Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy

WOW... I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT THIS BOOK JUST CHANGED MY LIFE, HOW I LOOK AT LIFE AS A WHOLE AND HOW I MAKE CHOICES AND HOW THEY AFFECT OTHERS, IN BOTH BUSINESS AND LIFE IN GENERAL. IT EVEN MADE ME UNDERSTAND HOW I HAVE LET MY PTSD TAKE OVER AND MAKE CHOICES FOR ME, AND I DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE IT. DEFINITELY... READING IT AGAIN...

“Your Next Five Moves” by Patrick Bet-David (PBD) is a MUST READ... for ANYONE who is a REAL HUSTLER, ENTREPRENEUR, BUSINESS OWNER, TRADITIONAL EMPLOYEES and BASICALLY JUST ANYONE.

I just got it on Saturday and already finished it. Was unable to put it down. I can’t remember the last book that provided so much easy to understand and REAL life lessons. Most of the time, I felt as though I was experiencing what he went through myself. There are a TON of take aways, but while I consider myself (and have been told) to be pretty well rounded when it comes to strategizing and business, I had never actually considered what truly makes me tic. I need to “Master Knowing Myself”, but also appreciate that while I have peers in other businesses that “are killing it”, I’ve been hesitant to follow in their footsteps as I want to ensure that I always maintain my ethcis and values at the forefront of everything I do in order to always help people/families/businesses. with the top 3 BIGGEST take aways thus far are:

#1 from Section: Move 1 Master Knowing Yourself “Who Do You Want To Be” “If you want to get to the top, there’s always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.” -Magnus Carlsen

#2 from Section: Move 1 Master Knowing Yourself: “Who Do You Want To Be” “People who don’t think more than one move ahead are driven by ego, emotion, and fear.” -PBD

Using pain as fuel for motivation. Telling me I can’t do something, especially after others have been successful, is one of the biggest things that motivate me. Thanks dad! In HS, even though I had decent grades, I was always getting in trouble. I practically lived in detention. Like I would get detention while in detention, yes, I was that kid. And I can’t tell you how many times the guidance counselors would tell me that I wouldn’t be anything. I’m 43 now and that still burns in the back of my mind and drives my motivation.

#3 from Section: Move 3 Master Building The Right Team: Create a Principles Based Culture

My takeaway from this entire section speaks volumes of what a ethical, moral and responsible person is all about. Leadership is more than just a title. Leadership is action, not position. Or as PDB put it:

“Prove What You Stand For.” -PBD

#MasterKnowingYourself #MasterBuildingTheRightTeam #PatrickBetDavid #YourNextFiveMoves #PHPAgency #SemperFiFinancialServices #StarsAndStripesAssociates #ServiceDisabledVeteranOwnedBusiness

THANK YOU PATRICK BET-DAVID...!!!

SEMPER FIDELIS, Eugene Oliva U.S. Marine Corps Post-9/11 Service Disabled Combat Veteran

Hey fellow strategists! 🎯📚 I recently got my hands on the book "Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy" and I just had to share my thoughts about it. Here are my top 5 favorite things about this gem:

1️⃣ Insightful wisdom: This book is an absolute treasure trove of valuable insights and wisdom when it comes to business strategy. 🤓 It's packed with practical advice and real-world examples that help you understand the intricacies of making strategic moves in the business world. It's like having a mentor guiding you along the way!

2️⃣ Actionable strategies: What I love most about this book is that it doesn't just give you theoretical concepts, but it provides actionable strategies that you can implement right away. 🚀 Each chapter equips you with practical tools and frameworks that can make a real difference in your decision-making process. It's all about taking action and seeing results!

3️⃣ Engaging writing style: The author has a knack for keeping you hooked from start to finish. 📖 The writing style is engaging, and the concepts are explained in a clear and concise manner. It's not one of those dry business books that put you to sleep; rather, it's a captivating read that keeps you motivated and eager to learn more.

