Read these 3 books (in this order) to get rich in 2026
As far as mid-life crises go, mine was something of a doozy.
At 40, I was a deeply depressed loser with no hope for the future.
I got at least a little drunk every single day to bury my discontent over my wasted potential and failure to do the work required to reach my dream of becoming an independent entrepreneur.
I had good things going for me — my family chief among them — but I hated what I’d become at midlife, and I dreaded the idea of grinding away at a job I hated until I probably died young.
Throw in the fact we were in the throes of a global pandemic, with the associated, deeply depressing lockdowns, and it was an especially dark time for me.
I hated myself, plain and simple.
Fast forward 4 years, and things couldn’t be more different:
I quit drinking and redoubled my efforts at the gym, getting in the best shape of my life
I requested and won a job change to something that didn’t crush my spirit every day
I reached my entrepreneurial goal and built a content side business that earned me $6,000 last month alone — and I’m just getting warmed up
Now, the future couldn’t look any brighter.
So, how did I get here?
Lots of focus and hard work, of course … but it all started with some priceless guidance.
Finding myself amid pandemic chaos
One of the benefits of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it provided a lot of time for personal growth and reflection.
In an effort to drag myself out of my deep rut once and for all, I downloaded and listened to a lot of audiobooks on those endless walks we all took during the lockdowns.
As I wandered down the trails near my home for hours, a structure, a foundation for success, started to emerge.
While I took bits and pieces from a lot of different works, I believe the mindset overhaul that led to my current success on all fronts stemmed from three books in particular.
And I believe there’s an optimal order you should read them in.
Let’s discuss those now.
The first book you should read to get rich in 2026
Atomic Habits is an outstanding book that helped make author James Clear a famous millionaire.
But few know there was an earlier book that covered a lot of the same ground in less time … and in a lighter, more compelling way.
The title I’m referring to is perhaps my favorite self-improvement book ever: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.
(Please note: The above link, and all forthcoming links to book titles in this article, are affiliate links. If you buy something through them, I may receive a small commission.
I tend not to use these very often as I feel it devalues my writing, but in this case I’m happy to endorse three books that completely changed my life and I believe can change yours too. OK, back to the article.)
The Compound Effect can feel a bit dated now, given some of the people used as examples of success — Lance Armstrong and Donald Trump chief among them — turned out to be somewhat problematic (to say the least).
But the underlying success philosophies are both priceless and timeless.
Very early on in my writing journey here, I published an article about The Compound Effect titled “This hidden gem is the only self-help book you actually need”.
Of the three books I’m featuring today, I still believe The Compound Effect is the most important.
Reason being, it surgically removes the unrealistic yet widely believed fantasy that notable success can happen quickly or easily.
And in doing so, it frees you up to get to work and start picking up the little wins every day that compound (note the book title) into massive victories.
In that earlier piece, I wrote:
“The self-help industry is saturated with ideas that I think really over-complicate the chase for success.
“No, ‘The Secret’ isn’t to wish for cheques to show up in the mail and then just sit on your butt every day (the author wrote his book in the aftermath of Rhonda Byrne’s wishful tome).
“Getting up at 5 a.m. every day and taking cold showers won’t make you a millionaire.
“You’re actually going to have to work.
“The book I’m referring to, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, cuts through all the crap and gets down to the real ‘secret’ to massive success: small actions taken daily over a long period of time.
“As he aptly puts it: success is not doing 5,000 things. It’s doing half a dozen things really well, 5,000 times.”
As I also explained in that piece, my favorite chapter is about the power of momentum, or as Hardy refers to it, “Big Mo”:
“(Hardy) asks the reader to think about when you used to ride a merry-go-round as a kid.
“Getting moving from inertia takes a lot of effort, but once you get going, momentum takes over and it takes much less pushing to get the same result.
“Another example is when you’re using a hand pump to get water. You may need to pump a lot at the start to just get a few trickles of water, but once the vacuum gets going, you get a flood with very little effort.
“The only catch is that, if you stop pumping completely for a long period of time, it will once again take a ton of effort at the start to get going again.
“I think of it like my regular routine of going to the gym.
“If I make a habit of it, it becomes easy to get there and workouts are enjoyable instead of painful.
“Stop going for three months, however, and it’ll be a lot more challenging to show up and generate the energy to have a good workout.”
The Compound Effect is full of compelling examples like this, packaged into a light, easy read that will leave you with a new perspective and a drive to start changing your life for the better starting today.
