📚 Welcome back to The Reading Life!
I don’t want to give you the impression that I think life is just some great big competition, because it mostly certainly isn’t. At least it doesn’t have to be.
But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love to win, and if you do have competitors that you’re trying to beat, you’d better hope they don’t read these ten books before you do!
A few quick things before we get into them...
First, you may know that each month, I donate $1 to First Book for every Premium Member of The Reading Life. It’s a fantastic literacy charity that does great work providing books to children and teaching them how to read, and I’m happy to support them!
After this month’s donation, we’ve now raised a total of $712! Thanks to YOU!
There are also two books - one out now and the other coming soon - that I’m very excited about reading (well, more than two, but two for right now), and they are:
I’ve read two of Chris’s books already - The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus - and he says that this book is the best thing he’s ever made, so I’m sure it’ll be amazing!
And MJ DeMarco wrote one of my favorite business books of all time, The Millionaire Fastlane. It changed everything for me, and now I recommend it all the time.
And, in case you missed it, here’s my latest YouTube video too:
Now, before our coffees get cold, let’s hit the books!
Tonight, Inside The Reading Life, We’ve Got:
“The challenge for all of us is an inner one: to keep going when it seems like no one is paying attention or cares. And to believe that eventually the world will catch up.”
“To sum up then, if you wish to be rich, you must grow a carapace. A mental armor. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family. But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures, not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success.”
Inside my private business mastermind, Creator Launch Academy, we’re tackling one nonfiction book per month and implementing its lessons inside our businesses.
This month’s book is How to Get Rich, by Felix Dennis, a fantastic book about getting rich, obviously, but also with a touch of tragic beauty, written as it was when Dennis found himself at the top of the financial mountain, with terminal cancer…and alone.
Click here to claim your free trial, and join our business book club for educational content creators!
After achieving my (somewhat meaningless) goal of reading 1,000 books before I turned 30, I set a new (also meaningless but cool) goal of reading 10,000 books. As of today, I’ve read exactly 1,459 books, including 5 books so far this year, and if you’re interested, here’s my full Reading List.
“I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could, from a past that no longer defined me, toward a future undetermined. All I knew was that there would be pain and there would be purpose. And that I was ready."
Who is this guy David Goggins, who just came out of absolutely nowhere to make such a massively positive impact on my life? Man…this book was a revelation.
Very few people have influenced the direction of my life as much as David Goggins has, and even if you’re put off somewhat by his intensity, or by different aspects of his personality, I’d urge you to give this book a chance! It’s easy to misunderstand him, or write him off, but please don’t.
The beginning of the book is rather painful to read. The nightmare of Goggins’ childhood and adolescence - the physical, mental, and emotional abuse, the racism, the indignities of poverty - none of it is light reading.
But once you get through that part, you “get it.” It made him.
His ultimate transformation, however? Unbelievable. Astounding. Here’s this guy: extremely overweight, depressed, with limited opportunities or support - he had every reason for you never to have heard of him.
He was sooo close to becoming a number, a statistic, and had it not been for the tremendous reserves of inner strength and fight that he found within himself, that’s exactly what he would have become.
Even just turning himself around to get to the point where he could successfully apply to become a Navy SEAL would have been impressive. But everything that came after that? Straight up legendary.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: “The 40% Rule” is something Goggins explains in the book, and it refers to how, when you think you’re done and that you have nothing left inside of you to give, you’ve actually only used up 40% of your capacity. Keep that in mind, move forward despite your feelings, and you will be an extremely tough competitor this year.
“I never felt outside pressure. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I knew how much work it took to achieve those goals. I then put in the work and trusted in it. Besides, the expectations I placed upon myself were higher than what anyone expected from me.”
I don’t even like basketball, and I still think this book is amazing.
Kobe Bryant was a superstar basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers known for his sickening work ethic and dedication to the sport; this is a book about his career with that team, and it gives special insight into his game, how he played, and how he became such an unstoppable force on and off the court.
