The 13 Books That Made Me A Multimillionaire (Other Books Are A Waste Of Time)

I've read over 50 books a year for over 10 years, and I'm going to be honest with you. Most of them are a waste of time. I don't think you should read most business books. They got catchy titles. They have 10-step frameworks. They have tactics that would work maybe in 2016, but they kind of stop working by the time you finish a chapter. But there are some books that can genuinely change how you think because it's not teaching you tactics, it's teaching you how humans work. How people decide, how people operate, and how history repeats itself. Business is not one skill, in my opinion. It's a sum of many skills combined together to make you money. Today, I'm going to share with you 13 books that changed the way I think and helped me build two multimillion-dollar businesses. And in my opinion, they're worth more than any kind of trend report or marketing playbook. They really change who you become. They're gonna make you better not only at one thing, but at everything you do. This is not only a reading list. This is what you need to master the game of business. And in a lot of ways, life as well. So let's go. Before we begin, two quick things. Number one, welcome to the studio. We're here in our new studio in Sydney, Australia. I'm here with Josh behind the camera who's running video and helping us produce all our new episodes. We're upping our game so that you can up your business game as well. With each lesson. Number 2, the books I'm gonna share with you today, some of them I read on my Kindle, some of them I like to read on physical, and I also like audiobooks as well. So I'll give you some recommendations on which format to use for each book because some of these are really good for that format, like for audio or for Kindle. I'll explain as we go to each book. Let's start with book number 1, "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This book is, Really, really important. Not because it's going to teach you some sort of marketing tactic, but it tells you how to plan for the future because you cannot predict the future. And part of business is being able to do that, being able to build your business for today, but also for tomorrow and the years to come. What makes this book so important is that it highlights that the events that change everything in the world, the financial crashes, the pandemics, The technology shifts that happen, like AI. Uh, the moment that it reshapes the industries overnight. A lot of these moments are hard to predict. They come outside the range of what you thought was possible. So how do you prepare yourself? And that's what this book is all about, is that a lot of times we think that the unlikely is never going to happen, but the unlikely happens all the time. And a lot of people just roll the dice in life and not prepare for these black swan events. Now, when I say prepare, I'm not talking about worrying and having a bunker. I'm talking about the fact that you can capitalize on these moments that a lot of people do not expect, whether it's COVID, which is a black swan, or the 2008 financial crisis. That's a black swan. Or even the internet when it launched back in the day. That is a black swan event where people just didn't see this coming. In my opinion, this book is a must-read because you need to be prepared for all the contingencies in your business, not to worry, but to feel secure that you have prepared. Some of you know I love playing poker, and if you play poker, you know that pocket aces is the best hand. But pocket aces, even though it should win most of the time, statistically it is the best hand every single time, but seldomly it will lose. And that's a black swan event. And what you learn by playing poker a lot is that black swan events happen all the time. So you got to be prepared to sometimes take the losses. Ooh, I love this next one. The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Here's a question that you should really, really think about because it terrifies every successful business owner. What if you're doing everything right, exactly what you're supposed to be doing, but your business still gets crushed, still gets killed and goes out of business? That's the central argument of The Innovator's Dilemma. Great companies fail not because they're badly managed or they don't do a good job. It's because they're managed really well. They continue to do what works for the business. But unfortunately, what works today is not going to always work tomorrow. This book is all about what you need to do to work on your current business, but also work on your second business, which is the business you will become. And I find this fascinating because what I have found in business and in life and the fact that You'll notice that we're in a new studio, is that if you don't change, if you don't evolve, if you don't become something new, it's very, very easy for you to die as a business. The masters at this are Apple, Apple Computers. They are in the habit of constantly cannibalizing their current products. They innovate and replace their old products as fast as possible. So, for example, when the iPhone came out, they cannibalized their best-selling product. Product, which is the iPod. Right now, why do they do this? Because if they don't do it, their competition will. The