The Quest for Financial Wisdom
I have read hundreds of books on everything from investing to corporate structure to the psychology of persuasion. And here's the truth, 95% of what they tell you is completely useless when it comes to actually getting rich.
So let me go ahead and save you the thousands of hours I have spent reading that never actually benefited me when it comes to making money. Now listen, do not get me wrong. The books I read were wonderful in their own right.
They were fascinating, but they didn't help me get rich. And honestly, you have no time to waste. So these are the 17 books that will actually make you rich. The first thing that you really need to understand is that the type of books you're going to read to go from zero to $10,000 a month will be very different to those that you're going to read in order to hit $100,000 a month or even make $1 million a month.
So therefore, I actually divided these 17 books into three categories, going from zero to $10,000 a month, $10,000 to $100,000 a month and $100,000 to $1 million a month. Then I actually threw in a bonus category, which is the books that will help you grow from $1 million a month to $10 million a month and beyond.
And honestly, I would say that that is probably the most interesting one. And that's because at that level, macroeconomics actually become the most important thing. That's really when you start to study how the world actually works.
You get into books like The House of Morgan, which explains the truth behind the banking system, but we're going to get to that a little later in the article.
Following Your Purpose with "The Alchemist"
Now, the first book on this list almost sets the foundation for everything to come. And by the way, it's also the only fictional work on this list. And I'm talking about "The Alchemist". Now, this book tackles the very prerequisite of making money and getting rich. And that's having the guts to actually follow your purpose because make no mistake about it.
It is far easier to never take that leap of faith or to never start that business. So before you can even think about making money, you need to have a very honest conversation with yourself and you need to decide if you're willing to take that bet on yourself and decide if you are willing to overcome the obstacles that come with following your purpose.
Because when you're starting from zero and you want to get to $10,000 per month, that is probably the hardest income threshold to reach. And the reason behind that is because everything is working against you.
You see, when you're first starting out, you actually need to rewire your entire brain. You don't need to simply make money, but you need to become the person that's worthy of making money. So when I say that everything is working against you, what I mean by that is that the person you once were is at odds with the person that you're becoming.
And just like Newton's first law of motion, you're fighting inertia. And in some sense, $0 to $10,000 a month boils down to one thing. Mindset. You need to adopt that mindset that success is not just a desire, it's a necessity.
Believing in Success with "Think and Grow Rich"
And that is exactly the lesson of the next book on the list, "Think and Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill. And much like the title of the book suggests, it boils down to the idea that if you're able to conceive it and believe it, well then you can achieve it.
And I'd say that's really the first step towards becoming rich, actually believing that you can. And realizing that it's the only path forward. You see the book also talks about another pitfall I see far too often in people just getting started.
You see often when you're getting started, you'll get stuck waiting, waiting for the perfect moment, waiting for the perfect business model, just waiting for everything in order to not get started. And the truth is, as obvious as it seems, is that there's no perfect time.
There never was and there never will be. In the beginning of any journey, let alone the journey of getting rich, it's going to be messy. And my friend, that's simply the name of the game. And honestly, being able to navigate through that mess is what will make you successful.
Building Habits with "Atomic Habits"
And here's where we get to the next book, "Atomic Habits", by James Clear teaches you how to do exactly that. You see, we already established that you need to become a person worthy of success. So how do you do that?
Well, you are the sum of all of your actions. So to change yourself, you need to change your actions. And obviously you can't just reinvent yourself overnight. So you need to do it in incremental steps by implementing new habits, killing old ones, and keeping the worthy ones.
And that's exactly what Atomic Habits teaches you to do. I remember when I read it for the first time, it completely changed how I approached my work and allowed me to stack all of my good habits. Day by day, I kept solidifying my habits until they eventually became second nature.
Now real quick before I get to the next book, I know a lot of you guys are watching this and going, this is amazing, but none of these books are gonna show me what online business to start this year that will actually get me rich?
Because as I said, these are 17 of my favorite books out of hundreds that I've read, but these books aren't gonna tell you, hey, this year, this model's working, this model's not working, maybe you should try this based on your personality type.
