I read over 111 business biographies and these 11 will make you rich I grew up as a 16-year-old lost broken drug addict by 27 I made my first million dollars and today I fly around on my own private jet and I have a fleet of supercars and have a beautiful family and none of that would happened if I didn't read books my life was built by books when kids come up to me and my McLaren or my Ferrari and they ask me what do you do I tell them I read books specifically biographies because that's where I'm going to learn from people that have been there before that have built some of the most impressive companies in the world and understand that I'm not alone that I'm normal like I'm just like them in many ways maybe at different errors in time but it helps me feel not crazy and that's why you know I went through all 111 biographies that I've ever read and I've distilled it down into the 11 that I think are the best the ones that are really going to resonate with you where you're at starting off as an entrepreneur that'll really inspire you to think bigger to feel normal and hopefully take action so the first book Is open by Andre Agy it's written so well like the writing style and I know what you're thinking he's a tennis player what does it have to do with business let me tell you this book is about performance and mindset and growth most business problems our personal problems they just show up at our work this book taught me more about How To Succeed in Business than pretty much every other one on the list now here's a cool fun fact The Ghost Writer who worked with him also wrote another book on this list that I think is the best biography ever written in the history of man once I tell you what that one is later in this video be sure to come back and read this one because you will not be able to put it down what I loved about it is it talks about the importance of honesty and authenticity in both Sports and in life like being yourself which a lot of people they're always wearing masks not for the most part who they really are here's a guy that was groomed from birth to become a world class champion from his dad he's a bit demanding of a man and he struggled on court off Court he had won eight grand slams I mean he is the most decorated tennis player in the history so being able to get behind the scenes and understand the impact from his family his mentors his coaches and personal professional development and how all that came together for him to show how he embraced the change the adaptability had to learn in order to succeed if you want to read a book that's all about pursuing excellence and never giving up on your goals read this my dad for a long time didn't believe in me I would have loved somebody that saw my potential and pushed me to be the best but it was actually the opposite but what happened is that even in that scenario I ended up wanting to step up and prove my dad that I can do it you know my story is a little different where I grew up and because I got in so much trouble as a kid if I was just sober he would have been happy he didn't really believe I would do anything with my life so even though it was the opposite it was kind of his way of pushing me and here's what I've learned from that experience that might help you is that either way can work but the cool part is is nobody else has to change for you to win that's a big idea number two is losing my virginity by Richard Branson the biography the original one I read a long time ago and I reread this one recently for me Richard Branson is kind of the guy he's the billionaire every other billionaire wants to be like I had the privilege of spending a week with him in verbi Switzerland and he truly is somebody that integrates both work and life in a way that's playful fun and super creative in this book you're going to learn his crazy stories about how he embraced risk taken and honestly became an entrepreneur at the age of 16 years old how to focus on building a brand virgin is one of the top brands in the world in a company culture rather than just making profits turns out if you do that you make more profit and then really disrupt traditional industries by challenging the status quo every business has been doing things that way why cuz it's always been done that way when you take a fresh perspective and you look at and you say why don't we try this why don't we do this this is what you're going to learn in this book is how to prioritize Innovation and customer satisfaction at the end of the day customer decides if they're going to spend money and if you can find innovative ways to be competitive that's where the opportunity lies you started first business a magazine at 16 years old and it was called student he always had a passion for creating content and Publishing and creating art essentially and that's why he went from that to the record company to all the other companies virgin has over 400 businesses under the Virgin group of businesses with two CEOs you want to talk about scale read the book number three is the hard things about hard things by Ben Horwitz what I love about Ben I'm a tech guy a software guy he's my peeps I mean what's crazy is I was reading his blog for almost a decade before he ever wrote the book and what's neat is he starts every blog post with a rap leer if you saw a picture of Ben Horwitz you would laugh because this guy does not look like a rapan and he couldn't be more it's actually quite awesome in his book he goes through some crazy stories you got to understand sometimes we think we're having a bad day until you read a book like this and you realize that can't be real somebody has to create a movie around the stories in this book and what I love is that he just teaches is through these crazy stories leadership and what's required to make tough decisions when you're facing essentially headwinds straight on you know how to embrace uncertainty and be prepared to Pivot when necessary when I was building my company sphere there was a point where I was like I really need to choose I had three viable businesses or business units and I had to make the uncomfortable decision shut one down to essentially double down on the other two because doing all three at our size at that time wasn't the right move I got inspired by this book a couple years ago my company unfortunately had to essentially trans transition over a third of the staff which was a crazy cultural reset man you just feel like the worst person in the world and I know I did but having read Ben's book I don't love what I got to do right now but it is the right decision to continue playing the game being in the game to finally win see if you understood how many people you admire in business that the reason why you know who they are because they didn't give up it would give you so much more hope for the future and staying power that is actually the reason why most people win it's cuz they just have more grit number four Forest TrailBlazer The Mark benof biography now to say I'm a fan of Mark benof there's only two people in the world I would actually stop doing what I'm doing to go take a job working for one of them is Steve Jobs and the other one is Mark Benny off he is the not only the founder of salesforce.com which a lot of big companies use and many other platforms but he's also the guy that set SAS in motion when people hear software as a service of the term SAS it's like a technical term prior to salesforce.com most companies installed software on their server in a data center they did not host it in what we call the cloud and pay monthly to have logins like every software product you pay subscription every month for you should thank this guy for because he pioneered that whole movement that essentially allowed me to build a career so I'm a big fan of his work the book goes into deep details around how to build disruptive technology and different Industries how business models work how to prioritize customer success and satisfaction he actually created the cont cep of what many people call customer success but prior to that was called Revenue retention his leadership style of leading with vision and purpose and passion it inspired me in all levels from my first tech company to current day one of my favorite Parts about Mark is his philanthropic work and it's the one11 it's 1% of your profit 1% of your resources and 1% of your time committed to projects and people that you care about to want to help and I just think that idea if every company in the world got behind the 1% idea it would just make all these resources available and and he's just somebody that I think is worth studying and this book gives you the inside behind the scenes aspect of every part of his life number five is Founders at work by Jessica Livingston now let me tell you why this book is special I read it early in my Tech Career and why I fell in love with it is Jessica had the opportunity to interview Founders from PayPal Gmail 37 signals and really unpack their early days of founding and what it looked like and how it felt she compiled all these cool stories from all these Founders and put it in a book so in many ways it's like multiple biographies it provides insights into building successful products and scaling startups and honestly other valuable lessons on leadership hiring and just company culture one of the biggest pivots I remember was building this company Clarity and I was adamant and I had to suck it up when nobody used it the way I wanted them to do it and I pivoted from a productivity app to a Marketplace this book's full of examples they had to be honest with the lack of traction in their product number six is snow Ball by the man the legend waren Buffett the biography let me be honest with you this is a thick one this one was tough to read it was hard the early days are interesting but obviously once he meets Charlie that's when things get super fun if you want to learn how to build long-term wealth and understand how to think long term this is the book it's a master class in being consistent for decades not days he goes over continuous learning and how to have intellectual curiosity and Warren talks about this all the time he's like I skipped to work I enjoy working some of the highlights is Buffett's principles on frugality his concepts are on Integrity hiring leaders and really Simplicity in business that's the coolest part if you want to get deeper insights into Buffett's investment strategies and decision-making process and get lessons on risk management patience and emotional discipline and investing this is the book you're going to want to read number seven is the book Titan that is the biography on John D Rockefeller you know the craziest thing about this book when you're reading it is realizing that when he was alive there was no email there was really no fax machines there was no automation there was no technology he built this Empire on the backside of creative communication Creative Vision casting it was so cool to not only hear his upbringing and where he grew up and just some of the challenges he faced but the way he innovated even in the oil industry and really tried to create a monopoly whether you like that or not I mean it was really impressive he was able to do it if you want to learn about cool Concepts like ver integration which I think is awesome you know try to increase your margin and really how to be aggressive in competition if you're a bit of a Wallflower and it will teach you a completely different lens on how to compete in business so this one goes deep on the evolution of the American economy specifically during the late 19th and early 20th centuries it's kind of neat it's like going back in time now I know some people if you're like me you're too Canadian and you don't want to get walked all over this guy will teach you how to respond how to compete aggressively and honestly just increase what you feel your worth cuz you'll never get a penny more than you think you deserve this guy felt like he deserved all the pennies number eight is my life in work and Autobiography on Henry Ford from Ford Motor Company if you want to hear some crazy scenarios of where somebody started and the opportunities and honestly the opportunities to make somebody else rich and that person couldn't see that opportunity so Mr Henry here decides to go do his own thing and not only competes but absolutely revolutionizes the approach to manufacturing including the assembly line one of the most innovative ideas ever to come to manufacturing I study all things manufacturing I think it's actually a great place to look for Innovation things like the theory of constraints production flows it essentially did it like one car at a time so one person would work on it the chassis the engine the wheels the doors all of it to his model which is I'm going to have the chassis roll down the production floor and then I'll have one person that just does Wheels one person just does electrical one person just does engine and because of that then the person can specialize and the quality goes up the way The Butchers kind of took all the meats and kind of carve the different pieces off the cows and whatnot he just applied that to the cars and all of a sudden he created efficiencies and standardizations and really revolutionized mass production in this book you learn his absolute commitment to Innovation and continuous Improvement other things I loved about the book was his views on Labor Relations and the introductions to the $5 work day where he just decided I don't want to be cheap I will pay people the most so that I get