Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) by Cathie Black is the best career book I've ever read. Its target audience is women, but I think it is applicable across both genders, and there are only a couple of paragraphs in the whole book that are female specific. Cathie Black is the President of Hearst Magazines, and in this book she offers advice and anecdotes she has learned along the way.
Often I find career books, especially career books aimed at women, to be demoralizing. They seem to spend a lot of time trying to convince you that in order to get ahead you need to be someone you're not. However, I found this book to be motivating, inspiring, and genuine. Cathie coaches her readers to use their inherent strengths to their advantage.
My favorite piece of advice from the book was:
Value yourself by your aspirations, not your limitations.
Cathie shared this advice paired with her personal experiences of starting her career. When she first graduated from college, she didn't have any skills that would distinguish her from a secretary, though she defined herself by where she wanted to go, not where she currently was. This mentality helped her look for and gain job opportunities that launched her on an upward path. I think it's pretty easy for all of us to think we can't do something because we don't have a particular skill, but focusing on the positive and looking for opportunities will keep us headed in the direction we want to go.
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1 comment:
YAY! Glad you liked it! :)
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