A Fine Balance: Business Books 2016

In The 4-Hour Work Week (Crown, 2007), entrepreneur Tim Ferriss encouraged readers to reject the “deferred-life plan,” a term he used to mean waiting until retirement to enjoy life. And though critics have disputed the notion of a true four-hour work week—for example, Ferriss does not count the time he spends each week on self-promotion as work—the book has clearly struck a chord. Together with a 2009 revised edition, it’s sold more than 955,000 copies in hardcover, according to Nielsen BookScan, with 22,000 copies sold this year alone.

A spate of business books publishing in the next several months explore various ways to bring personal satisfaction to one’s professional life, whether through entrepreneurship, shunning corporate employment, pursuing one’s passion, or simply working fewer hours a day.

Go Your Own Way

Brian Wong, author of The Cheat Code (Crown Business, Sept.), steered clear of the corporate ladder when plotting his career. He graduated from college at 18 and raised $24 million in venture capital to cofound Kiip, a mobile advertising platform, before he turned 25. His book offers dozens of “cheats,” or sound-bite-ready snippets of advice for getting ahead of the competition, including “know your superpower” and “get a trademark haircut.”

“The tone [of the book] was different from what was out there,” says Talia Krohn, senior editor at Crown, adding that she expects the concept and “actionable” advice to appeal to millennial readers.

That desirable demographic is on the minds of other business publishers and authors. “Many young people feel that freelance or gig work is preferable to being at the whim of a corporation who can let you go and treat you badly,” says Ellen Kadin, executive editor at Amacom, which is publishing Diane Mulcahy’s The Gig Economy in November.

The book, which lays out 10 rules for a successful freelance career, is based on a class the author teaches at Babson College’s M.B.A. program, Entrepreneurship and the Gig Economy, which Forbes named one of the 10 most innovative business school classes in the country in 2010.

Another Amacom title, Make Your Own Waves (July), by Bay Area business consultant Louis Patler, uses surfing as a metaphor, showing how principles such as “get wet: you can’t succeed if stay on the beach” can also apply to business innovation and entrepreneurship.

In the same way that Patler’s book draws on the experiences of surfers-turned-businesspeople (the founders of GoPro and Quicksilver, for example), Vishen Lakhiani, in The Code of the Extraordinary Mind (Rodale, out now), relates lessons from entrepreneurs including Arianna Huffington and Richard Branson. Lakhiani, founder and CEO of educational technology company Mindvalley, offers what an April 25 PW article described as “a blueprint for breaking through destructive routines and unproductive feelings.”

Look Within

As titles like Extraordinary Mind show, the line between business book and inspirational title can be porous, particularly when the goal is to help readers find fulfilling work. Hustle, by business consultants Neil Patel, Patrick Vlaskovits, and Jonas Koffler (Rodale, Sept.), breaks its motivational lessons down into three parts: “The heart” teaches how to follow one’s own dreams and not those of others, “the head” covers how to prepare for mistakes that come with risk taking, and “the habits” demonstrates how to spot opportunities and create one’s own luck. The authors interviewed business leaders including Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox and the first black American woman to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and Hugh Forest, director of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.

Eleven entrepreneurs tell their own stories of hustling in Movers, Shakers, Mommies, and Makers (Gibbs Smith, Sept.). They include Annalisa Thomas, president and CEO of the Oilo furnishings company, whose products are available in stores across the U.S.; and Stacey Bannor, whose Bannor Toys was a 2015 finalist for Martha Stewart’s American Made award.

“This is not a how-to book; it’s a business inspiration book,” editor Michelle Branson says. “They all took a huge leap of faith, worked hard, came up with their product and they got to the point where they had to stop or invest a lot of money and go for it, all while trying to raise their children and have a normal life.”

