Wanting to start a new business? Do you have a business that you want to improve? Besides the Library Business Assistance available at the library, we have new nonfiction books available in our collection that may be of help to you. Check out this sample below. As of this writing, all of these titles are owned by the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Becoming legend : the billion-dollar blueprint to be a whale in a sea of sharks by Berner

A young entrepreneur’s blueprint for taking the right risks, scaling to new heights, and building a legendary brand.

Armed with only his hustle and an otherworldly instinct for marketing and branding, Berner, the co-founder and CEO of the world-conquering legal cannabis company Cookies, had the vision to see that cannabis was swiftly moving from the street corner to the corporate office and was able to make moves worthy of a chess grandmaster to launch the first dominant brand.

Berner has grown Cookies into a billion-dollar mainstream company with more than seventy stores across the country and the world, added a sought-after streetwear side-brand, and gained millions of fans eagerly awaiting his next move. While building Cookies into the empire it is today, Berner took notes from everywhere: a strong sense of identity from the best streetwear brands, frequent collaborations from the music industry, and rapid expansion from Silicon Valley.

In Becoming Legend, Berner pulls back the curtain on his incredible rise to success while bringing to light how he did it and how you can too, including:

• It Starts with a Vision: Potential is everywhere. Recognize opportunities and don’t be afraid to think big.
• Access Is Everything: Your network is your net worth. Learn how to leverage and increase your access to impactful people.
• Become Timeless: Creating an identity is crucial in brand-building, whether it be you or your logo.
• Put Your Fingerprints on Everything: If you let people speak for you or represent your vision, a great idea may never blossom.
• Never Be Afraid to Throw Back Whales: Learn to trust your gut. Not all money is good money.

Becoming Legend is the instruction manual for all aspiring entrepreneurs to not just get rich but leave a legacy. – Harmony

Bend, don’t break : how to adapt in the new world of work by Matt A. West.

The future of work isn’t waiting for you to catch up.

AI is reshaping jobs. Teams are being reinvented overnight, and entire industries are shifting faster than most of us can catch our breath. The new competitive edge isn’t expertise—it’s adaptability.

But real adaptability isn’t just about staying positive or being flexible. It’s about building a system that helps you evolve without losing what matters most. In Bend, Don’t Break, Matt A. West introduces the Adaptability System—a practical, research-backed framework for navigating change with purpose. With relatable stories and hands-on tools, this book will help you:

• Spot and break free from the patterns of resistance that keep you stuck.
• Overcome Frozen Expertise—when what you once mastered starts weighing you down instead of lifting you up.
• Escape the Business of Busyness and focus on what actually moves you forward.
• Embrace the Grow in Beta mindset—experiment, adapt, and upgrade continuously instead of bracing for perfection.
• Adapt alongside AI while protecting your uniquely human edge.

Packed with exercises and challenges, Bend, Don’t Break helps professionals, leaders, and teams flex with change instead of snapping under it. Whether you’re leading through uncertainty, shifting roles, or simply trying to stay relevant, Matt A. West will help you meet the future with confidence, clarity, and purpose. – GFB

Capacity : building your business bigger than you by Dustin Hillis

Discover a battle plan to cross the bridge from exhausted bootstrapper to high-functioning CEO.

For ambitious entrepreneurs, the greatest threat isn’t market competition or funding—it’s the systemic inefficiency draining their growth potential. Your capacity is directly correlated to the strength of your systems.

Celebrated business leader and speaker Dustin Hillis reveals five essential pillars that allow for sustainable scaling: Executive Strategy, Business Development Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Financial Strategy, and Legal Strategy. Drawing from over two decades of experience scaling companies across 10 countries and transforming early-stage start-ups into multimillion-dollar enterprises, Hillis provides a comprehensive blueprint to help you:

• Build robust systems that free you from day-to-day operations while dramatically increasing your company’s growth potential
• Transform your role from overworked “doer-of-all-things” into a true CEO leading a high-performing executive team
• Master the specific strategies within each pillar that unlock exponential growth and prevent costly mistakes
• Ultimately reach Optimal Capacity—so that all areas of your life, professional and personal, flourish and work in balance with one another

Whether you’re struggling to break through your current ceiling or aiming to scale your successful business to new heights, Capacity is your field guide to build a business that’s truly bigger than yourself. – Matt Holt Books

Dare to think differently : how open-mindedness creates exceptional decision-making by Gerald Zaltman

A Harvard Business School professor’s guide to thinking about thinking, using the creative power of the unconscious.

