Best 2017 Reads for Aspiring Female Entrepreneurs

With the start of a new year brings new opportunities to challenge ourselves. I love taking this time of year to just recollect and look at where I've been this past year and if I got any closer to my goals and where I want to be. This past year I learned that to achieve the goals I set out for myself, goals that I do plan to accomplish NOW, I need to challenge my mind & grow my vision. This happens through learning from those that went out there and took hold of their dreams. They made it happen, and now they want to inspire others to do the same. If this is your year that you want to make things happen, then commit to reading one motivational/entrepreneurial themed book a month. It will create new courage, make you think bigger, and in the end bring you one step closer to that dream. 

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Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success | Ivanka Trump
(Release date March 7, 2017 | Pre-order NOW)  
In this breakthrough book based on her company’s #WomenWhoWork initiative, Ivanka Trump—wife, mother, real estate developer, entrepreneur, and founder of her eponymous fashion brand and IvankaTrump.com—disrupts the existing narrative of women and work to present a new worldview that celebrates how women work in all aspects of their lives. Through highly tactical, solution-oriented content, Ivanka empowers readers with the insight and tools to define success on their own terms and create the lives they want to live. 

Courage To Soar: A Body In Motion, A Life In Balance | Simone Biles
Through years of hard work and determination, Simone has relied on her faith and family to stay focused and positive, while having fun competing at the highest level and doing what she loves.  Here, in her own words, Simone takes you through the events, challenges, and trials that carried her from an early childhood in foster care to a coveted spot on the 2016 Olympic team. Along the way, Simone shares the details of her inspiring personal story—one filled with the kinds of daily acts of courage that led her, and can lead you, to even the most unlikely of dreams.

Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur | Cara Alwill Leyba
GIRL CODE is a roadmap for female entrepreneurs, professional women, "side hustlers" (those with a day job who are building a business on the side), and anyone in between who wants to become a better woman. This book will not teach you how to build a multimillion dollar business. It won't teach you about systems or operational processes. But it will teach you how to build confidence in yourself, reconnect with your "why," eradicate jealousy, and ultimately learn the power of connection. Because at the end of the day, that's what life and business is all about.
 

Settle For More | Megyn Kelly

In Settle for More, the anchor of The Kelly File reflects on the enduring values and experiences that have shaped her—from growing up in a family that rejected the "trophies for everyone" mentality, to her father’s sudden, tragic death while she was in high school. She goes behind-the-scenes of her career, sharing the stories and struggles that landed her in the anchor chair of cable’s #1 news show. Speaking candidly about her decision to "settle for more"—a motto she credits as having dramatically transformed her life at home and at work—Megyn discusses how she abandoned a thriving legal career to follow her journalism dreams. Deeply personal and surprising, Settle for More offers unparalleled insight into this charismatic and intriguing journalist, and inspires us all to embrace the principles—determination, honesty, and fortitude in the face of fear—that have won her fans across the political divide.

#Girlboss | Sophia Amoruso
At seventeen, Sophia Amoruso decided to forgo continuing education to pursue a life of hitchhiking, dumpster diving, and petty thievery. Now, at twenty-nine, she is the Founder, CEO, and Creative Director of Nasty Gal, a $100+ million e-tailer that draws A-list publicity and rabid fans for its leading-edge fashion and provocative online persona. Her story is extraordinary—and only part of the appeal of #GIRLBOSS. Sophia shows readers how to channel their passion and hard work, while keeping their insecurities from getting in the way. She offers straight talk about making your voice heard and doing meaningful work.

Winning Balance: What I've Learned So Far about Love, Faith and Living Your Dreams | Shawn Johnson

Twenty-four-year-old American gymnast Shawn Johnson is a four-time Olympic gold and silver medalist; a national- and world-champion athlete. Shawn is no stranger to hard work and adversity. Her loss of the major gymnastics prize everyone expected her to win in Beijing, the all-around Olympic gold medal, was the loss of a dream she'd worked for since childhood. And later, she suffered a potentially career-ending injury in a skiing accident that forced her life to a halt and made her rethink what was really important. She wasn't sure who she was anymore. She wasn't sure what her goals were. And she wasn't sure she was satisfied with where she was with her faith and God. Could she find the right kind of success in life--the kind that doesn't involve medals or trophies, but peace, love, and lasting joy? This is the amazing true journey of how the young woman who won an Olympic gold medal on the balance beam became even more balanced.

