21 Books Guaranteed to Boost Wealth by 1,000%!

[Iwokeup]

So this is something that I've been meaning to do for a while. I've been reading business titles every since I found this forum (March 2014) and read TMF . And it usually comes to pass that when I'm looking for new titles to read/listen to (because I do a lot of driving for work), I still struggle to find books that will be good for me.

Anyway, here are (most of) the books that I have read over the last year.

I am only covering books that I have read & can intelligently comment on.

EDIT: Now ranked in some approximation of what I believe is their biggest value.

I cover what I thought about each, format (audio/paper/digital), target audience, how useful it was to me, and whether I have (or would) re-read it

Starred (**) titles are those that I would recommend to those wishing to get started on their own Escape From the Rat Race.

Each will be filled in as time allows.

Caveat Emptor!

1. (**) The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime, by MJ DeMarco.

• Brief Summary: You don't know what you don't know. You've been lied to for your entire life by gurus preaching the Work/Invest/Retirement mantra.
  
• My capsule review: Obviously, for me, this was the book that started it all. I had been flailing about in the Dave Ramsey world of self-abnegation and "maybe start a little business someday" world of lowered expectations. Then I read this book, learned CENTS (or CENTS) and it totally changed the way that I look at the world. Business went from "useful but probably a necessary evil" to "the only practical way to look at getting ahead in life, and a positive one to boot." It changed my life, my wife's and my family's lives and all of our perspectives. It's given us hope!
  
• Target Audience: Budding entrepreneurs, business owners who are struggling to succeed, and probably just about any company under $100MM.
  
• Format: Paperback
  
• Utility: Extremely useful. Dog-eared, highlighted, and bookmarked.
  
• Re-read?: Yes, multiple times

2. (**) Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

• Brief Summary: Get ready. Launch your business. Readjust later.
• My capsule review: Fantastic read and one initially recommended by @Kak (whose progress thread alone is reason enough to get an INSIDERS's subscription). In brief, the book does away with the idea that you have to achieve pre-launch perfection before getting your first sale. Nothing matters until you get your first sale, which is the market telling what it believes about your offer. In that vein, you want to get your product ready enough to sell, get those sales, and then work on refining it. The book is broken down into FOUR sections: $0-1MM, $1MM-10MM, $10MM-50MM, and $50MM+ with strategies applicable to each stage.
• Target Audience: Entrepreneurs at every stage of the game
• Format: Hardback/Audiobook (both excellent)
• Utility: Extremely useful. Multiple listens. Hardback is also dog-eared, highlighted, and bookmarked.
• Re-read?: Yes, multiple times

3. (**) How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, by Scott Adams

• Brief Summary: Failing is a way of life. You are a moist, programmable robot and can change yourself by visualization & will. Smart people have systemsto help them succeed.
• My capsule review: Okay, I'll be honest and say that I did not expect this to be all that useful. I mean, as Adams says himself, "Be very careful about any advice that you get from a cartoonist." Yet the book is quite approachable and filled with nuggets of actionable information. The stuff about reprogramming yourself is a variation of Psychocybernetics (which I'm currently listening to) but very relevant. Adams hits hard on the importance of SYSTEMS (of thought, habit, and work) to enabling success.
• Target Audience: Mindset and motivation. Primarily early entrepreneurs
• Format: Audiobook (excellent narration)
• Utility: Pretty useful. Multiple listens. Probably not as useful to someone at the later stages of their journey. But useful to me and has led to some habit changing moves for me.
• Re-read?: Yes, multiple times

4. (**) Creating Customer Evangelists, by Kuba, McConnel, & Guy Kawasaki.

• Brief Summary: Nowadays, the best companies engender success by creating customer communities, fanatic customer service, and in so doing their customers become their best marketing resource. They do so by being truly customer focused from within and from the beginning.
• My capsule review: I LOVE this book. Love it! It speaks to the real reason that I'm going into business: to provide real value. The authors go into detailed profiles of the Dallas Mavericks (Cuban), Southwest Airlines, Krispy Kreme Donuts, etc.
• Target Audience: All Entrepreneurs.
• Format: Paperback
• Utility: Pretty useful as a mindset changer. Lots of actionable steps and ideas. I came away from reading this with multiple ideas and have begun implementing them in my own business.
• Re-read?: Yes, Twice

5. The Ultimate Sales Machine, by Chet Holmes
6. Ca$hvertising, by Drew Eric Whitman
7. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki
8. Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins
9. Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers, by Weinberg and Mares
10. Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life, by Chin-Ning Chu.

