I Read 150 Self-Help Books. These 8 Actually Changed My Life

Summary

Laurie Wang shares her journey of reading 150 self-help books, distilling her transformative experiences from eight stand-out titles. In her engaging video, she highlights the significant impact that these books had on her life, both in career and personal growth. Wang discusses key takeaways that resonated with her, such as understanding wealth versus money, overcoming self-sabotage, the importance of giving, and finding freedom through financial wisdom. She also touches on personal relationships and timeless lessons offered by Stoic teachings. Her insights encourage viewers to explore these readings for their own personal and professional development.

Highlights

• Laurie Wang's transformation by reading over 150 self-help books, with eight making a profound difference 🧠.
• The enlightening approach of 'The Psychology of Money' on building freedom over material possessions 💵.
• Naval Ravikant's teachings on wealth being a more sustainable goal than money 🤑.
• 'The Third Door' shows unconventional paths to success and opportunity 🌟.
• Gary Chapman's 'Five Love Languages' sparks enriched relationships through understanding 💑.
• 'The Obstacle is the Way' turns challenges into stepping stones to success 🏆.
• 'The Go-Giver' promotes achieving wealth through giving, not getting 🎁.
• Matt Haig’s 'The Midnight Library’ encourages living fully by understanding life’s vast potential 🌌.

Key Takeaways

• Explore the transformative power of self-help books and their potential to change lives 📚.
• Discover how overcoming self-sabotage can propel you forward in life 🚀.
• Learn the difference between wealth and money, and how to invest in lasting assets 💰.
• Gain insights into the art of giving and how it leads to real success 🎁.
• Understand the role of financial stability in achieving personal freedom 🕊️.
• Find your love language to strengthen personal relationships ❤️.
• Embrace life's obstacles as valuable learning moments 🌟.
• Live fully in the present and cherish each moment of existence 🌈.

Overview

Laurie Wang embarks on a reflective journey through the vast landscape of self-help books, distilling profound lessons from those that truly impacted her life. Her narrative opens with an interesting critique, acknowledging that not all books in the genre deliver real value. However, through her candid exploration, she uncovers eight extraordinary works that did. These books serve as beacons of knowledge and personal growth lighting her path, with lessons ranging from overcoming internal hurdles to revamping financial perspectives and nurturing meaningful relationships.

One of the most poignant teachings comes from Naval Ravikant’s thinking on wealth versus money, where Wang reveals the shift in her understanding of time and investment. By embracing the idea of wealth as growing assets, she learns to value her time wisely, aligning her business strategy towards education and outreach to maximize impact rather than trading time for money. Additionally, Ryan Holiday’s insights have Wang appreciating challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, reshaping her approach to personal and professional hurdles.

