The Reading List for Real Estate Pros

Maximize Prices and Profits in Commercial Real Estate

Selling Buildings is the definitive guide for commercial real estate professionals who want to elevate their game — co-authored by industry legend Bob Knakal, who has closed over 2,300 building sales worth $22 billion, and Rod Santomassimo, founder of the leading CRE coaching firm The Massimo Group. Together, they distill decades of hard-won experience into practical strategies you can apply right away.

Whether you're a seasoned broker or an aspiring investor, you'll discover proven techniques to:

• Secure exclusive listings and dominate your market niche.
• Create competitive bidding scenarios to maximize property value.
• Navigate complex negotiations with confidence.
• Build a sustainable, high-performing real estate business.

Steven Roth

Vornado Realty Trust, Chairman and CEO

“Bob Knakal and Rod Santomassimo have crafted a memoir and a how-to manual intertwined with stories, personalities, legends, successes, and heartbreak. For a real estate guy like me, it reads like an action thriller that rewards with practical how-to advice. Bob is a friend of long-standing who is the undisputed heavyweight champion and who works his ass off on every deal. He's the best in the business. This sort of how-to tell all is a very generous gift to all who come after him.”

Barbara Corcoran

Founder of The Corcoran Group & Shark and Executive Producer on ABC's "Shark Tank"

“An absolute must-read for anyone serious about making money in commercial real estate. If you're an investor or broker, this powerful guide will empower you to achieve extraordinary success! Bob Knakal's record-breaking career and Rod Santomassimo's insights create the absolute roadmap for maximizing returns.”

Who Not How

Have you ever had a new idea or goal that excites you… but not enough time to execute it? Or a goal you genuinely want to accomplish… but can't seem to, because instead of taking action, you procrastinate?

Do you feel like the only way things will get done is if you do them? But what if that didn't have to be the case? What if you had a team of people around you—people who helped you accomplish your goals while you helped them achieve theirs?

We've been trained to ask ourselves, "How can I do this?" when we want something done. But there's a better question—one that opens the door to greater ease, efficiency, and success. Expert coach Dan Sullivan offers that better question: "Who can do this for me?"

It may sound simple—and it is—but don't underestimate its power. By mastering this shift in thinking, you'll discover how billionaires and top entrepreneurs like Dan build thriving businesses and personal freedom. This book will help you make that essential mindset shift so you can:

• Build a successful business without burning yourself out
• Immediately free up 1,000+ hours of tasks you shouldn't be doing anyway
• Bypass the typical scarcity mindset and the limiting beliefs that come with aging
• Expand your vision and surround yourself with a team of Whos who support that vision
• Eliminate limitations on your goals and ambitions
• Grow your abundance—in wealth, creativity, relationships, and joy
• Design a life where everything you do is a choice: how you spend your time, how much money you make, the quality of your relationships, and the kind of work you do

Making this shift means retraining your brain. It means moving away from the idea that your potential is defined only by what you can do—and instead, tapping into the limitless opportunities that exist through collaboration, connection, and trust in others.

10x Is Easier Than 2x

Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.

10X is not the outcome; it's a counterintuitive process you can apply every time you want exponential growth in your life and business. To make 10X possible, you must focus on expanding what Dan defines as your four most important freedoms—time, money, relationship, and purpose. As your time becomes 10X more valuable, you increasingly multiply the money you earn both in terms of amount and profitable satisfaction. As money becomes a tool you can increasingly access with greater ease, you will engage with a growing number of other freedom-motivated individuals. As both your professional and personal life fills up with 10X more unique and collaborative relationships, you will realize that your most powerful purposes in all areas become 10X more lasting and positive for everyone involved. You will be impressed by what your life has become, and the meaning and impact you're having.

10X is fundamentally about quality vs quantity, and the quality of your freedoms determines the results you achieve.

The Gap and the Gain

Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an "ideal," a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we're in "the GAP." However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we're in "the GAIN."

That is where the GAP and the GAIN concept comes in. It was developed by legendary entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan and is based on his work with tens of thousands of successful entrepreneurs. When Dan's coaching clients periodically take stock of all that they've accomplished—both personally and professionally—they are often shocked at how much they have actually achieved. They weren't able to appreciate their progress because no matter how much they were getting done, they were usually measuring themselves against their ideals or goals.

In this book you will learn that measuring your current self vs. your former self has enormous psychological benefits. And that's really the key to this deceptively simple yet multi-layered concept that will have you feeling good, feeling grateful, and feeling like you are making progress even when times are tough, which will in turn bolster motivation, confidence, and future success.

If you're finding that happiness eludes you no matter how much you've achieved, then learning this easy mindset shift will set you on a life-changing path to greater fulfillment and success.

Getting Things Done

Since it was first published more than 15 years ago, David Allen's Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era and the ultimate book on personal organization. "GTD" is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.

Allen has rewritten the book from start to finish, tweaking his classic text with important perspectives on the new workplace and adding material that will make the book fresh and relevant for years to come. This new edition of Getting Things Done will be welcomed not only by its hundreds of thousands of existing fans but also by a whole new generation eager to adopt its proven principles.

The Power of Positive Thinking

An international bestseller with over five million copies in print, The Power of Positive Thinking has helped men and women around the world to achieve fulfillment in their lives through Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's powerful message of faith and inspiration.

In this phenomenal bestseller, "written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life," Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action. With the practical techniques outlined in this book, you can energize your life—and give yourself the initiative needed to carry out your ambitions and hopes. You'll learn how to:

• Believe in yourself and in everything you do
• Build new power and determination
• Develop the power to reach your goals
• Break the worry habit and achieve a relaxed life
• Improve your personal and professional relationships
• Assume control over your circumstances
• Be kind to yourself

The Art of Woo

Your projects, programs, and career turn on the difference between "no" and "yes". Yet selling ideas, especially the kinds of ideas that make organizations work, is a skill shrouded in mystery. Part emotional intelligence, part politics, part rhetoric, and part psychology, selling ideas is not like tricking someone out of his money. It's about helping others to see things your way: engaging their minds and imaginations. Charles Lindbergh, for example, needed woo to assemble backers for his famous flight. Nelson Mandela also used it to lead a revolution in South Africa. In any context, woo is two parts art and one part science.

In The Art of Woo, Professors G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa offer a self-assessment to determine which persuasion role fits you best and how to make the most of your natural strengths. They also share vivid stories from their experiences advising thousands of leaders and stories about famous people like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Andy Grove, and Bono.

Whether you're introverted or extroverted, competitive or collaborative, intellectual or practical, The Art of Woo will strengthen your persuasion skill in every aspect of your life.

Influence

In the new edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller, Robert Cialdini—New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don't have to be a scientist to learn how to use this science.

You'll learn Cialdini's Universal Principles of Influence, including new research and new uses so you can become an even more skilled persuader—and just as importantly, you'll learn how to defend yourself against unethical influence attempts. You may think you know these principles, but without understanding their intricacies, you may be ceding their power to someone else.

Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion:

• Reciprocation
• Commitment and Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity
• Unity, the newest principle for this edition

Understanding and applying the principles ethically is cost-free and deceptively easy. Backed by Dr. Cialdini's 35 years of evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific research—including a three-year field study on what leads people to change—Influence is a comprehensive guide to using these principles to move others in your direction.

Good to Great

This book addresses a single question: can a good company become a great company, and if so, how? Based on a five-year research project comparing companies that made the leap to those that did not, Good to Great shows that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

• Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
• The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
• A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results.
• Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
• The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

"Some of the key concepts discerned in the study," comments Jim Collins, fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people."

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

The Power of a Positive No

No is perhaps the most important and certainly the most powerful word in the language. Every day we find ourselves in situations where we need to say No—to people at work, at home, and in our communities—because No is the word we must use to protect ourselves and to stand up for everything and everyone that matters to us.

