I read 1800 business books - these 10 will make you RICH

Welcome to the Growth Stacking Podcast. This is Dan Martell. A long time ago, I got myself in trouble. Ended up in rehab, and somebody wrote a book, a book on Java programming. And I found that book. Learning how to code became my new addiction. It filled a hole inside of me. And from that one book, I went on a journey to acquire knowledge. My dad did something really cool. He said, as long as you finish the book, you have an unlimited budget to buy the next book. And I've applied that to my life. I have an unlimited budget to invest in my knowledge. Today, I read every day. I think of it as my way of programming my mind. 10 pages is usually the minimum. And what I'm doing every time, I'm not just reading, I'm studying books. Cause I believe the words we read and the words we tell ourselves, the beliefs we have creates our futures. So I've read over 1800 books and I've had to distill it into these 10 books that will make you rich. The first book is Secrets of a Millionaire Mine. So fun fact. This book, back in the day came with a ticket to go to the event. And the reason why this book was so important to me, it was actually the first seminar where my brother and I invested in a coach, in a trainer, in actual education and ourselves. Now, what makes this book unique is that it really attacks the mindset that keeps us poor. And it's not financially poor. More than a lack of abundance, a lack of joy, a lack of growth, of understanding that if we want to have more, we have to become more. What I learned specifically from this book is one is your financial blueprint shapes your financial destiny. And everybody's got them. They probably don't even realize it. And what is the new blueprint you have to acquire? You got to think rich to become rich. The mindset matters a lot. The other one is that we invest in personal development and financial education so that we know how to receive the money. See, most of us, if we actually got a million dollars and we weren't millionaires, we would quickly lose it. And we have to learn how to act despite of fear, take bold financial action, see wealthy people constantly learn and grow. And this book set the foundation for me to learn the rest of them. So without this one, the other books wouldn't really make sense for me. Number two is one of the most popular books in personal development. It's Think and Grow Rich. Now, again, I don't read books. I study books. I've probably read this book about seven times. So why Is this book so powerful? Here are a few things that I learned. Number one is that desire is the starting point of all achievement. Most of us don't want to give ourselves permission to actually want more because we think for some reason that makes us not appreciate what we have. But but desire is required to move forward. The other one is faith in your abilities is crucial to success. If you don't have belief in your ability to succeed, you'll never get a penny more than you think you deserve. The concept of auto suggestions, speaking out loud what you want to achieve helped me in a big way to internalize my financial goals. The other thing is specialized knowledge is more valuable than general knowledge. A lot of people major in minor things. They, they know a lot about stuff that doesn't really move the needle. And what I decided after reading this book is becoming world class at a topic for me. It was software, it was startups, it's technology and finally persistence in efforts lead to success. You have to be consistent in your effort to be successful and that's how you will think and grow rich. Number three is seven habits of highly effective people. I just absolutely loved it. The things that I learned from this book. Two, just to name a few is number one, be proactive in your life and choices. See most people are reactive to the world. You want to be proactive. You want to play to win, not play not to lose. Huge idea. The other thing is begin with a clear end goal in mind. It is probably something I say every day. I'm always saying okay, at the end of the day what does this look like? If it's a 10 out of 10 I first really understood that concept in this book. The other one is put first things first, prioritize important tasks. And and it sounds so simple but too often people don't prioritize the important task first. The other one is think win win for mutually beneficial solutions. Learning to collaborate with other people, customers, partners. If you can figure out how to collaborate in a way where everybody wins, you'll make your life a lot easier. Seek first to understand then to be understood. This one saved me so many times where I was immediately like hot headed and like what went wrong and why is this person doing this? Versus now that I understood this concept I go into media and I go hey, can you help me understand this? This. That's the concept of understanding before you're understood. And those are just a small handful. If you have not read this, I can't recommend it enough. Number four is Dale Carnegie how to Win Friends and influence people. Not only did it sell 30 million copies, but this book has shaped me and how I interact with other people. Number one is to show genuine interest in other people. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. The other big idea is remember and use people's names. Often they're. Their favorite word is their name. Just say their name. It actually helps you remember it. It helps them feel seen and appreciated. It's just a simple strategy. The other one is encourage others to talk about themselves. If you want to get a partner, you want to get an investor, you want to get a new customer, ask them questions about how they started, what was challenging, how they overcame it. Be genuinely curious in others, and trust me, they will lean into what you've got going on. The other big idea is be a good listener and encourage others to talk about their interests. I'm very curious. If you meet with me, I'm gonna ask you way more questions than I talk. And the reason why is I already know what I know. Think about that. I have nothing to learn about me. I already know what I know, so why am I talking? When I get together with other folks, especially if they've gotten to a place that Inspire me, I'm Mr. Curious. I'm Mr. Asker. And it turns out a lot of the billionaires that I've had the pleasure of meeting, they're the same way. They're always curious and genuinely interested in things that are going on around them. And finally make feel important and do it sincerely. My favorite way to do this is to just find some aspect of their presence, their being, their kindness, and just give them a compliment. Just let people know, hey, I just want you to know, that thing you just did, it's really impressive. So what's funny about this is that many people feel that they want to say something, but they're scared that it's going to come off wrong. And I'm going to encourage you to just lean in. If you feel something, you see somebody do something awesome. Listen to the words in this book. Make sure other people feel important and do it in a sincere way. And that's how you'll win friends and influence people. Number five is an awesome book on sales. Nothing happens until somebody makes a sale. This book by Neil Rachman is awesome. It taught me so many things about sales. I used to be more of an introverted person. I like software and writing code because I didn't want to talk to anybody. Turns out that everything in life is sales, so it doesn't matter what you do in your life, you need to learn the concepts in this book. The first one that stands out that I remember is successful selling is about asking the right questions. See, people think salespeople, they just talk a lot and they pressure people. The truth is the best of the best. Lean back, ask questions to help guide the decisions of the buyer and make it their idea. That was a big idea. The other one is understand the customer situation. That's actually what speaker spin stands for. Situation, problem, implication and need payoff. If you understand those four things, that's where the opportunity to enroll them, to sell them, to invite them, to consider working with you all come from. The other one is focus on problem solving, not just product features. See the features unlock the benefits. They don't care how they get there, the tool, the vehicle, et cetera. They want the benefit that it's going to unlock. So you got to make sure you understand how to speak towards solving their problems problem not just the features of your product. And finally, you have to tailor your sales approach to each customer for every interaction. Every customer know that you have to be in there with them. You have to customize your conversation to meet their needs. And if you do that, you're executing on the spin selling process. Number six is for many people a bit of a controversial book. 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Now I'll tell you why this book matters to me is you need to understand how the world is not how you hope it would be so that you can understand the powers, the forces that may be playing against you in business. So a lot of things I've learned from this book, number one is power requires careful strategy and planning. So if you want to win in this world, you can't be loosey goosey. You have to have careful strategy and planning. The other one is learn to be subtle. You and indirect in your influence. See a lot of people that are too braggadocious too over their skis and their personality. They actually don't have a lot of influence. They might have a lot of notoriety. A lot of people might know who they are, but they don't actually influence people to take action. The other one is reputation is incredibly important. Protect it. My philosophy is reach and reputation to the degree that my reputation is positive and people that interact with me say good things. And then also there's reach for for that. That is actually the unlock for any one of your dreams and goals. The other big idea is use absence to increase respect and honor. So sometimes creating space actually allows people to see you through a different lens. For a lot of the entrepreneurs out there, you're too involved in every fricking meeting and decision. You gotta learn to let go and use space and absence to make that happen. And most importantly, master the art of timing in your actions. What I say is sequencing equals success. So understanding the right sequence, like a recipe, not the ingredients, will allow you to be successful. So you have to master that if you want to build and develop the 48 laws of power. Number seven, awaken the giant Within. It is one of the most influential books as it pertains to personal development. I mean, Tony Robbin is the goat undeniable. He's been doing this for 40 years. And I read this book in my mid-20s and it shaped my mind. So many things taking control of your mental and emotional state, understanding what that means, not having a victim mentality. Number two is decision. Shape destiny, not your conditions. If you can just find somebody else that's come from worse or the same that has achieved anything, that is just proof that your decisions will shape your future. The other one is set, clear, powerful and compelling goals. Most people are walking generalities. They don't set clear, powerful and compelling goals. And because of that, they'll never hit anything. The other one is develop and maintain a high level of energy. Your physical energy, your state, is a decision that you get to make. You want to master that and finally master personal and professional relationships. If you want to take your life to the next level and really unlock your giant within, you're going to want to read this