Samuel: Hey, what's up. It's Samuel Leeds. On this week's Thoughtful Thursday video,
I wanted to answer a question I get a lot, which is, "Samuel, what books would you recommend?
What books have served you as a property investor and as a businessman the best?" So today,
I've picked my top 12 books.
Samuel: Of course, you might call me biassed, but these are two of them. These are both
my books, I've written three books, but as a property investor, I mean, I think you would
be an idiot not to read these because not only are they the best, they're also really
short and really easy to read. So, do you like these books?
Alasdair: That's one that got me. That's the one-
Samuel: This is the one that got you?
Alasdair: Yeah.
Samuel: So. this book made you what? How many hundreds of thousands?
Alasdair: Probably we're getting on two at the minute.
Samuel: £200,000. So there you go. It costs £10.99 from Amazon. Got him over £200,000.
Alasdair: Yeah, that book was awesome.
Samuel: Next. This is called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. Again, a fantastic book. Really,
I think so many people let the little things distract them from the big things.
Samuel: What I do actually is every year I write down my top four or five goals that
year. Most people have a to-do list every day where they have hundreds of things on
their to-do ... I don't do that. I just have a to-do list of like four or five things-
Alasdair: Five things, yeah.
Samuel: ... and that's all I focus on. And every time I'm doing something, I'm thinking,
"Is this working towards that?" Don't let the small stuff get in your way. Highly recommend
reading this book.
Samuel: Next, how many years ago did you read this?
Alasdair: Oh, you know, my accountant gave me that in 2009 I think it was.
Samuel: E Myth.
Alasdair: Yeah, brilliant business book.
Samuel: It is.
Alasdair: That set me up that did.
Samuel: If you are wanting to systemize your ... any kind of business, this is all about
systemization and replacing yourself, working on your business but not in it. You've done
this with your deal packaging business.
Alasdair: 100%, yeah, yeah. I spend a day with my deal packaging business stuff. Sort
of a day over two weeks.
Samuel: Oh so you spend a couple a days of month?
Alasdair: Yeah, a couple of days a month on that.
Samuel: Couple of days a month, and how much are you making?
Alasdair: 35 to 40,000.
Samuel: 30 to 40,000 per- ?
Alasdair: Month.
Samuel: Per month. And that's because of things like this.
Alasdair: Systemization.
Samuel: And a lot of the stuff that I teach has come out of this, so I have to really
credit some of these books. Even if ... brilliant book, brilliant book for systemization. Next,
I could not leave this one out, Rich Dad Poor Dad. This was my first ever investment book
that I read.
Alasdair: Likewise.
Samuel: It's brilliant, isn't it? It's brilliant. You read this and then I think my book came
up as a suggestion.
Alasdair: It did, yeah. So I read that first and then it came up, you may like this also,
and it was your book.
Samuel: This book's all about passive income and really about reconditioning your mind
from some of the old ways of thinking to actually ... not financial freedom, but passive income
and investments and not having a job, having money work for you instead of you working
for money, brilliant book. This is kind of like legendary, isn't it?
Alasdair: It's an awesome book.
Samuel: It might even have to take ... I don't know if this would take number one. It's certainly
the most ... a lot of people that come to my crash courses, they started off by reading
this book. So I have to thank Robert Kiyosaki and I know that we've booked dinners with
him and different things like that. Nice bloke, very direct.
Alasdair: Very knowledgeable, you'll be able to have-
Samuel: Very knowledgeable, very direct, good bloke. Like Kiyosaki. Gets a lot of stick,
but I guess everyone gets stick that's direct like that.
Alasdair: When you help that many people.
Samuel: Next, Little Voice Mastery. You know what? You could have all of the knowledge
and you can have all of the training, you can have all of the money to invest, you can
have everything going for you, but if you have those little voice ... if you listen
to those little voices in your head, like you used to-
Alasdair: Yeah, I had little devils on my shoulder going crazy at me. So yeah, that
book helped.
Samuel: What, like saying you can't do this?
Alasdair: Yeah, you're not good enough, it's not for you, it's somebody else's turn.
Samuel: It's too good to be true.
Alasdair: Oh God yeah.
Samuel: All these little voices. What this does is it teaches you how to be aware of
the little fears and doubts and voices that you have in your head and says that you'll
always have them, but it's not about killing the little voices, it's about mastering them,
which is why it's called Little Voice Mastery by Blair Singer. Blair Singer's also a personal
friend of mine, so I've spent a lot of time with Blair and he's a fantastic guy and this
book is just incredible. So get this now.
Alasdair: That's going to be my next read.
Samuel: Have you not read this yet?
Alasdair: I've not read all of it. I've read the synopsis of it, but I'm going to-
Samuel: Oh do, do.
Alasdair: That's going to be ... I'm going to borrow that off you, that's going to be-
Samuel: Do. There you go. Keep it. Gift, gift, gift from me to you. All right. This one's
really important, now this one Alasdair has not read. How to Win Friends and Influence
People.
Alasdair: No, that's going to be-
Samuel: And I can tell that he's not read it. No, you do have friends. I'm your friend.
You know what? Incredible. I think I need to re-read this because this is really about
how to get what you want in life, but get it without walking over people, without upsetting
people, just kind of getting people on side, having friends, but also influencing. It's
a really, really good book. I haven't read this in a long time. I really should re-read
this because I think I do offend a lot of people and this might help me to be a bit
more nice.
Alasdair: You don't offend that many people.
Samuel: Well I need to re-read this, but brilliant book. Really good. This really set me up for
life, I read this about 10 years ago. Next, this you have to read, it's a fantastic one,
The 4-Hour Work Week. Ironically, it takes a lot more than four hours to read the book.
Alasdair: I was going to say, it's quite a big book.
Samuel: Four hour work week, but it takes like 40 hours to read it. This is one thick
... I don't know why Tim Ferriss spent so many words on this book, because although
it's fantastic it is a very exhaustive read. I don't know if this is, I think there might
be a simplified version of this which might take four hours to read, however, fantastic.
And what this ... I mean I know you've implemented a lot of the stuff, but some of this stuff
you've learned second hand from me.
Alasdair: Yeah, yeah.
Samuel: But this really talks about how it doesn't take that much time to get things
done and it's about saving time, only focusing on the important things. Awesome, awesome
book.
Alasdair: I think a lot of people dilly-dally, don't they?
Samuel: Oh yeah.
Alasdair: Instead of focusing on just a short period of time.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: I know you blast, don't you? You have a window where you just blast and do
what you've got to do.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: Chill out and then blast again.
Samuel: Yeah. And this is ... surprisingly this is written for employees. If you have
a job this is really going to help you escape the nine to five, live anywhere and join the
new rich. Because he talks how to get your nine to five done in a much shorter time and
how to start getting your employer to agree to you working from home and stuff like that.
So it's a really good book, read this.
Samuel: Next, one of my favourites-
Alasdair: Ah, awesome book.
Samuel: Great book, isn't it?
Alasdair: I read that when I joined the academy.
Samuel: I made you read this.
Alasdair: Yeah you did, yeah. That was on the book list. I think that was the first
one we had to read.
Samuel: Yeah, yeah. On the academy we always try and encourage people to read these books.
So Jeff Olson, again, I've met Jeff, great guy. And this, The Slight Edge basically talks
about ... to become really successful and to become wealthy and to succeed as an investor
or a business person or whatever, it's all about the little choices and the habitual
things in life. So this will really give you new habits. Like, for instance, getting slim.
You don't suddenly go on a two week fast and get slim, what you do is you just change your
lifestyle habits and then you get slim. Same with success, same with property, same with
everything. Brilliant book. I read this 11 years ago.
Alasdair: Do you know what I took from that book? If you just do one little thing every
day, in a year's time look at the change that's going to happen.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: That's what I took from that book.
