I love the title of this book. It’s so true isn’t it? Maxwell is one of my heroes and he is a great connector. In this book he shares practical ways to connect with audiences whether it’s connecting with one person over coffee, connecting with people in a small group, or connecting with an audience of thousands.

He said it took him 8 years to find himself as a communicator. This book helped me on the journey I’m on to find myself as a communicator. There are a ton of principles to apply in this book. I’ll be coming back to this one often. I’d recommend it for anyone who is looking to improve their communication skills and looking to become a better connector.

Buy it here!

Highlights:

• President Gerald Ford once remarked, “If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.”

• It took me eight years to “find myself” as a speaker. And here’s great news: when you find yourself, you find your audience.

• “People need your influence, but it will not come through ‘lip syncing’ those you admire.”

• Connection always begins with a commitment to someone else.

• DiMaggio replied, “I always remind myself that there might be someone in the stands who never saw me play before.”

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This is one of the best books I’ve ever read! I heard Maxwell teach recently and he said if he were a college president, he would make a class called Failure 101 and make it a requirement for every student to go through so they can learn to fail.

The thesis for the book is: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

Above anything else, this book taught me that it’s ok to fail. In fact, in life I’ll probably fail 50 million times! I think as a young man with a lot of ambition, hopes, and dreams, this is an important lesson. There have been many times where I’ve felt that I’ve failed and let it ruin my day, week, or month. This book helped me have a greater perspective on failure.

If you’re breathing, this is a must read. Buy it here!

Highlights:

• The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business.

• Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. —THOMAS EDISON

• Get a new definition of failure. Regard it as the price you pay for progress. If you can do that, you will put yourself in a much better position to fail forward.

• The greater the feat you desire to achieve, the greater the mental preparation required for overcoming obstacles and persevering over the long haul.

• if fear overcomes you, it’s almost impossible to fail forward.

• Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner says, “You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.” So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it.

• Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s okay to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing. —H. STANLEY JUDD

• Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit. —PAUL J.MEYER

• Failure is the greatest opportunity I have to know who I really am. —JOHN KILLINGER

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This book came at the recommendation of a friend over coffee. This was an incredible book. Viktor Frankl is a Jewish psychiatrist that lived in concentration camps for three years. The first half of the book is a detailed account of his experiences in the concentration camps. The second half of the book is all about the psychology of man’s search for meaning.

Frankl’s conclusion is that once a man finds meaning for his life, he is able to find hope in any situation, and able to get through anything. He talks a lot about the people who survived in concentration camps in comparison with those who didn’t make it. Often, the people who didn’t make it, could not find meaning in the midst of their suffering, while the people who survived, could and did.

I’d recommend this book to everyone. It will give you hope, and allow you to recognize that regardless of what you’re going through, you can find meaning in your life and find the strength to go on!

Buy it here!

Highlights:

• “man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life.”

• At any moment,  man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.

• Man does  not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be,  what he will become in the next moment.

• freedom is in danger of degenerating   into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.

• There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a  man as to leave him without the slightest freedom.

• There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so
  effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as  the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.

• “He who has a why  to live for can bear almost any how.”

• man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure  or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.

• The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man,  is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is  nothing he need fear any more-except his God.

• They died less from  lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something   to live for.

• The truth-that love  is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

• No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty   whether in a similar situation he might not have done  the same.

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John Maxwell said that when he read this book in his mid twenties, it changed the way he lead forever. Why? Because until he read this book, he led under the assumption that everybody was like him. That he could lead everybody the same way he led himself. He read this book and recognized that he would have to learn to lead people in different ways based on their personality. Needless to say, I had to read this book!

This is definitely a book I’m going to come back to time and time again. Learning the temperaments to the extent that I’ll be able to identify what all my leaders are, and learn to lead them based off their personality!

This book focuses on 4 personality temperaments:

Sanguine - The outgoing social butterfly! (I’m a Sanguine off the Charts!)

Melancholy – Perfectionists, Detail Oriented, always serious.

Choleric - Born leader. Achiever. Take Charge!

Peaceful Phlegmatic - “The Leveler” – Easy Going. Go with the flow. Indecisive.

This book will teach you a lot about yourself and the people around you. Once you read this, the things that irritate you with other personality types, won’t bother you as much. You’ll learn it’s just part of their personality and you can learn to get along with them, in spite of the things that drive you nuts about them!

