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o matter how rich or successful you are, life isn’t easy, and there is no such thing as a perfect society or perfect life. But does it have to be a struggle? We look at how people are trying to use books as a tool for personal development The gym. Running. Your go-to exercise buddy that gets you through the work week. Something we all do together because we know it works. But is that a truly meaningful connection or is that more about the fitness industry itself? A new global survey of over 2,000 adults from more than 20 countries surveyed to look into the habits and beliefs of the modern world has found that our everyday rituals have changed considerably over the past few years. If you follow the tips and strategies of contemporary business books, you will be able to turn your life around. Not only will you be faster, fitter, and stronger, you’ll be way ahead of your competition, too.
Best Books on Success: THE LIST
| 1. Focal Point |
| 2. he Success Principles |
| 3. The Magic of Thinking Big |
| 4. The Alter Ego Effect |
| 5. Awaken the Giant Within |
| 6. Think and Grow Rich |
| 7. Grit |
| 8. Rich Dad Poor Dad |
| 9. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck |
| 10. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
| 11. You Are a Badass |
| 12. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind |
| 13. The 48 Laws of Power |
| 14. The 4-Hour Workweek |
| 15. Getting to Yes |
| 16. The Compound Effect |
| 17. High Performance Habits |
| 18. The Power of Habit |
1. Focal Point | By Brian Tracy
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Bringing together the very best ideas on personal management into a simple, easy-to-use plan, “Focal 
2. The Success Principles | By Jack Canfield
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In celebration of its 10th anniversary, a revised and updated edition of Jack Canfield’s classic best seller with a 
Since its publication a decade ago, Jack Canfield’s practical and inspiring guide has helped thousands of people transform themselves for success. Now, he has revised and updated his essential guidebook to reflect our changing times.
In The Success Principles, the cocreator of the phenomenal best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, helps you get from where you are to where you want to be, teaching you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and realize all your ambitions. Filled with memorable and inspiring stories of CEO’s, world-class athletes, celebrities, and everyday people, it spells out the 64 timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history – proven principles and strategies that can be adapted for your own life, whether you want to be the best salesperson in your company, become a leading architect, score top grades in school, lose weight, buy your dream home, make millions, or just get back in the job market.
Taken together and practiced every day, these principles will change your life beyond your wildest dreams.
3. The Magic of Thinking Big | By David Schwartz
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With more than six million copies sold worldwide, David Schwartz’s timeless guide and best-selling phenomenon,
Millions of people around the world have improved their lives through the timeless advice David Schwartz offers in The Magic of Thinking Big. In this best-selling audiobook, Schwartz proves you don’t need innate talent to become successful, but you do need to understand the habit of thinking and behaving in ways that will get you there.
Filled with easy-to-understand advice, this unabridged audio edition – perfect for gift giving – will put you on the road to changing the way you think, helping you work better, manage smarter, earn more money, achieve your goals, and, most importantly, live a fuller, happier life.
4. The Alter Ego Effect | By Todd Herman
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A top performance expert reveals the secret behind many top athletes and executives: creating a heroic alter ego to activate when the chips are down.
There’s only one person in the way of you unleashing your potential: you. There’s also one person who can move you out of the way so you can perform at your peak.
That person is already inside you. You just need to unlock them. This other part of you is your alter ego. After 21 years of working with elite athletes, performers, and leaders, Todd Herman has discovered how you can use your alter ego to achieve the seemingly impossible. It all clicked for Todd when he met Bo Jackson.
When Herman met Bo Jackson, the professional athlete told him, “Bo Jackson never played a down of football in his entire life.” Bo explained that when he was young, he’d get into trouble because of chaos caused by his anger issues. Then, he saw Friday the 13th and became fascinated by the cold, calculating nature of Jason Voorhees. In that moment, he resolved to stop being Bo Jackson and start being Jason the moment he stepped on the field.
In this transformative guide, Herman teaches you how to create and control an alter ego like Bo – and the thousands of other athletes, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and entertainers who have used this simple tool to change their lives. Herman also shares his own story: He knew that inside was a confident, self-assured, intelligent person who could help others get better results in their lives. When he started using Superman’s classic trick – putting on a pair of glasses – he learned to trigger the specific traits he needed to achieve his goals.
