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In this liberating episode, Scott Ritzheimer, Founder of Scale Architects, shares why most business books overwhelm founders and how to stop applying the wrong advice at the wrong time. If you feel buried in “shoulds,” frustrated when strategies fail, or unsure which books actually apply to you right now, you won’t want to miss it.

You will discover:

– What to do when the first chapters are strong but the rest is just filler

– Why business books written for one stage create confusion when read by founders in every stage

– How to identify the level a book was written for and match it to where you are today

Books Recommended By Scott Ritzheimer for Each Level:

LEVEL 1 — Dissatisfied Employee

  • 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey
  • 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson
  • Be a People Person, John Maxwell
  • Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown
  • Buying Out the Boss, Michael Vann
  • Dare to Lead, Brené Brown
  • Daring Greatly, Brené Brown
  • David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Dream Big, Bob Goff
  • Essentialism, Greg McKeown
  • How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge, Clay Scroggins
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
  • Lead It Like You Own It, Brandon Stewart and Kevin Gerald
  • Linchpin, Seth Godin
  • Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • Procrastinate on Purpose, Rory Vaden
  • Resonate, Nancy Duarte
  • Self-Leadership and the One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard
  • Serve Up Coach Down, Nathan Jamail
  • Small Decisions, Big Shifts, Chip Scholz
  • Smarter, Better, Faster, Charles Duhigg
  • Take the Stairs, Rory Vaden
  • Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer
  • The Gap and the Gain, Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy
  • The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown
  • The Path Between Us, Suzanne Stabile
  • The Perfect Day Formula, Craig Ballantyne
  • The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
  • The Power of Healthy Tension, Tim Arnold
  • The Road Back to You, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
  • The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Together Is Better, Simon Sinek
  • Visioneering, Andy Stanley
  • Zero to One, Peter Thiel

LEVEL 2 — Startup Entrepreneur

  • Atomic Habits, James Clear
  • Buy Back Your Time, Dan Martell
  • Coach Builder, Donald Miller
  • Cold Calling for Cowards, Jerry Hocutt
  • Do Lead, Les McKeown
  • DotCom Secrets, Russell Brunson
  • Getting Naked, Patrick Lencioni
  • How to Get Clients, Steve Chandler
  • Launch, Jeff Walker
  • Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss
  • Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • Raving Fans, Kenneth Blanchard
  • Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
  • Secrets of Closing the Sale, Zig Ziglar
  • Selling With Story, Kyle Gray
  • Solution Selling, Michael Bosworth
  • Switch, Chip and Dan Heath
  • The Dip, Seth Godin
  • The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer
  • The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
  • The One Thing, Gary Keller
  • The Only Sales Guide You Will Ever Need, Anthony Iannarino
  • The Rain Maker, Jeffrey Fox
  • Time Traps, Todd Duncan
  • When, Daniel Pink

LEVEL 3 — Reluctant Manager

  • Boundaries for Leaders, Henry Cloud
  • Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller
  • Creating Magic, Lee Cockerell
  • Dear Female Founder, Lu Li
  • Death by Meeting, Patrick Lencioni
  • Do Lead, Les McKeown
  • HBR Top 10 On Management, Harvard Business Review
  • How to Write Copy that Sells, Ray Edwards
  • Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath
  • Marketing Made Simple, Donald Miller
  • Player Coach, Val Markos
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • Profit First, Mike Michalowicz
  • Purple Cow, Seth Godin
  • Story Engine, Kyle Gray
  • Talk Like TED, Carmine Gallo
  • The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer
  • The Founder’s Survival Guide, Rachel E. Turner
  • The Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni
  • The New One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard
  • Traffic Secrets, Russell Brunson

LEVEL 4 — Disillusioned Leader

  • Be Our Guest, The Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni
  • Developing the Leader Within You, John Maxwell
  • Developing the Leaders Around You, John Maxwell
  • Do Scale, Les McKeown
  • EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey
  • HBR Top 10 On Leadership, Harvard Business Review
  • Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordeiro
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • Rocket Fuel, Gino Wickman and Mark Winters
  • Scaling Up, Verne Harnish
  • Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars, Patrick Lencioni
  • The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell
  • The 5 Levels of Leadership, John Maxwell
  • The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni
  • The Clarity Field Guide, Benj Miller and Chris White
  • The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer
  • The Founder’s Survival Guide, Rachel E. Turner
  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz
  • The Motive, Patrick Lencioni
  • The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath
  • The Synergist, Les McKeown
  • The Work of Leaders, Straw, Scullard, and Davis
  • Traction, Gino Wickman