Samuel: I tend to read this every few years and this is one of my personal favourites.
Best ever. Best ever biography. Real easy read, I love easy reads. Screw It, Let's Do
It. This book I read when I was 16 years old, so now about 11, 12 years ago. And, again,
changed my life. Also I know Richard Branson, I've met him on more than one occasion, great
guy. One of the most interesting entrepreneurs you'll ever meet.
Alasdair: He's such a nice guy as well, isn't he?
Samuel: He talks about if an opportunity comes along say yes, and then figure it out later.
And his life is a living testimony of that. What he's achieved is fantastic. He's probably
one of the most loved and well-respected business people, entrepreneurs on the planet.
Alasdair: Yeah, he is.
Samuel: So you can read this in probably a few hours, so absolutely inspirational and
a really refreshing read as well. His life story with a lot of lessons in there. You
love Branson, don't you?
Alasdair: I love him, man. Do you know why I like him? Because of that saying, just say
yes and do it later.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: Just say yes, worry about it later.
Samuel: Most people worry, an opportunity comes along and they worry about all the ... and
again, little voice, they worry about, oh, what about this? What about this? Whereas
he just goes for it and that's how he achieved so much success. I love Richard Branson.
Samuel: Next, we're almost there. Eat That Frog! Fantastic book. Time management, how
important is that?
Alasdair: Brian Tracy ... Critical. Critical.
Samuel: I've not met Brian Tracy, but I've heard his audios, I've heard him speak.
Alasdair: Yeah, I've listened to ... he does a video series as well about time management.
Samuel: Yeah. I mean Eat That Frog! The idea is eating a frog is obviously unpleasant,
so what he's talking about is do the most unpleasant tasks first. So when you wake up,
the things that you ... maybe phone the estate agent, the things that you normally would
put off and you'd think about and you'd think, oh, I need to do that at some point, and you
think about and you do the jobs that you enjoy first and then the really important ones that
you don't like never get done. So he says just wake up in the morning and the nasty
jobs, just eat that frog, get it out the way.
Alasdair: It's also about not procrastinating, not wasting, not delaying things, just get
on with it.
Samuel: 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. Really good
book. I read this twice, but it's fantastic. And lastly, this is probably going to be the
best of all of them and this is Whatever It Takes by Alisdair Cunningham. And also this
is a fantastic book, it had to go in the top 12. Not just because you're sat next to me.
I've read this, again, I've probably read this three times and I know I wrote the forward
to it. What's this book about?
Alasdair: It's about my journey, so it's about where I was 18 months ago to meeting you,
to personal battles and personal struggles and to now sitting here pretty much on your
sofa in your front room.
Samuel: Not pretty much, you are on my sofa and we are business partners.
Alasdair: Friends.
Samuel: And we're very good friends. But not only is it your story, but it's also, it's
very practical.
Alasdair: Oh, 100%.
Samuel: I mean even talking about how to set up as a compliant deal packager. Really practical.
Alasdair: I was very conscious that I didn't want it being full of sort of filler and fluff,
I literally, I'm a very direct person, so bang, straight to the point, this is what
I've done and this is how I've done it.
Samuel: It's a fabulous book. It's a fabulous book. You can literally read this book and
start making money straight away, but the cool thing is, Whatever It Takes, what a great
title for a book. Because ultimately, if you want to be successful, you've got to be prepared
to do whatever it takes.
Alasdair: I completely agree.
Samuel: So my advice to you would be, even if you just read ... talking of The Slight
Edge, little and often, you can't read all of these books in one go. It's going to take
time. But my advice would be just start reading a chapter a day, you know? Just spend 20 minutes
a day, get up in the morning, get up 20 minutes earlier than you normally do and just read
20 minutes of one of these books.
Alasdair: 20 minutes is nothing, so stay off Facebook and just go and read a book.
Samuel: Exactly. And you know what? Rather than filling your mind with what your broke,
loser friends on Facebook put on their news feed-
Alasdair: Yeah I know.
