The Book Shelf
Our personal reading list, built over years of studying business, money, behaviour and leadership. No filler, no textbooks, no books that just look impressive on a shelf. If it's on this page, we've read it, and if we recommend a book to a client, it's on this page. Start anywhere.
Business & Money
$100M Offers by Alex Hormozi
A masterclass in making your product or service so valuable that price stops being the sticking point. Covers perceived value, guarantees and scarcity.
$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi
Demand generation, covering warm outreach, cold outreach, content and paid ads. Tactical playbooks rather than theory.
The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life by Steven Bartlett
Thirty-three laws on the permanent fundamentals — discipline, storytelling, humility — over trendy strategy. A punchy modern read for owner-operators.
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Human behaviour, not spreadsheets, drives financial outcomes. Patience and temperament beat cleverness. Essential for anyone who manages money or owns a business.
The Intelligent Investor (Rev. Ed.) by Benjamin Graham
The foundational value investing text, still cited by Warren Buffett. Central lesson: the difference between investing and speculation, and margin of safety.
Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed
A leadership memoir about building a company through mistakes rather than despite them. Great on culture, feedback and servant leadership.
The Lords of Easy Money by Christopher Leonard
How the US Federal Reserve's cheap money era reshaped the economy and inflated asset bubbles. Monetary policy explained in plain English.
Purpose & Leadership
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Great leaders inspire by communicating purpose before product. Built around the famous Golden Circle framework. First read in the Sinek set.
Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
The best managers create safety for their people before demanding results. Explains the biological drivers behind trust and teamwork.
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Finite versus infinite games, and why businesses playing finite lose. Argues for a just cause over short-termism. Fits CFO thinking about long-term value.
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek, David Mead & Peter Docker
The practical workbook follow-up to Start with Why, with exercises to articulate your purpose. More manual than manifesto.
Negotiation & Sales
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz
Hostage negotiation tactics applied to everyday business deals. Tactical empathy, calibrated questions, and why "no" can be more powerful than "yes".
Behavioural Economics & Psychology
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
The book that made behavioural economics mainstream. Ingenious experiments on pricing, ownership and dishonesty. Foundation for everything else in this section.
The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely
How irrational behaviour sometimes produces surprisingly useful outcomes. Motivation, revenge, adaptation and the psychology of work.
The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely
Why almost everyone cheats a little, and what environments increase or reduce it. Very relevant to controls and culture in small business.
Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely & Jeff Kreisler
Ariely's most money-focused work: the mental shortcuts that make us bad with cash, pricing, discounts and free offers. Companion piece to The Psychology of Money.
Small Change: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them Dan Ariely & Jeff Kreisler
Why we overspend, undervalue the future and get tripped up by mental accounting. The most practical Ariely title for household and small business budgeting.
Payoff by Dan Ariely
A short book on what actually motivates people at work — and it isn't money. Meaning, recognition and ownership outperform cash bonuses.
Irrationally Yours by Dan Ariely
A short book on what actually motivates people at work — and it isn't money. Meaning, recognition and ownership outperform cash bonuses.
Hacking Human Nature for Good by Dan Ariely
Designing systems that work with human quirks rather than against them. Relevant to nudges, defaults and good process design in business.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Nobel laureate's magnum opus on fast intuition versus slow reason. Explains virtually every cognitive bias in finance and negotiation. The most important book on this list.
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil
How opaque algorithms decide credit, insurance and employment, often unfairly. Increasingly relevant as small businesses get scored by automated systems.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Why habits form and how the cue-routine-reward loop can be rewired. The more accessible cousin of Atomic Habits.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The modern classic on behaviour change through tiny, compounding improvements. Simple to implement for building consistency.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
How small changes trigger massive social epidemics in trends, behaviour and markets. Connectors, mavens and salesmen.
Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins
Brutal self-discipline and the "accountability mirror" — honest self-assessment with no excuses. Pure fuel for resilience, popular with owner-operators.
Becoming Bulletproof by Evy Poumpouras
A former Secret Service agent on confidence, reading people and performing under pressure. Surprisingly applicable to difficult client and bank conversations.
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
Self-help philosophy built on personal responsibility, order and meaning. Note: polarising author, keeping this on the page is a values statement.