I’ve read 997 business books - these 40 will make you RICH

TLDR;

This video summarizes 40 business books, categorized into four key areas: starting with no money, sales, marketing, and money management. It provides actionable insights and principles from each book, offering a comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs and business professionals.

Starting with no money involves leveraging strengths, identifying contrarian business ideas, creating detailed plans, building minimum viable products, and executing visions effectively.
Effective selling requires setting the frame, building rapport, becoming persuasive, collaborating effectively, and closing deals with commitment.
Marketing strategies include developing a unique selling proposition, gathering real-world data, establishing a brand message, creating upsells, and driving up demand.
Managing money like the 1% involves monitoring finances, remaining profitable, planning for taxes, making data-driven decisions, and mitigating risks.

Intro [0:00]

The video introduces a compilation of key insights from 40 business books, aimed at providing actionable advice for becoming successful in business. The content is divided into four categories: starting a business with no money, mastering sales, effective marketing, and managing finances like the wealthy. The goal is to distill the core concepts from these books, saving viewers time by cutting through unnecessary filler content.

Part One: How To Start with No Money [0:54]

This section focuses on strategies for starting a business without initial capital. It emphasizes identifying and leveraging personal strengths, choosing a business idea that offers a competitive advantage, creating a detailed business plan, building a minimum viable product (MVP), and executing the vision with discipline. The key is to focus on what you're already good at, find a contrarian truth to build a business around, and validate your idea with an MVP before investing significant resources.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0 (by Gallup) [1:26]

"StrengthsFinder 2.0" highlights the importance of focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. It suggests that success comes from leveraging inherent talents and investing in them to create strengths. The book helps identify your most powerful multipliers, enabling faster progress. Minimizing weaknesses as expenses and finding others to compensate for them is more effective than trying to fix them yourself.

2. How To Win Friends and influence people [2:20]

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" provides networking techniques. The book emphasizes the importance of developing and applying innate strengths rather than fixing weaknesses to achieve success.

3. Zero to One [2:50]

"Zero to One" emphasizes choosing a business idea where you have a distinct advantage to outrun the competition. Billion-dollar business ideas often stem from betting on a contrarian truth—a future trend people are unaware of or unwilling to admit. Examples include Steve Jobs' vision of a button-free phone and Uber's belief in the comfort of strangers' cars.

4. Start With Why [4:01]

"Start With Why" encourages thinking in the right way to identify contrarian truths. It suggests improving existing things with a slightly different approach, even if it seems crazy at first. Going against the grain provides a significant advantage before others notice.

5. Business Model Generation [4:44]

"Business Model Generation" breaks down any business model into nine essential building blocks, using visuals for clarity. It uses the example of "Timmy's Membership Builders" to illustrate how to identify value propositions, customers, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and costs. The goal is to ensure the business can earn more than it costs.

6. Give and Take [6:50]

"Give and Take" suggests focusing less on what you can gain and more on what you can give, as this forms stronger relationships.

7. The Lean Startup [7:53]

"The Lean Startup" advocates creating a minimum viable product (MVP) instead of a fully polished product. The founder of Dropbox used a short video to demonstrate his file storage solution, increasing his waiting list from 5,000 to 75,000 in days, even though the product didn't exist yet. This MVP helped convince investors and turn the idea into reality.

8. The ChatGPT Millionaire [8:41]

"The ChatGPT Millionaire" suggests using AI to create a free MVP. The MVP can be used to appeal to investors, launch a Kickstarter campaign, find a business partner, or bootstrap by reinvesting profits. Providing undeniable proof of product demand is crucial when starting with no money and seeking funding.

9. The 12-Week Year [9:29]

"The 12-Week Year" proposes breaking the year into four 12-week segments to increase productivity. This approach forces you to confront results every three months, creating a sense of urgency and motivation. Applying this method can lead to significant progress by leveraging Parkinson's Law, where work expands to fit the allocated time.

10. Extreme Ownership [10:25]

"Extreme Ownership" is recommended for those who struggle with procrastination. It's packed with Navy SEAL tactics to whip your discipline into shape.

Part Two: How to Sell Anything To Anyone [12:08]

This section focuses on sales techniques applicable to all aspects of life. It covers setting the frame, building rapport, becoming persuasive, collaborating effectively, and closing deals. The key is to warm up the other person before asking for something, build connections, understand their perspective, and secure a firm commitment.

11. Pre-swation [12:44]

"Pre-suasion" shares techniques to make people more receptive before even asking. A consultant used the joke, "I can't exactly charge you a million for this," to prevent clients from asking for discounts. This is called price anchoring, where the first piece of information influences subsequent perceptions.

12. Style The Man [13:45]

"Style The Man" emphasizes that nonverbal communication, including how we dress, significantly influences communication.

13. The Art Of The Deal [13:59]

"The Art of the Deal" highlights the importance of regular check-ins to stay top of mind. Donald Trump made 50-100 calls per day, nurturing connections and making it easier to close deals.

14. Crushing It [14:30]

"Crushing It" emphasizes building a personal brand on social media to increase touch points and the likelihood of future sales. People do business with people they like.

