Dr James, 0s:

We're going to have some fun today on the podcast and talk about something that I've never actually done before, but I always thought would be really valuable and really useful, and what I'd like to talk about today is five books that made the biggest impression on me out of the books that I've read over the course of my life. I think there's a such a thing as book flexing, where people talk about how they've read thousands of books and learned loads, and that is a good thing to do. You know, obviously, I think that I would really rather maybe have like 10 to 20 really really really good books that I understood inside out, versus a thousand books on just random things, personally, because I feel like our brain can only really handle so much. So I've kind of went for somewhere in between. I'm looking over my bookshelf literally right now. I think there's probably like 60 70 books on there on business, on finance and on dentistry as well, which took some time to get through, but I do enjoy reading. So it's all good really, and plus, I definitely think that you can benefit from that stuff, not just in business and finance, but just generally in life. It just provides you wisdom. I mean what you have to again. We're getting a little bit into the philosophy of books now, but a really good lens through which you can look at books, or you can look at any knowledge, really, whenever it comes to listening to people more experienced than yourself is they've literally made those mistakes, they've lived that life and you, when you are open to what they have to say, well, what it means is you literally get the highlights of their learnings. That's what a book is. It's a condensed. It's a condensed summary of the best learning points that that expert has ever had in that particular field. Obviously, you just want to look out for the classic books as well, because classics are classics for a reason, and usually the reason why everybody hypes them up and gets excited about them is because they are very useful. So, in that spirit, of those 60 70 books that we were talking about just a second ago, here is maybe not my top five, but they're definitely up there. They're up there. I haven't thought about it too much, but I pulled five off the bookshelf today and I thought right if I was to make a podcast and share five really cool ones. Here they are. So they're probably at least in the top seven, eight, nine of those books that we were talking about just a second ago. So I really implore everybody to learn from these books. I think that they'll really help you whenever it comes to your life and so far as making your business more profitable, increasing the amount of income you have, getting back your free time as well. Yeah, I'm deeply passionate about what one can learn from reading and investing in themselves, because I've seen the benefits and perks of my life, and I want others to experience that as much as possible too. So, yes, without further ado, let's get into these books. So the very first one I have in front of me is a book called who, not how, and this book is pretty much exactly what it says in the tin. It's all about the concept of getting the right who's in your life rather than constantly figuring out how to do things, and the book really goes into detail about why that is the case. So what does that concept mean? The concept of who is. If you're struggling with something or you can't figure something out, chances are there's somebody out there who actually knows the subject inside out and instead of thinking yourself right, how am I going to do this? If you just replace that word how with the word who and change that sentence to who can help me do this that chances are you'll get much better results in a much faster time and be able to achieve your goals and learn a lot more in a much in a much expedited process versus what you would do otherwise. And you know what? The second I read this book I just switched that little part around in my language. I was like, right, who knows this thing that I'm trying to do or I want to do, or who can I ask to give me insight on my life that might be able to see things that I can't otherwise see? And, yeah, obviously you want to figure certain things out for yourself. There is such a thing as over delegating, uh, but I really feel, on the scale of under delegating versus over delegating, we as a, as a race, could probably move a lot closer. Uh, we're kind of we're kind of too far towards the under delegating side of things. We could probably achieve a lot more if we just really embraced. The knowledge that's contained within. This book really speeded things up for me in lots of areas. So I'm really really, really like this book. It really helped me. Second book how to own the world. I've went on about this book enough, I feel, over on the Facebook group and also on the Dentists Who Invest podcast over the years. If you haven't heard of it. It's basically the book that got me into investing back in the day. It's probably the only um book that covers investing from a UK perspective. So it talks about SIPs and ISAs versus 401ks and Roth IRAs, which are American investing accounts. It doesn't have too much of a bias towards the American market either. So, yeah, it really opened my eyes with regards to that. It also opened my eyes with regards to the history of money and how that works too. So if you haven't read it, please do pick it up. It is the most seminal book. That, for me, whenever it came to investing, it was the most seminal book that I ever read and it really got me thinking okay, not only can I think about investing, but I actually must think about it as well. It's essential. It's really really, really important. But yes, anyway, more on that in the book itself. If you haven't read it, it's worth picking up, probably for anybody who's a beginner to intermediate investor. If you're advanced, there's a good chance. You know the stuff in there already, but, yeah, that would be my take on it. I really think it's worth it, if you haven't got it already.