My favorite books on soft skills for professionals and entrepreneurs

Why am I passionate about this?

At the very beginning of my studies, I asked myself a question that still accompanies me today: “Why are some people successful and others not?” I've always been interested in people who are successful through their own efforts instead of building on the success of previous generations through their heritage. In my search for what distinguishes successful from less successful people, I began to read a variety of relevant books and attend seminars. These books and seminars dealt with the topics of success, personality development, marketing and sales, rhetoric, psychology, and management as well as self-management and personal productivity. To date, I've read several hundred books on these topics and attended a number of seminars.


I wrote...

Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry : Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success

By Andreas Creutzmann,

Book cover of Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry : Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success

What is my book about?

In this book you will find an understandable guide to the most important soft skills that can make the difference between fulfillment and success or failure on a professional and personal level. For the most part, the soft skills presented apply to both professional and personal life. You will learn how to take responsibility for your life, how to think positively even if you are a pessimist. You'll also learn how to effectively manage yourself and your employees, how to market yourself and your business, practical strategies for communicating with clients and colleagues, and how to find joy in your daily work life. "Does a successful life lead to a happy life?" Find out the answer in the book.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Andreas Creutzmann Why did I love this book?

Focus is the central key to professional and private success.

Successful entrepreneurs, managers, and consultants know, however, that it is the implementation in practice and the details that matter. Only applied knowledge leads to success.

Those who want to achieve professional and private goals will find the way to reach their goals by applying the life principle "The ONE Thing".

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan have summarized the surprisingly simple truth about extraordinary success in a book.

By Gary Keller, Jay Papasan,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The ONE Thing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller paychecks, fewer promotions-and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH-LESS AND MORE. In The ONE Thing, you'll learn…


Book cover of Goals! How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible

Andreas Creutzmann Why did I love this book?

Brian Tracy stands for professional and personal success.

I have read many of his books and listened to his lectures. In his book Goals, he shows you how to set goals and achieve them. Goal clarity is a prerequisite for all success.

In this book you will learn everything about goal setting and how to achieve goals.

By Brian Tracy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Goals! How to Get Everything You Want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Based on more than 20 years of experience and 40 years of research, this book presents a practical, proven strategy for creating and meeting goals that has been used by more than 1 million people to achieve extraordinary things in life. Author Brian Tracy explains the seven key elements of goal setting and the 12 steps necessary to set and accomplish goals of any size. Using simple language and real-life examples, Tracy shows how to do the crucial work of determining one's strengths, values, and true goals. He explains how to build the self-esteem and confidence necessary for achievement; how…


Book cover of Managing Performing Living: Effective Management for a New World

Andreas Creutzmann Why did I love this book?

Like Malik, I have divided my book into principles, tasks, and tools.

My principles, tasks and tools are partly based on management thinkers such as Peter F. Drucker and Fredmund Malik. However, especially for the tools, but also for individual principles and tasks, these have been supplemented, expanded, and adapted based on my experience.

Malik's book is inspiring for all who see management as a profession. In the book you will learn how effective and efficient management works.

By Fredmund Malik, Jutta Scherer (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Managing Performing Living as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this completely revised and enlarged edition of his classic book, management expert Fredmund Malik offers managers sound professional advice for improving skills in organization, decision-making, supervising, budgeting, and numerous other management-related tasks. Tailored to a new generation of managers for whom effectiveness is the key to success, this volume reveals everything that all executives and leaders need to know to turn knowledge, personal strengths, talent, creativity, and innovative thinking into concrete results. By providing readers with the universal principles, tasks, and tools of effective management, Malik helps them to cope with the ongoing centennial change in business and society…


Book cover of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

Andreas Creutzmann Why did I love this book?

Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer.

Much better qualified to help us make decisions is the cognitive, emotional, and social repertoire we call intuition, a suite of gut feelings that have evolved over the millennia specifically for making decisions.

Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer's research. But Gigerenzer goes a step further by explaining just why our gut instincts are so often right.

I have heard Gerd Gigerenzer lecture and read several of his books. If you want to use your gut feeling and your mind, this book tells you how.

By Gerd Gigerenzer,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Gut Feelings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why is split second decision-making superior to deliberation? Gut Feelings delivers the science behind Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Much better qualified to help us make decisions is the cognitive, emotional, and social repertoire we call intuition, a suite of gut feelings that have evolved over the millennia specifically for making decisions. Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer's research. But Gigerenzer goes a step further by explaining just why our gut instincts are so often right. Intuition, it seems, is not some sort of mystical chemical reaction but a neurologically based behavior…


Book cover of Awaken the Giant Within

Andreas Creutzmann Why did I love this book?

Anthony Robbins is the world's most famous success coach.

With Unlimited Power, he has made Neurolinguistic Programming known outside of therapy in management.

Anyone who wants to break through beliefs that prevent success and wants to get many valuable suggestions at all levels of success, can not get past Anthony Robbins. His books have inspired and motivated me.

Anyone who really wants to be successful should read his books. In Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical & Financial Destiny! you get a very good summary of his thoughts.

By Tony Robbins,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Awaken the Giant Within as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The author offers advice on such matters as mastering emotions, overcoming debilitating habits such as over-eating, drinking and drug abuse, unleashing the hidden power of body and mind, improving personal and professional relationships, and taking control of personal finances.


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I Am Taurus

By Stephen Palmer,

Book cover of I Am Taurus

Stephen Palmer

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Philosopher Scholar Liberal Reader Musician

Stephen's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Each of the sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also a view of ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even bullfighting in Spain is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.

I Am Taurus

By Stephen Palmer,

What is this book about?

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull. Each of the eleven sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through…


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