Wang also emphasizes personal insights from books like 'The Five Love Languages' and 'The Go-Giver', offering wisdom on relationship and success dynamics that promote giving over receiving. Her journey through these pages sheds light on the essence of living authentically, embracing every obstacle with grace, and seizing the vast potential of life presented in books like 'The Midnight Library'. Wang's compelling narrative not only informs but inspires, encouraging viewers to pursue their own paths towards transformation through reading.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The introduction discusses the author's extensive experience with reading self-help and personal development books over the past decade. While some books were insightful, others seemed repetitive or unengaging. The author intends to share key learnings and personal impacts derived from the most influential books, highlighting those that challenged existing beliefs or inspired significant change.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Book 1: The Mountains You Buy on the East The chapter begins with the narrator expressing a desire to share books that have significantly impacted their life, inviting readers to share their favorites as well. The focal book of this chapter is 'The Mountains You Buy on the East' by Rich Brianna, which holds special significance for the narrator. It is highlighted as a source of comfort and guidance during challenging times, implying its themes of overcoming adversity and finding strength when everything desired seems far away.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Book 2: The Almanac of Naval Ravikant The chapter explores the concept of self-sabotage, particularly in the context of pursuing dreams related to careers, life, business, and relationships. It highlights the paralyzing effect of fear and conflict that creates a barrier between one's current self and desired future self. A personal reflection on self-identifying with 'uprooting' as a self-sabotaging behavior is shared, emphasizing the difficulty in overcoming these internal obstacles.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Book 3: The Psychology of Money In this chapter, the author discusses the concept of indecisiveness and lack of commitment, often referred to as 'Shiny Object Syndrome.' This behavior is characterized by frequently changing jobs, relationships, and interests, and being drawn to the latest trends without following through. The author reflects on personal experiences with this tendency, highlighting the initial motivation that eventually fades, leading to abandonment of big ideas. The chapter advises cultivating awareness and actively combating these patterns. Additionally, praise is given for the author's poetic and beautiful writing style in conveying these insights.
• 07:00 - 09:30: Book Recommendation: I Will Teach You to Be Rich The chapter opens with a personal anecdote from the author about overcoming self-doubt and personal challenges. The author draws a parallel between personal growth and climbing a mountain, suggesting that overcoming internal obstacles is akin to climbing 'the mountain is you'. The chapter encourages readers to reflect on their own self-sabotaging behaviors and confront them directly, as this process is essential for personal development. The underlying message is one of hope and transformation, aiming to assist readers who may be experiencing difficult times by prompting them to become the best version of themselves through self-awareness and proactive change.
• 09:30 - 13:30: Book 4: The Third Door by Alex Banayan The chapter delves into the significance of revisiting meaningful literature, specifically highlighting the 'Almanac of Naval Ravikant.' It is mentioned as a treasure trove containing life lessons from Naval Ravikant, a prolific entrepreneur and co-founder of Angel List, known for his insightful Twitter threads on wealth and happiness. The emphasis is on encouraging wealth building over mere money-making.
• 13:30 - 18:00: Book 5: The Go-Giver by Bob Burg The chapter discusses the concept of wealth as an asset that grows over time, contrasting it with the finite nature of money, which is often exchanged for time. It highlights the challenge many face in managing time effectively, often trading it for money, and the inspiration to shift from project-based work to scalable endeavors that serve a larger audience.
• 18:00 - 22:00: Book 6: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman The chapter begins with the idea of expanding one's influence and impact through group workshops and courses. It emphasizes a quote on the concept of compound interest influencing various aspects of life such as wealth, knowledge, and relationships. The chapter encourages readers to focus on building wealth through assets rather than solely relying on trading time for money. It prompts readers to think about how they can live smarter and build wealth for the future.
• 22:00 - 24:30: Book 7: The Midnight Library This chapter discusses 'The Psychology of Money' by Morgan Housel. The narrator explains their personal journey from having a chaotic financial life to finding guidance and clarity. The book does not provide a step-by-step financial guide but rather helps readers understand their behavioral relationship with money. It offers insights into building long-term sustainable financial decisions that have positively impacted the narrator's life.
• 24:30 - 29:00: Book 8: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday The chapter discusses the concept of money as a tool for achieving personal freedom. Freedom is portrayed as the ultimate form of wealth, allowing individuals to do what they want, with whom they want, and where they want, rather than just accumulating material possessions. The author reflects on personal business experiences, emphasizing the importance of saving to maintain six months of financial freedom, thereby highlighting the value of independence and self-determination in leading a fulfilling life.
• 29:00 - 31:30: Conclusion The chapter titled 'Conclusion' discusses the author's journey from working a salaried job to starting their own business, emphasizing the freedom to choose clients. It highlights the psychological perspective of viewing money not just as an end but as a means to achieve long-term freedom. The chapter concludes with the impactful lesson of recognizing the concept of 'enough', reminding readers that they themselves are enough and have enough.