LEVEL 5 — Chief Executive

  • 5 Voices, Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram
  • BE 2.0, Jim Collins and William Lazier
  • Built to Last, Collins and Porras
  • Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull
  • Culture Matters, Jenni Catron
  • Excellence Wins, Horst Schulze
  • Good to Great, Jim Collins
  • Great by Choice, Collins and Hansen
  • Great CEOs Are Lazy, Jim Schleckser
  • How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins
  • Originals, Adam Grant
  • Pinnacle, Steve Preda
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • Start With Why, Simon Sinek
  • Strategy OS, Steve Preda
  • The 4 Disciplines of Execution, McChesney, Covey, and Huling
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer
  • The Founder’s Mentality, Chris Zook
  • The Founder’s Survival Guide, Rachel E. Turner
  • The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Patrick Lencioni
  • The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek
  • The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen
  • The Synergist, Les McKeown
  • The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle
  • The Truth About Employee Engagement, Patrick Lencioni
  • Turning Team Performance Inside Out, Nash

LEVEL 6 — True Owner

  • Buyable, Steve Preda
  • Buying Out the Boss, Michael Vann
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • The Exit Strategy Handbook, Jerry Mills
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer

LEVEL 7 — Visionary Founder

  • Get Your House in Order, Cris Zimmermann
  • Half Time, Bob Buford
  • Life and Work Principles, Ray Dalio
  • Predictable Success, Les McKeown
  • The Founder’s Game, Scott Ritzheimer

Episode Transcript

Scott Ritzheimer

Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a founder. I’m your host Scott Ritzheimer, and today I want to start off with a stat for this solo episode, and that statistic is that there is something like this is very very official. There’s something like a thousand business books being published every single day, and many of them by really really really smart people. But I think most of them are lying to you. I don’t think it’s intentional. I really really don’t. But I think there’s a problem that affects both founders and the people that they look to for help. I think it’s chronic. I think it’s everywhere, and I think the moment I show it to you, you won’t be able to unsee it, because we have more marketing strategies, we have more leadership principles, we have more organizational tactics than ever before, but I believe it’s actually harder than ever to succeed as a founder because of all of those strategies, principles, and tactics.

They’re massively overwhelming. They lead us to a whole pile of shoulds all over the place, and I think that they’re usually meaning most of the time a distraction from what truly matters most for you right now, and so this leads to two kind of admitted pet peeves about the business book world, and this is coming from someone who has now contributed to that, but it also comes from a founder who, I mean, for years I remember just trying to find an answer, and and you’ll have experienced this. I mean, how many of you have read a book that says this is what the definition of leadership is? And then you see another one, they say this is what the definition of leadership is. It’s not this is my definition of leadership. It’s not here’s a potential definition of leadership. Every book has the definition of leadership, and that’s just the start. When you look at kind of a fundamental structural problem with books, just in the way that books go out, is that they are they are fundamentally written to a specific group.

I’ll talk about what that means in a second, but then they become available to and are marketed to a very general group, a very broad group. So let’s take, for example, a very in the book world, a very narrow niche of of book readers, and that is founders of businesses and nonprofits. That’s a very very small percentage of the overall population. It’s a very small percentage of book readers at large. But what is one thing that every founder needs to hear. I I don’t know that that exists, except that there’s no one thing that every founder needs to hear. And so what I’m getting at, and folks who listen to or watch this show will know I’m really really big on understanding the level that you’re in as a founder. And for those of you who are connected with our predictable success materials as well, knowing what stage you’re in as a as a business, and I I just can’t overstate how important those are.

And and here’s the problem: if I’m really specific with it, business books are written for a certain level, or they’re written for a certain stage, but then they’re read by everyone in all levels, and then everyone in all levels, to some extent, and it varies from person to person and topic to topic, but that leaves us as readers feeling like we’re then responsible for implementing what we read. I remember I’m going to forget it now, but this idea that that you know information without action, right? Information without transformation is just a waste of time. I couldn’t agree more if it’s the right information at the right time. But I think it’s even worse to have information and transformation try to apply that information if it’s not right for you right now, and fundamentally, just about every single book is written for a stage or two.

Scott Ritzheimer

It’s written by an author trying to solve a problem, oftentimes one that they’ve lived through themselves, either directly or helping someone else through it, and it happens at a specific point in a time in in in a specific industry or in a specific business, and while there are lessons to be learned from that, one of the biggest lessons is that’s what happens at that stage in that industry at that time. Just because something worked doesn’t mean it’s a universal principle, and so what we have to start. To do as readers is we start. We have to, and I think this is more a reader thing than it is an author thing. We have to start to discern who was this book actually written to. Who does you know? If it’s a business book and it’s written by a consultant or or a thought leader or something like that, who are they working with regularly? What level are they in? What specific problems are they trying to solve, and how relevant are those to the level that you’re in?

