I've read 482 books about money. These 12 will make you rich.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the last six years, I've read four hundred and
eighty two books on making money, investing, business, and personal development.
In this video, I'm going to share with you number one,
the reasons why I believe it is important to read
and read a lot. Number two, I'm going to share
with you all the tips and tricks and secrets that
I used to read one hundred books every single year.
And then number three, I'm going to share with you

(00:20):
the twelve books that if I could only read twelve
books ever again, I would choose these twelve books if
my goal was to study books that would help me
make as much money as possible. And these ones I'm
going to share with you are the twelve best books
I've ever read on making money. Now. It's true that
I read one hundred books per year now, but it
did not start off that way. In fact, I remember
when I was a kid, I actually did not like

(00:42):
reading at all. I always felt like I should be reading,
and I remember growing up my older sister she was
constantly reading books, and so it instilled the sense in
me that I should be reading. But it wasn't until
I was an adult that I actually decided, hey, I
need to start reading, and so the year was twenty seventeen.
When I decided I did that, I was going to
become a reader, because before that I had always tried

(01:04):
to read. But there's a qualitative difference between trying to
do something and deciding to do something. When you try
or attempt to do something, you're saying, hey, I'm going
to commit to some actions and then the result will
be whatever it is. But when you decide or commit
to an outcome instead, then you're saying, hey, I'm going
to have this result happen, and it may take a

(01:25):
bunch of different things to get there, but I'm going
to do whatever it takes. There are two very different things,
and so I decided to become a reader. What I
did that was in twenty seventeen, I decided I was
going to read one book a month, which got me
to twelve books by the end of twenty seventeen, which
for me was an all time record. But once I
was able to accomplish reading one book a month every

(01:45):
month for an entire year, I realized I could actually
do more, and so for twenty eighteen, I upped my
personal goal to thirty six books, which would be three
books per month, I came very close. Twenty eighteen, I
got to thirty four books. So the next year I
bumped my goal up again and I said, I'm going
to read one book every single week, four books a month.
I'm going to reach fifty books by the end of

(02:06):
the year. And for the last couple of years I've
been reading one hundred books per year consistently. This is
actually a spreadsheet that I used to use to track
literally every single book that I read as a way
to give me a trophy or a shelf a checkbox
to mark off, because just being able to say, hey,
I hit my goal gave me the motivation I needed
to continue reading. Now I don't do that anymore because

(02:28):
it's just a habit. I don't need that to motivate
me to read anymore. But as of right now, I've
read just about four hundred and eighty two books, and
the vast majority of them have been about money, investing, business,
or personal development. If you're keeping track, it took me
almost four years to build up the reading muscles that
it takes to read one hundred books a year. And
so if you're sitting there thinking, ah, that time is daunting,
that's such a long amount of time to wait to

(02:49):
get to where I want to go. I guess what.
The time will pass anyway, So never be discouraged by
the amount of time it'll take you to get where
you want to go, because that time is going to
come and go no matter what. Now, the next question
that needs to be answered is why is it important
to read? And the number one reason why it's important
to read is because leaders are readers and readers are leaders.
When you look at every single person who has had
big influence in the world and built up a legacy

(03:11):
and made a bunch of money, almost every single one
of them is a massive reader. And as long as
you're not reading just fiction books for entertainment, then it's
true that the more you learn, the more you earn.
I'm sure you've all heard the adage that you are
the average of the five people that you spend the
most time around. Well, it's also true that you can
choose to spend your time around successful people who make

(03:34):
a lot of money and great investors and great leaders
of the past by simply reading their biographies, reading their stories,
reading their books telling you what to do and what
not to do, and what mistakes they made and what
pitfalls you should avoid. By studying their lives and listening
to their advice, you can reprogram yourself. Even if you
don't know these people in real life. You can reprogram

(03:55):
your brain to think like these people and follow the
actions and the habits that they take to make yourself
more sick. Now, if I were starting off today with
zero reading habits and I wanted to become a reader,
I would start by setting an achievable goal for some
people that literally might be read two books this year.
Set a goal with the only requirement being that goal
is low enough that you can actually achieve it. Because

