12 Business Books That Inspired Me (Part 2)

You can have talent, but I believe skills can all be learnt. I believe in hard work.

To become a good salesperson, I had to have a dozen years of experience and some very good books. For a salesperson, it really depends on the company, nature of the business and sales cycle for you to understand if you are successful or not. For me, it happened 2 years after working as a sales manager to see my results and achievements.

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My philosophy is to always put the customer first because I know some businesses say this, but they don’t do this. Putting the customer first and remaining ethical will guarantee your long-term success. Many times I had tough decisions to do but as long as your purpose would be right and your services are in need, you will be successful!

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Passion, Patience, and Persistence

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While travelling through Cuba I met a new friend, he is from Poland. He has a dream to open his boxing school with Cuban masters in Poland because boxing sport is not yet developed much in where he comes from (Poznan). He doesn’t yet know how to make money with it, but he doesn’t put this priority first. He cares about the youth and the limited access to sports and that is what drives his passion. The money will come. Money always comes if you care about the customer first. There will be the right people coming up in your life when you least expect it.

He found his Purpose For Existence (PFE) – read more about it in my previous recommended reading article. Have you found yours?

Some books inspired me to learn further, some books inspired me to start my own business, in this chapter, I will focus mostly on the sales books which I learnt a lot from.

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3 books from my ex-Boss Mr. Sascha Liebhardt. Thanks so much:

• Mindshift

  Similar to making a jump, you can do the mind shift. The book about choices and changes we make. This book will help you uncover and develop the talents you could have never thought you had!

• Sales Management

  This book was very difficult to read but it was worth it as it was like a Sales Bible with all the necessary sales basics to start off with.

• Deep Work

  The amount of information available around and the limited work time we have – two challenges these days. The book helps you concentrate, prioritize and go into the concentration mode when it is needed the most.

The books I acquired for myself to help me develop in work & life:

• The Art of War

  Interesting concept of approaching everything in life strategically. A large part of the book is dealing with leadership and the best qualities of a leader.

• Cracking the Sales Management Code

  A very good sales book for salespeople aiming to be top performers in the company. I learnt a lot of skills and methods.

• Way of the Wolf

  I always wanted to read this book after watching the movie “Wolf of Wall Street”. Once I unexpectedly came across the Jordan Belford selling YouTube video and I loved the way he presented himself, it was worth watching.

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Recommended Reading

Click on each link to get your copy from Amazon

1. Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential

2. Sales Management

3. The Art of War

4. Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance

5. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

6. Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

Study Abroad - My Philosophy

I strive to offer the best study abroad options for the students’ needs, major choice and budget. Students can expect support from me even after my primary services.

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1. 12 Business Books That Inspired Me (Part 1)

2. 14 Takeaways From My Study Abroad Experience In Germany

3. Hello And Welcome To My Website!

4. Yana Immis - About Me

12 Business Books That Inspired Me (Part 1)

I am not a fan of reading. But sometimes it is essential. I have to admit I have been wrong all my life dodging literature and reading.

Some books inspired me so much that I couldn’t sleep at night and I was overwhelmed about how many ideas could be implemented.

I became hungry for knowledge and with a lot of excitement I was turning the pages until I finished the books.

Every time I read the book, I highlight important points I haven’t heard about in the past and I try to instantly apply it in my business.

When the book was over, there was a moment of “What do I read now?” and a bit of depression associated with it,

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It is the same as when you finish a TV - show after binging it.

What next?

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So let me help you with these inspirational books that I read myself and absolutely adore!

I start off with the books that motivated me to:

• Change my life

• Quit my job

• Start my business

• Travel the world.

  I am on the road with my laptop being an educational consultant on-the-go, let’s call myself a nomad agent or “German Education Fairy”, as per my first customer review.

The books come in the order of the most impact, it means you need to start from the top and then advance to the rest of the points in the list.

• The Why Cafe

  • My ultra-cool friend Antje gave me this book and she said it would make you sit down and think about your life, your passion, and purpose.

It is a super short book and it goes as one short story of a lost person - a story which makes you understand that the definition of happiness and purpose for existence for every single person is different.

A person, who owns his own bakery and is earning just sufficient to live a good life (in his terms) may be happier than a person with $ millions. Some of you might argue, but for me, it is the case.

