In our post, just a few short days ago, we suggested that readers pick up a book. This is the best alternative compared to spending a 10x premium on nightlife and paying UBER surge charges that could cause a global financial crisis. The post will be much shorter in length (~500 words per review) so we avoid giving away the main concepts of each book.
Gorilla Mindset: Recall, we gave away 10 free copies of the book as we were far too busy to read and do a book review at that time. Mike’s book is the most helpful book we’ve read in terms of creating a *Mind Body Connection*. We’re not sure if that was the intention, but that is the main takeaway we received. If you are a newbie and do not have your life together, we would suggest choosing just one section every 2 weeks to incorporate into your life.
Example: Mike goes through a series of posture exercises and forces you to write down what you believe you want out of life on a daily basis. This would generally cause a person to have too many things running through his mind to execute on. Simply put? Thinking about your posture, cutting out negative people and scaling yourself all at the same time is likely an overload on your brain. We would choose one every two weeks and once it has been incorporated over the next two weeks… Move on to the next.
While we think the most important aspect is creating a mind-body connection there are numerous helpful items that we were unaware of within the book. To name a few he covers supplements that will improve your skin, your mood and even your depression! While we don’t suffer from any of those ailments at this time, it is certainly good to know you have a laundry list of items to research.
You’re essentially reading a book by a person who used himself as a patient over the past 35 years… testing every single bunk and real supplement known to man-kind. We’ll take real experience over mainstream beliefs 100 times out of 100.
Finally, an overlook portion of the book is the section on selecting people for your life. We clearly agree. If there are negative people in your life (yes this includes your family) you need to get rid of them. Importantly, we’re not saying all families or all friends are bad, however you must choose who you associate with as it will change the course of your life forever. No. That is not an exaggeration. If you decide to hang out with dead-beats, overweight people, complainers and broke people… You’ll be pulled down before you drag them up. The old adage: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” is a life fact.
One Negative: There is one sentence we absolutely think should be deleted from the book. Forever. “Money is neither good nor evil”. We know you’re reading this Mike! We will never agree with this statement as 1) poverty is the root of all evil, 2) by claiming money is neither good or evil you’ve tricked yourself into saying you don’t need it… YOU DO and 3) assuming you have money you’re able to do *more good* for society therefore it is an enabler of doing good things for society (we assume all of you are normal human beings with a conscious).
Finally, we strongly suggest a *print* copy as it is a *work book*, instead of a typical book where you simply take notes.
The Charisma Myth: This is unquestionably the best book we have read that has been written by a female. That is not a joke. While other people that cater to men claim they are better than “all women”, we can easily say that 99.9% of men will not become anywhere near as successful as Olivia Fox Cabane (or as important). Hopefully that got your attention. Here is an excerpt:
“By choosing what you imagine, and by learning how to adjust your mental state, you can ensure that body language projects more presence, power and warmth, and thus charisma. In terms of achieving charisma, your internal state is critical”
Does that sound dangerously familiar to the book you see above? It certainly does.
Before you learn how to improve your charisma you have to find your baseline type of charisma, there are four: Authority, Kindness, Visionary and Focus.
Lets use this blog as an example. It would take less than fifteen seconds to realize that the default charisma state is Authority and Focus while having a severe lack in Kindness (we even delete low quality comments!). While this may work for a specific targeted niche… this is certainly not the best approach for all situations. If you were to attend a new conference where you’re meeting hundreds of successful people you want to turn on the “kindness” charisma instead of your default Authority and Focus charisma.
She argues that it is not possible to mentally control your body at all times. Were are not aware of our own eyes fluttering in front of us while everyone is well aware if we even do a partial eye roll. It is a much better strategy to essentially “check-in” to each charisma type that will be most appropriate for the situation. In times of great turbulence, people would certainly prefer to flock towards an Authority Charisma leader versus a Kindness leader. Alternatively, at a cocktail party, people would prefer spending time with kindness charisma and visionary charisma.
We’ve simplified this quite a bit, however she includes several techniques to help you understand where your baseline charisma is, how to improve it and which ones to *use* in which situation. You’ll find that your charisma type will also explain why you feel more comfortable in situation X versus situation Y.
One Negative: The one hole we find is that we do *not* believe she is entirely correct when stating you cannot control your body. For example, if you are reading this post right now… you can simply place the palm of your hand on your forehead. Boom. You had a partial smile for no apparent reason (perhaps a full smile). If we learn to be aware of our body language and *practice healthy body language*, your body will mentally remember it and *default* to the correct body language over time.
How to Fail At Everything and Still Win Big: The book covers a wide range of topics, our primary takeaway is that affirmations are real, passions/goals are nonsense and being selfish is generally beneficial in the long-run. We are certainly avoiding many many other topics that are covered in the book but we’ll focus on those three.
Affirmations: The background story for the book deals with a health problem Scott had and tied back to a new affirmation he used while dealing with the issue. You can guess how it ends after the first chapter of course. However. The long story along with thousands of words makes you wonder if there is a pattern behind writing something down… and the ability to make it happen. Yes it sounds cheesy but is true. If you 1) continuously write down what you intend to achieve, 2) mean it and 3) set your life up to go down that path… eventually you will get there. Importantly, if you don’t believe it and don’t tell yourself mentally (everyday) then they simply won’t work.
Passions and Goals are Nonsense: We laughed when reading this on page two of the book. As it is exactly what we said about New Years Resolutions or “goals”. He expands the word goals into passions and explains that making money has absolutely nothing to do with getting rich. This is certainly true as our own business has nothing to do with any passion of ours, we do it for the money just as many Wall Street people work here for… the money. You don’t give a loan to a guy who has “passion” you give a loan to a guy who is going to eat Ramen noodles for 1 year straight to turn a profit.
Think Long-Term: Scott makes an interesting note on taxes and benefiting society. We agree that people are generally net producers or net burdens on society. By definition, if you are paying more in taxes than you even spend in a year, there is no way you’re a burden on society. Why? You’re giving more money back to the government (and your country) than you are spending on yourself. Therefore, there is a surplus. We agree. While others will call you selfish, if you think long-term, becoming successful will generate the most benefit for the greatest number of people and there is absolutely no debate.
Finally, the most important piece of the book surrounds two topics: 1) creating a “system for success” and 2) the notion that we are “moist robots”. Since that is the focal point, we’ll avoid it so we don’t give away the book.
One Negative: While we 100% agree that diet and fitness is paramount to success, we didn’t agree with a lot of the beliefs in the book. He hints at becoming a vegetarian and the overall take simply didn’t jive with us. We’ll leave it at that.
Skill With People: We picked this one up last second this weekend due to a comment from a reader (Recent Graduate). The good news? It was absolutely great for a short read. The more important news? You must buy it in paperback form.
If you buy this book, it is essentially a 50 page cliff note version of people skills. You’ll find that some of the tactics come second nature to you while others you continuously mess up. We would recommend ordering a paper back copy to carry around and highlight the mistakes you continuously make. Once you’ve fixed the mistake, remove the highlight and move onto the next one. Wash, rinse, repeat.
To reiterate, this is more of a quick reference book such as a pocket dictionary, but for people skills.
Fun Side Notes
1) Many of you are quite bright. You remember we gave away 10 copies of Gorilla Mindset for *free*. Well the most important lesson is today. When you give something away for free most people will not return a favor to you. Of the 10 copies we gave away a total of 3 reviews came back (that was the only request to leave a review). That is not a joke! If anyone you know believes that people will treat a free book in the same regard as a book they paid for… Well now you have crystal clear proof that they are wrong.
2) “Book” or Books” was one of the most frequent searches on our search bar this year. If there is significant interest in book updates we may make a page for it and continuously update the page. Before voicing an opinion however, remember that we read well over 100+ pages a day which would create quite a few books. Maybe we’ll do 1 book every quarter.
Thanks for this. Yes, please post more books.
No problem! Will gather a consensus for the future.
Picked up Agent Storm, about double agent in terrorist organization for the cia. Might want to check out for non-fiction fun reading, I read all 350 pages in a day
Cool thanks!
Lol, I have read them all. I don’t read like a machine but this list proves I am good at picking the golden nuggets. No wonder why I am a MM (you know what it means suckazzzl)
Ha nice! Keep making that $.
Also to be clear this is not a list. This is what was read this weekend since people kept asking us what to read… instead of getting drunk/wasted.
Read The Millionaire Next Door this winter. A little outdated, but an excellent breakdown of the lifestyles of millionaires and how they acquired their wealth. Key takeaways include a lot of the things preached on things blog: invest sensibly, don’t blow windfall money like bonuses or gifts, live within your means, and don’t try and buy statues (e.g. Rolexes and foreign cares). Worth a skim at the least.
Read it, didn’t like it.
Same with think and grow rich. Read it, didn’t like it, 100% catered to masses.
Notably, it is being compared to other things we’ve read.
These negative recommendations are telling and important: a list of books you don’t like would be very interesting. Books you love are positive cognitive space; books you ignore are negative cognitive space. Mastery over both is essential.
Currently reading Red Gold (written in the 80s). It’s about simple but advanced mental/physical training techniques that Russian athletes and high performers use to dominate the Olympics and other fields.
Very hard to find but I highly recommend it. Compliments Mike’s book perfectly.
Read Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz in December. If anybody reading this wants to become a better copywriter…find this book and memorize it(!)
Thanks for the recommendation!
‘Psychology of Influence’ has some good stuff.
Also enjoyed ‘E-Myth Revisited’. It’s a bit hokey/simplistic at parts, but talks through the risks of opening a small business just because your passionate about X. Suggest it as a read for first time business owners.
That is one of the original psych books, definitely a good start for the basics.
Books for Health, Diet, and Supplements:
Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
The Ultramind Solution
BTW: I read Get Serious last year…great book!
“The charisma myth” is the only one I have not read. The other two belong to the best books which were released in 2015.
Amongs most of the “classics” such as 48 Laws of Power, a very valuable addition to me was “Telling Lies” by Paul Ekman; It is somewhat of a tough read, but it explains the basis of lies, how it works, what to look for and common misconceptions. It may be somewhat inter-changeable with other works on lies/deceipt, but this one stuck out of the pile from me – if you have not read anything on topic, I’d suggest starting here.
As a personal anecdote – I started to use the tip from WSP on asking people about some subject I know to see if they are full of shit, but I’ve also noticed that I can often get the “something is fishy about him” gut-feeling even when someone is talking about things I have no knowledge in from their “tells”. I cannot say for sure if it was because of this book, but I’ve cut out a lot of people from my life that I kept before, and life became much better since!
Thanks WSP!
Arghh, most of the books from the list seem somewhat fishy! While the blog is about money, success and women the suggested books were about meditation and persuasion. I could see them being more useful for personal usage and health. As a greedy person, I really could care less until I make it. For now I want the juicy meat of how to get ahead of others and make it faster.
Thanks for your input, will definitely check out the book about lies – seems interesting;)
I’m a bit disappointed for the first time ever, boys!:( Still love you
We have no idea what you are talking about, this is what was read this weekend
Also if you think sales/persuasion etc will not make you rich, you have not read any posts on this blog
You only need sales to get rich. The rest is pretty much filler.
Find us a guy with amazing sales skills that is broke… You won’t because they don’t exist.
Thanks a lot, will pick them up this weekend, was waiting for book recommendations starting out 2016. Books would be a great section, your reviews are very informative. I’m sure you’ve read books by Robert Greene, if not I would definitely recommend, all of the principles are much inline with your teachings, do check out Mastery it also has a similar approach about goals and how to reach beyond traditional success to real Mastery.
I’m reading “Get serious” at the moment. Some of it is great and other parts I find strange.
Positives:
He’s a doctor so he has the potential to help more “average people” because they flock to authority. The information is the same as you’ll find on the internet but I think (if they actually read this book) the masses would be more likely to follow through on the actionable steps.
Negatives:
Parts of the book aren’t understandable unless you know a lot about human physiology. If you did, you wouldn’t need the book because it would be common sense to you.
I would like to see more book recommendations too. That was my key takeaway from this blog in 2015: Books are generally 100x more useful than blogs.
Paid information is better than free information, who knew!
Sounds good. Thanks for the post
“When you give something away for free most people will not return a favor to you.” This is very important. Thanks!
Yep you can apply to dating as well, it explains exactly why women don’t care for the thirsty guy kissing their feet.
Just finished the book “you’re not that great” loved it!
Thanks for the book idea… Note:
1) would be more helpful to explain why you liked it
2) we deleted your question”thoughts?” Since it says in bold no questions and we are not going to bring it back ever again. For subs only.
I don’t get paid to write book reports…
Ha all good!
The outsiders: eight unconventional ceos
Review of 8 of the highest returning CEO’s in history and what they did differently to generate more value than their peers.
-You’ve never heard of any of these guys (less Waren Buffett) because they don’t bother being popular with press (masses).
– They’re relentless focused on cash flow and ignore flashy assets or account results so they can invest aggressively when they see value.
– They filter out and surround themselves only with other ambitious self starters.
They basically apply to business the same rules you advocate applying to ones self. I’ve started trying to do that at my own shop since starting to read here and it’s the right approach.
Anyone moving into the business building phase of life, It’s worth a read as a reminder – keep your head down and focus. That’s the path to success.
Thank you for the clear comment!
I think you’re wrong about the negative point about Cernovich’s book. This is going to be a bit pedantic.
The problem in your argument is that the points aren’t actually connected so that it demonstrates the conclusion (money has moral properties, i.e. good/evil). You try to support this with “1) poverty is the root of all evil” but the problem is money and poverty are in different categories altogether (plus, 1) is wrong anyway since we can think of a facile counter-example: psychopathy is genetic and therefore would predate poverty as root for evil). Let’s look at it through an analogy, is the motion of your arm good/evil? Clearly not. What about when that motion ends up with your arm in someone’s neck and chokes them to death, is there a moral judgement to be made about it then? Yes. But it’s not simply the motion itself, it’s the motion + something else (in this case the consequence of choking someone to death, and possibly also the intent – unless you somehow accidentally/unconsciously choked them to death, e.g. sleepwalking).
“2) by claiming money is neither good or evil you’ve tricked yourself into saying you don’t need it” is pure projection and nowhere does the rest of the text support this assumption, nor does it actually connect to 1), because 1) is about establishing a normative fact, while 2) is more a judgement about a psychological attitude.
Finally, “3) assuming you have money you’re able to do *more good* for society therefore it is an enabler of doing good things for society (we assume all of you are normal human beings with a conscious).” is also disconnected since it’s talking about possible consequences of using money but doesn’t say anything about money’s moral status.
In the end, it’s hard to see how you can argue that money is inherently good/evil without that also then applying to other objects, since money is just an object. But even if you wanted to accept that consequence, the argument is still too messy to go through in the first place.
My own plug for a book is Goldsworthy’s Caesar: The Life of a Colossus. It’s a good example of how much determination you require to succeed but also of how much circumstances dictate life. Caesar did everything he could do put himself in a position to take advantage of fortune once she showed herself, but then he also had to deal with implacable enmity and envy of those around him precisely because he did everything he could and fortune favoured him. The great thing about it is that it gives hope to succeed despite knowing what the ultimate outcome is (after all, don’t we all already know?). After all, it’s still better to be king for a day than never. But moreover his life is a great example of what one can strive for and of pure, hard-earned, brilliance.
Not sure why you’re reading this blog if you don’t think money is the root of all virtue, but thank you for the comment!
It’s an enjoyable read and I agree with much of what you write. I do sales and also work on my business on the side but I spent a few years as a professional philosopher hence my little quibble about the finer semantical points of your argument, though I fully recognize you didn’t mean it that strictly. Anyway, said enough about it already. Thank you for writing & best of luck in 2016!
Suggestion: WSP should bring back the “Donate” button. If any reader here thinks that having too much money is evil, then donate all your excess money to help fund this blog so that everyone else can keep on learning.
Lol! Some people email to donate a few bucks we stopped. If we hit critical mass we will sell a solid no bullshit product.
If money isn’t good or bad, why do people always seem so happy and excited if you give it to them!
Awesome selection. I have read The Charisma Myth and I really liked it.
A suggestion I would make is:
“The Buying Brain – Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind”
by Dr. A.K Pradeep
The book is like a scientific manual of how the human brain works when it comes to a buying decision.
Everything inside the book is scientifically backed up with a ton of studies from this professor and his team.
It blends in a very interesting and fascinating way, the sector of human evolution/biology with modern ways of marketing.
A must read in my opinion for anyone who wants to learn how the brain makes the (always emotional) decisions when it comes to purchase something and how you can influence this decision from a seller point of view.
Thanks
Took your new years reading recommendation and finished “Emergency” by Neil Strauss.
Cool book just in case you need to know what to do when shit hits the fan! Parts on offshore banking, multiple passports, and just general practical survival skills will probably interest you.
The most interesting book I’ve read this year is Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb. I’d be interested in hearing WSP’s opinion of the book since the author is quite critical of Wall St.
I also love this book. It changed the way I think, and when looking in retrospect at effective ways of doing things (exercise, health etc.) one realises that they usually match the barbell strategy and other ideas in the book.
I believe I read a comment from WSP saying that they like ideas in the book, but find the author’s mindset too negative.
Yup, Antifragile is a bomb. It was referenced to my by an instructor and it really hammers in how applicable its concept is not only business but also in life in general, i.e. on workouts, on health, on relationships.
And yeah of course to a degree I think I won’t get along with the author as he’s very analytical – though the work ethic is there and we can vibe well about it – yet still at the end of the day no one gives a shit anyway if someone likes or dislikes him as maybe it’s just really his public shtick unless anyone of us here have had sat with him at least once for a dinner or two.
He’s onpoint on his work and his works of contribution, that alone already amazes me. I don’t actually recommend reading the whole book though as even reading 5-min book summaries of it online will already be enough for you to grasp the whole concept.
Another one I recommend is Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg. Though the guy alone isn’t a millionaire(haha, I know don’t laugh), his simple concept of creating this room for experimentation really steered me clear on creating side businesses alongside a career you’re maintaining, or a college degree you’re pursuing(my case). This one’s also comprehensible by just reading 5-min book summary articles online.
Cheers.
JL
I just finished rereading a great book called Cracking the Hidden Job Market by Donald Asher.
I think it would make a great addition to the required newbie reading for recent college graduates, since it’s the best job-seeking/career book I have ever read. Most people fail to realize that the best way to get jobs is by talking to people and inserting yourself before the hiring process ever reaches HR.
The author has a no BS approach that will probably blow many people’s minds, as he highlights how managing your job search and career development is really just another form of sales. You don’t get to hide behind a computer sending your resumes into job portal black holes, since the author includes exercises like “pick up the phone and start calling businesses”. Software developers are no exception!
Definitive book of Body language by Barbara and Allen pease.
I got it 10 years ago in an airport in goa just around the pua boom and it’s the only book that stood the test of time.
I learned everything about how a person walks to how they position they feet, shows who they’re into and so on. It has helped immensely and many times over I’ve been able to pick up on shit that generally men overlook.
Fantastic book.
Great content as always.
In 2016 would love to see more market commentary, specifically macro picture (vs company analysis) as this year we are sure to see volatility in global financial system.
I’m just curious why you guys left out “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis… Figured you guys would be fans.
Book: “21st Century Fox: Space Age Pimping” by Paradise
Inspired and based on the, for many, uncomfortable but nonetheless real wisdom and shrewdness of the old time American Pimps, the author Paradise analysis of the power play that is inherent to every type of relationship provides explanation to how he uses is own knowledge and awareness of power to play the game for pure personal gain.
On another topic, and I think you may like this, (or maybe you won’t but) have a look, it’s a quick read (and one more reason why Trump is the best choice):
http://www. armstrongeconomics.com/archives/41900
I do not consider myself an “uncharismatic” person but thought there’s always room for improvement and took your advice of reading “The Charisma Myth”.
I would recommend this book to everyone. Even if you believe yourself to have a high-level of charisma this book can definitely help you. As mentioned in the post, delving into different charismatic states is paramount as there is no one-size-fits-all charismatic state that suits all situations.
For instance, I will be using the “Focus” state to network with fellow colleagues at my new firm to obtain information and come across as a “good listener”. The “Kindness” state has helped me develop empathy (something I lack) and therefore improved my family relationships. The book does not just describe these charismatic states but more importantly provides actionable, self-exercises to help your mind get into this state and manifest itself into your body language (mind/body connection).
The book can help you with delivering presentations, making first impressions and dealing with difficult people, which, lets face it, we all have to do at some point!
Basically…thanks for the recommendation! As part of 2016 I am trying to read more and next up is ca$hvertising to learn the basics of online sales (follow the $$$).
P.S saw no more writers work on wall st. which made me sad as I’ll be starting my career in an IB, albeit in London. Hope Houston Natural Gas Analyst steps up 😉
Agree entirely, everyone has a baseline charisma type. Just need to be aware of the places to improve.
Just about done with the Charisma Myth and loving it. Would be interested in any other more “advanced” forms of controlling mindset and therefore charisma if you know any.
Thanks!
by “other forms” I mean other books.. Thanks!
40ish. Net approaching 10. Stuck in “career”/place I don’t like. Have dependents so not just me – how to make the leap when scaling anything seems so small compared to current CF/NW. debt zero. Highly liquid.
“For example, if you are reading this post right now… you can simply place the palm of your hand on your forehead. Boom. You had a partial smile for no apparent reason.”
What?
Just read Gorilla Mindset within 3 days around a week ago.
Totally worth it, thanks for the recommendation.
Do a quick and recent book recs post!