16 Books That Will Make You Rich in 2025

Key Points:

• Reading non-fiction can lead to personal wealth and success.
• Historical figures like Alexander the Great provide inspiration.
• Understanding psychology and emotional intelligence is key.
• Books on systems and strategies can enhance business acumen.
• Wisdom from great minds can help refine decision-making.

I've been reading non-fiction books for nearly 10 years and in that time I've read north of 400, and in this video I'm going to give you 16 books that I guarantee you'll have never read that will make you rich. These ones made me rich, and the information in these books I applied to become a multimillionaire by 26. So without further ado, let's get into it.

The first one, and it's a bit of a heavy hitter, is The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian or Alexander the Great by Anthony Everitt. You need to read Alexander the Great if you're a young man and you want to be successful because Alexander the Great was one of, if not the most successful 20-year-old in the history of the world. He conquered the Persian Empire; he conquered the known world and took 30 or 40,000 Macedonian troops and just basically obliterated an empire and took it over.

Now, if you don't know the story of Alexander, then you're missing out on a ridiculous amount of inspiration and knowledge that you could use to succeed. If you're historically inclined and you have some context and you're good at reading history, I would recommend you read The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian because this is more of a historical account of the battles and how this worked. However, if you're not historically inclined and you're not too good at reading history, I would start with this book which is Alexander the Great by Anthony Everitt. It's a lot more straightforward; it reads a lot more like a story than, you know, some like an account of battles. If I'm ever feeling a lack of inspiration or motivation, I just pick this thing up, and within like 50 pages, I'm back to work and ready to go.

Now, the next book is The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. This one is huge! If you don't understand the theory of evolution and the theory of natural selection, you're missing out on a lot of business success and a lot of success in general. What you need to understand is that when it comes to trying to become successful, you're in competition against other people. If you know how nature works and how nature conspires to basically level up certain organisms and certain species, you can apply and reverse engineer that thinking into your business.

This book here, The Origin of Species, in studying evolution has significantly helped me grow my businesses and become successful because I understand nature and I understand the way the world works, which is basically nature. Darwin made a wonderful, wonderful account of this in The Origin of Species and by reading this book, you'll just understand better how the world works. You need to realize that capitalism and business is an extension of biology. So when we look at biology, we have things like competition, evolution, etc. If you know how they work, you know how business works, so I'd recommend you read that. It's a bit of a hard read once again, but it's worth it.

The next one is Socrates by Paul Johnson. This is not a very long book and the writing isn't that big, so you can read this pretty damn quickly. This is basically a short account of the life of Socrates, the man who basically invented philosophy as we know it. If you don't know the story of Socrates, you're just missing out on a huge chunk of inspiration and knowledge that you can draw on to apply to your own life and become successful.

After Socrates died, we had this massive renaissance of philosophy where dozens of different philosophical schools and methods of thought came to life, all stemming from the teachings of Socrates. You don't have to be a philosopher or read philosophy, but you kind of need to understand it on a level that when you're doing business or trying to become successful, it helps to have a rule book of behavior to pull on, and Socrates kind of wrote that. I'd recommend that you read that; it's really helpful.

Next up is The Prince by Machiavelli. This is once again a very short book and can probably be read in one or two sittings depending on your attention span. This is an incredibly dark read because it talks about how to manipulate people. Machiavelli wrote this as a guide for a friend or colleague on how to run a kingdom or principality.

What it does is show you the true nature of human beings and how to manipulate people. By learning that, you protect yourself from people who want to manipulate you because you understand the strategies. While I'm not encouraging you to manipulate people, it can be quite helpful to understand how to do it or how people can do it to you. He talks about how to flatter someone properly so they like you; pretty dark but that’s the thing about success and business. We're not looking for happy-go-lucky positivity books; we want ones that hit hard and tell the truth.

Next is Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher who wrote letters to friends, and some absolute legend of an archaeologist or historian found his letters. Seneca, notoriously stoic, was one of the leading minds of stoicism during the Roman age, which was the age to be a stoic. Here you can actually read personal letters; it’s like imagining being able to read David Goggins' WhatsApp messages.

This is a really cool book, and I’d recommend you read it. The philosophy thing—everyone thinks that reading philosophy is a waste of time and won't make you money—but ultimately, in terms of achievement and success, the only thing you really have is your philosophy.

The next one is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. This one is a remarkable read because as you build a business or try to become successful, you'll have to deal with people. Everyone these days focuses on IQ and intelligence, but emotional intelligence, or EQ, often goes under the radar. I would rather have a really high EQ than a really high IQ because building things is about dealing with people. This book gives you a good look into how to become more emotionally intelligent and how to manage and hire people.

Now, this is a really interesting book called The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián, who was a Spanish monk. You've probably never heard of this book before, but you've probably heard of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. I read the 48 Laws of Power and found out that the majority of its ideas were cited from Gracián.

What I like to do when I find a book or an author that I think is really good is to study them. The Art of Worldly Wisdom is a dark read; it's not about the power of positivity. It reveals the true nature of humanity, and I’d recommend that you study it because that’s where Robert Greene got a lot of his ideas from.

The next book you may have heard of, or you probably haven't, is The Hypomanic Edge by John D. Gartner. This book is about a genetic condition called hypomania, a common trait among incredibly successful people. When I read biographies of leaders like Napoleon, Caesar, and Alexander the Great, they are consistently described as energetic individuals who cannot stop working.

What you want to learn is how to become that kind of person because it's impossible to get rich if your energy is low. Reading The Hypomanic Edge gives you insight into where this energy comes from and how successful people sustain their energy. It's really inspiring.

Next, there's Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows. I read this when I was 18 or 19, and it might seem like a boring read, but it explains how systems work. If you want to build a company and get rich, you need to systematize your business. You need predictable, repeatable processes that take inputs and produce outputs. This is basically the book that defines that field, and it’s really awesome.

Now, we have another dark book: Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. I read this when I was around 18 and it rocked my world a little bit. A very deep book, and I’d recommend you read it multiple times because if you understand psychology and the human mind, you can reverse engineer this knowledge to make money.

The next one is a lesser-known book by Robert Greene called The 33 Strategies of War. This book goes into a series of historical accounts of different wars and how leaders and generals manipulated situations to win or lose them. You can learn from their defeats, and it teaches you leadership and strategic thinking.

Next is a very small book, Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker. This is a quick article on how to manage yourself and hold yourself accountable. It's a really good book for people who struggle with discipline.

Finally, we have The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung. This book is a gateway to understanding the unconscious. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life, and you will call it fate. Understanding how to integrate your unconscious into your consciousness can help you navigate through life.

A recommended approach is to pick one 1800s American magnate or tycoon to study. It could be Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller. Pick one of those guys and study them relentlessly. They understood modern business strategy, and their lives are documented in detail.

Lastly, an honorable mention is Discourses by Epictetus. It’s a guidebook for life, teaching resilience, emotional control, and how to be strong. This book, while tough to read, is life-changing.

When you’re reading, remember you’re either reading for knowledge or reading for wisdom. Knowledge solves immediate problems, while wisdom helps refine decision-making. If you have wisdom gathered from multiple disciplines and accounts of different people’s experiences, making decisions becomes simple and straightforward.

The takeaway is that the 80% of the books I've mentioned are about great people. If you study them, you can learn how they became great and reverse engineer their success. Those are the 16 books I'd recommend if someone were starting out and wanted to be rich but hasn’t read them before. Have a good day!