Dan Martell - I read 1800 business books - these 10 will make you RICH

00:00:00.000 I've read over 1,800 books, and these 10 will make you rich.

00:00:05.000 A long time ago, I got myself in trouble, ended up in rehab,

00:00:09.040 and somebody wrote a book, a book on Java programming.

00:00:12.480 And I found that book.

00:00:13.880 Learning how to code became my new addiction.

00:00:16.660 It filled a hole inside of me.

00:00:18.000 And from that one book, I went on a journey to acquire knowledge.

00:00:22.700 My dad did something really cool.

00:00:24.020 He said, as long as you finish the book,

00:00:25.760 you have an unlimited budget to buy the next book.

00:00:28.560 and I've applied that to my life.

00:00:31.020 I have an unlimited budget to invest in my knowledge.

00:00:33.920 Today, I read every day.

00:00:36.160 I think of it as my way of programming my mind.

00:00:38.900 10 pages is usually the minimum

00:00:40.500 and what I'm doing every time,

00:00:42.560 I'm not just reading, I'm studying books

00:00:45.360 because I believe the words we read

00:00:47.700 and the words we tell ourselves,

00:00:49.000 the beliefs we have creates our future.

00:00:51.240 So I've read over 1,800 books

00:00:53.780 and I've had to distill it into these 10 books

00:00:56.220 that will make you rich.

00:00:57.300 The first book is Secrets of a Millionaire Mind.

00:01:02.400 So fun fact, this book back in the day,

00:01:04.800 it came with a ticket to go to the event.

00:01:07.440 And the reason why this book was so important to me,

00:01:10.020 it was actually the first seminar

00:01:11.640 where my brother and I invested in a coach,

00:01:14.780 in a trainer, in actual education and ourselves.

00:01:18.780 Now, what makes this book unique

00:01:20.280 is that it really attacks the mindset that keeps us poor.

00:01:24.780 And it's not financially poor,

00:01:26.220 more than a lack of abundance, a lack of joy,

00:01:29.120 a lack of growth, of understanding

00:01:31.340 that if we want to have more, we have to become more.

00:01:34.960 What I learned specifically from this book is,

00:01:36.900 one, is your financial blueprint

00:01:38.160 shapes your financial destiny.

00:01:40.320 And everybody's got them.

00:01:41.380 They probably don't even realize it.

00:01:42.720 And what is the new blueprint you have to acquire?

00:01:45.120 You gotta think rich to become rich.

00:01:47.820 The mindset matters a lot.

00:01:49.440 The other one is that we invest in personal development

00:01:51.740 and financial education

00:01:53.040 so that we know how to receive the money.

00:01:55.500 See, most of us, if we actually got a million dollars

00:01:57.820 and we weren't millionaires, we would quickly lose it.

00:02:00.440 And we have to learn how to act despite of fear.

00:02:04.140 Take bold financial action.

00:02:06.080 See, wealthy people constantly learn and grow.

00:02:08.840 And this book set the foundation for me

00:02:11.560 to learn the rest of them.

00:02:13.440 So without this one,

00:02:14.660 the other books wouldn't really make sense for me.

00:02:17.800 Number two is one of the most popular books

00:02:20.580 in personal development.

00:02:21.620 It's Think and Grow Rich.

00:02:23.240 Now, again, I don't read books, I study books.

00:02:25.460 I've probably read this book about seven times.

00:02:28.000 So why is this book so powerful?

00:02:29.940 Here are a few things that I learned.

00:02:31.120 Number one is that desire is the starting point

00:02:34.140 of all achievement.

00:02:35.740 Most of us don't wanna give ourselves permission

00:02:37.920 to actually want more because we think for some reason

00:02:40.540 that makes us not appreciate what we have,

00:02:42.680 but desire is required to move forward.

00:02:45.620 The other one is faith in your abilities

00:02:47.120 is crucial to success.

00:02:48.900 If you don't have belief in your ability to succeed,

00:02:52.740 you'll never get a penny more than you think you deserve.