I found my Purpose For Existence (PFE) - to help people and do what I’m good at: consulting students on their educational path abroad. What is your PFE? Read the book and share with us!

• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

  • My ex-boss and a good friend, whose name you will come across often in my articles, Sascha always piled up the books on my desk and this was one of them.

Basically, the book is a gem for those who find themselves lost in the number of emails and appointments on the agenda. This book teaches us to prioritize our time, group up emails and activities, turn off when it is needed and not to overload ourselves with responsibilities.

Does this book actually have secrets to a happy life? Yes! - read it! I was overwhelmed by the amount of micromanagement I had to do at my job and it helped me concentrate, stay calm and be organized no matter what the unpredictable events would come up.

• How To Win Friends and Influence People

  • From Sascha as well.

I cannot find words to describe how much this book actually helped me. It teaches a lot of reverse psychology, human relationships in private & business life and how with only a few small changes in character traits or a smile or a nice word, people are eager to help out.

I am practicing it every day and reading it once in a while over and over again. This book is a Bible for the negotiations!

• When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn't the Life You Want

  • When I was living in Japan, Antje visited me and in the night club, called Feria in Tokyo, we met Mike Lewis. He was travelling the world and playing squash… and then he wrote this book.

Mike tells stories of successful people who dared to make a jump. He inspired me to do one too and his stories inspired me to write success stories of the foreigners.

Hey, thank you so much for the work you do!

If you are sitting in the office 9 AM - 5 PM or 8 AM - 8 PM (consultant schedule) and you have been thinking: “This is not me, this is not what I want to do with my life”, then this is a perfect book for you to be inspired, change your life and dare to make a jump! That’s what I did as well, follow me!

• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

  • From Sascha as well (haha).

Many people after reaching successful positions or leading dozens of people stop noticing the reality in front of them. They are successful already and it is blinding them from the truth: there is always a room for improvement. This book opens your eyes, that there is no limit to development.

• Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals

  • This book I actually got myself (for a change).

I quit my job, I booked flights for the world trip and I designed my website - this was the start of my best year ever. This book helps you minimize risk, make calculated decisions and gives you directions. Are you ready to start your best year ever? Get the book!

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Recommended Reading

Click on each link to get your copy from Amazon

1. The Why Cafe

2. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

3. How To Win Friends and Influence People 

4. When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn't the Life You Want

5. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful 

6. Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals

Study Abroad - About Me

I’ve been where you are. I moved from Russia to study abroad in Germany. 10 years later, with my consultancy, I am helping international students go abroad and study abroad

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Related Articles:

1. 12 Business Books That Inspired Me (Part 2)

2. 14 Takeaways From My Study Abroad Experience In Germany

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4. Yana Immis - My Philosophy

Yury T. - Bachelor Student From Ukraine

Meet Yury, a talented young man, who knows you can learn everything yourself. Coding? From the book. German language? From Netflix. You can read his study in Germany success story here.

Nationality	Ukrainian
Where did you live?	Donetsk, Kharkov (Ukraine), Bucharest (Romania)
Education Level Prior to Relocation	1st Year Bachelor
Reason of moving to Germany	Bachelor Program
When did you move?	2016
How old were you?	17
Are you still in Germany?	Yes
What is your current occupation?	3rd Year Bachelor Student
What is your future goal?	Blue Card, Work Projects in Fin Tech
Would you like to stay in Germany?	For now yes

Chapter 1: I have no idea what I am doing, let’s try to change it

There is not much to tell before my relocation to Germany. I started my studies in computer science in Ukraine, but I only studied there for around 3 months. Afterward, I decided to move to Romania to be closer to my brother.

When I started paying more attention to studies though, I quickly realized that my skills in Physics (which surprisingly enough is quite intense in CS program) are very poor. Even though the course was held in English, it was tough for me to catch up with scientific disciplines. After having spent approximately a year and a half in Bucharest, I caught myself thinking that maybe for me it would be better to move someplace else for studies.

I didn’t know at that moment what I wanted to study instead. I realized that even though I was interested in programming and computers, I didn’t want to study computer science at university just because it changes too quickly. I didn’t make as many friends in Bucharest, because I didn’t speak the language and also because of that, at the time I couldn’t find any work, so I decided to explore other opportunities.