I’d recommend this book to anyone!

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In a matter of 3 months Mark Batterson has become one of my favorite authors. In fact, I may just go out on the limb and say he is my favorite! After reading his books I feel like I can do anything, risk anything, and be everything God called me to be.

I’d highly encourage you to read all of his books! You’ll be stretched in your faith and encouraged to go after the dreams God has put in your heart.

Some Highlights:

• God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But here’s the catch: The right place often seems like the wrong place, and the right time often seems like the wrong time.
• Sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible. And He usually does it just in the nick of time. I think that pattern reveals one dimension of God’s personality: God loves impossible odds.
• Your best thought about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is.
• God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.
• “Don’t accumulate possessions; accumulate experiences!”
• Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God.
• I’m convinced that the people God uses the most are often the people who have experienced the most adversity.
• God is in the business of recycling our pain and using it for someone else’s gain.
• spiritual maturity is less about figuring out the future and more about a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Spirit of God.
• I’m convinced that the only thing between you and your destiny is one small act of courage.
• Playing it safe is risky.
• Why is it that the church is known more for what we’re against than what we’re for?
• More often than not, the only thing between you and your dream is a rational excuse.
• One dimension of spiritual growth is simply coming to terms with who we are and who we’re not.

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Pastor Nathan introduced me to Napoleon Hill! This guys is amazing. Think and Grow Rich is a project that Andrew Carnegie had Napoleon take on. Andrew Carnegie asked Napoleon to study the top 50 wealthiest men in the world at that time. I believe Napoleon said it took him twenty years to write this book. He spent 20 years writing this book! Studying the lifestyles of the wealthiest men in the world. He found a lot of common factors on how these men became successful and rich. This book the outcome of his research.

Biggest Takeaway: The major factor in all of these men’s lives was faith. An unwavering confidence that no matter what, they would be successful. I thought it was interesting how much faith is a factor.

To be honest, I have to go back and reread this book at least another 3-4 times before the principles will even start to stick and be applied in my life. This is a must read book. In fact I’d make it a must read 3-4 times book.

Some Highlights:

• One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.

• It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.

• Christianity is the greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.

• If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own.

• The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

• Love is, without question, life’s greatest experience.

• Man’s greatest motivating force is his desire to please woman!

• NO MAN IS HAPPY OR COMPLETE WITHOUT THE MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT WOMAN.

• If you neglect to make the start, or stop before you arrive, no one will be to blame, but YOU. This responsibility is yours.

• The fear of criticism robs man of his initiative, destroys his power of imagination, limits his individuality, takes away his self-reliance, and does him damage in a hundred other ways.

• A busy person seldom has time to think about dying. He finds life too thrilling to worry about death.

• “The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

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This was the second book I’ve read by Mark Batterson. I’ve absolutely loved both of his books and I’d recommend them to everyone!

The Wild Goose chase is all about the adventure of pursuing God.This book rekindled some passions in my heart, challenged me to step out on some things God’s put in my heart, and really inspired me to go to another level in my walk with God.

I know I’ll find myself coming back to this book often in my pursuit of God. I’m grateful for Mark writing it!

Biggest Takeaway: Living for God is an adventure that requires us to dream big, risk everything, be willing to go through shipwrecks, have courage, and put our total dependency in Him.

Final Grade: 9.5 / 10

Some Highlights:

• Most of us have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. but circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: adventure.

• I wonder if churches do to people what zoo’s do to animals

• You have to be willing to let go of an old identity in order to take on a new identity!

• In the beginning God made man in His own image, ever since, man has been making God in his image

• It’s never too late to become who you might have been

• People cannot discover new lands until they have the courage to lose sight of the shore

• If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans

• Sometimes it takes a shipwreck for God to get us where He wants us to go

• Quit trying to write your own story

• God is more concerned about your future than you are!

• God always has reasons that we’re unaware of!

• Getting where God wants me to go isn’t as important as becoming who God wants me to become in the process

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I first heard of Mark Batterson when someone recommended reading his blog. After reading a few posts, I was really inspired by everything God is doing through his life and everything God’s revealed to him through the Word. Then I heard him speak at Catalyst West Coast, where he taught a lesson called “Out of Nowhere” that I’ll never forget.

Someone blessed me with a gift card to a book store and I got 2 of Mark’s books. Primal was my first read of the two and I absolutely loved it.

