Dave Ramsey (19:20)
I opened our first office for Ramsey Solutions the spring of 1994. Me and another guy moved the card table and the old desk out of my living room with a U haul truck into a little 800 square foot office building. We're in 650,000 square foot now with almost 1100 team members. The kid that was 34 years old, 33 years old, that did that could not run this operation that I run today. He was not smart enough, he was not sophisticated enough, he didn't have enough leadership knowledge. So where did I get it? School of hard knocks. Yeah, I've done some stupid butt stuff that left a scar. Hello. That's a painful way to learn though. You want to learn by better than that. Where else did I get it? Well, I watched other people and I judged. Best practices, we call it in business. And it's a nice way of saying I watch what someone else is doing and I steal their ideas and use them. Not stealing their proprietary something, but I'm watching what successful people do and I model after it. Right. One of the things though that I learned in my youth going to motivational seminars with my real estate entrepreneur father, was that people who aren't growing don't have a growing enterprise. You have to grow. The personal driver is the first driver of the six drivers in business. And you have to get better if you want a better life. You have to get better if you want a better business. If you want a bigger business, your brain has to be bigger. And so leaders, all leaders are readers. Otherwise you become stagnant pond water. Water that doesn't have a flow through is stopped up. And you've gotta have some flow through. You gotta have some stuff coming into your brain that wasn't in your brain last year or you're gonna be doing the same stupid stuff you did last year. You need new information. And so I became a voracious reader. I became a student of business and leadership, particularly leadership. And I'm often asked, well, what's your favorite leadership book? Oh, crud. What's my favorite child? No, I mean, you know, no, we're not going there. But I can tell you, here's what I do. I pick out someone like my friend Pat Lincione. When I first picked him out, he wasn't my friend. I didn't even know him. And I read his book, the five Dysfunctions of a Team. And I read his book on silos. Then I read. Oh my gosh, my favorite book of his, the Ideal Team Player. The ideal team player is hungry, humble and smart. And ever since then, we've been using that lingo in our hires and in our decisions as to whether to keep someone. Now, this person's humble and smart, but they're not hungry. We gotta get their hunger level up or they don't get to stay. They gotta be an ideal team player. And so Pat Lincione, everything he's written, I've read. I love it. Every book he's ever written, I've read em. The latest one's called the Motive. So you need to be reading Pat. Pat'll be speaking this year at the Entree Leadership Summit in May in Denver. If you don't have your tickets, he's been at almost every one. He and I have become lifelong friends. He's been doing events with us for a decade, plus he's even moved to Nashville. He's now my neighbor and so love this guy. Anything Pat Lincione writes, read it first. Read the book Built to Last by Jim Collins. That was his first big hit. And then he came out with a book called Good to Great. And Good to Great has become one of the bibles in leadership out there. Most everyone that teaches or believes leadership tells you you ought to read the book. Good to Great. Why some companies make the leap and others don't. Good to Great. His latest one's called Thriving on Chaos. In between, he wrote a book that he didn't intend to be a big deal. It's a small book, but it took off and was huge. Called how the Mighty fall after the 2008. And he's looking at reasons companies crash. Jim Collins. Everything Jim Collins writes, I read. He'll be speaking at the Entree Leadership Summit in May in Denver. He's one of the best voices in the leadership world out there today. And he doesn't do a lot of events live on a stage. You really don't want to miss the opportunity to hear Jim in person. Absolutely incredible. Oh, and my friend John Maxwell. I just love John Maxwell. He and I have been friends a long time. When I was that kid, 33, 34 years old, I used to get cassette tapes from John Maximum Impact. I was a subscriber to a monthly tape, and I would open the tape with great anticipation, put it in my car as I drove home from work and to work, and I would listen to it over and over and over and over again until the tape came the next month to replace it. John has written some 80 something books. I have not read all of them. He writes books faster than I can get them read. My favorite of all of John's books is his number one best selling book of all the 80 something books he's written called the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. We actually went to the publisher with permission from Thomas Nelson and permission