00:02:56.000 The concept of auto-suggestion,

00:02:58.380 speaking out loud what you wanna achieve,

00:03:00.700 helped me in a big way to internalize my financial goals.

00:03:04.320 The other thing is specialized knowledge

00:03:05.640 is more valuable than general knowledge.

00:03:07.260 A lot of people major in minor things.

00:03:09.600 They know a lot about stuff

00:03:11.000 that doesn't really move the needle.

00:03:13.160 And what I decided after reading this book

00:03:15.140 is becoming world-class at a topic.

00:03:17.700 For me, it was software, it was startups, it's technology.

00:03:20.420 And finally, persistence in efforts lead to success.

00:03:24.440 You have to be consistent in your effort to be successful

00:03:28.900 and that's how you will think and grow rich.

00:03:32.660 Number three is seven habits of highly effective people.

00:03:37.100 I just absolutely loved it.

00:03:38.260 The things that I learned from this book,

00:03:40.220 just to name a few, is number one,

00:03:42.280 be proactive in your life and choices.

00:03:44.980 See, most people are reactive to the world.

00:03:47.060 You want to be proactive.

00:03:49.100 You wanna play to win, not play, not to lose.

00:03:51.960 Huge idea.

00:03:52.700 The other thing is begin with a clear end goal in mind.

00:03:56.580 It is probably something I say every day.

00:03:58.820 I'm always saying, okay, at the end of the day,

00:04:00.460 what does this look like if it's a 10 out of 10?

00:04:02.240 I first really understood that concept in this book.

00:04:04.820 The other one is put first things first,

00:04:06.760 prioritize important tasks.

00:04:08.180 And it sounds so simple,

00:04:09.640 but too often people don't prioritize

00:04:11.460 the important tasks first.

00:04:12.980 The other one is think win-win

00:04:14.300 for mutually beneficial solutions.

00:04:16.600 Learning to collaborate with other people,

00:04:19.220 customers, partners.

00:04:20.320 If you can figure out how to collaborate

00:04:22.240 in a way where everybody wins,

00:04:23.560 you will make your life a lot easier.

00:04:25.260 Seek first to understand then to be understood.

00:04:27.980 This one saved me so many times

00:04:29.800 where I was immediately like hotheaded

00:04:32.300 and like what went wrong and why is this person doing this?

00:04:35.000 Versus now that I understood this concept,

00:04:37.320 I go into media and I go,

00:04:38.280 hey, can you help me understand this, this, and this?

00:04:40.320 That's the concept of understanding

00:04:42.420 before you're understood.

00:04:44.060 And those are just a small handful.

00:04:45.660 If you have not read this, I can't recommend it enough.

00:04:48.180 Number four is Dale Carnegie,

00:04:50.580 How to Win Friends and Influence People.

00:04:53.080 Not only did it sell 30 million copies,

00:04:54.920 but this book has shaped me

00:04:56.720 and how I interact with other people.

00:04:59.240 Number one is to show genuine interest in other people.

00:05:01.820 People don't care what you know

00:05:03.400 until they know that you care.

00:05:04.900 The other big idea is remember and use people's names often.

00:05:07.720 Their favorite word is their name.

00:05:09.340 Just say their name.

00:05:10.320 It actually helps you remember it.

00:05:11.600 It helps them feel seen and appreciated.

00:05:14.340 It's just a simple strategy.

00:05:15.700 The other one is encourage others to talk about themselves.

00:05:18.260 If you want to get a partner,

00:05:20.580 You wanna get an investor, you wanna get a new customer,

00:05:23.800 ask them questions about how they started,

00:05:26.320 what was challenging, how they overcame it.

00:05:28.820 Be genuinely curious in others and trust me,

00:05:31.400 they will lean into what you've got going on.

00:05:33.900 The other big idea is be a good listener

00:05:35.720 and encourage others to talk about their interests.

00:05:38.000 I'm very curious.

00:05:38.940 If you meet with me,

00:05:39.840 I'm gonna ask you way more questions than I talk.

00:05:42.540 And the reason why is I already know what I know.

00:05:44.820 Think about that.

