Sometimes less is more…
I have been studying success and finance for close to 6 years.
At first my focus was on success, today it’s finance.
But whether I’m reading a book on time management, listening to a financial expert’s podcast, watching a seminar on copywriting or reading up on marketing strategies what I have found is that many of the same concepts appear.
And no matter how long a presentation or book may be, the underlying concept behind them can usually be summed up in a few words.
In school, teachers often teach us that more is better but I remember one college professor telling us that in his class no assignment could be longer than 4 pages.
His reasoning, if we were writing more than 4 pages we were wasting his time.
He wanted to present our thoughts and ideas concisely ..and it was tougher than I thought.
Writing a few thousand pages on the history of the world is easy.
There’s no lack of information out there.
But try condense 6000 years into just 100 pages, now that takes skill.
So today I thought I’d stay along these lines.
No philosophical concepts. No funny stories. Short and sweet.
So here goes…success, as defined by 14 mega-successful books, in 10 words or less.
- Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People – LISTEN. Buy people a drink and ask lots of questions.
- Jim Rohn’s The 5 Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle– Whatever you sow, you reap.
- Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich – We become what we think about.
- Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Build once, sell hundreds of time.
- Brian Tracy’s Focal Point – Knowledge is valuable.
- Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant – Systems are everything in business, just look at McDonald’s.
- Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Self-mastery. Teamwork. Balance.
- Kim Kiyosaki’s Rich Woman – Don’t rely on a man for your success.
- John Maxwell’s The Difference Maker – Attitude is everything.
- George Clayson’s The Richest Man in Babylon – Get out of debt. Divide your investments into 2 groups (passive and active).
- Joseph Michelli’s The Starbucks Experience – People are willing to pay more for a quality experience.
- Joe Montana’s The Winning Spirit – Even the best of us need help sometimes.
- Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work-Week – In today’s world, outsource every task you can.
- David Schwartz’s The Magic of Thinking Big – Dream BIG then take actions to achieve them.
These are all great books and well worth adding to your library.
At a cost of less than $20, I honestly can’t think of a better investment in ourselves.
I find it interesting that people today are willing to invest upwards of $100,000 for a college education but question whether a book is worth a measly $20.
Textbooks, $70 no problem…but a book that we can borrow from the library, hmmm…
In the end, a book is only as valuable as we make it.
Buy it, read it, and finally, apply it…that’s where the magic is.
Adrian Shepherd