If slash when I eventually have children (I hope it is when rather than if), one of the single most powerful pieces of life information I will teach them is to appreciate the value of books. During my teens, I began reading a lot, largely due to not having the kind of social life I wished I had and not having much else to do with my time. And out of the hundreds of books I have read over the past ten years, there are five I have picked that I think have revolutionized my life and thinking in various ways.

The five books I’ve chosen have been so influencial that I can say with confidence that had I not read them, I would be a different person, and the worse for it. If you enjoy the posts on my blog, I strongly urge you to read these books. And if you’ve read any of these books, I strongly urge you to subscribe to my blog because, well, you’ll enjoy it!

Without further ado, five books that changed my life…

Richard Branson: The Autobiography

by Richard Branson

Britain’s favourite entrepreneur – and mine too -Richard Branson tells the story of how the world famous Virgin brand came about. From being told by his school headmaster that he would either become a millionaire or wind up in prison, to setting up Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic, Losing My Virginity tells the world wind story of the life of Richard Branson.

When this came, it was a real brick. I did not know how I’d ever get through it. In fact, I instantly accepted that I wouldn’t. But I had paid for it, so I might as well make a start. But once I’d read the first few pages I was hooked. The book turned out to be both highly educational and unendingly entertaining.

How This Book Changed Me

While other books have talked about the entrepreneurial mind set, the psychology of being a winner and the importance of drive, I have not come across another book that illustrates what it is like to actually possess these qualities like this one. This book taught me more about what it means to be an entrepreneur than virtually any other book on business or entrepreneurship I can name. Because it is an autobiography, you get to hear the internal dialogue of Branson as he solves problems and jumps over hurdles to get his companies up and running, out of disasters and into the green.

When I went back and read through it again, I counted the number of problems, glitches and hurdles Branson experienced and how he solved them and from the way the book is written it is evident that he never really acknowledged them as barriers. The idea of not getting what he wanted never entered his head (well maybe once).

Related Content

• The Richard Branson Mind Set: Screw It, Let’s Do It

The 4-Hour Work Week

By Timothy Ferriss

Entrepreneurship meets Buddhism as life hacker and lifestyle designer, Timothy Ferriss, tells the inspirational story of how he transformed himself from an overworked and under nurtured 9-5 zombie into a member of the new rich, who travelled the world and worked only 4 hours a week yet made more income than he had previously made working 40.

The 4-Hour Work Week is a unique book. While the vast majority of entrepreneurial books teach you that starting a business is all about making as much money as you can, the 4-Hour Work Week, dancing to a distinctly different drummer, sees the bigger picture and urges focus on how you want your business to change your life: the idea is not to get rich or die trying, but to create freedom for yourself.

How This Book Changed Me

After reading a plethora of books that were basically teaching me how to make my millions and promising that that would make me happy, this book taught me that money alone will not lead to happiness; that there is a far more valuable commodity than cash: time. And more specifically the way you spend that time, with a focus on spending your time doing pleasurable things rather than “work”, which is defined as anything you do purely for financial incentives. This book also validated a lot of thoughts and ideas I had held for a long time but were laughed at and scorned when I dared to share them with family and relatives.

Related Resources

• Tim Ferriss & The Four Hour Work Week: Redifining the Realms of Possibility
• Extracts From The Four Hour Work Week
• The Four Hour Work Week Blog

The Varieties of Scientific Experience

By Carl Sagan

I get a lot of books recommended to me by Amazon’s system and I’ve rather learned to trust it. It recommended this to me and on the basis of that recommendation I met Carl Sagan. I never heard of him when he was alive. But, having read this book, I wish I had.

Carl Sagan gave a series of lectures at a university which became this book after his death. In those lectures, Sagan speaks on the topics of the Earth and its place in the cosmos, the other planets in the solar system, the chances of finding extra terrestrial life, UFOs and alien abductions, God and religion and also the future of human kind (if it has one).

How This Book Changed Me

I’d been fairly skeptical of religion for a couple of years when I read this. And this books’ final chapters, each page dripping with unending passion, made me for the first time proud to be a Humanist. It made me confident of a belief system I had long bought into but been apprehensive or reluctant to admit to. Moreover, through his books and YouTube, I feel blessed to have spent time with Carl Sagan, even if it was virtual. He is a wonder to listen to and learn from.

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Yes Man

By Danny Wallace

In the spirit of the book, the chain of Yeses that lead me to this book began with me, watching television alone one Sunday night quite by chance flicking on to Paramount Comedy channel (now Comedy Central), which was showing Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure. It had been on the screen for less than ten seconds and I was hooked. The sad news, which turned out to actually be great news, was that I had only seen it from half way. It was so good that not to see the beginning would be a crime. So I went straight upstairs onto Amazon.co.uk and searched for the DVD. Not only did it exist, but it only cost £4.99. Upon purchasing that, Amazon did as Amazon does and recommended a bunch more products to me one of which was this book.

Yes Man is unusual in the sense that it is laugh out loud funny, interesting, philosophical and heart warming all in one.

How This Book Changed Me

Yes Man is one of a kind. It’s a comedy/drama/self help book. In much the same way as Branson’s autobiography illustrates a lot of the concepts that a million other How To Be An Entrepreneur and Get Rich guides will tell you, Danny Wallace’s Yes Man illustrates the power of Yes. The power of opening doors rather than closing them and the potential of what can happen if you just let it.

After reading this, I decided to commence my own somewhat controlled experiment in much the same way Danny did. But rather than saying yes no matter what, I changed the rules slightly and made it my mission to say yes unless I had incredibly grave objections to something. ie. “Will you kill that man for me?” No. “Do you want to go out for a Chinese?” Well, to be honest I don’t much like Chinese food, I’ve been working all day and I really don’t feel like it, but YES, okay then.

I have to admit that life did get more interesting as a result of this change of policy.

Write & Sell The Hot Screenplay

By Elliott Grove

Back when I was sixteen, owning this book was the nearest thing I had to the dream: to become a film maker.

How This Book Changed Me

When I was 14, one of the scripts that I’d written had already attracted a bit of attention from a producer who was a friend of a friend of a temporary teacher at my school. This book taught me “the rules” of screen writing which you must play by in order to have the industry look at your work and take it seriously. Raw talent – if you have it – won’t be enough. What I learned from this book took over my life for the next few years, every available moment was occupied by writing screenplays. And this was the real reason that I almost failed my A Levels.

Related Links:

Raindance Film School