There's a "challenge" spreading on Facebook, where people share the 10 books that have changed their lives and then nominate others to do the same. The rule: List them as quickly as possible – the first 10 that come to mind within just a few minutes. I saw Gini Dietrich turning that into a blog post on Spin Sucks and I thought, "This is great, I'm so doing it too!" Immediately, I took a pen and paper and wrote down the first 10 that I thought of at that moment. Funnily enough, I was challenged last week as well, so I decided to share these 10 books and why they are so special to me with you here.

But before I move on to the list, I just wanted to say that these really are the first 10 that came to my mind in no particular order. If I am to rewrite that list to make it "perfect", I might choose other titles. But being fair to the challenge, I am not going to do so.

I admit, 10 life-changing books is probably a little strong, but 10 books that have impacted my professional and personal life is pretty accurate.

And yes, the majority of those books are business or somehow work-related, but that's what I tend to read. (I know, I need to read more fiction...)

Here we go:

1. "Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life" by Arianna Huffington

Thrive wasn't the book that totally overhauled my life, but was the book that reaffirmed how the lifestyle choices I had made over the last two years (healthy eating, regular exercise, no alcohol etc.) have positively contributed to me leading a more meaningful and in tune body-mind life. However, Arianna did show me some areas that I still need to work on to really thrive and be happy, both professionally and personally. On a bigger scale, Thrive opened my eyes to how fundamentally wrong and unsustainable our current understanding of what we should strive for is. I encourage everyone, who wants to learn how to thrive, not just merely succeed, to read this book! It's a paradigm-shifting guide.

Favourite quote:

Our current notion of success, in which we drive ourselves into the ground, if not the grave—in which working to the point of exhaustion and burnout is considered a badge of honor—was put in place by men, in a workplace culture dominated by men. But it’s a model of success that’s not working for women, and, really, it’s not working for men, either.

2. "The Way We're Working Isn't Working" by Tony Schwartz

Inspired by Thrive, I wanted to dig deeper and learn more about the organisational side of things. The Way We're Working Isn't Working is so brilliantly written, showing how the current model of work – where employees are treated as machines whose performance is measured by the hours they put in and are made to prioritise profits and clients over anything else, including their health – is counter-productive and needs to change. The book also gives individuals, but most importantly businesses ways to improve and develop a company culture, a living organisation that boosts sustainable employee engagement and satisfaction with work by simultaneously increasing performance – a win-win. Because it is, after all, healthy and happy employees that carve the economic health and very existence of businesses.

Favourite quote:

It’s that human beings operate most productively in the same one-dimensional way computers do: continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time, running multiple programs at the same time. Far too many of us have unwittingly bought into this myth, a kind of Stockholm syndrome, dutifully trying to mimic the machines we’re meant to run, so they end up running us.

3. "The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution" by Brian Solis

You want to understand how business has changed? You want to know how people today make purchase decisions, why them make them, how they communicate, how they find information, how they see your business and interact with it (or not!)? Well, then read The End of Business as Usual. Brian Solis' book describes the profound shift in consumer behaviour that has emerged in recent years and the need for business transformation as a result. Technology has brought about a lot of those changes, but at the end of the day it is how people use it that define your approach to business (including social media engagement).

Favourite quote (among many):

Businesses are no longer the sole creator of a brand; it is co-created by consumers through shared experiences and defined by the results of online searches and conversations.

4. "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead" by Sheryl Sandberg

It's not easy being a woman in a man's world. I know that, I'm a woman. However, I believe that achieving full equality for woman is not only a human right, but also necessary for a healthy societal, economic, political and organisational future. Lean In started a movement towards this somewhat idealistic view. It opened the discussion about women at the top to a global level and inspired me to join the conversation by publicly writing about the issue, instead of just secretly discussing it with my female friends.

Favourite quote (among many):

Professional ambition is expected of men but is optional—or worse, sometimes even a negative—for women. “She is very ambitious” is not a compliment in our culture. Aggressive and hard-charging women violate unwritten rules about acceptable social conduct. Men are continually applauded for being ambitious and powerful and successful, but women who display these same traits often pay a social penalty. Female accomplishments come at a cost.

5. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

I always say that understanding human nature and behaviour is key to successful PR and social media communications. Why? Because comms professionals deal with real people all the time – clients, media, bloggers, consumers, colleagues etc. How to Win Friends and Influence People is a "working handbook on human relations" that will help you to acquire effective social skills and abilities to engage people and build long-lasting relationships.

