Set Yourself to the Path of Success – Read These Books!

My friends know I love to read, especially quality books on leadership, strategy, self-development, history, psychology and similar topics. I have amazing friends who all are driven to succeed and are willing to do something more with their lives than having survived to age 70 as their greatest success in lives, therefore, they are trying to seek ways to become even better to achieve more in their lives, therefore, they very often come to me for advice on what books to read that will help them succeed. Well, I decided to try to answer to that in this article.

Of course, we all are at our own state of mind and part of the path to success, therefore, we all need a different approach to what books to read and the same applies to my friends, therefore, there is no common formula that suits everybody, it really depends on what state of mind you are in and how you see your path. BUT, nevertheless, I wanted to make a small list of 6 books that I would suggest reading anyone, especially those, who are at the beginning of their path to success. There are many other great books and other lists to make, and I might do that later, but I think this is the best one to start with as it is something I am asked about all the time.

Now, I know there is a great chance that each of these books could be replaced with even better ones or different topics could be put in between these, but I can talk only about what I have truly read and can guarantee effectiveness of those books as they really helped me. It was not easy to get down to only 6 books, as there are so many awesome books on the same topics, but I know how frustrating it is to choose what to read and to be sure you invest your time in the right reading, but I guarantee this is a great beginning list before you go deeper into the topics by reading other masterpieces. And remember, there is no right answer or the right way, there is only the way that works for you and answers that satisfies your mind. If you don’t seek them, you will never know what is the right way and the right answer to you.

Perceive this as a small 6-book course of setting yourself to the path of success and meaningful life, because, if you follow these simple rules I present further, I guarantee it will bring the results you carve for and change the way you see the world and act in your everyday life.

So, the reding rules: 1) Read them all without reading anything else in between; 2) Read them in exact order I present them to you; 3) When you read them, underline those sentences that you feel are the most valuable and meaningful to you (those are the answers your mind is seeking for) and mark those lines/pages with stickers to easily find those meaningful ideas later – we all will mark something different as our way of thinking and the answers we seek differ, therefore, all of us will find something else that seems meaningful and useful; 4) Read at least 1 hour a day and try to read at least 2 hours on weekends because it will be no good if you are done with these in more than 6 month; 5) Regularly re-read those marked ideas when you are through with all the books to stick to them and stay disciplined (define your period of regularity yourself, we all have our own pace) as it is time consuming to re-read whole book when anyway there are only certain ideas you are looking for.

Now let’s get down to the business! I know most of you are probably bored up till this moment or are in a rush, so, below I present you my list in exact reading order and for the busy people – thank you for the attention, I hope it will help you as it helped me! But if you want to know more about those books and why exactly these books are on the list and why the reading must be done in exactly this way, please keep on reading after the general list.

The magic list itself:

1)    “The Answer: How to take charge of your life & become the person you want to be” by Allan & Barbara Pease – Shows you the way how to get up, see the opportunities instead of difficulties, start doing, discipline yourself and make your life what you want it to be;

2)    “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz – How enabling positive thinking will defeat disbelief, produce ideas and set you going to achieve big dreams you have;

3)    “The Definitive Book of Body Language” by Allan & Barbara Pease – Knowing how to use your body language and read others will be one of the crucial skills to achieve your goals;

4)    “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie – A must read classic for any leader or those who have set themselves on the path of success. It will show you how to positively influence people, win people to your way of thinking and change people without arousing resentment;

5)    “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” by Seth Godin – Will give you the answer on how to start your own movement (whatever it is), become an excellent leader and build something meaningful with the right people around;

6)    “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu – Another must-read classic, but more than 2500 years old, and even more relevant now than ever. Although being a military strategy book, if read correctly, will give you the most crucial and basic knowledge on strategies and tactics to use in your path to success.

Now, for those who want to know more about these great books, why exactly you should read them and why in exactly this order and to understand if this is something that suits you and is something you are looking for before you actually commit to this 6-book success development program, please continue reading and find all the answers!

1)    “The Answer” by Allan & Barbara Pease

This is the best book to start your path to success and the reason it is the first reading material in this list as it will show you how to actually figure out what are those things you want to be successful in and how to set your mind towards actually getting up and make success to happen. If you are currently at the mental stage when you have lost it or just don’t know where to begin, this is the book to read. It will show you, based on scientific discoveries of our brains, how to change your thinking, program your brain towards achieving your goals, enabling you to refine your focus and see opportunities instead of difficulties. This is the guideline in making that first step towards change and start actually doing, instead of only talking about it.