Samuel: ... scroll through that for 20 minutes, why not just get up in the morning and read-
Alasdair: I don't think there's any excuse, is there? Because most of these books are
available on Audible, so you could even download them and put them in your car.
Samuel: Turn your car into a mini-university.
Alasdair: 100%.
Samuel: So when you're in your car, see it as an opportunity. Oh great, I'm going to
be able to learn in the car. I think the average person-
Alasdair: Even for short journeys.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: Like I've just come from the offices to here, it's like 25 minutes, bang, I was
listening to-
Samuel: Well the average person spend about 10 hours a week driving.
Alasdair: Oh wow.
Samuel: So if you just, every time you're driving, listen to these books on Audible,
then within probably a year or two you will have read ... I tell you what, if you read
every one of those 12 books, it would change your life. You're going to be a different
person, man. It's just the small changes. But I tell you what, I love reading books,
but there's nothing ... a lot of these authors I've met and I've been on their training programmes
and I've had dinner with them and I just don't think you can beat live training programmes.
Alasdair: The live interaction.
Samuel: No. Because then not only do you get the information, but you get it in a fun way
and you can ask the author questions, so whatever you do, get down to a property investors crash
course because I have not only read hundreds and hundreds of books, but I've also spent
hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds getting trained and everything I know just
... the best of it comes out at the crash course.
Alasdair: Also I mean I read Buy Low, Rent High and then that came with an opportunity
to come to the crash course. And being there live is much ... the book was good, it was
great, but actually being there live is like night and day. It's fantastic.
Samuel: Well although reading is great, reading books is fantastic, I really recommend it,
it's the bottom, it's the absolute worst way to learn.
Alasdair: Yeah.
Samuel: Reading a book is the worst. Here's the order. Reading, hearing, seeing, seeing
it done, then doing it and then the ultimate is to teach.
Alasdair: Teach it, yeah.
Samuel: And that's why I love teaching.
Alasdair: Yeah.
Samuel: But at my programmes, the property investors crash course, you don't read it,
you don't read it, you don't hear it, you actually see it. That's why on the crash course
I do deals. But then I get the ... everyone on the programme to do deals and then I get
them to teach what they did and explain that to me. So it's almost like learning on steroids.
Alasdair: It's frigging awesome.
Samuel: Because the problem is most people won't spend 20 minutes a day. But they will
give up one weekend, one weekend that will change their life forever.
Alasdair: Again, it comes back to-
Samuel: This is turning into a crash course pitch, I'm afraid. You know why though, because
I'm so frigging passionate.
Alasdair: Yeah, but it comes back to doing a little bit, like The Slight Edge, doing
that little bit every day. That little bit every day.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: It's nothing. Just 10, 15, 20 minutes a day.
Samuel: Attend one programme, one training programme every three months.
Alasdair: Yeah.
Samuel: Or once a quarter.
Alasdair: I mean you still go to training programmes.
Samuel: Yeah.
Alasdair: And I go to lots of training programmes.
Samuel: Russell's in Germany right now.
Alasdair: Exactly.
Samuel: With this guy, this guy.
Alasdair: Russell, he is.
Samuel: My man Blair Singer. Of course man. Training is fantastic because the more you
learn, the more you earn.
Alasdair: 100%.
Samuel: And if you want to be wealthy, but you're a small container and as you learn
you grow and then your container grows and you have an ability to hold more, carry more,
impact more, be more.
Alasdair: Yeah.
Samuel: Who was it that said if you're born broke, that's not your fault, but if you die
broke, that's your fault.
Alasdair: I don't know who it was that says it, but it's very true.
Samuel: Yeah. And the way to not die broke is to learn. So anyway, I hope that was helpful.
If there are books that should have been on the list that were not on the list, comment
them below, favourite books, also your feedback and I hope to see you on a crash course, we'll
put a link below. Www.property-investors.co.uk. Come along to a crash course if you haven't
been already and see you next week on Thoughtful Thursday.