And so, the first thing we want to do is identify: well, what level is this really written for? Because the way that you engage in leadership when you’re in level two by yourself is very very different and requires a different definition of leadership than how you engage in leadership in level four, which is really all about leadership. So the first thing we have to recognize is that books aren’t written for everyone all the time, and most authors aren’t necessarily really clear on which level they’re writing into. Even if they don’t use my framework or my methodology, they’re not always clear on who exactly the book is for. So that’s the first one. We have to figure out what stage they’re written to, and and to kind of help you figure this out, I have I’ve been collecting a list of books that I really really like, and that I recommend to folks. And I was realizing before I I kind of figured this whole thing out that I would love to recommend some books to some people, but not to others.

And it wasn’t for a long time that I finally discovered I was actually doing the level thing intuitively. I just couldn’t quite articulate it, and so in the the show notes, you’ll see a link to this this lesson, or sorry, this podcast. We’re recording lessons as well. This podcast, and on the page on our website that’s dedicated to this podcast, there’s a list of my recommended reading for every single level. That’s really helpful for a couple reasons. One, if you’re in level one, there’s all kinds of really great books for level one. That at least great by my standard. But number two, if you’ve read a book and you’re wondering, hey, does this apply to me? Should I really be, you know, doing the hard work of putting this into action? Go there and at least see what I think that that book is mostly written toward, because if it’s something like Jim Collins, who I love and adore and would love to be one day, he’s Jim’s awesome, and his work is amazing.

But it’s written for a very specific group of people, and that might not be where you are right now, or another huge influence in my life is Patrick Lencioni, or John Maxwell, or John Kotter. These are really, really bright, really, really great authors who’ve who’ve got really great works, especially when you understand the level that they’re written to, because every single one of those has a default writing pattern and a default writing destination, and again, that may or may not be where you are. So that that’s the the first big problem that I have with with the business book system, the way that they’re written, the way that they’re marketed, and the way that we read and interpret and apply them. We have to take a much more stage-based approach, and I say that it’s simple, and to some extent it is. But at least just asking the question, what do I think this was written to? Because if it was written to a stage in the past and would have been helpful for you five years ago, you know it’s not five years ago.

Scott Ritzheimer

If it’s written to a stage in the future and it would will be helpful in five years, well, then you’ve got to do other things to to create the framework and the foundation for those things to work later. So really try and figure out is this a book that’s written to to our level and you know somewhat shameless plug I guess there’s a little shame in it, but the Founders Game, which is coming out in February, Predictable Success, which is behind me, even Rachel’s-I’ve just totally forgotten her last name. I’ll put it in the show notes. But Rachel wrote the Founders. I can’t even remember the name of the book. This is terrible. We’ll put it in the the notes. If you want a book that’s not written by me that deals with different stages, the Founder Survival Guide by Rachel Something. She was on the podcast. I’ll link that as well.

Is another brilliant example of someone who recognized the timing of this and and applied it to a book and really helped folks to recognize which even part of her book is relevant to them, Rachel Turner is the name. So that’s the first thing. The second challenge with business books, in particular, I don’t find this in fiction anywhere near as much. But in business books, especially for folks who write a lot, there’s this tendency to have to fit. Everything to the format of a book, which is going to be somewhere in the 50,000 word range for most books. And fifty thousand words is a lot of words. Sometimes it’s not a lot of words on other topics, but for a lot of business concepts, you don’t need fifty thousand words to do them. But it’s a total pain to write a book, publish a book, promote a book, and make it a success and get it in the hands of people and and allow it to change their life.

And so, if you’re gonna take the time to do all of that, you’re probably going to take the time to fill those fifty thousand words. Unfortunately, I’ve read books where about forty thousand of the words were padding, and you know what I’m talking about. You’ve read a book, you’ve read the first couple of chapters; they were amazing, and then the rest of it’s just filler. It’s just not great at all. And a big part of the reason that this happens again is is just the structure of the book world. And so, as founders, these two big problems, the they both result in very very similar symptom, or I’ll say a range of symptoms. So I felt these, and I’ve seen them in a lot of the founders I’ve worked with. So the first one is, I read the this book. There was all these success stories. I applied it, and it didn’t work for me.

Somehow I’m just different or fundamentally flawed. That’s the first thing, and that’s very isolating. It’s very disheartening. It’s it’s discouraging. It’s a real challenge because you feel like, hey, if I don’t know it and these pros don’t know it, what do I do? Maybe this is it. The other challenge is how do you really wait and evaluate whether it’s content for a different stage or it’s just fluff filling the rest of a book, how do you sift the wheat from the chaff? How do you how do you eat the fish and spit out the bones, if you will? And so again, just where I’m trying to go with this is that if we just take business books for the words on the page. I think that makes our lives harder as founders, not easier. But at the same token, we don’t want to just live in isolation. We can’t ignore the rest of the world. It’s not like these books don’t have a wealth and treasure trove of wisdom. I think we just need to do a little bit more work to recognize when to apply that wisdom and what wisdom to pursue and what to just let go of for now. And so again, the best thing that I can do to to help jumpstart the is one, just get you to ask the question: Who’s this written to, and does it match where I am right now? That might mean you need to know where you are right now if you don’t know that already.

Scott Ritzheimer

Most of you do, but if you don’t, then you can just go to foundersquiz.com and find out which level you’re in. But find out what level you think the book’s written to, what level you’re in, and see if they match. If they do, great. Even if it’s challenging, you really will want to try to implement what you see there. And some of it’ll rub you the wrong way because it’s just new territory, and that’s okay. If it’s not, you may not want to read the book just now, even if it’s great. And if you do, you just have to read it through the lens of this is going to serve me well someday. I’ll pick it up back again then. And if you can do that, that’s fantastic. What you don’t want to do is read something from level five, try and apply it to level three, and think that you’re going to scale magically doesn’t work that way. If you’re in level three, you need level three books.

If you’re in level three, you need level three strategies. If you’re in level three, you need level three tactics, and there’s there’s plenty of resources to do that, even in level three, which is one of the least served by the business book world. So, ask yourself what level it’s written to, what level you’re in. Do they match? And then, when you find yourself getting into a book and it’s the right level, and you get through the first few chapters, and the rest is just filler, put it down. Like there’s no moral imperative that you finish the book, and and hopefully that that gives you some freedom because again a lot of the founders I work with are folks who really want to learn like they really want to do it right they really want to lead their people well and we trust that these books are are right and they might be right they’re just not always right for right now in fact most of the time they aren’t. Then in terms of tactics that you can take and run with, so the first one is check out the reading list.

There’s lots of great books in there, lots of great books for your level, and there might be a couple in there you haven’t read yet. So that’ll be really cool. Check out the reading list, and you might find there were some books that you picked up in the past that weren’t all that helpful, but now you’re actually in the level they were written to. And if you read them again, you might learn just a whole new range of skills and and wisdom. So check out the reading list. The other thing I’d encourage you to do is to go ahead and get a a copy of the Founders Game. The pre-order is open right now. There’s lots of goodies if you pre-order on Amazon and then upload your receipt. You’ll get a free course and free workbook and all kinds of stuff. But what you’ll get right now as well is the the excerpt from the book that outlines what all seven levels are in just one real simple, concise way. If you’re interested, it’s got my story in there as well.

A lot of stuff I haven’t shared here on the podcast, so maybe that will interest you. That’s right in that first free chapter, which you’ll get immediately, and so you can do that. If you don’t want to do the pre-order, you can still get the first chapter for free on the same page. It’s all at thefoundersgame.com. We’ll put those links in the show notes. So lots of links in the show notes today. Make sure you check out Rachel and and her book, The Founder Survival Guide. It’s fantastic. I really like that book. And check out her episode. She was on the show back in the first hundred somewhere, I think. Check out thefoundersgame.com. Get a copy of the book on pre-order right now from Amazon, and then get the first chapter for free and some other goodies with it. And then check out the reading list. I think you’ll really enjoy it. If you’ve got some books that you think should be on the reading list, and you have a guess at which level they should be. Let me know.

Scott Ritzheimer

I’d love to make that a community thing and add to it. So, if you’ve got a book for founders that isn’t on the list, and you think that it should be, and you’ve got an idea on which level it’s best for, send it my way. I’d love to out it, and we’ll build it all together. With that, hope this was helpful for you. When you’re reading books, you don’t have to do everything in them. You get to choose and decide, and hopefully, you can do that a little bit better after this episode. With all that, can’t wait to see you next time, and I’ll catch you there. Take care.

Scott Ritzheimer

Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what you need for the level you’re in right now. If you want to discover what level you’re in, take our ten question Founders Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That’s foundersquiz.com. It’ll pinpoint exactly where you are and give you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next level in your journey as a founder. If you got something out of today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, or review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let’s be honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and I’ll see you in the next episode.

Contact Scott Ritzheimer

Scott Ritzheimer is the founder of Scale Architects and a leading expert on organizational life cycle and founder leadership. He has helped launch nearly twenty thousand businesses and nonprofits and, before turning thirty-five, built and sold his own multimillion-dollar company after a decade of double-digit growth. Today he helps founders and CEOs who have people to lead but are still buried in the daily grind, giving them a clear next step instead of a theory. He is host of the Start Scale Succeed podcast and author of The Founder’s Game.

Want to learn more about Scott Ritzheimer’s work at Scale Architects? Check out his website at https://www.scalearchitects.com/

Connect with Scott through his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottritzheimer/

Pre-order a copy of Scott Ritzheimer’s book “The Founder’s Game” at https://www.scottritzheimer.com/book/pre-order

Check out Episode 43 “How to Scale You as a Founder with Rachel Turner” at https://www.scalearchitects.com/podcast/43-how-to-scale-you-as-a-founder-with-rachel-turner/