But as we all know, the wrong No can also destroy what we most value by alienating and angering people. That's why saying No the right way is crucial. The secret to saying No without destroying relationships lies in the art of the Positive No, a proven technique that anyone can learn. This indispensable book gives you a simple three-step method for saying a Positive No. It will show you how to assert and defend your key interests; how to make your No firm and strong; how to resist the other side's aggression and manipulation; and how to do all this while still getting to Yes. In the end, the Positive No will help you get not just to any Yes but to the right Yes, the one that truly serves your interests.

Based on William Ury's celebrated Harvard University course for managers and professionals, The Power of a Positive No offers concrete advice and practical examples for saying No in virtually any situation. Whether you need to say No to your customer or your coworker, your employee or your CEO, your child or your spouse, you will find in this book the secret to saying No clearly, respectfully, and effectively.

In today's world of high stress and limitless choices, the pressure to give in and say Yes grows greater every day, producing overload and overwork, expanding e-mail and eroding ethics. Never has No been more needed. A Positive No has the power to profoundly transform our lives by enabling us to say Yes to what counts—our own needs, values, and priorities.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

You can go after the job you want—and get it! You can take the job you have—and improve it! You can take any situation—and make it work for you!

Dale Carnegie's rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach you:

• Six ways to make people like you
• Twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
• Nine ways to change people without arousing resentment

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated listeners for nearly three decades. It has transformed the lives of presidents and CEOs, educators and parents - millions of people of all ages and occupations. Now, this 30th anniversary edition of the timeless classic commemorates the wisdom of the 7 Habits with modern additions from Sean Covey.

The 7 Habits have become famous and are integrated into everyday thinking by millions and millions of people. Why? Because they work! With Sean Covey's added takeaways on how the habits can be used in our modern age, the wisdom of the 7 Habits will be refreshed for a new generation of leaders. They include:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit 3: Put First Things First
• Habit 4: Think Win/Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
• Habit 6: Synergize
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen R. Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity - principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

The Art of War

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy. It has had an immense influence on eastern military thinking, business tactics and beyond. Sun Tzu suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that particular environment. He thought that strategy was not just planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. He strongly believed that planning works in a controlled environment but in a changing environment competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations. Widely regarded as one of the most important books ever to have emanated from the Eastern civilization, The Art of War is a must read for any business enthusiast or strategist.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”— Sun Tzu

“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”— Sun Tzu

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive

This straight-from-the-hip handbook by bestselling author and self-made millionaire Harvey Mackay spells out the path to success for readers everywhere. They will learn how to:

• Outsell by getting appointments with people who absolutely, positively do not want to see you, and then making them glad they said "yes!"
• Outmanage by arming yourself with information on prospects, customers, and competitors that the CIA would envy — using a system called the "Mackay 66."
• Outmotivate by using his insights to help yourself or your kids join the ranks of America's one million millionaires.
• Outnegotiate by knowing when to "smile and say no" and when to "send in the clones."

This one-of-a-kind book by a businessman who's seen it all and done it all has sold almost 2 million copies, and is the essential roadmap for everyone on the path to success.

Bargaining for Advantage

As director of the renowned Wharton Executive Negotiation Workshop, Professor G. Richard Shell has taught thousands of business leaders, administrators, and other professionals how to survive and thrive in the sometimes rough-and-tumble world of negotiation. His systematic, step-by-step approach comes to life in this book, which is available in over ten foreign editions and combines lively storytelling, proven tactics, and reliable insights gleaned from the latest negotiation research. This updated edition includes:

• A brand-new "Negotiation I.Q." test designed by Shell and used by executives at the Wharton workshop that reveals each reader's unique strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator.
• A concise manual on how to avoid the perils and pitfalls of online negotiations involving e-mail and instant messaging.
• A detailed look at how gender and cultural differences can derail negotiations, and advice for putting talks back on track.

Never Eat Alone

Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success? The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered in early life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships — so that everyone wins.

In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps — and inner mindset — he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his contacts list, people he has helped and who have helped him. And in the time since Never Eat Alone was published in 2005, the rise of social media and new, collaborative management styles have only made Ferrazzi's advice more essential for anyone hoping to get ahead in business.