The Power of One More | Ed Mylett

It is another personal development or self motivation book that I read and honestly speaking, I liked the content and flow. This is the book I met with Ed Mylett and after completing the reading of this book, I started to follow Ed in twitter which is a sign that I liked him. I have 9 pages of highlights from Ed's book. I have read the last part of the book in a Starbucks with a melancholic mood and the book was a great friend for me at that time and place. So let's see what I highlight:

At its core, The Power of One More is about your willingness to do one more rep, make one more phone call, get up one hour earlier, build one more relationship, or do one more thing for whatever your situation calls for.

You can find your best life by doing “one more” than the world expects from you.

The individual thoughts and actions you take don't need to be profound. However, when you compound these small thoughts and actions and stack them up on top of each other, the resulting changes over time are profound.

“Winning is more fun than fun is fun.”

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

 —Andy Warhol

Deep inside, you know what's true about you.

What we perceive about ourselves is what we believe about ourselves.

Nobody is ever always right. As a child, you accepted much of what you were told, right or wrong. Your identity became the good and the bad parts of how other people influenced you. The unfortunate thing is that you were defenseless. Your critical thinking skills did not exist to give you the tools you needed to survive in the world.

As you grew older, you began to confirm your identity. If someone said you weren't a good student or a lousy athlete, that became a part of your identity. You still didn't have the capacity to disavow what you were being told. You grew into adulthood, and you carried with you these beliefs about yourself. Your identity had taken root. Your limitations became a part of you, and because they were so ingrained, you weren't even sure where they came from.

The Intelligent Investor | Benjamin Graham & Jason Zweig

The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made "The Intelligent Investor" the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949. Over the years, market developments have proven the wisdom of Graham's strategies. While preserving the integrity of Graham's original text, this revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines, and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles. For me, “The Intelligent Investor" is the most important book you will ever read on how to reach your financial goals. Just enjoy and learn from the quotes from my highlights, and then apply them to your life.

Podcast Version of the Intelligent Investor

Preface to the Fourth Edition, by Warren E. Buffett

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework.

Give and Take | Adam Grant

In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom. Praised by social scientists, business theorists, and corporate leaders, Give and Take opens up an approach to work, interactions, and productivity that is nothing short of revolutionary. This book was a summer read for me and I highlighted a lot quotes in Adam’s Grant’s “Give and Take”.

Good Returns

According to conventional wisdom, highly successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability, and opportunity. If we want to succeed, we need a combination of hard work, talent, and luck.

How Are You, Really? | Jenna Kutcher

Generally, when I am trying to find a book to read, I visit amazon.com and check out the most sellers in business and biographies. It was a weekend like this and I was updating my Kobo ebook reader with new contents and I just saw that Amazon advises this book: “How are you, really?” by Jenna Kutcher. This honest and natural question interested me and I have a quick look about its comments. Then I visited goodreads.com and saw the high rating and I decided to download. It was one of the many books I uploaded to my ebook reader that weekend but because of its tempting name, I decided to start reading this book first. And I am glad to have read it. It is maybe another personal development book that motivates you but it does not repeat the same things with the other ones. It clearly states how Jenna manages her success story. It is authentic and it makes it unique. I like it as a summer read and I highly advise it to those who do not stop and check how she/he is. In the meantime, how are your, really?

The truth is, we lie. We lie to ourselves about how we’re really feeling and what we really want. Not anymore. In How Are You, Really?, Jenna Kutcher teaches how to harness your power to take control of your life. You deserve more – and deep down, you know it. If, when you get really honest with yourself, you discover that you want more out of your life: more joy, more passion, more fulfillment, and more peace? In today’s chaotic world, sometimes you might wake up and not feel like yourself anymore, and you don’t even know how you are… REALLY. You’re trying to balance it all: your family, your work, and your goals, but your emotions are all over the place and you don’t feel as confident and happy as you thought you would. This book is a guide to reframing your entire life and finally finding your own sense of joy and fulfillment in a world telling you who to be. It’s about understanding what’s going on in your head and finding your way back to a life that is truly your own. Your expert guide is Jenna Kutcher, who started from working a day job at Target to building an empire while living in a small town in Minnesota as a mom. In her inspirational debut book, she shares how she struggled with these same issues to find her identity and balance in launching a business, raising a family, and, eventually, starting her popular podcast The Goal Digger. Join the millions of people who count on Jenna’s life and business advice every week because of her authentic example and deep understanding of how women think and strive to achieve their dreams. It’s time to ask yourself the question you’ve been avoiding: How are you, really? It’s time to find your answer, and start living.

The Psychology of Money | Morgan Housel

When you read the title of the book, you might guess that it is only about money and maybe business, but it is about life. With the real time stories shared by Morgan Housel, this book makes stories meaningful and let you know more about personal finance, investment, wealth creation and living a better life.

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

The Ride of a Lifetime | Robert Iger

My readers know that I am a lover of memoirs and it is not always easy to find an inspiring memoir. And thanks God, I found it this time. It is a memoir by Robert Iger, ex-CEO of Disney and I liked the flow of the book with the real-time cases. Out of this book, I have even created 2 blog posts for my personal blog. If interested, you can also have a look at them:

Volkan Yorulmaz: Leadership Lessons from Disney’s CEO

Volkan Yorulmaz: No Price on Integrity

Prologue

Something will always come up. At its simplest, this book is about being guided by a set of principles that help nurture the good and manage the bad. I was reluctant to write it for a long time. Until fairly recently, I even avoided talking publicly about my “rules for leadership” or any such ideas, because I felt I hadn’t fully “walked the walk.” After forty-five years, though—and especially after the past fourteen—I’ve come to believe that I have insights that could be useful beyond my own experience.

The Total Money Makeover | Dave Ramsey

Plain and simple, if you like your current financial situation, you probably feel pretty good about money matters, and you don’t need a makeover. On the other hand, if you don’t like your current financial situation, you probably feel pretty lousy about your finances. A makeover is for you!

Wealth building isn’t rocket science. The principles are simple, time-proven, and effective. In a nutshell, “spend less and invest more” is a five-word financial strategy.

If you will live like no one else now . . .

later you can live like no one else.

Will | Will Smith, Mark Manson

One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.

Will Smith’s transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.

Let me share the quotes I highlighted when I was reading Will. By the way, I started reading this book before Will's terrible action in Oscar and just after that event, I did not want to finalize the book. Thus my quotes do not include the whole potential text to be highlighted. Yes, that's a personal choice and I hope my readers will respect to this decision.

Stress-Free Small Talk | Richard S. Gallagher LMFT

Small talk is a skill, just as learning how to bake a cake from a cookbook is a skill. There are clear phases to every conversation and teachable steps you can take to master each of these phases. If you learn and practice them, you will discover that you really can learn to be confident in any conversation.

The Oxford Dictionary defines small talk as “polite conversation about unimportant or uncontroversial matters, especially as engaged in on social occasions.” Put another way, its entire purpose is to build relationships. This is why conversations about “unimportant” topics can actually be some of the most important kinds of communication we have with people. As nationally known social networking expert Phil Gerbyshak put it, “Make friends first, and do business last.” It would not be an exaggeration to say the most important networking skill you can develop is to simply delight in the company of other people.

There is a popular saying that all business is personal, and it is true from the mailroom to the boardroom. People who like you are much more willing to help you, support you, and even promote or make deals with you. More often than not, these good relationships start with people showing an interest in others by engaging in small talk.

My Story | Steven Gerrard

There are some players that each and every football fan show respect. Steven Gerrard is one of these characters. I have recently read his biography: My Story. Previously I read Ronaldo’s and İbrahimovic’s biographies and compared to these stars’ biographies, I couldn’t find that much interesting stories. The way Steven tells his story is similar to the way he plays his football: well-disciplined and I think this made his book “standard”. Besides these negative comments, Steven has still things to share and we can benefit from his experiences. Below you will see my quotes from his biography: My Story, by Steven Gerrard.  

