Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Escaping the Drift - The Weekly Drop: Books That Transform Lives and Build Wealth

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Unlock the secrets to personal and financial success in 2025 with our top book recommendations! This episode promises to arm you with insights from classics like "The Obstacle is the Way" by Ryan Holiday and "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, guiding you in mastering your emotions and forming habits that last. Strengthen your social skills with Dale Carnegie’s time-tested wisdom on building meaningful relationships. These influential reads aren't just books—they're your roadmap to a more successful and fulfilling life.   We also delve into the art of personal freedom and integrity with "The Four Agreements," teaching you to shed the weight of others' opinions and live authentically. On the financial front, "The Millionaire Next Door" offers timeless strategies for genuine wealth-building, steering you away from superficialities toward true financial stability. Join the conversation and become part of our community at escapingthedrift.com, where we're eager to hear your thoughts and stories. Share your journey with us and prepare for more insightful discussions in our upcoming episodes!   💬 Did you enjoy this weekly drop? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream the new Weekly Drop here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #weeklydrop #johngafford #personalsuccess #financialsuccess #bookrecommendations #theobstacleistheway #atomichabits #dalecarnegie #thefouragreements #wealthbuilding #personalgrowth #relationships #financialstability #stoicism #mindset #resilience #habits #systems #influence #integrity #freedom #financialdiscipline

From the podcast to get you from where you are to where you want to be escaping the drift. This is the weekly drop with John Gafford. No matter what platform you're watching or listening to us on, make sure you like, subscribe and comment. And now the drop back again, everybody, for another episode of the weekly drop. My solo pod from the podcast to get you from where you are right now to where you want to be, man escaping the drift. Glad to have you today, man. And as you know, it's the new year. It's, you know, the new year's in full swing and I always get the same questions around this time of year. You know, what should I do for success as people start business planning and start planning everything out, doing vision boards and all types of stuff. And uh, you know, inevitably it gets around to, Hey, what books should I read? I get asked

this question probably more than anything else honestly which is cool because it's a good question I like the question I love when people send it to me online and that's what should I read and this does change for me from time to time there's a lot of books that I go back to a lot and I'm always adding new stuff as I'm always trying to read and listen to audible and do what I can to kind of fill my head with stuff. Just so you know, my little system for doing it is, you know, I like to use the headway app is what I like to use. And I'll read like the little synopsis of a new book and I'll see if it really interests me. And if it does, then I go back and read the whole thing.

But this is kind of a way that I can get a little taster of everything out there But today on the program what I want to do is I want to just try to help you as best I can By giving you my top five books That I would read going into this year 2025 if I wanted to be have a more rounded successful life these are my top five books and Again, they do change from time to time But these are the ones that man a lot of these. I come back to, I've read a couple of these several times. I go back to them a lot.

And, uh, and I'm going to start out with my number one, number one on the list with a bullet dude. This is what I tell people to read this all the time. If you've listened to this program with any type of frequency, you've probably heard me say it, but my number one favorite book is the Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. It is a book where Ryan takes a modern look at classic Stoicism, where he looks at famous historical figures like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, all of the famous Stoics from ancient Greece, and takes their work and lays it out in a way where it makes sense to you. This is I will say the book that had the biggest profound influence on my life as far as like

reading something and having a moment where I'm like, Whoa, this is stuff that I need to implement now and really change the way that I look at things. Because I was the dude that meant I would go really high and really low. Like if you're one of those people like, when things are good, you're like, yeah! And when things are bad, you're like, I can't get out of bed. If that's you on an emotional roller coaster about the situations that life serves up,

this book is for you. Because essentially what you're trying to do by adopting a stoic look or the stoicism type philosophy is you're trying to avoid those mega highs and those mega lows. It really comes down to just being even keel and as problems arise and as they occur, like they always do, it presents you with an opportunity to say, how can I take this and turn it into a win? This is the way.

And it really, it makes you dive into challenges in a way that are different. Instead of maybe shucking away from the hard path or shucking away from things that don't make a lot of sense or seem scary it's like man success is on the other side of that so I cannot recommend that book enough that it will help you in like this podcast life money business life money success it'll help you in all of those things, all of those things. But you're never going to have any type of success if you got bad habits. My second book is Atomic Habits by James Clear. This is really, it's a manual for how to break the crappy habits

in the limiting beliefs that are holding you back and replace them with better habits that will lead to success. And really the theme of the book is learning how to implement small incremental improvements that will just compound over time. And if you do this, it leads to significant results rather than trying to make drastic changes right away. And if you do this, it leads to significant results rather than trying to make drastic changes right away. And if you're a person that wants to focus on building better habits, there's just nothing more I can say about that book. It just is amazing.

Now, if you got good habits and you understand that the obstacles the way, well, you're going to need some people around you to maybe level up and get to the next level. And that's where probably the Bible of relationships is my number three on the list, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If you've never read this, I read this book religiously once a year. It. I, it's almost like on a schedule for me to try to, to try to remind me how to interact with other people. And this book has been around for a really long time for a reason. And we're still talking about it because the concepts that,

that Carnegie teaches in that book, things like active listening, you know, telling you to, if you want people to be interested in you, you gotta be interested in them. And, you know, look telling you to if you want people to be interested in you, you got to be interested in them and you know, just walking you through how to make people feel valued. If you start implementing some of the stuff that happens, you're gonna see that the success in every aspect of your life will grow because all success really depends on how well you connect with other people because you're never going to get there by yourself. You need a tribe of people to go with you. So focusing on things like empathy and kindness and understanding how to deal with people and making yourself more likeable is clutch.