(04:15):
once you start something, then over time you can improve it.
But you can never improve on something unless you start
it first. The second trick that I would have started
using a lot earlier, which is the way I'm able
to read one hundred books per year right now, is
by using audiobooks. And before I show you how powerful
audiobooks are, I want to address the objection that audiobooks
are not really reading. This study, done back in twenty sixteen,

(04:38):
took ninety one. Participants received instructions and a book in
either audiobook form text form, or they could use both
at the same time. After they read, they had to
take a reading comprehension test. The analysis found that both
men and women retained an equal amount of information regardless

(04:58):
of whether they just listen or whether they read with
their eyes, or they used both simultaneously. This has been
proven time and time again. There is statistically no difference
in comprehension and retention whether you read with your ears
or read with your eyes. Now, the reason why I
prefer to read audiobooks is because you can listen to
them on three X speed. Now that's not true of

(05:20):
all authors and all narrators, but almost every narrator you
can listen on at least two X speed, which means
for an average ten hour book, you can get through
it in five hours. If you can play it on
three X speed, you can get through it in a
little over three hours. Now, if reading one book in
a little over three hours still sounds like too much
time for you, it's because you're not considering found time.

(05:41):
Especially with audiobooks, you can listen on your commute. I
personally listen while I work out, while I run, and
while I drop. Between just those three things, I'm able
to have enough found time in a year to read
one hundred books. With audio books, you can also include
things like when you're cleaning up, doing dishes, cooking. If
you include the kin of the book as well, you

(06:01):
can read it while you're doing things like waiting in
line or going to the bathroom. And if you consider
that the average adult in the United States spends almost
four hours per day watching TV, and younger generations are
spending that same amount of time on social media or
YouTube or Netflix, you start to realize how many hours
in the day are wasted doing things that you can

(06:22):
replace with reading if you actually want to. And I
personally credit these next twelve books that I'm going to
share with you with assisting me in every single larger
significant increase in income or wealth along my journey. They
don't do it for you, but sometimes it's helpful to
have somebody point to you where the next step is.
All right. So, if I could only read twelve books again,
the first book that I would choose on my list

(06:44):
is Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits, by James Clear is the
single best book you could choose to give you the
tools you need to to improve your life in any area,
whether that's income or something else. One of My favorite
quotes from this book is new goals don't deliver new results,
new lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is not an outcome,
it's a process. This reason, all of your energy should

(07:05):
go into building better rituals, not chasing better results. He
also highlights the importance of starting small and then improving
along the way, because every time you improve just a
little bit, you're improving off of your past improvements. Consider
that if you take one and you multiply it by
one three hundred and sixty five times, you are not

(07:25):
improving at all. You are just doing one over and
over again. At the end, you're still left with one.
This is the idea of doing the same thing over
and over again every single day without ever trying to improve.
You're in the same place you were before. But if
you improve by just one percent every single day, that
means you're taking one and multiplying it by one point
zero one every single day for three hundred and sixty

(07:47):
five days straight. After doing that consistently every day for
a year, you are at thirty seven point seven. The
next book on my list is The Almanac of Nevala
Robi Kant. Now this is technically a book but it
is a collect of explanations that came from one of
Naval's tweet storms back in twenty eighteen that blew up

(08:07):
called how to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky. Some of
my favorite chapter topics from this book are understand that
ethical wealth creation is possible if you secretly despise wealth,
it will elude you, and you get rich by giving
society what it wants but does not yet know how
to get at scale. And Finally, fortunes require leverage. Business

(08:27):
leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal
cost of replication, which comes from either code or media.
This book is packed full of wisdom and real actionable
steps you can take to improve your income and your wealth.
The next book on my list is Skin in the
Game by Nassim Nicholas Teleb. Now, I will say this one,
I'm kind of cheating because this is the book that

(08:49):
I'm choosing. However, any of his books are absolutely fantastic.
I highly recommend all of them. Black Swan, Anti Fragile,
Skin in the Game are my three favorite, but Skin
in the Game sits at the top for me. My
favorite quote from the book is Finally, when young people
who want to help mankind come to me asking what
should I do? I want to reduce poverty, I want
to save the world, and similar noble aspirations. At the

