3 books that changed the way I define success

Success has been a big word for me since I was a kid. Even though the definition has drastically changed with time, the goal of “living a successful life” has always been present.

To this day, the details of what my 70-year-old self would define as a successful life are still very fuzzy. Thankfully, I’ve found ways to find peace, comfort and enjoy the ride as I build my own story.

Success is not a destination but a journey, and the only thing that you should worry about is making sure you’re on the right track. It sounds nice and simple, but in reality, how can we know if the path we’re on is the right one or not?

Below I will describe 3 powerful mindset changes that were ignited by books I’ve read, and I hope you can find some insights that will also impact your life.

On Successful Relationships

Society is about people, we spend a lot of time interacting with others and there are always people that will impact our happiness, career, and goals.

It doesn’t matter if building human connections comes natural to you or not: understanding people’s needs, their thinking process and how to influence their actions towards your objectives is something you should learn.

Reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie literally redefined the way I interacted with everyone around me.

When I discuss this book, some friends worry that the tools presented here could create fake or manipulative relationships. However, it all comes down to your intentions.

One key message presented in this book is that people care about their own goals. When you find ways to help other achieve their goals, and those goals also help yours (ie. a work environment) you create a win-win scenario for both.

If you want to create stronger connections (specially with the ones that will shape your success) and challenge the way you’ve always interacted with people, I highly recommend reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”

On Successful Work and Purpose

This is a particularly sensitive topic for me. Whenever I looked at successful people, they were always experts in one specific field (or that’s what I used to believe). However, I’ve always been a very curious person whose passions, tastes and hobbies are all over the place. Then, how could I be successful in something by spreading my knowledge and experience across many things and not just one?

The core message behind “Range” by David Epstein, proposes that even though some people and careers get better with more specialization in a defined subject (like doctors or physicists) , some others (like CEOs and creatives) rely on a vast sea of knowledge, stories and analogies to find the best solution to any given problem.

This book not only gave me peace, but encouraged me to keep this curious attitude where enjoying learning about different things actually gives you more perspectives and tools to solve a myriad of problems, and make better decisions in your life. When I think of the roles I’d like to play in society, those are exactly the type of skills I need to develop.

On Successfully Managing Time and Money

Finally, two of my biggest raging fears were tamed with a help from a simple, yet powerful book.

Reading about Silicon Valley icons or entertainment stars always made me feel bad for not being able to achieve “that much” at their age, and every birthday for me was always shaded by a sense of failure.

“The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel is filled with wisdom about money (and no, it’s not a get-rich-quick type of book). The message that stuck in my head is how powerful compounding is. This means starting with something small, but with time, consistency and patience, can be turned into a sizable mass (like a snowball turning into an avalanche, and like savings getting 5% annual interest can turn into wealth after a couple of decades).

The opening line for chapter 4 reads: “81.5 billion of Warren Buffett’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday. Our minds are not built to handle such absurdities.” And apart from the obvious relation with money, I think this line pretty much sums up what work, sports, and life itself is: a compounding process that can lead to amazing things with time.

I hope you find these tools useful and that they can make an impact on you as they did on me. Take the time to fill your mind with ideas that challenge you and a better self will always come out of it.

Now is your turn! Is there any book that changed your perspective? Please share them below!