100 books like How to Raise Successful People

I loved reading about grit–that “passion plus perseverance toward long-term goals” is the key to success–by Angela Duckworth, who pioneered the concept. I particularly loved reading the section in her book, Parenting for Grit, which supports the parenting style of every parent I interviewed who raised entrepreneurial children.

Rather than Permissive Parenting or Authoritarian Parenting, she supports what she calls Wise Parenting, when there’s a “carefully struck balance between affection and respect on the one hand and firmly enforced expectations on the other.”

I loved reading about the importance of a growth mindset by the person who pioneered the concept. She explains why it’s so important for parents to praise children for their effort, not their success. She shows that praising children for their intelligence or talent harms their motivation and prevents them from succeeding.

I also love that she shows how important it is for children not to be afraid to fail and to keep trying because, with enough effort, they will succeed. I think these are among the most important concepts in raising creative, entrepreneurial, and risk-taking children.

I loved reading this recently released wonderful book. It’s not a parenting book–and Jon would be surprised that I list it with my favorite parenting books—but it’s a fabulous book about his life and how the child of immigrants who ran a Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto became one of the top movie directors in the US with Crazy Rich Asians and the upcoming Wicked.

But I’m including it in this list because he talks about his incredible parents and how they protected, supported, and believed in him. He also describes how he is now using what he learned to raise his four children. My book includes a very brief version of his story, but I loved learning the rest of it.

I loved reading what Michael Ellsberg says: “The biggest thing you won’t learn in college is how to succeed professionally.” I love that he explains seven success skills you don’t learn in college–like building your brand, learning sales and marketing, and developing an entrepreneurial mindset–while giving us examples of successful people who didn’t graduate from college. Many of these are skills parents can–and should–teach their children.

Of course, I really loved reading the section on my son Elliott Bisnow, who he described as “one of the world’s most successful twenty-something leaders: If you want to be successful and make a huge impact in your life, find exceptional people to learn from and surround yourself with them.”

It was McNish’s poem Embarrassed – a reflection on society’s inability to cope with a mother breastfeeding her child in public – that first led me to her work. I shared it with everyone. 

Part diary, part poetry collection, Nobody Told Me is born of the same honesty and documents her experience from the moment she discovered she was pregnant at Glastonbury and through the first two years of her daughter’s life. 

There’s an immediacy that comes with the pieces being offered exactly how they were written, whether that was “at four AM, some on the loo...[or] at work”. Motherhood, especially early motherhood, has little time for polishing (of furniture or of words), and this lack of editing is, I think, what allows me to see myself reflected in the poems.

Asking a kind person to do a good deed isn’t usually considered bullying. But there is such a thing as taking advantage of kindness.

Mayzie, the lazy bird, convinces Horton to sit on her egg while she takes a vacation. She promises to be back soon, but doesn’t keep her word. Soon all the other animals tease Horton for sitting on that egg. But Horton sits on that egg, through rain, snow, and heat. He even keeps his word when hunters capture him and take him, egg, nest, tree, and all to America and sell him to a circus.

Mayzie only shows up when her baby is hatching. Suess comes up with a happy ending.

This is the book I’ve been waiting for without realizing it. I found myself nodding, exclaiming out loud, and enthusiastically agreeing with something on almost every single page of this book (which I have annotated heavily!)

I also felt conflicted emotions while reading about some of the detrimental (but well-intentioned) practices of my fellow therapists: inadvertently amplifying trauma, causing children to ruinate on their suffering, and creating greater fragility and anguish in our patients.

Reading this book made me feel like the problems I encounter every day working with adolescents were being recognized on a broad scale, and it also validated a niggling feeling I have about superficial therapy-speak and a culture obsessed with mental health: this is NOT always helpful!

I was also relieved to find practical strategies for developing resilience and confidence in young people in spite of the cultural forces which have undermined these important character traits. 

This book is the best, hands-on guide for how to talk to children that I have ever seen. It’s kind of like a how-to-talk to children for dummies.

It’s as though the authors spent years dissecting every aspect of what makes conversations between adults and kids go well and what makes them flop and then put that down in a book. And then the authors convey this information so clearly and concretely, including through the use of cartoons and worksheets.

The book also clearly exposes (in a humorous, light-hearted way) why certain ways of talking to kids fail. This is an old book but one I wish I had discovered before I had my own kids. I now intend to give it to all of my clients and friends when they become new parents. 

I love this book because it explains how a child’s brain works and what they need to access self-control. It gave me insight into why I saw challenging behaviors even when the child “knew better.”

I loved that when I finished reading it, I felt like I had actionable strategies for supporting my child’s mental well-being while navigating tantrums and meltdowns. 

I loved this book because Reber makes it all about the parent in service of an easier parenting experience. And she takes on what can be a highly stressful and isolating parenting experience – raising neurodivergent kids.

This book is for parents who feel like parenting experts don’t “get it.” I felt so understood and supported while also learning some fundamental ways to better care for myself while also understanding my children better.