11. The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands, by Kapferer & Bastien.
12. Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products, by Eyal & Hoover.
13. The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
14. SPIN Selling, by Neil Rackham
15. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Ries & Trout

16. The 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferris.
17. Driven, How to Succeed in Business and in Life, by Robert Herjavec
18. Little Red Book of Selling, by Jeffrey Gitomer
19. Becoming Agile in an Imperfect World, by Smith & Sidky
20. The Founder's Dilemma, by Noam Wasserman
21. The Bigger Pockets Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing, by the BP Team.

 

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[theag]

Great list, but I think Ready Fire Aim should be #2. This and TMF really are the basis and enough to build a great business. The rest is a bonus if you have spare time to read .

 

[Ajtothec]

I would put Ca$hvertising down a bit. It is solid advice but especially the second half very outdated (with print ads, email marketing '98 style, etc.) Just my suggestion for everybody who wants to order all books and read in this order.
Anyways, great list.
I'd still add 4 hour work week as well.

 

[Iwokeup]

I probably should clarify that this isn't a rank order list. But the audience feedback suggets that it should be

 

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[Iwokeup]

I've edited the original post to reflect some sort of rank-order.

 

[Iwokeup]

2. (**) Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

• Brief Summary: Get ready. Launch your business. Readjust later.
  
• My capsule review: Fantastic read and one initially recommended by @Kak (whose progress thread alone is reason enough to get an INSIDERS's subscription). In brief, the book does away with the idea that you have to achieve pre-launch perfection before getting your first sale. Nothing matters until you get your first sale, which is the market telling what it believes about your offer. In that vein, you want to get your product ready enough to sell, get those sales, and then work on refining it. The book is broken down into FOUR sections: $0-1MM, $1MM-10MM, $10MM-50MM, and $50MM+ with strategies applicable to each stage.
  
• Target Audience: Entrepreneurs at every stage of the game
• Format: Hardback/Audiobook (both excellent)
  
• Utility: Extremely useful. Multiple listens. Hardback is also dog-eared, highlighted, and bookmarked.
• Re-read?: Yes, multiple times

 

[YoungGun]

Time to get reading, thanks for the list!

 

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[wade1mil]

I didn't like Scientific Advertising, but loved Breakthrough Advertising. Agree with CA$HVERTISING moving down the list.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

I would put Ca$hvertising down a bit. It is solid advice but especially the second half very outdated (with print ads, email marketing '98 style, etc.)

Cashvertising is the #1 copywriting book written in history. I've read a dozen of the other big names. None of them match up.

As for "print ads" being outdated, that's simply not true. Direct mail is still more cost effective than digital marketing, and the author lays out perfectly several strategies for getting leads and sales. Book's the best there is all around.

 

[ZCP]

Gerber's Emyth Revisited?
Good to Great?

 

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[Iwokeup]

Gerber's Emyth Revisited?
Good to Great?

Haven't read those yet.

 

[Thoelk]

Great list! The only book I see missing (and love) is "How to get rich" by Felix Dennis. You have to love his style (poems/his sarcasm), but it is really well written and reads very fluent. It's my fav. book after TMF concerning this topic.

 

[Iwokeup]

Great list! The only book I see missing (and love) is "How to get rich" by Felix Dennis. You have to love his style (poems/his sarcasm), but it is really well written and reads very fluent. It's my fav. book after TMF concerning this topic.

I love that book too. Throughout the day I've recalled several others that I forgot to add. I'll update as time permits

 

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[piesandak47]

blue ocean strategy should be on that list.

 

[Iwokeup]

blue ocean strategy should be on that list.

I'll add it to the reading list.

 

[risingtomillions]

I would like to add the Gary Halbert letters and remove the rich dad poor dad (he just does not do it for me)

 

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[Drq]

Outwitting the Devil - Napoleon Hill - if you liked those, I am sure you'll love this one.

