101 BEST: Missing Chapter

Todd Sattersten is the nerdiest business book nerd I know. We’ve been friends since the early business blog days. In blog posts and conversations, we bonded over biz books, debated the merits of biz books and formed a friendship that’s lasted over 20 years.

When Todd and Jack Covert published THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL-TIME in 2009, I took issue with them for not including the biz book that sparked my love for the game of business strategy. THE DISCIPLINE OF MARKET LEADERS (Treacy & Wiersema, 1995) became my “Rosetta Stone” and opened up new understanding to me for how a business must focus on one discipline (operational excellence, product innovation or customer intimacy) to find lasting success.

Of course, I decided to write the missing chapter to Todd’s book to make it the 100 & 1 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL-TIME. (Read the “missing chapter” highlighting THE DISCIPLINE OF MARKET LEADERS here.)

It’s 2025 and much has changed. I’m no longer a biz book junkie. However, Todd has flourished in the business book world. He’s now the head honcho at Bard Press and has published a new book, 100 BEST BOOKS FOR WORK & LIFE.

In this book, Todd brilliantly makes the correlation between business books and self-help books. He understands the best business books guide readers to manage companies better but also to become better versions of themselves.

Todd has identified 25 essential topics including creativity, mindfulness, leadership, purpose, influence, generosity, motivation, habits and more. Under each topic, he shares a few of the best books he’s read to help us do work and life better. With each book summary, Todd explains core concepts to help us think smarter about doing work/life differently to bring about better results. 100 Best Books for Work & Life is an incredibly useful guidebook.

HOWEVER… he didn’t include a motivation book that perfectly combines the biz book and self-help genres. THE WAR OF ART: Breakthrough the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (Pressfield, 2002) changed my life.

When I left the corporate marketing world of Starbucks and Whole Foods to become a self-employed marketing consultant, I suffered from massive bouts of doubt. I became stagnant and reluctant. From reading THE WAR OF ART, it became clear to me that I had become shackled by the invisible force known as “Resistance.” Pressfield put a label on what I felt and reprogrammed my mind to help me fight past my bouts of doubt to get shit done.

Consider the following the “missing chapter” from the renamed 100 & 1 BEST BOOKS FOR WORK & LIFE…