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Five Great Books: Renegade Millionaire, Unscripted, The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim, and More!
Matt Karamazov
February 15, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 27 minutes
YOUTUBE đź“š THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE đź“š PATREON
Somehow, “Five Book Friday” turned into “Five Book Saturday,” but here in today’s newsletter are five great books you might like.
Below are my complete notes and summaries from the following books…
And in my latest YouTube video I talk about the 15 books I’m most excited to read this month. I basically went on a massive book haul, finally used up my Christmas gift cars, spent hundreds of dollars more, and wound up with these excellent books.
As you might remember, I’ve also been donating $1 for every Premium Member of The Reading Life newsletter (you!!) to First Book, my favorite literacy charity.
It’s not much (yet) but I donated $30 this month! Thanks to everyone who contributed!
I also want to take just a few moments to recommend my friend Jamie Northrup’s newsletter(s), both of which I’m subscribed to, and both of which I love.
One is called Minimalist Hustler, where 7,000+ people receive a daily email with 3 quick & valuable resources that will help them make more money online.
As a full-time creator myself, I keep myself up to date with all the latest audience-growth strategies, monetization strategies, etc. to build my business income (and my personal freedom) over time, and Jamie’s one of my favorite resources. And a great friend!
Jamie also has a second publication called Minimalist Books, where he sends a short email every Tuesday with small, impactful books on various topics and helps authors publish and profit from their own.
Each week you will discover:
A minimalist book to read.
A resource to help you publish your minimalist book(s).
A resource to help you promote your minimalist book(s).
I’m subscribed to this one too, I rarely miss it, and now I’m recommending it to you! Sign up here for free.
In This Issue of The Reading Life, We’ve Got:
📖 What I’m Currently Reading
📕 Books I’ve Finished This Month
đź“ś The Book Quote of the Day
🎥 The 15 Books I’m Most Excited to Read This Month
✍ My Latest Medium Articles
âś… New Book Releases Coming Soon
📚 Tonight’s Five Main Book Recommendations
🏅 Earn Rewards for Referring This Newsletter
Let’s not wait for our coffees to get cold…let’s hit the books!
Napoleon’s Library, by Louis N. Sarkozy: My friend Alex recommended this one and I bought it immediately. It’s about Napoleon Bonaparte and the books he read that influenced him. Not just him though, but really the entire content - even the entire world. It’s also written by the son of the former president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy - so that’s pretty cool!
Sponsor Magnet, by Justin Moore: There’s virtually no one I trust more than Justin when it comes to brand deals and sponsorships for creators, and now he’s finally put everything he knows into this book! It’s great so far, and I know it’s going to be very profitable reading for me! Read this one if you want to learn how to attract, price, and execute your dream brand partnerships.
The Five Types of Wealth, by Sahil Bloom: This is another book that I’ve been dying to read, and it’s finally out! Unsurprisingly, Sahil discusses how to optimize the five most important types of wealth, those being Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth. Spoiler Alert: Financial Wealth comes last for a reason.
“The five-minute rule is a simple but powerful technique that encourages you to commit to working on a task for just five minutes.
The idea behind this rule is that taking the first step is often the most challenging part of any task. During those five minutes, you focus solely on the thing you're avoiding, giving it your full attention. Once the five minutes are up, you can decide whether to continue working or to take a break. In my experience, the five-minute rule is weirdly effective.
Usually, imagining yourself doing the thing that you're procrastinating from for only five minutes isn't as horrible as really committing to it. Especially when, in our heads, that commitment feels like 'doing that thing for the rest of my life.' Around 80 percent of the time, after those five minutes are up I keep going."
The 15 Books I’m MOST Excited to Read This Month: Big mistake giving me bookstore gift cards for Christmas! I went on a massive book haul, used up all my gift cards, spent hundreds of dollars on dozens of great books, and these are the ones I'm most looking forward to reading! [Watch Time: 20:47]
If you enjoy the video, please consider subscribing to my channel and sharing it with a friend. Cheers!
Realistically, This Book Can Make You…Oh, About 10% Happier: For just a few hours of your time, I’d say that’s a fair trade! (4 key takeaways)
You Only Need This One Book to Address EVERY ASPECT of Personal Development: 10 key takeaways from “You’re Too Good to Feel This Bad”
The Ultimate Breakdown of Feel-Good Productivity, by Ali Abdaal: 22 Key Ideas, 34 Book Notes, 15 Action Steps, and More!
