People’s understanding of the world has long been influenced by stories. Reading, from classic tales to contemporary fiction, enables us to see new possibilities and comprehend the principles underlying significant change. Neuroscientists have discovered that by exposing readers to viewpoints different from their own, storytelling can foster empathy and even affect behavior. Motivated by that reality, we posed the following question to a panel of experts: “Has a book ever changed your understanding of what it means to bring about significant change? If yes, describe it and explain how it spoke to you.” Their thoughts demonstrate how literature still serves as a guide for morality, purpose, and growth in the modern world.
Editor’s Note: The following reflections were contributed by professionals sharing how timeless stories have influenced their personal and professional growth. Each perspective represents the author’s own experience and interpretation, offered to highlight themes of perseverance, ethics, and development.
Small Moments Shape Lives in Parenting Beyond Measure
Reading Parenting Beyond Measure completely changed my perspective on what it means to make lasting change in the home. The book stresses the need to stay present, cultivate real connections, and embody empathy in children. As a father, it made me realize that the greatest influence I can make is usually in the small, mundane moments, how I listen to my kids, how I confirm their emotions, and how I am kind in times of difficulty. Leahy’s view made me be mindful of my time and effort in building a home life that allows for emotional development and resilience.
This philosophy has shaped how we organize CanadianParent.ca. In addition to offering advice and information, we seek to offer tools that facilitate parents in forming stronger, more compassionate relationships with their children. Change, I came to understand, tends to start in the microcosm of our families. As children become adults with a sense of being heard and believed, the ripple affects their schools, neighbourhoods, and eventually society. This book reminded me that real change isn’t always about grand gestures; it’s about being consistent, showing compassion, and modeling behavior that we wish to see exemplified in the next generation.
Cory Arsic, Founder, Canadian Parent
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Mandela’s Patience Transforms Business Leadership Approach
One book that really shifted my perspective on creating meaningful change was Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Reading it as a managing director in the construction industry gave me a different appreciation for patience, resilience, and the power of consistency. Mandela’s story reminded me that real change is rarely about quick wins. It is about holding your ground, sticking to your principles, and keeping a vision alive even when the odds are stacked against you. That resonated with me because in business, especially when you are leading teams and working with manufacturers and customers, you cannot afford to cut corners. Change takes time and it requires people to believe in what they are doing.
What struck me most was his ability to compete with himself, not just others. That really aligned with my own outlook on life. I am very competitive, but at the end of the day, the goal is to be a better version of myself than I was yesterday. His ability to balance humility with determination has stayed with me. It reminded me that leadership is not just about driving results, it is also about inspiring trust and proving that you are in it to win it.
Rebecca Bryson, Managing Director, BTE Plant Sales
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Overlooked Investments Create Sustainable Financial Opportunities
Reading The Innovator’s Dilemma gave me a new lens as a finance leader when thinking about how we fund projects. I used to assume the most impactful deals were the biggest ones, but the book showed me that focusing on underserved areas can actually create long-term stability and opportunity. For example, I once worked with a smaller multifamily development that many overlooked, and it turned out to be one of the most sustainable investments we supported.
Edward Piazza, President, Titan Funding
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Proactive Steps Build Custom Solutions for Clients
For me, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey really reframed how I see change. It pushed me to think about proactive impact instead of waiting for things to shift on their own. At work, that looked like pressing past the standard insurance options and building customized benefits packages when clients faced unique financial stress. From my experience, the most meaningful changes come from small, consistent steps that empower others to feel more secure about their choices.
James Inwood, Insurance Broker, James Inwood
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Systems Thinking Drives Lasting Organizational Change
Peter Senge’s the Fifth Discipline changed my thinking about how to achieve real change from impactful, individual actions to understanding a system that leads to sustained transformation. Most change initiatives fail because they deal with the symptoms, not the underlying causes, and that’s the point of this book. This is true also of Riderly’s global expansion, the challenges in other markets are cultural, regulatory and operational and need a systemic solution. Change is at leverage points — where small acts of a very specific kind can lead to fundamental shifts in a complex system vs changing bits and pieces back again, which merely recycles problems. Senge advocates that teams must shift the mental model of both problem and solution, rather than simply adding more process or technology to overcome assumptions. My work in international operations taught me that real change happens through systems thinking and reinforcing loops, not by plugging any short-term holes. The book’s emphasis on personal mastery and shared vision provides a foundation for flexible organizational capabilities. Reformers should ask themselves whether their actions are part of a system, and they need to focus on leverage opportunities that can lead to systemic change rather than factors which are isolated islands that cannot scale. We need to understand what systems are driving existing results, and to find the places where we can intervene with leverage points for long-term change rather than short-term gains.