Again, I’m not even a basketball fan (although I don’t mind it) - I just remember Kobe as an absolute legend who gave everything he had to the game that he loved, and set the standard for champion-level competitiveness, depth of preparation, and the indefatigable will to win.
Truthfully, this book is just as much about success and excellence as it is about basketball.
It’s a good thing it’s not a basketball manual, or else I probably wouldn’t have made it through! It’s more so about how he thought, how he prepared, how he competed, and how he learned to be the very best he could be.
His famously detailed approach to the game set an example for the entire league, and if you have aspirations of getting to the top in anything, you’ll find lots here to motivate and inspire you.
The book is also accompanied by epic photos taken by the Lakers’ official photographer, Andrew D. Bernstein, who took both the first and the last picture Kobe Bryant ever took with the team.
It won’t take you long to read this one, but speaking for myself, I’ll carry Kobe’s example with me for the rest of my life.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Kobe Bryant was just…something else, man. And I think that, in order to compete (and win) at the highest levels, you need a model of hard work and dedication, of relentless intensity - someone who can show you just how hard it’s possible to work. Kobe is that person for me.
“Most people have the wiring in their brains messed up. They’ve decided to doubt the wrong things, such as their potential, the availability of breakthrough opportunities, and their chances for making a quantum leap. For now, if you must doubt something, doubt your limits.”
This book has one of the highest ideas-per-page ratios of any book I’ve ever read, which is always a pleasant surprise, since a lot of nonfiction books probably could have been blog posts. They may have 1-3 main ideas in the whole book, stretched to 300 pages just to make the publisher happy.
However, there is no wasted wisdom in this one - it’s full of fantastic stuff that can help you make a tremendous amount of progress in a very short time.
The Quantum Leap Strategy is tiny, clocking in at just 40 pages or so - haters might call it a pamphlet. But anyway, I took five pages of notes from the thing, and Dr. Pritchett had me thinking completely differently about my potential, what’s attainable, and what I would have to adjust about my approach in order to achieve my 5-year goals in six months.
None of it is overcomplicated, and even some of my notes may seem stupidly simple. Almost obvious. Like, of course you should start thinking about what you actually want, not just what’s reasonable for you to expect. Of course you should think big, aim high, and take massive swings. Of course you should doubt your limits, not your potential.
But there’s something about the clarity and power with which these very simple (yet profound) ideas are expressed that made them really connect with me.
Out of the 40 pages, I took five pages of notes, like I said, but I probably came away with at least 100+ ideas for how I could grow my business, make more money, fill my life with more adventures and memorable experiences, and make more progress in 12 months than most people will make in their entire lives.
Give this one a shot. It could do the same for you.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: If you want to really blow past your competition, you can’t just keep making incremental gains. If you’re equally talented, and even if you both work 16 hours a day, you’ll never catch up. No, you have to do something different. You have to make a quantum leap.
“The basic principle of winning has never changed. It’s about taking the potential you were born with, living up to it, and helping other people at the same time as you realize your own dreams.”
Personal and professional excellence is Waitley’s project in this book, and after a fifty-year career in the personal development industry, he’s uniquely positioned to explain how winning isn’t necessarily about luck or talent, but about developing the mindset of a champion, starting from the inside-out, modifying your self-image, beliefs, and daily behaviors, and adapting to feedback in order to get closer to your goals over time.
To Waitley, winning is less of an event than a process, and you also don’t necessarily have to have won anything to be a winner in his eyes.
As long as you’re focusing on possibilities rather than limitations, taking positive action to reinforce a strong self-image, and visualizing success daily, you’re on your way to becoming a champion, long before anyone hangs that gold medal around your neck.
I didn’t know too much about Denis Waitley going into this book, but I came away extremely impressed with his 100% personal responsibility (no excuses, no matter what) philosophy, offered in a supportive, yet demanding manner that leaves you with no doubt that you are the CEO of your own life, and gives you everything you need to make the most of it - wherever you may find yourself, and whatever you feel called to take on.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Champions develop processes and systems, and this book will help you do the same. Most people have neither.
