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Omar Zenhom
What if just five books can transform your business and your life in 2025? These aren't just great reads, they're essential. Each one of these books has had a profound impact on my journey as an entrepreneur, on my life, and I'm super excited to share how they could do the same for you. But stick around because if you subscribe to this channel and comment below which book you are most excited to read first, you'll enter to win all five books to be sent straight to your do. Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenholm, where I bring you practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. Today's episode is all about the five best business books to read in 2025. I read a ton of books, almost about 50 books a year. Some of them are really good, some of them are not so good, but some of them are life changing and these books are in that category. These aren't just books in my opinion. They're like gold mines in my opinion world. They've shaped my approach to life, to business, and I can attribute a lot of success, really to what I learned in those pages. So get ready to elevate your mindset, your strategies and your decision making in 2025. These five books is where you start. Book number one. This book right here is incredible. 4000 Weeks by Oliver Barkman. Out of all the five books that I'm going to be sharing with you, this book gave me the most gut punches. Those reality checks you need to hear that really wake you up. Why is this book called 4000 Weeks? Well, the average human lifespan is 4000 weeks. And Berkman, the author, forces you to confront the reality of your limited time above ground and to rethink what really matters. And the subtitle is Time Management for Mortals. Now, I would say one of the epidemics, one of the crazes that we go through in this journey of entrepreneurship is trying to be as productive as possible. Productivity has become a drug online now that people can't get enough of. How can I get more productive? How can I do more in less time? And this book helped me tremendously because it taught me to let go of this idea that being busy is a good thing, that more work is actually something to be proud of. And this was really hard for me because I grew up in an immigrant family, but my parents immigrated from Egypt to the US and hard work is my middle name. Right. It's what I was fed as A kid from an early age. It's what I know and it's what I was taught is what you should do if you want to succeed is you have to work hard. Now, I still believe there is a place for hard work. Hard work is important, but working to your exhaustion day in and day out is not a sustainable strategy. Trying to get everything done on your to do list only to be left with more things on your to do list is kind of a sickness, it's kind of a problem. And you have to accept the fact that you're never going to be done with things to do. There's always going to be something to do. Most importantly, this book taught me that unnecessary, busy work is really a waste of time and you need to focus on what's most meaningful in both in your business and your life. But if we just focus on business, what actually moves the needle? What actually is important in your business? Well, here's a hint. What makes you money, right? What brings in the revenue? What makes your customers happy? That's really what's important in your business. And I realize I'm doing so much every day that's not that. And I need to cut that stuff out or delegate it or not do it at all or whatever. The point here is, is that you have to understand you only have X amount of hours every day. We only have 24 hours a day. That's what the equalizer of all of us is, that we only have 24 hours a day. How are you going to use it? So then, one, that you're successful, but two, you enjoy the process and you still have your health intact and you still have a life, right? So this book has really taught me that, hey, we only have a limited time on earth, let's use it wisely. Let's not try to kill ourselves, enjoy the moments of boredom. Let's enjoy the moments of not constantly forcing every little second in answering emails and, you know, catching up on things even when we're at the dinner table. This is not an existence that we're going to be proud of when we get older. So this book will help you if you struggle with time management. This book will help you prioritize what's actually important and what really moves the needle in your business. This will help you understand what's a distraction and what's actually something that you need to focus on. It's also going to give you over this thought that if I'm not busy, I'm not valuable. Here's the truth that I learned through this book and through just contemplation. The reality is, is that what you bring to the marketplace is what's important. The marketplace, your customers, the world that's going to buy your products and services do not care about, about how hard you work, how much time you put into this, how many hours you spent working on this before you launched it. Simply not their concern. What they care is about the value you can offer them, the actual product and what it can do for them. That's all that really matters. And when you really think about that, what you realize is that I'm kind of just staying busy so I can justify that I'm important. It's a tough one because you have to filter out the fact that, hey, sometimes I do have to work to get that value out into the marketplace, but sometimes I'm just working for work's sake. Book number two. And honestly, I don't see this as a book. I see this as therapy. Okay? And this book is the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. This is an incredible book at understanding how we think and how we interact with money. And so much about this book will reveal itself to you and what it means to you as you go through the chapters. What I mean by that is we all have some stories we told ourselves or were told to us as a young person, as a young adult, and we believe them. Some of these stories are true, some of them are not true. Some of them, it's neither here nor there. But the point here is that you need to be aware of them because are you making grave financial decisions based on things that are just simply not true, things that are not serving you, things that are not going to help you in the long run. And business is about money, guys. If you get the money part of business, you can make money, you can grow, you can scale. And the thing about money is that it goes beyond the spreadsheet. It dives into the human behaviors, the emotions that shape every financial decision we make. And you better believe that is happening in our business, you know, when we do that in our personal