Leadership to Freedom

I’ve always loved reading; I just didn’t always read the right book. That is not to say the books I read weren’t good, it’s just that they weren’t going to help me get anywhere in life as it was all fantasy and science fiction (mostly fantasy though).

Once I got started on the Life Leadership subscriptions, I started to find out how important it is to read the right books as well if I wanted to get ahead in life and/or my career. I learned how important it is to my success to be a better leader, and how important reading was to becoming a better leader. I heard the quote once ‘not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers’; said by Harry Truman. I now believe this to be so true.

After going through Turn the Page: How to Read Like a Top Leader by the LIFE Leadership Essentials Series, I learned how helpful it can be to make a list of everything you read and everything you want to read. This also makes you accountable as you can see how much you really are reading; to make sure you’re not just thinking your reading a lot.

So below is the list of what I have read (and I’ll write a little synopsis about what I got from it), what books I’m reading with the date a I started it, and when I finish a book I’m going to put the date I finished it. I’m also going to list out the books I still want to read, even if it’s not just leadership books; Turn the Page did say you should have something to read just for fun too 🙂

In case you are looking at this list for some good book ideas, I’ll put those I’ve read already in categories of genre. This is in no particular order of what I liked best, although the first 18 or so is what came to mind first, then it was a matter of what I saw first in my inventory, or lists that I went through.

Books Read:

Leadership & Personal Development

1) The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D

Not only is this one of Life Leaderships top 5 books, I think it is the top of those top 5. This is where my success learning really began. It totally changed the way I think, and helped me have a better attitude towards everything. This book is for EVERYONE; from the CEO looking to make his company better, to the managers or supervisors looking to move ahead and do a better job, all the way down to the depressed! I’m not a doctor, but I would say anyone in a depression has a high chance of curing themselves just by reading and applying the principles in this book!

2) How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie 

This book is one of Life Leaderships top 5 books for a reason, and should be taught in all schools everywhere. From learning the basics of what people like or don’t like, to deeper leadership stuff near the end, if you haven’t read this yet, do so now!

3) Personality Plus by Florence Littauer

This book, another of Life Leaderships top 5, is essential for anyone not living in a cave. Although not as essential as How to Win Friends and Influence People, it goes into helping you understand why you are the way you are, and why others aren’t 🙂 it goes into the what makes people tick, and helps you deal with people in ways that will be much more effective. This article by Wayne MacNamara is a great description of what it’s all about.

4) How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger

This is on Life Leadership’s top 5 list for good reason too. The title might make you think its for people in sales, and it is. It is also for everyone because everyone is always in sales. Do you have a job? Do you have spouse? do you have a friend? You’ve been selling yourself your whole life, even if you didn’t know it. You’ve sold them on the idea you would be good for them!

5) How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People by Les Giblin

This book was amazing for it how it told you how to deal with people in an even deeper level than ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ did. This book almost gave a step by step process to talking with people. It also taught the importance of accepting people however they are, approving things about them, and finding things to appreciate about them. The title may lead you to believe this book will tell you how to manipulate people to do what you want, but you would be very wrong. This book is all about doing things right, and is a road map to success with people.

6) RESOLVED by Orrin Woodward

One of the Best books I’ve ever read. This book, which is the basis of Life Leadership’s Mental Fitness Challenge, has it all. It’s a road map to success by covering 13 crucial areas in your life. If we improve our lives in the 13 areas outlined and explained in this book, we will have the tools to get through anything!

7) The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Everyone needs to read this, and not just those who are married. This book goes through the key concepts that probably causes people to fall out of love and get divorced; it comes down to communication. We all have different ‘love’ languages, and if we don’t work with the other persons languages and dialects, they won’t understand, and won’t feel loved. This works with friends, family members and children too. Here is a great article I saw recently by Wayne MacNamara that explains the concepts further

8) Rascal by Chris Brady

Want to be successful? Want to be above average? Want your life to mean something great? If so you have to be different; you have to be a Rascal. This was a great read, and up there with the best leadership books I’ve read to date.

9) Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward

Another of the best leadership books I’ve read! This book is a culmination of many years of experience from both Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. They took everything they’ve studied and applied, and put it all in one book. I heard this started as just a sheet they were going to hand out to people so they didn’t have to explain what leadership was and why it was so important… and they just had to keep adding to it and making it better, until it finally we have this book today. A step by step guide to leadership.