next book is Influence by Robert Cialdini. Influence is one of the OG books on persuasion, on communication, on how to work with other people. This falls under the umbrella of everything in business: sales, marketing, communication in general. Essentially, every sale you make in your business, every negotiation you win, every partnership that you build with a vendor or even somebody that's going to market your business for you. It all depends on understanding how and why people agree to things. How do people actually get on your side? And Cialdini spent years studying the philosophy of persuasion and understanding how to influence people and distills it into this book. I actually find it incredible that we have access to this book. It's like an absolute game changer. There are classic rules that if you follow them, you will succeed in business. Things like reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking and trusting somebody, scarcity. All these things are taught in depth in this book. And these are not manipulation practices. These are understanding how human beings operate and understanding how you can operate knowing how people operate, if that makes any sense. The point here is that you need to understand How to win when people are on the fence, when people are not sure about you. How to make sure that you quickly build a relationship with them so they understand that you have their best interest in mind. This book gives you an operating system of how human decision-making is done. And whether you know this or not, this is happening. Now, I highly recommend that you read this book to understand these invisible forces. A lot of this sounds a little bit vague, but he makes it super clear so you understand with every human interaction you have in business, that you can understand how to win them over, how to make sure they win and you win. My next book is Super Communicators by Charles Duhigg. I had the pleasure of meeting Charles. We had him here on the podcast. You should check out that episode. We'll link to it in the description. But most people think they're good communicators. They think, hey, I've been talking all my life. I should know how to talk, right? No, I used to think I was a great communicator, given the fact that I've published over 2,800 episodes of this podcast. But I had a lot to learn through this book. In this book, Duhigg's research shows that people who connect most effectively are the ones that do something very specific that you can actually learn so that you can connect with other people at a very deep level. And that connection is everything. When you feel like you're connected to somebody and they feel like they're connected to you, you immediately gain their trust. After reading this book, I started asking myself a lot of practical questions that allowed me to connect with people a lot faster. Questions like, is this a practical conversation that I'm having with this person, or is this an emotional one? Or maybe it's a social one. Most miscommunication happens not because the words that you're saying are wrong, but because the two people that are having the conversation are having two different conversations without realizing it. But the question that he puts in front of you is that, are you thinking about the type of conversation you're having before you have it? Because your approach is going to change completely. Now, this book has helped me so much in business because communication is the mother of all skills. I'm communicating constantly, whether it's on the podcast, whether it's me negotiating deals, whether it's me figuring out if I wanna invest in a company, or even hiring or bringing on new people on my team. How do I communicate the right way to make sure that they feel heard, but also that I feel like I'm getting my message across and connecting with them at a deep level. The next book is The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. Robert Greene is one of my favorite authors. Robert, if you're watching this, please come on the show. I love him so much. He's one of my top 5 favorite authors and he doesn't mess around. When he goes into a topic, he goes deep. Now, Cialdini teaches you how to decide and Charles Duhigg teaches you how to connect. Robert Greene really teaches you how people behave. And this is really a must-read for any human being, because if you don't understand who these people are that are around you every day, how they operate, how they speak, why they speak this way, how they feel, how they think, it's going to be very hard for you to succeed in life. It really pulls the current and also pulls back from history, psychology, philosophy, and teaches you how people just are very, very basic. OK? And there's a set of rules and there's a set of patterns that you can observe that he explains in detail in this book. Most people spend their entire lives trying to acquire painful lessons about how people work. I know I did through painful trial and error and messing up and breaking relationships up and all that kind of stuff. Right? So I'm encouraging you to skip the trial and error and pick up Robert Greene's book, The Laws of Human Nature. Hey, if you're getting value from today's episode, hit subscribe. Not only to support the show, but because we have an upcoming episode that I don't want you to miss. We're going to go