Non-Business Business Books

For good or bad, as a one-person business owner, I tend to view most things through the lens of my business. This includes anything I listen to, watch, and read whether related to business or pure entertainment.

Here are a few non-business books that have had a big impact on how I build my one-person business.

🔗➡ The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The four agreements are: be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. Sound advice for personal and professional life.

🔗➡ A Handbook for Living: The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler, M.D.

We all have a right to be happy. Since a good swath of our time is spent at work...our job, it makes sense that it can (perhaps should) be one of our sources of happiness.

🔗➡ Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness by Rita Charon

Dr. Rita Charon pioneered the narrative medicine movement. 🔗➡ According to Wikipedia...

the premise of narrative medicine is that how a patient speaks about his or her illness or complaint is analogous to how literature offers a plot (an interconnected series of events) with characters (the patient and others) and is filled with metaphors (picturesque, emotional, and symbolic ways of speaking), and that becoming conversant with the elements of literature facilitates understanding the stories that patients bring.

From the work of Charon I came to a better understand the importance of brining creativity, imagination, and outside-the-box thinking to my work and service offerings. 

🔗➡ Improvisation for the Theatre by Viola Spolin

Having two degrees in acting of course I've read this one. Improvisation on the stage, just as it is when building a one-person business, is all about keeping things moving forward while staying true to the material, the work.

🔗➡ Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer

This was my first full reading of the Tao Te Ching. Dyers commentary offered insights into how this ancient text can help modern-day professionals align body, mind, and spirit to the work they do.

Sometimes the best one-person business advice comes from unexpected places. The successful one-person business owner finds ways to stay open to inspiration and direction from wherever it may come, whenever it comes.