What book are you reading? Right now. Post up!

[MJ DeMarco]

Personality Isn't Permanent by Benjamin Hardy. I bought it on the title alone and am only a few chapters in, but it's perfectly consistent with fastlane principles. MJ himself could have written it.

In a nutshell, your personality isn't who you are but a temporary facade and is constantly changing. With deliberate effort, you can change it even faster and in a way you control. Personality tests are mostly nonsense and are very limiting if taken too seriously. Those who try to act in accordance with their "authentic" selves and only do what comes naturally are stuck in a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. Having a sense of purpose makes it possible to do the uncomfortable and painful things to grow into the type of person you wish to become. Think less of yourself and more of the value you can provide to others. And so on. Highly recommended.

Looks very compelling...

To back up what you said (without having read this book) I will add this:

Fixed mindset types, my personality is X,Y, or Z, get stuck in a rut — never growing, never evolving and always doing the same things over and over, while expecting different results. Boxes serve one purpose— to contain and limit. When you put yourself in a box, you contain and limit your growth. Period.

Box: I’m not a person who reads books.
Box: I’m not a public speaker.
Box: I’m not a person who plays board games.
Box: I’m not someone who likes going to the gym.
Box: I’m not X, Y, or Z because of A, B, or C.
Box: I’m not good at X (of course your aren’t, you never tried, and never worked hard at it)
Box: I'm not a good people person.
Box: I'm not a good writer.
Box: I'm not an entrepreneur.
Box: I'm not a good saver.

Get rid of the damn boxes you’ve put around yourself. They’re weak excuses to continue forward on the same behavioral paths that got you where you’re at. They're excuses so you can remain comfortably miserable.

You can evolve into whomever you want with the right effort, discipline, and purpose.

 

[ChrisV]

How this thread works... when you start reading a new book, you update it here. It’s nice to have a log of what everyone on the forum is reading and i’m sure it will spark discussions and recommendations.

I’m also creating the Fastlane Bookclub on Goodreads where you can share what you’re reading, add your favorites, and talk about books. I haven’t explored all the features, but I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff we’ll benefit from. Join the group!

So, Currently I’m reading

Persuasive Advertising: Evidence-based Principles by J. Scott Armstrong

This book translates knowledge about persuasion into evidence-based principles. Useful knowledge about persuasion has been obtained over the last 100 years from the experience of advertising experts and from empirical studies in advertising and other fields including psychology, consumer behavior, law, mass communication, politics, and propaganda.

The principles in Persuasive Advertising provide understandable and easy-to-access guidance for all types of advertising. Including still media such as print and Internet, and motion media such as TV, streaming video, Internet, and radio. They also apply to other types of persuasive communications such as management reports, speeches, and press releases.

Wharton School Professor J. Scott Armstrong spent over 16 years on this book. In recent years, he was assisted by Gerry Lukeman, Chairman Emeritus of Ipsos-ASI and Sandeep Patnaik, Research Director at Gallup and Robinson. Altogether, more than 80 people contributed to Persuasive Advertising by obtaining relevant studies, analyzing data, editing and reviewing, and surveying researchers to ensure that the book correctly summarizes their findings.


Persuasive Advertising summarizes findings from about 3,000 empirical studies and 50 books. It also presents new findings from previously unpublished studies. .

Along with the AdPrin Audit software on AdPrin.com, Persuasive Advertising enables advertisers as well as agencies to quickly and inexpensively identify ways to improve ads – or to determine which of a set of ads will be most effective. For example, it typically requires about an hour for an experienced user to obtain a persuasiveness index for a print ad along with a list of ways to improve the ad.,

By using these principles, advertisers can improve their creativity and effectiveness.​

And



Hack Your Motivation: Over 50 Science-Based Strategies to Improve Performance by Bobby Hoffman

Finally!!!! Evidence-based research on motivation that's written in an engaging, humorous, easy-to-read style!"--Karen, Performance & Leadership Consultant

Bobby masterfully bridges the gap between research and practice by applying high quality motivational research to everyday life."--David, Master Educator **"This book is not easy to put down. You will find yourself often referring back to its pages. The a-ha moments will cascade in."--Glenn, Team Leader & Operations Manager

Hack Your Motivation gives you the latest and most reliable performance tools and tips to help you reach your personal or profession goals. Written by motivational scientist and leadership consultant Dr. Bobby Hoffman, this book converts hard-core research from psychology, business, athletics, neuroscience, and education into easy-to-read and simple-to-master strategies. Hoffman includes unorthodox examples from his own life and the lives of others to enlighten, inspire, and amuse ---so anyone can learn to maximize their untapped potential. If achieving glory, feeling good about your accomplishments, or understanding why you do what you do (or don't do) is important to you, then look no further.
​

What are you reading?