So that's why I'm gonna leave a link to my most popular article down below. This article has helped millions of people decide what business model is the right one for them and which ones they should start today because it is working the best.
So once you finish that article, I will leave a link in the description. Go ahead, check out that article, pick the right business model for you, and let's get back to the article.
Setting Expectations and Understanding Money with "Money Master the Game" by Tony Robbins
Now once you've built a solid base of habits and perhaps you've already chosen your business model, and you're starting to make some cash, you need to start setting expectations. And what I mean by this is you need to really begin to understand how to think about money. And that is exactly what you're gonna learn in "Money Master the Game" by Tony Robbins. You know, it's funny, I distinctly remember being 17 years old, reading this book and doing one of the exercises where you have to design your life in three ways.
In the first scenario, you're just scraping by and you write down how much money you need in order to make that happen from your passive investments. In the second scenario, you're living comfortably, but not extravagantly. And once again, you need to calculate how much of a nest egg you need in order for that to happen. And in the final scenario, you calculate how much money you need to go all out.
And what you'll come to realize is that if you're being honest with yourself, success is a lot closer than you may think. And it's funny, I even went through this exercise as a 17-year-old and I'm sure we all think we're like, oh, I need to make $10 million a year to live my dream lifestyle. And I looked at it and after I had written everything down, my dream lifestyle was like $70,000 a month.
And the funny thing is the next year, when I was 18 years old, I was making that amount of money every single month. So I guess it's just crazy how writing things down physically works. And it's funny, I still have those journals in my house to this day.
But anyways, back to my point, I think for me it was very powerful because in my mind, as I said, I thought like, for my dream lifestyle, I have to make millions and millions of dollars a year. And listen, $70,000 a month, I understand, it's still a good chunk of money. It was still substantially less than what I thought I did.
So when I wrote everything down, I was like, oh wow, for me to live my dream lifestyle, it's a lot closer than I thought. Now listen, of course, your expectations will always change. And as you become more successful, you might want more from life. But it's just a very powerful exercise to get you to quantify what success actually looks like, financially, because how can you start working towards success if you don't even know what it means when it comes to cents or dollars?
So once you've set your expectations, you need to start working towards success. You need to start executing. And executing, by the way, means how do I make that money actively, you know, in the same way that a year later, I was actively earning what was my dream lifestyle, you know, my future dream lifestyle I'd written 18 months before, or, you know, a year before.
And what's even more powerful is that if your passive income gets to a point where it pays for that lifestyle for the rest of your life. And what I mean by passive, I mean the income from your investments, not some business that is passive because these things can always shrink. And you know, and businesses get stale in the style, I'm talking about your safe investments that grow year on year.
And what was crazy for me was that three years later, after I had done that from an active perspective, I'd built up a big enough nest egg where I made that every single year just for my investments. So that's really all to say that this stuff is powerful and this stuff works.
The Next Phase: Going from $10,000 to $100,000 a Month
Now, the next set of books I wanna talk about is going from $10,000 to $100,000 a month because once you've nailed down your mindset and you're a work machine, you really enter the next phase of getting rich.
Now, instead of working harder, you need to learn how to work smarter or preferably still do both. But that really means that you need to focus on systems that you can leverage. And as a result, the type of books that will get you from 10 to 100,000 dollars a month are very, very different.
The Four Hour Work Week illustrates this point perfectly in describing the Pareto principle. You see, the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, states that 80% of any given output derives from 20% of the input.
So in other words, 20% of your clients will make up 80% of your revenue. And the craziest part is that this rule extends far beyond just business. It's pretty much a law of nature. For example, 20% of food causes 80% of weight gain.
So regardless of how you frame it, the 80-20 rule allows you to figure out how to work smarter, not harder. Now the next book we need to talk about is influence and the psychology of persuasion. Now this is one of the highest leverage skills you can have, is the ability to persuade masses of people.
And that's really where Influence, The psychology of persuasion, this book truly shines. And I feel like this book is very powerful when you read it right before reading the next one, which is "Confessions of an Advertising Man".
