10 things I learned from my new favourite business books

Over the Christmas break, I spent 3 weeks without my laptop – and, as a consequence, managed to read 21 books. While not all of these books were business-related, I learnt a lot from the books I did read. So today, I’m sharing 10 big things I learned from my new favourite business books.

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My favourite business books: 10 things I have learnt

I read a LOT of books over the Christmas break. I went back to New Zealand and spent 3 and a half weeks with my family, just relaxing – I didn’t even take my laptop with me. 

And, as a result, I read 21 books. Half of those were novels, and half were business or self-development books. 

I'm going to share with you some of the biggest takeaways from those books.

 

#1. Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits – one extra task completed every day adds up to a lot (Atomic Habits by James Clear)

In this book, he talks a lot about improving just 1% every day and how the effects of your habits are compounding over time.

 

#2. Progress isn’t linear. People make a few changes, expect to see results, don’t see results and then stop. But you have to persist long enough to break through the plateau (Atomic Habits)

I see this a lot with people who are just starting to build an email list, or who are just starting out in business – they do a few little things and then wonder why it’s not working yet.

#3. What would this look like if it were easy? (Tribe of Mentors – Tim Ferris)

Hands up who else overcomplicates things? I ALWAYS do, so I love Tim’s idea of taking a step back and asking yourself: What would this look like if it were easy? 

Chances are, it doesn’t need to be as difficult or as complicated as you think.

 

 

#4. Would you say yes to this if it were next Tuesday? It’s easy to commit to things when your schedule still looks clear, but another thing when it’s next week or tomorrow (Tribe of mentors – Esther Dyson).

“Whenever I’m trying to decide whether to accept an invitation, I just pretend it is going to happen tomorrow morning” (Tribe of mentors – Kevin Kelly)

As a classic over-committer, this really resonated with me, because I’m constantly saying yes to things because they’re so far in the future. But then the day arrives, and I actually regret saying yes.

 

#5. “You are 99 years old, you are on your deathbed and you have a chance to come back to right now: what would you do?” (Tribe of mentors – Jérôme Jarre).

And conversely “when I’m old, how much would I be willing to pay to travel back in time and relive the moment that I’m experiencing right now?” (Tribe of mentors – Muneeb Ali)

The first one is a reminder that one day, we will all die – so what can I do in this very moment to ensure I have a great life? 

And then the second one is a nice reminder to be grateful for this very moment.

 

#6. “We all want to do as much as we can for the people in our audience, but if you want to change their lives, start by changing their day first” (Superfans – Pat Flynn).

I loved this book. What Pat means by this quote is that we need to give our audience quick wins, in order to build momentum. Once they experience a quick win, it’s addictive – they want more, so they keep going. 

And that’s how you start building superfans – they keep coming back to you for more wins.

 

#7. Get it out of your head! Anything – any tasks, ideas, actions etc – if they’re floating around in your head in an open loop, they’re using up valuable thinking power and brain space. Write it down and close the loop (Getting Things Done – David Allen)

How much brain space are you wasting thinking about the groceries you need to buy tonight, or that email you need to send tomorrow, or that Instagram DM you need to reply to? 

By writing it down, you’re freeing up brain space that you can use on more important things.

 

#8. Focus on systems rather than goals. Goals are the results you want to achieve but systems are the processes that lead to those results. It’s your commitment to the process that will determine your progress (Atomic Habits – James Clear)

So, for example, maybe your goal is to reach 100,000 podcast downloads this year. Your system might include consistently promoting your show, regularly batching and publishing new episodes, etc. 

Yes, the process might not be as sexy as the goal, but it’s what will get you to the end goal.

 

#9. Ideas are cheap and plentiful. Until you start making something, your brilliant idea is just an idea – and everyone has ideas. The real question is how well you execute (Rework – Jason Fried)

When I surveyed my audience at the end of last year, so many of you said that you were afraid to launch because you were worried other people would steal your ideas. Or you were worried that other people already had similar ideas to you, and that you wouldn’t have a successful launch. 

But the idea is SUCH a small part of it – the execution is so much more important.

 

#10. There’s always enough time if you spend it right. When you want something bad enough, you make the time – you get up earlier or go to bed later or stop watching Netflix every evening. The truth is that most people just don’t want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time. Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses. It’s entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come true (Rework).

Does this one make you feel a little uncomfortable? It definitely made me feel uncomfortable! But, in a good way – because I realised that there were certain things I didn’t want badly enough, and that I’d been telling myself I was too busy to do them. So I removed them completely.

 

#11. Bonus tip: A small audience is an advantage. It means you can test things and fail, without embarrassing yourself in front of a big audience or the public. It means you can trial things without having to answer to thousands of customers. (Rework)

Another thing that popped up a lot in your survey answers was that you’re waiting until you have a bigger audience to launch. 

You don’t need to have a big audience before you launch – and I spoke about this a bit more a few episodes ago as well. 

It’s highly unlikely your first launch will be 100% perfect, so launching to a small audience means that if things go wrong, it’s not the end of the world.

 

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