Gerald Zaltman’s pioneering research methods for understanding the unconscious desires of customers are used by companies around the world. Dare to Think Differently draws on the same groundbreaking methods to explain the deep and innovative thinking used by highly successful executives. Reflecting emerging viewpoints in neuroscience, Zaltman contends that multiple forces, not just a brain, collaborate to produce a mind. Highly effective decision-makers are able and willing to go beyond their conscious thinking and surface powerful, creative, unconscious thoughts and feelings. They candidly ask whether what they feel they “know” is actually warranted, opening their minds to new alternatives.

With this book, Zaltman presents six techniques to tap into the creative power of the unconscious: serious playfulness, befriending ignorance, asking the right discovery questions, chasing your curiosity, panoramic thinking, and using the “voyager outlook.” These research-based techniques improve decision-making and go beyond the existing literature on “thinking smarter.” This book’s insights emerge from a large number of one-on-one in-depth interviews with senior leaders around the globe, reinforced with research findings from scientific literatures.

Mirroring Zaltman’s Harvard Business School classroom practice, each chapter opens with a practical-thinking exercise that helps readers surface the mental processes and biases that unconsciously close minds and constrict thinking. This creative surfacing is the crucial foundation for any leader operating in a complex, uncertain environment, who needs unconventional solutions to challenging problems. – Stanford Business Books

Don’t do business with dicks : how to ditch toxicity and align yourself with positive influences by David Meltzer

Pragmatic principles for success and strategies to help you overcome your biggest obstacle—you—by surrounding yourself with the right people, ideas, and environments

As Chairman of the Napoleon Hill Institute and former CEO of Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment (the inspiration for Jerry Maguire), where his first major task was to bring home negotiations for returning the NFL’s Rams to Los Angeles from St. Louis, David Meltzer followed his boss’s instructions: “Don’t negotiate to the last penny. Always be fair. Don’t do business with dicks.”

Since then, David’s taken this advice on as his mantra, not just for negotiating high-stakes deals but for navigating life. In Don’t Do Business with Dicks, Meltzer distills his wisdom into actionable strategies for cultivating meaningful relationships, aligning yourself with positive influences, and holding fast to your integrity.

Packed with anecdotes and practical advice, you’ll discover how to fill your life with all the right stuff and leave behind the negativity and pettiness that stunt growth. Adopt a guiding philosophy that empowers you to:

• Avoid negative influences and build positive connections
• Align your actions with your values
• Cultivate gratitude and accountability
• Master the art of clear and honest communication
• Make wise choices in partnerships
• Navigate the dynamics of different environments
• Foster a growth mindset

Don’t Do Business with Dicks is a call to eliminate toxicity and create your own “gold standard” for success, one built on kindness and integrity. Instead of just focusing on getting what you want, ask yourself—what’s standing in your way? – Matt Holt Books

Greatness code : the formula behind unstoppable success by Alan C. Guarino

Unlock the qualities of success and reach your full potential using this effective guide from leadership and career development expert Alan C. Guarino.

Your personal greatness objective is self-defined. For each of us, the definition of success and the journey to achieve it is different. Yet, no matter how talented or driven you are, your ability to achieve greatness is significantly influenced by many factors outside of your control. Leadership sets the tone—defining not just what they think success looks like, but also how you are expected to show up, collaborate, and grow.

Greatness Code: The Formula Behind Unstoppable Success shows how to achieve your personal and career related goals. As Vice Chairman of Korn Ferry and the founder of Cornell International, Inc., Guarino devised a formula for success from thousands of data points over decades, helping people achieve their goals. Anyone who achieves their own greatness gets there by applying their social capital and building on five critical qualities:

• Persistence
• Stamina
• Courage
• Resilience
• Passion

Your personally defined goal of greatness is achievable for almost anyone using this formula. In addition, Greatness Code provides scientific research and real-life examples that show how to advance at every career stage. It’s time for you to gain the edge that these tools can give you. It’s time to crack the Greatness Code. – Wiley

How great ideas happen : the hidden steps behind breakthrough success by George Newman

Great ideas are all around us, waiting to be discovered. Here’s how to find them.

