7 Books Most Millionaires Read Before They Turn 30
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Reading is one of the best ways to open our minds to different ideas and perspectives. There is so much knowledge that exists in the world. People have dedicated their entire lives towards particular experiences or types of work.
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We cannot capture all of their learnings from a few hundred pages, but we can gain significant insight from what they learned and experienced. It is for reasons like this that there is a high correlation between success (personal and financial) and reading.
That said, there is a culture that has developed around reading for the sake of reading. People brag about how many books they have read. It makes us seem more cultured and intelligent. This has also lead people to try and read books that our role models have read.
If Steve Jobs read a book and extracted value from it, there is a good chance that we will as well. That being said, each book speaks to a person in a different way. Using other's recommendations can be important, but there are endless books with good reviews. That means exploring your own intellectual curiosities and creating a perspective that is unique to you is the most valuable.
While keeping that in mind, there is a reason that some books have been more frequently read and talked about by successful people than other books. Those can be beneficial and create strong roots for anyone. Here are seven of the most common of these books read by millionaires:
1. How to Win Friends and Influence People
The title turns some people off since it feels sale-zy and business-y. This book is a lynchpin in creating productive relationships, though. We are so concerned with what is happening in our own world that we often forget to think about other people, even when we are around them.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is a refreshing reminder of how to build strong professional relationships with others. The insight from this book can immediately be applied to life with a substantial impact.
Related: 9 Habits of Profoundly Influential People
2. Sapiens
Knowledge of how past goals of survival have influenced our genes and tendencies today helps us understand how people act. That idea can be found and explored in many places. Sapiens dives into that a bit, but what makes this book so unique is the larger context it discusses human evolution and development within.
Sapiens goes into the revolutions that have pushed societies forward, it talks about some of the great empires that have existed and about how we have ended up where we are today.
This book is invaluable when thinking about what will happen in the future. Yuval Noah Hurrari makes you realize that much of what has happened in the past has had factors of luck.
Hurrari also makes you question how much "better" off society is today than it was a few hundred or a thousand years ago. This perspective is a necessity when thinking about how we should be spending our lives, especially if you want to play a big role in what the future will look like.
Related: This Successful Entrepreneur Shares The Trick That Helps Her Tell The Difference Between Being Productive and Being Busy
3. Thinking Fast and Slow
For a long time, economists have made the assumption that humans are rational. It does not take long to think of countless examples where that is not the case. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel-Prize-Winner Daniel Kahneman discusses many of the ways that people are influenced by situational context.
He helped pioneer behavioral economics and the idea that humans are very irrational when looking at benefits versus costs.
This book paints the way that we think about our decisions in a different light. Awareness of our own biases and what might influence our decisions will help you make more rational and level-headed choices when they count most.
Related: How to Build Up Your Willpower Muscle
4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
As a bit of a complement to Thinking Fast and Slow (although it came out many years earlier), Robert Cialdini wrote a masterpiece of a book about influence with his Influence: The Pyschcology of Persuasion. It takes a lot of the Kahneman's ideas and puts them into practice. This comes from both our friends, salesmen, and advertisements.
There can be a negative connotation towards influencing others. Some people take ill advantage of these ideas and principles, but that does not need to be the case. When working for a company or talking with your friends, you often need to convince them to get behind your choice.
You might have great reasons underlying your proposed action, but that does not mean that your company or friends will buy in. Recognizing subtle changes to how you present information or speak and how they can influence other's decision making is invaluable.
Related: 3 Surprising Takeaways From Robert Cialdini's 'Pre-Suasion'
5. Originals, How Non-Conformists Move the World
One of the greatest challenges in life is to think independently. There are countless outside influences that push us to try and conform to how others think. In Originals, How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant looks at some of the most original people that have inhabited this earth.
Grant shows that anybody can achieve a life like that, and he provides tangible ways to do so. It is more about the approach towards life, taking chances and stimulating creativity than it is about genetic make-up. Originals is an entertaining and empowering read towards living a more fulfilling and successful life.
Related: 3 Ways to Make Yourself Stronger at the Broken Places
6. The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Everybody has bad habits. A big differentiator for successful people is the ability to recognize and change these negative tendencies. In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg provides tangible ways to get rid of our vices and live lives where these bad habits do not get in our way. He provides great examples, tactical advice, and makes the book relatable to everyone.
Related: 4 Ways to Break Your Most Powerful Bad Habits
7. The Alchemist
We have the power to pursue the best version of our life. The Alchemist is a classic book that talks about this journey. For anybody trying to find your passions and eliminate the noise, The Alchemist is a powerful book. It is a simple story of a boy that we can draw countless lessons from. It serves as great motivation towards pursuing our "personal legend" and listening to our hearts.
Looking for more books, here is my top business books to read for 2018.
10 Books By The Most Successful People In The World To Inspire Your Life
We all admire those people who go for their dreams, create successful businesses, change the world and simply get rich. Luckily, some of them are kind enough to share the secrets of how they did all those things. Many successful people write books allowing people to read the stories of their failures and victories and to learn from their mistakes and achievements. These books inspire, fascinate, surprise and teach. Maybe, you will find something for you in these books written by incredibly successful people.
