Book club of one (me)

Michael Crilly
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

You’re trapped in a bubble and it’s preventing you from seeing how things really work. You’re stuck. You think you’re doing well, you think you’re successful, but you’re not. Your idea of success is flawed. At least it’s very likely to be flawed, broken, misguided.

Mine was broken. It’s fixed now, but I’m still in that bubble. I will break free eventually, but first I must revisit some mentors of mine. It would be lovely if you joined me.

From top to bottom

My mentors are stacked on top of one another. I’m going to grab one from the top of the pile and delve into their minds, learning everything they know. This process takes about a two weeks per mentor.

I’m talking about books, in case you hadn’t worked it out at this point. Some of these mentors left us a long time ago, leaving behind their ideas and thoughts, their experiences and their golden pieces of advice, all in the form of books.

These books are central to success, in my opinion, and reading them just once has vastly improved my life.

A traditional upbringing centred around a normal, western education has placed me in that bubble thing I mentioned earlier. It’s a bubble that makes us go to university, get a 9–5 job, buy the biggest house we can (using credit of course), the best car, compare and compete with our neighbours, and retire poor. Do you want to retire poor? I don’t.

My Power 8

If you’re a nerd like me, you may have played Magic The Gathering as a (33 year old) kid. It’s a card game which uses a combination of abilities to perform all sorts of tricks against your opponents. During its early days, a set of cards came to be know as, “The Power 8.” They were overpowered. Very overpowered. They were banned in competitions because when used they simply enabled impossible situations to overcome. They weren’t fair.

My personal Power 8 collection is a list of books aren’t fair neither. These books, when read and understood, then reread, and finally used as a constant reference in your life, give you an unfair advantage. They will place you ahead of the game versus most people in today’s society.

  • “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, by Richard Kiyosaki
  • “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napoleon Hill
  • “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People “, by Stephen Covey
  • “The Personal MBA”, by Josh Kaufman
  • “Influence”, by Robert Cialdini
  • “Start With Why”, by Simon Sinek
  • “How to Win Friends and Influence People In the Digital Age”, by Dale Carnegie
  • “The First 90 Days”, by Michael Watkins

Starting from the top (the order is important), I’ll pull out each book and read it over the course of two weeks. I’ll take notes and then share them here. Once complete I’ll start again.

Until next time.

Michael Crilly

Written by

UNIX System Automation, Maintenance & Administration

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade