Reboot your life with the right books.
These books belong on the shelf of a future billionaire.
They touch on a variety of subjects. You’ll learn the right skills for negotiating a deal, becoming a leader, and surviving a disaster.
Tim Feris is an American entrepreneur, author, and podcaster. Being in the game for so long, he is the person you’d want life advice from.
Here are his book recommendations that you are bound to benefit from.
Turn your roadblocks into stepping stones.
Ah! Ryan Holiday, the modern stoic.
In this book, he uses ancient philosophies and applies them to the story of various leaders of the past and the future.
The bigger an obstacle is, the bigger its weak spot. Hence, look for the weak spot to overcome the obstacle.
“Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?”
Holiday gives us the example of Alexander the Great’s stubborn horse. He would throw off any rider that tried to ride him. Alexander made him run in a straight line till he was exhausted.
When the exhaustion took over, Alexander boarded him.
“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception.
How we view an incident makes it good or bad. Sometimes our perception is faulty.
Other times we can reframe our view of something negative so that we can drive forward.
Thomas Edison’s laboratory burned down when he was 67 years old. It included all of his experiments and research. Instead of mourning his loss, he used this as a reason to start fresh.
Guess what? He made $10 million in profit.
A great book that’ll help you face the challenges of life.
Is goodness in humans lost or just hidden?
Amanda Palmer is an American musician from the band ‘Dresden Dolls’.
This book is her memoir littered with lessons. The most profound takeaway is the belief in the goodness of humanity.
Palmer has couch-surfed with her fans and asked for tampons from strangers. Little by little, she builds up our faith back in the kindness of the human heart.
“From what I’ve seen, it isn’t so much the act of asking that paralyzes us — it’s what lies beneath: the fear of being vulnerable, the fear of rejection, the fear of looking needy or weak.”
Her memoir starts with her performing on the street as the silent bride. Throughout the book, she returns to this period in her life, sharing what the ‘bride’ taught her.
“You can’t ever give people what they want. But you can give them something else. You can give them empathy.”
Even though her public persona is of a person who is not afraid to ask for help, in her private life she struggled with it just like the rest of us.
The author explores the reasons that make us clam up and not let others help.
It is a profound personal story that’ll make you see street performers in a new light.
Navigate using your own compass.
Dalio hands us the key to our life.
He tells us to make our life principles. These principles should be based on our values and experiences.
No one can make them for us.
“I also believe that those principles that are most valuable to each of us come from our own encounters with reality and our reflections on these encounters — not from being taught and simply accepting someone else’s principles.”
How are values different from principles?
Values are wide. They don’t offer practical steps. For example: my value is to spread smiles.
Converting it into a principle will be something like: I’ll volunteer a day at the orphanage every month.
The author goes on to share his principles for life as well.
“While some truths can be scary — for example, finding out that you have a deadly disease — knowing them allows us to deal with them better.”
He also tells us to deal with reality. If we close our eyes to reality, we can never reach the root of the conundrum in front of us.
This is a good book that’ll help you renovate your life for a better tomorrow.
Don’t be late. Learn to negotiate.
Whether you are negotiating with a gunman who has taken hostages or with your spouse while sitting on the couch, this book will guide you.
The authors draw on personal experiences and human psychology to impart ‘negotiating wisdom’ to us.
(Negotiating wisdom is my term. It means, the wisdom needed for negotiating the right way.)
“The ability to see the situation as the other side sees it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills a negotiator can possess.”
What I like about this book is that the other party isn’t demonized. Instead, we are told to understand that the same reality is perceived differently by everyone.
We have to leave judgment at the door.
The authors share a myriad of tips to reach the right conclusion where both sides benefit.
“People listen better if they feel that you have understood them.”
Not to toot my own horn, but over time, I have learned to stand in the other party’s shoes. I do this even when I strongly disagree.
My life has become easier. I know that the other person is not attacking me by countering my narrative. They just think differently.
This book will humanize your worst enemies.
The secret key to unlocking your leadership potential.
This book is written by two former Navy SEALs.
They tell us all about the mindset needed for a SEAL team leader to ensure his team’s success.
Each chapter starts with a real-life scenario that the army personnel faced in Iraq. To benefit from their experiences, and subsequent analysis, you’ll have to keep your feelings about the Iraq war aside.
