Tag: entrepreneurship book recommendations
3 Little Known Self-Help Books That Are Better Than “Atomic Habits”
I don’t know why Atomic Habits has sold 20 million copies.
I’m dumbfounded by that number.
Sure, I understand that when a book gets popular, it creates momentum. Furthermore, I’m aware that most people are sheep and when they see millions of people buying a book then they automatically assume it’s worthy of a purchase.
Atomic Habits has outsold The 48 Laws Of Power, The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind and Man’s Search For Meaning – all books I consider classics of the field and absolutely worthy of tens of millions of sales.
This fact makes my jaw drop and here’s why.
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits is a very ordinary book.
It’s not rubbish but neither is it sensational.
It’s readable, has some interesting stories (the start of the book is fascinating) and although a lot of the scientific research cited is far from ground-breaking, it’s good to have it included.
But was there one thing from Atomic Habits that’s impacted my life?
No!
Of course, habits are an important aspect of building a successful life. Furthermore, making small adjustments to your daily routine (as the book advises), with time, can have an exponential impact on your outcomes. However, I knew this going into the book.
As a result, all I was left with was a semi-interesting read that gave me zero “aha” moments. On the quality of the content alone, I have no idea why Atomic Habits has sold 20 million copies.
All three of the books listed above (although these aren’t the ones I’ll focus on today), gave me multiple “aha” moments – sometimes on consecutive pages.
And isn’t that what you’re looking for in a self-help book?
You want your life to be changed (even if it’s only in a small way) or discover a new insight that you didn’t previously know.
For this reason, I can’t get on board the Atomic Habits hype train. In fact, there are so many other books I’d recommend before this one.
For instance, take a look at the three below.
It would be unfair to say they’re totally unknown but they haven’t received the sales they deserve. Furthermore, you won’t have found any of them on the New York Times bestseller list. However, that fact says nothing of the quality of their insights, writing or entertainment value.
I’ll now break them down and let you know why they’re better than Atomic Habits.
1. Never Too Late To Be Great (2012) Tom Butler-Bowdon
This book focuses on what it takes to achieve extraordinary success and reaches a startling conclusion.
Instead of talent or luck being the pre-eminent factors, Butler-Bowdon reveals that it’s time.
With a long enough runway, almost anyone can be massively successful in their chosen field. However, making use of this factor is a struggle for most because they have an immediacy bias.
Society teaches us to want, and expect, results now. It teaches us to think in terms of what we can accomplish in a year rather than what we can do in a decade.
A decade’s worth of commitment, for most, seems too long. As a result, most people dismiss very legitimate opportunities to achieve ground-breaking success.
You can learn, and grow, so much in this period of time. Furthermore, if you take into account the fact that people are living longer, and as a result have decades to spare, it’s possible to succeed at multiple endeavours.
Butler-Bowdon points this out with one of the most engaging examples from the book.
He dedicates a significant portion of a chapter to the story of Ray Kroc and how he brought fast-food chain McDonald’s to the masses (even though he wasn’t the founder).
Kroc was well into his 50s when he did this. He’d had some success with other businesses and he used this experience as a launchpad to reach an entirely new level with McDonald’s.
Another stand out from the book is Butler-Bowdon’s rebuttal of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers.
In Gladwell’s book, he attempts to demonstrate how luck, or circumstance, plays a greater role in success than we’d like to believe (citing Bill Gates being born at the right point in history – 1955 and coming of age at the start of the personal computer revolution – and in the right location – North west coast of America where most of the opportunities and influential people in this industry were located – as the primary factors in his mega success).
Butler-Bowdon skilfully picks this theory apart, using the example of Larry Ellison – a self-taught computer programmer who was born 11 years before Bill Gates and on the other side of the country (therefore missing out on all the advantages of being born at the right place and the right time) – as evidence of the holes in Gladwell’s theory.
Why the book is better than Atomic Habits:
- Far greater depth
- Genuinely changes your perspective on an important subject
- Very well written (and this isn’t a criticism of Atomic Habits as it’s one of the books strengths)
2. How To Get Rich (2006) Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis (1947 to 2014) was a publisher and one of the UK’s richest self-made men. Best known as the owner of Maxim, he also took time out to write the little-known classic How To Get Rich.
What sets this book apart is that Dennis has lived what he’s written about. He started with nothing and the lessons he learned along the way are invaluable to anyone seeking greater riches.
Two stand out.
The first is based on the concept of ownership.
Dennis is insistent on the point that, if you want to get rich, you have to own things. Of course, ownership can take many forms – owning stock in a company, owning Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, owning the controlling interest in a company, owning properties, owning your intellectual property and rights – but being able to say something is yours usually leads to opportunity.
Don’t give up this ownership and don’t think you’re going to get rich without it (for example, earning a high six-figure salary yet having a large mortgage on your house isn’t true riches).
Ownership is so powerful because you can take profits, benefit from asset appreciation and be in control of strategic decisions.
Dennis’s second stand out insight is on the importance of being bold.
You can’t be afraid of failing in public. Be prepared to fall flat on your face and receive the kind of ridicule that goes hand in hand with this failure.
If you can, you’ll become fearless.
This will then enable you to take the kind of risks essential to landing a lucrative deal or making a big enough statement to gain attention for your work.
While these insights are genuinely valuable, what makes them stand out are the personal stories that Dennis includes in How To Get Rich.
His writing is funny, irreverent and brutally honest. The book is part memoir, part personal enrichment manual and this combination makes How To Get Rich hard to put down.
Why the book is better than Atomic Habits:
- Far more entertaining
- The lessons are more powerfully taught and, therefore, stay with you for longer
- The subject mater is inherently more interesting
3. Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting (1999) Lynn Grabhorn
The ultimate book on The Law Of Attraction that pre-dates, and is better than, The Secret (and that’s not a knock on The Secret as I thought it was good).
Lynn Grabhorn’s book is packed full of revelations.
She starts off by telling us about how she was a self-help junkie, consuming every new book and experimenting with every new theory on how to improve her life. However, there was a problem.
Nothing she tried made any significant difference to her bank balance, health or general levels of happiness.
Then, one day, through friends, she stumbled upon a simple secret that made everything click.
This secret?
The power of feelings.
You can think about success all you want, picturing yourself with a million dollars in your account but if you can’t feel it’s reality, then it’s just mental masturbation.
The lesson?
Thoughts count for little without feelings to back them up.
Once Lynn learned this, her life transformed and the book documents how this happened and includes a useful 30-day programme for replicating the process.
Of course, The Law Of Attraction hasn’t been proven in the same way that the Law Of Gravity has (although that’s not to say it won’t in the future) and Lynn’s book is light on scientific support. However, her explanations and examples resonate and it’s hard not to believe that she’s onto something (her theory, in a nutshell, is that if you buzz – feel genuinely upbeat, happy and full of energy – then you’ll attract all kinds of positive outcomes into your life).
Like Felix Dennis, Lynn writes in an engaging and, often times, humorous style.
The book is a page turner and is packed with interesting stories about how people have changed their lives through the power of feelings. As a result, I read it with a genuine sense of excitement.
Why the book is better than Atomic Habits:
- More entertaining and engaging
- The insights will have a greater impact on your life (and that’s not to say that habit change lacks substance)
- It contains a more exciting promise
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this list. Let me know if you’ve already read them, and what you thought, in the comments below.
And, if you’re a fan of Atomic Habits, tell me why my assessment wrong.
Finally, if you like impactful self-help books then you might want to read this list.
THE ONLY 7 SELF-HELP BOOKS YOU NEED TO BECOME A COMPLETE PERSON
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