Champion Mindset, by Patrick Mouratoglou: I had never heard of this guy, but apparently he was Serena Williams’ tennis coach for more than a decade, on top of his work with other icons of the sport. This book contains his “ten commandments” for success, applicable not just to sports but everywhere in life. I don’t even watch tennis, but I expect to learn a ton from this book. Expected: May 13th, 2025
Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business, by Ed Latimore: My friend Ed is a former heavyweight boxer too (his record is better than mine though), and his long-awaited new book is about how boxing gave him the tools to overcome childhood trauma and alcoholism. Really looking forward to this one! Expected: August 5th, 2025
Moral Ambition, by Rutger Bregman: I’ve read (and loved) Rutger’s first book, Utopia for Realists, and plan to read his follow up book, Human Kind - now I have to add this one to my list too! The subtitle is “How to stop wasting your talent and start making a difference,” and it’s a book about using your career for good, and to make the world a better place. Expected: May 6th, 2025
Protocols, by Andrew Huberman: Andrew’s a neuroscientist and tenured professor at Stanford, not to mention hosting one of the most popular health podcasts in the world. This book is a collection of simple, evidence-based solutions to a whole host of challenges, and a distillation of his very best advice from the podcast. Expected: September 9th, 2025
Time Anxiety, by Chris Guillebeau: One of Chris’s first books, The Happiness of Pursuit, was the inspiration for my goal of reading 1,000 books before I turned 30 (which I achieved)! This newest one is about the chronic sense of rushing and urgency that afflicts so many people today and how to get comfortable with the impossibility of “catching up with everything.” Expected: April 15th, 2025
“The higher up the monetary food chain we go in our compensation and the nature of the people from whom we get it, the more we are paid for WHO we are and WHO we are perceived to be by them, than we are paid for WHAT we do. But nobody wants to accept that - and even if they do, it’s like pulling teeth to have them embrace it to the degree that they actually start using it as a strategy to raise their level of income.”
This book is something of a wealth and business “manifesto” by the legendary marketer and entrepreneur Dan Kennedy.
He’s another person who’s made a massive, positive, profitable impact on my life and work, and ever since reading his other book, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, I made the executive decision that I was going to read every book he’s ever written.
Dan has broken with basically every business convention imaginable - to the point of not even being reachable by phone or email.
Literally the only way to get ahold of him is via fax machine, which speaks to just how successful in business he’s actually been. Because the progression of wealth and business success pretty much goes like this: no meetings, then lots of meetings, then no meetings.
He’s reached Stage Three, which definitely makes him the type of person you want to learn from.
One of the major lessons within Renegade Millionaire is simply that if you want to achieve astounding success and make a lot of money, just do the opposite of what most people do.
The majority of people in the world are not rich, so stop acting like them if you want to be rich. Adopt the mindsets, behaviors, and strategies of the people whose success you want to emulate, and that means living according to the seven principles laid out in this book.
“I said that this book is for practical dreamers - and I meant it. I believe that true desires are realistic. Realism is a hallmark of authenticity. If you, as a mature and steady person, want something, the chances are good that you’re not chasing a unicorn, but that your inner resources are pointing you toward a valid objective.”
I first discovered Mitch’s work through this book, and immediately upon finishing it I went on to read three or four more of his books in rapid succession - to me, it felt exactly like discovering the philosopher Colin Wilson’s work for the first time. That is to say it just made a massive, positive impression on me from the very beginning.
This particular book is a recapitulation of Napoleon Hill’s ideas from Think and Grow Rich, specifically the idea of a Definite Chief Aim - a Massively Transformative Purpose, as some have called it - or the major purpose of one’s entire finite existence.
If that sounds a little grandiose, the book itself is actually wonderfully easy to read and it’s perfect both for people who have never read Napoleon Hill and for people who’ve loved the original.
My own Definite Chief Aim, for example, is to read 10,000 books.
There’s no “timeline” for this - it’s just a goal I want to reach eventually - and I’ve engineered almost literally my entire life in pursuit of it. That’s how you know it’s a DCA.
It’s almost completely consumed my waking existence, and the filter for whether or not I’m going to say “yes” to something, or go somewhere, or do something is whether or not it’s taking me closer to or further away from this main goal.
Reading is what I’ve devoted my life to, because I love it that much.
The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim will help you discover a DCA if you don’t have one already, but it’ll also help you deepen your commitment to it once you’ve found it, and more.
I’m so glad I discovered it when I did, and this book helped clarify my ambitions tremendously!
“Good time management and personal productivity begins by valuing your life, and every minute of that life.”
This is a short, easily-digestible addition to Brian Tracy’s “Success Library” of books, and the title pretty much tells you everything you need to know!