4️⃣ Real-world examples: To illustrate the concepts discussed, the book includes numerous real-world examples of successful business leaders and companies. 🌍 These examples bring the strategies to life and demonstrate how they've been applied in different industries and situations. It's inspiring to see the power of strategic thinking in action!

5️⃣ Long-term thinking: One of the key takeaways from this book is the importance of long-term thinking in business strategy. 🕰️ It emphasizes the significance of planning your moves strategically, considering the potential consequences and anticipating the future. It's a mindset shift that can truly elevate your approach to business.

All in all, "Your Next Five Moves" is a must-read for anyone interested in mastering the art of business strategy. 📚💼 It's an engaging, insightful, and actionable guide that can help you navigate the complex world of strategic decision-making. Trust me, you won't regret adding this gem to your bookshelf! Happy strategizing! 🚀✨

It's a great book that brings a fresh perspective to business leaders, whether they're new or seasoned entrepreneurs. While much of the content may be familiar to most—ideas and concepts they've likely encountered or learned about at some point—the true value lies in how the information is compiled and presented. The book effectively condenses essential knowledge, guiding the reader's focus toward the functionality and processes of business expansion. It emphasizes the importance of choosing the right process, managing time efficiently, and taking the necessary steps to ensure a successful outcome.

I believe this book is well worth reading for anyone interested in business or business growth. It serves as both an educational tool and a refreshing reminder, helping readers refocus on their business ventures with renewed clarity.

This is a fantastic book, extremely well written and researched, the result of the author’s (and presumably coauthor’s) effort to make synergistic and self-reinforcing his research, his writing, and his business.

While his title talks about Five Moves (something that maybe only true geniuses can handle), it’s really his Rule of Three that he uses most often, especially urging one to always think about having three options, and evaluating each one of them before moving in any particular direction. Doing this very few people do, and it would be highly advantageous to many people if they did. Just stopping to think and force oneself to ask “What else could I do?” will often generate highly creative and profitable solutions.

The author uses the Rule of Three in recommending another tool, a simple investment tool in place of more familiar and complicated financial analyses, e.g., Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Return on Investment, and Payback. The author’s investment tool he calls Investment Time Return (ITR) Analysis and describes it as a formula. While I couldn’t find it mentioned anywhere else on-line, it goes basically as follows: Ask yourself: 1. Investment: How much will it cost or save you? 2. Time: How much time will it take us and save us? 3. Return: Calculate the return on the money and time involved in the decision. Another way of thinking about this is: 1. What are your total costs (I = investments = payments/borrowing + interest + taxes + insurance + fees + interest, etc)? 2. Over which time period (T = time) are those costs being born? 3. What are your total returns (R= returns) and when are those returns expected (and how probable)? Obviously, while there is no prescribed formula given, the calculations should be simple and the comparison between any proposed three options should give you a good idea as to which one to choose.

Another thing that the author does is to practice what he preaches about making lists. The book is full of “what-to-do lists,” presumably built upon the author’s experience both in his own business and reading the extraordinary books he professes to read. Interspersed amongst the various lists for various environments a business entrepreneur is likely to find himself are many fascinating stories given as examples of what to do and not do.

Still another thing the author emphasizes is “knowing yourself.” Quite often one will analyze a situation that went well or didn’t go well and look only at what happened or what someone else did. The author strongly encourages one to ask oneself what was going on in one’s own mind while this event occurred and to take some responsibility.

Yet another thing is effectively working with others to find out what their goals are, especially in hiring them to begin with, and then, when/if their performance falters, asking them to compare their goals and their performance.

A final example among the many, many others the author talks about is developing speed, a key element in success. The way to do this is to continually simplify and practice all processes involved.

Finally, the author ends his book with a Personality Identity Audit (so you can find out your own real goals), a Solve For X Worksheet, and a Recommended Reading list of his Top 52 Business Books.

