25 Books to Charge Your Growth Mindset in 2025
Hey change the world leaders,
The four components of harnessing your personal purpose and leading yourself are 1) purpose, which fills you with incredible 2) energy that allows you the opportunity to 3) focus. The key to it all is a constant commitment to 4) mindset.
And not just any mindset, a growth mindset. To me, a growth mindset means you're curious, you're open to new ideas. In fact, you’re more than open to them—you crave them. And that means learning, which means lots of books, articles, podcasts, and other sources of wisdom, experience, and know-how.
How about you? Are you ready to dig into growth in 2025? I hope so. Here’s my list of books I read in 2024 and that I recommend for you in the coming year.
I’m a big consumer of audio books and have read them on my walks with Luna, in the car on the way to a client meeting, or sitting outside under a tree. I download the book so I can mark up the passages I want to refer to later, and approach reading as an opportunity to learn and, once I’ve put the book down, apply what I’ve learned with intention.
As I ponder what I want to learn in 2025, I wonder if you might recommend another book for me? Are you digging in? Maybe this is a new opportunity for you in 2025.
10x Is Easier than 2x, Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy: This book redefined my thinking about scaling ScalePassion, i.e., radical growth comes not from working harder, but from aligning your focus with your boldest vision.
The 4 C’s Formula, Dan Sullivan: A timely reminder that courage, commitment, and confidence are the pillars of personal and business transformation, core to our ScalePassion ethos.
Who Not How, Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy: A powerful challenge to ScalePassion’s model, reinforcing that the best way to scale is finding the right people—not trying to do it all yourself.
Ultra-Processed People, Chris van Tulleken: A wake-up call for my personal health and energy management. This year I’ve become more intentional about fueling myself to align with my personal flight plan.
Measure What Matters (3rd read), John Doerr: Every time I revisit this, I refine ScalePassion’s OKRs, ensuring we stay laser-focused on measurable, purpose-driven growth.
Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Maree Brown: Brown’s organic, responsive approach to change aligns perfectly with how ScalePassion encourages leaders to let purpose guide adaptation.
Conscious Business, Fred Kofman: A masterclass on integrating mindfulness and integrity into leadership, echoing ScalePassion’s call for purpose-driven companies.
Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard, Naomi Klein: Chouinard’s storytelling reminded me that the key to scaling passion is living your values with authenticity and grit.
The Complete Guide to Fasting, Jimmy Moore, Dr. Jason Fung: Exploring fasting helped me rethink energy cycles and personal discipline—vital aspects of ScalePassion’s Stage One and my personal flight plan.
The Plant Paradox, Steven R. Gundry MD: This book pushed me to reconsider how food impacts my energy and focus—critical for aligning my health with my broader purpose.
The Self-Managing Company, Dan Sullivan: A direct roadmap to the autonomy we aim for in ScalePassion’s Flight School, where leaders learn to lead themselves and others.
Self as Coach, Self as Leader, Pamela McLean: The best coaching starts within—this book sharpened my skills for guiding leaders through Stage One of the ScalePassion method.
Hidden Potential, Adam Grant: Reinforced the idea that growth happens at the edges, where purpose challenges talent to stretch and scale.
Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara: Guidara’s philosophy inspires ScalePassion’s service model—always go above and beyond in bold, purpose-driven ways.
Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain: A book of unflinching honesty about the industry reminded me that transparency and passion are essential to thriving teams.
The Crux, Richard P. Rumelt: The focus on tackling the hardest problems echoes how ScalePassion tackles big challenges to evolve capitalism itself.
The Complete Enneagram (2nd read), Beatrice Chestnut PhD: This deepened my understanding of how purpose aligns with personality—valuable insight for guiding teams.
The Advantage (6th read at least), Patrick Lencioni: Lencioni’s playbook for organizational health continues to shape ScalePassion’s mission to create aligned and thriving businesses.
The Universal Christ (2nd read), Richard Rohr: Rohr’s reflections on connection and purpose reminded me why I do this work: to elevate human flourishing in business.
7 Powers, Hamilton Helmer: The author’s frameworks push me to think strategically about ScalePassion’s unique positioning and how to protect it as we scale.
Love + Work, Marcus Buckingham: This book affirmed ScalePassion’s core belief—when leaders find work they love, their passion scales across their teams and businesses.
Million Dollar Consulting, Sixth Edition, Alan Weiss: Weiss’s wisdom challenges me to refine ScalePassion’s consulting process while staying purpose-driven.
The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier: Asking better questions is at the heart of our coaching work—Stanier’s approach is simple, brilliant, and deeply impactful.
15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership (tenth annual read), Dethmer, Chapman, and Klemp: This book grounds ScalePassion’s coaching model—every leader’s journey starts with self-awareness.
The War of Art (twelfth annual read), Steven Pressfield: Pressfield’s battle against resistance mirrors the courage it takes for leaders to lean into their purpose and scale with passion.
Don’t have time to read all these books? Then read just this one: it’s called Scale Passion: A Blueprint for Building Purpose-Driven Business, written by some guy named Craven who’s read and practiced every one of their lessons! Pre-Order the book HERE!
