Do you read books?
I do.
Over the last decade alone, I've consumed more than 300 books.
If that makes me old-fashioned…
…then I'm proud of it.
Why?
Because books are a far better option than search engines if you want good information.
Although there's lots of free information on the internet…
It's often garbage.
What will you almost always find when you look on Google for information?
Pages that are:
- Unreliable or misleading.
- Uninformative.
- Poorly-written.
- Boring.
You will always avoid this if you opt instead for high-quality, well-received books. No time to read? Many of these are also available as audiobooks. That means you can “read” them while commuting to work, cooking dinner or doing laundry.
Not sure what to read? Fear not, gents. I've got your back.
Let me share 25 uncommon books that I highly recommend for men who are driven to succeed (all of which are available on Audible).
Which books made the cut? Find out below.
Click Here To Watch The Video on YouTube – Audiobooks Every Man Should Own
Best Books – 1. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Who Should Read It: Those who enjoy learning about science and psychology.
What It's About: How to create moments in life that are truly extraordinary. The authors name four attributes – pride, insight, elevation, and connection – that turn certain moments into memorable (and potentially life-changing) experiences. A good choice for both you and the people you lead or work with.
Best Books – 2. Rejection Proof
Authors: Jia Jiang
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, psychology, and personal development.
What It's About: Overcoming one's fear of rejection and taking more chances. The author himself repeatedly faced rejection in the world of entrepreneurs. But instead of curling up in a shell, he decided to be bold. He committed such foolishly brave acts as asking a flight attendant to use the loudspeaker on a plane and requesting a sales lesson from a car salesman. The book teaches you how to be more successful when asking for favors, as well as how to tell when an initial “no” answer can still be turned around.
Best Books – 3. Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
Author: John Doerr
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business and entrepreneurship.
What It's About: Achieving Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) through good ideas with great execution. Doerr is a venture capitalist who worked alongside Google's founders in 1999 in developing a viable business plan for the young company. He shares how these highly ambitious tech guys set priorities and made difficult choices while sticking to the plan, always keeping in mind the big picture.
Best Books – 4. Lessons From My Coach
Author: Amir Karkouti
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, entrepreneurship, and career development
What It's About: How to make a fulfilling career as a coach or a mentor. This book comes in handy if you're aspiring to teach others a special skill of yours, without having to worry much about financial struggles, bargaining, Internet marketing or enrolling sketchy customers. Karkouti guides you in using “unorthodox methods” to make you an honest and outstanding coach who attracts the best clients.
Best Books – 5. Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond
Authors: Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge M.D.
Who Should Read It: Those who are into health, fitness and lifestyle subjects.
What It's About: The latest scientific studies on aging, which describes how men in their 50s can slow down Father Time by becoming functionally younger for the next 5-10 years. The book teaches “Harry's Rules” for defying aging as coined by Dr. Henry Lodge, who specializes in internal medicine and preventive healthcare.
Best Books – 6. The Power of Body Language: An Ex-FBI Agent's System For Speed-Reading People
Author: Joe Navarro
Who Should Read It: Those interested in science, psychology, and personal development.
What It's About: The study of non-verbal communication from the perspective of a former FBI counterintelligence officer. Navarro's career has made him an expert on the fascinating and often misunderstood subject of non-verbal behavior. He's well-versed in the little cues in people's body language that may display authority, establish trust or indicate whether someone isn't completely honest.
Best Books – 7. Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Author: Trevor Noah
Who Should Read It: Those who like reading inspirational stories and biographies.
What It's About: The personal story of a man who overcame all the odds since his birth and ended up as anchor on The Daily Show. A New York Times bestseller, this book takes you into the day-to-day social struggles Noah and his family faced in South Africa during the '80s. Trevor's backstory proves just how powerful love, self-belief, and determination really are – even if one grows up in a harsh world.
Best Books – 8. Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Author: Annie Duke
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, strategy and personal development.
What It's About: Making choices with the greatest odds of success. As a former champion in the World Series of Poker, Duke knows that not all “right” decisions lead to the most desirable outcome. Her book shows you how to decide what the best decision is, all while embracing the uncertainties and the factors you can't control. Taking calculated risks comes with success whether you're a businessman, politician or poker player.
Best Books – 9. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Author: Greg McKeown
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, career and personal development, and time management.
What It's About: Saying “no” more often means excelling in the stuff that's worth saying “yes” to. It's the key to living a super productive – not just busy – kind of life. This book shows you how to apply the Way of the Essentialist on a daily basis. You'll learn how to identify your true priorities and set aside everything else, so you can maximize your performance in those tasks.
Best Books – 10. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Authors: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business and entrepreneurship
What It's About: The art of learning to think for yourself, which fosters innovation and great leadership. This is the type of book that challenges you to think bigger and to believe that anything is possible, developing an eye for what tomorrow – not today – has to offer. That's how one can follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Larry Page.
Best Books – 11. The Business of Expertise: How Entrepreneurial Experts Convert Insight to Impact + Wealth
Author: David C. Baker
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business and entrepreneurship.
What It's About: Key strategies for thriving in the business world as an expert in something. Experts get ahead by developing insights, isolating the data patterns, and converting those insights to wealth. This book also discusses the importance of passion, commitment in honing one's own expertise, and what mistakes an expert needs to avoid.
Best Books – 12. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
Author: Jordan B. Peterson
Who Should Read It: Those who enjoy science and personal development.
What It's About: Twelve essential and practical rules for living an ideal kind of life. Dr. Peterson combines modern scientific research with the truths of ancient tradition. Should young kids who like to skateboard be left on their own? Should we be careful not to criticize others easily? Questions like these, along with many others, are addressed in his book, together with the concepts of responsibility, discipline, and freedom.
Best Books – 13. The Miracle Morning
Author: Hal Elrod
Who Should Read It: Those who are into psychology and personal and professional development.
What It's About: Changing your own life and taking it to the next level. There's so much potential in you – it's just a matter of realizing it! That is exactly what Elrod's book, which is widely considered “one of the most life-changing books ever written,” wants for you. Learn how to wake up every morning with more energy, a more focused mind, and a more motivated attitude. Soon, you might just see different areas of your life transforming in positive ways.
Best Books – 14. The 50th Law
Authors: Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), Robert Greene
Who Should Read It: Those interested in personal empowerment, entrepreneurship, and career development
What It's About: Playing the power game of success with a real strategy, so the cards end up stacked in your favor. You'll be fascinated reading about the world-famous rapper 50 Cent's road to fame and fortune. Together with Greene, who wrote the bestselling book The 48 Laws of Power, Jackson presents here a top-notch game plan for success that all aspiring entrepreneurs should read.
Best Books – 15. Own the Day, Own Your Life
Author: Aubrey Marcus
Who Should Read It: Those who need repeatable routines and small steps in their daily lives.
What It's About: Seizing each and every day of your life. Marcus has designed this book like a handbook for how to optimize a given day from the minute you get up in the morning, until the moment you sleep at night. Read it and you'll realize how simple changes in your diet, the time you work out, or even the shower temperature can make a typical day much more fulfilling.
Best Books – 16. Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing
Authors: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business and entrepreneurship.
What It's About: Tips and tricks to level-up yourself, your team, even your whole organization. You'll gain insight into the latest research, how leaders in different industries applied the tools mentioned in the book and thus, were able to make the shift and create new markets. Discover what does and doesn't work nowadays, whether you're part of a large corporation or a cash-strapped startup.
Best Books – 17. Extreme Ownership
Authors: Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
Who Should Read It: Those who need a harsh lesson in personal responsibility as leaders.
What It's About: Stories about high-pressure, life-and-death situations experienced by two former Navy SEALs. The lessons they share are tremendously relevant to the business world as well as life in general. Most of us will never know what it's like to head a military operation in Iraq, but many of us face issues when trying to lead people in a company. This book teaches you how to become a leader of a winning team.
Best Books – 18. Ego Is The Enemy
Author: Ryan Holiday
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, career development, and history.