 

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[Kyle T]

"Unscripted " by some dude named MJ DeMarco

 

[Sparky]

I've got a stack of books by my bed that I'm working through:

Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins (read it before, but recently started reading it again).

An Introduction to Psychology (can't remember by whom, but its the university type handbooks, so it often succeeds in putting me asleep - the theory bits that is).

How life imitates chess - Gary Kasparov (I'm about halfway through this one - was wondering how to become great in chess/life, and this book seemed like a fit).

Successfull Interpersonal Communication - Another handbook (still to start reading it).

How to have kick-a$$ ideas - Chris Barez-Brown. (I'm about 75% through this book, and so far I think it is a great book. It has great exercises, lots of pictures/drawing that makes it an easy read, and is immensely useful in coming up with creative ideas to make the most of your opportunities (a rephrase from 'problems' ).

Your idea can make you rich - Its from the guys who run the Dragon's Den. So far I'm not really impressed as it feels like the 'same-old' entrepreneur advice in a million other books, but I'm not done reading it completely yet, so I might still change my opinion.

The Complete Guide to Flipping Properties - Steve Burgess (I'm still to start reading this one though - I bought it thinking it would be specific to the UK market, but it isnt, so I'll read it further into the future).

Thats it for my currently reading/unread stack next to my bed.

What are you reading?

 

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[theag]

"LLC CEO for Dummies"

I'm serious, thats literally the English translation of the German book.

Next up are "Accounting for Dummies" and "Commercial and Corporate Law for Dummies".

Figured that now that I have a 7 figure run-rate business I should at least get to know some basics...

 

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[The Abundant Man]

Just finished Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance. Brilliant ambitious guy who is a man on a mission to save the planet. Ancestry of explorers. Had a childhood of awkwardness.(And getting bullied) Likes to do everything himself so he has a problem with giving up control. He's more of a modern day Thomas Edison/Nikola Tesla in they'll experiment and fail over and over again but they always eventually figure stuff out.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Plug Your Book, Steve Weber
Writing Non-Fiction, Dan Poynter
Self-Publishing Manual, Dan Poynter
Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss (Attempting to decipher if its slowlane, or fastlane.)

 

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[Kyle Tully]

There comes a time when you need to stop reading and start doing.

In my experience most people blow past this point by at least a few months... often a few years.

Many times reading becomes a form of procrastination and/or mental masturbation.

The roadside is littered with people who have read all the books and still haven't launched their first business. You fill yourself with so much information you can't even remember it all let alone put it into some kind of order to take action on.

A few concepts that have proven useful for myself and a few people I've shared them with:

1. Just in time reading. That means reading only what you are going to implement right now.

2. 10x production vs consumption. If you read for an hour you should spend 10 hours implementing what you learned.

3. The $10,000 book. Many of the $10,000 seminars you see are little more than the creators original book expanded and explained. Save yourself the $10k and treat the book like you spent $10k on it. Rather than blasting through it in order to get to the next book why not slow down and take action on all the core points?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm listening to the Psychology of Money.

Work.
Save.
Buy indexed funds.
Die rich.

There ya go: I'll save you 5 hours of your life.

 

[Bryan James]

I'm currently reading "The 10 X Rule" by Grant Cardone. Very motivational.

 

[journeyman]

Deep Work, by Cal Newport.
Thus far, it's outstanding

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Loving this book...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525533583/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

While it has a lot of info I already knew, it really hammers it home.

Written by the founder of DuckDuckGo and his wife who is a statistician.

It will be a Giveaway at the Summit as well.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

What a shitty thing to say Mj.

Sorry I offended your idol.

Are you waiting to be proven “right” after all these years.

I don't need to wait, he's clearly proven my point based on the amount of times he visits the hospital due to self-inflicted injuries.

yet he’s triggering you.

Your response actually sounds like you're the one triggered.

Insofar as my "triggering" -- yes -- I get triggered about anything and ANYONE that endangers the health of my family.

From being forced to take an experimental vax, to self-proclaimed "health gurus" who say you're a weakling if you can't fight through intense pain. My "triggering" was recently sparked when I learned my step-son's radical new workout regime (which was killing his back and laying him out for days, including one emergency room visit) was inspired by Goggins YT vidoes.

Let's just say, I never corrected my son so quickly and he wisely stopped the insanity, and he's better for it.

His "advice" is likely hurting more people, particularily young men, rather than helping.

Going to the hospital X # of times because of your "mental toughness" is not mental toughness... it's something else...

 

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[biophase]

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (CEO of Nike) just came out a few days ago. It's a very good book about the start of Nike. Good read for all Ecommerce people.

 

[Kak]

I am currently reading "Always Think Big" by Jim McIngvale

I already know it's going to be one of my favorites.