The Alter Ego Effect is not about creating a false mask – it’s about finding the hero already inside you. It’s a proven way of overcoming the self-doubt, negativity, and insecurity that hold you back and empowering you to ultimately become your best self.
5. Think and Grow Rich | By Napoleon Hill
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The most famous of all teachers of success spent a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort to 
In Think and Grow Rich, Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. This book will teach you the secrets that could bring you a fortune. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it. Once you learn and apply the simple, basic techniques revealed here, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success.
Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, loving family relationships, understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one true peace of mind! All who read, understand, and apply this philosophy will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these spiritual values.
6. Grit | By Angela Duckworth
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In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople – both seasoned and new – that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called “grit”.
Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur “genius” Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial, such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.
Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own “character lab” and set out to test her theory.
Here, she takes listeners into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers – from J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
Winningly personal, insightful, and even life changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down and how that – not talent or luck – makes all the difference.
7. Rich Dad Poor Dad | By Robert T. Kiyosaki
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It’s been nearly 25 years since Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad first made waves in the Personal Finance arena.
It has since become the #1 Personal Finance book of all time… translated into dozens of languages and sold 
Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert’s story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
20 Years… 20/20 Hindsight
In the 20th Anniversary Edition of this classic, Robert offers an update on what we’ve seen over the past 20 years related to money, investing, and the global economy. Sidebars throughout the book will take readers “fast forward” — from 1997 to today — as Robert assesses how the principles taught by his rich dad have stood the test of time.
In many ways, the messages of Rich Dad Poor Dad, messages that were criticized and challenged two decades ago, are more meaningful, relevant and important today than they were 20 years ago.
As always, readers can expect that Robert will be candid, insightful… and continue to rock more than a few boats in his retrospective.
Will there be a few surprises? Count on it.
Rich Dad Poor Dad…
• Explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to become rich
• Challenges the belief that your house is an asset
• Shows parents why they can’t rely on the school system to teach their kids
about money
• Defines once and for all an asset and a liability
• Teaches you what to teach your kids about money for their future financial
success
8. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | By Mark Manson
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In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying
For decades we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. “F*ck positivity,” Mark Manson says. “Let’s be honest, shit is f*cked, and we have to live with it.” In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is – a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mind-set that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.
Manson makes the argument, backed by both academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited – “not everybody can be extraordinary; there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault”. Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.
There are only so many things we can give a f*ck about, so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.
9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | By Stephen R. Covey
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One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective 
The 7 Habits have become famous and are integrated into everyday thinking by millions and millions of people. Why? Because they work!
With Sean Covey’s added takeaways on how the habits can be used in our modern age, the wisdom of the 7 Habits will be refreshed for a new generation of leaders.
They include:
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity—principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
10. You Are a Badass | By Stephanie Wells
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n this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, bestselling author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, 
- Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want,
- Create a life you totally love. And create it NOW, and
- Make some damn money already. The kind you’ve never made before.
By the end of You Are a Badass, you’ll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can’t change, how to change what you don’t love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.
11. The Code of the Extraordinary Mind | By Vishen Lakhiani
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What if everything we think we know about how the world works – our ideas of love, education, spirituality, work, 
This book teaches you to think like some of the greatest nonconformist minds of our era, to question, challenge, hack, and create new rules for your life so you can define success on your own terms.
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is a blueprint of laws to break us free from the shackles of ordinary life. It makes a case that everything we know about the world is mostly decided not by rational choice but instead by conditioning and habit. And thus most people live their lives based on limiting rules and outdated beliefs about pretty much everything – love, work, money, parenting, sex, health, and more – that they inherit and pass on from generation to generation.
But what if you could remove these outdated ideas and start anew? What would your life look like if you could forget the rules of the past and redefine what happiness, purpose, and success mean for you?
Not Just a Book but a Movement
Blending computational thinking, integral theory, modern spirituality, evolutionary biology, and humor, personal growth entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani provides a revolutionary 10-point framework for understanding and enhancing the human self. He developed this framework based on his personal experiences, the five million people he’s reached through Mindvalley, and 200 hours of interviews and questions posed to incredible minds, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Peter Diamandis, Ken Wilber, Dean Kamen, Arianna Huffington, Michael Beckwith, and other legendary leaders.
