2023 Book Reading List
1. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
2. Zero to One
3. You Next
4. Negotiation Genius
5. The ONE Thing
6. Little Green Book
7. Extreme Ownership
8. So Good they can’t Ignore you
9. The Making of a Manager
10. The Subtle Art of not giving a Fuck
11. Software Engineering at Google
12. The 4-Hour Workweek
13. Startup Communities
14. Atomic Habits
15. Start with Why
16. A Win without Pitching Manifesto
17. $100M Offers
18. The E-Myth Revisited
19. The Magic of Thinking Big
20. The 5 AM Club
21. The E-Myth Contractor
22. Grinding it Out
23. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
24. The One-Minute Manager Meets the Monkey
25. The Five Love Languages
26. Show your Work
27. The E-Myth Manager
28. Five Love Languages Single Edition
29. How to be a Power Connector
30. Good to Great
31. The Lean Startup
32. Grit
33. UX/UI Design 2022
34. Getting Things Done
35. Building a Second Brain
36. UX for Lean Startups
37. Shoe Dog
38. The Psychology of Money
39. The $100 Startup
40. Python for Everybody
41. The Systems Thinker
42. SEO 2020
43. SEO like I’m 5
44. Built to Sell
45. SEO Fitness Workbook, 2016 Edition
46. Hands-On Mobile App Testing
47. Ecommerce Evolved
48. Tribes
49. Building a Story Brand
50. The Elements of Style
51. Ultra learning
52. Design for Belonging
For this year’s resolution, I made a goal that I would try to finish one book a week. Not only have I surpassed this goal, but I have also created the beginnings of a library of book notes. Now, I no longer have to feel guilty when I don’t remember the details of a book. I can merely sift through my library of notes and refresh my mind within minutes. I no longer expect my brain to remember anything, for that matter. By creating a systematic approach to organizing my notes, I can now offload everything in my brain into my notes and leave my noggin empty to be sensitive to new ideas and perspectives.
Shifting to a “helping” philosophy has helped me become a more authentic and genuine person. It has helped me create connections and conversations that were previously unattainable. Helping people has led me to become a more creative problem solver and essentially, in most cases, my help has helped me as well. These are just a few examples of the valuable knowledge I have been able to acquire this past year through my readings.
Throughout this year’s readings, I have broken several mental barriers that I didn’t even know existed in me. The books listed are chronological; you can see the types of topics I was interested in at the time. I have read topics on things like relationship building, negotiations, building SOPs, and finally learning how to build a community. Looking back, this year was an absolute reading success and I have reached new mental heights.
10 insights from this year’s readings:
- Men and women have completely different defaults in their approach to relationships. If both parties understand where such reactions and methods of coping are coming from, one can have an extremely healthy and supporting relationship with your partner. Strongly recommend all couples to read. – Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
- The absolute importance of honing your prioritization skills. What is your goal(in 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 years)? Reverse engineer what you have to do on a DWMY(daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) basis. Ask yourself, what is the ONE thing I can do today such that everything else doesn’t matter? Then go do it. You only have a finite amount of willpower every day. Use it sparingly, like money. – The ONE Thing
- The main reason your business has issues stems from the fact that your SOPs (standard operating procedure) that are put in place are not sufficient or in most cases do not even exist. If you want to reach new levels of freedom, it is imperative to constantly create standards and systems. The system should be working for you, so you can step away from the business. This system is at the heart of all franchises. If your business is set up so you can step away, your options will either be 1. Retire early 2. Exit strategy 3. Franchise. Either way, real freedom. What are the repetitive tasks that you could start standardizing? – The E-Myth Revisited
- Everyone falls under five different types of love languages. The old adage of ‘Treat others as you want to be treated’ is outdated and false. We must shift away from our own perspective and match the frequency of others to create true bonds. ‘Treat others as they want to be treated’. This kind of helped me understand and sympathize with gold-diggers. Actually, not really. Compliments, Acts of Service, Time Spent Together, Presents, and Touch. What is your love language? – The Five Love Languages
- Another conventional wisdom buster. A majority of successful and wealthy people have strict morning routines. Waking up before others and being productive definitely will put you ahead of the curve. Having tried a strict morning routine for months, I’ve come to the conclusion that mornings do not provide the type of focus and productivity spouted by others for me. Combining the newfound knowledge such as various sleeping types and poly-phasic sleep, I have come to accept myself as nocturnal. Consciously shifting towards a nocturnal working routine and seeing better results has finally helped me be free from the shackles of conscious guilt that one must be an early bird. It doesn’t matter what time you wake up, nor how much you sleep; how productive you are when you are awake is all that matters. – 5AM Club
