Books Recommended by Ee Ling Lim

Start With Why by Simon Sinek really changed the way I viewed passion and purpose. His key quote is that “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. During my investment banking days, I spent a lot of time with senior management in trying to build a culture and to understand why the turnover rate amongst junior bankers was so high. We never figured it out. When I read Start With Why (after I left banking), it all clicked! It was never about drinks at 6 or team offsites. The simple reason was that we never knew our Whys - why do we do what we do? There was no purpose alignment, if we didn't even know what the company's purpose is. Now, whenever I speak to customers, partners or potential hires, I always talk about our Why. With some people, it doesn't click, but that's when I think it's for the better, because you can't build a lasting relationship without believing in an aligned purpose.

I've always thought of myself as a go-getter, but only after reading it did I realize there was still so much for me to lean in to. For one, women tend to underestimate themselves, only putting our hands up when we are certain we are ready for it. Whereas men would go for a role they are only 60% ready for. This insight came useful for me when I made my first hire - she applied for a marketing role, and I offered her a business development one. She was going to reject it, as she had not had the experience and wasn't sure she could handle the role. I actually quoted Sheryl Sandberg! And she turned out to be amazing at business development!

One of my favourite business book is Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. What I loved about it was that not only was it was insightful and filled with some thought-provoking advice, it was extremely readable. You see, I love reading since young, but I used to only read fiction books, and it took me awhile to make the conversion into reading business books. Delivering Happiness is one of the rare ones which reads like a storybook.

Contagious by Jonah Berger is another interesting one for those trying to figure out how to market their business. In Contagious, Jonah identifies what makes some things go viral, and narrowed it down to 6 principles STEPPS: Social currency (content that makes people look good when they talk about it), Triggers (top of mind topics), Emotion (content that we care about, especially high arousal ones like anger, awe, excitement and humor), Public, Practical and Stories.

It's really hard to pinpoint, but for someone who is thinking about venturing into entrepreneurship but looking for something light, I personally like The Upstarts by Brad Stone. It tells the back-stories of Uber, Airbnb - what they went through to get the business off the ground, challenges and missteps, and what it means to be building something that really challenges the status quo.

This book is about resilience, and I only wish there was such a book when I was younger. I was 18 when my dad passed away and it was something that I didn't talk about because I was so afraid of opening the floodgates. It hit me hard, the day my daughter commented that I didn't seem to miss my dad - because I never talked about him.