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, career starters, and families figuring out succession. Here's what's coming.

Stephen Shortt at Oxford Saïd Business School
For family businesses navigating succession
01
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 business owners, founders, and EO members
02
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.

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For school leavers and career starters
03
2027

Your Future Career

Everyone treats the choice on the CAO form like it's permanent, but nobody hands you a way to actually make it. Built on the IDEAL Career Framework and 40+ years of occupational psychology, Your Future Career replaces "follow your passion" with a structured process for finding work that fits who you are, not who you think you're supposed to become. Written for the student staring down results day, and for the parent or guidance counsellor trying to help without just repeating what they were told.

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