The Likeability Factor

Tim Sanders treats life as a series of popularity contests, arguing that the choices others make about a person shape that person's health, wealth and happiness, and that people pick those they like: they vote for them, buy from them and marry them. His remedy is to raise what he calls the L-factor by working on four traits: friendliness, the ability to signal openness and liking; relevance, connecting with what others want and need; empathy, recognizing and sharing their feelings; and realness, the integrity that makes the rest authentic. He draws on research, seminars and hundreds of interviews. It came out in 2005.

NETOPIA mobilPay founder Antonio Eram named it when asked for books that made a big impact on him.