Our late friend, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, used to say “You will  be the same person five years from now except for the books you read and the people you befriend.” Charlie turned his successful insurance career into a lifelong promotion of motivational books. He always suggested you begin with the classics:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill launched the motivational book phenomenon when Andrew Carnegie assisted this young writer in meeting the heads of industry and government to reduce their success tips to a formula for our youth to follow. His most famous quote? “What the Mind of Man can Conceive and believe, It can achieve.”

The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz, marketing professor for years at Georgia State, has sold over 4 million copies since 1959 because it’s so readable. Schwartz spoke to our leaders a number of times before joining our team and going to the top percent in his first year. Pictured here is Dr. Schwartz being honored as a Platinum. Unfortunately, he died only months later. He mentioned the Deatons in his last book “the Magic of Getting what You Want. ” One quote from Schwartz- “You will either be the Master of your Thoughts, or you will be their slave.”

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is so important that it needs to be read regularly and it is so loaded with stories that it’s an easy book to get started on.