- The word networking always left a strange taste in my mouth. It felt like I was forcing connections based on what they could do for me. The correct way of networking is having a systematic approach. It is well known that humans are only capable of maintaining 150 relationships at a time. One must filter, clean, manage, and care for these 150 people on a regular basis. One does so by providing value. The only question you should be asking yourself is, ‘How can I help?’. The best ways to help is to connect the bridge between people or provide information. I have a strong feeling this philosophy is the same as ‘good karma’. – How to be a Power Connector
- What is the one thing that will determine anyone’s success? Grit. The willpower to soldier on day in and day out, year in and year out. Grit can be learned and perfected by holding on to a productive activity for more than two years. This reminds me of the 10,000-hour rule. It doesn’t take natural talent or a genius to become a world-class professional. Just gritty, dirty work. – Grit
- Your brain is terrible at remembering things. Your brain should be left open and creative and sensitive. Just like we need to clear up space in our devices from time to time, such is the same for our brains. There is an art to note-taking, and if you can master it, it will be like having acquired another brain. Free your brain from memory by offloading all your ‘files’ into actual devices. Then, you can let your brain freely flow of thoughts and ideas; just don’t forget to take notes. – Building a Second Brain
- What are you doing right now? What are you currently working on? Show your work. Let others in your network know what you are working on. It doesn’t matter if it looks shitty; no one expects you to be good. Anything can be made into content. Let others know you exist and build a following. You only need 1000 fans to sustain yourself. This book helped me realize that my reading habit can be content. Stop being a consumer and start being a creator. – Show your Work
- If SEO(search engine optimization) could be summarized in one word, it would be: content. Good, original, value-giving, consistent content. Everything else is icing on the cake. SEO engineers are basically digital salespeople. We sometimes need to remind ourselves of the power of words.
For 2024, my personal goal is to read 100 books. If you have a book you want me to read instead for you, let me know. As you can see, my taste in books has a wide spectrum. Self development, business development, entrepreneurship, management, tech, sales, marketing, and productivity will probably be my main course for the next few years as I continue to increase in net worth. I’ve made several attempts to read novels, but I felt I was wasting time. I had a constant nagging feeling I could be learning something new during that same time. So I would eventually find myself going back to aforementioned genres. I may have a current addiction to self-help books, and I acknowledge this fact. There are those who advocate for less self-book reading and more doing, and I couldn’t agree more. Without real-life application, change will never occur and reading will only make you feel better with no outcome.
One of the biggest obstacles for up-and-coming entrepreneurs is the limited access to a personal mentor. I am likewise. Which means people like us must throw ourselves into books. Such is the only way, but it is something we can do while we wait for such a much-needed encounter. Such that we may stand on the shoulders of giants. Readers are leaders.
Previously, I used to get slightly disappointed when people wouldn’t follow through on my recommendations for books. Now, I do the reading and note-taking for everyone. The fascinating thing is that I haven’t actually changed my actual actions. I am doing the exact same thing that I have been doing. The only difference is a mentality shift. Completely owning it and making it my responsibility has been an eye-opener and a humbling experience. I have fully embraced my identity and talent as a bookworm. You’re welcome.
Reading is a common trait among highly successful people. Take Mark Cuban, for example. He is known to dedicate three hours each day to reading. Consider Elon Musk, who learned how to build reusable rockets just from reading. His brother once said Elon used to read two books a day when he was young. Warren Buffett says he reads over 500 pages daily. Bill Gates is known to read about 50 books a year; an average of one book per week. Gates is an advocate of the “5-hour rule” which involves dedicating an hour each day to reading. The success of those who follow this practice suggests that even an hour of daily reading is transformative. I had no idea this was even a thing before writing this up. And I can stand testimony that having done it for this year has been an amazing journey. That’s why I want to double my reading capacity and experience explosive growth for all to share.
Books in bold are my personal recommendations. If you don’t have the time to read an entire book, that’s okay. I’ve done the reading for you. Check out our book notes section of our blog to catch up on your reading. Remember, knowledge is only powerful when it’s shared. Please, share our book notes to those you think will benefit from reading them. Because in the end, reading the book is not what is important; it’s gaining the knowledge from reading the book.
