Books

Words that extend the work.

My books are built to serve the same people I work with on stage and in the room: founders, family businesses, and professionals ready for what's next. Here's what's coming.

Stephen Shortt at Oxford Saïd Business School
For business owners and founders
01
Forthcoming

The HAPPY Entrepreneur

On paper, the business is working. Revenue's up, the team's growing. But you can't remember the last day off that didn't involve your laptop, and the things that used to light you up now feel like line items on a to-do list. The HAPPY Entrepreneur applies the HAPPY framework directly to founders: why the ones who can't stop working are usually running from fear, not chasing passion, and how to know when it's time to jump to the next curve, before this one peaks and costs you the life you built the business for.

Get notified when it launches →See workshop details →
For family businesses navigating succession
02
Forthcoming

Build a Killer Family Business, Without Killing Your Family

Every family business eventually collides with the same unspoken question: who takes over, and does anyone actually want the answer? Stephen bought two businesses from his own parents, nearly walked away from one over the exact conflict this book is about, and built the 5 Ps of Successful Succession - Purpose, Pick, Prepare, Promote, Patience - from what it took to make it work instead. This is the book behind his flagship talk: the family constitution, getting compensation and fairness right, founder's syndrome, and what to do when someone needs to leave the business without the family falling apart too.

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For professionals who know something needs to change
03
Coming soon

Start Over After Forty

You have built a career, a reputation and a life that looks fine from the outside, and you have a growing sense that something needs to change, without knowing what or how. Start Over After Forty is a practical guide for professionals in their forties and fifties facing redundancy, burnout, or simply the question of what comes next. Built on the IDEAL Career Framework, it helps you work out what you are actually suited to, what transfers, and how to make the move without starting from zero.

Get notified when it launches →