Books I'm Reading to Steer My Work Toward Purpose

For most of my career, I worked to drive growth. More sales. More customers. More market share. Growth was the goal, unquestioned.

But lately, I've been asking: Growth toward what? And at what cost?

As I reimagine the next chapter of my career, I’m intentionally re-educating myself - challenging old assumptions and letting curiosity take the lead. Not for a quick pivot, but to better understand what kind of future I want to help build.

Here’s what I’m reading and why.

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REDEFINING WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

📖 Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth

This was the book that started it all.

When your whole career has been focused on scaling, reading about limits and boundaries feels almost subversive. This book offers a different lens: one where human wellbeing and ecological balance sit at the center of progress. It’s helping me question the logic of endless growth and imagine economies designed to thrive within planetary boundaries.

LEARNING TO WORK WITH NATURE

Some of my earliest memories are tied to land and food. I spent hours in my parents' entomology lab, looking at insects under microscopes. At wet markets with my grandmother, I learned how to tell which fruits and vegetables belonged to which seasons.

Recently, when a friend casually asked: "If nothing were holding you back, what would you do?" I surprised myself with how quickly the answer came: "I'd help make our crops more diverse, like the markets I remember with my grandmother."

That moment didn't change everything overnight, but it sparked something. I began to follow that thread, not as a project or job title, but because it felt true. I wanted to understand how land, food systems, and biodiversity are connected, and how they might shape the future of work and life.

📖 Wilding by Isabella Tree

This book tells the story of how letting go of over-engineering, over-controlling, and over-optimizing allowed a damaged landscape to regenerate itself. It's a powerful reminder that innovation can emerge through feedback, trust, and space - not control.

📖 Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow

Permaculture reminds me of a concept I first learned in Thailand "เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง" or sufficiency economy - living with enough. This book expands that idea into a larger scale, offering tools for regenerating land and rebuilding systems with care. It's not just about growing food, but redesigning how we live, how we share, and how we work.

FEEDING OURSELVES IN A CHANGING WORLD

📖 The Fate of Food by Amanda Little

For anyone thinking about the future of food, this is an eye-opening read. It explores a question that feels increasingly urgent: How will we feed ourselves in a world shaped by climate change?

HONORING ANCIENT WISDOM

📖 Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

When I first heard Tyson speak in Melbourne, he showed a nearly finished stone axe he had carved from another stone. It took him 12 months. The stone axe would be used in a tree carving ritual and won't harm the tree the way a metal axe would. It was a powerful example of how Indigenous knowledge holds both wisdom and restraint.

In Australia, Indigenous knowledge is increasingly recognized and honored. In Thailand, where I grew up, Indigenous peoples exist too, but their knowledge goes overlooked.I’m curious about what it means to honor and live alongside this knowledge today with humility, respect, and responsibility.

SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE

📖 Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

Impact work isn’t clean or linear. It’s messy, unpredictable, human. This book gives language to patterns and feedback loops I felt but couldn't always name.

📖 Small Arcs of Larger Circles by Nora Bateson

I attended Nora's warm data workshop to learn how the messy overlapping systems we live and work within aren't a problem to be solved, but living contexts to be tended. This book is a reminder that change doesn't happen in isolation, but in relationship.

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I don’t have it all figured out. But I’m paying closer attention, asking better questions, listening more deeply, and letting curiosity lead.

If nothing else, this season of learning has shown me that the way forward isn’t always about having answers. Sometimes, it’s about learning how to see differently.