The second book you should read to get rich in 2026
The Compound Effect completely changed my perspective on how to achieve long-term success.
MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane changed my very definition of success.
DeMarco’s information and narrative approach will leave you both fuming at your previous lack of knowledge and ambition, and it’ll inspire you to get off the sidewalk of life and into … you guessed it … the fast lane.
DeMarco uses the metaphor of financial roadmaps to reveal the three paths available to everyone in life:
The Sidewalk
The Slowlane
The Fastlane
The Sidewalk, according to DeMarco, is for people who are content to live cheque to cheque, take on ever-escalating levels of debt, and chase low-value instant gratification.
The Slowlane is even more insidious, because it’s a gilded cage.
Slowlaners, DeMarco explains, have bought into the societal lies that the best way to a good life is the slow, steady, risk-free approach:
Go to college
Get a boring entry-level job
Slowly work your way up the corporate ladder while trading your priceless, finite time for a paycheque that’s just big enough to keep you coming back
Invest in the stock market
Retire when you’re too old to really enjoy it
Die
He makes the argument that this approach is overrated and fraught with peril most people don’t even think about.
Taking the slow lane to retirement actually involves plenty of risk, including stock market investments not working out, job losses, poor health, and any number of other sneaky traps or major catastrophes.
All you really have is today.
DeMarco advocates for the Fastlane to wealth, and there’s only one way to get there: entrepreneurship.
He walks the reader through his own journey from limo chauffeur to millionaire startup founder, his mind-shifting arguments against all the financial advice you’ve been force-fed your whole life by your well-meaning family and media “experts”, and leaves you clear-eyed about the only road worth taking.
If you don’t eventually separate your time from money, you’ll never truly be free.
This book will completely change the way you think about the rest of your life.
The third book you should read to get rich in 2026
OK, congratulations!
The Compound Effect has taught you about the foundation of success.
The Millionaire Fastlane has given you the roadmap to get there.
Now it’s time to get to work.
And who better to motivate you than an ultramarathoner and former Navy SEAL who overcame childhood abuse at the hands of his father and early adulthood self-abuse in the form of laziness, overeating, and lack of purpose to become the baddest m************r on planet Earth?
Yes, I am talking about my favorite motivational guru of all, Mr. David Goggins.
Goggins’ priceless book, Can’t Hurt Me, not only inspires you with his wild backstory, but it’s also chock-full of practical tips on how to become a peak performer at anything you want to excel at.
Just for example, I’ve written articles about:
Any time I’m starting to act like a baby, any time I need a kick in the pants, I listen to the audiobook version of Can’t Hurt Me to get back on track.
Inevitably, I’m ready to run through a wall long before I’m even finished.
BONUS: The fourth book you should grab to get rich in 2026
Since I’m plugging three others peoples’ books in this article, I may as well point you to mine as well.
OK, it’s not so much a book as an innovative task planner.
I think we all have good intentions when it comes to grinding every day in service of our dreams, but if you’re anything like me, you can sometimes get overwhelmed by the scale of it all and go catatonic instead.
Recently I wrote a piece about a system I’d devised to keep my ADHD mind on track.
Here’s what I said in “How I finally beat procrastination with 1 simple sheet of paper”:
“Living with my ADHD brain is like being the rope in a tug-of-war.
“Pulling from one end: the urge to do everything.
“Pulling from the other end: the urge to do nothing.
“The end result?
“I wind up doing something stupid or useless until the burden of my ever-growing to-do list becomes too heavy to bear.
“My solution in the past was to calm my brain with alcohol, which turned me into a physical and mental dumpster fire.
“But eventually I came to the realization that in order to accomplish anything notable in the second half of my life, I will always have to lean heavily on systems.”
As the title of that article implied, you can use the same productivity system I do every day using a simple sheet of paper.
But in order to save time for myself and others, I packaged it into a planner called The Power To-Do List.
It combines simple systems like goal setting, to-do lists, and the Pomodoro technique to create a surprisingly simple but powerful tool.
If you’ve read the books in this article but still find yourself struggling to focus on the right things and avoid the wrong ones, I’d strongly urge you to give it a try.
Like the other books listed here, it has completely changed my life for the better.
Folks, thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
Please let me know in the comments:
What self-improvement books have had the biggest impact on your life?
If you could only recommend 1 book, what would it be?
I’m excited to check out the titles you suggest!