00:05:45.400 I have nothing to learn about me.

00:05:48.060 I already know what I know.

00:05:48.780 So why am I talking when I get together with other folks,

00:05:51.400 especially if they've gotten to a place that inspire me?

00:05:53.960 I'm Mr. Curious, I'm Mr. Asker.

00:05:56.040 And it turns out a lot of the billionaires

00:05:57.480 that I've had the pleasure of meeting,

00:05:59.320 they're the same way.

00:06:00.260 They're always curious and genuinely interested

00:06:02.380 in things that are going on around them.

00:06:04.160 And finally, make other people feel important

00:06:06.480 and do it sincerely.

00:06:08.340 My favorite way to do this

00:06:09.900 is to just find some aspect of their presence,

00:06:12.700 their being, their kindness, and just give them a compliment.

00:06:15.500 Just let people know, hey, I just want you to know

00:06:17.200 that thing you just did, it's really impressive. So what's funny about this is that many people

00:06:21.440 feel that they want to say something, but they're scared that it's going to come off wrong. And I'm

00:06:25.320 going to encourage you to just lean in. If you feel something, you see somebody do something

00:06:29.040 awesome, listen to the words in this book, make sure other people feel important and do it in a

00:06:35.020 sincere way. And that's how you'll win friends and influence people. Number five is an awesome book

00:06:41.840 on sales. Nothing happens until somebody makes a sale. This book by Neil Rackman is awesome. It

00:06:48.380 taught me so many things about sales. I used to be more of an introverted person. I like software

00:06:52.880 and writing code because I didn't want to talk to anybody. Turns out that everything in life

00:06:56.720 is sales. So it doesn't matter what you do in your life. You need to learn the concepts in this book.

00:07:02.540 The first one that stands out that I remember is successful selling is about asking the right

00:07:06.820 questions. See, people think salespeople, they just talk a lot and they pressure people.

00:07:10.400 The truth is the best of the best, lean back, ask questions to help guide the decisions of the buyer

00:07:17.520 and make it their idea. That was a big idea. The other one is understand the customer situation.

00:07:22.740 That's actually what SPIN stands for. Situation, problem, implication, and need payoff. If you

00:07:28.760 understand those four things, that's where the opportunity to enroll them, to sell them, to invite

00:07:34.060 them, to consider working with you all come from. The other one is focus on problem solving, not

00:07:39.960 just product feature. See, the features unlock the benefits. They don't care how they get there,

00:07:45.780 the tool, the vehicle, et cetera. They want the benefit that it's going to unlock. So you got to

00:07:49.900 make sure you understand how to speak towards solving their problem, not just the features

00:07:54.220 of your product. And finally, you have to tailor your sales approach to each customer. For every

00:07:59.760 interaction, every customer know that you have to be in there with them. You have to customize your

00:08:05.300 conversation to meet their needs. And if you do that, you're executing on the spin selling process.

00:08:11.740 Number six is for many people, a bit of a controversial book, 48 Laws of Power by Robert

00:08:17.700 Green. Now I'll tell you why this book matters to me is you need to understand how the world is,

00:08:24.100 not how you hope it would be so that you can understand the powers, the forces that may be

00:08:29.060 playing against you in business. So a lot of things I've learned from this book. Number one is

00:08:32.540 Power requires careful strategy and planning.

00:08:36.080 So if you wanna win in this world, you can't be loosey-goosey.

00:08:39.840 You have to have careful strategy and planning.

00:08:42.020 The other one is learn to be subtle

00:08:43.620 and indirect in your influence.

00:08:46.080 See, a lot of people that are too braggadocious,

00:08:48.320 too over their skis and their personality,

00:08:50.800 they actually don't have a lot of influence.

00:08:52.600 They might have a lot of notoriety.

00:08:54.340 A lot of people might know who they are,

00:08:55.440 but they don't actually influence people to take action.

00:08:58.900 The other one is reputation is incredibly important.

00:09:01.720 protect it. My philosophy is reach and reputation to the degree that my reputation is positive and

00:09:08.300 people that interact with me say good things. And then also there's reach for that. That is

00:09:12.520 actually the unlock for any one of your dreams and goals. The other big idea is use absence to

00:09:17.920 increase respect and honor. So sometimes creating space actually allows people to see you through a

00:09:24.500 different lens. For a lot of the entrepreneurs out there, you're too involved in every freaking

00:09:28.600 meeting and decision. You've got to learn to let go and use space and absence to make that happen.

00:09:34.240 And most importantly, master the art of timing in your actions. What I say is sequencing equals

00:09:39.960 success. So understanding the right sequence, like a recipe, not the ingredients, will allow you to be

00:09:46.320 successful. So you have to master that if you want to build and develop the 48 laws of power.

00:09:52.360 Number seven, Awaken the Giant Within.

00:09:55.680 It is one of the most influential books

00:09:58.080 as it pertains to personal development.

00:10:00.240 I mean, Tony Robbins is the GOAT.

00:10:02.780 Undeniable, he's been doing this for 40 years.

00:10:05.120 And I read this book in my mid-20s and it shaped my mind.

00:10:09.440 So many things.

00:10:10.220 Taking control of your mental and emotional state,

00:10:12.400 understanding what that means,

00:10:13.620 not having a victim mentality.

00:10:15.100 Number two is decision-shaped destiny, not your conditions.

00:10:18.580 You can just find somebody else that's come from worse

00:10:20.820 or the same that has achieved anything.

00:10:22.680 That is just proof that your decisions

00:10:24.700 will shape your future.

00:10:26.200 The other one is set clear, powerful, and compelling goals.

00:10:29.980 Most people are walking generalities.

00:10:32.460 They don't set clear, powerful, and compelling goals,

00:10:35.720 and because of that, they'll never hit anything.

00:10:37.460 The other one is develop

00:10:38.380 and maintain a high level of energy.

00:10:40.560 Your physical energy, your state,

00:10:42.980 is a decision that you get to make.

00:10:45.040 You wanna master that.

00:10:46.360 And finally, master personal and professional relationships.

00:10:50.080 If you wanna take your life to the next level

00:10:52.000 and really unlock your giant within,

00:10:54.180 you're gonna wanna read this book.

00:10:56.220 Number eight is Getting Things Done by David Allen.

00:11:00.800 This one for me is a game changer and I'll tell you why.

00:11:04.280 It teaches you to organize your task

00:11:06.460 and your thoughts neatly.

00:11:07.880 See, most people are overwhelmed easily

00:11:09.960 because they have a lot of things in their mind

00:11:12.180 that they're trying to keep track of.

00:11:13.780 And the truth is, is your brain was not designed to do that.

00:11:17.000 You wanna take everything in your mind,

00:11:18.420 put it out in front of you so that you can work with it this book teaches you how to do that the

00:11:24.180 other thing is you want to do one thing at a time and focus see most people think that we can

00:11:28.820 multitask and the truth is is we're not good at it at all so you want to do one thing and focus

00:11:33.620 on it the other is make a list and keep track easily so have a tool for writing things down

00:11:39.060 have a list and track where are you at in that list what do you have to remember always have a

00:11:43.780 book nearby every night when i go to bed i have my journal sitting there if i'm having a hard

00:11:47.780 time sleeping i'm writing things down and because of that i've always had incredible sleep scores

00:11:53.140 on my aura and finally you want to take action steps step by step calmly if you do that you will

00:12:01.940 learn how to get things done and move your dreams forward number nine is the lean startup by my

00:12:09.540 friend eric reese now fun fact i actually met eric in san francisco before he ever published this book

00:12:16.500 when he was just going around speaking at different conferences about the concept of

00:12:20.100 the lean startup and then he eventually signed a deal to write it let me tell you this this book

00:12:25.060 changed the game for all startups in silicon valley and all businesses in the world because

00:12:29.460 it showed entrepreneurs a completely different way to build companies the big ideas in this book i

00:12:34.260 mean there's so many but the first one is startups must adapt and adjust quickly to succeed it's all