10) The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

This book is great for how it explains success in life is based on the little things we do. The reason why so many people are not successful is not because these things are hard to do… just really easy not to do. After reading this book, and realizing how simple success can be, It made it a lot easier to start applying those little things. Here is a post I did about this book after I read it.

11) Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller

This is THE book on developing a better attitude. Although ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ does a great job in this area, This book is great for how it covers everything in regards to this category. This is the book that really helped me develop the attitude I have today, after getting the jumpstart from the other books.

12) LIFE by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward

I got this book in the starter pack from joining Life Leadership. It’s a great starter book, as it is a collection of articles covering each area of life in which the subscriptions and product packs help us develop.

13) The Ant and The Elephant by Vince Poscente

This book was phenomenal. It is a short story, a parable, that explains the importance of programming our subconscious mind with the vision of what we want to accomplish. It story about how our conscious mind uses 2000 neurons per second (our and) while our subconscious mind uses 4 billion neurons per second (our elephant). Since an ant can’t move an elephant, we can’t use out conscious mind alone to get us where want to go. This book will show you how to focus on your dreams in the right way to achieve them.

14) Voyage of a Viking by Tim Marks

This is such a great books by one of the founders of Life Leadership. It is leadership training in an auto-biographical way, and when seeing where Tim came from to seeing who he is today… this book will help everyone who is struggling with a problem.

15) Confidence of a Champion by Tim Marks

This book was amazing for how it helps us in the area that is probably holding most of us back; our confidence. This is Tim’s second book, and was an amazing read!

16) Toughen Up by Claude Hamilton

If leadership is getting up and moving on no matter how many times you get knocked down, then this book is a must read. It was amazing reading how Claude learned much of the skills and abilities he has today. If this book doesn’t give you the courage and the right principles to succeed, I almost want to quote a line by Claude; Success just isn’t in the cards for you. Luckily by reading this book, you will understand that success is in the cards for you as long as you do the work.

17) Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute

This book is also on my list as one of the best books ever. I think if everyone were to read this book, we would have no more wars, almost no more conflicts in the work place, and no more conflicts at home. This book helps us understand how we deceive ourselves into thinking and believing things that are nor right, and how it could lead us to think negative things of others just so we will feel justified in what we think and do. We are basically in a box, looking only at ourselves, and this book will help us get out of the box and think from the other persons point of view.

18) Bringing Out the Best in People by Alan Loy McGinnis

This book is about how to get people to do their best. It’s a small book and get’s right to the heart of things.

19) Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell

One of the first leadership books I read after the top 5 above. After reading this book I understand why John Maxwell is one of the leading leadership authors in the world. This book is not so much about how to lead others, but starts with how to lead yourself. After all, if you can’t lead yourself right, how can you hope to lead others right? I read this book just as I was starting to get into economics, and so used it when writing this post on problem solving.

20) The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley

This book is all about how to think like a winner, which is a big step in being a winner.

21) Wooden by John Wooden

Great leadership and life principles shared by John Wooden. They were what made him so successful in his career, and can do the same for ours if we follow them.

22) The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

A very short but significant book. It is a story type book, that get’s to the heart of what makes someone successful. The secret according the book, is to re-read chapters, or ‘scrolls’, 3 times a day for a whole month. There is a scroll to read each month, so this will take a year. The principle is that if we read the success principles over and over again 3 times a day for 30 days, it will be in minds so much that we can’t help but apply them. I admit that I still haven’t gone through this process properly myself. Maybe that’s why I’m not financially independent yet.

23) The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

Another great book by John Maxwell. Learned a lot of great principles from the laws discussed.

24) The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran

The main concept I remember about this book was to set goals, but goals to be completed in 12 week periods instead of longer periods. It will keep you more focused on them and help stop the procrastination

25) 8 Attributes of Great Achievers by Cameron C. Taylor

In a very small book, this goes through some of the key things you need to be a huge success.

26) Aspire by Kevin Hall

An interesting book that goes through the background and meaning of different words, and how to use them to aspire to be more than you currently are.

27) The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

This book goes through 5 laws for stratospheric success. The 5th law really made an impact on me; the law of receptivity. It got me start accepting complements and gifts from people, where I used to feel bad for accepting them.

28) Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann

This is a follow up book to the first one, showing how applying the laws in the first book, by thinking of giving rather then getting, you will be much better in sales (all types of sales)

29) The Lombardi Rules by Vince Lombardi, Jr.

Great short read on the rules Vince Lombardi lived by to make his football team so successful.