book. Number eight is Getting Things Done by David Allen. This one for me is a game changer and I'll tell you why. It teaches you to organize your task and your thoughts neatly. See, most people are overwhelmed easily because they have a lot of things in their mind that they're trying to keep track of. And the truth is, is your brain was not designed to do that. You want to take everything in your mind, put it out in front of you so that you can work with it. This book is teaches you how to do that. The other thing is you want to do one thing at a time and focus. See, most people think that we can multitask. And the truth is, is we're not good at it at all. So you want to do one thing and focus on it. The other is make a list and keep track easily. So have a tool for writing things down. Have a list and track. Where are you at in that list? What do you have to remember? Always have a book Nearby. Every night when I go to bed, I have my journal sitting there. If I'm having a hard time sleeping, I'm writing things down. And because of that, I've always had incredible sleep scores on my aura. And finally, you want to take action steps, step by step, calmly. If you do that, you will learn how to get things done and move your dreams forward. Number nine is the Lean Startup by my friend Eric Rees. Now, fun fact, I actually met Eric in San Francisco before he ever published this book, when he was just going around speaking at different conferences about the concept of the Lean Startup. And then he eventually signed a deal to write it. Let me tell you this, this book changed the game for all startups in Silicon Valley and all businesses in the world because it showed entrepreneurs a completely different way to build companies. The big ideas in this book, I mean, there's so many. But the first one is startups must adapt and adjust quickly to succeed. It's all about pivots. We need to be able to make decisions and pivot quickly. The other area is validate business ideas through customer feedback. No business plan survives first contact with the customers. So you need to talk to your customers. The whole structure of the book is built around the build, measure, learn loop. And it's crucial for building your business. We always want to build something, measure it with the customers, look at the analytics and then learn and then feed that back into the next iteration. The other key area is focus on minimum viable product for early testing. You don't want to overbuild. Too often people overbuild their business. They build so many features into their software just to launch and that is a recipe for waste. And the other final idea that I think is so important that I've read in so many other books, but it really is crystallized in this one is continuous innovation is the key to long term success. So if you want to learn how to build a business and take shots on goals and learn and move quickly, then get the lean startup. Number 10 is such an important book for me and it's called the Innovator's Dilemma. As a software entrepreneur, as somebody that innovates, it creates technology, this really became the blueprint for building businesses. There was so many incredible lessons. And Clayton Christensen is not only a great author and mind, but he was also just an incredible person. I mean, his other books are also really great reads. And just the way he lived his life in general, he left a meaningful impact just outside of creating innovation or teaching people how to think about innovation. But the Big ideas that are going to help you is one that companies can fail despite good management if they ignore disruptive technologies. I mean, think of Blockbuster, BlackBerry, Kodak, all these companies essentially had market position number one and got disrupted because of technology. And disruptive technology often initially underperformed but eventually improves rapidly, meaning that it looks like a toy. Most people dismiss it. They think it's a fringe idea or it's too big or nobody would ever do that. When you think of ghetto blasters and then the Walkman and then the ipod, right? Like all these areas of innovation took something that most people would be like, nobody's going to want to walk around with a bunch of music. And then as the form factor got better, the innovation showed up. It disrupted whole industries. The other concept is that companies should invest in emerging technologies even if they don't meet current customer needs. And the reason why is you just want to be close to it. So for me, AI, crypto, whatever it is, Web three, you want to be close to the innovation and the technology so that you can figure out where that might show up in your product roadmap in your innovation so you don't get disrupted yourself. And finally, one of the biggest ideas is that organizational structures and their values can impede recognizing and responding to disruptive change. Some big companies just rest on their laurels. They just keep cashing the checks. They don't innovate, but. And then the newcomer, they come in with this new innovation. Just think about ChatGPT and Google. It came out of nowhere and all of a sudden Google's trying to respond to massive innovation in a space that they probably got flat footed on. You don't want that to be the case. This book will give you the framework to make sure that you're always innovating. Those are the 10 books that will make you rich. But if you want to learn how AI could make you a millionaire, click the video on the screen. I'll see on the other side. If you like this week's episode, be sure to visit itunes, leave a review that'll help us get in front of other founders just like you. And if you're looking for more resources and video trainings, be sure to check out Dan Martell. Two L's the Martell.com to subscribe. Keep up the hustle, keep stacking your growth and I'll see you in next Monday's episode. Peace. Grow Peace. Bye bye.