“…the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
The principles can be applied to leadership in any area. I applied them to parenting. I am the leader of my kids. This means I should be taking ownership.
Many thought-provoking bits throughout the book will make you pause and ponder. For example, there can never be a 100% perfect decision. You have to use the information available and pick the best option.
Similarly, a leader should always try to improve. He should inculcate the same mindset in his team.
“I explained how a leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.”
This is an intimate and emotional read with lots of practical parts that you can apply to your life.
An unlikely cure to emotional pain.
Very emotional and gripping.
Cheryl’s story makes me want to go on a hike and reflect on my life. Where I have been, what I have learned, and what I want to achieve.
In the wake of her mother’s death, the author went into a downward spiral, struggled with addiction, and cheated on her husband.
“I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free.”
This led to her decision to do a tough hike across the Pacific Crest Trail for 3 months. Her companion was the ‘monster’, her backpack.
Her feet were full of bristles. She braved extreme climates but kept going.
On her journey, she looks back on her life and reflects. She also tells us of the people she encounters and the kindness of strangers that keep her going.
“I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it.”
I’d call this book, one woman’s journey of self-discovery.
Beat Chat GPT at the writing game.
Whether you are an aspiring writer, an unknown blogger, or someone who only writes in their journal, this book is for you.
“Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that don’t serve any purpose.”
Writing is not just spilling words on paper. It takes time and effort to write a good piece. As Zinsser tells us 50% of an author’s first draft can be cut without affecting the author’s style. Man! 50% is a huge figure.
Zinsser shares a myriad of tips. How to write engaging pieces? How to add a personal touch? Most importantly, how to avoid fluff?
“Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience — every reader is a different person.”
The lesson I took is to avoid words just to fill space. Cut down on extras, and make writing clear and precise.
This book will help you reevaluate your writing and improve it by leaps and bounds.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Strauss gives us a guide to be ready for the worst.
“The great thing about real life is that it will always surprise you.”
Survivalist approaches vary from permaculture to wilderness survival.
Neil Strauss’ bid to create an escape route takes him to a remote Caribbean island called St. Kitts.
There he learns to shoot and hunt. It takes a year for him to become a citizen of that nation.
Having a second citizenship ensures you have a place to go when things get ugly, the author says.
“True endurance, I think, comes from the inside. It comes from motivation and belief in what you’re doing.”
The author meets various experts who teach different survival tactics. For example, he meets a mentor who teaches his students how to survive war in an urban setting.
If nothing else, this book will make you take up a first aid course.
Why do habits exist?
Habits are a way for our brain to conserve energy, Duhigg tells us.
When we do the same thing over and over again, the cue-routine-reward loop becomes ingrained in our subconscious. We start to do the same thing unknowingly.
“Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort.” We can use this mechanism to our advantage.
Although bad habits are hard to change, there is hope. The author gives us the ‘Golden Rule’ of habit change. Keeping the initial cue, we should change the routine and reward. This is how an unhealthy habit can turn into a healthy one.
“Self-discipline predicted academic performance more robustly than did IQ.”
It all comes down to self-discipline. Even if you are gifted in arts or academia, you can’t win without self-discipline. Research confirms that as well.
This is a pretty handy book that will help you regardless of your age or career field.
Are psychedelics our friends or enemies?
I am not the one to argue for the legalization of psychedelics.
Still, I find Pollan’s book insightful. He shows us the effect of psychedelics on the mind.
He also discusses their potential benefits for mental health patients.
“You go deep enough or far out enough in consciousness and you will bump into the sacred.”
Using his personal experience of taking psychedelics, the author explores their connection to the spiritual and mystical.
I understand what he is trying to do. To him hallucinations = spiritual experiences. I am not fully convinced.
I mean, we can use our waking consciousness and imagination to attain that.
“…whether occasioned by drugs or other means, these experiences of mystical consciousness are in all likelihood the primal basis of religion.”
Reading about Pollan’s thoughts, I was inspired to explore the subconscious in my own way. When falling asleep, between the sleep-wake bridge, I tried to peer into the unconscious mind.
I climbed the stairs of my brain into the forbidden attic. There I saw a bunch of doctors discussing a brain scan.
I wasn’t awake but I was. I could hear the sounds in my physical environment. Psychedelics or not, the human mind is bigger and wider than we think.
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