Books Recommended by Cliff Hartono

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris was a very inspiring book for me when I was still working at an investment bank. I wasn’t very satisfied with my own growth at the time. The 4-hour Workweek book changed my perspective on success, work and lifestyle. I never completely applied all his tips and tactics, but his philosophies were invaluable. One of my favourite lines in his book is “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” Such a simple and powerful idea - yet few do it well.

Tim Ferriss’ latest book, Tribe of Mentors, contains over 130+ interviews with a diverse collection of top athletes, artists, CEOs and entrepreneurs. One of the questions he asks is “what is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?”. This has given me an extensive booklist recommended by amazing high performers like Dustin Moskovitz, Gary Vaynerchuk, Eric Ripert, Kelly Slater and Neil Gaiman (just to name a few).

My favourite non-business book is probably Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It is a fictionalized history of Musashi Miyamoto, who is known in Japan as its greatest swordsman and warrior. He is probably one of the most underappreciated people in history – after being undefeated in countless duels, he became an accomplished architect, painter, sculptor, writer and philosopher. A captivating book about an endlessly fascinating person.