You see, this book, paired with David Ogilvy's Confessions of an Advertising Man, are pretty much the only marketing books that you will ever need to get rich. Because they're going to teach you the fundamentals of persuasion, both in marketing and more broadly, as well as the skill of copywriting.
So once you know how to market and persuade buyers, you need to make sure that your product is constantly evolving.
The Importance of Systems and Influence in Your Journey to $100,000 a Month
And that is the focal point of the next book I'm going to recommend, which is The Lean Startup. Now the book talks about the importance of execution, plus having a proper feedback loop. Because when you're able to execute fast and have proper feedback, you're going to be able to quickly pivot off the back of that and tap into the heart of the demand in any given market.
Now the next high leverage skill you need in your arsenal, as you build your way up from $10,000 to $100,000 per month, is negotiation. And we've all heard the saying that everything is a negotiation.
And that's precisely why it's so important to be good at it. Now the difference between knowing nothing and just reading a few books on the topic are massive. And that's why "Never Split the Difference" is gonna give you the baseline you need on your path to $100,000 a month.
It teaches you a method called tactical empathy, which you can use to build trust and rapport. And the result of this, the other person will mimic the same level of empathy for you. Whether you're negotiating with clients, business partners, or potential investors, the techniques in this book will help you make more money.
And it doesn't have to be complicated, by the way. Simple things like mirroring what the person is doing in front of you will have a profound, subconscious effect on them. That could mean just repeating someone's last few words at the beginning of your sentence.
That can form the familiarity that you need to win negotiations. But the key to success here is understanding people. And that's where the next book comes in. Now, listen, no matter where you make your money, you're gonna have to deal with people.
It doesn't matter if it's your employees or the police, you need to know how to deal with people. Because the difference between knowing how to navigate the social landscape and not is truly the difference between failure and success.
You need to learn how to inspire others to fulfill your vision. And also, how to not piss off the wrong people. Because let me tell you something, friends are far more useful than enemies.
Working with People and Negotiation
Now, I'm sure you could go out and spend a quarter million dollars on an MBA, or you could just read The Personal MBA. Because this book distills everything you need to know about business, and really, 99% of the things you'd learn from doing an MBA in the first place.
This book talks about everything from operations management and finance to leadership and accounting. And I can promise you that if you read just this book, you'll know more than most business owners.
Now next, let's talk about going from $100,000 a month to $1,000,000 a month. Now something interesting happens when you go from $100,000 to $1,000,000 a month. See, up until $100,000 per month, you focus on building skills.
You want to learn the nitty-gritty that allows you to excel. Essentially, there's a one-to-one relationship between your skills and your income. But that changes drastically when you want to get to $1,000,000 per month.
Now, the knowledge you begin to seek is far more esoteric. Instead of looking to improve your sales, you're trying to understand the bigger picture that you operate in. And similarly, where you start to look beyond your business.
And that's when things get really exciting. And at $100,000 a month is also when investing becomes crucial in your wealth accumulation. Now, of course, you should have good investing habits from day one.
But at $100,000 a month and above is where things get serious. And that is precisely why you need to read books like "The Intelligent Investor" to really move the needle when it comes to making you more money.
This is not just some get-rich-quick scheme. This is a tried and tested method since 1949. The book outlines everything you need to know about value investing, which is really the only way you should be investing to protect and multiply your wealth with minimal risk.
Now later in the video, we're going to talk a little bit about JP Morgan, but there's one quote in particular that stands out from him. You see, JP Morgan famously once said that whilst millionaires don't use astrology, billionaires do.
In the next book, "Reality Transurfing", it's less about astrology, but it is about using the world to your advantage. Reality Transurfing posits a theory that you can manage your reality. With Transurfing, you can make your goals happen.
Now, of course, take this with a grain of salt, but there is no doubt that there is much more to reality than meets the eye. And equally, it is clear that some people just seem to be able to bend reality to their will.
And all I'm going to say to that point is that I know a lot of people look at me with that same thought. They look at me and they go, how have you done all of this? How have you accomplished all of this?
