Alex Hormozi, founder of Acquisition.com with a $200M+ portfolio, isn’t shy about attributing his success to reading. In a viral YouTube Short, he reveals the 13 books that shaped his thinking as an entrepreneur. Here’s the complete guide to his essential reading list — and why each one matters.
The Persuasion Trilogy: Master How People Think
Alex leads with three books by Robert Cialdini. This isn’t random. Understanding persuasion is foundational to everything else in business.
1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini
The OG. This book decodes the six universal principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. If you only read one business book, this should be it.
Why it matters: You can’t sell without understanding why people say yes. Cialdini reveals the mechanics.
2. Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade — Robert Cialdini
Pre-suasion answers a question most miss: how do you get someone receptive to your message before you even make your pitch?
Why it matters: The setup matters more than the ask. Master the frame, and the close becomes inevitable.
3. Getting to Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive — Robert Cialdini
The practical playbook. 50 tactics you can deploy immediately in negotiations, sales, and leadership.
Why it matters: Influence isn’t manipulation — it’s strategy. This book gives you the plays.
The Sales & Revenue Playbooks
These three books are the modern sales bible. They transform how you think about scaling revenue.
4. Expert Secrets — Russell Brunson
Brunson taught the world how to build influence through storytelling and funnels. This book is the masterclass on positioning yourself as the authority in your space.
Why it matters: In a crowded market, authority is currency. Learn to build it.
5. One to Many — Jason Fladlien
Takes your one-on-one sales skills and shows you how to scale them to hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously.
Why it matters: The gap between $1M and $10M revenue is learning to sell to groups, not individuals.
6. The Sales Acceleration Formula — Mark Roberge
Data-driven sales. Roberge breaks down how HubSpot scaled to $100M+ by treating sales like a science, not an art.
Why it matters: Gut feel doesn’t scale. Systems do.
7. Predictable Revenue — Aaron Ross
The play-by-play guide to building a predictable sales machine. This book invented the modern outbound playbook.
Why it matters: When revenue becomes predictable, everything else becomes possible.
The Timeless Classics
These older books have stood the test of time because they’re about human nature, not trends.
8. How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie
Written in 1936 and still one of the best books on relationships ever written. Simple: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Why it matters: Business is built on relationships. This book teaches you how.
9. Wooden on Leadership — John Wooden
Lessons from the winningest college basketball coach in history. Wooden’s philosophy: focus on fundamentals, culture, and continuous improvement.
Why it matters: Great leaders don’t obsess over winning — they obsess over the process. Winning follows.
Modern Frameworks for Modern Problems
10. $100M Offers — Alex Hormozi
Alex’s own contribution to the list: how to package your product or service so compellingly that customers can’t refuse. It’s about creating asymmetric value.
Why it matters: Most businesses fail because they can’t articulate why they’re worth buying. This fixes that.
11. Ready, Fire, Aim — Michael Masterson
The fastest way to grow isn’t planning — it’s iteration. Test fast, measure, adjust. Repeat.
Why it matters: Perfection is the enemy of progress. Learn to ship imperfectly and win.
12. The Bezos Letters — Steve Anderson
A deep dive into the shareholder letters of Jeff Bezos. The thinking that built one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Why it matters: Bezos’s long-term thinking and customer obsession offer a masterclass in building enduring enterprises.
The Culture & Motive
13. The Motive — Patrick Lencioni
What gets your team to give maximum effort? Lencioni explores two types of leadership motivation: power and purpose.
Why it matters: You can’t scale beyond yourself without great people. This book teaches you how to lead them.
The Pattern
Notice what’s missing? No get-rich-quick schemes. No crypto manifestos. No “12 minutes to success” hacks.
Alex’s list is dominated by:
- Psychology & persuasion (books 1–3) — understanding how people make decisions
- Sales & revenue (books 4–7) — turning understanding into systems
- Timeless principles (books 8–9) — what separates good from great
- Execution & motive (books 10–13) — how to actually ship and lead
This is the reading list of someone who built a $200M+ portfolio by mastering the fundamentals: understanding people, selling effectively, executing relentlessly, and leading with clarity.
How to Use This List
You don’t need to read all 13 tomorrow, but here’s a sensible order:
- Start here: Influence → How to Win Friends and Influence People — the foundation of human psychology.
- Then: Pre-suasion → Getting to Yes — apply that understanding strategically.
- Then: Expert Secrets → One to Many → The Sales Acceleration Formula — learn to sell and scale.
- Then: Wooden on Leadership → The Motive — build a team and culture.
- Finally: Ready, Fire, Aim → The Bezos Letters → $100M Offers → Predictable Revenue — execute, iterate, and systematize.
One book a month is 13 months to a working mental model of business fundamentals.
The Real Insight
What’s remarkable about this list isn’t what’s on it — it’s what’s not on it. No cryptocurrency, no hacks, no shortcuts. Instead, Alex recommends books about systems, psychology, and people — the three things that actually scale businesses.
Read these 13 books, and you won’t just understand business — you’ll understand people. And business, at its core, is just the exchange of value between people.
Start with Influence. You’ll see why by the end of chapter one.