The #1 Takeaway From 13 Great Books

There may be no shortcuts in life, but when someone spends 15-30 years mastering a trade at the top of their field, then writes a book about it, reading that book seems like a logical way to accelerate learning.

For this post, I've boiled down 13 books into what I think was the #1 lesson in each. The purpose of each section is to be tactical enough for someone to act upon, or compelling enough for someone to want to read the book. I admit this post is also a selfish way for me to retain key learnings.

Hopefully, what took me dozens of hours to read or listen to through Audible, will take you 5 minutes to scan — enjoy!

1) Deep Work by Cal Newport

Synopsis: This book teaches how to build rare and in-demand skills fast through "Deep Work". He teaches that in order to solve tough/complex problems, we must train the mind to work in sprints with no distractions. As an added benefit, he states that since people are becoming more distracted due to social media, Slack, etc., mastering deep work results in a competitive advantage. Ultimately, he concludes that a deep life is a good life, since learning important skills grants more leverage in business (more pay, time-off, company-selection, etc...).

Key Takeaway: When important problems need to be solved, I block off 30 min - 2 hours in my calendar, and try hard to enter deep work, undistracted (no calls, no checking email, headphones on, etc.)

2) Principles by Ray Dalio

Synopsis: Dalio built the largest and most successful hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, which manages over $150 billion in assets. This book is about the principles that guided the entire company and his life to massive success.

Key Takeaway: At some point, something in life will come crashing down, and our ultimate success will depend on us realizing the fact that we can endure. "The quality of our life will depend on how we adapt to these painful situations". For background, Dalio's first fund failed and he had to lay off friends while also keeping his family afloat.

3) As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Synopsis: This short book hammers home how important it is to control our thoughts, because of the chain of events that catalyze from positive or negative thoughts.

Key Takeaway: "Thoughts become habit, habit becomes circumstance". The quality of my life today was determined by my thoughts and habits over the last few years. For this reason, I try to catch myself having a negative thought and create discipline around positive thoughts. For example, I'm now more aware of the times I try to push hard tasks off to "another time", and try to discipline my thoughts & actions to take care of it now.

4) The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Synopsis: This book is basically about how to optimize every minute of the workweek to only work on what's most important.

Key Takeaway: There are so many things that can be automated or outsourced to countries where labor is cheaper.

5) Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

Synopsis: Miller studied great movies going back dozens of years, and reverse-engineered what makes people engage in a story. He found the answers and spun it into exactly what businesses should say on their website and in their marketing.

Key Takeaway: Simplify everything. Every website visitor should know exactly what we do and how they can take action with us within 5 seconds. Our website is built on StoryBrand's principles and converts well.

6) The E-myth by Michael Gerber

Synopsis: This is the small business bible. It's all about how to scale a small business so the owner isn't working 80 hours a week, worried about cash flow. Gerber speaks a lot about how franchises have the highest success rate because they've systemized everything, proven results, then duplicated themselves at scale.

Key Takeaway: Treat business like a franchise - prove results, systematize everything, then scale quality.

7) Good to Great by James C. Collins

Synopsis: Collins and a research team conducted a rigorously thorough study of what makes and keeps companies great. They found a set of elite public companies that sustained greatness for at least fifteen years, proven by each company outperforming the general stock market by an average 7X.

Key Takeaway: There are too many, but the book boils greatness down to disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action. Other major takeaways are The Hedgehog concept, flywheel and level 5 leadership... This book has to be read.

8) Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

Synopsis: Voss is a former FBI hostage negotiator. There's no greater negotiation then trying to save hostage's lives over a phone call with a psychopath. This book is super tactical on how to end negotiations with a win-win.

Key Takeaway: When in a negotiation, ask "how" questions to get the other party to use logic to solve your problem. Translation: the example he uses is when a terrorist asks for something outlandish like "I want $10M in my account by Monday", ask the question "how am I supposed to do that?" and they will reason with you...

9) The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Synopsis: Based in the ancient city of Babylon, this book is a collection of short stories that each teach a core fundamental of managing money. These fundamentals hold true today.

Key Takeaway: Try to invest 10% of monthly income, no matter what. I use Betterment for this (great platform).

10) The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

Synopsis: Chet is a sales legend, having coached 60 of the Fortune 500 companies. This book lays out how to dominate the competition through enterprise B2B sales and account-based marketing strategies.

Key Takeaway: The Dream 100 strategy is a great way to double revenue. Pick 100 dream clients, who if just a few of them closed, could statistically 2X+ revenue. Then, dedicate a disproportionate amount of time and resources over 1-2 years going after them ultra-strategically, across multiple channels, until some sign.

11) Sales Leadership by Keith Rosen

Synopsis: Rosen writes about how to build a world-class coaching culture, teaching managers how to properly train reps.

Key Takeaway(s):

A. Coach the process, not the results. Translation, stop reminding reps of their quota and start listening to their sales convos, where specific insights that kill/win deals live.

B. Managers should train by asking questions rather than telling people what they 'should do' for two reasons: 1. When people come to the best conclusion on their own, they retain it. 2. When the trainee answers questions, the manager can figure out what they already know (and therefore don't need to teach), and focus on "coaching the gaps".

12) Expert Secrets by Russel Brunson

Synopsis: Russel Brunson is the king of online marketing funnels. This book is a guide to parlaying a passion or skill into a niche business, with the tactics to build a funnel that brings in consistent revenue.

Key Takeaway: The irrestistible offer is an easy sell. Come up with a free or low-cost offer of insane value to a prospect, that results in a natural upsell of a core product. For example, handing out free chocolate samples outside a retail shop, to entice people to come in for more.

13) Multi-Family Millions by David Lindahl

Synopsis: This book teaches how to buy distressed apartment complexes and then renovate them for cash flow and profits.

Key Takeaway: Multifamily properties are valued on NOI (net operating income), vs. single-family homes are valued on comps (what similar local houses recently sold for). So, if an apartment only has 50% of units leased due to poor management or deferred maintenance, a buyer can get the property at a discount, renovate it, then improve the occupancy rate as a result. Since revenue goes up with more renters, not only is the property likely cash-flowing, but NOI gets lifted, and therefore the value goes up, so the buyer can refinance or sell.

Conclusion

My goal is to add to this post every year. Feel free to ask any questions on these, or recommend me some of your favorites.