Reading quality content for as little as 15 minutes a day can strengthen your mental muscles by enhancing creativity and sharpening focus. This practice also adds tremendously to your level of knowledge. Just a few minutes each day translates to a complete book each month. If you’re a particularly fast reader you might finish two books per month. This adds up to as many as 24 books per year or a staggering 120 books over a five-year period!

If you focus on the broad categories of business, marketing, and personal development, remaining open to the myriad sub-categories under each umbrella, you could easily triple your current levels of productivity and profitability. You may find it interesting to note that quite a few millionaire entrepreneurs engage in the practice of daily reading. Many of the ultra-successful also recommend using your driving time to listen to audio books, thus bringing even more content into your daily regimen. I’m a strong believer in the power of constant learning and growth which is why I’m very pleased to be introducing this new regular feature.

My goal is to provide honest, straightforward reviews of the books that are most relevant to entrepreneurs. I’ll help you decide in advance whether a book can add value to your life, or whether you should save your time and money for a more worthy candidate.

To keep this simple, each of my reviews will be punctuated with a rating based on a five-star system:

5 Stars – One of the finest books of all of time in its genre.
4 Stars – Amazing. Almost Perfect.
3 Stars – A worthy read, you won’t be disappointed.
2 Stars – Some worthwhile sections but doesn’t really deliver.
1 Star – Terrible. Uninformative and a chore to read.
0 Star – Reading this book may actually make you dumber.

Introductions and explanations aside, let’s get on with the first two reviews!

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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

Published by HarperBusiness

www.millionairemindbook.com

The thesis of the book is straightforward and compelling: Wealthy people think differently from the poor and middle class; actions born from a rich mindset are the cause of great wealth.

One of the key components covered in this book is the concept of a “wealth blueprint”, or how an individual thinks and feels about money and wealth. According to Eker, it is an individual’s hardwired blueprint more than anything else that will determine his or her financial success or lack thereof. As a highly effective example, the reader is asked to consider the lottery winners from around the world who receive multi-million dollar jackpots but return to poverty and destitution within an average of two years! These people started out dirt poor, their thinking never changed even after winning millions of dollars, so they inevitably returned to the lifestyle for which they were programmed.

On the flip side, Donald Trump lost everything and, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, built an even bigger empire within just a couple of years. Trump’s “wealth thermostat” is set to incredibly wealthy. This ensures that, no matter what mistakes he makes, he will always return to a state of immense prosperity. Eker even claims that, after only five minutes talking to an individual, he can predict that person’s wealth blueprint and financial future.

The good news is that anyone can deliberately change their blueprint. The bulk of the book covers how to do so by illustrating a series of “wealth files” (statements about the way rich people think in and about certain situations). This information challenges the reader to take an honest look at themselves on several occasions. A very clear and exciting picture emerges over the course of these chapters and I found it difficult, if not impossible, to refute what the author has to say about the power of thought patterns and mindset in deciding our financial reality.

Lest you think this entire book is about happy thoughts and using the “force”, Eker also discusses genuine, tangible strategies and action plans throughout. He provides great advice on money management and a basic outline of how to think like a strong investor.

On top of all this valuable information, I also enjoyed Eker’s brash but entertaining style. His candor and abrasiveness – rather than making me uncomfortable – allowed me to laugh at myself and see the world a bit more clearly.

I highly recommend this material to anyone who wants to be wealthy. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind should be required reading for all entrepreneurs, whether Internet marketers or traditional business owners.

Rating: 5 stars.

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Lucrative List Building by Glen Hopkins

Published by HarperBusiness

www.LucrativeListBuilding.com

As the name implies, this book is about opt-in list building and profitable email marketing. While there are hundreds of websites that claim to teach good list building practices, this is the only print book I am aware of that handles the topic in such a thorough, professional manner.

Glen Hopkins is well-known as a list building specialist, and the material he provides in Lucrative List Building does not disappoint. The book begins with the most basic concepts of what list building is and why a business should engage in this practice. Over the course of 19 chapters the reader learns critical operations from, how to collect email subscribers, to a number of ways for driving targeted traffic toward a capture mechanism. Hopkins continues with a number of rock-solid tips for converting new leads into paying customers and keeping a list engaged long-term using proven methodology. I believe this content should be treated as a self-contained textbook for effective list-building practices.

No stone is left unturned, making this an excellent resource for new Internet entrepreneurs and traditional businesses who want to launch a profitable web campaign. Even experienced Internet marketers will pick up a number of useful tips from this material. Furthermore, the book contains the links to a number of high quality free resources the reader may use in their own list-building engagements.

I’ll be candid here; many of the print books I’ve seen released by Internet marketing gurus have been little more than ghost-written fluff designed to make money, while delivering very little in the way of genuine value. Without a doubt Glen Hopkins and Lucrative List Building are the exception.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make money with his or her own list of opt-in subscribers. The insights and pointers within apply to any niche and market, and to any business model with a web presence.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

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By Aaron Whiston
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This article was originally featured in Mike Filsaime’s print newsletter, “MDC Monthly.” You can get a free trial copy shipped to your door by clicking here.

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