The 10 Laws of an Extraordinary Life
In a unique fusion of cutting-edge ideas, personal stories, irreverence, and his brilliant teaching style, Lakhiani reveals the 10 powerful laws that form a step-by-step process that you can apply to life to shed years of struggle and elevate yourself to exceptional new heights. This book challenges conventional ideas of relationships, goal setting, mindfulness, happiness, and meaning. Lakhiani combines computational thinking with personal growth to provide a powerful framework for recoding yourself and replacing old, limiting models that hold you back with new, empowering beliefs and behaviors that set you on the path toward an extraordinary life – a life of more happiness and achievement than you might have dared to dream possible.
12. The 48 Laws of Power | By Robert Greene
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Laws of Power is a practical, readable guide for anyone who wants power, watches power, or want to arm 
13. The 4-Hour Workweek | By Timothy Ferriss
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Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and 
This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
• How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
The new expanded edition of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek includes:
• More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point
• Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
• How Lifestyle Design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times
• The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either
14. Getting to Yes | By Blair Williams
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Getting to Yes is a straightorward, universally applicable method for negotiating personal and professional disputes without getting taken – and without getting angry.
It offers a concise, step-by-step, proven strategy for coming to mutually acceptable agreements in every sort of conflict – whether it involves parents and children, neighbors, bosses and employees, customers or corporations, tenants or diplomats. Based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deals continually with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution, from domestic to business to international, Getting to Yes tells you how to:
- Separate the people from the problem
- Focus on interests, not positions
- Work together to create opinions that will satisfy both parties
- Negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to “dirty tricks”
15. The Compound Effect | By Darren Hardy
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seen it all, and tried most of it. This book reveals the core principles that drive success. The Compound Effect contains the essence of what every superachiever needs to know, practice, and master to obtain extraordinary success. Inside you will find strategies on:- How to win–every time! The No. 1 strategy to achieve any goal and triumph over any competitor, even if they’re smarter, more talented or more experienced.
- Eradicating your bad habits (some you might be unaware of!) that are derailing your progress.
- Painlessly installing the few key disciplines required for major breakthroughs.
- The real, lasting keys to motivation–how to get yourself to do things you don’t feel like doing.
- Capturing the elusive, awesome force of momentum. Catch this, and you’ll be unstoppable.
- The acceleration secrets of superachievers. Do they have an unfair advantage? Yes, they do, and now you can too!
16. High Performance Habits | By Brendon Burchard
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These six habits will make you extraordinary.
After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard finally reveals the most effective habits for reaching long-term success. Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. Adopt these six habits and you win. Neglect them and life is a never-ending struggle.
We all want to be high performing in every area of our lives. But how? Which habits can help you achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being no matter your age, career, strengths, or personality? To become a high performer, you must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage. This book is about the art and science of how to practice these proven habits.
If you do adopt any new habits to succeed faster, choose the habits in this book. Anyone can practice these habits, and when they do, extraordinary things happen in their lives, relationships, and careers.
Whether you want to get more done, lead others better, develop skill faster, or dramatically increase your sense of joy and confidence, the habits in this book will help you achieve it. Each of the six habits is illustrated by cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices you can implement right now.
High Performance Habits is a science-backed, heart-centered plan to living a better quality of life. Best of all, you can measure your progress.
17. The Power of Habit | By Jared Atchison
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In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to 
Final Thoughts on the Best Books on Success
Success, it is said, is not a destination. It is a road. And it isn’t built by sitting around waiting for good things to come to you. You have to take the initiative and work for the good things. This is what success, no doubt, is all about. Success is in the doing. But you have to know how to do what you have to do, and how to do what you have to do. The battle isn’t won by reading books. Successful people are not necessarily book people. But they will always pick up the next book which addresses the same or similar issue to the one they are facing. So, one could be reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and another one picking up How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie, while someone else is sitting there with his laptop in hand reading, Success Is A Choice by Eric Thomas.
Happy reading!
Do you see a book that you think should be on the list? Let us know your feedback here.
Meet Maurice, a staff editor at Bigger Investing. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur who owns multiple successful websites and a thriving merch shop. When he’s not busy with work, Maurice indulges in his passion for kayaking, climbing, and his family. As a savvy investor, Maurice loves putting his money to work and seeking out new opportunities. With his expertise and passion for finance, he’s dedicated to helping readers achieve their financial goals through Bigger Investing.