Steven Gerrard - legendary captain of Liverpool and England - tells the story of the highs and lows of a twenty-year career at the top of English and world football.

As the only player ever to have scored in a FA cup final, a league cup final, a UEFA cup final and a champion's league final, Steven Gerrard is an inspiration to fans and footballers alike. After joining his beloved Liverpool at the age of eight, he spent the next 28 years, and over 700 games, devoted to this one club. Perhaps the last player of his calibre that we will see display such extraordinary longevity and commitment, his loyalty ensures he will be remembered not only as one of the all-time Anfield greats but one of England's finest footballers.

In My Story Gerrard dissects his full playing career. He examines the defining games such as the 2005 Champion's League Final when he inspired 'The Miracle of Istanbul' as Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against AC Milan to become champions of Europe. He talks about his 114 caps for England, including World Cup and European Championship campaigns, asking what went right - and wrong.

In My Story Gerrard dissects his full playing career. He examines the defining games such as the 2005 Champion's League Final when he inspired 'The Miracle of Istanbul' as Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against AC Milan to become champions of Europe. He talks about his 114 caps for England, including World Cup and European Championship campaigns, asking what went right - and wrong.

Atomic Habits | James Clear

If you want to start a new habit, it means that you have a new challenge. If you need a supporter for this challenge, your main supporter might be a book. And if this might be a book, this will probably be this book: Atomic Habits, by James Clear.

In this blog post, you will find more than the average highlights that I share because this book is full of great insights. Here are just some of these awesome quotes which will make you take action.

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

No Way No Way, Do Not Say, No Way No Way (biography) | Şenes Erzik

I recently completed listening to Turkish Football Federation’s Honorary President, FIFA and UEFA Honorary Member Şenes Erzik's biography book "Don't Say No, No Way" on storytel. Cüneyt Kıran performed the reading of the biography which lasts for more than twelve hours. I learned Erzik's important anecdotes not only about his life but also about the world of football in his biography, which accompanied me while working and walking.

In his biography, Şenes Erzik sends a message that we must be rational for the rest of our lives without giving up. In other words, he tells his reader not to do what we can't do, but to measure it well.

I think it was his first turning point when he took the Robert College exams for high school education with the encouragement and support of his older brother Necati Erzik at the age of 14. The universal education he received in a respected school, the strong connections and network he built, was obviously a good investment for him.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami

If you are a fan of Murakami, you should read this book as well. But I have a disclaimer, this book is really long. It took more than 1 month for me to complete the reading of this book. I read the digital version and when I see the original version in the book store, I said "wow, that is so long!". And out of this book, let's see what I highlight:

There was a small stand of trees nearby, and from it you could hear the mechanical cry of a bird that sounded as if it were winding a spring. We called it the wind-up bird.

Cats have their own way of living. They’re not stupid. If a cat stopped living where you happened to be, that meant it had decided to go somewhere else. If it got tired and hungry, it would come back.

Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfil Your Potential | Carol S. Dweck

People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way.

It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world—the world of fixed traits—success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other—the world of changing qualities—it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new.

Benjamin Barber, an eminent political theorist, once said, “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures. . . . I divide the world into the learners and nonlearners.”

People in a growth mindset don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch. And nowhere can it be seen more clearly than in the world of sports. You can just watch people stretch and grow.

“Becoming is better than being.”

A World Without Email | Cal Newport

The book by Cal Newport,  "A World Without Email" is his attempt to tackle the crisis of focus and communication overload. To pull together—for the first time—everything we now know about how we ended up in a culture of constant communication, and the effects it’s having on both our productivity and our mental health, as well as to explore our most compelling visions for what alternative forms of work might look like.  

The key is to find ways to minimize context shifts and overload while still getting done what needs to get done.