Like for some other books of this type, the reader may want to enthusiastically associate himself in some way with the author’s wide-ranging businesses, especially after going to the author’s website and Youtube offerings. The best way to do this, of course, is to practice what the author preaches. As the author himself strongly advises, first do one’s research, compare the opportunity with at least two others (Rule of Three), and then, before making a commitment, “walk into the future” (my term) and think about “Your Next Five Moves.”

Bottom-line, I highly recommend this book!

Of possible interest:

I was dealing with a coke addiction and checked into rehab last year. I didn’t have a phone, tv’s weren’t aloud in my rehab because they had tech addicts housed with us. I made it my purpose to read as many books as I could in 45 days to pass time. This was the book I enjoyed the most. Thank you Pat!!! I didn’t have the audiobook but I read the book in your voice.

Nobody cares but I’m just going to act like Pat is reading this. Since I checked out of rehab I founded a domestic logistics department and my personal book of business within the company is bringing about $25,000 in profit a week.

Let me tell you a story before I share my review of this fascinating book by Pat.

If you met me 5 years ago and told me that one day:

• I will be running a million dollar company
• I will be reading 4-5 hours a day
• I will be spending tens and thousands of dollars on books/education
• I will wake up at 4:30 AM sharp day in and day out
• I will be working out every single day religiously

I WOULD HAVE LAUGHED AT YOU.

I would have laughed hard and long at you. But, all that changed when I first found a video from Patrick Bet-David.

I had just started making some money online selling products and I was searching for something related to money on YouTube and I found one of his videos about "becoming wealthy."

I can still remember the video was about 10-12 minutes long and I watched it few times. Patrick ideas resonated with me and then for the next few months I watched every single video on his channel that had anything to do with making money and business.

I wish I had a friend, brother, uncle or someone like Patrick in my life because my life would have taken a complete different path.

The ideas and strategies Patrick shares on his channel and in this book are things that if applied will change your life.

Let me share ideas I learned from Patrick and his videos/book.

1. Thinking - Learning how to think is a lost art. 99.9% of population don't know how to think, they know "WHAT TO THINK" but not "HOW TO THINK" learning how to think is one of the most important tools that every single human should learn. But we are in a period where most people would rather get shot than to learn how to think. It sounds so easy but yet its one of the hardest things. The reason being is that if your brain is cluttered with garbage how are you supposed to think of gold? This theme alone is worth the price of this book. Teaching people how to think should be a course at high schools.

How do you go about thinking? I suggest you start by reading works of David Hume/Kant/Plato to get a gist of how other great minds think and process information. The reason I suggest these three is that you will look at the world COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY afterwards in terms of how people come to conclusion on a given topic. So basically an understanding of epistemology. My life changed when I realized that.

2. Decision Making - Most people make decision without giving it any thought. If you wanna be successful then learn how to make superior decisions in your life. The best way to go about decision making is to have a checklist/framework that you go through every time you have to make a decision. Pat shares one of his strategies in the book however I have found that everyone's different and you can use what works for you. One of my favorite trick is to always look at the "CONS" of whatever I am trying to do. Let's say I wanna buy a car I would go on Google and look for all the "cons" associated with that car. Because the joy of something doesnt last as long as the pain of something does. Another quick strategy is to look at the best case, ok case and worst case of your decision. The best book on decision making is Thinking Fast and Slow and a video by Charlie Munger on YouTube (The Psychology of Human Misjudgement) a must watch.

3. Learn how to hire - Most people hire people that are cheap just to save money but if you wanna beat competition you gotta hire best of the best, they are the best for a reason. Imagine Patrick having in your team. He's gonna charge you a lot but one advice of Pat can change the course of your business and make you 1000x more. Learning how to hire the best is another skill that you should learn. This one is hard to learn but Pat has a video on his channel where he shares some great strategies and also in his book about building teams. Having a great team will take you to your goal 100x faster. I learned this the hard way.