30) On Speaking Well by Peggy Noonan

This was a great book on how to do presentations and speak in front of audiences. It gave me a lot more confidence due to the fact that I have more information on how to do things right.

31) Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Another one of the first books I read since getting into leadership and professional development. This book shows how the talent someone possesses at any point is irrelevant to how successful you can be. It’s all about doing the hard work, in the right way, with enough time.

32) Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar

So many good nuggets in this book on getting people to say yes to what is best for them, considering most people hate to be sold things but everyone still loves to buy.

33) The Compassionate Samurai by Brian Klemmer

I great that relates the samurai code to what makes a person great.

34) Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Great book on teaching the importance of know why you are doing something, It shows how successful companies talk more about why they do something, or why you would want to be a customer ot member of the organization, rather than the what they do or what you will get.

35) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

This was an amazing book that describes what makes things go viral, and how to set things in motion to that with your ideas or your organization. It really shows you that you can’t expect success right away, that there will always be only few early adopters of ideas or concepts, but if you get certain types of people as those early adopters, you can explode.

36) Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright

This is another one of the books that I read when I first began my leadership journey, and it has taught me a lot about dealing with people, not just groups as a whole. It went through the idea that there are stages to groups, from ‘everything sucks’ to ‘I suck by others are good’ to ‘I’m great but others around be suck’ to ‘My group is great, but not other groups’, to ‘We are all great’. this book taught me that if I see a person who’s life is in shambles, who believes  everything in the world is awful, I can’t convince them that they are great until I convince them that the rest of the world is great even if they aren’t. We can’t skip step when changing people or groups.

37) Leaders Without Borders by Doug Dickerson

This book goes into how our leadership influences everything, and it doesn’t have borders, nor should we try to have borders. It is our passion that will drive us, and this book helps a little bit with that.

38) Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy

Probably one of the best books on how to overcome procrastination. It goes though what tends to cause it, and helps you understand how to get things done that need to be done. I wrote piece on this book here, about the fear and procrastination.

39) Turn the Page by LIFE Leadership Essentials Series (Started Early February 2014, Finished February 23rd, 2014)

A great book on how to get the most out of the books you read, and inspires you to read more. Gave me a bunch of insights on how to read better, and caused me to write this page. I read a book on how to read; isn’t that funny? 🙂

40 )SPLASH! A Leaders’s Guide to Effective Public Speaking from the Life Leadership Essentials Series (Started February 24th, 2014, Finished March 24th, 2014)

How to be a better public speaker, while being a better a leader at the same time! I really like how this book stresses how it’s important to talk about a subject that really matters, and not just about being better at talking at anything. This book will help you be a better speaker, and will help you make a real difference in the world at the same time.

41) PAiLS by Chris Brady (Started April 8th, 2014, Finished April 25th, 2014)

article forthcoming on how good this book was.

Finances

1) Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki

The ideas in this book woke me up. It showed me the truth of how money works, and how we make it. It made me realize wealth is not for certain people only, that you don’t need to be smart, or lucky, or born into it. It is for everyone who does the right things that create it. I learned around 95% of the population work actively for their money, while 5% use a system for a passive income that keeps it coming even if you stop working. I learned the road to wealth is doing something once, that you keep getting paid for afterwards, and that if you do enough of that type of work, the effects will compound to give you financial independence; real wealth.

2) The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

This is the first book I read on financial principles, and is now the second best book on finances (it was the best when I first read it). It is all princple based, that apply at any time in history, the present, and will still apply in the future. It’s short, and is told as a parable to really show you examples of the rules at work.

3) The Business of the 21st Century by Robert Kiyosaki

This book is a must read for anyone who wants financial independence but doesn’t know how to start or doesn’t believe they have the money to get started on their own. In this book, Robert Kiyosaki goes through the topic of network marketing, which so many people think are scams. He points out that although there is bad out there, there are some that are really doing things right, and this book goes into what you need to look for in these types of companies in order to not only find the good ones, but to find the best one. It was reading this book that really confirmed I was in the right place with Life Leadership and what they are doing.

4)Business School, The by Robert Kiyosaki

This seems to be the earlier version of the ‘The Business of the 21st Century’. It goes though the same concepts. Read this one if you can’t seem to find the other one anywhere.

5) Financial Fitness by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward

The Best of all books on Finances. I love how this book goes through principles, that can be applied at all times, and doesn’t give advice of what to do based on today’s economy. This book doesn’t just go through how to save money, how to get out of debt, how to invest or make money; it doesn’t limit itself to one area of finances. This book goes into the many aspects, of the offense, the defense, and then even the playing field of personal finances. In the end it gives a basic macro view of how economics works, which is essential to know what to do with you money; the only book I know of to do so. Brilliant!