I Read 150 Self-Help Books. These 8 Actually Changed My Life Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 In the last decade, I've read through hundreds of self-help and personal development books. Some of them were enlightening, and some of them felt like one idea spread across 300 pages and a complete waste of time. Some I couldn't get past the intro and others I couldn't put down. I was too obsessed to see it to the end So in this video, I'm going to break down the key things that I've learned and taking away from all the great books I've read. And I want to discuss with you which books really sparked that change in me. Also, which one surprised me by contradicting my beliefs.
• 00:30 - 01:00 And lastly, I really want to share with you the books that stuck with me and changed my life and let me know. I'm really curious about your list too. So please share with me some of your favorite books in the comments below. And the first book, which has a really special place in my heart, is the mountains you buy on the east. And if you've ever been through a tough time in your life where you feel like everything you want is so other Rich Brianna's book, helped me through a tough time like these
• 01:00 - 01:30 when I just feel like everything is so impossible. She made me realize that was holding myself and also others back is because of our own self-sabotaging behaviors, is when we have these big dreams about our careers, our life, our business, our relationships that we're almost too scared to take that next step, afraid to act. and this conflict creates that barrier between who you are and who you want to be. And one self-sabotaging behavior that I really identify with is uprooting.
• 01:30 - 02:00 which is basically not staying the course with anything moving, shifting other jobs, changing friends, getting in and out of relationships. Shiny objects syndrome. When you're always trying the latest trendy tactics in business. it's like you have all these big ideas but never really follow through and you get really motivated in the beginning. Then eventually you drop off. And I did this so many times in my life. So now I'm constantly trying to fight against this and realize and be more aware of it on an ongoing basis. She also just writes so beautifully the insides and the poetic writings in this book.
• 02:00 - 02:30 Help me through that really tough time, the time when I felt like a nobody. And if you're having a hard time right now, I hope that this book helps you to cross that mountain, whereas we always calls it the mountain is you to cross that mountain to become the person that you would become, So when you're reading this book, think about some of the self-assembling housing behaviors that you might fall into as it did for me, and it made me realize it and address it head on.
• 02:30 - 03:00 But number two is the Almanac of Naval Ravikant. I like to revisit this book every single year, and this book has literally a treasure trove of life lessons from the prolific entrepreneur naval Ravikant, who's also the co-founder of Angel List, among many other companies that he founded. But he's famous for his Twitter threads on literally all of his insights and knowledge on wealth and happiness. and one thing that's been really refreshing is that he encourages people to build wealth, not money,
• 03:00 - 03:30 because wealth is only an asset like equity in the business or creating podcasts and videos are grows over time. Whereas money pays for your time, right? So your time, unfortunately is finite asset. You only have so much of it before you run out. The reason why you're struggling with more time is because often we're giving our time away for money. And this idea really inspired me to shift away from project based work in my business and moving more towards scaling my time by serving
• 03:30 - 04:00 more people and helping more people through group workshops and courses. And one quote I really love that he shared is all the returns in life, whether it's wealth, knowledge or relationships, comes from compound interest. So what's in the wealth building assets that you can create after reading this book instead of always changing your time for money? How can you live smarter and build wealth for the future? The next
• 04:00 - 04:30 book is The Psychology Money by Morgan Housel. I picked up this book because at the time, to be honest with you, my financial life or personal finance is a complete mess. If you're in a similar place where you just never know how going to make it to the end of the month on your paycheck and money's always tight. I was definitely there. but instead telling me what to do step by step with money in helping to understand my own behaviors with money and how to actually build long term sustainable financial decisions. That helped my life.
• 04:30 - 05:00 So, for example, one of the things I have really talked about is how money is really a vehicle to help you buy your freedom. Freedom to do what you want, with whom you want and wherever you want. And I think freedom really is the ultimate rich, right? Because rather than money just buying you material things, freedom allow you to live a better life. And for me, reflecting on this is that in my own business, by having the freedom of saving a six month
• 05:00 - 05:30 runway from my full time job of salaries on the side. When I started my business, I could actually choose to work with who I wanted and not just take on every single client coming through the door. I think this is a really important aspect of our psychology around money. Is it's that accumulating just money. Think about how you can accumulate money for the sake of freedom in the long term. And one of the biggest lessons I loved is the idea of enough. You are enough and you have enough.
• 05:30 - 06:00 It's simple, but yet so powerful. Right? And as a side note, if you really want to get your financial lives in order, I recommend this book. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Rami Sethi. what's really great about this book is that it's really practical. Doesn't matter which jurisdiction you're living in right now in terms of country. I think the overall idea of it applies to different complexities of our financial system right now. C might come across his Netflix show called How to Get Rich. So if you have watched that, you know exactly what I mean.
• 06:00 - 06:30 He really lays out step by step on some of the really simple things that we can get started today to start building a financial a healthier personal financial future at any age. But again, there's no personal finance advice is purely because something that I've tried in my own life and I think has helped me a lot by reading these two books. The next book is The Third Door by Alex Binion. And Alex completely opened my eyes with his extraordinary journey of trying to interview some of the most successful people in the world, like Bill Gates, Jessica Alba,
• 06:30 - 07:00 Warren Buffett, the whole full list names you'll see in the book itself. But most importantly, throughout this whole journey, he shared this concept of the third door, which is something he discovered by trying to interview some of these really successful people and trying to get into their inboxes or get through to their chief of staff is that there are ways for regular people like you and me to skip the line and ultimately to unlock hidden opportunities by thinking creatively out of the box.
• 07:00 - 07:30 school and society have this way of making us feel like those are the only two ways in. You're either born into it or you wait your turn like everybody else. But what I've learned is that there's always, always the third door. And at the door we have to jump out of line, run down the alley, banged on the door other times, crack open the window. Go through the kitchen. There's always a way in. so my parents are not famous or rich and I do not have any special connections. But after reading this book, it made me realize that I have put