You know, I'm, one of the reasons I want to do this is because this book made it back to the top of my list today. Cause I, this is a true thing about me. I woke up this morning at 5 a.m. I woke up this morning and no, I'm not, I'm not an alarmer at 5 a.m. get up and run 20 miles. Yes, I did work out this morning, but that's not part of my routine.

The 5 a.m. was one of those rando clock goes off. Eyes wait. Eyes go super wide. Holy shit. Five o'clock in the morning. And I just immediately opened my eyes and I had this impending sense of dread that my public persona had become incredibly unlikable. I don't know why I had that feeling. Nothing happened. I had no interaction with anybody else that made me believe that this is true. There's no story behind it, but it just, it just, one of those things

where I opened my eyes at five o'clock in the morning with this unbelievable feeling of dread. And so I immediately, you know, me because the obstacles, the way I believe in that, I'm like, okay, let's dive into that feeling. And how do we do that? Let's not let, let's not burn that. Let's use it as fuel. And so I'm immediately like, I gotta go back and it's my time of the year to revisit how to influence and influence people to make sure that that,

that nonsensical five a.m. feeling of dread is not a real feeling. And who knows if I become complete, like, feel free to tell me in the comments. I don't know. Maybe I'll just, maybe I'll just stop if I'm completely unlikable. But my next book on the list, number four is a book that actually I'd never heard of until my friend Brad Lee said I should read it. And it was the four agreements. And since I read it, I've had all my kids listen to that Lee said I should read it and it was the four agreements and since I read it I've had all my kids listen to it. They didn't read it they listened to

it in the car. The best thing about having a house in California is the four hour drive when you're driving you can control what everybody listens to. When it's just me and one of my kids we are 100% listen to audiobooks. I am force feeding them good knowledge on the way back. But the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is based on an ancient, uh, what is it? Toltec wisdom. And essentially it's just good rules for living a good life. And there's really four promises that you make to yourself. The four agreements are for self promises that you make to yourself.

And essentially what they are, actually not essentially exactly what they are, is be impeccable with your word. It's don't lie. It's don't mislead people. It's don't say the wrong things when you know you're saying the wrong things. The next thing is don't take anything personally. Man, if you can agree with yourself, there's not take anything personally man. If you can agree with yourself does not take anything personally I think this is probably a huge shift for me in the last couple years as well when people you know When I maybe hear somebody says something unkind about me I don't even react anymore and the reason I don't react is because I realize that everybody is the star of their own movie and I'm just a bit player in their movie

I'm not even like a supporting actor. I'm a bit player. I'm like a background I'm like a what is it a a computer played player or whatever it is. That's all I am I'm a blip and if for whatever reason in their life to get to the next level I got to be the villain Okay, fine I'm fine with that if that's what they need to do to vilify me then that's on them, but I don't take anything personally anymore at all The next thing is don't make assumptions How many times I think about this man in your relationships and all those things how many times or how many things in your relationships? Have gone south because you assume somebody else was gonna do something

You assume something was gonna be a certain way. I mean, I find this, I bet more marriages fail because spouses assume the other one is going to do something for them and they don't. Like I found in my marriage, you know, one of the things that makes it so healthy and so good is my wife and I both, if we need something, we ask for it. We don't wait around. We don't assume the other person should just know that this is what we require to be happy we straight up ask for it so don't make assumptions and the last one is always do your best you know like my father said how you do anything is how you do everything so always try to do your best but I think

if you read this book I mean great that was a very short synopsis like I have to read it now I got the four agreements I I know what they are. No, give it a, give it a, give it a little spin, man. Give it, give it. It is a book that is worth investing with not just you, but I love this for your kids. I love this for listening or reading this with your kids is amazing. And the last one is the millionaire next door by Thomas J Stanley and William Danko. Um, unbelievable book. You know, this, I thought about this book and I added it back on the list cause I had Dave

Risky. I was a major league pitcher on the podcast last week. You can go back and listen to that episode. And we were talking about, you know, the dumb shit that like rookies do when they get paid and major league sports and why, you know, athletes are broke so quickly going into, you know, their contracts. And I think if more people read this book and understand it,

how to build real wealth and how wealthy people actually build wealth, you would be much better off in life. So don't wait until you have some success to know what to do with money. Don't wait till you get some money to, you know, to do with money. Don't wait till you get some money till you know what to do with money. If you, if you really want to hang on to it, understand what to do with it before. And I think that book on living amongst your means, prioritizing savings, you know, avoiding lifestyle, you know, craziness, uh, you know, try not to buy stuff to impress other people. All of that stuff, man. All of those things, how real millionaires live and not the Insta flash guys that are, you know, rolling around in rented cars and, you know, fake watches and whatever else.

I think that's going to be the difference maker. So listen to that. So I hope that helps you those five books again to summarize for mindset and resilience, I would go with obstacles away for habits and systems, atomic habits, for relationships and influence, how to win friends and influence people for personal integrity and freedom, the four agreements and for financial discipline. I will listen to the millionaire next door. See you next week. What's up everybody.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us.

But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.