Favourite quote:

So if you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested.

6. "Confessions of an Advertising Man" by David Ogilvy

The Confessions was my first knowledge fountain for learning how to write. It might be a book about advertising (PR's very rival), but Ogilvy's tips on writing (and business too) can be useful in any industry. For example, I've adopted his principle "write the way you talk" for this blog and I've received quite a few emails from readers, telling me that my writing is so easy to follow and just nice to read. And that's because I am trying to have a normal one-to-one conversation with you, my readers, without gulping you with carefully crafted, full with scientific terms sentences. My writing is human – that's my motto. I use the power of spoken words to put my thoughts on paper (or more precisely, on screen).

Favourite quote (among many):

Avoid superlatives, generalizations, and platitudes. Be specific and factual. Be enthusiastic, friendly, and memorable. Don’t be a bore. Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

7. "Normal Gets You Nowhere" by Kelly Cutrone

I've always felt different. I've never fit the norm. I've always been considered crazy or an outsider. Naturally, that didn't use to make me feel good because, as any human being, I also have the need to feel accepted. But there's one thing that Normal Gets You Nowhere made me realise – it's better to stand out than to stay in the shadow of the many. Steve Jobs famously said: “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Having a vision is to see the world differently. Making that vision reality is to challenge the status quo.

Favourite quote:

Dreams will force you to ask yourself the hard questions, they’ll kick your ass and more importantly, they’ll turn you on.

8. "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho

This is the very first book that put me on the journey towards striving for full equality for women in our society, however not in a straightforward way such as Lean In or Thrive, but more on a deeper subconscious, thought-provoking, find-myself level. Years back, I read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist and enjoyed it so much that my mom bought me all of his other books for my 18th birthday. This really was one of the many gifts I received that day, but the one that brought the biggest smile on my face. My grandmother even said: "I've never seen a student so happy to receive a ton of books." And so, in just a few months I had read all the books and the one that really left a mark was Eleven Minutes because it sparked something in me. That something was the notion that women should be treated just as humanely as men, no matter which culture they come from, where they live or what they do; that women should have a powerful voice and that others should respectfully listen; that women should believe in themselves and trust their instincts.

Favourite quote:

I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life.

9. "What's the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences" by Brian Solis

WTF is the book that confirmed that I had chosen the right study field. I work in PR and social media, so naturally most of my colleagues have studied communications or media management, or even journalism, whereas I graduated with a Bachelor in International Business. But reading WTF made me realise that by having that business knowledge and perspective, I actually have a tremendous advantage. I see the bigger picture. Effectively advising clients how to transform their organisations and developing strategies and concepts that deliver real business value in the era of Digital Darwinism is only possible through the lens of true business understanding, not just the perspective of the next comms initiative.

Favourite quote (among many):

The future of business comes down to relevance and the ability to understand how technology affects decision making and behaviour to the point where the recognition of new opportunities and the ability to strategically adapt to them becomes a competitive advantage.

10. The Nature of Business: Redesigning for Resilience" by Giles Hutchins

I am very fond of Giles Hutchins’ work and his beliefs that businesses need to look at nature for inspiration how to remodel their operations. Nature doesn’t produce waste; everything in nature becomes part of something else; it’s an endless cycle, where one piece becomes part of the life of another – waste becomes food. The overall message of The Nature of Business is that the general approach to business today is nowhere close to nature’s sustainable way of operating; it is not fit for purpose. Perhaps it wasn't so much the book, but the lecture held by Giles Hutchins I attended before reading the book, for which I would be forever thankful to Giles, because it opened my eyes to the pressing challenges we are facing and sparked my interest in sustainability. What followed after that was a massive research and a whole dissertation about using the power of social media for creating business sustainability value, which was then even published as a book.

Favourite quote:

Businesses are recognising the need to transform beyond the current prevailing paradigm of short-term profit maximisation. Business is fundamentally about value creation – the how and why of value creation is itself transforming as our world and livelihoods transform. The increasingly volatile, dynamically transforming business environment means businesses need to behave like emergent, living organisms in order to thrive and survive. A firm of the future is a business inspired by nature – one that is resilient, optimising, adaptive, systems-based, values-led and life-supporting.

Your turn now!

I'm challenging you to write down the 10 books that have changed your life in some way.

Go!