1. Business @ the Speed of Thought by Bill Gates
In the book, published in 1999, Gates predicted that in the next 10 years business would change more than in the last 50 years. Did this prediction come true? Well, yes, it did and that is a great reason to reread this book written by one of the biggest leaders of the information revolution. Modern business is a powerful system and being intelligent and intuitive is no longer enough to succeed. Bill Gates shares his knowledge about the principles of successful business and teaches how to use modern information technologies right. He provides personal examples from his business and that makes this book even more interesting to read.
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Warren Buffet has made more than $50 billion due to successful investments. In this book, he shows his business correspondence with his partners and investors starting from 1957. His golden rule of communicating with investors is to provide the information you would want to receive yourself. Reading the letters and the tips from one of the richest people in the world is quite fascinating, isn’t it?
3. Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism by George Soros
George Soros has made more than $19 billion so far. That makes his book really worth reading. Critics call this book the manifesto of the new capitalism. In this work, Soros criticizes different social and commercial taboos as well as revises people’s attitude towards capital that rules the countries. His thoughts and ideas are very fresh, clever and unusual. Everyone who is into politics, business and social problems need to read it.
4. Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography by Richard Branson
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Richard Branson is a well-known British entrepreneur who owns more than 400 companies in Great Britain and is one of the richest people in the country. “Losing My Virginity” is not just a story of success and a guide of how to do business right. It is also a fun book written be an extremely successful man who once decided to live his life in the fullest. He is truly a great example to follow and a very wise man to learn from.
5. The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
Actually, this scandalous American billionaire has written 15 books so far, but you should start with his first one. The best thing about “The art of the deal” is that Tramp describes in details the strategy of creating his business with life examples and tells how exactly he has been making deals, negotiating with his partners and making the decisions. Everyone who has something to do with business has to have this book and to learn from one of the greatest businessmen in the world.
6. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
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This is a legendary book written by the world-renowned politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist and author Benjamin Franklin. The book tells about the first half of the author’s life. It is especially interesting because Franklin describes the formation of his personality. Franklin was without doubt a very gifted person. All the good circumstances in his life contributed to his success and all the bad ones just trained his willpower. The events of his life show that any kind of activity and every field of knowledge can be learned by a person with an inquiring mind and active energy.
7. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger
This is a story of an extraordinary American man told by himself. Frank Bettger had come a long hard way before becoming one of the most high-paid commercial agents in the world. He shares the secrets of how he managed to achieve such a success after disappointing failures. This book is a must for everyone who has to do with sales and for those who want to learn how not to give up after failing in something.
8. My Life & Work by Henry Ford
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This autobiographic book of one of the most remarkable inventors and managers of the 20 century is written in the bright, energetic and inspiring manner. It contains a lot of material that has a historical value yet it is still of current importance for modern economists, engineers, designers, sociologists and managers. This book is not just an interesting story about the “father” of the US car industry. It shows the practical experience of the foundation of the biggest car factory of that time.
9. Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life by Nick Vujicic
This is a story of life and success of a person with no arms and legs. Despite having no limbs, Nick Vujicic has a very full life: he has two college degrees, he is happily married, he writes books and even swims. This book is an inspiring and emotional story of overcoming hardships and despair, believing in yourself and being happy. Nick speaks openly about his physical and emotional sufferings and how difficult it was to find a way to accept his condition and live a full life. In this book, Nick formulates the life rules that have helped him and shares them with his readers.
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Ed Catmull is a co-founder and president of Pixar Studios. This book is a mixture of a guide for managing business and personal memoirs of the author. The book is perfect for managers who want to push their colleagues to new achievements, who seek originality and creativity and who want to succeed no matter what. This is a great journey to the Pixar Company where art is created.
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The Reading Habits of Ultra-Successful People
Want to know one habit ultra-successful people have in common?
They read. A lot.
In fact, when Warren Buffett was once asked about the key to success, he pointed to a stack of nearby books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
Buffett takes this habit to the extreme — he read between 600 and 1000 pages per day when he was beginning his investing career, and still devotes about 80% of each day to reading.
And he’s not alone. Here are just a few top business leaders and entrepreneurs who make reading a major part of their daily lifestyle:
And these aren’t just isolated examples. A study of 1200 wealthy people found that they all have reading as a pastime in common.
But successful people don’t just read anything. They are highly selective about what they read, opting to be educated over being entertained. They believe that books are a gateway to learning and knowledge.
In fact, there is a notable difference between the reading habits of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy. According to Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, rich people (annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus) read for self-improvement, education, and success. Whereas poor people (annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less) read primarily to be entertained.
Successful people tend to choose educational books and publications over novels, tabloids, and magazines. And in particular they obsess over biographies and autobiographies of other successful people for guidance and inspiration.
There are many examples of successful people dropping out of school or foregoing a formal education, but it is clear that they never stop learning. And reading is a key part of their success.
If reading as a pathway to success isn’t enough to get you motivated, consider these health benefits of reading: Reading has been shown to help prevent stress, depression, and dementia, while enhancing confidence, empathy, decision-making, and overall life satisfaction.
Whether reading is already a way of life for you, or you’re just getting started, here are some book lists to consider:
And here are a few lists of 2016 must-reads:
Happy (and successful) reading!
Andrew Merle writes about good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Read more at and follow him @andrewmerle on Twitter and Medium.