• 07:30 - 08:00 a ceiling on top of who I think I can speak to and who to hang out with. So reading this book inspired me to send out so many more cold emails and direct messages on social media to individuals who I look up to. And these can open so many doors because it's not just about what you know, but it's about who, you know can really get to where you want to be. I recommend thinking about five or six people that either you look up to online or in real life and think about how can you be more proactive in reaching out to them.
• 08:00 - 08:30 And if you want a good pointer in how to write cool emails, I think this book is a great start because Alex shares all the templates that he's used, actual real emails that you send to individuals like these to actually get their attention. The next book is The Go Giver by Bloomberg. For those of you who enjoy a little bit of fiction alongside really valuable life lessons, I think that Go giver, it was such a joy to read. So it's a fictional story about this guy named Joe he's a go getter, but he really struggles to land this new account. So he reached out to a wealthy mentor, hoping that he can get more leads
• 08:30 - 09:00 through him. But instead, this mentor taught him the insider trade secrets about how to be successful, and that is giving. And this is a part where most people struggle on in life is that their focus on getting counseling, getting something like money or connections before giving anything. Whereas successful people focus on giving first. And the more you give, the more you have. I think, for example, like creating content online, the more value you give away, the more trust you're building
• 09:00 - 09:30 where you audiences and the long term that trust turns into customers people who want to buy your products or share about you with others. at the end. There's never a zero sum game just because you give in. It's not about expecting something back, but rather it's like a strategy that you live through life. So I recommend when you read this book, think about the different ways that you can do more giving in what you do. And this can really change the way that you approach relationships and everything in general going forward. The next book is called The
• 09:30 - 10:00 First Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. So I'm going to talk about love here for a second. If you've been married or in a relationship for a long time, you probably know that maintain that initial spark. The connection is so hard. And I know this because I've been married for nine years, and I know that for me, the work really begins the day that you get married, not in the fairytale version where everything is happily ever after right? Something I've noticed. My own relationship with my husband, Simon, is that we both
• 10:00 - 10:30 have different ways of showing our love and affection for each other. And you may have noticed this in your own relationship, too. Is that miscommunication of love and affection in different ways can sometimes cause arguments between couples. And Gary in this book really talks about the five universal love languages that we all use. So words of affirmation receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch and quality time. And for me, I think the way that I perceive love is by acts of service.
• 10:30 - 11:00 So when I guess, like, for example, I see taking care of someone, like making them a cup of tea is affection, is showing affection and showing love. And Simon, on the other hand, he's a bit oblivious to that, but yet the way that he shows love is through giving gifts. So he's very good at giving surprises around my birthdays, anniversaries, which I'm absolutely terrible at. And it just really shows that between every couple there are different ways of showing love to each other. And by understanding your love language,
• 11:00 - 11:30 you can help to feel more fulfilled in the relationship and also knowing your partner's love language can help them to feel more fulfilled in the way that they want to receive love as well. So when you're reading this book, I recommend sharing it with the other person that's in your life and really kind of think through what's your version of love language The next book is The Midnight Library by Magic, And then this book is about a woman in her thirties who decided on the day that she dies, she finds herself in a library full of books that are filled with variations of lives that she could have lived.
• 11:30 - 12:00 So she tries on each life So, for example, becoming a musician that's world famous or a polar expedition explorer or an ex Olympian economy, that movie, everything everywhere, all at once where she fell and discovered that there is so much more to life, especially her current one, more than she could have ever imagined. And now we all have this one life right now. And how can we make the most of every moment? So at the time, this book mainly faced my own insecurity and depression that I was facing at the time and allow me to embrace
• 12:00 - 12:30 more gratitude in the fact that everything that we have is right here, right now, and the fact that we are born is probably the one, the biggest lottery ticket that we have ever been given. The odds of us being born one in 400 trillion. So when you read this book, think about some of the things that you're grateful in your life right now and how can you make the most of every moment, the last but not least? And there's many other books I want to mention Bali Save It from. The other video is The Obstacle is Away by Ryan Holiday.
• 12:30 - 13:00 If you're currently going through a really tough time of work or maybe your business is not going so well and there's a lot of challenges and stress going on in your life at the moment. This could be a really good book for you because I think this book helped me to get through those really, really bad days when you just want to throw in the towel and just give up. And the author, Ryan Holiday, he's very good at taking very ancient stoicism philosophies made into something that's really easy. Understand the modern day, modern day issues that we're having right now. And oftentimes successful people have actually thrived
• 13:00 - 13:30 because of the obstacles they face, because the obstacles made them more resilient and be able to face that same challenge again and again over time, the obstacle becomes a way. As Ryan says in his book, I remind the time that really some of our best lessons are learned from failures. and when you change your perception of obstacles and challenges into something that's going to give you valuable insight, life also becomes a lot more easier and fun. So think back to your recent challenge or obstacle worse
• 13:30 - 14:00 and the things that you learn from it. Trial and Error Counseling. Experimenting is probably one the best way to learn something. I made countless mistakes in my career business so far, but I'm grateful for every single one of them because those mistakes taught me how not to do something. And it made me realize how to be creative and to get to my goals even faster. Thank you so much for seeing me to the end. If you made this far. I know that you're a fellow bookworm who loves books as much as I do. if you enjoyed this video, you may also enjoyed this playlist
• 14:00 - 14:30 of all the different life lesson videos I made along the way. And also down here, which is all about the marketing books I recommend in my career So far. If you haven't yet, consider subscribing to this channel and also the newsletter which is the link in the description below. So I can send out more of these useful insights on personal growth and business. See, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next video.