How have you been able to bend reality to exactly what you wanted? And all I'm going to say to that is I read "Reality Transurfing" when I was 14 years old for the first time. Since then, I've must have re-read it over a dozen times.
I'm not going to say anything more. Make of that what you will.
Now, as important as it is to master your own reality, you also need to understand everyone else's. Because how people act ultimately shapes the economy.
Mastering Social Dynamics and Inspiring Others
And that's what the book "Misbehaving" is all about. It's an introduction to behavioral economics. Behavioral economics is one of those areas that simply doesn't matter when you just want to get to $10,000 a month, but it matters a whole lot when you want to get to $100,000 and especially a million dollars a month or more.
The book explains how investors can use behavioral economics to their advantage. And this is yet another great example of how one simple book can make you rich.
Now let's go from a million dollars a month to 10 million dollars a month and further. And this is where things get very, very interesting. Here's where things begin to really shift. To get to a million dollars a month and above, you need to analyze the world around you.
And you need to understand how things work. But in order to get to 10 million dollars a month onwards, you need to start analyzing history in order to understand the future. And it's at this level you need to get into the most esoteric books.
Books that I've been talking about for years on my YouTube. Books like "The Creature from Jekyll Island." This book unveils the secrets of the money magicians of the Federal Reserve. Because it's only once you begin to understand how money actually works.
That you can start to really get wealthy. And I know that when I read this book, it completely opened my eyes to the real world, a world which most people are blind to. But once you understand the Federal Reserve, you also need to understand how the banking system works. And once you understand the Fed and the banking system, you can truly begin to realize your ultimate potential.
The Power of Predicting Trends
And that's why these books are so important in making you rich. And that's why the next book I wanna talk about, which is "The House of Morgan," it's actually a biography of the entire Morgan family and how they created the modern-day banking system.
I have said this time and time again, but history is doomed to repeat itself. And the only way to truly be able to understand the future is by studying the past. And once you have a firm grasp on the past, you can even begin to start predicting the future.
You see history repeats itself, and you can actually use that to your advantage. Go ahead and think about all the different bubbles in history, everything from the gold rush in the 1850s to the rise of Bitcoin.
I mean, what if you'd bought Bitcoin in 2010? Well, if these cycles of boom and bust have happened all throughout history, well then they're bound to happen again. The key is that you need to be able to spot the trend before everyone else.
Unlocking Financial Trends with "Devil Take the Hindmost"
And that is exactly what "Devil Take the Hindmost" teaches you. This book will walk you through the major cycles of boom and bust in recent history. And that means that after reading this, you're gonna be able to identify these trends.
And that, my friend, is how you can multiply your wealth tenfold. Equally, it's also how you can protect your wealth. So that's why it's so important to understand the past in order to understand or even predict the future.
You see, in some sense, getting rich is all about doing the right thing in the right order at the right time. I mean, just think about it. You could have had the best idea for a tech startup after the dot-com bubble, but you would have never gotten funding and vice versa.
So that's why it's important to be able to spot the trends as they emerge. So ladies and gentlemen, those are the 17 books that will help you make your first $10,000 a month all the way up to your first $10 million a month.
Those are the best books I have used in that time period. If you wanna make more than $10 million a month, I can't help you with that because I've never done that, but these books read at the right time in that order have helped me the most.
And I can tell you the books that I read to start making more than a million dollars a month, I still read some of those books when I was dead broke. It was interesting, but I don't feel like it helped me at the right time.
And that's why I think it's so important that you read these books. I mean, you can read them for entertainment, even if they don't apply to your current situation. But just understand when you read these books at the right time, when you're facing the problems that these books will teach you about, that's when it's the most powerful.
A lot of these books I reread when it applied more to me and my life situation at that period of time. And it was always so mind-blowing because I would read the book and I'm like, but I've read this before, but why is it that this time I find it so incredible?
Like, why has this been so powerful this time? And of course, it was because it directly reflected what I was going through at that point in my wealth creation phase. So ladies and gentlemen, I really hope you enjoyed this article.
I stayed up very, very late compiling all of these books and just going through all of my physical books, all of my Kindle books, everything to really bring you this specific list. So I hope it was of value to you.