Books That Have Shaped My Business and Life

I've always viewed books as a portal into the world, giving you access to new perspectives,

ideas and knowledge.

These 16 books are the ones that have had the most impact in my life, inspiring my business,

travel and relationships.

How many of these have you read?

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times.

Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

1 Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Potts gives the necessary information on:

• financing your travel time• determining your destination• adjusting to life on the road• working and volunteering overseas• handling travel adversity• re-assimilating back into ordinary life

2Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term Travel by Rolf Potts

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.

3 The Alchemist and Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho

Warrior of the Light

Warrior of the Light: A Manual is an inspirational companion to The Alchemist, an international bestseller that has beguiled millions of readers around the world. Every short passage invites us to live out our dreams, to embrace the uncertainty of life, and to rise to our own unique destiny.

In his inimitable style, Paulo Coelho helps bring out the Warrior of the Light within each of us. He also shows readers how to embark upon the way of the Warrior: the one who appreciates the miracle of being alive, the one who accepts failure, and the one whose quest leads him to become the person he wants to be.

4 The Alchemist and Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho

Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation, we must find the courage to walk into vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts.

5Daring Greatly Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

The world is changing. Markets have crashed. Jobs have disappeared. Industries have been disrupted and are being remade before our eyes. Everything we aspired to for “security,” everything we thought was “safe,” no longer is: College. Employment. Retirement. Government. It’s all crumbling down. In every part of society, the middlemen are being pushed out of the picture. No longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you. It’s on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself.

This book will teach you to do just that. With dozens of case studies, interviews and examples–including the author, investor and entrepreneur James Altucher’s own heartbreaking and inspiring story–Choose Yourself illuminates your personal path to building a bright, new world out of the wreckage of the old.

6 Choose Yourself by James Altucher

What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity?

The Untethered Soul—now a New York Times bestseller—offers simple yet profound answers to these questions. Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness.

7 The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Her most controversial book is one you will never forget. An outspoken thinker, a celebrated actress, a truly independent woman, Shirley MacLaine goes beyond her previous two bestsellers to take us on an intimate yet powerful journey into her personal life and inner self. An intense, clandestine love affair with a prominent politician sparks Shirley MacLaine's quest of self-discovery.

Shirley MacLaine opens her heart to explore the meaning of a great and enduring passion with her lover Gerry; the mystery of her soul's connection with her best friend David; the tantalizing secrets behind a great actor's inspiration with the late Peter Sellers.

And through it all, Shirley MacLaine's courage and candor new doors, new insights, new revelations-and a luminous new world she invites us all to share.

8 Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine

Jonathan Fields knows the risks—and potential power—of uncertainty. He gave up a six-figure income as a lawyer to make $12 an hour as a personal trainer. Then he signed a lease to launch a yoga center in the heart of New York City . . . the day before 9/11. But he survived, and along the way developed a fresh approach to transforming uncertainty into a catalyst for innovation and achievement.

Fields draws on leading-edge technology, cognitive science, and ancient awareness-focusing techniques in a fresh, practical, nondogmatic way. His approach enables creativity and productivity on an entirely different level and can turn the once-tortuous journey into a more enjoyable quest.

9 Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel For Brilliance by Jonathan Fields

Dr. Brad Blanton, a psychotherapist and expert on stress management, explored the myths, superstitions and lies by which we all live. In Radical Honesty, Dr. Blanton coaches us on how to have lives that work, how to have relationships that are alive and passionate, and how to create intimacy where none exists.

As we have been taught by the philosophical and spiritual sources of our culture for thousands of years, from Plato to Nietzsche, from the Bible to Emerson, the truth shall set you free.

10 Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton

I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a practical approach delivered with a non-judgemental style based on the four pillars of personal finance -banking, saving, budgeting and investing - and the wealth-building ideas of personal entrepreneurship.

Witty, entertaining, wise and practical, Ramit Sethi explains how to automate your money flow - i.e. earn while sleeping, why your new best friend should be the taxman and how to beat banks and credit cards at the fee game.

11I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Anyone stuck in the rat-race of living paycheck to paycheck, enslaved by the house mortgage and bills, will appreciate this breath of fresh air. Learn about the methods that have created more than a few millionaires. This is the first abridged miniature edition of Rich Dad Poor Dad.

The full-length edition has sold millions as a New York Times bestseller. As proven by the runaway success of The Secret and like titles, changing one’s thinking to influence one’s fortune sells big, and forms the basis of rich dad’s advice. Learn to think like a rich dad and let your money work for you!

12 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Work The System aims to convince people to change their fundamental perception of the world around them from a vision of an impenetrable, amorphous conglomeration, to one made up of individual linear systems, each of which can be improved and perfected.

The reader is guided through the process of “getting” this new vision, and then through the specifics of applying it. It’s simple, believable, and mechanical; not mystical or theoretical.

13Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter

This is a story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules...people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves...people who know there's more to this living than meets the eye: they’ll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than ever they dreamed.

14 Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom.

15 On The Shortness of Life by Seneca

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished.

Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

16Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

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