00:12:39.060 about pivots we need to be able to make decisions and pivot quickly the other area is validate

00:12:43.380 business ideas through customer feedback. No business plan survives first contact with the

00:12:48.780 customer. So you need to talk to your customers. The whole structure of the book is built around

00:12:53.620 the build, measure, learn loop, and it's crucial for building your business. We always want to

00:12:58.460 build something, measure it with the customers, look at the analytics, and then learn and then

00:13:03.360 feed that back into the next iteration. The other key area is focus on minimum viable product for

00:13:09.260 early testing. You don't want to overbuild. Too often people overbuild their business. They build

00:13:13.940 so many features into their software just to launch. And that is a recipe for waste. And the

00:13:19.360 other final idea that I think is so important that I've read in so many other books, but it really is

00:13:25.240 crystallized in this one is continuous innovation is the key to long-term success. So if you want

00:13:31.580 to learn how to build a business and take shots on goals and learn and move quickly, then get the

00:13:37.280 lean startup. Number 10 is such an important book for me and it's called The Innovator's Dilemma.

00:13:43.380 As a software entrepreneur, as somebody that innovates, it creates technology,

00:13:48.180 this really became the blueprint for building businesses. There was so many incredible lessons

00:13:53.700 and Clayton Christensen is not only a great author and mind, but he was also just an incredible

00:13:59.460 person. I mean, his other books are also really great reads and just the way he lived his life

00:14:03.840 in general. He left a meaningful impact just outside of creating innovation or teaching people

00:14:09.060 how to think about innovation. But the big ideas that are going to help you is one, that companies

00:14:13.500 can fail despite good management if they ignore disruptive technologies. I mean, think of

00:14:18.780 Blockbuster, Blackberry, Kodak. All these companies essentially had market position, number one, and

00:14:25.300 got disrupted because of technology. And disruptive technology often initially underperformed,

00:14:30.700 but eventually improves rapidly,

00:14:33.200 meaning that it looks like a toy.

00:14:35.400 Most people dismiss it.

00:14:36.720 They think it's a fringe idea or it's too big

00:14:40.060 or nobody would ever do that.

00:14:41.400 When you think of Ghetto Blasters 1.00

00:14:42.760 and then the Walkman and then the iPod, right?

00:14:46.220 Like all these areas of innovation took something

00:14:49.140 that most people would be like,

00:14:50.100 nobody's gonna wanna walk around with a bunch of music.

00:14:52.300 And then as the form factor got better,

00:14:54.520 the innovation showed up, it disrupted whole industries.

00:14:57.620 The other concept is that companies should invest

00:14:59.820 in emerging technologies,

00:15:01.200 even if they don't meet current customer needs.

00:15:03.660 And the reason why is you just wanna be close to it.

00:15:05.840 So for me, AI, crypto, whatever it is, Web3,

00:15:10.340 you wanna be close to the innovation and the technology

00:15:13.680 so that you can figure out where that might show up

00:15:16.100 in your product roadmap, in your innovation,

00:15:17.860 so you don't get disrupted yourself.

00:15:19.780 And finally, one of the biggest ideas

00:15:21.900 is that organizational structures and their values

00:15:24.620 can impede recognizing and responding to disruptive change.

00:15:27.800 Some big companies just rest on their laurels.

00:15:30.440 They just keep cashing the checks.

00:15:31.920 They don't innovate.

00:15:33.140 And then the newcomer, they come in with this new innovation.

00:15:36.500 Just think about ChatGPT and Google.

00:15:39.220 It came out of nowhere and all of a sudden,

00:15:41.680 Google's trying to respond to massive innovation

00:15:44.840 in a space that they probably got flat-footed on.

00:15:47.860 You don't want that to be the case.

00:15:49.480 This book will give you the framework

00:15:52.000 to make sure that you're always innovating.

00:15:54.440 Those are the 10 books that will make you rich.

00:15:56.560 but if you wanna learn how AI could make you a millionaire,

00:15:59.720 click the video on the screen.

00:16:00.860 I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - December 29, 2023

I read 1800 business books - these 10 will make you RICH

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