From early school days, we are taught to read books and books are your best friend. As we grow older, our interests slowly start to shift towards other activities and reading becomes a mere pastime. Even if you love to travel, you can read some books that can change your life. Here are five books that you must read if you are a travel addict.

1. The Beach The beach is a great novel depicting the story of a man called Alex Garland, who is a British backpacker. The story revolves around the man’s search for paradise on Earth. If you are not interested in traveling but loves reading books then, you should pick up this novel and start reading it. By the time you will finish reading this novel, your perspective about travelling might have changed.

This novel has inspired many students to fly to the Far East and start their own search for paradise on Earth. It also highlights the benefits of travelling and the escape it offers from your daily hectic routine. Don’t miss out on this great novel by Alex Garland.

2. The Looptail The Looptail is a fascinating story by Bruce Poon that comes from his personal adventure as he narrates his first-person account. In this book, he tells how he gained entrepreneurial instincts to lay the foundation and grow G-Adventure, the the world’s most successful adventure travel company, which now operates more than 100 countries, on all seven continents, serving more than 100,000 customers every year.

In addition to this, there are some pearls of wisdom for business professionals and entrepreneurs as well as this team, e author shares how he managed his team, keep the employees engaged and keep your customers happy and satisfied.

3. Unlikely Destinations Did you plan to visit Dubai and luxury yacht charter in Dubai to have some fun and relax but you ended up somewhere else or got stuck? These situations do occur regularly and frequent travelers can easily relate to that but you can relate to such situations even if you are not a frequent traveler if you read this book.

It is a three in one book as it provides you business history, travel account and you can even consider it as an autobiography. The book shed light on the personal story of Maureen Wheeler and Tony Wheeler, who are the founder of Lonely Planet. It is a fascinating account of how the author turned their bumpy travel experiences into a world’s largest travel publishing company.

4. The Alchemist Had a childhood dream that you are still following and want to achieve? If yes, then there is no better book to read than Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. It is a story of a young shepherd boy in Egypt who tries to cross the Mediterranean Sea to fulfill his dream and reach Spain. He follows his heart, learns to go with the flow and understand the real meaning of life. No matter what your dreams are, you will surely find tons of inspiration after reading this book.

Here are my favorite lines from this book.

“If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man… Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”

5. Vagabonding Imagine living in the US and traveling to Dubai on your next vacation to enjoy luxury yacht rental in Dubai. Don’t let the long flight put you off. If you have taken long flights than this might not be an issue but if you are doing it for the first time. Vagabonding is one of the best books for first time traveler boarding a long flight.

After spending a decade on the road, Rolf, the author of this book has penned down this book. If you are looking for some inspirational quotes, useful insights or practical information, you should not miss out on this book. It covers all the bases from saving money on travel to planning the life on the road. You will learn valuable lessons that will help you enjoy even long term travel and you will never get bored of a particular destination.

Which is your favorite travel book and why? Did it changed your life? What change did it bring in your life? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below. We value your feedback and love to hear from you.

“To open a shop is easy – to keep it open is an art.” ~Chinese Proverb

Before I start let me tell you that I am one of the struggling Entrepreneurs who has failed massively. Out of 5 ventures, 4 of my initial ventures failed. And by fail, I mean I was on the verge of throwing myself off the building. But then one fine morning I got this idea for my 5th venture. I changed my branding approach and lucky I survived this venture. The only thing you need to start and sustain a business is persistence. When things are not going your way, that is the moment take some time off and empty your mind with some fresh ideas. And this is what I did. Let me share with you some tips that helped me build my brand from zero to million dollar brand with around 2,000+ customers.

1. Look for inspiration

As Austin Kleon puts it "Everything is a remix." Before you start the branding, you need to look for ideas that are already working. No need to experiment new things right from the start. To start off your brand look for people and brands who are successful in your niche. Adopt their habits. How they did it and what they stopped doing? If they are using some specific font on their website, why is it so? If their latest campaign is successful, what are the elements that clicked? The thing is, you might want to try new things, well that is okay. But even if you do try things, make sure you add your flavor along with the inspiration that you took from others.

2. Ask Questions

I took this habit from Richard Branson. In his book ‘Screw, it lets do it’ Branson mentions about doing this first thing in the morning. ‘For 45 minutes I meditate, I ask questions about why I am doing what I am doing.’ To make sure you are on the right track you need to adopt this strategy. With every brand strategy you build, you need to be very clear about what is the purpose of the strategy? How can it help your brand achieve some specific goal?

This simple process will help you gain some real insights about your brand and synchronize you with your brand's goals and targets.

3. Focus on the details

You might realize this later but I am warning you beforehand. No matter what you do, make sure you focus on ‘why of your business?’ Why exist in the first place? Brand your venture in a way that it creates a clear personality of your brand. From using fonts, to the content you are putting up. You are creating a brand personality that is the basis of your business. My friend Josh Davidson, Branex created his brand from scratch. In the year 2010 his brand Branex was about to go bankrupt but then something happened. While he was away on the vacation he came across this Ant who was carrying food for his family (probably). While Ant was busy making his way for the food, they meet another ant, they stroke their antennae on them to know about their identity and get information about food availability. On the next round, Ant didn’t follow that route. That is attention to details. Looking ahead of what is a time waster and how that time can be saved.

4. Print design is still alive

We live in a world where diversity is our greatest strength. We can try different thing and reach out as many people as we can. In doing so, you need to use every medium you can. Print design is still alive. You need to get some good content writer, best SEO and design the message you want for your audience. Every web design is the representation of your brand. The colors, the font, and the design itself. Make sure you stay consistent with the elements of your design and let the users recognize you with your brand design.

5. Maximize social media

Social media is one of the key successors when it comes to building a brand. Facebook alone recently surpassed 500 million members. Advanced targeting lets you narrow down your brand message and helps you to focus on things that matter most to your brand. Even social media channels have their own personalities. For instance, LinkedIn tends to imply professionalism, while Twitter is typically considered more fun and quirky.

The key to building a successful brand identity lies in developing a strong game plan as early as possible. By forming goals right from the start, you’ll be positioned right in the eyes of the potential customers. And if you play your cards right, that identity will be one that can grow and evolve with your company.