Grace, Gold, and Glory: My Leap of Faith | Gabby Douglas

In the 2012 London Olympics, US gymnast Gabby Douglas stole hearts and flew high as the All-Around Gold Medal winner, as well as acting as a critical member of the US gold-medal-winning women gymnastics team. In this personal autobiography, Gabby tells her story of faith, perseverance, and determination, demonstrating you can reach your dreams if you let yourself soar.

A Woman's Guide to Bootstrapping a Business | Beverly Sallee Ophoff

Beverly Sallee Ophoff gives a wealth of practical information and motivational inspiration for any woman building a business or desiring to start one. Her book is based on more than forty years of leadership experience as an entrepreneur, with enterprises and colleagues in more than thirty nations. She has lived the Bootstrapping concept, starting with very little capital and growing a business to the stratosphere of success—always with a concern for character, family strength, and charitable “giving back.”

And the Good News Is...Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side | Dana Perino

From her years as the presidential press secretary to her debates with colleagues on Fox News' The Five, Dana Perino reveals the lessons she's learned that have guided her through life, kept her level-headed, and led to her success, even in the face of adversity. She shares here her best work and life lessons-tips that will help you to get your point across convincingly while allowing your own grace and personality to shine through. As someone who still believes in working together to solve the problems our nation faces, Dana offers clear, practical advice on how to restore civility to our personal and public conversations. The result is a fascinating read that can help anyone become more successful, productive, and joyously content. 

If You Think You Can!: Thirteen Laws that Govern the Performance of High Achievers | TJ Hoisington
Most people set out unequipped to achieve. Just as there are certain laws that govern nature, there are laws that govern performance and achievement. Unfortunately, people are either unaware of them, and therefore do not align themselves accordingly, or they simply are not applying them. As a result, many people chase after goals, but find that the results they desire constantly elude them. If you want to be someone, achieve something, or get somewhere in life, you must understand the governing laws that turn dreams into reality. TJ has gathered these distinctions into a single book to share with you. The pages of this book are filled with moving stories and examples of success and failure that will inspire all who read them. TJ shows you what habits must be formed and what steps must be taken to achieve any goal you set. Simple and concise, If You Think You Can! is the source that will help you achieve whatever you want.

The Sweet Life: Find Passion, Embrace Fear, and Create Success on Your Own Terms | Dulce Candy Ruiz 

Since posting her first makeup tutorial in 2008, Dulce Candy has become one of the top beauty stars on YouTube, boasting more than 2 million subscribers, and garnering hundreds of millions of views for her bright and energetic how-to videos. But before she became a style icon and a role model to millions of young women, Dulce struggled to make her way in the world. Having emigrated from Mexico to the United States when she was six years old, Dulce battled depression and low self-esteem as a teenager and eventually enlisted in the army in an attempt to turn her life around. It was here, on the battlefields of Iraq, that she finally uncovered and embraced her true passion-fashion and beauty-and gained the confidence to move on from her past, follow her dream, and launch what would become her wildly successful brand. Part memoir, part manifesto, The Sweet Life is a fun, inspirational guide for any woman who wants to find success without compromising who she is.

I Am That Girl: How to Speak Your Truth, Discover Your Purpose, and #bethatgirl | Alexis Jones, Sophia Bush 
In a crazy, media distracted world the important questions often get lost like: What’s your passion? What’s your purpose? Who do you want to be? Alexis Jones has built a career listening to and helping girls around the world figure out those questions in order to inspire them to think for themselves, to speak their truth, to discover their purpose, and to dream HUGE! Stop listening to that voice inside your head that tells you you’re not good enough. Stop worrying that you don’t have the perfect body, perfect job, perfect relationship, or perfect anything for that matter. Stop letting other people draw boundaries and limits around your life. And start living the life that you truly want (now!), the one you didn’t think you had the courage to imagine, but the one that’s absolutely possible! Including stories from thirty incredible women, Alexis has compiled everything she’s learned into one complete guide to being That Girl, the best version of you.
 

Make It Happen: Surrender Your Fear. Take The Leap. Live On Purpose | Lara Casey 
Make It Happen is for women who find themselves worried, anxious, and completely overwhelmed by the constant chase for perfection those seeking the courage to jump into a new venture working women who are struggling to "do it all" weary wives and moms looking for relief from burning the candle at both ends anyone who dreams of a life lived not by accident, but on purpose.Your time has come to take a leap of faith. You were created for a purpose, and it's time to make it happen.