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OFFICIAL - Business 'Book Report' Thread
pawz
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 18,788
What books have you read in your career that have helped you? What has made an indelible impact? What do you recommend most to others?
Rules:
1. Obviously any book has to be Business related - Management, Philosophy, Theory, Personal Development, Finance, Trading, Real Estate, etc.
2. Try to have your first "Book Report" post be your #1 book (or top 3).
3. Please include:
a) link for others to easily find it;
b) a quick summary on what it covers;
c) how it impacted you and/or how you still use it today;
d) anything you think is relevant or worthy of discussion.
4. Podcasts. Since most people are on the go now and listen audibly, podcasts will be allowed. However, please limit a recommendation to a specific episode in a given series.
5. Asking for recommendations on specific topics is encouraged.
6. Have a something to add, co-sign, or disagree! regarding a poasted Book Report - Please Do.
7. Write as many Book Reports as you like.
Rules:
1. Obviously any book has to be Business related - Management, Philosophy, Theory, Personal Development, Finance, Trading, Real Estate, etc.
2. Try to have your first "Book Report" post be your #1 book (or top 3).
3. Please include:
a) link for others to easily find it;
b) a quick summary on what it covers;
c) how it impacted you and/or how you still use it today;
d) anything you think is relevant or worthy of discussion.
4. Podcasts. Since most people are on the go now and listen audibly, podcasts will be allowed. However, please limit a recommendation to a specific episode in a given series.
5. Asking for recommendations on specific topics is encouraged.
6. Have a something to add, co-sign, or disagree! regarding a poasted Book Report - Please Do.
7. Write as many Book Reports as you like.
Comments
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rich-dad-poor-dad-robert-t-kiyosaki/1112255784?ean=9781612680194
Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert's story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
When I first read this book 15+ years ago, it calcified my belief that a degree was not the guarantee of success. That one income stream is not "security" - not by a long shot. As I get ready to make a career move in the next few months (in the same industry), Remaining a (albeit well-paid) W-2 is a trap.
It keeps the compass at true north that the long-term goal is to be a business owner. Real freedom is found wilst making money while you sleep.
Other long-term indelible take-a-ways:
Use your income to buy assets.
You buy toys (cars, watches, vacations, etc.) with the money your assets create, not with your income.
Your house is a liability, not an asset. This is a function of cash flow, not appreciation. It costs you money day-in and day-out to maintain. Only a piece of real estate that kicks out more cash than it brings in an asset.
I've been listening to a TON of the BiggerPockets podcasts over the last year. This episode is one of my favorites as it talks about the strategies for creating a business investing in real estate. AJ Osborne (interviewee) had a rare disorder that literally, inexplicably made him paralyzed overnight. He recovered, but if he had not had RE investments in place, he and his family would have experienced financial ruin. His preferred RE investment vehicle is storage units.
Indelible take-a-ways:
There are two ways to scale your business - quantity and quality - and you must do both. For example if you were buying rental properties, after acquiring a handful of single family residences, you start acquiring duplexes. After a handful of those, triplexes and fourplexes. And after a handful of those, 10-20 unit multifamily, and so on ...
AJ is focused on acquiring storage units because it is a lot easier - in his view - to find under-performing assets. To drive home that point, he says 90+% of multi-family properties are owned by institutional money. Institutional money only owns 25-30% of all storage units. Therefor there is a lot of opportunity for a casual or noob investor to acquire assets in this space.
Re: primary residence as an “asset” it’s tricky. I’m batting .750 on making purchases that appreciated greatly so my viewpoint is probably clouded.
It is certainly reasonable for profit to be realized at the end of a long-term exit strategy. But until then, it acts as a liability.
Good book on managing personal relationships in the professional space.
https://www.amazon.com/Surrounded-Idiots-Behavior-Effectively-Communicate/dp/1250179947
https://www.amazon.com/Execution-Discipline-Getting-Things-Done/dp/0609610570
This was a required reading as part of some class while getting the illustrious TCU MBA ...
Big takeaway for me in the book is the simplistic idea that you can put together the greatest plan in the world, but if you can't execute it, it's a shitty plan
I haven't read it in well over 15 years so it's probably got some dated elements to it, but it's got a lot of ways to really think about how to frame problems and then design/implement solutions in ways that get stakeholders to buy in.
I mean shit if the White Wakanda market appreciates as projected for 2021 (don't ask - it's a stupid number) half of our net worth as a family will be in the primary residence.
Pretty popular book but one of the few I have read where I actually though "wow I did learn something"
You should join with me in demanding the barrier to entry be higher. Much fucking higher. Redfin is the bain of my existence, more on that later.
90 hours of 'study', a GED and a multiple choice quiz is a fucking joke for the amount of liability and legal knowledge required. Especially when in a court of law, a broker is held to the same standard as a Bar-admitted attorney.
With all that said, I completely agree with the poont you and Throbber are making. The liability argument is the author's and should be seen as a practical matter of out-of-pocket cash in the near term.
The beef I have with RE is that a lot of agents land in the profession because they don't know what else to do with their lives; and they end up sucking. And to your point the bar to entry in the profession is way too low.
so, yeah, if I magically know the right exit or entry point, I'd try and go it alone, and even then I'd have less impact with my listing on the market because they have the best platforms. but I don't, and with my house, I don't have the stones to hope I'm right only to discover after it's too late that I wasn't.
like anything, if you get one that is just mailing it in it won't feel good handing over that commission. but when you get one who is advocating for you and really gets what you want on the buy and knows what you need and can pull off on the sell, it's worth having them along.
I realized if I want to be an investor it's better not to be a realtor because of disclosure issues
Agree with the room that talent is always valuable and that applies to realtors
You wouldn't believe (actually you would) the percentage of mouth breathers and booger eaters taking the courses.