Carlos Nasillo, CEO, Riderly
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Mistakes Become Learning Cycles, Not Failures
For me, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries had a huge impact on how I saw change. It pushed me to embrace testing, refining, and sometimes even scrapping ideas quickly rather than sticking with something just because it was already in motion. At FATJOE, this mindset helped us stop treating mistakes as failures and start seeing them as learning cycles. I’ve noticed that adopting this approach makes innovation feel like a natural byproduct, not a forced effort.
Joe Davies, CEO, FATJOE
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Cultivate Change Capability Rather Than Mandate It
Indeed – L. David Marquet’s Turn the Ship Around! was a major influence on my decision to rethink the whole process of change. Before reading that book I saw change as something to be implemented: a route, a set of instructions, a top-down flow. Marquet changed the scheme for me. He gave the example that change of a long-term nature is not something to be brought to people – it is a change you nurture in them.
That change moved me away from the question “What do I need to tell people to do?” to “What capacity do I need to build so people can see, choose, and own the right course themselves?” On the ground level, it implied refashioning our decision flow, pushing the power higher up towards the people with the knowledge of the situation, and embracing errors as a source of information rather than a failure. The effect was not just quicker delivery – it was a culture of the organization in which the developed solutions coexisted with the feeling of inner responsibility for innovation among the employees.
I often use a quote from time to time that is quite straightforward and, in my opinion, the main truth: “Meaningful change is not a mandate you hand down; it’s a capability you cultivate.” If you were to summarize this into a catchphrase then it might be: nurture the capacity for change – don’t strive to make change visible by broadcasting.
Cache Merrill, Founder, Zibtek
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Listen First: Homes Represent Stories, Not Transactions
Absolutely. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was a game-changer for me. The way one habit, “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood,” changed the way I work with clients. Buying and selling houses is not just about getting the right house or the best price; it’s about knowing what “home” for an individual means, what their fears are, their dreams, what community makes sense, what schools are important, and what commute is acceptable.
By altering the way I listen, actually listen, to individuals’ deeper issues, I can assist them more effectively. When I’m selling a house or assisting someone in their search, I’m not merely presenting them with rooms or square footage. I’m assisting them in envisioning living, feeling secure, cozy, and proud. That book reminded me that real change occurs when you approach every home sale as part of the story of someone’s life, not a mere transaction.
Matt Ward, Team Lead, The Matt Ward Group
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Relationships Before Transactions Build Lasting Trust
One book that comes to mind is The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It shifted how I thought about creating real change, especially in real estate, where it’s easy to get caught up in transactions rather than people. On the job, I default to prioritizing relationships first because that’s where lasting trust really builds. The moment we standardized this mindset in my company, homeowners seemed more at ease and the whole process felt less stressful for everyone.
Carl Fanaro, President, NOLA Buys Houses
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Small, Purposeful Acts Create Powerful Social Change
Yeah, one book that radically turned my point of view on how to become a real, positive, social change was undoubtedly The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. The book is a novel about a kid who basically beats the odds to bring a change in the world, and thusly I found it very well connected with the work that we do at Sunny Glen Children’s Home. From the very book, I learned the lesson that even the smallest deeds, if they are led by a strong purpose and will, have the power to cause a positive change to spread like a ripple. In fact, it was a great reminder that, even if the difficulties in our mission to help the most vulnerable children may at times appear staggering, our every move, even the tiniest one, matters in bringing about a larger, more profound change. Moreover, it was an affirmation for the indelible idea in our minds that it is not making the change of the world by big and spectacular acts but consistent, empathetic, one-step-at-a-time practice that actually counts.
