3 Must-Read Books to Build Wealth

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Everyone seemed to love the post I wrote last week, so I feel under pressure to write something that won’t disappoint you, something as good as what you read last week. Bear with me if this doesn’t meet your standards.

Well, to be honest, I don’t care.

Politicians from Ancient Rome, such as Cicero, were excellent public speakers. One of the most important parts of their speeches was the captatio benevolentiae, which refers to gaining your audience’s sympathy from the very beginning. Now read the first paragraph again. That’s it. You probably felt less prone to judge the quality of this post after reading that, or maybe not, since you are all smart and cultured people.

Me delivering some captationes benevolentiae after graduating from university

The captatio benevolentiae is the kind of bullsh*t you say at the beginning of any formal communication, and it warms your audience up for whatever you want to tell them. It’s like that cute nurse telling you it’s not going to hurt before she sticks a needle in your left butt cheek.

Anyways, here’s the post from last week, in case you missed it.

If you want a happy and prosperous life, being idle should be one of your top priorities. But being a lifelong learner is quite important too. For such purpose, books are probably our best friends. Now that it’s Christmas, you can treat your loved ones or yourself to some of these titles which have had a deep influence on how I see the world and how I make decisions.

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

If you’ve read my previous posts, you probably know that I mention Daniel Kahneman every 5 sentences. Actually I have his face tattooed on my forehead. I read this book when I was 19 and it completely changed the way I think. It helped shed some light on some decisions people make in my environment. For example, I didn’t get why someone could buy lottery tickets, but after reading the book it all makes sense. It turns out that we’re just monkeys with prehistoric emotions that can’t really make sense out of the contemporary world.

By the way, in Spain we have the odd custom of having orphan children sing the winning lottery numbers when Christmas comes. I’ve always thought it’s as weird as it is funny. Child labour? Cute tradition? Maybe a mix of both.

2. Behave, by Robert Sapolsky

I’ve never mentioned this guy on The Psychology of Wealth yet, but he deserves as much credit as Daniel Kahneman. This book is the Bible of human behaviour. It studies human behaviour from every possible angle: evolutionary biology, evolutionary genetics, molecular genetics, endocrinology, neuroscience, anthropology, and history. You need to understand people to make money, and this book does a wonderful job on teaching that.

Robert even has a list of lectures on YouTube that dig deeper into this topic. If you’re interested in what makes humans tick, I seriously can’t think of any better resource. The book, by the way, has around 900 pages, but if you persevere, you’ll come to the sweet revelation that free will is just an illusion. Yes, we’re deeply conditioned by our evolutionary heritage, our genes, and the environment we were born in.

3. Made to Stick, by Dan and Chip Heath

The previous books should be enough to turn you into an expert in human behaviour, and you can use that to your advantage. I’m not talking about manipulating people, but about selling stuff to them — which is kind of the same, but more socially acceptable. Being good at sales is crucial to build wealth, and for that you need to be a smooth-talker, a seasoned wordsmith, or whatever you want to call it.

I believe that being a good communicator has been the single, most influential skill in my life, both personal and professional. Whether we like it or not, people judge us by what we say and how we say it. You need to communicate well to sustain a happy relationship, to negotiate a good salary, or to curate your beloved Substack community.

In a nutshell, the book teaches you that you should observe the SUCCESs principles to write effective content.

Keep it:

• Simple

• Unexpected

• Concrete

• Credible

• Emotional

• And use Stories

If you want to know more, read the whole book. You won’t regret it.

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A picture I recently took in León, Spain

Thanks for reading and happy holidays to everyone!

What’s one book that has changed your life?

Alejandro Lopez — The Psychology of Wealth