Similarly, in Find Your Extraordinary (Crown Business, out now), Jessica DiLullo Herrin, founder and CEO of social shopping company Stella and Dot Family Brands (think Tupperware or Avon, but for accessories), instructs readers how to “dream bigger, live happier, and achieve success on your own terms,” as the subtitle puts it. She encourages women to cultivate and pursue their own definitions of success, whether they are starting their own business, staying home with children, or working a corporate job.

And though books such as Find Your Extraordinary are aimed specifically at a female readership, the issues they raise are not of concern to women only. “There are a greater number of people interested in work-life balance—it’s no longer [just] a working mom issue,” says Erika Heilman, cofounder and publisher of Bibliomotion.

By way of example, she cites The Golden Apple (Bibliomotion, Sept.) by Mason Donovan, managing partner at the Dagoba, a consultancy. “This book is about reflecting the needs of a more diverse workforce, from working dads to caregivers of all ages and genders, in the mostly Fortune 100 firms which the author consults with,” she says. Donovan encourages corporate leaders to take an interest in their employees’ personal fulfillment, in an effort to maintain talent and promote productivity and innovation.

Follow Your Bliss

The idea of workplace fulfillment recurs in several forthcoming titles, including, unsurprisingly, those aimed at the coveted millennial generation. Chris Guillebeau’s new book, Born for This (Crown Business), has sold more than 18,000 print copies in its first few weeks on sale, according to Nielsen Bookscan. It continues the discussion he began in 2012’s $100 Startup (which has sold 104,000 print units, per Bookscan), about how to get paid for work you’d do for free. (For more on Born for This, see our q&a with Guillebeau.)

In The Long View (Diversion, Sept.), Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne, a division of Ogilvy & Mather, advises millennials to look at their career paths in terms of decades, taking into account big-picture work-life balance issues including personal time, parenthood, and travel, in addition to financial success.

Millennials are also the target readership for two Tarcher Perigee titles. Profit from Happiness by 24-year-old motivational speaker Jack Ducey (June) proposes a plan for, in the words of the subtitle, achieving “the unity of wealth, work, and personal fulfillment.”

The Quarter-Life Breakthrough (Oct.) by Adam Smiley Poswolsky, a former director for the Hive Global Leaders Program, “gives readers takeaways to find purpose in their career choices, by sharing the stories of many 20- and 30-somethings who did just that,” says Jeanette Shaw, editor at Tarcher Perigee.

Poswolsky advises that readers not simply look for a perfect job, but to “search where many of your motivations overlap,” Shaw says, and he makes that overlap visible through a Venn diagram citing “gifts” (as in natural abilities), “interests,” and “quality of life.”

Rachel Moore’s The Artist’s Compass (S&S/Touchstone, May) zeroes in on people who have already found their passion—performing artists such as dancers, singers, and actors—but don’t know how to monetize it. Moore is a former dancer and CEO in the American Ballet Theater and current CEO of the Los Angeles Music Center; PW’s review called the book “a smart guide for young artists entering their chosen fields,” citing her “useful tips gleaned through firsthand experience as a dancer turned arts administrator.”

Taking a different angle on harnessing creativity, Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (Basic, Dec.) advocates the benefits of simply doing nothing, disputing the idea that the harder we work, the better the outcome. Thomas Kelleher, v-p and editorial director at Basic Books, says that Tim Ferriss’s The Four-Hour Work Week was very much on his mind when he pitched Rest.

Pang, a senior consultant at Strategic Business Insights in Menlo Park, Calif., and a visiting scholar at Stanford, “surveys a huge swath of people and finds some interesting commonalities in the behavior of people who achieve great things,” Kelleher says. “One is that they don’t try and do creative work for more than a few hours a day. They take time for walks and naps—things that allow us to take a step back and let our minds wander.”

Jeff Vasishta is a Brooklyn-based writer who has written for Rolling Stone, Interview, and the Amazon Book Review.

For more on the big business books of the season, check out our spring 2016 announcements feature.

In 'Born for This,' Guillebeau coaches readers on bagging the ultimate white whale: a dream career.