Belle Florendo, Marketing coordinator, Sunny Glen Children’s Home
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Create New Value, Don’t Just Improve Existing Ideas
Zero to One pushed me to look at innovation as creating something truly new, not just improving what already exists. In the AI space, I’ve seen plenty of tools that repurpose existing ideas, but the book challenged me to think differently about how brands adopt generative AI. At Xponent21, we built strategies around unique storytelling that search engines and people actually respond to. I think meaningful change happens when you stop chasing comparisons and start building what only you can.
Will Melton, CEO, Xponent21
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Measure Customer Value, Not Just Operational Output
Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri was another one that transformed my way of thinking. It made me move beyond output, such as the number of machines shipped or how fast parts are repaired, and rather ask: are we providing actual value? Are we fixing the proper problems for our customers in the markets we work in, like restaurants, hospitals, and event spaces?
Easy Ice’s model has a lot of service touchpoints already: preventive maintenance, filtration systems, repair, and customer support. But this book led me to more intimately question what “value” is in every situation. For a hospital, uptime could be paramount. For a corporate office or hotel, reliability and ice quality could be the differentiator. So meaning arises from aligning our offerings, processes, and KPIs to what most matters in every use case, rather than one size fits all.
The transition was away from a culture of “deliver what we offer well” and toward “listen more, measure what matters, and adjust where necessary.” That type of transformation feels more significant.
Travis Rieken, Sr. Director of Product Management, Easy Ice
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Daily Discipline Builds Success One Step at Time
Searching for wisdom in a business book is not my approach. The simple story that shifted my perspective on what it means to create meaningful change is the story of Noah and the Ark.
The reason that story resonated with me is simple: Noah didn’t wait for a miracle or a grant or a massive team. He built the Ark one disciplined, honest piece of wood at a time. The powerful idea that resonated with me is that the biggest, most difficult change is achieved through consistent, honest, daily labor, not a sudden, grand gesture.
This completely shifted my perspective on how to grow Achilles Roofing. I stopped looking for quick fixes or viral advertising campaigns. I realized that meaningful change in my business—like having a flawless safety record and zero callbacks—is achieved through small, non-negotiable daily habits. It’s built on checking every single anchor point, not buying new software.
The key lesson is that meaningful change is built slowly and carefully, and it requires tremendous discipline. My advice is to stop looking for a sudden miracle to fix your life or your business. Commit to the small, disciplined actions every single day, and the large result of a solid, trustworthy company will take care of itself.
Ahmad Faiz, Owner, Achilles Roofing and Exteriors
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Master the System, Not Just the Vision
A lot of aspiring changemakers think that change is a master of a single channel, like the inspiring vision. But that’s a huge mistake. A leader’s job isn’t to be a master of a single function. Their job is to be a master of the entire system.
The book that shifted my perspective was one focused on organizational systems and flow. It taught me to learn the language of operations. I stopped thinking about change as a grand marketing goal and started treating it as a series of small, manageable operational improvements.
It resonated because it showed that meaningful change doesn’t start with a vision; it starts with eliminating bottlenecks in the operations process. I realized the system resists change because of Systemic Operational Friction. The problem is not the idea; it is the process.
The impact this had on my career was profound. It changed my approach from being a good marketing person to a person who could lead an entire business. I learned that the best vision in the world is a failure if the operations team can’t deliver on the promise. The best way to be a leader is to understand every part of the business.
My advice is to stop thinking of change as a separate problem. You have to see it as a part of a larger, more complex system. The best leaders are the ones who can speak the language of operations and who can understand the entire business. That’s a system that is positioned for success.
Illustrious Espiritu, Marketing Director, Autostar Heavy Duty
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Small Daily Actions Lead to Measurable Progress
One of the biggest lessons I picked up came from Eric Ries’ book The Lean Startup. It taught me that meaningful progress doesn’t have to come from massive leaps, but it can come from small, consistent steps. My best tip is to break big goals into daily wins you can actually measure. Running a company can feel overwhelming, but when I focus on one small action each day, I stay motivated and keep moving forward, even if the daily progress is small.
Hershel Glueck, CEO, Hero Time
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