(09:12):
macro level. My suggestion is number one, never engage in
virtue signaling. Number two, never engage in rent seeking. You
must start a business. Put yourself on the line, start
a business. Years ago, Gallup did a pull around the
entire world, even in poverty stricken places like India, and
do you know what the number one need was that
people self identified not food, not water, jobs. Humans do

(09:36):
not like handouts. Humans do not like being dependent on
other humans. Humans want the dignity of being able to
provide for themselves and for their families. If you want
to make a difference in this world and actually help
people create jobs, you're creating real wealth. You're creating income.
You're engaging in voluntary association and voluntary exchange, giving somebody

(09:57):
else things that they want more than the money that
they're giving up both people profiting, and never engage in
rent seeking, which is where your income is the result
of you being a parasite on society or on the taxpayer.
The next book on my list is one hundred million
dollar Offers by Alex Hormosi. This other book on hundred
million dollar Leads is fantastic as well, but one hundred
Million Dollar Offers stands out even higher. To me. This

(10:19):
is the single best business book I have ever read,
and that I would recommend to anybody if you could
only read one business book forever, one to study and
read over and over again, and I have read this
one over and over again. The subtitle is the summary,
which is how to make offers so good people feel
stupid saying no. Because of what I learned and applied
from one hundred Million Dollar Offers, I was able to

(10:40):
take Haresy Financial University from ten thousand dollars per month
in June of twenty twenty three to over six figures
every month by the end of twenty twenty three, and
most of that came down to simply making the product better.
If you're interested in joining Haresey Financial University right now,
I'm currently running a limited use discount code the code
this New Year New Me. It gives you fifty percent

(11:03):
off for all payments every single year in perpetuity, and
there are a limited number of these coupons available. When
they run out, they are gone. Code New Year new me.
Jump on it now, it's gonna run out quick. The
next book on my list is The Fiat Standard. Now
I'm cheating again because he's also written The Bitcoin Standard
and Principles of Economics, and they're both absolutely fantastic. The

(11:24):
Fiat Standard does happen to be my favorite of the three.
Safety Ina Moose is an amazing author able to break
down very complex economic topics in a nuanced way and
explain them very clearly. If you want a firm grasp
of economics, from how money works, the history of money,
the positives and negatives to different types of financial systems
throughout history, where we are today and why, and the

(11:46):
alternatives going forward into the future. I cannot recommend anything
more highly than Safety Ina Moos's The Fiat Standard. Understanding
how the economy works is one of the key foundations
you need to be being able to invest successfully long term,
and nobody does that better than him. The next book
on my list is Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises
by Ray Daalia. If you're not familiar with Ray Dalio,

(12:07):
he is the founder of Bridgewater that is the largest
hedge fund in the world. Extremely successful long term investor
and business builder, and a lot of his investing success
comes from his studying of past debt crises and financial cycles.
He has written two other books, one on Principles, just
leadership and life in General. That one's pretty good, and
then another book called The Changing World Order. That one

(12:30):
is very good as well. But my favorite of his
three books is Big Debt Crises absolutely essential if you
want to have success investing into the future, especially in
an uncertain and unstable world where we're not exactly sure
where things are going. With the dollar raining superpowers around
the world, inflation, hyperinflation. We understand how to see ahead

(12:52):
by looking at those things how they unfolded in the past.
The next book on my list is Market Wizards by
Jack Schweger or Schwager. I'm not sure sure, but there
are a bunch of these books. He's got Unknown Market Wizards,
the Original Market Wizards, the New Market Wizards, Hedge Fund
market Wizards, Stock Market Wizards, a little book of market Wizards.
And essentially what Jack did here was he went around

(13:14):
and interviewed all of the most successful investors and traders
since like the eighties, ask them questions about their number
one rule they're investing dues and don'ts, their biggest mistakes,
the most amount of money they've made. And the reason
why I think these books are so vital is because
once you read twelve twenty thirty of these interviews, you
start to realize there's some massive patterns, some very identifiable

