7 Outstanding Lessons I Learnt  from Reading Over 700 Books on Success, Business and Money

by Toyin Omotoso | July 2, 2025 | 7 mins

LESSON 1: Your problem is, you think you have time

In 2015, I came across a Buddha quote that really got me to sit up.

The quote says:

"The trouble is, you think you have time"

And that is true.

Many people keep playing around as if they have 900 years to live.

The truth is, you and I don't know what can happen in the next few hours from now.

Yet, we keep wasting out time on various frivolous issues.

The only way to control what happens to you has to do with what you do today.

Have you wanted to call your parents but you have been putting it off? Do it now.

How about that new skill you have always wanted to learn? You say there is no time but you spend hours on Netflix and Instagram.

In the words of, Mike Okri - "Time na money o, time na money. Use your time well, no waka waka"

LESSON 2: Everything Starts with YOU and Your Mindset

This is a lesson about how our thoughts influence our lives.

In Proverbs 23:6, the holy Bible says: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"

As someone who grew up in a middle class Nigerian family, I realized earlier that I wasn't going to go far with the mindset I had.

This is the exact reason why I started reading books and consuming information that could influence my mindset.

I discuss this better in my book titled "How to turn yourself into a live breathing cash machine,"

There are 2 types of mindset (or way of thinking):

There is the prosperity or abundance mindset.

And there is the poverty or scarcity mindset.

Unfortunately, what majority of people operate with is the SCARCITY MINDSET.

The bad news is that the scarcity mindset will never allow you to succeed until you dump it and begin to develop a prosperity mindset.

In fact, this is the first thing you have to do once you decide to change your life.

Developing a prosperity mindset is about replacing all the mediocre and negative thoughts in your mind with prosperity based thoughts.

And you can do this by reading quality books, changing your environment so that you can get closer to people with similar mindsets.

This will take some time but once you are able to develop a prosperity mindset, you will begin to attract a lot of favour and good opportunities into your life.

LESSON 3: Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear

In my book titled "How to turn yourself into a live breathing cash machine," I talked about the 3 demons that keep people from succeeding in life.

They are - Laziness, Procrastination and Fear.

Out of these 3, Fear is the most stubborn.

The main reason why so many people won‟t take the next step in their lives is because they are afraid of the unknown or they are afraid of what people will say.

There are different shades of fear but one that is very common and keeps people back is the "What If"

I have heard this more than a thousand times from people.

You tell them to start a business and they will respond with...

"What if the business does not work?"

You tell them to write a book.

And they will say "What if people pirate the book?"

In all these cases, people just find a way to stop themselves from taking actions that will improve their lives all because of fear.

But the best way I can define fear is by using Zig Ziglar's definition which says - Fear is simple "False Evidence Appearing Real"

Once you acknowledge this truth and begin to take action regardless, you will see how your life will begin to change.

But if you don't what will happen is that FEAR will have a stronger hold on your life.

In the words of Glenn Ford - "If you do not do the thing you fear, the fear controls your life."

LESSON 4: All Money is made by selling something to somebody else

One of the days I will never forget is the day I had this understanding.

It was exposed to me the first time by Late Gary Halbert in one of his newsletters where he said “All money is made by somebody selling something to somebody else”

Once you understand this, you will know how to always make money.

Think about it.

Everybody who makes money sells something.

A models sells her beauty.

A surgeon sells his expertise (and experience)

Dangote sells cement, spaghetti, salt etc

Even Nigeria sells crude oil and other exports to make money.

But what are you selling?

For most people who are broke and struggling financially, it is usually because they are selling nothing or selling something of low value.

The exchange of value is how money is been made.

Sell something of big value = Make big money.

Sell something of low value = Make small money

It is that simple.

LESSON 5: Sell What People Want

So, if the way to  make money is by selling something, the question is:

What do you sell?

This is the part that majority of people get wrong.

There are thousands of products or services anyone can sell but do not make the MAJOR mistake that most naïve people make which is:

Selling something nobody wants to buy.

This is another great lesson I learnt from Gary Halbert and since I learnt it, I have never launched a failed business.

Personally, I believe the number one reason majority of small businesses a fail is because they don't sell what people want to buy.

Once you train yourself to identify the type of things that people want to buy, you will never be broke again in your life.

LESSON 6: The Ability to communicate effectively to another human being is the base skill of personal success

The ability to communicate your ideas effectively to another person is one skill that majority of people lack.

And if you don't have this skill, you are going to struggle to sell ideas, products and services both in business and life.

For me, I was able to develop this skill by studying copywriting.

Copywriting is the skill of using words to persuade people to take action. In most cases, it is to get people to buy a product.

We communicate with people using words.

That is why if you learn copywriting, the way you communicate with people is going to change. And this is going to improve your business and relationships.

LESSON 7: Never give up

I put this one here as the last lesson because it is so damn important.

I have studied a lot of successful people.

And ONE thing that kept reoccuring in all of their stories is their "Never say die" attitude.

All of them have that ability to persist until they get the success they want.

And that is why they won.

These people understood that if you will just persist with something, eventually you will have a breakthrough.

When you embark on most life changing projects in this life, I have realised that success doesn't come immediately.

It is like Nature does this as a test to see how serious you are about achieving that thing you want.

But once you don't give up, eventually, you will succeed.

Please, don't give up.

May God help us all.

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There are other things I learnt but these 7 are the top ones.

I hope you have gained something.

- Toyin

PS: There is no free lunch anywhere. Only hard work.

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