First of all for those of you who aren't familiar with Jim, let me tee this up for you. He is "Mattress Mack" of Houston's Gallery Furniture. He is VERY well known in Houston circles for his philanthropy and his business acumen. The guy is a walking talking marketer.

I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at my middle school about entrepreneurship when I was growing up. He was inspiring to me.

Later, I had the pleasure of meeting him when I bought some furniture from his store. Before he had several stores, he would stand at the door and greet every single customer and thank them on the way out. I think he did this several times a week and it just so happened that he was there that day.

His trademark saying is cheesy as hell, but everyone in houston knows who it is when he's on the radio. Gallery Furniture SAVES YOU MONEY! His single store, before he expanded back in the early 2000’s was doing 200 million per year. There was talk about him buying the Houston Rockets before Landry’s Firtida got them. I’m sure he is worth 10 figures.

Last year those watching the news about Hurricane Harvey probably saw his name come up a few times. He opened all of his stores up as a shelter for flood victims. He also gave millions of dollars worth of furniture away. The dude is a legend. Probably the most customer service centric CEO on the planet.

So... I buy this book used on amazon and it has spent the last 6 months on my shelf. Imagine my surprise when the book is signed by him. Knowing the kind of guy he is, I bet he took every book from the publisher and sat down to sign every last one of them. I don't know this, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Highly reccommended!

"Be persistent. Success is a marathon not a sprint."

 

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[focusedlife]

How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital by Nathan Latka

This is like unscripted only shorter, less abstract and has step by steps which I am more than sure people will appreciate.

It's completely under the radar and I can't believe more people aren't talking about it.

Gold, gold, gold.

 

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[MTF]

Some interesting mindset stuff plus a different way to do business:

Not only do you not need to be the expert. You don’t want to be. Being an expert can often hurt your chances of success because it automatically focuses you on details that don’t move a business forward. Experts don’t usually make great entrepreneurs, yet most of them try to be one.

Fast forward to the present day, and I have a zero-hour work week with a fully self-managed business from which I collect passive distributions. The business has a CEO, it grows without me, and I collect 25% of the profits. It does over two million dollars per year in revenue with a wonderful margin for me. A few people have offered me $6,000,000 for the business, but I have declined.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I don't get this guy anymore. I thought I understood him better after listening to literally dozens of hours of podcasts with him.

I thought you loved the guy.

I think he has a mental illness and his lifestyle clearly is a response to childhood trauma. And people around here worship him like he walks on water. I usually just keep my mouth shut on the incessant hero worship. Being in the hospital countless times because of your stupid decisions is not something to be proud of. But this guy gets insane props for basically, well, being insane.

Wim Hof is a much better role model and shows you can be tough as nails, but not lose the big picture.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I'm currently reading Quiet... it's a book for introverts and definitely a must read for us introverts who struggle to co-exist in a world full of loud mouths and attention whores.

 

[MitchC]

I’m reading the almanac of Naval Ravikant.

So far the business section has a big focus on software and writing content to make money, very millionaire fastlane style. He talks about code working for you to make money while you sleep.

As for the happiness section the one takeaway I can think off the top of my head is.

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

Edit: I have to add this quote from the book.

The more you judge, the more you seperate yourself. You’ll feel good for an instant, because you feel good about you’re being better than someone. Later, you’re going to feel lonely. Then, you see negativity everywhere. The world just reflects your own feelings back at you.

 

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[million$$$smile]

Currently reading a book written by one of the forum members @JScott

I am thoroughly impressed. In my quest for learning, I had decided to read something totally out of my toybox of what I currently do. With that in mind, this book has held my interest.
I have an extremely hard time finishing a hard copy of any book so I normally just listen to audible played at 180x. But I've been reading this nightly and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.

 

[Siddhartha]

It's been a busy past few weeks







And last but not least:

Finally got my hard copy of unscripted in, between reading and listening to it I have almost the entire book memorized.

Why the f*** would you read so many books instead of selling fidget spinners on street corners and TAKING ACTION like a real hustler siddharhtha?
Because I am trapped in an office for a good amount of time and have a Fortune of time to spend listening to audible books.
At the moment I only have about 2 hours a day (waking up at 4am) to work on my business and plying myself to copywriting in hopes of escaping and gaining more time. Audio books are a way for me to fight back
No one is perfect, everybody does what they can do to do what they can; I'm just throwing in extra ingredients as I'm prepping my launchpad.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm somewhat of a WW2 buff, this is a great read, about an American who becomes a British spy during the war (because us dumb Americans have no use for a savvy woman who speaks 5 languages and has balls of steel.)

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The Surrender Experiment, Michael Singer
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YOJ9RV6/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Really interesting perspective about surrendering control, as we all know, Fastlane is about seizing control. It definitely is a outlier to my mindset, so I'm enjoying learning about it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Currently reading "How I Built This" by Guy Raz.