I loved it because the book has ONE focus: Getting you back to the place where ALL THAT MATTERS is loving God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength.

This book was so refreshing and I know I’m going to go back to it often throughout my spiritual journey. If you feel like you’re in a spiritual lull or want to strengthen your pursuit of God – you need to pick up this book.

Final Grade: 9.5 out of 10

Here are a few highlights:

• One of the turning points of my life came the day I stopped setting income goals and started setting giving goals.

• Any Christian worth their salt reads through the Bible every year

• Most of us are educated way beyond our obedience. We learn more and do less, thinking the whole while we’re growing spiritually

• Eternity won’t be long enogh to discover all that God is or praise Him for all He has done

• If you want to think new thoughts then read new things, meet new people, and go new places.

• One God idea has the potential to make more of a difference than a thousand good ideas

• You’ll never be ready, you’ll never be set, sometimes you have to just go for it

• As Christ followers we need to take a why not approach to life. It dares to dream. It’s bent toward action, and not looking for excuses not to do something

• You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right

• Vision is the cure to sin

• The moment you put your faith in Christ, the best you can do is no longer the best you can do. The best you can do is the best God can do.

• It’s not about what you can do for God, it’s about what God has done for you

• The universe is still expanding which means the original “Let their be light” it still expanding at the outer edge of our universe!

• If God gives you a dream, and the dream comes to life and God shows up in it, and then the dream died,  it may be that God wants to see what is more important to you – the dream of Him.

• The impact God has planned for us doesn’t occur when we’re pursuing impact. It occurs when we’re pursuing God. At last after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just Got.”

• At the end of the day – all that matters is God.

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This was another recommendation from my friends, Zack Blair. I absolutely love Dave Ramsey! The first time I heard Dave, I went through his Financial Peace University curriculum when I was 19. I was in college, working part-time, and really didn’t have the mentality to do what the program suggests. Now, five years later, I read this book at an entirely new level. I’m ready for my Total Money Makeover!

“If you live like nobody else lives now, later you’ll live like nobody else!”

This book is great for developing and confirming a belief system in your heart about money. It’s about getting money to work for you instead of you working for your money. Dave’s plan is broken down into 7 baby steps:

1.) Get a $1,000 Emergency Fund

2.) Pay off all Debt Using the Debt Snowball

3.) Get 3-6 months worth of Expenses in Savings

4.) Invest 15% of household income to Roth IRA’s and Pre-Tax Retirement

5.) College Funding for your Children

6.) Pay off your Home Early

7.) Build Wealth and Give!

One of my favorite quotes is “Discipline is remembering what you want.”  – I want to be in a great place financially and be able to give tons of money away in my lifetime! This will only come through believing God and being a wise steward of the increase He brings into my life. This book is a must read and a must implement! I hope you’ll read it, become a fan of Dave, and have your life changed through your own Total Money Makeover!

Final Grade: 9.5 out of 10

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So I finally jumped on board and read one of the best selling books of all time! Over the past year, I’ve become a huge Rick Warren fan. After hearing him at Catalyst West Coast last year, I became convinced I needed to get all the wisdom I could from this guy!

You are as close to God as you choose to be. – Rick Warren

You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.

So I picked up The Purpose Driven Life. This is a great book. If I had to call it another name, I’d call it Christianity 101. This is a great book for new believers who want to grow in their relationship with God. It’s also a great book for mature believers because it brings us back to the simplicity of living for God and helps us remember what’s important. It’s a great 40-day journey to go through – I’d recommend it!

Final Grade – 8.5 out of 10

My Highlights:

• Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless

• God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it.

• I don’t know all the keys to success, but one key to failure is to try to please everyone.

• The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.

• Never confuse activity with productivity.

• A very important test is how you act when you can’t feel God’s presence in your life.

• If you have ever said, “I didn’t get anything out of worship today,” you worshiped for the wrong reason. Worship isn’t for you.

• You are as close to God as you choose to be.

• You don’t bring glory to God by trying to be someone he never intended you to be. God wants you to be yourself.

• If God never did anything else for you, he would still deserve your continual praise for the rest of your life because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.

• THE BEST USE OF LIFE IS LOVE

• Why should God give you another day if you’re going to waste it?

• The importance of things can be measured by how much time we are willing to invest in them.

• the best way to spell love is “T–I–M–E.”

• it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships.

• Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don’t think of themselves.

• Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.

• You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.

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