It's really funny that, every time I go do speaking engagements, people actually always
asking me, “What are some books that you read, that has changed your life?”
I find this question really funny because at the end of the day, it's like...
I truly believe more than 90% of the people that actually know the books that they should
be reading, they never read them.
And even for the 10% that actually buy them, go ahead and go on Amazon, they buy it, I
would say another 15% of them never really read it.
Just my gut feeling.
But, anyways, yeah, it's really funny because every single time I go to speaking engagements,
people would actually take pictures like crazy when it comes to book recommendations, every
time they talk about... or if there is a slide that comes up as “Hey, this is a book that
I read that is super effective on marketing", for example.
All the phones would be out and everyone would be taking a picture of it.
So that which is the reason why I felt like, “Huh, interesting.
People find a lot of value in knowing the resources to dive into, but not really ever
taking an action to implement the teachings from the books".
Just my little rant.
But, nonetheless, there are actually two books that changed the trajectory of how I function
in my business and how I view business.
The first book is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
I really, really enjoyed this book because it really teaches me about how... that, as
entrepreneurs we wear different hats.
As in we have different roles.
We have an entrepreneurial role where we come up with crazy ideas about how we want to be
able to solve big problem for the world.
That's the entrepreneurial mind.
Now, I also need to be wearing a different hat which is the manager's hat.
To be able to manage different aspects of multiple arms of business.
To stay organized, to actually manage it piece by piece, whether it is business development
or operations.
Very different from the treatment to the vision of being the entrepreneur.
Now the third role that you need to take is the mechanic.
As a mechanic, you just need to go get your hands dirty and just work in your business.
To get shit done, right?
So many of us fail to realize that as a business owner, we only take on the hat as a visionary,
we only think about how to solve problems for the market.
But we fail to understand that at the same time you also need to put on the hat as a
mechanic willing to get your hands dirty, to actually go through the grind.
It really, really brought things into my perspective.
"Oh wow, that makes a lot of sense."
This book also taught me how to create systems and processes that prevents you from doing
redundant work.
What I mean by that is, if there's a task that you're doing day in day out why don't
we document it?
Why don't we create a procedure so that our managers can start training other people to
help them to complete these tasks because it doesn't require a lot of thinking, a lot
of processing.
Because as a business owner, your greatest asset is your ability to solve questions and
come up with solutions to bring to the argument.
So this book has really taught me so much.
I read this book more than 10 years ago and it definitely changed the trajectory of how
I do business; how to function in my business.
Now because of the fact that I always recommend this book, a question always pops up, "Okay,
this book is amazing, how has it changed your life?"
Well, I actually created my first business that expanded from Vancouver to Toronto from
this book.
I actually had the confidence and had the know-how from this book as well.
And from this book, I was able to build a business that I was eventually able to sell
two years ago.
My first very exit was thank to this book.
I give all the credit to this book because it taught me about how do you become the three
roles as an entrepreneur.
How do you create systems and processes that I can actually teach other people.
And because of having that framework and structure in business, I was able to eventually sell
this whole business and allowed me to expand beyond Vancouver to Toronto.
That's the effect of this book.
Now, having said that, this book's not going to do any work if you're not going to do any
work.
So that's the effect of this book.
The second book that I recommend that has changed my perspective of business is The
Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma.
This book is a lot less tactical, it's much more...
It allows me to actually gain an insight and perspective of what is truly important.
A lot of times in my previous videos I talk about mindset as being a really important
thing.
That understanding values is very, very important.
And it really all comes back down to...
I think this book talks about how this really, really crazy, successful financial lawyer,
that's driving a Ferrari, has everything he wanted in the whole world, quit his career,
sold his Ferrari to pursue the true meaning and purpose of life.
Now as crazy as it sounds in his... as spiritual as it sounds, there's nothing spiritual about
this book.
It has nothing to do about that at all.
It's everything to do with the stories of how do you put yourself in perspective when
viewing life, when viewing how business connects with your life.
Not going to dive into any stories because I'm not good at it at all.
But this book is the number one book that I gift to my friends, my family, relatives,
colleagues because of how much it has changed my life in terms of perspective-wise.
I think without this book I would probably be driving a Ferrari right around now because
I'd be working so much more than what I've been doing for the last 10 years.
But at the same time, I think I'm going to be the most... the saddest person in the room.
Because all I know is going to be work.
All I know is going to be the material things in life.
So I really do think Michael... not Michael, but Robin...
Yeah, both Michael and Robin were teaching me, showing me how do you business and perspective
of what business does to you.
So at the end of the day, it is so, so important for us entrepreneurs to have the proper mindset,
the proper perspectives.
Now I'm not telling you to not buy a Ferrari or not fight for most materialistic things
ever out there.
It's not about that, it's about having perspective of what these things do to you and to not
let these things define who you are.
And at the end of the day, these books have also taught me how do you create systems so
then that way you can scale and grow your business.
Because at the end of the day, that's what we want to do.
We want to grow, we want to scale and we want to have a happy life.
And these books have taught me these two big lessons.
And I hope that I'm able to give this gift I have received from them to you as well.
Leave in the comments section below what are other similar books that has changed your
life, your journey.
I'd love to know.