These are my top 10 favorite books.
The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
What I Learned:
How to listen to my heart, follow my dreams, and ignore people who don’t understand.
Book Description:
“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.” Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”
Sophie’s World By Jostein Gaarder
What I Learned:
I figured out which philosophies interest me, which ones I agree with, and others that I disagree with.
Book Description:
One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village.
The Pilgrimage By Paulo Coelho
What I Learned:
Meditations and how to stay on your path to your dreams.
Book Description:
Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coehlo’s pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. This fascinating parable explores the need to find one’s own path. In the end, we discover that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people. Part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery, this compelling tale delivers the perfect combination of enchantment and insight.
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel By Ralf Potts
What I Learned:
How to work hard and then travel the world cheaply.
Book Description:
Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms.
How to Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie
What I Learned:
It’s a crash course in social dynamics and how to deal with people.
Book Description:
For more than sixty years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this book has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich By Tim Ferriss
What I Learned:
Your energy is better spent focusing on the 20% of the things that give you 80% of the rewards.
Book Description:
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.
The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won’t Learn in College About How to Be Successful By Michael Ellsberg
What I Learned:
You don’t have to go to school to learn. It’s possible to teach yourself anything you want to learn.
Book Description:
Some of the smartest, most successful people in the country didn’t finish college. None of them learned their most critical skills at an institution of higher education. And like them, most of what you’ll need to learn to be successful you’ll have to learn on your own, outside of school.
The 48 Laws of Power By Robert Greene
What I Learned:
When you understand the laws of power, you can navigate the politics and come out ahead.
Book Description:
For those who want power, watch power, or want to arm themselves against power, The 48 Laws of Power is “The Rules for suits” (New York Magazine).
Mastery By Robert Greene
What I Learned:
Successful people aren’t lucky or born that way. There’s a series of steps you can take to achieve mastery.
Book Description:
Mastery synthesizes the years of research Robert Greene conducted while writing the international bestsellers The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, and The Art of Seduction and demonstrates that the ultimate form of power is mastery itself. By analyzing the lives of such past masters as Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Leonard da Vinci, as well as by interviewing nine contemporary masters, including tech guru Paul Graham and animal rights advocate Temple Grandin, Greene debunks our culture’s many myths about genius and distills the wisdom of the ages to reveal the secret to greatness. With this seminal text as a guide, readers will learn how to unlock the passion within and become masters.
The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business By Josh Kaufman
What I Learned:
This book is applicable to no matter what you want to do in life.
Book Description:
Getting an MBA is an expensive choice-one almost impossible to justify regardless of the state of the economy. Even the elite schools like Harvard and Wharton offer outdated, assembly-line programs that teach you more about PowerPoint presentations and unnecessary financial models than what it takes to run a real business. You can get better results (and save hundreds of thousands of dollars) by skipping business school altogether.
The above is written by Michael Sieler and originally appeared on Quora.
