10 Best Personal Development Books to Read

Here are the top 10 best personal development books to read if you want to improve your mind, help you succeed in business, and even improve as a software developer. These ten personal development books will help you in all areas of your life, and as a result, you’ll likely feel that your software development career improves in the process. Here are our picks for the top 10 personal development books to read. Did we miss any? Which books have helped you grow personally?

10. Principles

Written by a successful investor, this book showcases how to be successful. The author, Ray Dalio, does touch on investing and business, but the book mainly focuses on being successful in anything you do.

So, even as a software developer, you can apply this book to your work life and regular life.

Dalio shares lessons that he’s learned throughout his life. And, he tells you how to apply those lessons to your own life using tangible examples and real changes.

You can even apply these lessons to your career as a software developer.

9. Getting Things Done

In this self-help book, David Allen shares his system for – well – getting things done. The best part about his explanations is that he does a deep dive.

He doesn’t rely on generalizations. So, you can make tangible changes to your personal life and your work life.

Some self-help books leave you wanting for more. You feel like you’ve listened to the author brag about how they changed their life, but you’re unsure how to apply those changes.

Allen won’t leave you with this feeling. In fact, after reading his book, you’ll be ready to take on the world.

As a software developer, you may feel like you’re ready to take on more challenging tasks while showing your leadership that you have what it takes to do even more.

If you need a boost of confidence with a dash of encouragement and a roadmap to success, this is the book for you.

8. Search Inside Yourself

This one is written by one of the first engineers at Google, Chade-Meng Tan. Tan uses this book to teach you about emotional intelligence. He considers the one critical factor in performing as a leader.

As a software developer, you need to understand emotional intelligence. Often, people in the technical field don’t feel like they need these skills. But, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, it’s more critical for you to learn about these things to apply emotional intelligence to your everyday life at work.

With Tan’s different practices and methods, you’ll be able to follow his practices easily.

7. The Willpower Instinct

The author, Kelly McGonigal, covers what she teaches in her class at Stanford. She teaches about self-control and why it matters.

You can use your self-control to get more out of your experience in the workplace, and this book tells you how.

6. Mindset

In this book by Carol Dweck, the reader learns how to fulfill their potential in all corners of life. From home to the workplace, Dweck shares ideas and methods for bettering our lives.

If you feel like your career as a software developer is overshadowed by other things, this book will teach you how to balance them.

You can use these methods as a software developer, a parent, a child, and more.

5. Think and Grow Rich

In what’s known as the “landmark bestseller,” Napoleon Hill shares the lessons he’s learned from interviewing some of the most successful people he knew during his time. His interviewees included Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Ford.

This personal development book will change the way that you think about money. And, it’ll give you a new perspective on work.

As a software developer, you need to read this classic self-help book. It’ll completely change how you view your work and your self-worth as a software professional.

4. Failing Forward

If you haven’t equated failure with progress, you need to get your hands on this book by John C. Maxwell. In this nonfiction page-turner, Maxwell reveals the difference between average and successful workers: their response to failure.

He gives us the truth: everyone has failed before and will fail again.

What matters is how we react to those failures. Do we get back up and try again, or do we crumble in the face of failure?

You decide how you respond. So, you choose your future.

3. How to Win Friends and Influence People

In what he calls “the only book you need to lead you to success,” Dale Carnegie says something that we all won’t admit: all of us want friends and influence. Although we could add plenty of other things to that list, these two indeed are the most common.

The techniques that Carnegie lists in his book are easy to apply. This is what makes the book likable and doable. 

As a software developer, this book will help you improve your self-esteem as you develop your communication skills.

2. How to Be a Power Connector

In this self-help book, Judy Robinett teaches you how to manage relationships. She has you list your entire social network and organize them accordingly. After that, you can determine how often you need to reach out to each person and what you should say in doing so.

Robinett focuses on the idea of value in relationships and connections. She stresses the idea of helping as many people as you can without asking for help in return.

She also goes on to teach about her top-155 system. Robinett uses a 5+50+100 formula to help you create a list of the top 155 people you need to constantly keep in touch with.

While this strategy is a long-term endeavor, it can help you develop communication skills. 

1. The 4-Hour Workweek

In what’s arguably the best personal development book from Tim Ferris, you’ll learn how to go against the grain that American society has set for years. You’ll learn how to challenge the notion of working 40 hours a week until retirement. And, you’ll know how to vacation more than you work.

The book consists of four sections that work with the acronym DEAL:

• D – Define your ideal life
• E – Eliminate the unnecessary
• A – Automate the repetitive
• L – Liberate yourself and enjoy your new life

The principles that Ferris presents in the book are timeless. And, as a software developer, you can learn a lot about making your job easier on you.

Adding personal development books to your routine can be a great way to level up your skills. By looking at the ways in which experts and leaders in various fields succeeded, you can emulate their success and their strategies to get you closer to your goals. Take examples from their lives and learn from them. Personal development is a lifelong journey, and it will help you succeed in all areas of your life. Read the Mad Dev for more personal development tips!