked in a high position at Microsoft, but then from an idea, which he had on a trip in Nepal, developed an NGO and pursued his dream to work in a field where he positively impacted the lives of people in need.
This book is about a U.S. professor who writes about his experience with life. He wrote this book at the end of his life when he got cancer to leave something for his kids. I like this book for its simplistic and motivating view about how to approach roadblocks in life, to do what we really want to do!
This book is one of my favorites. While participating at the YCombinator Startup school, in one of the lessons, the content was discussed and recommended, as it is an effective way of communicating, also in the realm of entrepreneurship. The way of communicating basically boils down to the structure of the following sentence: “When [observation], I feel [emotion] because I’m needing some [universal needs]. Would you be able to [request]?”. Although the structure looks very simple, it is not easy to implement, as we are used to making judgments of what is right or wrong. These judgments are not really enriching our lives because they make people defensive or less likely to meet our needs. Nonviolent communication aims to enrich life by finding a way to enable both sides to communicate their needs and feelings honestly.