Audacious: A Bold Guide to Building the Life and Career You Want and Deserve

Readers should stop playing it safe and embrace risk to take their professional lives “to the next level,” according to this spirited debut manual from McDonald, CEO of Boss Women Media, an online career and educational resource for women. Contending that readers must shift from a fear-based comparison mindset to a growth mindset, she suggests taking such steps as celebrating personal strengths, expressing gratitude for small victories, and using others’ success as motivation. Women can then bring the growth mindset into the business world by creating strong networks of family, colleagues, and acquaintances; making successful pitches (it should sound more like a story); and using rejection to refine their game plan. Readers should also take care to leave room for the unexpected, McDonald writes, noting how her own faith has helped her seize on unexpected chances (“Often, it’s in the spaces we don’t plan for, the gaps we don’t fill, that miracles happen”). McDonald’s enthusiasm is infectious, and the lessons on how she built her company are mostly instructive, even if the lack of other supporting examples can make the scope of her advice feel somewhat limited. Still, Christians entrepreneurs will be energized. (Oct.)