Five Books to Read in Your 20's - Book 1

This series on Five Books to Read in Your 20's is written in five parts, with each article covering a different book. As I began writing, I quickly realized that including all five books in one post would eliminate my goal of keeping my posts short and sweet. I will frequently use excerpts and quotes from each book to convey ideas and share my interpretations and stories on what I learned or how I translated the book to my life. These ideas are not my own and, again, simply my interpretations.

It's hard to limit this list to just five books. In actuality, while the books on this list are incredibly powerful and influential in building my life trajectory, I think more important is the willingness to learn and dedicate yourself to improvement. To me, by reading these books, you are establishing yourself as someone interested in growing and creating the best life possible. Countless other books could be read that teach similar lessons, but more important than the book is the reader. To be fully transparent, I never really liked reading. Throughout most of my life, it felt like a chore. Almost all the books I was forced to read I wasn't interested in. It wasn't till I started to read books of my choosing that I fell in love with reading. It felt like an opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds and glimpse into their thoughts. I realized quickly that if I could peer into the minds of some of the greatest thinkers and most successful people in business, I could maybe develop some of them in me. I knew I didn't have to reinvent the wheel but learn from those who had done it before me.

My favorite question to ask someone I admire is, "What is your favorite non-fiction book?" As I began my career working for a Fortune 500 Company in an Executive Development Program, I was privileged with the opportunity to be exposed to incredibly high-level leaders and C-Suite Executives. I pounced on this opportunity to learn everything I could from these astonishingly successful individuals. I thought to myself, "How did they get there, and how can I do the same?" It was a journey of exploration. What skills, mindsets, and knowledge did they possess to reach the top of their field? I pondered the best way to gain their insights. Of course, I could ask them the question directly, but this only scratched the surface. The answers were valid but lacked the depth I was looking for to understand who these people truly were. Responses included the essential but commonly expressed, "hard work, self-discipline, delayed gratification, an ability to work with others, analytical skills, vision, etc." Yes, you need all these things, but I wanted to unpack these answers. This is where books came in. By asking someone, you aspire to be like, what their favorite book is, you gain tremendous insight into the principles that guide who they are. An important note is that to achieve the full value of asking this question, you must follow through with reading the book. Then, reach out to the person who shared it with you to discuss a few key concepts. Not only are you gaining insight into the book, but you will leave a lasting impression in that person's mind, and they will forever be in your corner.

Each of these books on its own is deserving of lengthy articles which are commonplace, and I encourage you to read. However, in the spirit of this being a short summary interpretation and not a dissertation, I will do my best to identify a few key points from each book that outlined the teachings and stood out most to me. When condensing an entire book, a ton of information will not be covered. To feel the full impact as with anything, you must experience it yourself. With all this said, let's dive into the list.

A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

While this list is not in order of impact, I think this book offers insight beyond anything I have ever read. This book shares the story of prisoners in concentration camps in Nazi Germany, Viktor Frankl being one of them. Frankl was a successful phycologist, and the book offers a surprisingly simplistic yet insightful perspective into discovering one's meaning in life. At its core, this text discusses the purpose of our lives and how we discover it. However, one line sticks out more than any other and is one of the most important, if not the most important, fact of life to understand.

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts, comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

The last line to me encompasses a fact that must be understood if we are to live our lives to their most significant potential and achieve genuine happiness. It is two-fold. Until we decide that it is not what happens to us but how we respond to what happens, will we ever be in control our of lives. Secondly, as long as we place limiting believes on ourselves, we will never fully achieve what we are capable of. There is validity in the difficulty people face to achieve whatever they desire, but ultimately it is our choice. Now, I think this is important to note. I grew up in the United States in a middle-class family. These two facts alone abundantly reinforce my belief that anything is possible. My opportunities relative to others were and are massively abundant. It is easy for me to say, anything is possible and genuinely mean it. Had I been born in a different country in a different socio-economic class, would I still feel the same way? I'm not sure, and it would be foolish for me to pretend that I would. However, as Frankl's story shows, there is nothing more important than belief. In the direst of situations, Frankl has proven that no matter the circumstance, you must believe.

"The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life."

A second key point that Frankl discusses that ties into the core of this book is the pursuit of one's purpose. Frankl shares the key differentiating factor between those who survived and those who didn't was a will to live. Without a will to live, life decayed rapidly.

Frankl refers several times to the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow."

Purpose is at the core of our lives. Without purpose, how do we know what to do? Let's look at the most basic interpretation of this. As a gazelle living in the Savannas of Africa, life's purpose is relatively simple. Eat, avoid predators, and reproduce. Survival. What's so crucial about purpose is it guides our every decision. And what defines a life better than decisions? Let's dive into this example further. Without the gazelle's purpose to survive instead of running from a lion, it may choose to walk. Now, this is a simplistic way of looking at purpose, and at the core of all living beings, survival is our most important purpose.

Humans, however, think with much more complexity and rightfully so. As we've evolved, we don't have to worry about predators, and for most, food is abundant. This moves us higher on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Purpose also ties into the concept of starting with the end in mind. For example, I need directions to drive from Tampa, Florida, to Syracuse, New York. Without the end destination (purpose), I wouldn't know whether to take a left or right out of my driveway. Purpose provides our compass, and without it, we wander aimlessly, not living at all.