My life goal is to read every book that’s ever been written so I can save you the time on skipping the bad ones and only reading the best of the best. Please, just send me away to a desert island with a backpack full of books and a bottle of nice Bordeaux and I’ll be so happy. 

While I manifest that pipe dream over here, you can get to reading. Here is a short list of the most impactful books I’ve found on business, branding, copywriting, advertising, customer care and a life well-lived. Each one has changed my worldview and my business– I hope they will for you too!

David Ogilvy: Ogilvy on Advertising

Claude C. Hopkins: Scientific Advertising

Will Guidara: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

James Clear: Atomic Habits

Stephen Covey: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Phil Knight: Shoe Dog

Morgan Housel: The Psychology of Money

Steve Harrison: Changing the World Is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man

Donald Miller: Building a Story Brand 

McKeown, Greg: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less 

Atul Gawande: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right 

Dale Carnegie: How To Win Friends and Influence People

Cal Newport: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Robert B. Cialdini: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Danny Meyer: Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business 

Seth Godin: This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See

Steven Pressfield: The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle

Ramit Sethi: I Will Teach You to be Rich

Jay Abraham: Getting Everything You Can out of All You’ve Got

Seneca: On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to Use It