My friend, Zack Blair, recommended I read this one. After reading it, this is another book that should be required reading for everyone who aspires to lead in any capacity.

This book doesn’t focus on principles on how to lead, but rather focuses on you. It’s more of a self-assessment book. It teaches that we all have a dark side to our leadership that’s developed in our lives through our upbringing and experiences that will cause us to seek and pursue success for the wrong motives.

If these motives go unchecked and aren’t dealt with, ultimately, if we reach what we thought would be success, we won’t be satisfied, and the outcome is usually a moral fall, misuse of people, or some other less than ideal outcomes.

This book will help you identify your dark side and provide the steps to overcoming it.

Must read for any leader.

Final Grade: 10/10    Buy it HereSome Highlights:

• Personal dysfunction, in one form or another, can often  serve as the driving force behind an individual’s desire  to achieve success as a leader.

• The problem arises from the fact that success is not something one  can have or possess. True success is a state of being not having.

• • The “dark side” refers to our inner urges, compulsions,  motivations, and dysfunctions that drive us toward success  or undermine our accomplishments.

• The 5 Dark Sides of Leaders are: The Compulsive Leader, The Narcissitic Leader, The Paranoid Leader, The Passive Aggressive Leader, and the Co-Dependent Leader

• The sooner we stop denying our dark  side’s existence the sooner we will stop blaming the devil, our  parents, bad breaks, and every other possible reason for our  struggles. Blaming others is one of the symptoms that denial  is taking place. It is always easier to deny we have any problem  if we can lay the blame for our shortcomings at somebody else’s feet.

• Any attempts to overcome the dark  side apart from the application of spiritual truth about our true  position and identity in Christ will end in failure.

Last year I posted that it is hard for me to focus on intimacy with God instead of learning information about God. Chris Davis recommended I read “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer. I’m so glad I did.

This book will make you lost sight of everything in life except the pursuit of God. Causing you to seek Him in everything you do and making your whole life about an intimate relationship with Him. I loved this book!

Final Grade: 9/10    Buy it Here

Here are some of my highlights:

• There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.

• How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers.

• The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One.

• Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer

• We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears

• At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.

• “Question: What is the chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief End is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

• “Our break with the world will be the direct outcome of our changed relation to God.

• Millions call themselves by His Name, it is true, and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above.
  

This is another book I read because it had such a huge impact on John Maxwell’s life. It was only a few bucks on Amazon and the insights I got it were incredible. The entire book is about the power of your thought life, how your thoughts form who you are and who you’ll become. I really enjoyed this book and I know I’ll be coming back to it often. I read it in one sitting so it’s a pretty easy read as well. I’d definitely recommend it.

Final Grade: 9.5/10 Buy it hereHere are some key takeaways:

• A man is literally -what he thinks, -his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

• every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought

• Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err

• His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.

• Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

• It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities;

• Suffering is -always- the effect of wrong thought in some direction.

• Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

• A man cannot -directly- choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

• The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the, entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.

• Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.

• UNTIL thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.

• He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

• ALL that a THE dreamers are the saviors of the world.

• Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.