As Allan and Barbara said in their book: “The difference between successful people and the rest is that successful people are action-oriented. They might not look very graceful when they begin, but they are moving forward”. So, take the action now, do what it takes to succeed, read these books and see the magic happening. Set your mind to success and seeing opportunities instead of difficulties, this will change a lot and this book will help you in doing that.

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the body can achieve.”

Napoleon Hill, 1937

2)    “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz

When you have set yourself to action and programmed your brain towards success, you need to improve your positive thinking and set really big goals that you really deserve to achieve and this book is the perfect tool that will help you in doing that. Positive mindset, believing you can achieve really big goals, become confident and avoid negativity and people who try to set you down and convince that something is not possible because they are failures themselves, is what really defines successful and “BIG” people. This book will teach you how to stay on positive track, not worry about things that don’t matter and find solutions in every obstacle you encounter with.

A great quote that defines this book is this: “When you believe something is impossibleyour mind goes to work for you to prove why. But when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your brain goes to work for you and helps you find the ways to do it.”. Start doing, star believing in yourself and your big dreams and your mind will find the way to achieve it.

“A wise man will be master of his mind. A fool will be its slave”

Publilius Syrus

3)    “The Definitive Book of Body Language” by Allan & Barbara Pease

Another powerful masterpiece of Allan and Barbara Pease that will help you master your body language to make the right impression of yourself and convince others, as well as read other people and find out what they really feel and want. When you are done with your goal setting, are full of positivity and know what must be done in order for you to succeed, it is time to “go out there”, meet people and start working to make your big dreams come true. You will never be able to achieve anything by avoiding people, so, to succeed and get what you want, you must learn the secrets of body language as it is something that can be more powerful that just words and, due to evolutionary processes, body language is something that sends the strongest signals and these are the signals, if read correctly, that will tell you what the person actually thinks, feels and how to react next.

Before anything else, learn how to control your body language and only then you can proceed to being a good leader, influencer and anything else you want to be to other people as well as becoming truly confident in what you are doing. As authors say: “Without effective body language you can be like a spaghetti Western – the lips don’t match the words and the viewers are constantly confused or switch channels”.

4)     “How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

When you have all the right attitudes, clear goals and you have mastered your body language, it is time to add up to your skills and make the words that come out of your moth mesmerize people and work for your benefit. This is definitely in TOP 3 of my all time favorite books as it is a dense collection of phenomenal methods (that are proven to be working excellent throughout time) on how to influence people (in a good way), make them do what you want (also, in a good way) and, if you use this wisely, become history changing leader. This book is full principles on how you can work with people, talk to them and change their attitudes and behavior to effectively achieve your big dreams.  

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.”

“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”

Dale Carnegie

5)    “Tribes” by Seth Godin

Next step, when positivity is at its peak, you know what to do, you can convince people with your spoken language and your body language, it is time to assemble the team that will follow you in achieving your big dream as nobody can achieve big things alone. No matter what your goals are, you can set up your own “Tribe” from likeminded people that will be faithful to you and your ideas. This book will show you how to transform yourself from “sheep” into a leader and set to the path of success. To succeed you must lead and to lead is not that difficult if you believe in what you do, as author say: “The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.”

Yes, there are so much more great, maybe even much better books on leadership, but as I told, you have to start somewhere. Read the symple basics and then go deeper with other literature.

6)    “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu

And to wrap up everything, we finish our 6-book course with an absolute work of art by a true genius (or geniuses, nobody really knows if this is written by one person or others added to the book during centuries). It is a set of wisdoms that have been tests by the greatest leaders of human race and proven to be working as precise and reliably as the laws of physics. Probably, this is a book that has influenced the course of the history the most. Although it is written (at least the beginnings of it) more than 2500 years ago and for the purpose of military conquer, it is nowadays even more relevant as a book for business strategy and leadership. The only trick, you have to read it in the correct way, by interpreting the written for the purpose of achieving your own goals, but I don’t think that any modern, progressive, goal oriented and educated person should have problems with having enough imagination and intelligence to being able to apply these wisdoms for other purposes than war.

So, to get to the point, the final step towards your unstoppable success is to learn the secrets of strategy and tactics. Without strategy and tactics, you will not be able to develop your idea, move it into the world to admire and be a fully capable leader. To succeed and understand the world, read this book, learn it by heart and apply – together with all the other skills you gained so far, you will be unstoppable!

“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

Sun Tzu

If you have read this article so far, I congratulate you, as you have proven you have the right attitudes to succeed. Now continue with the hype, go and buy those books now and start reading and learning from them as soon as possible. The opportunities will not magically appear, you create them.

If by publishing this I will be able to help at least one person in his/her path to success, my job here is done. If you liked what you read and agree, share this with others and help to spread the success, because only sharing the success will enable your own success!