“Most of us are so far away from our natural limits that they aren't even worth thinking about.”
This book may not be the most exciting nonfiction book out there, but the possibilities it uncovers are fascinating.
It’s not just about discipline or toughness, but rather a unique combination of passion, persistence, and long-term perseverance that Duckworth refers to as grit.
Grit follows your standard nonfiction formula of case studies, interviews, and anecdotes that combine to form a picture of what people with true grit can accomplish, which, as it turns out, is quite a bit more than most people accomplish!
From West Point military academy, to tough, inner-city schools, and others arenas, Duckworth shows how effort animates talent and skill; why our potential is so vast that it’s barely worth thinking about; and how younger people can learn to love hard work, an attitude and mindset that will benefit them in multifarious ways as they encounter challenges and obstacles in life that would completely derail those who may be more talented, but who lack the willingness to put in the effort required to turn obstacles into opportunities for virtually unlimited personal growth.
One would hope that, if they learned nothing else in school, children would come away having learned the lessons in this book, because it’ll do so much more for their success and happiness than any memorization of multiplication tables or elemental tables.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Simply put, this book will help you outlast everyone who hasn’t read it.
The Deep Work Hypothesis: “The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
Professor Cal Newport introduced an entirely new term into the global conversation with this book, Deep Work, by which he refers to the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
As opposed to “shallow work,” which would include things like responding to emails, formatting social media posts, etc.
The former produces a body of work that will launch your career to new heights, and the latter produces…nothing. At least nothing of substance.
Deep work is a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information (which is basically the price of entry today, professionally), and produce better results in less time.
It sets you apart from virtually everyone else you’re competing against, and who are gradually losing their ability to concentrate for longer than a cat video.
Given enough time, it’ll put you so far ahead professionally that it will be impossible ever to catch up with you.
Ideally, you’d want to spend as much time per day engaged in deep work as possible, though the upper limit thought to be achievable for most people is around four hours per day. And even then it’s something that you’ll likely have to work up to. But it’s worth it.
Not only will optimizing your routine to enable deep work allow you to achieve more, and up to a higher standard, it can also be quite pleasurable, as pushing to your cognitive limit (but not beyond it) acts as a flow trigger.
What deep work looks like in practice is having all of your smartphone notifications turned off, putting a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door to your office or workspace, closing every tab that doesn’t contain the masterpiece you’re working on right now - and only that one masterpiece - and dedicating as much time as possible to the accomplishment of the highest-quality work of which you’re capable.
The ability to do this is rare, of course, and because it’s so rare, it’s also exceptionally valuable. When no one else can do what you do, you get paid more than anyone else does.
Newport also presents a rigorous training program in the book that will help you build up your “deep work” muscles, a training program that most people just won’t have the stamina or the desire to complete.
By definition, deep work is difficult. Most people simply aren’t able to do it - at least not for any significant length of time.
But if you can, it will work to your extreme competitive advantage, allowing you to dominate, demolish, and destroy your competition: those brainrot victims who can’t manage to tear themselves away from their phones long enough to look up and realize that you’ve lapped them.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: The ability to concentrate on anything longer than a cat video is exceedingly rare, and rare is valuable. Cultivate the ability to do deep work, and YOU will become rare and valuable.
“No matter where I work, the same truth keeps emerging. Neutral thinking is the key to unlocking a set of behaviors that can turn also-rans into champions and champions into legends."
It Takes What It Takes is a masterclass in accurately assessing the nature of reality in front of you and building an effective strategy to help you deal with it, no matter what.
No. Matter. What.
The author, the late Trevor Moawad, was a top mental conditioning coach ("the world's best brain trainer") who worked with superstars in the NFL, elite professionals at Harvard Business School, Fortune 500 companies, the military - basically anywhere you see ambitious strivers and world-class competitors pursuing their potential, you would have found Trevor Moawad, helping them manage their negativity and achieve any goal they set for themselves.
