Five books for self improvement in 2017

It’s time to take a critical look at what your plan for the year is. One month has already gone and you are not sure what your plans are? If you are not already on your way, it is time to re-strategise. This edition of Five Favourite Books is to help you

1) MBA IN A BOOK- MASTERING BUSINESS WITH ATTITUDE by Joel Kurtzman, Glenn Rifkin & Victoria Griffith: This is that book that really delivers an MBA to you without you going to school to earn it. It is a fairly big book with a road map to help you get a mini MBA . For extremely busy professionals, this should be an important addition to your library. For upwardly mobile persons with the plan to get an MBA in the future, this pretty much prepares you. This is a highly recommended book for those who planned to go to school in 2016; still cannot go in 2017 but can earn an education from their chair with the MBA In a book. Remember this is not a substitute to that school you wanted to go to. So have a long term plan to still go.

2) In a world that is constantly in turmoil, it is critical that everyone seeks for their faith and holds on to it very tight. The world as we know it is getting more and more complicated. Only a few days ago, the police in France arrested a black man. It would not have been of interest as it is routine but it is now because the riots that attended the police’s arrest and the handling of the black man thereafter is consuming Paris with cars being burnt and people being attacked. What did the white policemen in the eye of the storm do to the black man? They raped him with a police baton. This story is not palatable so I shall not continue with it. But this underscores the need for us all, worldwide, to become deeply spiritual. For this purpose, start your spiritual journey. February is not too late. You can start now. Recommended-any faith book, any spiritual book. This is so important for steadying you in the face of so many complicated things happening around the world.

3) AUDITION by Barbara Walters: As a broadcaster, there is no better place to send you than to my field to improve your professionalism in 2017. This is what I know about and what I have been doing for over 30 years. How do you professionalise without being mentored? How do you grow in your field without training? We are therefore using broadcasting as a point of contact for all those who want to improve themselves professionally in 2017. One of the loveliest books I have read on how to mange oneself within the broadcast industry and professionalise in spite of intrigues and all things thrown at you is written by Barbara Walters in her memoirs-Audition. Its always easy for people to think that broadcasting is not a profession to be taken seriously. This is misrepresentation. Like every profession, broadcasting today is neither for the lily livered nor for the illiterate. You have to know your onions. So it is with all professional careers. Barbra Walters’ Audition is a good book for navigating professional waters and for improving oneself no matter your profession.

4) THE ENTREPRENEUR GET OFF YOUR ASS AND START SOMETHING: This is a slim volume book by Austine Osuhor. It is an interesting book for all entrepreneurial persons who have ever thought of starting a business but have been discouraged by all manners of things. Big business tycoonsmen and women have always explained how they started off with just ten thousand naira. My cousin in law Nancy when she was about fifteen years of age started selling biscuits and other little things in front of my mother in law’s house and it grew and grew and grew and became something of a neighbourhood shop until we started calling it “Nancy’s Supermarket”. Where there is a will, there is a way. Start small. Make your first clients members of your family. Try and get things gratis at the beginning to save costs. Like if you were starting a catering business, borrow trays from aunties and friends so you do not have to spend money on this.

5) ITS NOT THE BIG THAT EAT THE SMALL…ITS THE FAST THAT EAT THE SLOW. HOW TO USE SPEED AS A COMPETITIVE TOOL IN BUSINESS by Jason Jennings & Laurence Haughton (We can substitute business for work in the subtitle i.e. How to use speed as a competitive tool in business) Very important questions in this book that will be useful are: “What is the difference between speed and haste?” “Where does business go to spot trends before the competition?” “How can leaders help people stop dreading high velocity and rediscover the thrill of deciding, acting, and staying fast?”. This book is packed with tactics for eliminating speed bumps along the road to changing the world.