life. This book really helped me reframe how I'm thinking about money and how I'm building wealth, how I'm focusing on sustainable long term decisions that can really allow me to get wins, not only in the short term, but in the long term. I became aware of like, oh, I'm thinking about money in this way because of this. And only way I can change my habits and the only way I can change and improve how I interact with money is if I Change those beliefs, change those thoughts. And it's very hard for me to convince you of this argument because the book does all the convincing. You're going to read chapter after chapter, how important is to get your mind right when it comes to money, before you even open up an Excel sheet or whatever you use to do your finances. So whether you're just starting out or you're looking to grow your financial freedom, grow your business, this book will give you the tools up here to make better decisions. Because money is about decisions. It's about where you allocate your attention, where you allocate your resources. And it's so shocking to learn how emotional we are when it comes to money. But once you're aware of it, you can start reprogramming yourself, start doing the things that serve you and your business. In my opinion, this book is probably one of the most powerful financial education books. A lot of people think that finances is all about, you know, knowing your numbers. And that's true. Numbers are important. But this is goes beyond the numbers. It goes beyond why you even track the numbers in the first place. What are you tracking numbers for, what are the goals, what's behind your financial ambitions, all that kind of stuff. Incredible book. Book number three, we're going to shift gears into a biography. I've read a ton of biographies. I love biographies because they teach you what the journey looks like to the road of success, right? It teaches you so much about what it takes, and there are so many great entrepreneurs that I've read about. There's so many great success stories. But if I had to choose one that really encapsulates the journey of entrepreneurship, it's this book right here, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Phil Knight is the founder of Nike. It's his memoir and he really crushes it with this book. I think it's probably one of the most well thought out memoir I ever read. The stories are incredible, it's entertaining, it's raw, it's honest. It really shows you what it takes to build a brand like Nike. And he shares everything, the highs, the lows, everything in between, giving you a real glimpse of the grit and the eating glass on a daily basis that is required to have that kind of success. When I read this book, I was going through some challenges in my software company, webinar Ninja, and the one thing it gave me is that challenges, hardships, difficulty, it's a rite of passage. Every successful entrepreneur that had any modicum of success has to suffer a little bit because that's how it is that's just the price of admission. And it comforted me a bit because it made me realize, okay, this is normal. I'm not something wrong with me. Right? I'm not defected. Right? And you know, what Phil and I went through in his story, and you're gonna love this book, is far worse than what I went through. Right? It's far hard, you know, harsh, and it was more treacherous and the stakes were way higher. But it's an incredible journey where you learn not only about his story as the founder of Nike, but how he made his decisions, how luck plays the role sometimes. How sometimes things just go wrong and there's no rhyme or reason. You just got to just take the l, take the loss and keep moving forward. Like I mentioned, it reminded me that the entrepreneurial journey is a bumpy ride and that persistence and adaptability and flexibility and. And passion and hunger are gonna get you through it. If you're struggling with setbacks, with doubts, this book will inspire you. It will help you keep moving forward, and it will teach you a thing or two about how to build a great team, how to surround yourself with the right people and what success actually looks like, right? What that journey looks like. The reality of it. Not the gloss, not the fancy stuff and the. And the riches, but what it looks like in reality in terms of your day to day life. My fourth book that I recommend that you read in 2025, that's really going to help you tremendously, is one of my favorites, is probably the book I reread the most out of all the books I'm mentioning today. And it's this book, how to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. Don't be fooled by the title. This book isn't about get rich quick schemes or shortcuts. It's about mindsets. It's about strategies. It's about creating lasting wealth. And what I love about this book is that it's unapologetic about how to get rich, how to make money. Okay? It's not about how to become a better human being or better be a better manager or be a better boss or any of that stuff, Right? It's about how can you get as rich as possible. And sometimes you need a book just to be about one thing, about being laser focused on that goal. Now you know, he's not a monster. Felix Dennis's somebody who's done a lot of good in this world. He's one of the most successful publishers in our time and he's published many successful magazines. You might know Maxim is one of the magazines. He's published many PC magazines and before his passing, his net worth was around half a billion dollars. In this book, Felix Dennis does not hold back. He shares his hard truths. He shares his stories, his wins, his losses, how he built his own wealth, the mistakes along the way, how much those mistakes cost him, right from a financial point of view, and the sacrifices that he was forced to make in order for him to build his wealth. This book is one of the most well written books I've read. It's fun, it's entertaining, it's honest, it's a bit cheeky. Now mind you, Felix Dennis's professional career was in the 70s, 80s, 90s. So some of the references are a little bit, let's say, not PC, but if you just give them forgiveness for that, it really can solidify your understanding of what it takes to become wealthy and the sacrifices involved along the way, what matters, what doesn't, and how you can speed up that process. So if you want a book that's just serious about building long term wealth for you and your family through entrepreneurship, this book will give you a no nonsense roadmap. He has a lot of rules that he follows that really is helpful in building a successful business, successful career, and he really just shares everything he knows. He has no upsells, he has no programs, he had nothing to sell other than just what's in that book. So you're getting everything right from his own experiences. Now before I go to the final book, book number five, I want to give you a few books that almost made the list. I would want to call them Honorable Mentions. I want to quickly mention them because if you want additional reads other than these five books, then these are the books I would recommend. They're worth your time. The first one is About Time. It's called Buy Back youk Time by Dan Martell. By the way, we have an interview with Dan Martell coming up on the podcast, but this book is a masterclass in scaling your business while reclaiming your life. It's exactly what it sounds like. How to get more of your time back so that you can do the things you enjoy or at the very minimum, use your time wisely on the things that actually matter and bring you more business into your business. My next Honorable Mention is the Hard Thing About Hard Things. I don't have a physical book of this one. I read this on Kindle and on audiobook. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. I quote from this book several times when I give speeches because it's so powerful. This book is just a brutal, honest take on the challenges of running a business. And I love the style that he writes in. I think every chapter starts with a rap lyric because Ben Horowitz is a rap fan. Great read. Helped me through some tough times when I was running my businesses. And the third book I have on my honorable mentions is the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. This book is essential for understanding not only others, but yourself, which is critical to leadership, to relationships, to building a network, to building a great company. This book is big, as you can see. Okay, it's pretty fat. It's going to take you a while. I actually got through it on audiobook when I was going to the gym. It takes quite some time, but it's well worth it. And I think Robert Greene is one of the best authors of our time. And it's a book that's going to help you understand human beings. And guess what? Your customers are humans, your team members are humans, your mentors are humans, your partners, your vendors. The better you understand how these human beings, these beings work, right, the better you're going to do in business. And there will be times where I'm like, I really have a gut feeling about something about this person. I don't know what it is. And then I'll remember, oh yeah, I learned that in this book. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. This is why I should do business with this person or I shouldn't do business. All right, let's get to the Last Book, the fifth book in the books I recommend you read in 2025 to help you in your business and your life. And the book is from one of my favorite authors, Ryan Holiday. The Obstacle is the Way. Wow. This book is so powerful in so many ways. This book introduced me into the idea of stoicism and completely shifted how I approach challenges. You might notice a theme here. There's going to be challenges in business. The key here is to be prepared, is to be ready for those challenges, is to be not frustrated by them, but understanding that this is going to happen. You're expecting them and you have a game plan. This book, the Obstacles Away gave me a game plan. It gave me a guide into turning obstacles into opportunities. It drew from, you know, the ancient wisdom of the stoics and navigated that kind of wisdom into our modern day struggles. You know, I think Ryan Holiday did an excellent job at taking the principles of stoicism and making sure it is applicable to daily challenges of life, business work, whatever it might Be most of us like myself before I read this book. When we see problems, we shun. We kind of look away. We kind of like, why me? Why did this happen? Right? This book taught me to embrace problems. It taught me that these problems are a chance to grow, a chance for me to learn. And that without the problems, it's going to be hard for me to have long term success. I know that doesn't sound right, but it is. Okay. One of my favorite quotes is from Jim Ronin. He says, don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. This book is incredible. The obstacles way if you're facing difficulties in your business or your personal life, this book will give you the tools to be able to thrive, to be able to get through that time and the next time and understand that, hey, this is actually good for me. This is actually going to help me. And there's actually a silver lining. Every time I look at big failures, big problems in my business, often that led me to a big win, a big success. And this book taught me how to turn those failures into wins. Because you see, if you are so hung up on the tragedy of the failure of the problem, of the obstacle, you don't actually open yourselves up to say, hey, what did I learn here? How can I turn this into a win? What is something that I'm learning or getting out of this? What's the feedback here? And once I started doing that, things turned around. So there you have it. The five best business books to read in 2025, plus a few honorable mentions. Let's recap real quick. Let me grab my books. Here we go. First book, 4000 Weeks by Oliver Berkman. Next one, Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Next. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. I love this book so much. How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. Number four. Read this so many Times and the Obstacles Away by Ryan Holiday, amazing author. And don't forget, if you subscribe and comment below with the book you're most excited to read, you'll enter to win all five books. I'm going to send all five books to your door. Okay, they're a little bit upside down and mixed up here, but you'll get all five books sent to you to your door via Amazon. And you'll get to enjoy these and consume these and become better because of this. Trust me, these books, they're worth so much more than how much it's going to cost me to send it to you. They're worth so much more. They're going to help you and in ways you can't imagine. If you want a deeper dive into these books, you could check out our full reviews of these books. I've done full detailed must read reviews of each of these books I mentioned today, even the honorable mentions over@100mba.net book reviews. Thank you for tuning into the $100 MBA Show. As always, I'm Omar Zenholm and if you want to continue to learn and grow and build that business that you want, make sure you hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Follow whatever it might say on Spotify or Apple. If you're watching on YouTube, hit subscribe. And don't forget, put that comment below of your favorite book of the book you want to read first so you can win all five books. Thanks again and I'll check you in the next episode.