How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Raz, Guy: 9780358216766: Amazon.com: Books

How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs [Raz, Guy] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs

amzn.to

About halfway thru it.

It is pretty good and I would even go as far as recommending it -- however I think it misses the mark as you can tell it is written by someone immersed in the Cult of Silicon Valley for people who want to be in the Cult of Silicon Valley.

I was hoping to read about "non-famous" entrepreneurs who made it big. Thus far, it is all about famous entrepreneurs and how they built their companies, AirBnb, Clif Bar, etc. And not surprisingly, most of them have bay-area connections. I guess this "expectation" is my fault -- it clearly says "the world's most inspiring entrepreneurs" which implies a certain level of notoriety.

 

[pickeringmt]

I just finished "Bold" - this incredible book about entrepreneurship, the world, and how to get stuff done.

It is honestly too awesome to get into - this would be a massive post.

Just read it. Seriously.

I am now reading "the practicing mind" - which is also a really great book.

If you want to truly understand what it means to "focus on the process" then get this book.

It gets a little more "out there" and isn't a business book, but is really pushing me to a new level of understanding some of my own weak spots in this area. Very practical and actionable ways to adjust your mindset.

I also am reading James Altucher's books - Choose Yourself (done) and the CY Guide to Wealth.

Both have great points, but I can really relate to James and his writing and this may not be the case for some people.

I have definitely picked up a lot of practical tools from all of these books - but if you read a book and don't, you are either reading the wrong books or just reading wrong.

 

[Vigilante]

This book was mentioned previously, but I am reading

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Super interesting. It's the type of book that entrepreneur geeks love, myself included.

Great story with INSIDERS insights into the founding, methodology, and operation of Amazon.

Highly recommended, especially for anyone who plays in the eCommerce channel.

 

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[lowtek]

I'm reading, and working through, Python machine learning by sebastian raschka

great content, if that sort of stuff is up your alley.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Just finished Pre-Suasion by Cialdini. This is definitely one you have to listen/read twice.

What was striking about this book is that the sale happens before the sale.

Just like we used to think you made a sale by the words that come out of your mouth. Only to then discover, 80%+ was body language. Pre-Suasion is similar, in that the sale comes from the environment, and before you even utter a word.

For example, imagine 2 restaurants with the following names: Rue 17. House 37.

Both are of equal quality and value. However, customers are more likely to purchase a higher priced meal in House 37.

Or another example is increasing the price of food, to increase customer satisfaction. I noticed the Asian buffet in my town raised their prices by 77%. The place is more packed than ever. Same exact food and service. If you have the time, look up how buffets make money. It's fascinating. (Not an example in the book)

Likewise, you can trick people into success.

Simply putting up posters of someone winning a race, is enough to make the viewer more goal oriented.

Or...

How about marginalized groups? People who are under societal pressure to not do well in school? Well you can push their scores up without all the political trickery of padding results.

Again, put up a few posters, but this time of successful people who look just like them. I think we've known this for a while, just not applied to academics. If there is a task no one has been able to complete, then someone comes along and does it. Then soon after, other people start completing it as well. This is because they now know it can be done.

How about a principle that's related to current events?

Nike.

Pre-suasively, we give importance to what we're paying attention to.

And it's at an all time high:


While the controversy will hit them short term, (barely as we can see at the last candle), most people will forget by the next news cycle. However, those Nike connections in their head will strengthen.



More importantly, by the exposure effect, people who don't even care about what everyone is mobbing about, will subconsciously gravitate towards Nike. (Adidas who?)

 

[GMSI7D]

Just finished Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance.

1) Brilliant ambitious guy who is a man on a mission to save the planet. Ancestry of explorers.
2) Had a childhood of awkwardness.(And getting bullied)

3) Likes to do everything himself so he has a problem with giving up control.


4) He's more of a modern day Thomas Edison/Nikola Tesla in they'll experiment and fail over and over again but they always eventually figure stuff out.

absolutely

1) masterminds are not on earth to be sheep in a controled society . i can't say too much because of political correctness since political correctness is more important than truth in our world


masterminds are on earth to think about the big picture . not to watch TV an insult intelligence


2) yes the stupidity of the masses is very annoying for masterminds

very very annoying

this is why a lot of masterminds have contempt fot the masses

because of the stupidity of the crowd , living like idiots instead of thinking about truth


3) yes because masterminds are above the crowd

you can't tell a private to do the work of a general !

people are not equal


4) absolutely

look at this picture and the quotations









so the book i read are masterminds related because money is not the goal of life but a means

once you get the money, you have to get serious and live the right way above the crowd

you have 80 or 100 years on earth to honour human dignity and intelligence

not to be energy in a system for unknow masterminds above you


for example :









.