really deep on how Netflix grew to a $366 billion beast. I'm going to share with you all the secrets that the CEO shares publicly, and I've dug it all up so that you can go ahead and implement the same strategies in your own business. The moment I learned some of this stuff, I was able to make some significant changes in my own business and saw some major, major results. So hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode when it comes out. My next book recommendation, it's actually a few books, it might seem a little odd, but just hang with me for a moment, alright? I'm talking about religious texts. I know this sounds strange, but, and you might think, Omar, what does religion have to do with building a great business? Well, The fact of the matter is religion has influenced how people think, operate, believe for centuries. These are not just spiritual documents. They are one of the most comprehensive records of human philosophy, ethics, psychology, social organizations that have ever been assembled. These religious texts, whether the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, or the Vedas, these books have shaped most of human life. The way people live their lives. And still till today, even when people are not practicing, these philosophies, these traditions are still embedded in our societies. I've always been fascinated about how humans work. And even though I majored in education in my university days, I minored in comparative religion because I was fascinated by this idea of religion, about people having faith, about people following a doctrine. And I got to be honest, those years of study serve me to today. Right? Not because I agree with everything that's in these texts, but because I understand why people believe what they believe. OK? And it's a very powerful tool in business to understand where people are coming from. You can't serve people at a high level without understanding what they value. And that's really what religious texts share with you, what people value most really shapes who they are directly or indirectly. I recommend studying these texts, and I actually recommend studying all the texts that you can get your hands on, not just the religion that you follow or grew up in, but because you'll realize that most people are the same, right? Most people believe in pretty much the same values, and the traditions, the rules that might differ, but at the end of the day, people have a moral compass that they follow based on what they were handed down from their parents or what they sought after. The next book is On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. Seneca wrote this book roughly 2,000 years ago. All right. And as you can see, it's a tiny book. You can actually read this in one sitting. It's not too bad at all. It's, you know, less than 100 pages, about 85 pages. And it's kind of like the opposite of this book. But the point here is, is that this book will teach you so much about what's important, what you need to value. Now, even though the book is called On the Shortness of Life, the core argument of this book is that life is not short. We make it short by wasting it on the wrong things. Pretty deep. Most people, they spend most of their valuable years on busyness that creates no meaning. Sticking to a job just because it's safe or being in a relationship just so they're in a relationship, even though it's not fulfilling. Seneca argues that time is the only resource you cannot recover. You cannot renew. In fact, money can be lost and be earned again, but time that is spent is gone forever. So whatever you decide to do today, this week, this month, you got to make it something that counts. Because once that month is over or whatever time period, it's gone forever. And the entrepreneur who internalizes this genuinely feels motivated because they feel like, hey, The time is now. I will die, so I might as well go for it. I got to be honest with this short book that took me about 2 hours to read, taught me more than any online course. Not because it's filled with great tactics and tips, but it reshaped my mind. It rewired my mind to really take advantage of every day. The next book on the list is The Obstacles Away by Ryan Holiday. This book really helped me through a particularly tough time when I was trying to grow up in our new software company. We were stagnant. We were just not moving the needle. And I realized that that obstacle, that challenge is what I needed. I needed to get through that challenge to become who I needed to become so that I can be the entrepreneur I need to be to pull off the numbers and the success that I wanted. Now, if you know anything about Ryan Holiday, he is a big student of stoicism. Most of his books are rooted in that philosophy. Holiday's taken a lot of the core principles of stoic philosophy and made it practical in modern life. The central idea of this book is that the obstacle is not in the way, it is the way. Okay? Now what does this mean? Well, like I mentioned, I was struggling at a period of time in my business at Webinar Ninja. Now, we were doing okay, we were roughly $300,000 to $400,000 in revenue, but I was really trying to hit that million-dollar revenue mark, and I just couldn't hit it. I was hitting a ceiling. And in this moment, I read this book. I actually read this book on my honeymoon. And when I read