Favorite RE/Business Books of the Year + Recommendations for 2022

[Nicholas Gayton]

Hello BP!

As 2021 winds down, I wanted to share some of my favorite books I've read over the past year or so with a brief description.

Would love to hear from other's what books they loved this year and what they have on their reading list for 2022.

Happy Holidays!

Real Estate:

• · Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene
  • o Loved this book on how to invest in real estate out of state. Helped inspire me and 2 friends (partners) to find a market out of state, and purchase our first property. Great “how to” and inspirational guide to Out of State Investing
• · The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
  • o More high level of a real estate investing book, and less in the weeds, but very inspirational and has many great takeaways on how to build wealth in real estate.
• · How to Invest in Real Estate by Brandon Turner
  • o This book to me was like Real Estate Investing 101, and was an amazing crash course on everything you need to know about getting into real estate investing.
• · The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
  • o This was the very first book I read about real estate and really lit a fire in me to eventually pursue real estate investing. Absolutely loved this read.
• · The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop
  • o Just finished up this book (December 2021), and really enjoyed Craig’s book. Takes a deep dive into what House Hacking is, why it’s an important vehicle to grow your wealth and work towards financial independence, as well as HOW to do it.
• · The Book on Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor by Amanda Han and Matthew MacFarland
  • o Devoured this book in a few days and it really opened my eyes to how creative you can be with regards to taxes as a real estate investor. Helped my partners and I find a great real estate focused CPA to help our business. Highly recommend

Leadership:

• · Welcome to Management by Ryan Hawk
  • Excellent useful book on how to first time, and long time managers can be more effective and efficient in the workplace. Covers a variety of topics from interviewing to driving results, to general people management. Great read.
• · Radical Candor by Kim Scott
  • This is a GREAT read about the importance of giving and soliciting feedback as a manager. The main point is care personally about your people but challenge directly and in real time to build a culture of high performance, but also care for your team members. Highly, highly recommend for anyone in any sort of people management role.

General Business and Biography:

• · The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covery and Chris McChesney
  • o Wow, is this book great for leaders attempting to EXECUTE on priorities. This had a profound impact on the way I think about team goal setting, and execution. Focus (on the wildly important goals), Act On (The lead measures, things you can control), Keep a Compelling Scoreboard, and Create a Cadence of Accountability.
• · Chaos Monkey’s by Antonio Garcia Martinez
  • Super interesting inside look into how startups are founded, acquired and the path of a semi successful entrepreneur who ended up founding the real time ad sharing platform at Facebook. Very entertaining read
• · 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Noah Yuval Harrari
  • Very interesting read into this historians take on what the rest of our century is going to look like. Dives into politics, technology (AI/ML etc) and is an entertaining and interesting read.
• · The Billion Dollar Whale by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright
  • This book does not relate heavily to what I do or what many others do for business by WOW this is one interesting read about a young entrepreneur from Malaysia who ends up becoming best friends with some of the most rich and powerful people in the world, only to end up stealing over 4 billion dollars worth of assets.
• · The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
  • Very interesting read about how Amazon came to be and the insane obstacles that Amazon overcame to become the company it is today.
• · Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
  • Wow, Richard Brandon has really lived an extraordinary life. This is his biography of his life so far, and I was extremely impressed by all of his life accomplishments. Fun and exciting read!

Sales:

• · The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino
  • This business parable is an EPIC in the Sales and Personal Development arena. Matthew McConaughey was inspired by this book to become an actor. Definitely highly recommend on how to become a better salesperson in general.
• · New Sales: Simplified by Mike Weinberg
  • Great Sales book which focuses on a modern yet classic approach to Sales. It address the modern realities of our new working world, but stays true to the classics of sales (you still need to cold call, build relationships etc). Great read!
• · Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount
  • This book is also pretty darn great. It speaks of the importance of constantly keeping your pipeline full in sales, and strategies to setting meetings with clients. Highly recommend for anyone in Sales.

Personal Development/Mindset and Inspiration:

• · How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  • o If you haven’t read this book, please click out of this page and go read the book. One of the best books of all time on how to deal with people. This is a pre-requisite for any career in my opinion. Warren Buffett credited this book (along with it’s accompanying Public Speaking Class), with his ability to work with others.
• · The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
  • One of my favorite books of all time. This business parable talks about the importance of giving and providing value in business. Super quick read, but had a profound impact on my view of business.
• · The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
  • This book ROCKS. It talks about the importance of conquering the morning with the most important personal development tasks which are essential to living the life you want to live. Highly recommend reading and implementing the ideas in this book.
• · Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Great book on the importance and power of habits. It takes a deep dive into how and why habits are important and how to change them.
• · The One Thing by Gary Keller
  • o Really solid personal development book the focuses on the importance of being selective and focused on what you want to achieve. What is the ONE thing that such by doing it everything else is easier or unimportant? Focus on the wildly specific.
• · Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt
  • o I really loved this book as well, it’s major focus was how to actually set goals where you can achieve them. So really a more modern goal setting book with updates for 2021/2022.
• · The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
  • A real classic personal development book of the importance of planning, working hard and focusing on the small things. Would recommend, but I have seen many of the material elsewhere over the years.

Money/Finances:

• · I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
  • My single favorite book on personal finance. It’s almost like a Dave Ramsey common sense personal finance book, with a modern flare. Essentially, saving is crucial, track it, save furiously on things that are not important, and spend on the things you love.
• · Set For Life by Scott Trench
  • This book talks about the various strategies both within your job and outside of your job to work towards becoming financially independent. Awesome read.