10 Must Read Books

1. Buffettology: The Proven Techniques for Investing Successfully in Changing Markets That Have Made Warren Buffett the World's Most Famous Investor

I NEVER buy books on stock market. And neither should you. It's a waste of time. The only person you should listen to is Warren Buffett. After all, he is the riches investor in the world and the second richest man after Bill Gates. Warren Buffett once said that he doesn't care about the price. He cares about value. If you never read Buffetology before, it'll be a real eye opener for you.

2. Words that Sell

Words That Sell lists the words and phrases that stimulate sales, grouping them in a logical, easy-to-find manner. The three basic sections of a sales presentation are the grabber, the description, and the clincher, and these sections comprise the core of Words That Sell. Once you find out that you can REALLY make a ton of money merely from an ability to put words down on paper, you'll want to know WHAT to say and HOW to do it. This book does an awesome job teaching that.

3. The Art of the Start

Guy Kawasaki wrote the best book on startups. This book is about starting a business, or a new branch of business within an existing one. And about what it takes to get the funding and momentum you need to be successful. It's about putting aside the ridiculous corporate culture of "mission statements", vision statements, binders and all the rest. Guy Kawasaki helps you to think about the most important aspects of your business and your personal motivation for starting it. In short it's about why the world needs your product or service, why you need to sell it, and how to get there. Much of the content is focused on the mechanics (and pitfalls to avoid) of making formal pitches to venture capitalists, banks and the like. There is also some content dedicated to advertising, marketing and PR, and how *not* to do those things as well. If you're not smart about it, advertising and marketing your new business will financially sink you, with no real profit to show for it, so pay attention to the advice given here!

4. On Bullshit

This book is a fascinating journey into the meaning of truth, lies and BS. It was surprisingly thoughtful and like anything thoughtful it fertilized more thought. At least for me it did. I think it was worth the investment in money and time.

5. The Millionaire Next Door

The title might sound cheesy, but the book really does share insights on what affluent, and successful really mean. It gives a great lesson on status symbols, and the proper attitudes towards work, and money to build wealth. What appealed to me the most, is that this is by no means a "get rich quick" book, or even a "get rich" book. It does however outline character traits of those among us that have become successful, and shows the many traps that most people, including high earners commonly fall into.

6. Bootstrap: Lessons Learned Building a Successful Company from Scratch

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, for a multitude of reasons. Ken details the entrepreneur's issues when bootstrapping a company quite well (we bootstrapped our company also, and ran into many of the same problems). I enjoyed reading more about how Ken FELT while the company was growing. As an employee, you don't often know how the CEO feels about anything (Ken is good at controlling his emotions). Turns out he had similar feelings most entrepreneur's do when starting a company.

7. Little Red Book of Selling

If you’ve been a regular fan like I have of frenetic sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer’s columns in the Business Journal, you’ll want to grab his infamous power book on selling, The Little Red Book of Selling. Like all of his stuff, it’s a straight ahead, well traveled, often brilliant collection of practices on getting the advantage in selling, both over yourself and your competition. Like most of what Jeffrey writes, it holds application for both the individual sales pro and the entrepreneur. Let me briefly show you how this little book is big on take away value.

8. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

I've read a lot of great books, but this one is the one is truly unique. The ideas found in this book are immeasurably valuable. In this book you will find the secrets you need to live the life you dream of living. Tim is a gift to this world because he has been so generous in writing a book that candidly explains in great detail how to work less and make more. I've never seen any other book with more practical wisdom on the art of success. I've dog-eared most of this books since it's so full of great ideas. If you're an entrepreneur or want your life back, you must buy this book.

9. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

Eker's claim to fame is that he took a $2,000 credit card loan, opened "one of the first fitness stores in North America," turned it into a chain of 10 within two and a half years and sold it in 1987 for a cool (but now somewhat modest-seeming) $1.6 million.As you read through Eker's book, you realize that intuitively you might have "felt" some of these things all along but DIDn't follow through. I very much enjoyed this book. It's certainly one of the better books about building wealth and I think that everyone can benefit from it regardless of their current level of income.

10. Street Smart Internet Marketing

Justin Michie is a successful business entrepreneur who made the life-changing decision to become a full time internet marketer, after he found himself frustrated with the long hours, excessive stress and constant employee management of his offline businesses. So he sold his businesses, left the employees, long hours and stress behind, for the freedom afforded by online marketing. He now makes more money in fewer hours and enjoys much more free time with his family. But the book is really valuable because of street smart internet marketing techniques that Justin shares in his book.