Quote from R. on February 20, 2020, 5:26 pm

The List of people in the top 100 richest people category who dont have books written on them. Maybe there is information of quite alot or not on google about them, please check.

Bernard Arnault

Carlos slim

Hui Ka Yan

Li Ka Shing

Lee Shau Kee

Francois Pinault

Jospeh Safra

Azim Premji

Wang Jianlin

Leonardo Del Vecchio

Donald Bren

Takemitsu Takizaki

Zhang Yiming

 

 

 

 

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on February 24, 2020, 6:57 am

Welcome Ahmad!

You're the first one to use that "introduce yourself" board :).

How come you want t oread that many books on billionaires? Is your goal to become a billionaire?

 

Quote from Guest on February 24, 2020, 7:58 pm

Hey Ahmad,

Awesome mission! My personal favorite is Principles by Ray Dalio. If you don't know anything about it, I would recommend reading this book in chunks because it's not really a book you read, it's more of a book you study (sort of like the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene).

As I went through your list I was shocked to find that you didn't include The Self-made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value. This book does a great job displaying the common trends among billionaires if you're interested in getting a rough idea of what it takes (ex: a large majority of billionaires had a background in sales (they're adept at persuasion) and a large percentage of today's billionaires on the Forbes List are investors).

Another must read is The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. I was expecting it to be mainly about stocks (which isn't really my thing), but I picked it up after I found out the book was written by the mentor of Warren Buffett, who after reading this book at age 19, enrolled in Columbia Business School in order to study right under Graham. He's not a super popular billionaire, but Benjamin Graham was making $500,000 annually at age 25, which is $7,787,090.91 in today's money! The main reason I recommend this book is because it has really good advice on what to look for in a company that will help you determine if it would be a good investment. As an entrepreneur, I was able to go chapter by chapter and apply his advice to my own company to make it more profitable for myself. His advice helps whether you're investing in stocks, companies, or real estate.

I wish you the best of luck on your mission and have heard great things about the Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX book (though I have not yet read it myself). If you're interested, here is a link to a list of every book Warren Buffett has recommended this decade if you have not seen it already :-).

Best Regards,

Alian Scarlett

Quote from R. on February 26, 2020, 11:57 pm

Wow, thanks alot for your reply Scarlett!

Quote from R. on February 27, 2020, 12:01 am

Hi Lucio, yes my goal is to become a billionaire, it's a crazy goal but it's something that is something anybody can achieve as long as a couple of factors are present which comes from a bit of luck but you gotta keep outing yourself in that bubble of luck through persistence and preserverance and get an opportunity to get a space inside at that bubble of a bit of luck. The rest is... Well we all know e.g. Asking the right questions, failing as much as possible, learning from the best, esrx etc and the list goes on. Correct me if I'm wrong on anything, and could you pls give some advice on this post of mine?

Quote from Ali Scarlett on February 28, 2020, 2:07 am

Hey Ahmad,

I'm glad you were able to get some value from my book suggestions (I accidentally replied as a Guest).

Did you get the chance to check out Lucio's Wealth Guide? He has a lot of great advice on your post and if you're a Social Power Customer, it's already included in Module 7 - Bonuses under "Bonus E-books".

Here are some of the resources Lucio used to put together his personal finance guide to wealth:

• Benjamin Graham, “The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (1949)
• Burton Malkiel, “A Random Walk down Wall Street: The Time-tested Strategy for Successful Investing” (2016)
• David Bach, “The Automatic Millionaire, Expanded and Updated: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich” (2016)
• Dave Ramsey, “The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness” (2013)
• Daymond John, “The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage” (2017)
• Donald Trump, “The Art of The Deal” (2015)
• Ernie J. Zelinski, “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor” (2009)
• Gary Vaynerchuck, various sources
• George Clason, “The Richest Man in Babylon” (2002)
• Grant Cardone, “The 10X Rule” (2011)
• Grant Cardone, “The Millionaire Booklet” (2016)
• Grant Cardone, “Be Obsessed or be Average” 2016
• Harve Eker, “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005)
• Henrekson, Magnus, and Tino Sanandaji. "Small business activity does not measure entrepreneurship." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111.5 (2014): 1760-1765. http://www.pnas.org/content/111/5/1760.full?sid=d6ffdb16-b18d-4190-88a9-52b7b94c1847
• John Bogle, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (2007)
• Kevin Johnson, “The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs” (2013)
• Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich” (1937)
• Noam Wasserman (2012), “The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup” (Princeton University Press).

That's about less than half of the resources Lucio used, I just didn't want to make this post too long :).

A lot of people would be comfortable with being a millionaire, what inspired you to take your ambition so far?

To your success,

Ali

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on February 28, 2020, 2:42 pm

In Peter Diamandi's parlance, that's a big moonshot goal, mate :).

I don't have much personal experience with becoming a billionaire and I might never have as I personally have a different attitude towards money.
From a psychology point of view though, this is what I'd tell you:

1. Make sure you're not chasing riches to become happy -it often just doesn't work that way-
2. Make sure you're not chasing riches because of something that was missing in your childhood -seeking success to make up for a lack of parental love, for example-

What are healthier alternatives?
Almost anything is healthier than the first two. Even a "will to power" is better.
It's a bit of a cliche', but it's true that becoming rich as a consequence of a different goal is a better approach.
Another healthier approach is to look at business as a game, and at money as a way to keep track of how well you're doing. A bit like collecting coins in a Super Mario game.

Make sure you also build your emotional rewards in a way that lets you enjoy the process, and not just the final.
That's important because, as Tony Robbins says: final success without fulfillment is the final failure.

How to Read Biographies & Autobiographies

To learn the most from biographies and autobiographies some knowledge of psychology, power dynamics and critical thinking is very helpful.

Two examples:

• Donald Trump in "The Art of The Deal" says that he wanted to allow homeless people in a tower he bought to help them out, but the City of New York didn't allow him
• Phil Knight, the founder of Nike said that he always treated his athletes "like real people", and never

Now Trump helping out and the City stopping him? That makes little sense. And it sure makes Donald Trump look like superhero of goodness, a novel Batman. That's when you should wonder what was really going on.

Turns out, Donald Trump wanted to let homeless people in to force the last owners to sell -at lower prices-. Much different reality, eh?

Phil Knight instead prides himself in his biography that he always treated the famous athletes "like real people" and "not just vehicles to sell more".
Why was Knight saying that?
Probably, it was because he had some reputation-damage control work to do. Nike didn't treat workers in the sweatshops too well, so now he wanted to make up for it by showing he wasn't "kissing up and kicking down".

Biographies, Autobiographies, & Investigative Journalism

There is much to learn from biographies and autobiographies, but both must be taken with a grain of salt.

Autobiographies is basically the potentially most biased person writing about himself.
If you start seeing the writer sharing shameful moments of his life, and coming clean on really uncomfortable truths, that's a great sign. But it's not the norm.

"Official biographies" basically means: we had to negotiate on what to write. And truth never takes a seat at that negotiation table. So it's you who needs to be able to read between the lines.

Investigative journalism instead can be a great source of knowledge, because the writer has all the interest in uncovering and sharing the truth. Sometimes it can swing in the opposite direction, for example when the writer take an antagonist position. But chances are much higher that, if there is dirty stuff, it will come out in the open. A good example is "In Bad Blood", the story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, who at a certain point was, at least on paper, the richest entrepreneur in the world.

Quote from Guest on March 9, 2020, 6:53 pm

Hi! Nice to be a part of this community!