I came across an Educational Fair in Bucharest – an exhibition of private universities from abroad talked to a few representatives and signed myself up for newsletters. I didn’t really think there would be any result out of that. 

Germany has never been on my radar, but, one day, I saw a full scholarship competition at a private university there. The scholarship paid for the entire course (approximately €39000 in tuition fees). The task was to write a marketing strategy for the company that sold smart thermostats across Europe. 

It hit me that I wouldn’t be able to get the money to pay for the tuition fees myself and I needed to find a scholarship, that would pay for the entire thing. So I decided to try and to win it.

It was pretty fun to write it because my strategy was to invest much more effort and time than anybody else could possibly invest in writing a case. So I locked myself in a room for 2 weeks writing the case full-time. I only took occasional breaks for getting muffins from the nearest gas station.

It was fun when people actually started checking on me whether I was ok because I completely went ‘full monk’ and didn’t go online. 

After waiting 2 weeks for the results, it turned out that I won and it took me a while afterward to realize it actually happened. 

Chapter 2: I still have no idea what I’m doing, but something started to change

My first three semesters in Germany were a stressful mess with all kinds of possible immigration issues and hardcore studying. I’m probably the only person who read all the textbooks mentioned in the course syllabus. At the end of the 3rd semester, I saw that focusing on studies only is not doing it. I had to do something real, I wanted to practice. I wanted to understand how real companies work.

Luckily enough, 4th semester was a mandatory internship, where you have to go out and find an internship position pretty much anywhere you like.

How did I find my internship? I applied. I applied a lot. I sent around 1500 applications in 2-3 months time range and I tried all kinds of approaches and it was quite hard emotionally to stay positive about doing something for so long without any apparent results.

After going to a bunch of interviews, I ended up with 2 most appealing offers. 2 companies that offered me a position were: Allianz Technology Headquarters (Project Management Internship) and Finiata - Fin. Tech Start-Up in Berlin.

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I was faced with a choice. 

Should I go to a big corporation or choose a startup company?

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Most people who I asked for advice told me that I should go with Allianz. However, I wanted to learn some hands-on skills, so that I could use them in my own companies later on.

And for some reason, I was strongly biased against working in big companies because I assumed that my backlog would mostly consist of bringing coffee to a specified table and scanning some random papers all the time.

As a result, I was on my way to Berlin. 

My first day was a real deal. First of all, my paranoia hit me and I thought that when I was ironing a shirt in the Airbnb in the morning I forgot to turn off the iron.

So halfway to the office, I’m returning back and come to find the iron turned off. Cool, next step is sprint running back to the subway station. When I arrived at the subway station I realized that now I’m all sweaty and I really need to go back and change. 3 hours after the specified time…

…I show up at the office thinking that I’m about to get fired on my first day. 

This was the day when I realized that I liked startups because even though I thought I had made a mistake that would cost me a career, my colleagues were really nice and said that it was all cool. And even more, messed up was the fact that I was literally the only person dressed up formally and I was getting friendly mocked for the rest of the day. 

After this, I started paying attention to work and turns out that the relaxed atmosphere in startups doesn’t mean you don’t need to work. You’ll have to work and you’ll have to work a lot.

Deadlines are mostly tight and almost all startups by definition fight for survival. I quickly realized that my theoretical knowledge wasn’t nearly enough and I needed to learn practical skills fast. For this, I asked my boss to give me a reading list of all he wanted me to learn and I tried to put in as many hours as I could. 

In order to sum up my experience, I think it’s important to cover different sides of it:

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Berlin - I really loved the place

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The city is very versatile. The nightlife is really impressive, especially for someone who has never lived in a big city before.

Prices may either make you happy or sad, but for me, prices in Berlin were really low compared to Munich. If you are looking for culture, Berlin has a lot to offer and I’m not even talking about galleries and museums so much.

It’s just interesting to talk to people. Most have opinions on almost everything and it doesn’t matter so much what you are interested in, you can find someone to discuss it with. I am a big fan of this city, however, if you are looking for a quiet place, I think you would be disappointed. City is full of life and almost never sleeps. 

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Work - once again I loved working there

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The only problem was that it was my first actual work and I took it too far and burned out. Turns out the sleep is important and if you don’t rest enough your work is pretty much worthless.

But everything else was really great. You want to chill for a minute and send a meme to a Slack channel, it’s cool. You want to go and distract yourself from work - go to the resting area. You want to go and have a fancy lunch - pick a cuisine.

Where I worked there was a really cool atmosphere of meritocracy. So get your stuff done and do whatever you want. 

In a retrospective, computer skills were really useful. Almost any business these days relies on digital to a certain extent. This means that if you know major web technologies, you won’t be lost. If you know them well - you will be useful. I was mostly working with marketing platforms and website management and had to learn a lot of things from scratch. If you learn quickly and adjust, you’ll most likely do well in startups. 

Ok, now I understand what I like to do and where I want to move further, but my internship is over. After I finished my internship, I didn’t want to stop working. I started to look for a job right away and my former boss gave me a good reference and recommended a travel startup in Munich - Fineway. I started as a working student in Marketing, but later on, I transferred to data science. Short side note, I started learning Python in Berlin and this was a very good call because it opened up to me the opportunity to switch to data science and ditch Excel for good.

Meanwhile, I was helping out my brother and his wife with their projects and my experience from work really changed a lot in our family business. 

Chapter 3: I know what I’m doing and why and kind of understand how to get there

Currently, I am finishing up my business administration degree and plan to stay in Germany and work here for a couple more years.

After you’re done with your studies and have your diploma you can apply either for a work-seeking visa or directly for working visa, if you already have the contract signed.

You have to meet the minimum salary requirement, which is lower for tech and scientific workers, than for business people, but it’s pretty doable considering the German level of wages. 

In the end, I came back to technical specialty, but studying business and working in marketing was a huge game-changing experience. Unless you have a business point of view, it’s very hard to understand what technologies you need to learn and why. Also, nobody said you can’t mix the two. For example, my bachelor thesis topic is: “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Entrepreneurial innovation”. 

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Piece of advice for people who would want to study in Germany:

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• Do not solely rely only on your degree

The degree is important, but it’s not everything. Unless you have good references, heavy hands-on skills, experience, and social skills, it would be very hard to find a good position based solely on your diploma. 

In short, start working as soon as possible and learn a lot. 

• Choose a program with a mandatory internship

I believe that the internship was the most important part of my studies. It allowed me to understand how real business works, meet really cool people. My opinion is that you can learn this lesson either the hard way or just take what I say. I honestly can not picture how someone would be able to find work without internship experience. 

• Programming skills are like language skills

Programming or other technical skills would be useful almost anywhere in the future. My approach was close to the one that Linus Torvalds had. Just code something that would be useful for you. Start with small simple stuff, like building a command in bash that would open links for news and tell you the weather, then make more complex stuff. 

The diploma is a must if you want to work in Germany, but additional skills like languages and tech expertise would make it easy for you to find a job. To be honest, you don’t even need instructors for this. I recently went to language school and placement test distinguished that my level is B2.2 even though I only learned German with a book that I bought and Netflix. The same goes for programming, I mostly read O’Reilly books and looked up programming tutorials on the web. Yep, that might be hard if you are not used to it, but nobody said that it’s supposed to be simple.

• Read a lot!

The reading really changed everything for me. It was a real shift in the way I see everything after I realized that there is a ton of books on the issues, that I really need to know about. There are good books on almost any topic: psychology, management, marketing, finance, personal life, managing emotions, and programming. You’d be surprised. I don’t read fiction books as much at the moment(max. 2-3 per year), but non-fiction literature can get you very far.

• You can do a lot. It takes luck and skill, but the initiative is very important. Just try stuff

Your personal experience, skills, and interests are significant, no matter how inapplicable they may seem to you. Just try yourself in anything that interests you. It may take a while to figure out what is genuinely interesting for you. For example, it took me 3 musical instruments and 8 years of studying in musical school to understand that I don’t like making music. However, it doesn’t mean that it was useless. The music industry is vastly ignored and overlooked and there is a lot of interesting stuff that you can do there - take Spotify. 

You can be into movies, sports, computer games, watches, parties or whatever. Business education would help you to understand how you may make money out of it. And if you don’t know what you’re interested in, business education may eventually help you find this out. 

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