15. To Sell Is Human [14:55]

"To Sell Is Human" argues that the most effective way to persuade is to attune with your prospect. An experiment showed that negotiators who focused on understanding the sellers' thoughts achieved the highest number of successful deals. Great deals come when buyers and sellers are in tune with each other.

16. Pitch Anything [15:38]

"Pitch Anything" points out that most people focus too much on what they want and not enough on what their prospects are thinking. They assume the audience cares as much about their business as they do, which is often not the case.

17. Never Split The Difference [16:04]

"Never Split the Difference" suggests transforming sales negotiations into collaborations by asking calibrated questions. These questions, starting with "what" or "how," direct the other person's attention to your problems. For example, asking a landlord, "How am I supposed to pay $1,700 a month when I make enough to afford $1,500?" can lead to creative solutions or lower prices.

18. Better Small Talk [17:20]

"Better Small Talk" suggests that good questions are a superpower.

19. Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering The Art, and Science of Getting Past No [17:33]

"Objections: The Ultimate Guide" recommends getting the potential buyer to agree to a specific action on a fixed date, known as micro commitment. When faced with objections, be prepared with responses that make it easier for the other person to say yes.

20. The Charisma Myth [18:24]

"The Charisma Myth" suggests that charisma can help close a deal and can be faked to some degree.

Part Three: How to Market Your Business [18:43]

This section focuses on marketing strategies to make your product or service known. It covers developing a unique selling proposition, gathering real-world data, establishing a brand message, creating upsells, and driving up demand. The key is to be remarkable, understand your customers, tell a compelling story, and create opportunities for repeat business.

21. Purple Cow [19:09]

"Purple Cow" believes the key to business success is being remarkable. Instead of traditional marketing, focus on creating a "Purple Cow"—something noteworthy that people can't help but talk about. Businesses are using TikTok and YouTube to create unique dishes as Purple Cows to attract customers.

22. YouTube Secrets [20:17]

"YouTube Secrets" provides insights into making viral content.

23. The Mom Test [20:47]

"The Mom Test" offers a solution to avoid blind encouragement by asking about people's lives in the context of your business. Instead of asking if they like your idea, ask about their experiences and challenges related to your product or service. This helps gather useful data and identify blue oceans—areas of high demand with low competition.

24. Blue Ocean Strategy [21:39]

"Blue Ocean Strategy" suggests identifying blue oceans, which are areas of a market with low competition but very high demand.

25. Building a StoryBrand [22:06]

"Building a StoryBrand" says the solution is to use a specific story structure in your marketing that cuts through the noise and holds people's attention. Create a character (your target customer) with a clear desire, facing a problem that your business can solve. Position your business as the guide to overcoming this problem and share success stories to build trust.

26. Copywriting Secrets [23:14]

"Copywriting Secrets" suggests portraying potential customers as heroes in your marketing. This narrative structure, known as the hero's journey, is commonly used in TV shows and films.

27. DotCom Secrets [23:47]

"DotCom Secrets" teaches how to build a value ladder and sell higher-priced products and services to existing customers. A dental practice, for example, starts with a simple checkup and gradually offers teeth cleaning, whitening, retainers, and cosmetic surgery.

28. Expert Secrets [24:36]

"Expert Secrets" outlines how to use the perfect webinar model to upsell many people at once while keeping a personal feel.

29. Oversubscribed [25:02]

"Oversubscribed" states that every product that is oversubscribed has people that didn't get it even though they were willing to buy it. Rolex has mastered this strategy by creating long waiting lists and selectively offering their products. This increases demand and allows for flexible pricing.

30. Don’t Make Me Think [25:44]

"Don't Make Me Think" principle emphasizes making it very easy for your customers to understand your website and message.

Part Four: How to Manage Money Like The 1% [25:53]

This section focuses on managing finances effectively. It covers monitoring finances, remaining profitable, planning for taxes, making data-driven decisions, and mitigating risks. The key is to stay financially aware, prioritize profit, take advantage of tax breaks, make rational decisions, and avoid unnecessary risks.

31. The Total Money Makeover [26:18]

"The Total Money Makeover" offers principles for keeping money under control, applicable to business finances. Entrepreneurs should keep a sharp eye on their finances to avoid financial pickles. If your revenue stopped, could you keep your business afloat for at least three months?

32. Profit First [27:51]

"Profit First" urges entrepreneurs to prioritize profit by flipping the traditional formula to sales minus profit equals expenses. By allocating a portion of each sale to profit, you force your business to become more efficient.

33. Tax-Free Wealth [28:50]

"Tax-Free Wealth" highlights the importance of understanding tax codes to increase wealth. The IRS dedicates a significant portion of the tax code to helping people avoid taxes and stimulate the economy. Getting a great accountant can help take advantage of all the tax breaks you're entitled to.

34. The Intelligent Investor [29:38]

"The Intelligent Investor" discusses a scenario where you own a business with a partner named Mr. Market, who daily tells you how much your share is worth. The book advises making your own informed decisions about your investment's worth, rather than being swayed by emotions.

35. Thinking, Fast and Slow [31:07]

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" outlines that your brain has two ways of thinking: system one (fast and intuitive) and system two (slow and analytical). Understanding this helps avoid jumping to conclusions and taking on unnecessary risks.