it, I realized that I need to go through this challenge because if I was good enough to have a million-dollar revenue business, I would have it already. But I don't. I need to become that person first. I got to embrace the obstacle. I got to embrace the challenge, learn from it so that I can transform myself and be the person that can pull off a million-dollar business. You know, one of my favorite parts of the Rocky movies, if you know anything about me, I love Rocky. But my favorite part of Rocky is the training montage when he's suffering, right? Because it makes it all worth it. You understand that that's what it takes to become a champion. Now, one of the best books on money that I've read is a book by Morgan Housel, and it's called The Psychology of Money. This book is not about spreadsheets. It's not about budgets. It's not about how to save money on lattes. Okay. It's about how people think about money. What I love about this book is that most business books, most money books tell you about what to do with money, what to invest in, how to save, all that kind of stuff. This one tells you why you do what you already do with money. OK? And the answer is almost never rational. One of my favorite chapters, one of the first chapters is called Nobody's Crazy. OK? You might think people are crazy for buying lotto tickets. But in their world, it's their only way of getting rich. And you can't really judge the way people think, especially when it comes to money, because everybody's circumstance is different. The point is you need to look at your circumstance. You got to look about what you believe about money and why you believe it and analyze it and maybe start changing it. Our relationship with money is shaped by when we grew up, the time period. It could be like a depression or maybe a recession in the economy. It's also based on what we expect, how we grew up in our family, what we were taught by our parents, the emotional associations we've built over the decades when it comes to money. No one really understands what scripts are going on their mind until you start questioning them. And one of the things that you learn in this book is that when it comes to money, investment, business, no one does any of those things rationally alone, right? There are some emotions involved when it comes to money. It's a very, very, I would say, a hot topic, especially when, you know, people have these discussions with family, with friends. A lot of people don't want to talk about it because it strikes a lot of emotions. It brings up a lot of emotions that maybe they don't want to feel. Morgan Housel has done a great job with the book because most money books are pretty boring. And this is actually quite interesting. It's actually a page-turner, in my opinion. I couldn't put this book down. I encourage you to read this book to understand your own financial behavior, as well as how to change it. You know, I realized I had some scripts in my own head that I didn't fully recognize. You know, some of the things like I grew up as a young kid from an immigrant family. My parents immigrated from Egypt to the US. We didn't have a lot of money. And somewhere along the line, I really believe that, you know, I didn't deserve to be wealthy. I just thought that, you know, I should just maintain the financial level of what my parents had and that's safe and that's what I know, and I had to challenge those thoughts so that I can break free from those ideas and not only make more money, but also be more in my life and do more interesting things. This book is one of the most influential books I've ever read in my life. It was a real gut punch for me. It's called "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman. Four thousand weeks. That's roughly how long a human life lasts. Now, the subtitle of this book is "Time Management for Mortals." If you're a productivity junkie, if you're somebody who's like, "I wanna optimize every minute of the day so I can get more done and be more efficient and be more successful," you need to read this book, okay? 'Cause that was me, and it's still me to some degree. Now, what I mean by that is that every productivity book out there, every productivity hack or system or video you see on YouTube, you know, it's all about trying to get more done, try to get more done, how to get more done with less time, all that kind of stuff. And Oliver Burkeman believes that this is a flawed premise. Premise that you should not be optimizing to get more done. You should be optimizing to get more of what's important done. You cannot get everything done. In fact, more work begets work. So the point here is, is that you have to understand that every action has a consequence and you need to take action on things that actually are going to be aligned with the goals in your life, what you want to get done. It really forces you to focus. So the first thing this book convinces you of is that you cannot get everything done. Drop this idea. Okay? You're not an infinite being with infinite time. No. Okay? There's a path that you could take that will have a more meaningful impact on your life. And it's not about doing more. It's about choosing ruthlessly what matters most and letting go of everything else. That letting go is what's most important. Now, I found that focus and this philosophy has really helped me in my life and my businesses because I get to choose my sacrifices. I get to say to myself, hey, these are the things I'm gonna cut outta my life so therefore I can be able to succeed in the things that matter to me. So for example, when Nicole and I were trying to grow our company, Webinar Ninja, our software company, so that we can be big enough to be acquired, which we did in 2024, we decided that we're going to focus on only 3 things. 