Founders and Self-Help were the two book categories I focused on in my April reading list. The books I read in my April reading list include Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, Jesus: A Biography from a Believer, and Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life.
The quality of these four books is so high it is nearly impossible for me to pick my favorite. In other words, these might be the four best books I read this year. However, Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life feels like the book that will change my thinking the most in 2024. For all of the books I have read, you can check out all of my books here. Now, let’s get into my April reading list.
Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, two long-time Amazon execs, shares the principles and mental models used by Amazon and Jeff Bezos.
Bryar and Carr were at Amazon for the launch of products that included Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, Amazon Web Services, and Kindle, among other products.
One of the goals of the book is to share how your company can repeat and scale the principles Amazon used to become one of the best companies of all time.
Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles and how they informed decision-making at the company are a common theme throughout the book.
One of my biggest takeaways from any book about Amazon, including Working Backwards, is the company’s focus on customer obsession, thinking long-term, and the ability to invent new products.
You can think of Working Backwards as a guidebook to help your business succeed. Or at least that’s how I plan to use this book.
The authors show that Amazon’s incredible success is achieved not by one leader but rather by the execution of sound company principles by all employees.
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results
The ability to think is something I have been working on recently. Is there anything more powerful?
My ability to think under pressure, like an athlete, is a huge asset. Shane Parrish, author of Clear Thinking, argues that we must improve our ability to think to live the life that we seek.
Clear Thinking helped me realize how much of my life I live on autopilot. My default behavior can be changed. I just needed a wake-up call from Parrish.
One of the many things I appreciate about Parrish and his blog Farnam Street, is his use of mental models. Using these models gives us a manual for life to optimize our decision-making. The end goal is to live a more optimal life – a life that works best for you and no one else.
Jesus: A Biography from a Believer
Jesus: A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson (one of my favorite authors!), shares the influence Jesus had on the world. Johnson’s concise biographies, including this one, capture the message and historical significance of Jesus. Jesus: A Biography from a Believer gives you a vivid account of what life and Jesus were like. Few figures have had such an influence on the world as Jesus of Nazareth. Johnson once again tells a fantastic story in this book.
Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins starts with an exercise to imagine that you did everything right throughout your life, including investing for your retirement, and at the end of your life, the only thing you wasted was your time.
Die with Zero argues that we should get the most out of our money during our lives, not simply during our retirement years.
Perkins wants to teach you how to optimize your life by not prioritizing over saving and not using your financial resources while you can.
The main takeaway from Die with Zero is that we should use our money and accumulated wealth for experiences before it’s too late.
