As anyone who’s spent a lot of time with me knows, I’m a big believer in the power of mind-set. But I also believe in developing routines and putting systems in place.
That’s why I’m always in search of what I call “golden nuggets” of wisdom. I find them by watching, listening to, and reading the words of people who’ve achieved amazing success in their fields.
If you’re looking for something to read that will feed your mind and give you some of those powerful golden nuggets I just mentioned, look no further. These six books will give you knowledge you can use to take your business to the next level.
Simply put: set a goal, and then 10x it.
You want to make a million dollars? What would it take to make $10 million? As the old saying goes, shoot for the moon, and then land among the stars. When people think too small, they always end up falling short. You might make a million dollars when your goal was ten times that. This a huge shift in mind-set for many people, but it’s an important one to make. There is enough business out there for you. Your job is to get out there and figure out how to get it!
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Like Grant Cardone, Napoleon Hill talks about the power of visualization and the power of goals. By setting goals, you’re affirming yourself and your ability to succeed. Developing a positive mind-set is one of the toughest things for a lot of people—especially when you’re just starting out.
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Unsuccessful businesses function on fear and anxiety. These things don’t drive the bottom line. What does? Belief in your abilities, and the wherewithal to follow through.
It’s true across the board: the greatest companies don’t tell you what they do, they tell you why they do it.
When I’m talking to people about ReminderMedia, I don’t tell people what I do. I tell them what I believe. When you’re pitching your product, your customers don’t care about the technical side of things. That’s your job. What people care about is your why.
Let’s say you build houses. That’s great! But, when they’re looking to buy, people don’t want to know about all the technical details only you can understand. They want to know that you build them so people can create their dream lives. That’s powerful. That is what sells.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey’s book goes through seven rock-solid principles that you can use to better your business. There are a ton of golden nuggets in here. For example, I really agree with the idea that you need to take breaks sometimes to feed your body, mind, and spirit.
But my favorite of all these principles has to be “Begin with the end in mind.” Whether you’re driving or trying to hit your sales goals, when you don’t have a destination, you have no idea where you’ll end up. Set the goal, reverse engineer how to get there, and then work to make your goal a reality.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This is a classic book, full of wisdom that will have a real impact on how you run your business. The thing that really spoke to me was the idea that most people believe they’re doing the right thing most of the time. When we’re running a business, we tend to approach things from a place of judgment—correcting people, as opposed to making an effort to understand where they’re coming from.
In order to educate someone, you need to understand what they truly care about. Think about this when you’re pitching a product to a customer. Ultimately, people don’t remember what you said to them, but they remember how it made them feel.
As the president of a company, one of the biggest takeaways I had from this book was from the Wells Fargo model. Their philosophy is “hire slow, fire fast.”
In short, people know when they should be fired, and you’re doing them a disservice by not doing that. This is sometimes hard for business owners to understand, but it’s an important lesson.
Successful companies work well because the right people are on the bus, and everyone is in the right seat on the bus. It’s wrong to keep people who are in the wrong seat on the bus. Someone might not be the best fit for your company, but they’ll be able to do great things somewhere else. By helping them figure this out sooner, rather than later, you’re actually setting them to live a much happier life.
While these books will give you some great advice and practical principles that will help you run your business, remember that any information is only as good as what you do with it. Figure out what works for your business, and then use that to do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t. When you figure out your secret sauce and how to market it to the right people, I promise you: you’ll have an amazing business that thrives for years to come.