(13:40):
similarities between all of the most successful investors and traders
throughout history. Risk management is number one for every single
one of them. None of them ever open themselves up
to large losses. Now, they all mitigate those risks of
losses in different ways, but that's all of them. That's
their number one rule. And so I highly reckon me

(14:00):
studying these market wizards through Jack Schweger's books, and if
you're going to start with any of them, I'd start
with the original market Wizards. The next book on the
list is safe Haven, Investing for Financial Storms by Mark Spitznagel.
Mark Spitznagel runs Universa. It's a hedge fund that him
and not seem to leb if you remember, he was
the author of the books that I recommended before, Anti Fragile,

(14:23):
Black Swan and Skin in the Game, and safe Haven
is specifically about how to protect your assets during volatile
times or from large draw downs. He just shreds modern
portfolio theory and most financial investors who tell you, hey,
most of the time, if you put your money in
just the S and P. Five hundred, you just throw
it in there and let it sit and let it ride,
you're gonna be completely fine. An Yeah, statistically, there are

(14:46):
certain time periods where you'd get absolutely obliterated, but most
of the time that doesn't happen, so you should be safe.
Mark Spitznagel goes through cost effective risk mitigation because we
only get one shot at this. We don't get to
live our life oh over and over and over again
and then get the averages of all of those lives
put together. We only have this one shot to end

(15:06):
up with as large of a wealth stockpile as possible,
which means that we need to make sure we are
not exposing ourselves to those large losses. The stuff that
I learned from Mark in this book Safe Haven, is
incorporated heavily into one of the courses inside Heresey Financial
University in my Portfolio Allocation course, and I apply a
lot of these lessons to help you protect your portfolio

(15:28):
and your investments from large losses. The next book on
the list is You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
by Joel green Black, which is just the cringiest title
for a book that tries to teach you about investing.
But this book is actually the book that Michael Burry read,
and as a result of reading Joel Greenblat's work You
Can Be a Stock Market Genius, Michael Burry went on

(15:51):
and founded his hedge fund that he went to short
the housing market with before the Great Financial Crisis, and
Michael Burry specifically credits Joel Greenblatt with getting him started
on learning how to invest. The next book on my
list is the only fiction one, and I had to
include a fiction one for those of you who love stories,
and this one is Iin Rand's Atlas Shrugged. This is
basically the capitalist Manifesto. If you want a fictional book

(16:14):
that highlights the truths of entrepreneurship and the ethical morality
of building wealth and how to actually help and save
the world, there is nothing better than Atlas Shrugged. Next
book on the list is Never Split the Difference by
Chris Voss. Chris Voss is an ex FBI hostage negotiator
and this is my favorite book on sales Sales is

(16:36):
the ultimate safety net, and no matter what business you're in,
if you can learn sales, you will make more money
even if you're not directly in a sales position, although
I would recommend everybody getting into a sales position at
some point in their life because that's going to help
you make more money than anything and never split the
difference by Chris Voss teaches you actual applicable skills, tactics,
and tricks that you can use to make more money

(16:58):
in a negotiation, which is basically everything in life that
has to do with money. And last, but not least
on our list is when Money Dies by Adam Ferguson.
This details the story of what happened in the collapse
of the Weimar Republic when they experienced all of the hyperinflation,
and this one is key to understanding what happens when

(17:20):
a currency fails, how it fails, and when you notice
the symptoms like everything that people do, how they buy
and sell, how they save, how they preserve their wealth.
It gives you the tools that you need to start
preparing for that should that ever hopefully not, but should
it ever happen to you, And that concludes our list.
Those twelve books. If I could only read twelve books

(17:43):
ever again, I would actually choose those books and just
read them over and over again because it's the perfect
mix of business, sales, investing, money, psychology, habit building, history,
and philosophy. Every single one of these books is linked
with an affiliate link in the description of the video below.
And don't forget to sign up for Heresy Financial University
using the annual plan with the code new Year New

(18:06):
Me to get fifty percent off in perpetuity, and once
the code is used up, it will no longer work,
so get after it. Make this year a better year.
Start reading. Just choose these twelve books one a month,
and you'll be well on your way to making more
money and having a much more prosperous and successful life.
As always, thanks so much, have a great day.