Freedom / Economics

1) Leadership & Liberty: Pieces of the Puzzle by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward

This book jump started another area of my life; my love of freedom. This book is a collection of articles written by both Orrin and Chris, in many different areas. I used think the government should be taking care of us, as I didn’t understand anything about how things really work – I only understood how I thought things should work. by incorporating a book on both leadership and liberty at the same time, it really gives the reader of understand why we need to take care of ourselves when, and why it’s bad for us to let the government handle everything for us.

2) LeaderShift by Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille

This book was amazing with how it describes the 5 laws of decline, and how when left unchecked causes people to lose their freedoms. The book also gives great suggestions to what needs to be done to fix the mess we are in. This book is also now available as pack with 2 CDs accompanying it, that explain in detail why the resolutions are so important to combating the 5 laws, and how they can restore our freedoms. This book is a must for everyone in leadership, just to understand the 5 laws of decline and address them in their organization.

3) The Coming Aristocracy by Oliver DeMille

This was the first book I read from Oliver DeMille. In it he describes how both Liberals and Conservatives are both going towards an aristocracy, and gives some great ideas on what to do about it

4) 1913 by Oliver DeMille

This book was fantastic! Oliver describes the 3 events in 1913, and 1 in 1936, the drastically influence the course of the last 100 years. He goes into how they have caused us to continue to lose more and more of our freedoms,, and have an ever diminishing standard of living year after year, no matter who is in power. See my post on it here.

5) Freedom Shift by Oliver DeMille

This book deals with the basic things we need to do in order to reverse the trend in our losses of freedom. He talks about there is always a shift every 100 years or so, in every society throughout history. He talks about how another shift is almost here, but that with how the world is connected this time around, this time is going to much more of a global shift. The question is, are we going to let be a shift towards more power and more coercion, or a shift towards more freedom? I did a post on this one too.

6) We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident by Oliver DeMille

This is a book that deals with natural law, particularly those involving the ones our governments are trying to go against. But as he says in the book, a government can write a law making gravity illegal, but it won’t stop us from falling down if we trip. Oliver describes how the government laws that go against these naturals will have some very negative consequences, or will probably happen anyway no matter what the government law says.

7) Uncommon Sense by Stephen Palmer

I don’t tell people I have common sense anymore; I think that’s a bad thing. What we want is uncommon sense, because only when enough people know the truth, which now uncommon when it comes to the principles of economics, freedom, and success, will we change the course of our society. We’re a highly-trained yet poorly-educated populace as Stephen Palmer points out in the book.

8) The Law by Frederic Bastiat

I read this book because of an interview that Ron Paul gave, where he said if there was one book that everyone should read, it was this one. That having read Ron Paul’s latest book at the time, that was enough for me. This IS one of the most important books you can read, to understand why people act the way they act, and to understand why we can’t expect the government to take care of us and solve our problems. It all comes back what is now known as Batiat’s Law of the 5 laws of decline. See my article here for information on it.

9) Liberty Defined by Ron Paul

In this book Ron Paul discusses 50 issues that affect our freedoms. Although I don’t personally agree with everything (I do agree with almost everything), Every issue discussed give a really good insight on how things work and why. Even the chapter or two I didn’t side with him on an issue, It still made understand his side, and I couldn’t disagree with what he had to say about it. I think this is another must read on the topic of freedom. It’s in my top 5 economic or freedom books that I’ve either read or started reading.

10) Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

This is, in my opinion, the best book on economics. This is the book to read if you’re first starting to look into what economics is really all about. It does not cover everything there is, but it keeps things as basic as possible so that anyone can understand. There is nothing about numbers or equations here, but covers the most basic principles that everyone should know. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. This is the introduction to economics, and something that even the experts need to read if they haven’t yet done so.

11) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

This is a book I read more for fun. I classify it under Economics and Freedom because, although it’s a story of fiction, there are great lessons in it about what is right, what is wrong, and why, in regards to certain principles of economics and liberty. I may not agree completely with the idea I got about what I think Rand was saying, in that you should think only of yourself and not about others at all, but overall a very good read. It’s a fun, but very educational read as well.