While I don’t necessarily think it covers everything one needs to know about time management, it’s very well worth reading, it’s fairly broad in its scope, and it includes discussions about how consequences can help you define what’s truly important, what kind of commitment to time management it takes to become a top performer - but also an extremely valuable detour into what you’re managing your time for.
Read this book if you want to get ahead in your work and/or career as quickly as possible, while staying organized and moving your important projects forward, sure, but as Brian Tracy says, the main point of time management is to help you improve the overall quality of your life.
Time management skills are just a huge waste of time if you’re only going to use them to build a life you don’t want to live.
“If I accept average advice from average people living average lives, can I expect to be anything but average?”
This book is DeMarco’s follow-up to his underground business classic, The Millionaire Fastlane, a book I recommend all the time and that literally changed my life. Both while I was reading it and forever after.
Unscripted isn’t quite as good (objectively) but personally, I loved this one almost as much, even going so far as reading several parts of it over and over again.
The title, of course, refers to the “scripted” nature of most people’s existence, how they’re pretty much following these unwritten rules and directives assigned to them by society, never stopping to think that they could actually opt out.
Reality is negotiable, and you’re not condemned to slave away in a claustrophobic corporate system designed to strip away small pieces of your humanity each and every day while you build someone else’s dream.
When you think about it, even the days of the week aren’t real. There’s nothing in nature that designates one day as “Monday,” the next one “Tuesday,” etc. We just made them up. And if you decide to become an entrepreneur (which is what M.J.’s books will help you do), you can pretty much ignore “named days” and other social conventions for the rest of your natural life. With some obvious exceptions and caveats, of course.
I feel so strongly about these ideas because after escaping the matrix myself, I’ve been able to step back and recognize that it’s not in society’s interests for you and I to be free. But freedom is possible, and reading Unscripted will help you escape the matrix too.
“Anything that can be improved is a business opportunity.”
This book blasphemes the current economic religion of the world, which tries to convince people that it’s a good idea to work and slave away at jobs they hate, just so they can maybe, hopefully be free fifty years later when – and if – their investments mature, and they can enjoy their money from the safety of the nursing home.
That sounds like a waste of a perfectly joyous life to me, and M.J. DeMarco teaches how we can avoid that fate by starting a business and taking advantage of the internet gold rush that we’re currently experiencing.
That being said, one of the things I appreciate about him so much is that he refuses to peddle easy answers and impossible guarantees. He says straight up that starting a business will be the hardest thing you ever do; growing it will be the second.
So it’s obviously not for everyone, and I would never try to tell anyone that there’s something “wrong” with working a regular 9-5 job for your entire life. Some regular jobs are profoundly fulfilling, beneficial to society, and totally necessary for its proper functioning. However, if that’s not for you, then there’s another way.
A few of DeMarco’s ideas make his books worth reading a hundred times over. The first is about probability, and about how we are always stacking the odds either for or against ourselves.
Starting and growing a business carries a ton of risk, of course, but you stack probability in your favor by getting started in the first place, seeking out mentors and role models, experimenting and trying to find out what works and what doesn’t, taking enough shots and trying again and again, and applying the best ideas that the best business minds that have come before us have figured out and implemented in their own businesses.
Doing all these things and more makes business less “risky,” and increases our chances of success.
Another idea is his CENTS framework, which you can use to determine if the probability gods are likely to shine upon you.
The letters stand for Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale, and if you have all these factors on your side, then your business is much more likely to take off. If you don’t Control your business, or if there’s no barrier to Entry for your competitors, for example, then you’re in for a tough slog.
Another spectacular idea is that of increasing your value to society by either scale or magnitude. Scale is part of the CENTS framework, and if you can get your product into the hands of more customers you’re going to do much better financially, obviously. But if you improve the lives of people at a greater magnitude, then you’re also rewarded extremely well financially.
You can make a million people’s lives a little tiny bit better and have them each pay you a dollar (say, for example, a candy bar that people enjoy), and/or you can create a ton of value for a smaller number of people. Think, for example, a doctor saving a person’s life.
I honestly can’t recommend DeMarco’s books highly enough, and if you’re at all entrepreneurially-minded, then they are absolute must-reads.
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OK, that’s it for now…
I’ve got plenty more excellent book recommendations coming your way soon though!
And if you want to learn how I’ve built an audience of 150,000+ followers across social media, became a full-time creator, and how I’m rapidly growing my audience and my profits in 2025, join us inside The Competitive Advantage 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:
Creators: Book a 1-1 strategy call with me and I’ll show you how to reach $5K/month in revenue by following a custom plan that we’ll build together.
Join The Competitive Advantage, my private business mastermind for educational content creators who want to stand out in their niche, build multiple revenue streams, and go full-time with their creative passions.
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