3 things and everything else will be sacrificed. Number 1 is family, our personal relationship, our intimate family like parents and siblings and close friends. Number 2 was our health, because without your health, you got nothing. Can't get up in the morning, can't get to work. It's going to be very hard for you to succeed. So your health is a priority. So exercise, eating well, that was priority number 2. Number 3 is the business. We wanted to go all in and make sure that we focus on the business so that we can Have no regrets. Say that we tried our best and we don't leave anything behind. Keep all the chips on the table. And luckily, it worked out. Now, what's good about this is that you are empowered to choose your own sacrifices. You choose what you're going to not focus on. It's very clear. If it's not one of those 3 things, for us, it was 3, then I just don't do it. It's an easy no. So you, the entrepreneur who's chasing growth at all costs, this is a must-read. This is necessary reading because it's going to make you question things you need to question, like what are you building this for? Why? What does this mean for you? What's the meaning behind it? Right. And is this life, this sacrifice, this process of growing your business worth it? And what is it going to cost you in exchange? If you're happy with that exchange, go for it. The next book is How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. I've recommended this book on the show so many times. I've reread this book 3 or 4 times minimum. And I got to say that this is a Very enjoyable read, but it's going to teach you a lot about what it takes to be successful in business. Felix Dennis is a media empire mogul. He was worth over $750 million and he started with nothing. No college degree, no connections, no inherited wealth. Okay. He's the guy that's behind Maxim magazine and a lot of PC magazines and cashed out before magazines were a thing of the past. This book is actually pretty funny. He's— Actually a funny guy and cracks some really good jokes throughout the chapters. The lesson that changed my thinking permanently when it comes to business is the concept of ownership. It's not one of the most important things. It's the only thing that matters in business. How much you own of anything, whether that's an investment, whether it's your own business, whether it's even your own time, right? How much do you own of your life? If you want to build real wealth, you must own whatever you're building. This is 50 years of experience distilled into one book. No alternative motive. Nothing else like it. I got to say, this book is really fun to read, like I mentioned. But I got to say that the reason why I love this book so much is because it's so honest about the lessons he's learned along the way as an entrepreneur. The next book is The Courage to Be Disliked. This book is written as a dialogue between a philosopher and a student. And it's an easy read because it basically reads like a screenplay. And it pulls from the work of Alfred Adler, which is a contemporary of Freud, if you know a little bit about psychology and history. This is one of my favorite books, and it's, I think, sold over 10 million copies up to date. It says 3 million on the COVID but I think it's now 10 million. It's insane how impactful this book is. What is this book about? It's about your past does not determine your future, but the way you interpret the past does. And how you choose to interpret it will affect your future. For entrepreneurs, the chapter that matters the most is about the courage to choose your own path, even when the people around you disapprove. This is essential because you have to understand, and we'll talk about this in a future episode, Only you know what's best for you. Everybody that gives you advice around you is giving advice through their own filter. For example, your mom might give you advice. She loves you. She wants what's best for you. But she is giving you advice based on her own experience in life, based on what she knows. And that might be different from what you know and your experience. So understand that sometimes you're going to go down a path, I would say, often in your journey as an entrepreneur, you're gonna go down a path and people are not gonna like it. They're gonna actually really resist it. They're gonna really hate it. They're gonna say, "Hey, you changed. Why are you like this? Why are you dressed this way? Why are you doing these different things? Why are you not going out with the guys anymore?" These are signals that people just don't like who you've become. But you have to remember, you have to change in order for you to get different results in your life. And if you want better results, you gotta become something better. But better is a form of change. Building something real almost always requires disappointing someone else. And this book teaches you how to make peace with that. Last, but