Intellectual Firepower

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Last week I interviewed Alan Weiss, "The Million Dollar Consultant" on his newest book, Thrive!

Thrive! is about success as Alan sees it. And Alan knows a lot about success. He's written more books about consulting than anyone else (not hyperbole, an actual fact). He writes more books in a year than most people read in a year.

One of my first questions to Allan was, "What are your rules for success?"

He was very forthcoming about his answer: Intellectual Firepower.

He was clear that this didn't mean having a high IQ. That was hereditary and out of your control. He was referring to our own efforts to study and learn what we needed to learn for success.

When he went to college he was amazed to observe that the majority of students seemed to be there "just to get by." Alan's perspective was different. "I felt I had this opportunity handed to me to learn whatever I possibly could. So I didn't read Cliff Notes or take shortcuts or cheat. I read every single book I was assigned and did all the work required."

Alan is still a voracious reader, having read over 5,000 books. And he reads for at least 90 minutes every day.

When you read a lot, you tend to pick up the skills of writing. Alan surprised me when he said he wrote most of his books in about four months and never went back and edited. He writes first drafts of everything and has an editor help a little with the organization of the book, if required.

That is intellectual firepower!

None of us may reach the heights of success as Alan has, but we can certainly spend more time reading and committing to becoming true experts in our field.

I've always been surprised when at the end of a workshop when I give people my recommended marketing book list, that invariably someone says, "What's the one book of all these ten should I read?"

I tell them, "Read all ten. Look, I've read several hundred business books and have narrowed it down to these ten. This is distilled wisdom. You don't have to read hundreds. Just ten. One at a time."

With that, let me give you ten business and marketing books you must read to increase your intellectual and marketing firepower. Yes, you must read all ten!

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - You should read this several times over many years. You'll always find something new.

Thrive! by Alan Weiss - This is a modern day Think and Grow Rich that will really get you thinking about what success is about.

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki - The latest from a master of marketing on how to enchant clients and customers.

Cash Copy by Jeffrey Lant - The one book you need if you want to write better copy. Absolutely indispensable.

Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss - If you offer professional services for a living you must have this. And while you're at it, get Million Dollar Speaking and Million Dollar Coaching.

Become a Recognized Authority in Your Field by Robert Bly - Again, if you are a professional, this book tells you how to market and sell your services with a ton of hands-on strategies.

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey -I'm still using ideas from this book twenty years after reading it.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - This is an oldie but goodie with a ton of practical ideas about marketing and selling yourself.

Selling to Big Companies and/or S.N.A.P. Selling by Jill Konrath - Nobody is better at showing you how to get the attention and interest of larger companies than Jill.

Loving What Is by Byron Katie - Not a marketing or business book but a book about how to get past your stressful, limiting beliefs. Perhaps the most valuable book I've ever read.

That's it. Ten books that will help you increase your intellectual firepower in the realm of marketing and selling. Order your first one today on Amazon!

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The More Clients Bottom Line: If you are looking for quick tips, strategies and silver bullets you'll never go deep enough to really understand how marketing works and how you can make it work for your business.

What other business and marketing books do you highly recommend? Please list them on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below.

Comments

[Susan Kruger]

I am very much looking forward to Alan's new book. I read "Million Dollar Consulting" based on your recommendation years ago and it is one of the very best business books I've ever read.

To add a little to the point of leveraging your intellectual firepower, as a "study skills" expert, I don't believe it is necessarily the amount of time you spend "sharpening your saw," it is how strategically you do so. If you are really in the zone and using "high gear learning," you can get the best 80% of value out of 20% of a book. In other words, you can spend 20 minutes reviewing two very powerful chapters of a book and have 80% of the value out of it. At this rate, you can examine a new book everyday. This does not work for all books, but is great for most.

[Terri]

Success Intelligence by Robert Holden Ph.D

[John Levy]

I recommend

"True Purpose" by Tim Kelley (aligning yourself with your inner guide/spirit -- not nearly so New Age as it sounds); and

"A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink (how right-brain people are showing the way for all of us to become more balanced in our approach to the world).

[Clarissa Sawyer]

Robert--great idea--become an expert by doing the work of reading widely in your field! I'm a voracious reader, and appreciate the nod. Love your list of your top 10 books, too! BTW, it's non-obvious how to find your FB page. I tried searching for it with the terms you provide ([email protected]), but this doesn't produce the page. In addition there are several named action plan marketing. You FB page needs a picture of you as the icon so we know it's you when we see thumbnail images of a list of FB pages.

[Matt Green]

Getting Things Done. Great book

[Ian Brodie]

I'm guessing modesty forbids you from listing teh Infoguru manual Robert - but it would be up there on my list.

Also there for solo professionals would be CJ Hayden's Get Clients Now and Michael Port's Book Yourself Solid.

In fact those two, along with your Infoguru manual and Weiss's Million Dollar Consulting make up my "sole practitioner" recommended reading over at http://www.rainmaker-resources.com/books

There are some other recommendations up there for larger firms and about marketing and sales more generally too.

Ian