the best talent Henry Ford built the Innovation to make sure that that always worked and I think that is really cool it's how I managed my life it really shaped How I build software How I build companies How I build people and I think if you want to go to the beginning of the beginning the Model T and Henry Ford is just a great place to stop number nine is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson arguably the most popular biography by most entrepreneurs because Steve was just such an iconic entrepreneur This Book Is Awesome I've read pretty much every one of Walter isaacson's biographies because he just has a way of digging in and collaborating with people in their life or if the person's passed on getting access to stuff that nobody else gets to so you will learn about Steve's not only upbringing his chip on his shoulder his Evolution between apple to next and back to Apple but most specifically why he had such a Relentless Pursuit for Perfection and anyways why that dedication allowed him to create groundbreaking products like finding the mini hard drive that then powered the iPod that brought us digital music I mean thousand songs in our pocket to do the iPhone before the iPad and decided on that sequencing is a really fascinating concept but you also dig into the leadership style his ideas for never settling what I love about is that it was very evident that he could tell when he was talking to somebody if they actually put the effort into the result they were looking for like did they actually show up and do the work and he would challenge people and the truth is is anybody that worked with Steve ended up being way better had they not worked with him they'll all admit to the same thing if you want to dive into understanding the ability to anticipate and shape consumer behaviors through Innovation design marketing the story of him hiding in the bushes outside an Apple store to spy on customers to see how they interacted with the different products and then use that information to go innovate back at his HQ that's what made Steve special my first Mac changed everything I changed program from Microsoft andet to Ruby on Rails I didn't want to touch Microsoft products ever again because I just couldn't believe that there was a product designed that just felt so great number 10 is Elon Musk by our man Walter isacson I have studied a handful of people more than any other person in the world elon's one of those people I've watched everything he's ever done the day the podcast with Joe Rogan came out I told my wife I'm going to the gym I'm not doing anything for 3 and 1/2 hours and I just sat there on a treadmill watching on my iPad Joe dig into the mind of Elon Musk cuz that was really the first long Format Interview that he ever did he's done a ton since then and what I love about this book is that you'll learn about his ambitious goals to colonize Mars and space exploration and why we should be a multiplanetary species what I love is his engineering mind when I see him tackle problems that for any normal person they would consider risky his only philosophy as long as we're not violating the principal of physics he's like we can do this from satellites to solar systems to tunnels to electric cars to rockets and what's crazy is most people don't realize this and Walter talks about it is that every company he started if you look at them from SpaceX to Tesla to solar facility to boring company to neuralink were all required to actually colonize Mars so some people think that he doesn't know what he's doing he's so far into the future that he doesn't even bother telling people anymore because he just is like you know what I'll just tell them about this because I don't think their brains could connect I mean when he talked about creating Tesla to provide a vehicle that makes you money so instead of a vehicle that depreciates and costs you money this is now an asset that's crazy he's playing chess when everybody else is playing checkers some of my favorite ideas that I've learned over the years from Elon is five rules of engineering one of my favorite rule of the five is don't engineer parts that are not needed so remove Parts he has this philosophy if you're not adding 10% of the parts back then you're not taken enough away and then my other one is just on Vector leadership this crazy idea of vector being a force and a Direction all we got to do is get everybody on a team to be pointing in the same direction with a 10 out of 10 force and that's what great culture and great leadership looks like and I'm just like so simple and explanation so if you want to dive into the behind the scenes his relationship with his dad the access that Elon gave Walter Isaacson blew my mind he literally said come to every meeting jump on my jet talk to my family members talk to my team talk to the people I've fired talk to the board talk to anybody there's nobody off limit and then write a book would you allow somebody to do that no that's what makes Elon Elon and Walter captured it perfect number 11 is shoe dog by Phil Knight the creator of niky let me tell you this if you read this biography it will ruin you for every other one that you got to read did Phil Knight actually write this book it turns out he partnered with a ghost riter that same ghost riter wrote open by Andre Agy it's one of those books where as I started to read it I realized I need to clear my schedule cuz I didn't want to stop I read it in probably 3 days non-stop he was just selling other people's products this Japanese shoe company and then they try to screw him over and he's like ah what do I do so he ends up manufacturing his own shoes that became Nike and then there was all these crazy things that had happened to him in the history of the business Bill Knight earned his wealth there's a story in here about some tax stuff that happened personally I would have gave up I would have looked at the math and I said the math don't math I'm good Fold It Up go do something else and Phil KN kept building it is so well written so great so awesome you want to learn how to build strong teams and cultures that really know how to Foster relationships that I think are crucial to success and build the persistence and resilience even when everybody else is ready to give up you keep pushing one of my favorite biographies if you had to start with one start here then go to open well maybe not cuz then it'll ruin cuz once you get into like Titan or snowball that's going to be some tough reads cuz this one you couldn't put down so if you want to learn how to stay true to your vision build a brand an iconic brand this is the book for you those are the 11 biographies that will make you rich but if you want to learn the 15 Laws of Success click the link and I'll see you on the other side