There’s a misconception that success is the result of innate talent, dumb luck, or a magic formula. In The Specific Edge: How Sustained Effort Wins in Business and Life, Mike Wein argues that in reality, winners succeed through a combination of concentration and focus, the discipline to continually improve and the endurance to overcome obstacles.

The Specific Edge is a blueprint for the average person to harness the power of being specific. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, or building your career, Wien can help you discover your “specific edge.”

After 28 years of leadership experience at Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Citibank and Deloitte, Wien ditched corporate life to found the Specific Edge Institute, where he empowers clients to harness the power of being specific. He combines insights from his corporate experience with lessons learned on his journey as a world-class triathlete, having completed over 35 marathons and four Ironman Triathlon World Championships in the past eight years.

Today, people expect brands to do more, not just be more. In Activists Dare to Care: Brand Your Activism for Social Change, Marjolein Baghuis and co-author Christophe Fauconnier give insight into how millennials and an emerging middle class are growing a stronger sense of purpose, and how brands can keep up.

Baghuis and Fauconnier expand on this vision by showing marketers why they should take a lesson from activists if they want to be relevant and create engagement. Many brands have a point of view, but successful brands, like activists, excel by having a point of action.

This book is all about using the power of thinking and behaving like an activist to build the success of your brand, and turn it into a powerful catalyst for change.

Russ Kamis’ book, Aspects of Success: A Playbook to Get More Out of Life, is designed to help you live a happier, more satisfied and fulfilled life. Kamis combines his doctoral research in the psychology of well-being with his experience as a career strategist, CEO and executive coach. Aspects of Success provides scientific, time-tested and spiritually-supported behaviors that lead to success, however you define it.

Kamis’ book is printed in workbook format and contains a range of exercises specifically designed to help you become more holistically accomplished. His research shows that people focused on continuous personal development are better leaders, friends, spouses and parents. They get more done and are happier doing it, and this book highlights the behaviors that can help you live the life you want to live.

In Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful Conviction, authors Nikki D. Pope and co-author Courtney B. Lance share the poignant, funny and heartbreaking stories of 10 wrongfully convicted individuals who proved their innocence and were discharged from prison. These stories highlight experiences that kept their connection to the larger world in tact: when art, music and poetry lifted spirits, or when a meal brought comfort and joy.

Each story in Pruno also offers the perspective of a loved one explaining how they got through each day and what gave them hope while their family member or friend was imprisoned.

Pope and Lance are on a mission to help people understand that wrongful conviction can be significantly reduced or even prevented with specific systemic changes.

Much of the net proceeds from sales of Pruno will be donated to the exonerees featured in the book and with non-profit organizations that provide related services.

When golfers experience the “yips” — an unexpected inability to perform — they probably aren’t thinking about the crippling anxiety of the job search. But Charles McConnell has seen job-seekers experiencing the same yips for more than 20 years.

As President/COO of Stewart, Cooper & Coon, Inc., and founder of First Career Corporation and FindCareer.com, McConnell has led thousands of individual and group search meetings, reviewed countless resumes, and explored a range of employment situations for his clients. During that time, McConnell has discovered that many job-seekers aren’t aware of the obstacles in their path, but through honest introspection and intelligent preparation, job-seekers (and golfers alike) can create a successful job search or golf game and avoid yips.

While golfers will identify with the “yips” and other golf parlance used in Conquer Your Yips, McConnell’s unique blend of golf and employment advice is designed for anyone interested in conquering their phobias, be it on the course or in the employment marketplace.

Coming Home: The Journey from Heaven to Your Adopted Home, the first illustrated children’s book by Catherine Conley, tells the story of a child abandoned by her birth mother. The book is very personal for Conley, who, while president of Asia operations for a global consulting firm, adopted an abandoned newborn in Shaoyang City, China.

Conley’s book addresses questions that she believes her daughter will someday ask about her birth circumstances.

“‘Where did I come from?’ is a universal question that most children ask in their early years,” Conley says. “The answer to this question can be vastly more complex for adopted children.”

Conley combines theology with the nuances of her experiences working closely with Chinese executives. Circumspect in discussing the merging of careers as consulting executive and author, Conley says, “for me, the answer to most of the challenging questions today — professionally and personally — are spiritual in nature.”

Throughout his career as a Fortune 100 executive at Allstate and JPMorgan Chase, James Rosseau mentored younger professionals struggling with issues like career development and goal-setting. He creating peer mentoring sessions and, over time, developed an unofficial guide to tackle these challenges.

That guide grew into Rosseau’s book, Success on Your Own Terms: 6 Promises to Fire Up Your Passion, Ignite Your Career, and Create an Amazing Life, a straightforward-yet-personal guide for those seeking to understand their passions and achieve tangible results.

Rosseau shares six actionable techniques for developing a pattern of achievement, including embracing your passion, why progress trumps perfection and the importance of giving back.

Rosseau provides inspiration for those beginning their professional journey and those reinventing themselves, with a focus on creating a distinct plan for their best personal and professional lives.

Brands in today’s expanding luxury market face a major challenge: How can a luxury brand grow yet maintain the exclusivity to sustain the “luxury dream”?

Kapferer on Luxury: How Can Luxury Brands Grow Yet Remain Rare, the companion to Jean-Noel Kapferer’s book The Luxury Strategy, examines how rising demand from the middle class, especially in China, and the visibility of luxury goods on the Internet are forcing luxury businesses to re-examine their business models. As the sector becomes hot, Kapferer contends, the meaning of luxury can diminish and cross over into “fashion.”

Kapferer achieves a balance between marketing theory and real world situations in this collection of recent articles and essays, making this a relevant read for luxury executives, communications professionals and anyone interested in the luxury marketplace.