We’re used to imagining creativity as a lightbulb moment—sudden, mysterious, reserved for the gifted few. But what if ideas aren’t conjured from thin air? What if they’re discovered—more like precious artifacts that we unearth and refine?

In How Great Ideas Happen, cognitive scientist George Newman draws on cutting-edge research to show that creativity isn’t magic, it’s method. The most successful innovators don’t wait to be struck by brilliance; their creative process is more like archeology. As keen-eyed explorers, they scan the terrain, dig with intention, and, with a little luck, find gold.

With vivid examples from the arts, science, and business, Newman shows how creativity often comes from discovering what was already there. For example, how Jackson Pollock tapped into deep patterns in nature to create his famous “drip” paintings; how Korean filmmakers created an entirely new genre by closely studying foreign films; or, how Paul Simon made Graceland by carefully sifting through previously recorded material for what he could take away.

By revealing the hidden steps behind breakthrough success, How Great Ideas Happen uncovers a repeatable method that anyone can follow, reframing creativity not as a rare gift, but as a universal capacity waiting to be unlocked through exploration. The creative process is an adventure of ideas—this book is your guide. – Simon & Schuster

How to be a good leader when you’ve never had one : the blueprint for modern leadership by Mick Hunt ; foreword by Les Brown

A powerful leadership instruction manual designed to help you bring out the best in your team members

In How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never had One: The Blueprint for Modern Leadership, entrepreneur, podcaster, and leader, Mick Hunt, delivers a deeply honest story about leadership that offers hands-on insights and actionable frameworks you can apply at your organization today. The author provides strategies that are tailor-made for modern leaders who are engaging with a diverse workforce.

After a powerful foreword by Les Brown, How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never had One marries proven leadership strategies forged in the real world with a fresh perspective on work that is inspiring and practical.

Inside the book:

• A toolkit for modern leadership that leverages transparency, resilience, influence, listening, and vision
• Powerful case studies of real-life leaders – including soldiers, corporate executives, and healthcare leaders – who have found ways to overcome common leadership strategies and achieved extraordinary outcomes
• Strategies for addressing obstacles unique to leading a contemporary workforce

An exciting and inspiring new take on how to lead in the modern era, How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never had One is an essential resource for managers, executives, and other business leaders seeking an authentic, authoritative, and actionable playbook for the kind of leadership the world needs today. – Wiley

Never wear red lipstick : 8 lies that stop Black women from succeeding in life and business by Karmetria Dunham Burton Phd

A guide for Black women to unlock their potential in business and in life.

Despite being the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the US, Black women face systemic barriers that threaten to derail their dreams, including lack of funding, racial and gender bias, and a lack of senior advocates in corporate spaces. Dr. Karmetria Dunham Burton, an executive with two decades of corporate experience, offers a new vision–one rooted in spiritual strength, self-care, confidence, and authenticity.

Never Wear Red Lipstick is more than a business book–it’s a movement for liberation, leadership, and faith. Dr. Burton boldly dismantles the myths and limiting beliefs that have kept Black women from thriving in boardrooms and business ventures.

Blending heartfelt storytelling with field-tested strategies, Never Wear Red Lipstick introduces you to the Paint Your Lips Red principles: eight truths to help Black women embrace their power and lead with boldness. From overcoming betrayal in the workplace to prioritizing wellness, from claiming spiritual inheritance to redefining what it means to be a real boss, this book speaks to every woman who’s been told she has to shrink to succeed. With the “Boss Blueprint” at its core, Dr. Burton lays out a practical, faith-driven path to growth, leadership, and legacy. Whether you’re in a cubicle or launching a company, this book will help you stop surviving and start soaring. – Broadleaf Books

One presentation away : become an irresistible speaker and convert more clients by Colin Boyd ; foreword by Amy Porterfield

The speaker’s guide to get more clients by crafting a single high-converting signature talk

One Presentation Away: Become an Irresistible Speaker and Convert More Clients provides crystal-clear direction on how to become confident when speaking and selling from any stage and how to start getting clients, not just claps. Uniquely, this book reveals how to sell from a virtual or live stage without feeling like you’re selling. Written by renowned professional speaker and presentation builder Colin Boyd, this book’s core premise is that you are just one irresistible presentation away from the breakthrough you desire.

