5 Books Everyone Should Read In Their 20s

culled from:grassrootssuccess.net

1. The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo

Less a self help book and more a parable for life, The Alchemist follows a young shepherd boy who meets a person that changes the direction of his life. It’s hard to find the words to really describe this book in a few short sentences, suffice to say the fact that it’s sold over 65 million copies in 56 different languages should give you reason enough to buy it. It’s a coming of age story about finding one’s destiny and purpose in life, something that we sorely need more people to work out being that 70% of people hate their jobs.

2. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

This is an absolutely brilliant book on personal finance for young people. Ramit doesn’t get overly complicated and doesn’t tell you shit that you don’t need to know. He keeps it simple and makes it as easy as possible for you to start getting ahead financially. He covers basic banking, investment accounts and retirement funds amongst other things, with other people’s stories intertwined. This is all the stuff about money anyone in their 30s and 40s wished they knew in their 20s. Ramit also has a fantastic site with heaps of other great stuff at www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com

3. The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Many call him the master of self promotion, and it’s probably true. What’s even more true is that Tim has written a book here that completely blows people’s minds in terms of what is possible for their career and life in general. If you’ve been raised by parents with the conventional wisdom of getting a job and working for the man, this book will show you that you really don’t have to do that and why. The sooner you read this book the sooner you can start thinking and working towards creating the life that you dreamed of, rather than staying in the soul sucking job you may be in right now while wondering “is this all there is to life?”

4. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Written almost a century ago, this book shows that even with the ridiculous advancements in technology and how we live our lives, people aren’t really that much different today than they were back in the 30s. This book will teach you how best to interact with people in a way that will help you live a richer social life and help you to gain influence and get what you want. To be clear, this is not a book about manipulation, it is a book about basic human social interaction, and learning to do it far better than you are now. The longer I live, the more I realise that the key to getting ahead in life is getting better at building and maintaining relationships. It’s a skill that far too many people leave until it’s too late, but reading this will set you on the right track.

5. The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler

Ever experienced flow? Do you even know what a flow state is? This book will tell you all about it. As someone that has experienced it, let me tell you, you want to know more about it and learn how to make it a part of your daily life as soon as you can because it is one great big hack for life. When you’re in flow, apart from feeling like God himself, you learn and perfect things so much faster than when you aren’t in flow. The sooner you learn about what this is so you can take advantage of it, the higher the chance of you being successful in your chosen pursuits.