 

[RBefort]

Top 2 you have are probably the best books I've ever read since I began this journey. Really liked SPIN Selling as well. In love with Grant Cardone's books now, even though some of it can be repetitive. Good for motivation and thinking differently than the common business.

 

[jlwilliams]

Great list. A few there I need to read.

This has the potential than become a thread of legendary proportion.

 

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[JAJT]

I've read a few of these, I'll comment on a few for those on the fence about them:

blue ocean strategy should be on that list.

My 2 cents: Borrow it, don't buy it.

The book has 1 idea discussed over 300 pages. It's a great read, yes, but even before the middle of the book I was like "Okay, I get it, how is there still half a book left?".

Emyth Revisited?

Great book, still a bit singular in concept but at least it's more interesting. In short: treat your business as if you were going to hand it off to 100 new owners (ala franchise). Everything should have a process written down and examined from how you say 'hello' to people walking in your door to how you say 'goodbye' and everything in between. Think McDonald's or a great hotel as the ideal examples, nothing they do during the course of a day is ad-libbed, it's all process that could be handed off to a new owner without any hiccups in operation.

"How to get rich" by Felix Dennis

This is one of my favorite books. So matter of fact and honest. Full of knowledge bombs. I could pick this book up any day of the week and read a random chapter and really enjoy it again and again and likely get a reminder about something I had forgotten about.

Cashvertising

My 2 cents: If you do any writing to get people to take an action, this should be on your book shelf. This is a copy writer's reference book, complete with checklists and reminders and examples. If you don't agree with something, don't use it, but every page is full of powerful strategy and tips to writing better copy. If you call this an outdated book you are basically throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I've probably picked this book up more times than any other to hone an idea about a product headline or call to action or product description. Pure gold.

 

[Iwokeup]

3. (**) How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, by Scott Adams

• Brief Summary: Failing is a way of life. You are a moist, programmable robot and can change yourself by visualization & will. Smart people have systems to help them succeed.
  
• My capsule review: Okay, I'll be honest and say that I did not expect this to be all that useful. I mean, as Adams says himself, "Be very careful about any advice that you get from a cartoonist." Yet the book is quite approachable and filled with nuggets of actionable information. The stuff about reprogramming yourself is a variation of Psychocybernetics (which I'm currently listening to) but very relevant. Adams hits hard on the importance of SYSTEMS (of thought, habit, and work) to enabling success.
  
• Target Audience: Mindset and motivation. Primarily early entrepreneurs
• Format: Audiobook (excellent narration)
• Utility: Pretty useful. Multiple listens. Probably not as useful to someone at the later stages of their journey. But useful to me and has led to some habit changing moves for me.
• Re-read?: Yes, multiple times

 

[Iwokeup]

4. (**) Creating Customer Evangelists, by Kuba, McConnel, & Guy Kawasaki.

• Brief Summary: Nowadays, the best companies engender success by creating customer communities, fanatic customer service, and in so doing their customers become their best marketing resource. They do so by being truly customer focused from within and from the beginning.
• My capsule review: I LOVE this book. Love it! It speaks to the real reason that I'm going into business: to provide real value. The authors go into detailed profiles of the Dallas Mavericks (Cuban), Southwest Airlines, Krispy Kreme Donuts, etc.
  
• Target Audience: All Entrepreneurs.
  
• Format: Paperback
• Utility: Pretty useful as a mindset changer. Lots of actionable steps and ideas. I came away from reading this with multiple ideas and have begun implementing them in my own business.
• Re-read?: Yes, Twice

 

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[Kevin90]

Great list! I will be adding some of your recommendations to my "to read" list.

A recent book I found to be helpful is: "Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life" by Grant Cardone. I have my copy full of underlined and highlighted nuggets.

He has a strong presence on YouTube as well, if consuming content via video is more your thing.