In this book, readers will find insights on:

• How just one presentation can grow your business and give you the life you’ve always wanted\
• The common error of overcomplicating business growth, and why it makes sense to hone in on one specific pitch
• How to structure a high-converting signature talk and practical strategies that result in your audience asking to join your offers, used by 10,000+ of Boyd’s students and the biggest names in the industry

Guiding entrepreneurs through every step of the process of selling on stage, One Presentation Away is an essential read for sales newcomers as well as experienced presenters looking to further optimize their pitch. – Wiley

Riding the unicorn : the startup guide you’ll want to read by Wenee Yap, Thomas Derricott

The Legends are True. The Unicorn is out there.

Think unicorns — those billion-dollar startups as rare as their mythical namesakes — are just Silicon Valley fairytales? Think again. After interviewing some of Australia and New Zealand’s innovation rockstars, Wenee Yap and Thomas Derricott have cracked the code on what makes a startup a unicorn. Riding the Unicorn skips the dry business theory and instead gives you battle-tested strategies from startup legends, wrapped up in stories that’ll keep you hooked from page one. You’ll get the unvarnished truth about what it really takes to launch, scale and — if you’re lucky — sell your way to startup glory.

You’ll learn how to build your own unicorn, systematically moving through six stages that guide you from idea to product development to company growth to exit.

You’ll also find:

• Valuable insights from the minds of startup royalty, including Tim Fung of Airtasker and Pasha Rayan of Forage
• Research-backed tactics for success, delivered through stories so good you’ll forget you’re learning
• Straight-talking advice that works whether you’re a fresh grad with big dreams or a seasoned entrepreneur ready to bet on yourself

Whether you’re in tech, education, creative industries or anywhere in between, Riding the Unicorn isn’t just a book; it’s your guide for taming your next billion-dollar idea. Time to saddle up and start your journey from side hustle to success story. – Wiley

Your best meeting ever : 7 principles for designing meetings that get things done by Rebecca Hinds, PhD

From Rebecca Hinds, PhD—organizational expert who has helped Fortune 500 companies fix their fractured collaboration—comes a bold, battle-tested blueprint for tackling the workplace’s biggest time-wasters: meetings.

Meetings are broken. They are relics from a bygone era of top-down hierarchies and factory-like procedures—designed to issue orders, flaunt power, and keep the hierarchy intact. In today’s digital, collaborate-or-bust era, this model isn’t just inefficient, it actively harms employees and organizations.

Drawing on decades of research and stories from leading companies like Google, Salesforce, Pixar, YouTube, and Dropbox, Your Best Meeting Ever provides a blueprint to transform your meetings from monotonous, soul-crushing time sinks into powerful tools for collaboration. The secret? Treat them like products. Using seven product design principles, you’ll turn your meetings into well-designed products that actually drive work forward and serve your most important users—the people in your organization. You’ll learn:

Why every organization needs a “Meeting Doomsday” to reset collaboration, and how to strategically orchestrate one at your company.

• How to fix your communication system so meetings are a last resort, not a knee-jerk default.
• Which meeting metrics matter—and which do more harm than good.
• How to inject moments of delight into your meetings so people genuinely want to show up.
• When to integrate technology into your meetings so you enhance collaboration, rather than detract from it.

More than just a practical guide, Your Best Meeting Ever is a rallying call to rethink how we collaborate in the modern workplace. Whether you’re a leader or an individual contributor, this powerful book will nudge you to be audacious—to challenge the existing norms and embrace new paradigms—so you’ll never dread another meeting again. – Simon Element/Simon Acumen