Kick-start Your Personal Development and Get an Unfair Advantage over Those Who Do Not.
The 10 most important books that have changed my mindset the most, paving the way for me to become a happy 6-fig entrepreneur.
First of all, it is absolutely essential to understand that the books discussed here may not necessarily trigger a similar mindset shift in you.
With books, timing is absolutely crucial: depending on what stage you are at in your personal development, you will interpret what is written differently or miss some golden nuggets. That’s why you should read good books several times.
Reading good books in the field you want to improve yourself is always a good idea — even if you already know what you have read in a similar way or only understand parts of it.
Reading a book is already an unfair advantage, because you think with the brain of the author, who is often much more experienced in the topic than you are.
The books that I picked out here and that influenced me the most at the time of reading are from the areas of personal and money mindset. Both areas achieve a high level of freedom of any kind.
Personal Mindset
Personal growth is essential for (physical and mental) health, happiness, good relationships, ambition, and achievements. With the right personal (growth) mindset, you not only accept new challenges and love them, but you actively seek them out — believe me. That’s really fun.
The problem with most people is that they think they can’t do anything about their own situation. The peak is reached by depressed people.
They can’t get any further from the truth.
That’s why I’m trying to present the following books in the order that I think could best solve this blockage.
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
This book is the classic book among personal development books. It’s about a story of the treasures Santiago — an Andalusian shepherd boy — finds along the way when he initially travels in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.
With these new insights, he teaches us the basic wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens that lie along the path of life, and, above all, following our dreams.
“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
This book has so many takeaways that I will only list a few here:
- Follow your heart’s desires, as this is the way to make your dreams come true
- Be aware that you will fail; this is inevitable. Just learn the lesson and move on. Failure is progress.
- Fear is the biggest obstacle — but great risks may result in great rewards. So, do the scary things fast, and the fear won’t get bigger.
- Be aware of the ripple effect: If you strive to be the best version of yourself, everything around you will be better too.
- Always know what you really want. Without a goal, every path leads you nowhere.
The goal that fulfills you is what matters first, which many people don’t know. Then, you try out as many ways as you can UNTIL you reach your goal — we don’t stop before that.
The Cafe on the Edge of the World: A Story About the Meaning of Life (John Strelecky)
Being a ‘modern’ version of the Alchemist, this book encourages the reader to reflect only the following three questions:
- Why are you here?
- Do you fear death?
- Are you fulfilled?
If you can answer these three questions for yourself, you have already taken the first step and put some things into perspective (e.g., your job that you hate or got fired; the unnecessary things or people you are angry about).
It is important to realize that the perfect time to change things will never come, and it is a waste of time to wait for it. Just do it now.
“Why is it we spend so much of our time preparing for when we can do what we want, instead of just doing those things now?”
Why don’t you just do what you really want to do? Why don’t you just quit your hated job and find one that really fulfills you or start a business?
Something is fulfilling because we determine it, not because someone else tells us so — find what fulfills you (not your boss, not your partner, not your children, …YOU).
The next thing is your ‘shock paralysis’, namely the fear of death: it can be eradicated by living the life we want without regrets instead of obsessing about surviving and preparing for the day we retire. “I’ll do it when I’m retired” is the biggest lie you tell yourself — you will never do it. Do it now.
If we don’t actively focus on our goals, we can use up time and energy through distractions and miss out on desired opportunities — and we never reach the destination we want.
Mindset — Updated Edition: Changing The Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential (Dr Carol Dweck)
This book is also very interesting at the beginning, as it explains the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset.
A fixed mindset that most people have is characterized as follows:
- Avoiding challenges
- Giving up when it gets tough
- Staying in the comfort zone
- Believing effort isn’t worth it
- Ignoring criticism
In contrast, the growth mindset is characterized as follows:
- Seeking and accepting challenges (often actively)
- Never give up.
- Moving out of the comfort zone as often as possible.
- Believing that mastering skills is possible through continuous effort, practice, and learning
- Finding the learning opportunities in criticism
The book also contains many examples to illustrate the differences.
If you finally find out what mindset you have, develop an understanding of what a growth mindset is, and find out how to achieve a growth mindset, then this book is worth its weight in gold.
Unbox Your Life: Curbing Chronic Complainers, Living Life Liberated, and Other Secrets to Success (Tobias Beck)
People can be divided into four categories, amusingly named inhabitants, ants, diamonds, and superstars:
- Inhabitants: The average inhabitant likes to complain about the weather, has no big goals, lives only for the evening, and hates their job, …
- Ants: Ants are hard-working and usually happy. They are committed. They don’t whine and are quite socially acceptable,… lovely people.
- Diamonds: People in this group are full of potential. They see opportunities rather than problems. They don’t complain, they contribute. Actively seek them out and surround yourself with them.
As you read this story and also deal with this topic, you are most likely one of these diamonds. You are on the right track. Make it.
