Success Books that will change Your Life

A little change of tack this week as I take a look at four success books that will change your life. They did mine…

Now before you jump ahead, I want to point out what you will no doubt notice yourself, these books are not at all about how to invest for wealth.

I covered that list in this post…

But as you will know by now, success when it comes to investing has more to do with your mindset than it does with the techniques of investing.

The best strategy in the world can be completely useless if you don’t have the right mindset to implement it.

These four books have had the most impact on my success, and I suggest compulsory reading if you want to develop the mental fortitude to succeed in the investing game.

Success Books: Mindset Matters

The Science of Getting Rich: Wallace D Wattles

When I first started out trying to create wealth, my first mentor referred me to this masterpiece.

At first, I was unsure about the book, mainly due to the title, I wasn’t interested in science…

I just wanted to know how to get rich.

As it turned out this book, written in 1910, was the start of my education into the mindset of successful and wealthy people.

In fact, I suspect it was the basis of a number of books I have read since and will refer to in this post.

This book defined success as having proper fulfillment in three areas.

• Body, being your health and physical development.
• Mind is your wealth and mental development.
• Soul, being your love and service to others.

Becoming rich requires doing each of these three things in a certain way. Understanding that everything comes from a thought, and your thoughts become things.

“Don’t fear nor doubt as I create what I want”

Cause and Effect

Wattles introduced the concept of cause and effect, the science of getting rich.

He explained that wealth doesn’t come from your environment.

You can have people living in the same neighbourhood, doing the same business, and having the same talents, yet there are still rich and poor.

However, the point that had the most impact on me, was the description of the world as a place of endless abundance.

If you seek harmony with the universe, have gratitude to the universe, and seek to give more value than you take, then success and wealth can be yours.

Wattles also introduced the concept of visualising what you want. Let the universe know what you want in clear terms and it will come to you.

These were powerful concepts for a younger me.

They opened my mind to opportunities that up to that time I felt were beyond my capability.

The intrigue caused me to pursue more of this type of knowledge, and the second book…

Think and Grow Rich: Napoleon Hill

This is of course one of the most referred to books in the history of self-help even today more than 75 years after it was released.

There are 13 steps to obtaining success outlined in the book, resulting from 20 years of research.

Hill interviewed and researched more than 500 successful individuals in a wide array of disciplines to come to his conclusions.

All at the request of the then-steel tycoon, Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie wanted to know what the common factors were that derived success.

And in the 13 steps, Hill summarised what he believed would enable any person to achieve a successful life.

For me, this was the book that really lit the fire. The concepts of what derived success seemed to me to be imminently achievable, it just required me to take action.

And so that is what I set out to do. I have read this book many times over the years, it’s that good. In recent times I have also added Napoleon Hill’s second book, Outwitting the Devil, which I think may even be better than the first.

The Alchemist: Paulo Coelho

Since starting The Investor’s Way I have been a part of a mastermind of some sort, both here in Australia and in the USA. The power of these groups is often found in lessons learned and then shared by others.

This book is one I read after a recommendation from a member of one of the groups, and I will admit, it makes you think.

However, it makes you think about your own life situation and how you can apply the lessons of the story to your life. Making it a powerful personal journey with great learning outcomes.

In short, this book is outstanding.

It is important that I don’t give too much of the story away so that you get the full benefit of reading it for yourself.

Coelho had a rough upbringing and is an advocate for not giving up on your dreams. One of his was to become an author.

In The Alchemist he tells a powerful story about a young shepherd from the south of Spain who has a recurring dream of finding a treasure.

Believing that finding this treasure is his ‘destiny’ he leaves the comfort of home and travels into the African desert to find it.

“Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend.”

I feel this book is a metaphor for life in general.

If we follow our ‘Personal Legends’ we can perform magic – turn our ordinary lives into gold, as long as we believe in the journey and don’t give up on what we believe is our destiny.

This book is a great resource for thinking big, getting back to what it is you really want in life, and defining the resilience required to make it your destiny.

The Secret: Rhonda Byrne

The final mindset book I want to suggest you read is ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne.

This is a book I’ve read many times, and one I should have read a long time ago, preferably as a kid.

The Secret is a great explanation of the power of your thoughts…

To me, it feels like The Secret has been the catalyst for helping the Law of Attraction become more commonly known and practiced.

You will have heard the saying that ‘it is all in the mind’…

But have you ever tried to understand its importance and implications?

This book gave me new inspiration and has taught me how I can achieve the goals I have for life and business.

The essence of this book is the power of your mind, which if identified and unleashed properly, can create waves of positive changes in your life.

It deals with tuning our thought process which has the capacity to make things happen; things that we otherwise would never have imagined occurring.

Everything that happens to us is directly or indirectly the doing of our thoughts…

The Secret explains scientifically that our thoughts are magnetic and a frequency is associated with each one of them…

And when your thoughts are sent out to the universe, they attract like objects which are reflected back to us.

In short, our thoughts become things.

Conclusion

How you choose to use this knowledge is up to you, but positive thoughts lead to positive outcomes, that is the science.

I am sure you will have experienced a time when you thought about something you wanted, and seemingly from out of nowhere it came to you.

The classic illustration of the techniques from The Secret is when you need a car space at a busy shopping centre. If you think that you will get a space just when you need it, where you need it, you are more likely to get it…

The lessons in The Secret neatly bookend the lessons from the three previous book recommendations.

If you were to read them back to back, I suspect you would have achieved a first-class lesson in the power of your thoughts, the steps required to achieve success, and the childlike innocence of dreaming big…

All of which are essential requirements for achieving success in investing and wealth creation.

Let me know if you have read any of these and what you learned from the books.