What It's About: As the title implies, your ego can be the reason you're not taking that extra push or soaring to greater heights. This book serves as a guide to conquering your ego in order to truly make an impact. You'll learn how some fascinating people in history, such as Bill Belichick, George Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jackie Robinson, were able to overcome adversity and garner immense success by letting go of their egos.
Best Books – 19. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Author: Angela Duckworth
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business and career development.
What It's About: The true secret to success, which isn't talent or skill, but having a laser-focused persistence known as grit. Duckworth describes this concept of grit as a special blend of both long-term commitment and passion. Students, teachers, and business professionals alike could really benefit from reading this book.
Best Books – 20. Talent is Overrated
Author: Geoff Colvin
Who Should Read It: Those who want to achieve success but don't have or don't know their raw talent.
What It's About: Achieving great things in life. It's not just through all the time and effort you put in, but the way you practice, how you assess results and learn from your mistakes along the way. Colvin uses science and real-life examples to stress the differences between working hard and working hard the smart way.
Best Books – 21. A Short History Of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
Who Should Read It: Those who enjoy humorous and cleverly-written lessons in science and history.
What It's About: The science of everything throughout history, in a nutshell. Bryson helps simplify topics in chemistry, particle physics, and the growth of civilizations so the average person who's not really into science could appreciate them more. It's no surprise that this book is one of the biggest-selling science books of the 20th century.
Best Books – 22. I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Author: Ramit Sethi
Who Should Read It: Those interested in improving their money management and personal finance skills.
What It's About: How to become much better with money based on the “four pillars” of personal finance – saving, budgeting, banking, and investing. The book is designed like a six-week program for readers aged 20 to 35. Sethi teaches young adults and professionals a very practical approach to thee often difficult and scary subject of money. He offers advice in a non-judgmental manner that compels people to see themselves as worthy of financial success.
Best Books – 23. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Who Should Read It: Those interested in business, career and personal development.
What It's About: The tools and techniques to become a better decision-maker. When it comes to choices, our minds get clouded by short-term emotions, overconfidence, or simply the wrong information at hand. That's why the Heaths have come up with this four-step process that'll empower readers to combat these biases and see the bigger picture more clearly.
Best Books – 24. Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success
Authors: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
Who Should Read It: Those interested in forming better habits in order to upgrade their lives.
What It's About: The fundamentals of forming new habits or changing your lifestyle. What's the reason 95% of all diet attempts are unsuccessful? Or why do most people give up on their New Year's Resolutions in a matter of days? This book reveals the more subtle influences in life that people need to control in order to successfully better themselves.
Best Books – 25. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Author: Cal Newport
Who Should Read It: Those interested in learning to focus on what actually matters in an age in which doing so is increasingly difficult.
What It's About: Rules, techniques, and disciplines to become much more productive and less distracted when it comes to business or your career. Newport's book is a powerful guide for developing ideal work habits or practices in this super busy, noise-driven world. By the way – I'm also featured in this book 🙂
Conclusion: Books Are AWESOME.
There you have it, gents – 25 books that are worth reading (or rather, worth listening to) when you've got the time for it. They say that a book takes you to different places throughout different periods of time. I agree 100%.
Books and audio books are about far more than words telling a story or sharing information. They're an enriching experience that's also quite therapeutic for the mind, the same way sports and exercise are for the body. And it's not a coincidence that a lot of the world's most successful and well-respected individuals are avid readers.
Bill Gates average one book per week. Elon Musk mentioned his love for reading when he was asked how he'd learned to build rockets on his own.
Oprah Winfrey hosts a Book Club in which she picks a favorite book each month for members to read and talk about. Now I'm not saying you need to do it exactly like they do. Just remember that there is so much good that comes out of well-written, insightful books. They can help you become a better man. And they play a role in achieving the success you want.
Again, check out Audible. You can register for a 30-day trial, which comes with a FREE audiobook of your choice. I've been an Audible member for over a decade now. I enjoy browsing through the audiobooks in their vast collection, as well as the variety of audio shows and podcasts. Their content is the perfect way to pass the time, whether I'm traveling for business or watching the kids at home. And the best part? I learn so much good stuff – without actually reading.