His life's work was to motivate the motivated. Not by pumping them up with fake positivity or silly affirmations; not by wishing and hoping for performance improvements, and not by instilling a blind faith in positive thinking.
Instead, he helped these elite individuals return to reality, face the very real obstacles in their path, and come up with a plan for what to do in the very next moment, which is the only time when any of us have any real power.
Importantly, he wouldn't let them get too high or too low. Negative thinking works negatively 100% of the time, naturally, and just because you're thinking negatively doesn't mean you're being realistic. But positive thinking often has very little to do with reality either, and it's in navigating between those two extremes where we can find that next gear.
Just like in bowling, where beginners often have those bumpers on either side of the lane to prevent the ball from ending up in the gutter, neutral thinking can help you stay centered and stay on the path taking you where you want to go.
Neutral thinking, as Trevor would say, is a high-performance strategy that emphasizes judgment-free thinking, especially in pressure situations. It acknowledges that the past happened. However, the past isn’t predictive. It can influence the present and thus, the future, but it doesn't guarantee it.
Neutral thinkers calmly and coolly assess challenges, take inventory of their unique strengths and abilities, and determine the best path forward, often with incomplete information about the true nature of reality, but never running from it.
The past doesn't determine your future; what you do next determines your future. Neutral thinking is about gaining as much clarity as possible, reclaiming as much control as possible, and then asking, "What would a winner do in this situation?"
One of the strongest lessons in this book is that winners behave like winners, and average performers exhibit average behaviors. You can't behave like an average person and expect to be anything more than average. You have to think like a winner, and most importantly behave like a winner if you want to stack the probabilities of success in your favor.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Reality is undefeated. If your plan involves not taking reality seriously, or trying to avoid facing up to the facts of the situation, you will lose, and your opposition will walk all over you.
“Just before our team took to the court before a game, including the 10 to decide a national championship, these were my final words to the players:
'Make sure you can hold your head high after this game.'
They all knew I wasn't talking about the final score.
I did not say it as a fiery exhortation, but with all the seriousness and sincerity I had in me. It was the most important message our players could take with them into the battle: 'Do your best. That is success.'
Believing that simple truth gave us tremendous strength. Teaching it gave me tremendous satisfaction."
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden was a master when it came to seeing potential greatness and infinite self-worth lying dormant inside the players on his teams, and his leadership style - that you can learn to adapt for yourself - was perfectly suited to drawing excellence from the teammates entrusted to his care.
For Wooden, there was a standard that ranked above winning, and he believed that if you give every single thing you have within you to be your very best, then you're already a success no matter what.
Doing your best is all that can ever be asked of you; it's literally everything, and although winning may be a natural byproduct of that supreme effort, it could never be the sole reason for a team's or a person's existence.
Disciplined, intensely focused on executing the fundamentals, self-controlled, team-focused, and unselfish, they would have been winners no matter what, and this is because of Wooden's exceptional leadership style.
John Wooden also possessed an immense moral strength that was given expression in many of the actions he took as a coach and leader.
For one thing, when racism was still a significant presence in collegiate sports, he refused to enter basketball tournaments that his black players weren't allowed to participate in.
They were a team, and if they couldn't all play, then none of them were going to be there.
It was this strict, incredibly demanding coaching style, combined with this gentleness, and a strong, enduring belief in human potential and infinite human worth that made John Wooden such a spectacular role model. One that we would all do well to emulate in our own lives. And the best part is that we can. We “just” have to do our best.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Winning is an event, competing is a process. Focusing on winning takes your attention away from what you have to do to win, and this book demonstrates how to use that to your advantage.
“Being relentless means demanding more from yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more.”
I don’t think I knew that Tim Grover was Michael Jordan’s personal trainer when I first picked up this book. Or that he had worked with a multitude of basketball greats as well, including Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade, to name just two.