of course not least, "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. I read this book about 15 years ago. I reread it recently because it's still impactful today. Here is one sentence that will make you want to read this book immediately. Most of us live two lives. The life we live and the unlived life we would love to live, okay? And between these two lives stands something called the resistance. Resistance is a phrase that Pressfield has coined, and it's the invisible force that stops you from doing the work you know you should be doing. I'm talking about procrastination, self-doubt, distraction, perfectionism, all these are forms of resistance. And here's the crazy thing about the resistance. It's most powerful precisely when the work in front of you is most important. When you need to get it done. This is when it really comes and shows you its fangs, okay? The solution is not to wait until you feel like it, okay? That's not the solution. The solution is to sit down and do the work anyway. Is to look that resistance in the eye and say, "You're not taking me down today. I'm going to do what I got to do regardless of how I feel today." Because what's going to happen is as you start doing it, you're going to start feeling better about it. You're going to feel more confidence. You're going to feel proud of yourself and you're going to start doing it regardless every day. Because every day you do this, it gets easier and easier every single day. Like any professional, you're going to have to grind out some moments. Some things are not just a walk in the park. Some things are not always fun. Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do. And that's the difference between a professional and an amateur. This is a short book, but it has changed so many lives. I highly recommend it if you're building any kind of business, any kind of product, you're writing, you're reading, you're creating a YouTube channel, you're creating, you know, a piece of art, you know, which is any kind of business, in my opinion. You could read it in a weekend and it will make all the difference. So here's the list one more time. The Black Swan, because the future is unpredictable and you need to build for that. Number 2, The Innovator's Dilemma, innovate and evolve or you will die. Next, Influence, because understanding how people decide is the foundation of every sale, of every transaction in your business. Next, Super Communicators, because connection is a skill that most people are doing wrong. Okay, I want you to get it right. Next book, The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene, because knowing what drives people changes everything for you. The next one was a cheeky one that has several books in there, but religious texts, because understanding what people believe is how you serve them at the highest level. Next book, On the Shortness of Life by Seneca, because time is the only resource you cannot recover. On the same kind of stoicism topic, The Obstacle Is the Way, because your challenges are not the interruptions in your journey. They are the journey. That's what makes you who you are and who you'll become. "The Psychology of Money" because no one does business or makes money with just a rational mind. "Four Thousand Weeks" because a finite life demands finite choices. And most people are making too many choices. They need to just choose what's important. "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis because 50 years of experience With No Agenda deserves your full attention. It's a lot of fun and it's going to teach you a lot about what it takes to become wealthy. The Courage to Be Disliked, because building something requires real disappointment of people around you. How to handle that, how to navigate that internally, externally is really going to help you. And lastly, The War of Art, because work does not do itself, right? You have to do it despite the fact there is this thing called the resistance that's going to hold you back. It's real and you need to be aware of it and you need to beat it every time it shows its face. That's the list. No shallow tactics, no frameworks that become out of date, you know, 2 weeks later. This is the type of knowledge, these are the type of books you need to read to really become something new, something that you need to become to achieve the things that you want. I hope this episode was helpful. I hope this list was helpful. By the way, if you want to take a look at the books that I've read, get a summary and get a review of each book, I've read a lot of books and I've put them on our website. Go to 100mba.net, uh, and on the navigation you'll see book reviews and you can click it and listen to my book reviews, uh, my must-read episodes over the years. If you want to continue learning, I want to recommend an episode that we recently published that you can just scroll back in whatever app you're using. It's called 10 Low-Cost Purchases Under $200 That Changed My Business. Some of these purchases are less than a cup of coffee and have given me an incredible return on investment. So go ahead and check out that episode. And if you made it to the end of the episode, you're my kind of person, you're a completionist, you're somebody that actually cares about learning and growing. I love it. I'll see you in the next one. I'm cheering for you. Take care.