12 Books to Re-Read Every Single Year
The Amplified Impact Podcast
February 10th, 2023
In today’s episode of Amplified Impact, Anthony discusses the five books that have made a significant impact on his life and that he believes can help listeners maximize their return on life.
The first book is “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl, which provides insight into how to handle adversity and find meaning in life.
The second book is “The Most Important Thing” by Howard Marks, which is a primer on investing and taking control of your finances.
The third book is “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which explores the role of luck and chance in success and failure.
The fourth book is “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon, which encourages creators to overcome their own obstacles and put their work out into the world.
The final book is “The Great Mental Models Project” by Shane Parrish, which provides frameworks for understanding the world and making better decisions.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“82% of good writing is simply great formatting, 13% is sentence structure, 4% is how you say it, and only 1% is what you actually say.” – Anthony Vicino
LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!
Let’s Connect On Social Media!
instagram.com/theanthonyvicino
Join an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus.
Learn More About Investing With Anthony
Invictus Capital: www.invictusmultifamily.com
Multifamily Investing Made Simple Podcast
Passive Investing Made Simple Book: www.thepassiveinvestingbook.com
Episode Transcript:
Anthony: [00:00:00] So I was sitting in a sauna this weekend with my friends Thomas and Nikhil Thomas, if you guys don’t know, is he’s the guy that actually edits all of my YouTube videos and Nik, he’s like my business partner on the YouTube channel and helping me, helping me grow that up. He’s really the brains and the, the strategist behind all the content that we do there.
Anthony: And, We were sitting in the sauna talking about, you know, Thomas is this young guy and he did this satirical video on his own YouTube channel, which is really awesome. It’s comedy, but it’s, it’s also very good. around, you know, the, the, the 10 things that, helped him become a millionaire by the time he was 19 and he was doing like, this is all tongue in cheek and he was like, kind of calling out guys like me, like the content that we do, which is totally fair.
Anthony: I totally get it. but we’re sitting there. . And it was funny because like in that video he talks about how , he’s like, and the next skill that helped me make a million dollars by 19 is. Reading . And it was funny as we’re talking about it, like everybody says that you [00:01:00] should read, like reading a lot. Like if you want to become a millionaire, if you want to make more money, if you want to build a business, you should be a reader.
Anthony: You should read. Reading is the most important thing. And I say this too, and the, because the truthfully like reading for me was one, I love it. Two, it connects me very deeply with like, the creative side of my spirit. but three, it’s like my favorite way to consume information and I, I, I do believe, The process of reading is incredibly valuable.
Anthony: and, and I think there’s a correlation why so many successful people read a lot. However, to Thomas’s point, he’s like, people say that, but they, they don’t, you know, if that was what was holding me back from making money, he’s like, I’d have a ton of money. Cause I’d read a ton. And I’m like, yeah, good point.
Anthony: I think the problem is with that advice of like, go read a lot. One. Reading broadly is going to help like fill your curiosity and creativity tank, and those are important, but not, it’s not going to necessarily make you money in and of itself unless you’re studying and reading around a very particular niche, a very specific skillset that you’re trying to master.
Anthony: And so, [00:02:00] You know, as we’re talking about this, like for me, when I started my transition from like that low point in my life when I was 28 to where I am now, like it really did begin not just with reading, but starting to read the right things and then implement that. Because, you know, for years I was reading literally, I, like one year I read 135 books.
Anthony: That’s a, it’s like two and a half books a week. Like, no, that’s. Yeah, no, it’s crazy. That’s like two and a half books a week. That’s bonkers. And I was like, I granted, like a lot of this was science fiction and, and fantasy, so they’re easier to get through, but still, like that was just a like a metric ton of content.
Anthony: And that was good because it really did fill my reservoir. But it wasn’t until I started reading more specifically in with intention and focus that like my skillset started. Prove, and I started to see like a change in my, in the quality of my own life and my, my earning potential. And so I wanted to do, I wanted to talk to Dan on this podcast about like, it’s not enough just to read a lot and, and to read broadly and try and consume just a ton of information because I’ve, I’ve made [00:03:00] this mistake myself and I see a lot of people doing it where you hear people say like, the average CEO reads 50 books a.
Anthony: And you might take that to mean then like you just need to be reading, reading a ton. And I, I actually find that not valuable information at all because what ends up happening for me at least, is like you consume just for the sake of consuming, but then you’re not learning and, and implementing the information that you’re taking in.
Anthony: And so something that I changed a couple years ago, maybe three, four years ago now, is instead of reading broadly and voluminously, I try to read very narrowly and very specifically now so that I’m just reading the best of the best books on very particular topics that I am trying to intentionally master.
Anthony: And so to that end, like instead of just reading a hundred books in a. I, I’ve taken much more to reading. Okay. I’m just going to reread the same 30 books every year. Like the, the, the 30 books that are like the most [00:04:00] influential, the most impactful, the ones that when anybody’s like, Hey, what books do you recommend reading?
Anthony: Like, these are the ones that keep coming up over and over. So instead of reading like, you know, a thousand different books, go ahead and just read the hundred best books ever. 10 times each. And you’re going to get way more out of it. I’m guaranteed than just reading really broadly. So to that end, I wanted to share with you guys 10 or 12 books as we enter into the new year here that I reread every single year and I have for a number of years now.
Anthony: And I think these books can serve you incredibly well. I tried to pick some that were not like your typical, Thinking Grow. Rich, rich Dad, poor dad type books, but some that maybe you haven’t heard before and that might challenge you. And, so let’s get into it. No. Book number one is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Anthony: here’s a quote from this book, the things you think about, determine the quality of your, of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts. I [00:05:00] love this book because it’s the, the meditations, it’s the Daily Journal of the former Emperor of Rome. This is over 2000 years old, and I, I find it’s full of so much stoic, so much philosophy, so much wisdom and timeless insight that the things that he was wrestling with 2000 years ago, it’s still the same things that are challenging us humans to these day.
Anthony: To this day. I find that one an incredible book. It’s an easy read. It’s every time I go into it, I take up a new nugget. It. It’s life changing. Truly. The next book is The Almanac of Naval Ravikant, which I think Naval is as close to the modern day, Marcus Aurelius, as you can get. Now, this book is way more tactical and strategic than meditations, but there’s still a ton of philosophy in life advice, and you know, he’s famous, Neal’s famous for his tweet Storm, how To Get Rich without Getting Lucky, and a lot of the book is around that.
Anthony: One of his quotes here is, the most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. And, so on the one hand, like if you want to become like a better business [00:06:00] person, better at earning money, like building wealth, like this is going to be a great book for that. But also just tapping into like what it means to be like, to live a more fulfilled, happy, gratitude laid in life.
Anthony: I think this is a great book. Third book is Anti-Fragile by Nasim Leb. And so here’s another quote from this book, is Anti-fragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shock and stays the same. The anti-fragile gets better, and I think this concept of anti-fragile is so compelling, so interesting, so intriguing.
Anthony: Soci Tole was a former options trader made a ton of. Making black swan bets. So like making these bets that were, capped downside, but with infinite potential upside. And you know, what that ends up doing is you end up losing a lot of money in the short term. You bleed, you bleed, you bleed because you’re banking on this very rare event occurring.
Anthony: but because you have capped downside, you can afford to take that [00:07:00] bleeding. And then eventually, if that black swan event does occur or something shocks the system, then you’ve made the correct asymmetric bet and you do very well as. And so he has this whole philosophy of economic thought of just life principle of investing that is incredibly profound.
Anthony: This book is, it’s a little bit abrasive, but it is a mindset that will probably challenge you for the better. It will improve the quality of your thought, like the agree or disagree. With Naim eb, his writing will, challenge you to become a better thinker, and that is a, a great reason to reread this book.
Anthony: The, the next book is the One Thing by Gary. Now this, this quote is, success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time. I find it really interesting, like the idea of multitasking, where we know that we can’t do multiple things at once. We can’t hold two competing thoughts simultaneously. What we can do is we can rapidly.
Anthony: Flicker between [00:08:00] thoughts, right? We can, we can, we can multi switch very, very quick or task switch very, very quick. But however, we cannot do things simultaneously. It’s just not possible. And so things happen one at a time in sequence. And often your success or the progress that you’re going to make is going to be dependent on which tasks you choose to do, at which points and what, what kind of quality you bring to that.
Anthony: And so just getting really clear at times about, okay, what’s the highest leverage activity that I need to be focusing on, and how am I going to create an environment conducive for that focus that’s going to pay some of the biggest dividends? And I find this book super short, super accessible, super amazing.
Anthony: All right, next book is influenced by Robert Cini. And his quote here is, we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided. This book is amazing. This book is a, it’s called The Psychology of Influence, and it’s amazing because there are [00:09:00] six principles that he, talks about throughout this book around, you know, Persuasion tactics, influence tactics, and, and on one the hand you might think, well, I don’t need persuasion.
Anthony: I don’t need to be influential. But you do because so much of like the human existence and so much of the human, You know, the quality of relationships that we have with people is dependent on feeling seen and feeling heard, and feeling like we have impact on the world around us, right? Like, nobody likes being in a conversation with somebody and feeling like they’re not being heard, not being seen.
Anthony: And so this book is a, masterclass. It is the book on the topic of influence and persuasion. If you want to be more impactful with how you communicate with the world, I think this is a no-brainer. It’s. The next book is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I believe he won a Nobel Prize or some kind of Pulitzer or something for this book.
Anthony: Like it was a big, it was, it was, it was amazing. And in here, again, like this is another book that’s, if you want to be more influential, more impactful, this book’s going to do [00:10:00] it. But if, if nothing else, I think the real value of this book is in understanding the innate biases that all humans have, like loss aversion, the idea that, you know, we re, we resist losing something, or we feel the effects of losing something far greater than we feel the effects of gaining something of equivalent value.
Anthony: And I find it just, this book is, It’s very accessible actually for, for how high level it is in terms of like academic talk. but there’s so many concepts in here that you can just immediately take and apply to your own life and your own relationships and your own endeavors, and so, A no-brainer, a no-brainer for repeat, visits.
Anthony: Next book is Mans Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl. His quote here is, in some way, suffering ceases to be suffering At the moment, it finds a meaning such as the meaning of a sacrifice. So Victor Frankl was in, I, [00:11:00] I believe, Auschwitz during the Holocaust during World War ii. And. Went through some, the most horrific things that any human could possibly endure.
Anthony: And he survived and he came out the other side, with an interesting framework or an interesting perspective on the idea of meaning and suffering and how. humans, even in the worst of places like Auschwitz can come out, can survive and not be broken, you know, emotionally, psychologically, and they can come out because they’ve found purpose in their suffering.
Anthony: And how the chances are very good in your own life that if you’re listening to this podcast, like you’re not suffering through anything even remotely similar to what they went through in Auschwitz. Maybe you are, I don’t want to like downplay that, but, chances are good that you’re not. And so if, if Victor.
Anthony: And the people that survive that endeavor or that experience can do so and like, well, there’s a lot to be learned about how they did it because that can then come and help us, you know, [00:12:00] maximize and get the most out of this, this life that we’re living. So this is an amazing book. again, a short one.
Anthony: Very impactful, very emotional, but amazing. All right, the next book is the Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. I’m an investor. I think everybody, if you want to. You know, maximize your return on life Rich, you know, is like ostensibly one of the reasons that we’re here in this podcast. Even talking in the first place, you have to master the money game.
Anthony: You ha you can’t just live cha paycheck to paycheck. You can’t just be saving thinking that’s going to get you off the hamster wheel. You have to be investing. And a lot of people feel overwhelmed by the idea of investing. I know I did for a really long time, for majority of my life. it just wasn’t something my family talked about.
Anthony: It wasn’t something I felt educated on. And whenever I kind of. Tried to go down the rabbit hole of investing. It always felt like just too much. It felt like I, I would never be able to understand it. I was afraid to make mistakes. And so what a lot of people end up doing in that situation is A, they do nothing, or B, they outsource it to, you know, their stockbroker, their financial advisor, their wealth [00:13:00] manager, whatever.
Anthony: I think that’s a wrong move because money is a very big part of everybody’s life. And when you outsource the responsibility for the most important, like one of the most important aspects of your life, you, you feel it. You feel that you’ve abdicated, a level of control. And I find that the, the first step to taking back that control is to first get your head around the concept of investing.
Anthony: And I think this book, the most important thing is a great primer to that. It’s an easy read. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s accessible. And so I would start here. Honestly, I think it’s, it’s fantastic. The next book is another book by our boy, Naim Leb. If you did not know, he is my favorite writer. this book is called Fuel, fooled by Randomness.
Anthony: He says, remember that nobody accepts randomness in his own success, only in his failure. It’s really easy when we’ve. Fail to point to it and be like, ah, that was ran. I got unlucky to say, I got unlucky. When you win, when you do well, when you have that successful business, successful investment, it’s very rare for people just to say, I got lucky.
Anthony: [00:14:00] Right? And yet, you probably did , right? And so this book, fooled by Randomist, I think is a really great. Peak behind the curtains, behind the veil of reality, which is what things are actually controlled by randomness and probability and chance, and which things are not. And I think you’d be surprised to discover, the things that you think are controlled by randomness and the things that you think are not, you’re probably wrong,
Anthony: You’re, you’re probably being fooled by randomness, so check out this book. It’s really good. the next one is show Your Work by Austin Cleon. And I, I love this book. It’s really short, it’s accessible again, and I’m a creator and so. You know, I’m creating content. I’m making this podcast right now. I’m writing books.
Anthony: I’m, I’m doing all sorts of stuff where it’s very easy as an artist just to con, to create and feel like nobody cares. Nobody’s going to see it and, and feel like it’s not good enough. And so you just never put it out there. And that’s why most artists end up starving or just never going, getting discovered.
Anthony: It’s because they can’t get out of their own way [00:15:00] to put their stuff out there and give it the opportunity to be, to be found. I think this is a great book to help you overcome what Stephen Pres. Referred to as the resistance, that, that pressure, that invisible pressure that we put on ourselves that holds us back from, stepping into our greatness and manifesting it.
Anthony: So, great book Show Your Work by Austin Cleon. The next book is The Great Mental Mar, the Great Mental Models, both Volume One and Two by Farham Street. I believe, Sean Perish, I think that’s his name, is the author of. And mental models are just frameworks. They’re just tools, for seeing the world.
Anthony: They’re ways of navigating the, the, the world in pattern recognizing, okay, in this area, like of my life, this rule holds true and therefore, can I apply this framework, this rule to this other area of my life? This book, the Mental Models, is just a compilation of some of the most impactful mental models that you can kind of pull and put into your [00:16:00] own toolbox so that it can make you a better thinker, can make you a better decision maker.
Anthony: And this is, you know, one of the things that Charlie Munger, one of my favorite thinkers out there, he. Is a big fan of like, he talks about this a lot. It’s like the power of mental models. So I think this is an incredibly powerful book because it will just kind of point out what are some of the mental models that you should be collecting and, and they’re just lenses for seeing the world through.
Anthony: And so the more lenses that you can collect, the, the more perspectives that you can, you can have ultimately, maybe the better your judgment, your decision making can be. And then you know that’s going to impact the quality of your results. So check that book out and reread it. And the last book on our list is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tole, which is, If you’re like me or high performers in general, people who are just trying to be better tomorrow than they were today and vice versa, like just constantly on that move forward towards awesomeness.
Anthony: It’s very easy to either live in the future or live in [00:17:00] the past. Very difficult to focus on the now and the reality is that you only have this moment, like this is the only moment that you have. The past is just a memory, and the future is just a hope like neither actually exists. All you ever have, Is now.
Anthony: And so what you do with it is everything. And if you can claim the now, if you can live in the moment, then the universe is yours for the taking. And I think that’s the, the takeaway of this book is that all the happiness, all the gratitude, all the fulfillment that you want in life resides at the singular point in time, right.
Anthony: And all you have to do is claim it. So those are the 12 books that I think are worth rereading every single year. And maybe they’re not yours, maybe they’re not books, maybe they’re not the ones that are going to resonate with you. Maybe there’s a couple in here that are going to serve you really well and I hope that they do.
Anthony: I truly do. If there are books that you keep coming back to year over year, over. That you think are worthy of, [00:18:00] of being picked up as well. Do me a favor and share that with me on social media. Shout me out and say, Hey, here are the books that I reread every year, and maybe there might be one or two on there that, that can make it onto my list.
Anthony: And together we can grow and become better. I think that’d be awesome. So as always, I appreciate you taking some time to join me. I know this is a little bit longer of an episode, but as always, I, I love the heck out of all of you guys. I’ll see you in the next episode.
This Week On YouTube
These 3 Daily Habits Made Me A Millionaire in 3 Years
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. Unleash your hyperfocused mind to dominate life, business, and everything in between? Here’s how:
→ The Hyperfocused Masterclass: the exact system I used to overcome ADHD, write 12 books, build 4 businesses, and acquire $70M of real estate.
There are a handful of spaces left in The Hyperfocus Masterclass for those who want to snag the early bird preorder special discount of $49.
Email anthony@anthonyvicino.com to let me know you want on the waitlist.
2. Learn to passively invest in commercial real estate with better returns, less risk, and zeo hassle.
→ Invictus Capital: my real estate private equity firm.
→ Multifamily Investing Made Simple: Top Apple Podcast.
→ Passive Investing Made Simple: Amazon Best Selling Book with 100 5 star reviews.
3. Want more like this? Check out these 3 popular articles from the vault:
