Which are the top ten self help books of all time?

There are thousands of motivational books published every year, but which ones stand the test of time and become self help classics?

After several years of study, I have compiled a top ten listing. This is an eclectic and individual mix showcasing the books that have made a difference in my life. It is necessarily arbitrary, because different books meet different needs - for more confidence, more success, more empowering thoughts or more effective action. Many dismiss the entire motivational industry as a sham but having applied many techniques in my home and workplace over the past decade, I have discovered that behind the hype there can be valuable insights.This list just scratches the surface of the ideas, concepts and practical tools these books offer.

Do you agree with my choices? You are cordially invited to share your opinions, thoughts and comments.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy this journey into the world of Self Help Classics. Let the countdown begin!

The title is brash, demanding and quite honestly almost stopped me from buying the book. The words blare at you like a foghorn: “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Think Rich to Get Rich”. A tickertape of dollar, pound and yen symbols duly parades in gold across the front cover in imperial purple.

Being suspicious of over-inflated promises and get-rich-quick fables, I had to overcome my natural cynicism to make the purchase. I’m glad that I did. Inside, I discovered a lucid, intelligent and thought-provoking exploration of the psychology of wealth.

The rich are different from you and me. Hemingway’s famous riposte – “Yes, they have more money!” is only half the story. Eker explains the true mental blueprint that marks out successful people like a hidden ultraviolet stamp. This book is the spiritual cousin of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series – books that do not offer specific income strategies but instead explore that mysterious question – “What makes the rich tick? How do they think?”

The book doesn’t have the literary flair of Kiyosaki’s finely drawn father figures, but what it lacks in finesse it makes up for in bite. Eker pulls no punches: “Let me put it bluntly: anyone who says money isn’t important doesn’t have any!” Money, he rationalises, is very important in the areas where it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas where it doesn’t (health, spirituality, family etc). But he echoes the ideas of Conway’s nineteenth century classic “Acres of Diamonds”: What built your churches, sent your missionaries, fed the poor? The answer, however embarrassing it may appear to some, is cold hard cash.

Eker distils his principles into a simple set of “wealth principles”. Some border on the obvious, but others are profound and even subversive: “Money will only make you more of what you already are”. Some are just great quotes: “Rich people collect land. Poor people collect bills”.

He encourages us to mix and associate with the wealthy, and to build up a peer group of successful people. Recent scientific research shows that positive and negative emotions are socially contagious, so this could be a remarkably effective strategy. Eker also revives the metaphor of the “wealth thermostat” – the idea that people automatically set an acceptable, middling level of success and will always settle for this. If they sink below their self-perceived level, they will take radical action to restore their standard of living. However they will rarely stretch themselves beyond this comfort zone. And being comfortable, he argues, is highly over-rated.

One of Eker’s most compelling strategies is the idea of blessing that which you desire. He recounts his own experiences driving a beat-up clunker through a rough neighbourhood of San Diego. Everyone ignored him. Then he pitched up one year in a brand new Jaguar and before long, youths were throwing beer cans at his car. Wealth excites irrational envy, and Eker advises us to feel the opposite and adopt the Huna philosophy of “bless that which you want”. This may have a “law of attraction” ring to it, but it’s more likely just an exercise in adjusting our psychological comfort zone to embrace a more abundant lifestyle.

Here of three of Eker’s snappiest and most profound sound-bites. These aren’t happy-clappy, fuzzy mantras but accurate statements of what works in a market economy. And Eker, who managed a group of retail fitness scores, is soundly grounded in the commercial world. Here they are:

· If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what is hard, life will be easy.

· No thought lives in our heads rent-free (Robert Allen)

· The Law of Income: You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver in the market place.

These aren’t magic bullets, but are signposts for the journey. “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” is a first class map for the wealth creation road. So look beyond the cheesy title, suspend your disbelief and turn on to the yellow brick road.

Self help books come in all shapes and sizes, and this one comes cloaked in the respectable garb of academia. It all starts with an intriguing question. What if working hard, setting goals and being talented actually didn’t work? Dr Richard Wiseman, an English academic, has a shocking, subversive theory – success is not determined by any of the things we all believe it is. In fact, success is quite often down to simple, dumb luck. 

Read the Sunday Times Rich List and you can half guess it to be true. Why have these entrepreneurs, these financiers, made it – from a talented pool of millions? Yes, luck has made kings and ruined careers.  It’s truly the ambrosia of the gods – sweet, bitter and wilfully capricious all in one. 

“The Luck Factor” is a bold attempt to grab Lady Luck and wrestle her to the ground. It’s less a book than an experience – full of interactive exercises and opportunities to participate.  Go with it.  Richard Wiseman is no fly-by-night success guru. He’s a respected academic at the University of Hertfordshire and has catapulted himself into a TV career through his intriguing and radical psychological theories.

He cites the story of U.S. President Harry Truman, a bankrupt shopkeeper whose luck turned for the better in his late thirties. He ascended to the White House when the incumbent Roosevelt suddenly died, and became the victor-hero of World War Two. Truman then beat Dewey in 1948 in a result so unexpected that the newspapers had already printed the headlines “Dewey Defeats Truman”. Luck aided and abetted Harry Truman at every step of his political career.

Dr. Wiseman has a ruthlessly bipolar view of the world. You’ve either got luck or you ain’t. His rigorous scientific training shines through, as he strips away all the mysticism and superstition about luck to distil it to a set of core principles that anyone can learn. Here they are:

1.    Maximise chance opportunities in your life. My favourite example here is of a man who keeps a jar especially for coins he finds on the street – and fills the jar to the brim regularly. Wiseman’s astonishing conclusion is that the more likely you are to choose a new dish at a restaurant, the more likely you are to succeed. 

2.    That old chestnut, intuition. I am reminded of a recent character in the U.K. version of “The Apprentice” whose intuition frequently led her miserably astray, so will not offer any further comment! 

3.    Expect good fortune. We have all heard of the “self-fulfilling prophecy”. How many times have you heard a friend say: “She’s in a relationship with X – he’s no good, but she doesn’t believe she deserves anyone better”. Without high self-esteem, luck will probably be elusive.

4.    Transform bad luck into good. Everyone has obstacles and challenges, but it’s how we respond to them that really matters.  

So what will you learn from this book? First - beliefs matter.  He cites the Chinese-American death rate from cardiac arrest spikes on the fourth of the month, which many consider unlucky. There is no equivalent spike among other American ethnic groups.  Wiseman cites an old German proverb: "No-one is luckier than him who believes his own luck”. Secondly, embrace the importance of the alchemy of transforming bad luck into good – of breaking the downward spiral and taking positive, concrete action to improve your life.

The Luck Factor is a revelation. You will never see the world in the same way again. If one day you start rolling dice to determine which new sport to take up, or begin chatting to complete strangers in the supermarket, just say the good Dr. Wiseman told you to do it... Time to luck out!