My top 5 books in 2022
2022 was a very important year in my personal and professional life. I started learning about new topics related with finances, self growth, soft skills and so on. I met new people that inspired me to keep improving in these areas. I reinforced the fact that reading helps you to shape your skills. And by putting into practicing and teaching those concepts you will transform yourself and you will gain valuable experience.
This is the top 5 books I read and I liked the most in 2022.
(Some years ago I would not have believed I would be writing this).
1. Atomic Habits (2018)
Written by James Clear.
Categories : 🪴 Personal Growth, 📆 Habits and 🧠 Psychology.
"Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits." "Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
I am a faithful believer that small joint actions make the difference over time. These small and apparently insignificant actions can transform your life, for better or worse. You are the one who decides what you do and when you do it, and by making or not decisions you are determining your life.
In this book James Clear, a Speaker, and writer for major companies and events worldwide, provides ideas based on scientific research to transform our habits. This is THE guide to understanding how your brain works and how you can beat the game to achieve the goals you set. By taking action and forming a habit you will shape the systems to improve your life.
I even have an whole post talking about it. Please check it out.
It literally transformed my life.
2. The Psychology of money (2020)
Written by Morgan Housel.
Categories : 🪴 Personal Growth, 🐷 Finance, 🧠 Psychology.
"Controlling your time is the highest dividend money pays." "Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works."
Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. In a beginning, for me, that was hard to understand, but when you analyze how people in your context see and react to money, you will get it. And it makes a lot of sense.
We are all different, we have different goals, and our perspective about money may change depending on the context of where we grew up and where we live.
And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Morgan shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaching you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.
Finance wellness is a soft skill, more related to behavioral and emotional ability. That is the real Psychology of money, where emotional skill will beat technical knowledge. And your job salary, contacts nor inheritance will determine it.
The most important thing I learned from this book is to think about how you spend your time and who you spend the time with. The most valuable asset in your life is time. And deciding what to do is what determines who you are.
Money gives us to risk, confidence, and happiness lessons, but that is up to you.
3. Never split the difference (2016)
Written by Chris Voss.
Categories : 🪴 Personal Growth, 🤝 Negotiation, 🧠 Psychology.
"Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible." "The beauty of empathy is that it doesn’t demand that you agree with the other person’s ideas."
I'm not very good at negotiating, but this book showed me some tips that I'll use when selling an idea, convincing someone, bargaining, or asking for a salary increase. And I'll have an advantage over my speaker.
Negotiation is a soft skill that you will manage with your emotional intelligence. And the only way of achieving the best agreements is by improving your negotiation abilities, that is to say, by practicing and putting into practice the theory.
You will learn from experiences shared by an FBI kidnapper negotiator. These lessons work for both business and personal life.
That goes beyond speaking, it is more important to listen and to understand the speaker situation.
4. The richest man in Babylon (1926)
Written by George S. Clason.
Categories : 🪴 Personal Growth, 🐷 Finance.
"Where the determination is, the way can be found." "Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow."
This book is a precious piece of Babylonian culture. Incredibly, the same principles that bring you financial well-being today were used by ancient Babylon thousands of years ago. Money and finances have the same meaning that six thousand years ago.
It is very easy to read because you get hooked on the stories that are told like novels. Each one of the stories has a moral. It is perfect for the ones searching for understanding basic but fundamentals about money management:
- How to generate income (By learning, studying, and acquiring new skills).
- Manage expenses and save money: adjusts your habits.
- Invest and leverage the compound interest.
- Protect your assets.
- Make your property a profitable investment.
- Ensure income for your future: We get older.
- Improve and perfect your craft for acquiring more knowledge to charge more for your time.
The most important asset that you can't get back: your time.
5. Invent and Wander (2020)
Written by Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson.
Categories : 💆🏻♂️ Autobiography, 📊 Entrepreneurship.
"Most of the regret will come from the things we didn't try." "When something bad happens to you you have three choices, let it define you, let it destroy you, or let it make you stronger."
No matter if you have disagreements about Jeff Bezos, you will learn the importance of the long-term and the mindset of being better every day.
This book is divided into two:
-
The letters Jeff sent to the Amazon investors over 23 years. Patience, thinking in the long term, caring about the customer, not the competitors, and being the best version of yourself every day are the best advices that Jeff shared while developing one of the most valuable enterprises in history.
-
The life Jeff has to go through for becoming the enormous entrepreneur he is today. We were obsessed about being a technological revolutionary by creating stuff that people love.
You will learn the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and other business. Buy it.
Bonus. Lo que debes saber del dinero y nunca te enseñaron (2019)
Written by Danilo Raymond.
Categories : 🪴 Personal Growth, 🐷 Finance.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Albert Einstein. "The financial practices we have were co-opted into our subconscious."
Danilo shares tips for financial success through stories. These stories talk about borrowing, saving, investing, and spending. Very recommended, it is more practical and goes directly to the numbers.
One reflection that caught my attention is why Latin America has all the possibilities to be a superpower but we do not take advantage of it. It is due to our culture.
Preview Photo taken from Aaron Burden.