I wasn’t even particularly interested in basketball (I’m still not) - I just liked the title and the book cover and decided to dive in. And? Unbelievable. What. A. Book!
It’s not for everybody, of course, as Grover’s style is quite intense and unforgiving. Simply put, not everybody wants to be as great as his methods will allow you to become. Most people just aren’t willing to endure the kinds of sacrifices that being Relentless requires, and that’s totally cool! Not everybody can (or wants to) become a champion.
However…That being said, if you do aim to achieve greatness in whatever it is you choose to do in your life, this is the absolutely indispensable guide that you need to read.
For decades, Tim Grover has “taken the greats - and made them greater.” None of it happened by accident. There are requirements - sacrifices to be made. Things will be asked of you. If you’re not a champion now, you will, by definition, need to change to become one, and change is never comfortable.
But if you are willing to change - if you’re teachable, and you have the requisite desire - then becoming Relentless is possible. It’s within human reach. Kobe wasn’t born Kobe, and Michael wasn’t born Michael.
They created themselves, and it was Tim Grover that made them do it. His best, most transformative methods and insights are contained within this book. Read it if you have a genuine desire to become Relentless. If not, don’t even bother.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Tim Grover spent decades training some of the most elite athletes ever to pick up a basketball, and he knows a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to winning. Read this book if you want to win.
“Winning doesn’t sleep, and doesn’t understand why you do.”
This book has some of the most “truth per page” of any book I’ve ever read.
It’s about competition, about winning (obviously), and about doing whatever has to be done in order to reach the kind of success you have your sights set on, regardless of whether or not you actually feel like doing it. It’s no-nonsense, no-pity counsel from Michael Jordan’s former personal trainer, Tim Grover.
According to most winners, of course, winning is everything. But Tim Grover doesn’t suggest that everyone “should” aspire to become a winner, or even that everyone can.
However, if you think that’s what you want for yourself, and you think you have what it takes, this book will either disillusion you, or give you the tools that are indispensable to your success. Like, indispensable.
I honestly can’t imagine anyone who’s ever won anything being unfamiliar with the principles laid out in this book. This isn’t just a “nice to read” book, but absolutely essential reading for anyone who’s serious about winning.
Kobe Bryant was another one of Grover’s clients, along with Dwayne Wade. These are athletes and professionals that demand more from themselves than anyone else could reasonably expect from them, and so in the beginning Grover had to step up and advance to their level, so that they could reach even higher heights together.
If you’re serious about winning – and, again, Grover isn’t saying that it’s the life for everyone – then you have to get in line with this winning attitude.
I found similarities here between this book and Steven Pressfield’s work, especially The War of Art, and Turning Pro, where Pressfield personifies The Resistance as a force that will stop at nothing to prevent the Artist from performing their creative work. Similarly, Winning is personified by Grover as a pitiless, remorseless entity that will relentlessly test anyone who dares to think that they have what it takes to be called a winner.
When all is said and done (more done than said, if you want to be a winner), I’m a huge fan of this book, especially because it’s so much more than just motivation and empty hype. Neither one of those things will help you beat your alarm clock or bang out 15 more reps. Motivation is shit, and hype is for losers. Winning is for winners.
Difficulty Rating: Easy
How It’ll Help You Outcompete Everyone: Same deal as before. Tim Grover knows what it takes to win. He lays it all out in this book. Read it if you’re serious.
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OK, that’s it for now…
I’ve got plenty more excellent book recommendations coming your way soon though!
There’s also my YouTube channel, where I publish book reviews, reading updates, and more each week.
And if you want to learn how I’ve built an audience of 180,000+ followers across social media, became a full-time creator, and how I’m rapidly growing my audience and scaling my profits in 2025, join us inside Creator Launch Academy and that’s exactly what I’ll teach you — we’d love to have you in the community!
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Reading Life, and enjoy the rest of your day!
Until next time…happy reading!
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are two more ways I can help you:
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