Welcome to the Brilliance Brief. Every week, we break down leadership, mindset, and personal growth into something real and doable. Expect research-backed insights, a little storytelling, and practical ideas that actually fit into your life (even the messy parts).

Every problem you have in life has been solved by somebody. 

Anxiety, relationships, decision-making, leadership, parenting, fear, grief, money, ambition, faith.

Whatever you’re sitting with right now, somebody has lived through a version of it… and spent years writing down what they learned.

In a book.

When I’m stuck on something, I don’t wait for the right mentor to appear.

I go looking for the book.

I’ve built a simple process for finding the book I need when I need it.

It’s helped me through hard career decisions, periods of overthinking, and the kind of questions about life and parenting that don’t have easy answers. 

The process is the same every time. Anyone can follow it.

1. Name the problem first.

Most people browse for books. I search for them. 

Before I open Amazon, I get clear on what I’m struggling with. 

Maybe I’m overthinking a big business decision. Or I keep getting into the same fight with my spouse. Or there’s a team member I’m struggling to lead. 

The clearer the problem, the easier the book is to find.

2. Find the highest-rated books on that topic.

Go straight to Goodreads and Amazon reviews. 

I look for the books that show up over and over again. A book with thousands of four and five-star reviews has earned that the hard way.

I also pay attention to who’s recommending what. 

If five people I respect have mentioned the same book in conversations or interviews, I purchase it. 

Skip the books that are trending right now just because everyone’s talking about them. Look for the ones that have lasted.

3. Start with audiobooks.

This is my preferred format. I can listen while walking, driving, or working out. 

I get through more books this way than I ever did sitting down to read.

Audiobooks aren’t for everyone. Some people retain more on paper. Some people love the feel of a physical book.

Find the format that works for your life. 

4. Give yourself permission to stop reading. 

This is the one most people skip. 

If a book isn’t connecting after a couple of chapters, I stop reading and move on to the next book. 

The point is to find the book that has what you need right now.

Most people feel guilty quitting a book. Don’t. A book that isn’t landing isn’t the right book for this moment in your life.

These are 3 books I come back to again and again. Each one solved something I was stuck on.

1. The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Every time I come back to it, I get something new.

It’s about how we tend to overthink, complicate our lives, and become our own worst enemy. 

If the loudest voice working against you lives in your head, this book is for you.

The last chapter alone is worth the price of the book. It makes you question your own values, your mortality, and what you want out of life.

2. The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi

This book cracked something open in me.

It’s based on the work of Alfred Adler, a psychologist around the same time as Freud. History remembers Freud, but I think Adler’s ideas would have done more for the world if they’d been known.

Freud taught that your past explains your present. Your trauma as a child has shaped who you are now. 

Adler taught the opposite. He said it doesn’t matter what happened to you before. Everything you do is a choice you’re making right now.

The book is really great at helping you work through that.

It walks you through the old beliefs you’re carrying without knowing it, and shows you how to start choosing differently.

As a parent, this book hit hard. What I’m teaching my kids is either setting them up to empower themselves or setting them up to be victims.

That responsibility is mine. Adler made me see it.

3. Multipliers by Liz Wiseman

This is the leadership book I recommend most.

Wiseman says leaders fall into one of two categories. 

Diminishers shrink their people. Multipliers grow them. 

You can have the same talented team and resources… and get two completely different outcomes depending on who’s leading.

The book breaks down the specific traits and behaviors that separate the two. The kind of meetings they run. How they handle disagreement. What they do when something goes wrong. What they ask for in interviews.

Once you’ve read it, you start seeing it in every leader you’ve ever worked with (and every leader you’ve ever been).

Pick one thing you’ve been stuck on this month.

Open Goodreads or Amazon. Search the topic. Look for the books that come up over and over.

Pick one. Start reading it this week. If it isn’t landing in the first two chapters, drop it and try the next one.

The mentor you’ve been looking for might have written down exactly what you need to hear. 

You just have to go find them.

Talk soon,
Justin

P.S. What’s the #1 book you recommend? Can be any genre. 

Hit reply with the title. I’m always adding to my list.