from John and formed our own Dave Ramsey version of the 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership that we sell in our bookstore and we give to our leaders internally. Rest assured, John is not only one of the most prolific writers in leadership, but he's one of the best. And his thoughts are amazing. The talks that he does and the books that he's written have left a lasting imprint on me and they're one of the reasons that I am as good a leader as I am today. And so anything John Maxwell writes, But particularly the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Oh, and by the way, John Maxwell will be at the Entree Leadership Summit in May. Those are three friends of mine that are some of the best voices in the entire leadership space. I will be sitting in the audience while they speak, taking notes because I've sat at their feet for two or three decades taking notes. Jim Collins, John Maxwell, Pat Lincione. But anything John writes, I would suggest, but certainly start with or end with the 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership. A couple of years ago we were introduced and this guy leapt onto the scene and has taken up a lot of space. I really like him personally. We've become friends as well. Jocko Willick. Extreme Ownership was the breakthrough book, How U.S. navy Seals Lead and Win. And he's got a great podcast and he does a great talk. He's spoken for us before at Summit. He's not gonna be there this year, but. But Jocko is writing some good stuff. He has some wonderful leadership thoughts. His podcast is great. I recommend it. I certainly recommend Extreme Ownership. You do not want to miss it. And I've read, I think, three Jocko books now. His first one is his biggest and probably my favorite, Extreme Ownership. But the others are excellent. He has a great thoughts on leadership and, you know, his, his military demeanor and the way he approaches this is fun. And he's a great dad by the way. Got some great kids stuff out there and so be sure and check out anything that Jocko is doing. I'm a Jocko fan. To say the least. Last year's summit we had Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell's first big breakthrough book was the Tipping Point and eh, not my favorite Malcolm Gladwell book but I think I've read everything Malcolm has written. Pretty sure I have. He's got a book on David and Goliath. It's really good. My favorite of his is Outliers. It's really good. I'm trying to think of what the brand new one is. I did it on audiobook and he spoke at last year's summit and then the other thing he's did is a cool book that has nothing to do with leadership but you don't wanna miss it and you for sure wanna do this. On AudioBook is the BU mafia so be sure it's excellent audiobook and Malcolm's really into audiobooks. He's leaning hard with all of his material into audio these days. So his audiobooks are highly produced and they have sound effects and they're very cool and audio clips from some of the people he's quoting, all that kind of stuff. So it's a. Well it's not a dry read audiobook, it's a well done audiobook. So I recommend anything Malcolm is writing. I enjoy him and I enjoy. He's always got a different take. He comes through a different door at things than I do. I don't think like he thinks another writer that I have become friends with and I love and spoke for several years ago at Summit. I don't have his book on the table because I forgot to tell our producer about it is Seth Godin. And if you've ever heard the phrase going viral, Seth invented the phrase. He's one of the best marketing minds on the planet. In the early days of the Internet, in the early days of SEO, in the early days of social media, he and Gary Vee were right on the cutting edge. As a matter of fact he introduced me to Gary Vee and Seth and Gary Vee and I did an event in New York City several years ago and we are three very different characters, I'll tell you that. But Gary's fun and Seth is absolutely stone cold brilliant. His book Linchpin. If you're in an organization and you want to lead up, not just lead down in the organization chart Linchpin by Seth Godin. Anything Godin writes though, I'll read. He's really good and again his marketing stuff is lights out. He's brilliant. I was in a bible study with a group of guys for 14 years and we Ended up reading a bunch of books. One of the books we read was a book called Thou Shalt Prosper by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi named Rabbi Daniel Lapin. And the premise of the book is 10 reasons that Jewish people tend to outperform the population that they're settled in throughout history. Financially, 67% of the Forbes 400 in America is Jewish. 