Every time I’m on a podcast or radio show, hosts ask me what are a few books I’ve read that have made a big impact on my life.
This is one of my favorite questions I get asked because without books there is no way I would be where I am today.
Some say knowledge is power.
I totally disagree because you can read all you want and still be broke, hopeless, unhappy, unfulfilled and full of knowledge.
The truth is knowledge acted upon is power.
The three books I’m going to share with you, radically transformed my life because I acted on the concepts they presented within their texts.
So let’s do this.
Book #1: The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.
This book opened my eyes to a whole new world in 2008-2009.
Prior to reading this book, I thought in order to have a highly profitable business you must have a brick-and-mortar location with a staff and employees.
After reading the 4 Hour Work Week, I learned you can create a $100,000+ per year business as long as you have a laptop and internet connection.
And you could do this from anywhere the world, while working part-time.
I learned you can use the internet to sell a product or service and use paid ads to test your idea.
This way you can validate your idea before you waste a lot of time and money.
This was a game changer for me because it opened my eyes to a whole new world.
I thought to myself, “Why didn’t they teach me this in university? I would have totally majored in this instead of art!”
This book lead me to discovering and learning from people like Brendon Burchard and Mike Koenigs.
As a result, I launched a social media consulting business in 2011 called A New Way to Market.
I grew that business to make $5,400 per month with no employees, and it allowed me to work from any where I wanted, as long as I had my laptop and internet connection.
In 2012, I shut that business down because I got burnt out, but that’s a whole other story.
I would have you consider, the old world of having to meet people physically face-to-face and fulfill a product or service in person is dying faster and faster.
It is 100% possible to build a Lifestyle Business if you want to sale a product or service.
If you haven’t ever read the 4 Hour Work Week, check it out here. Then read it and implement what you learn.
Book #2: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
By March 2010, I lost pretty much everything in my life except my health.
My parents told me they were getting a divorce on my birthday, my girlfriend broke up with me, I was out of work, my truck wasn’t working, my career as a professional musician ended, I didn’t have a place to live and I had less than $500 to my name.
I had to drive my ex-girlfriend’s Jeep over to my Dad’s to ask him if I could live with him for a few months so I could get back on my feet.
I was embarrassed and devastated.
During this time, one of my best friends recommend I read
Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
.
He thought it would help me and boy was he right.
The biggest lesson I learned from this book was the quality of your questions, determine the quality of your life.
Prior to reading this book, when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to go, I would mentally beat myself up for weeks and months at a time.
Often times I would feel the super high’s of success and the super lows when I encountered obstacles along my path.
Tony helped me to become aware of what I asked myself and to turn anything I encountered into a lesson to help me grow so I could continue my vision of creating a Lifestyle Business.
Without this book, I may have given up and killed myself. Who knows.
Thankfully, I learned how to truly live the Biblical Principle of “Ask and you shall receive.”
This is why I would have you consider, you must be very careful what you are asking for because you will certainly get what you ask.
If you are asking yourself things such as, “Why I am such a failure or why does this always happen to me?”
You will certainly find the answer.
These types of questions are disempowering and yields disempowering answers.
Now, if you flip this around and ask empowering questions such as, “What can I learn from this? What good can come from this? What could I do right now with what I have right now to get X result?”
You will find empowering answers and as a result you can take the corresponding actions to get whatever it is you want from this life.
Since reading this book, I’ve learned it’s not what happens to you that defines your life, but rather what you do with what happens to you.
The same situation can happen to two people.
One can victimize themselves, ask disempowering questions and go down a path of chaos and self-destruction.
Yet another person can consciously choose to ask empowering questions, get empowering answers and create a life of their dreams.
Be careful what you ask for because you will find exactly what you are looking for.
This book was a huge influence in my mindset and how I see life.
Every day I encounter various obstacles to creating a highly profitable Lifestyle Business and this book has helped me find lessons, evolve, grow and make my dreams a reality.
I know this book can help you do the same.
If you haven’t ever read Awaken the Giant Within, click here to get it.
Book #3: Your Faith Is Your Fortune by Neville Goddard
In 2015, I had created a profitable personal brand known as the #TwitterRockstar.
I had been featured on places like CNN, Business Insider and CreativeLive and trained well over 10,000 people.
Yet in the dark recesses of my mind, I was depressed and felt like I had to force my way through life and was constantly on the verge of burning out.
Then I read a book called Your Faith Is Your Fortune.
Prior to reading this book, I thought if I just worked hard I would create a business and life I loved.
Growing up I was told the key to success was to work hard and save a lot.
While this served me massively, it also kept me playing small because I never truly believed I was good enough.
I always felt like I need to prove how good I was to people.
Maybe you can relate to this?
After reading this book, I learned life gives you exactly who are being at your core.
Meaning, if at your core you feel you must always prove your value to people, then life will always give you opportunities to prove your value to people.
And why wouldn’t it?
How can you expect life to give you something you are not willing to give to yourself?
It’s a basic law of nature.
The Bible put it this way…
…“Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down and running over.”
This is why for many years I always felt like life and business was hard work.
This is why I was constantly on the verge of burning out.
This was happening because I wasn’t respecting and honoring myself.
So I went to work on this and at my core shifted how I felt about myself.
I used to look in the mirror and see this weak, awkward, skinny white boy.
Now after several months of fight training, meditation, journalling and stop people pleasing, I can look in the mirror and see a bad ass, powerful, creator of anything he wants from this life.
As a result, life feels easier, lighter and make more money than I ever have before, while working with amazing clients and traveling to cool places in the world.
If you feel like life and business is hard, read Your Faith Is Your Fortune.
It’s mandatory reading for all the people who work with me to master their life and master their business.
Next Steps
Now that you know of three books to help you create a highly profitable Lifestyle Business, if you’re tired of feeling alone and want to connect with some amazing people who are committed to mastering their life and business, check out the Lifestyle Business Mastery Community.
It’s 100% free and is a great place to learn the exact steps to create and grow a Lifestyle Business.
Hope to see you in the group.