 

[Iwokeup]

5. The Ultimate Sales Machine, by Chet Holmes

• Brief Summary: Selling is the BE ALL, END ALL focus of business. FULL STOP. Yet most companies and people give up too easily. Chet shows you how to turn your sales force into a machine through "pigheaded determination and discipline" by focusing on THREE main areas: Marketing, Management, and Sales.
• My capsule review: One of my favorite books on sales. It contains several very good, step-by-step plans for success. More importantly however, it shows you how important the MINDSET of the sales team is to their overall success and what kind of SYSTEMS you can put into place to keep the machine selling. I've got big portions of this book highlighted, though if you have lots of sales experience then this might already be old hat. Still, it's the first book that I've come across that shows you how to engineer a SALES SYSTEM (human powered) that can take your company to the next level.
• Target Audience: All Entrepreneurs, though perhaps better suited to those with a product in the market and sales coming in.
• Format: Paperback
• Utility: Likely to be more useful for established companies with at least one sales staff other than the founder.
• Re-read?: Yes at least three times in the past year.

 

[Iwokeup]

And since I can't edit the first post anymore (??), I'm adding another book, Felix Dennis' "How to Get Rich" as the Zero-place entry. Even before TMF .

00. How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis

• Brief Summary: Probably the most useful UR-Entrepreneur book out there. It basically asks you this:
  • "Do you have the BALLS (Ovaries) to do what it takes to get RICH?"
• My capsule review:
  • Just as The House of God tells the "F*ck you, this really happens" truth about medicine, so "How to Get Rich" tells what seems to be the truth about being a successful (RICH) entrepreneur. A good salary is the death of risk-taking. Age is (usually) the death of risk-taking. Some people don't REALLY want to be rich despite all of the hot air to the contrary - just watch their actions. Fear of public humiliation from failure stops most wantrapreneurs dead before they even begin. Greed is good! You play nice employee as long as you have to, but you are NOT a team player at heart. That's just a scam to keep talented people in place and working for a salary. There is no REAL success without REAL RISK.
  • I actually picked this up several years ago and remember being SHOCKED at it. It went against just about everything that I believed in at the time. Yet now that I'm farther along in the game it makes so much sense. Why am I recommending this as a ZERO PLACE book? Because I believe that all of us need to be honest with ourselves, in the deepest part of our hearts. Do you REALLY want to risk it all? If not then there's no shame in being a damned great employee because the world certainly needs talented people/professionals. This book is about being BRUTALLY HONEST with ourselves about our true ambitions, aptitudes, and talents.
• Target Audience: All would-be and current entrepreneurs.
• Format: Hardback (audiobook NOT available in the US)
• Utility: Probably the best mindset book for would-be and current entrepreneurs. If you can honestly answer yes then you can spend time on all of the other stuff.
• Re-read?: Found it in a box of archived books. Dusted off, re-read and remembered what a masterpiece this book is.

 

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[YoungGun]

Zero to One by Peter Thiel should be on the list, and I found Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance inspiring.

Definitely fastlane!

 

[Ninjakid]

The Wealth of Nations (full title is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations) by Adam Smith. It's not exactly fundamental to build a business, but it provides a detailed description about why particular individuals and countries are able to accumulate wealth, and will definitely give you a better understanding of economics.

I wouldn't put Rich Dad, Poor Dad on that list. It's good for kids who want a nice little change of perspective, but other than that it contains no practical information.

 

[TG_Hawk]

All Awesome books, have read a good number of them. Other than TMF, no books have impacted me more than:

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - Eker
E Myth - Gerber
How Rich People Think - Siebold
Scaling Up - Harnish
The Ultimate Gift - Stovall

For all of you who don't have the time (or the attentiveness) to read, there's an awesome Youtube channel where a guy does animated book reviews of the best personal development books (including TMF): https://www.youtube.com/user/phuckmediocrity/videos

 

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[James Thornton]

Bookmarked! Only read 2.

Although the seemingly endless search for the right path for me ended in chapter 32 of TMF.

So less research, more action now. I guess that's why they make audiobooks.

 

[16thCylinder]

Cashvertising is the #1 copywriting book written in history. I've read a dozen of the other big names. None of them match up.

As for "print ads" being outdated, that's simply not true. Direct mail is still more cost effective than digital marketing, and the author lays out perfectly several strategies for getting leads and sales. Book's the best there is all around.

Agreed 100%.

Andrew Reynolds is a well known direct marketer in the UK who has made all of his $75 million+ from direct mail.

This is my first post here btw. So glad I found and read TMF and this forum. Very happy to be here.