100 Books Like Main Street Millionaire

Before Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin were titans of tech and venture capital, they were college friends, and this book tells the partially fictionalized origin story of Facebook and its founders. Like many business partnerships, Facebook started as a friendship. In page-turning fashion, the book tracks the progression, and later regression, of the relationship between Zuckerberg and Saverin from friends to business partners to bitter rivals.

This book is simultaneously an entertaining beach read and a cautionary tale for startup co-founders. 

What I most enjoyed about this book is the core message that business relationships, even successful and productive ones, are not meant to last forever. There is a season for everything. Far too often, partners enter into business relationships in the same way they enter a marriage, thinking that it will or should last forever. But there is a reason that the ceremony and the vows associated with the consummation of a marriage are missing from the formation of a business relationship.

This book advocates for beginning with the end in mind. It also helps readers understand that sometimes, ripping the band-aid off and ensuring the short-term pain is the only way to heal and prosper.

This book is a practical guide to delivering news you’d rather not have to deliver. As someone who has avoided my share of difficult conversations that should have been had years ago, I very much appreciate the step-by-step framework this book provides.

With an emphasis on preparation, compassion, and follow-up, this book explains that delicate but productive conversations are rarely one-time events, but multiple, structured conversations. And while the book is for the person delivering the bad news, the authors are careful to explain that it's not about the person delivering the bad news, but the one receiving it, that matters if a difficult conversation is to be productive. This book is a must for anyone who regularly manages other people or has fraught business relationships.

This book, written in a fable format, tells the story of the aging co-founders of a successful technology company. Although they’ve worked well together for decades, their goals become incompatible when one wishes to sell and the other wishes to bring on a family member as a partner and eventual successor.

This book offers an insightful guide to the financial and psychological challenges and opportunities associated with bringing productive closure to a business relationship.

Ostensibly a book about emotional intelligence, this is in effect an account of Epstein’s theory of the self (see Chapter 3 onwards). I am a strong advocate of ‘dual process’ theories, the idea that we have two minds or modes of thinking, one that is fast, automatic, and reliant on heuristics, and another that is slower, deliberative, and rational. The most famous example of this is in the work of Kahneman and Tversky, who have identified various biases we employ in quick decision making. This understanding is vital for effective critical thinking, but I find Epstein’s notion of an affect-driven ‘experiential’ system to have deeper and more wide-ranging explanatory power. This applies both to self-knowledge, and to how we can engage more constructively with others.

This book took me by surprise; it is an eye-opening epic read highlighting the importance of energy, not just time, as an area that is most important to focus on and master.

As a previous sufferer of burnout, it taught me that, unlike time, energy is finite and pivotal for peak performance. This book took me on a journey and framework where I could practically think about my life in terms of energy (rather than just time) and maximise this in the areas of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health; just superb.

I also loved the concept, which we are never taught, that recovery is just as important as performance and to think more like an athlete in my everyday life. Energy is everything to me, so I found this book truly transformative!

Once I understood the power of the subconscious mind, I needed a set of tools to leverage it to reach my goals. This book provided that framework and a deep understanding of how that part of our mind processes the world.

I don’t have to force things anymore—I can use these tools to get all parts of my mind on board with the plan, moving in the same direction as part of a unified team. This makes everything easier when pursuing my goals.

This is my go-to book to feel motivated and get back into taking action (or “massive action” as Grant calls it). I highly recommend getting your hands on the audiobook version and setting the speed to at least 1.5x to get a world-class pep talk from one of the most energetic and best action-takers out there. I guarantee it will inspire you to get more out of your day.

I was very fortunate to have a coach from the Covey organization for a few years named Andy Cindrich, and I’m forever grateful for his help to shift my own paradigms around trust. 

I’d been raised with the story ‘Losing trust is like a house burning down… you can try to rebuild it, but it takes 18 months and it’s never quite the same…’ Through The Speed of Trust, I learned managing trust is a skill. When we embrace trust falls courageously and sort through the gap and pain with care and intention, we end up grateful for the problems and issues that allow us to show our character, reinforce our values, and elevate relationships. 

I wish for everyone to have these tools in their pockets, not to maintain perfect trust, but to fix things fast when they inevitably get messy between us humans.

The bottom line is that the people who focus on what they want, not what they don’t want, achieve their goals and even accelerate the achievement of their goals. So many times we have limiting beliefs (things we don’t want to happen) that get our focus and that is the wrong thing to focus on. No matter what you want in business or in life, the power of focus will help you get there. This book helps you to focus on your strengths and eliminate what holds you back from getting to where you ultimately want to go. It can help you change bad habits into habits that will serve you much better in life. This is a powerful book to help you no matter where you are or what you want in your business and life.