A lot of people ask me how do I read a lot of books? How do I find the time to do that? It’s pretty much about productive speed reading, but here’s the problem with that. Without absolutely any information at all, 80% of books that I’ve read are not useful. In fact, you don’t really have to read them. They might add some value into your life if you read them, but it’s quite limited. If you’re not a big fan of books, then there is absolutely no reason for you to read them because almost all of these books talk about the same thing. Sometimes it seems to me that they simply copied from each other. Sometimes I read an entire book and there is not a single new idea that I haven’t come across before in similar books. So it’s literally a waste of time, to be honest.
Throughout this article, I’m going to save you that time and tell you what exactly you have to read. The five books that I’m about to share with you are probably the only books that you ever need to read. I might not be the best-qualified person to talk about this, but in the past seven years, I literally read hundreds of books about all sorts of things – starting from how to make money, from how to negotiate, and a lot of other things. I think everything that I have read can be beautifully summarized into these five books because these books are not simply delivering information, but rather they are giving you a practical guide on how to apply them in real life. You can apply the lessons right after reading the book.
1. 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
This is one of the books that had a pretty big impact on my life. I know that a lot of people view this book pretty negatively. In fact, some people even see this book as pure evil. But, like it or not, this is the best book that’s ever written on social intelligence. This book will teach you everything you need to know about how to deal with people, how to make them to like you, respect you, work for you, admire you, make people do what you want.
A lot of people might say: “don’t you think that business books are more important?” and the answer is NO because business is simple. Get a product and sell. This book is going to teach you how to do that, how to persuade people, how to negotiate, and every other thing that you need to know. The lessons that are taught in this book aren’t only about business, but pretty much everything else that’s about dealing with people.
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
The second book is by far the most influential group in my life. Rich Dad Poor Dad and there is a pretty strong reason behind it. It completely changed my understanding of money and wealth. I was always interested in making money, but it wasn’t clear to me how to achieve that. It was pretty much more like a dream until I laid my hands on this book. It helped me to think about the practical plan and how I actually can achieve that. This book isn’t going to tell you “look, do this and you will make a lot of money”, but it’s more about changing your mindset your understanding of money, job business, and this kind of stuff.
I’m sure that a lot of you will say that “please don’t tell me about mindset, I want a direct action I’m tired of this useless mindset books”. Like it or not, I’m talking from my personal experience. The moment will change your views about money, you start seeing things differently and you will never want to get a job after that because you will find a way to become financially free.
You can’t simply go through the idea of this book, you have to read them a couple of times maybe understand it properly, because, like it or not, money is one of the most important things of our life. If you’re serious about achieving financial freedom, you must read this book.
3. Mastery by Robert Greene
The third book in the list is mastery by Robert Greene. This book is unique of its kind. If you are confused with your life, if you don’t know what to do with your life, if you’re simply not motivated, then this is the book you have to read. It will teach you how to find your passion and how to master your passion. At the end of the day, we all have to master something to achieve some level of success.
What happens usually is that your passion about something you start doing and when you don’t see any results, you start losing motivation. This book is going to tell you why and how to avoid that. In fact, if there is one book you will read out of this list, then be this one.
These three books will help you to achieve the kind of success that you usually think about. It’s more about money, fame, and success. We can see that in other people and we want the same thing for us as well, but there is a different kind of success – internal satisfaction – which is way much more important than the materialistic success.
What’s the absolute goal of life? Why do you want to make a lot of money? Why do you want to achieve mastery? Why do you want to have great relationships? What is the final goal? Simple! Happiness. As long as you’re happy, you’re successful. That’s all that you want out of life. You can be happy without the money and everything else; in fact, you can have all the money but still not feel happy.
I want to suggest to you two more spiritual kinds of books that are far more important than the first three books.
1. On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
The first one is On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. This book is going to change your perspective about life completely. After reading this book, you will start appreciating every single small little thing in your life, such as the fact that you breathe. Did you even know that you breathe? When you read this book you will learn how to achieve the self-actualization this self-awareness and you will value your time and your life much more.
2. Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The second one is Mindfulness for Beginners. It’s basically about stoicism, and it’s very short and practical book, simply written and beautifully summarized.
There are actually many other books that I wanted to include in this list, but these five are the most important and enriching so far.