- Superstars: The last kind of people or superstars or rock stars who have arrived where they always wanted to be. They don’t necessarily have a lot of money, but they have a job that they love. Superstars have a zest for life and try to help others wherever they can. They are just successful.
Be(come) a rock star.
Based on this categorization, the further takeaways are the following:
- If you want to be successful, you should stay away from residents.
- Read books and educate yourself instead of watching TV.
- Find a vision and a mentor to steer your life in the right direction.
- Be the best version of yourself and talk like it.
This book primarily helps you to recognize and overcome old thought patterns in order to lead a fulfilled and successful life.
The Winners Laws — 30 Absolutely Unbreakable Habits of Success (Bodo Schäfer)
This (reference) book was my first one and the start of the journey of my active personal development — a present from my girlfriend (thank you). It is about pushing you to your goal. The following citation summarises the book pretty well:
“There is an enormous difference between playing in order not to lose and playing to win.”
By providing the reader with 30 rules or habits to follow, the author supports this statement with recommended actions and shows how you can actively and confidently master the path to success.
Again and especially in this book, implementation is everything.
Money Mindset
A proper mindset regarding money is very valuable. First and foremost, such a money mindset helps you to become financially free — this, in turn, minimizes your worries and negative feelings about money and makes you free in this aspect as well.
Money will only come to you if you have a positive attitude towards money.
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (Robert T. Kiyosaki)
One day a colleague came to me — to help me in my thinking — and explained the difference between liabilities and assets.
That was the day everything changed — as if an invisible wall had been broken and you had a new perspective on the world.
Incredible feeling.
I never actively thought about this difference at the time and wasn’t aware of it in detail. I was in the hamster wheel and did what everyone else did and, of course, got what everyone else got.
‘Do I want to continue running the rat-race?’
This book is a must for all entrepreneurs and people who want to become one.
Let’s give some of the takeaway messages of this book:
- Don’t work for money. Rich people have money to work for them.
- It’s not how much money you make; it’s about how much money you keep. That’s a huge difference.
- Rich people acquire assets, not liabilities. Think in assets.
- Working your whole life for someone else may lead to financial struggle and unhappiness. There is only one guy who gets rich, and this guy is not you in this constellation.
As you can see, most of the messages are now known to the general public. At the time, that was groundbreaking for me — starting my way to becoming an entrepreneur.
The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness (Morgan Housel)
This book is crazy; it teaches you how to have a better relationship with money and make smarter financial decisions.
“The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.”
Instead of pretending that people are ROI-optimising machines, it shows you how your psychology can work FOR and AGAINST you.
There are again many take-away messages in the book — such as ‘theory isn’t reality’, ‘getting money is not the same as keeping money’, ‘decisions you make on a small number of days make all the difference’ — which you should read for yourself in order to gradually rethink your attitude to money and sow the new seed.
Principles: Life and Work (Ray Dalio)
Ray Dalio — an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager — shares the principles that have led to his success in this book.
Principles is the central concept of this book, which means that someone is consistently operating that can be clearly explained. All successful people operate by principles that help them be successful.
“Without principles we would be forced to react to all the things life throws at us individually, as if we were experiencing each of them for the first time.”
This book is for advanced ones and will definitely help you in your business operations to be more successful.
Mixed Mindset
The last two books I put in a new separate category — namely the ‘mixed mindset’— because the learnings are so essential to life and business alike.
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (Gary Keller)
This book has given me such a productivity boost since reading it that I haven’t procrastinated a single day since.
The essence of the book is simple: Just do ONE thing at a time.
Multi-tasking is an illusion. Do one thing after the other.
Apply the whole thing to different levels: (daily) tasks, projects, and goals — and you will be more productive than you have ever been.
Take a look at the book to get to know and apply the techniques (Pareto principle, Eisenhower matrix, etc.). Highly recommended — not only for your work life but also for life in general.
Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths about Fulfilment, Love, and Success (Steven Bartlett)
Last but not least, my absolute favorite book. A book whose title blew me away, and I would have wanted to write in years.
I don’t want to reveal or spoil anything here. If your goal is to become a ‘happy sexy millionaire’. Read this book.
You will gain a new perspective on the subject. Your goal will remain the same, but your approach will definitely change. From the hustler to the fulfilled one.
Is just reading enough?
No, of course not!
To gain an ‘unfair advantage’ over others, it is not enough just to accumulate knowledge, but also to put it into practice.
However, this is sadly where most people fail.
Be different.
So, Read books to get a different perspective on topics you want to improve in. Books can simply change your mindset or open your eyes.
Then, try to put new knowledge into practice. Practice, practice, practice. Every day. Until it manifests or becomes routine.
Read the same book years later to find new gold nuggets that you overlooked the first time or that you didn’t understand at the time.
Of course, there are other books that have shaped my mind. Some are only available in German, some would have had a greater impact if I had read them before other books (so they were just helpful repetitions or ‘reminders’).
Have you read the books, and what did the books trigger? Please share your experience.
HAPPY READING, HAPPY IMPLEMENTING!
Follow me to get more: