2023 Summer reading list

[EPE Principle] Enter, Perform, Exit: Understanding The Opportunity Cycle by Azeez Amida

Amida delves into the lifecycle of opportunities to take the reader on a journey of how they can maximise whatever opportunity they find themselves. Through the EPE principle, he establishes a leading and provoking thought line that sets a new path for how opportunities are perceived. The principles showcase how humans must continuously refresh, recycle, and leverage their ‘opportunity web’ to generate extraordinary growth.

Kunle Amida

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answer by Ben Horowitz

In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover.

Abisola Atitebi

The Customer of the future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow's Business by Blake Morgan

In *The Customer of the Future*, customer experience futurist Blake Morgan outlines ten easy-to-follow customer experience guidelines that integrate emerging technologies with effective strategies to combat disconnected processes, silo mentalities, and a lack of buyer perspective.

Femi Osinubi

Unprecedented Leadership – Learning to Lead in Turbulent Times’ by J Colley

Unprecedented Leadership – Learning to Lead in Turbulent Times is ideal reading for anyone who is looking to develop their leadership skills in the most pragmatic and progressive ways.Colley explores important elements of crisis leadership using real-life examples as the basis for his critique.

Omobolanle Adekoya

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

Working on a dream by Gbolahan Fagbure

Working on a Dream: Lessons in Life and Business is a manual for living and working that draws on a myriad of experiences and observations. It shines a light on the numerous landmines that are in the path of an entrepreneur and anyone who has ever wanted to pursue a dream. 

Gbenga Adepetu

1984 by George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale by English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, it centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society.

Sam Abu

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Hernan Diaz’s second novel, Trust, is a collection of four manuscripts at different stages of completion, and they tell different versions of the story of a Wall Street businessman and his wife in the years leading up to the Great Depression.

Olusegun Zaccheaus

The Cost by Ihunnaya Egere-Oranye

Dumebi “Bibi” Harcourt is over the moon when she meets and marries Alex. He is everything she ever dreamed of in a life partner; tall, dark, handsome, successful, witty and upwardly mobile. Soon, Bibi finds herself caught in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship with a man hiding a dark past and more secrets than she could have imagined.

Udochi Muogilim

Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa A blueprint for taking Nigeria and Africa from potential to posterity by Olusegun Aganga

“Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa” is a call to action to Nigeria’s leaders, its professional class and its people to grasp the opportunity for change, so that they might create long term growth, improve their lot and deal with the many woes that need to be tackled, of which one of the greatest is the extent of poverty in the country and continent.

Obioma Ubah

The Organised Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information by Daniel Levitin

In The Organized Mind, Levitin demonstrates how the Information Age is drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data, and uses the latest brain science to explain how the brain can organise this flood of information. 

Adedamola Yusuf

What Britain did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule by Max Siollum

Max Siollun offers a bold rethink: an unromanticised history, arguing compellingly that colonialism had few benevolent intentions, but many unjust outcomes. Popular narratives often suggest that the economic and political turmoil are homegrown, but the reality is that Britain created many of Nigeria's crises, and has left them behind for Nigerians to resolve.

Abimbola Banjo

Reforming The Unreformable: Lessons From Nigeria by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Reforming the Unreformable offers an insider's view of those debt negotiations; it also details the fight against corruption and the struggle to implement a series of macroeconomic and structural reforms.

Rukaiya El-Rufai

Atomic habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

This breakthrough book from James Clear is the most comprehensive guide on how to change your habits and get 1% better every day.

Pedro Omontuemhen

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" by Adam Grant

In Think Again, Adam Grant weaves together research and storytelling to help us build the intellectual and emotional muscle we need to stay curious enough about the world to actually change it. I’ve never felt so hopeful about what I don’t know.” 

Wunmi Adetokunbo-Ajayi

The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield 

How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is built up around the idea that everybody can become successful if they decide what they want, believe they deserve it and practise the 25 principles mentioned in the book.

Oladele Oladipo

The millionaire next door by Thomas J Stanley and William Danko

The bestselling The Millionaire Next Door identifies seven common traits that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. Most of the truly wealthy in this country don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue-they live next door.

Udochi Muogilim

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*Ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck argues that individuals should seek to find meaning through what they find to be important and only engage in values that they can control.

Wura Olowofoyeku

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.

Kenneth Erikume

Unlimited Power: A Black Choice by Antjony Robbins & Joseph McClendon III

Robbins and McClendon here provide the inspiration and tools to help African American readers overcome any societal/personal roadblocks and cultural conditioning that might keep them from enjoying the life of their dreams. Step by step, Robbins and McClendon show how to reprogram the mind in minutes to eliminate fears and phobias, fuel the body with renewed health and energy, dramatically improve relationships, and become a persuasive communicator.

Chioma Obaro

The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

The Magic of Thinking Big gives you useful methods, not empty promises. Dr. Schwartz presents a carefully designed program for getting the most out of your job, your marriage and family life, and your community. He proves that you don't need to be an intellectual or have innate talent to attain great success and satisfaction, but you do need to learn and understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there. 

Habeeb Jaiyeola

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates

In her book, Melinda tells the stories of the inspiring people she’s met through her work all over the world, digs into the data, and powerfully illustrates issues that need our attention―from child marriage to gender inequity in the workplace.” ― President Barack Obama

Tosin Labeodan

My Participation: An Autobiography by Bisi Akande

Bisi Akande’s book mirrors life and its linear plot structure. It opens with tales of Akande’s birth and his tentative steps as a child; it ends with the mournful account of his wife’s death and burial with a grieving gathering of friends and foes. Despite its shortcomings,Akande comes across in the book as an excellent, even dangerous, keeper of private and official records.

Tolu Adeleke

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Becoming is the memoir by former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, published on November 13, 2018. Described by the author as a deeply personal experience, the book talks about her roots and how she found her voice, as well as her time in the White House, her public health campaign, and her role as a mother.

Rukaiya El-Rufai

My Autobiography by Sir Alex Ferguson

Ferguson says that he saw Manchester United "change from a conventional football club to what is now a major business enterprise and he never failed to move with the times."

Akinyemi Akingbade