3% of the public is. I rest my case. I want to know what the rabbi had to say about prospering. I want to know how his mind works from a Hebrew perspective on economics. It is one of my favorite books of all times. And I start talking about on the air and it starts selling. And he called me with his wonderful South African accent and said, who are you? I love you. My book is selling. And so I ended up writing the foreword for the book. When they reissued it and had it come back out again, a new version of it. This guy is lights out. Amazing. This book is very chewy, very thick, very hard to get through. But those are, you know, he's a guy I read. And this book is definitely where you would start. And you will see some things you've never seen in your life on leadership and on economics and on a view of prosperity, a view on wealth and that kind of thing. So absolutely stone cold incredible. There's a lot of other classics out there. You just have to keep reading. The Richest man in Babylon. Must read. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Must read. Absolute must reads. Those are all classics. They've been around forever. The Go Getter that we sell, written in 1926. The anguish. The language is antique when you're reading. It's very interesting to read. It's a real short little book, easy to read, quick read. You ought to read it. It's in our bookstore. Got a Ramsey version of it because it's in public domain. So, you know, just. You can check around and. But here's the thing. Leaders are readers. What I have done is I found authors that lined up with my value system and that were teaching me things. And then I just. Every time something comes out of theirs, I read it. By the way, I do that too with fiction. Brad Thor is a friend of mine on the spy novel side of things. He's written 30 some odd books. I've read every one of them. Read everything John Grisham has written. I've read everything Jack Carr has written. A new writer, A Navy SEAL that's doing spy stuff. He did the book the Terminal List that became a TV special. And wonderful stuff. So, I mean, once I get down one of these rabbit holes, I just keep reading until they're all done, and then I wait on the next one. And so those are all people I can recommend. You know, I mean, whether it's fiction or whatever. But, you know, I binge read, like some of you binge Netflix, and so do that. And I've done this over 30 years to where these people's words that are on the page start being imprinted on my mind, and then they end up coming out of my mouth as advice to you, or they end up coming out of my mouth as I run Ramsey. And I'm dealing with the issues and triumphs and challenges of 1100 people. Leaders are all readers. If you can't tell me a leadership book you've read in the last 12 months and something about it, you're not a leader. You're not going to be hired on Ramsey. We're interviewing you for a leadership role. You don't get the job. You're not reading, you're not leading, period. You've got to be growing. You've got to be feeding your mind. It activates things in your brain that you come to work wired and fired and ready to go. It refreshes the prefrontal cortex to throw ideas on it. It activates it. So. And Netflix doesn't do that. And for God's sakes, death scrolling through Instagram doesn't do that. Reading does that. And I read books like these. And then I've got a friend that's a pastor, and I've started doing what he does. He opens up the front blank cover and does an outline of the most important things he learned about the book. Does himself a small book report in the front cover. So then if he wants to pull the book off the shelf, he can look on that front cover and remember what it was. He forgot about what he learned. My comprehension level's high enough. I haven't had to do that, but. But it's a great practice, and it's a studious technique, so I like it. It's kind of nerdy. It's cool. So I can recommend it. Even though I've not thoroughly done it over all the years. I like to do that. I'll sit down and write on the inside cover of a book what I just learned. So not a bad practice. Leaders are readers, boys and girls. That's how this thing works. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Motivating your team to work and lead with the same passion you have is one of the toughest things in leadership. But it's crucial if you want to scale your business. Fortunately, Entree leadership summit is the leadership event that will equip you to build a team that fights shoulder to shoulder with you so you can grow like never before. Join US in Denver, Colorado, May 18th through the 21st by going to ramseysolutions.comsummit or click the link in the show notes. Thank you for joining us, America. If you want to help us out, we need your help here at Entree. Please consider clicking the follow button or the subscribe button. It changes the algorithms and helps us move this show along. You're our only marketing plan. Leave a nice five star review and click the share button or click the link and copy it and send the share link to somebody and say, hey, listen to this podcast. It changes everything because it does does this information is important. Connor is with us in Orlando. Hi, Connor. Welcome to the Entree Leadership Podcast.