12) Liberty and Property by Ludwig von Mises (Started March 29th, 2014, Finished April 1st, 2014)

13) And Justice For All by Orrin Woodward (Started on June 21st, 2014, Finished July 8th, 2014)

This book is a MUST read for everyone on planet earth.  This book goes through what society needs to prosper, and the much more expansive explanation on the 5 laws of decline that bring about it’s downfall. It’s great because it doesn’t argue for one political spectrum or the other, it doesn’t saw what laws should be passed, and which are bad; It’s gives the principles that you can’t deny, and then you are make your decisions about whether something is right or wrong based on whether or not these principles are violated. it is also the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® official record holder for the Largest Book Signing!

 

Reading

At most times, I will probably be in the middle of rereading one of the first 5 books listed, but I will not keep it in this section as I’ve already read them a couple times. just know there is almost always one more book on the list than what is written below.

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell (Started April 4th, 2014)

RE-READING – RESOLVED by Orrin Woodward (re-reading approximately one chapter a month, Started March 3oth, 2014)

Good to Great by Jim Collins (Started March 25th, 2014)

McDonald’s Behind the Arches by John F. Love (Started December 2013)

I’m loving how this book shows what McDonald’s did to change the industry of franchising, to put the franchisee first and helping them succeed before the corporation could become great.

A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Not a book on leadership or personal development, but a fantasy series I started reading a few years back. After reading Turn the Page, I realized if I wanted to get back to the pace of reading I used to have, I should stick some books just for fun in there as well. I started reading this a few years ago, but kept stopping to read leadership books instead.

Man Economy and State by Murray N. Rothbard

Started reading this long ago, and so far it’s great; it’s just really big too. I kept putting it aside to read the smaller and simpler books as I started reading it when I just began my foray into economics. It will be completed!

Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises

Started reading this a long time ago, when I first began my journey into economics, but then heard Murray Rothbard went thorugh the same ideas and was easier for beginners to understand. I’ll eventually come back to this.

To Read

My to do list. Different lists for different types of books. The first 5 to 10 in each list will be in order of what I want to read first.

Leadership List

Most of them I’ve gotten through the Life Leadership subscriptions, while others I’ve pulled off the shelves at their events as they looked very interesting to me, or because they are on Life Leadership’s top 50 book list 

1. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey
3. The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
4. Edge by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward
5. The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey
6. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
7. Mentoring Matters of The Life Leadership Essentials Series
8. A Month of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation by Chris Brady
9. Churchill on Leadership by Steven F. Hayward
10. The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge
11. For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn
12. Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
13. The Next Millionaires by Paul Zane Pilzer
14. The Price of Everything by Russell Roberts
15. The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie
16. The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle by James Hunter
17. Dream Giver, The by Bruce Wilkinson
18. Be a People Person by John C. Maxwell
19. Courage: The Backbone of Leadership by Gus Lee
20. Character Counts by Os Guinness
21. The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John C. Maxwell
22. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko
23. The DNA of Relationships by Dr. Gary Smalley
24. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell
25. Personality Plus for Parents by Florence Littauer
26. The Power of Respect by Deborah Norville
27. A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille
28. The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey
29. Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block
30. George Washington on Leadership by Richard Brookhiser
31. First Things First by Stephen R. Covey
32. Principle Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey
33. The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
34. Outstanding! by John G. Miller
35. The Serving Leader by Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert
36. Virtues of Leadership by William J. Bennett
37. The Heart of a Leader by Ken Blanchard
38. Ready, Begin! by Lawrence M. Kryske
39. Success is a Choice by Rick Pitino
40. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
41. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
42. Credibility by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
43. The Return of the Ragpicker by Og Mandino
44. On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
45. Ten Thousand Horses by Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert

Economic / Freedom list

Most of these I’ve taken from the books I’ve read listed above.

1. How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes by Peter D. Schiff
2. The Constitution of Liberty by Fredrich Hayek
3. The Bastiat Collection by Frederic Bastiat
4. Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard
5. Profit & Loss by Ludwig von Mises
6. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
7. The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset
8. The Road to Serfdom by Fredrich Hayek
9. America’s Great Depression by Murray Rothbard
10. Collectivist Economic Planning by Fredrich Hayek (and others)
11. Conceived in Liberty by Murray Rothbard
12. Democracy: The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
13. Defending the Undefendable by Walter Block
14. Economic Science and The Austrian Method by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
15. The Economics of Prohibition by Mark Thornton
16. The Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard
17. The Case Against the Fed by Murray Rothbard
18. What has the Government Done to Our Money by Murray Rothbard
19. The Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu
20. On the Law of Nature and Nations by Samuel von Pufendorf
21. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine