Three books that changed my life

I started my own business when I was about 9 years old to try to get out of a poor living situation. I saved up a good amount of money from that, and was highly disappointed when I found out that an eleven year old can't rent an apartment. After a string of jobs that ended in garbage, I finally found an opportunity and used my last $268 to go into business for myself when I was 19.

I was great with the work. I could do the work of 3 or 4 people and make it seem easy. I put my money where my mouth was, but as it got bigger, I noticed that hard work just wasn't enough. There's a mindset you need so you can actually get work done and not be in the hamster wheel, and for years it never came to me. Since reading these three books my life has changed for the better, so I wanted to share them with you.

Jim Camp - Start With No

Dale Dauten - The Gifted Boss

10 Mistakes Businesses Make By Roger Mendelson

I've read a lot of books by people who seem to be more motivational speakers than actual businesspeople. These are not the case at all. These people are not people who became successful through some dumb luck, and it becomes obvious why when you read what they've written.

Dale Dauten's book taught me that I could not hire intelligent people and also demand I do all the work myself. It taught me to stop being a control freak. I feel many fall into this trap.

Roger's book is amazing. I know this may come as an insult, but it is filled with typos. It's obviously not even edited. What I loved about this is how obvious the message is - I'm too busy doing business to edit the typos out of my own book, and this comes across in the idea phrasing. You can tell it's written by a person who has too much to do in his life to try to become a self-help-book-mill. Everything from reshaping company cultures, the high availability & low-stress attitudes of effective bosses, is covered in here.

Jim Camp's book applies not just to negotiators, but to almost every life situation. I never understood why I would do certain things I did until I read his chapter on allowing an adversary to be "ok."

I've been browsing this forum as a lurker for a long time before signing up. It was the content I read here that motivated me to go out, learn more, and eventually find these works which led me to changing my life. I get more done in an hour than I used to in a month, and I have more free time than I ever imagined. I hope the same for every one of you!