4. Knowing yourself - Before you know the world you gotta know yourself. I personally found the questions Pat shares in his book is one of the best to know who you are. For instance, what drives you? Is it competition or anger or to prove someone wrong? The day you know what drives you to work is the day you will make some of the biggest gains. For instance, I could never ever wake up 4:30, I tried everything but nothing worked until I watched one of Pat's video where he talked about "motivation" it changed my life. For most people they try to get motivated through quotes which gives you a short boost of motivation but then it wears off. To be motivated 247365 you gotta get that fire in your belly and that fire will only ignite if you have a cause. In my case it was to prove a girl that I was never ever ever ever born to be average. When I think about her then waking up at 4:30 or working days without sleep means nothing. It happens naturally. I do not need to be motivated I am motivated 24/7. I do not need anyone to tell me to read 500 pages book I just read it. This is one of the best parts of the book. Pat also has a video about this which everyone should watch. That video alone is worth millions of dollars because if you can be motivated 247365 then you will eventually get on top of Mount Everest.

5. Strategy - This book's parallel to chess makes perfect sense, for instance I can help anyone become a strong chess player (given they know the basics) within 1-2 days. There is no magic to it but that in chess what happens is that beginners learn tricks/openings and spend too much time on doing tactical puzzles but the problem is that in real game of chess vs a strong chess player you are unlikely to get into a tactical position where you can play your tactical move that you learned in practice. Worst of all, you won't even know you are in a tactical position.

The remedy to all this is a simple strategy. Instead of learning openings or tactical positions what if you lure in your opponent to a specific position for which you know all the tactical ideas. This is one of the MOST PROFOUND IDEAS in chess. When you play vs a great chess player they lure you into positions that they know inside out.

Magnus doesn't know 900 million different chess positions but he knows 90 positions INSIDE/OUT and he has practiced those positions for hours, day in and day out. So when he plays a game all he does is that he gets his opponent into those positions. Of course at grandmaster level this is hard because his opponents are as strong as he is but you get the idea.

Why I am telling you this?

Because in life/business it's pretty much the same thing. Instead of getting into a position that your opponent knows better try to get into a position that you know better.

Let me give you few examples:

Let say you are going on a date, you can just go on about it as you usually do and have a small probability of success (whatever is success to you) or you can plan a strategy ahead of time so that you get into topics/places/positions where you know what to say/what to do in order to increase your chances of getting what you want. That means from booking the exact table at a restaurant to the exact time to the exact food you will order to exact drink you will drink. For instance, in my business no matter which city I go to for meeting the first thing I do is find the restaurant where my meeting will take place and I find the people that work there and hand one of them who will be there at that hour $10-$20 and tell him/her that I will be here tonite and if they could do XYZ (whatever I want them to do to set in the position I want the conversation to start with). This works like magic for dating and meetings because in every case I start in a position where I have the upper hand to set in the mood/tone.

This strategy of getting people into a position where you have got the upper hand is something that your next five moves should be all about. This book will help you do that.

6. Power Plays - If you are dealing with anything related to business and people in power then you have to understand that unless you are a born Machiavellian, you are going to face a lot of stress. You don't get on top just like that and once you are on top you don't stay on top just like that. I am not saying you have to do illegal stuff but you have to learn Power Plays. Pat shares some of his ideas and I also recommend you read 48 Laws of Power. A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about human nature. A great companion to that book would be Michael Korda's Power. Do not believe what people tell you about the game on top. The game on top is dominated by sharks, you can be a seal and get eaten or you can be a shark yourself not to bite others but to protect yourself from others.

I could write forever about Patrick and his ideas and how he changed my life but that would take thousands of pages, so I recommend you get this book and learn the art of thinking ahead of competition.

By the way, I have never met Patrick but it's one of my goals to meet him one day and shake his hand and thank him for changing my life. I would never be where I am today had I not found Valuetainment on YouTube.

Patrick you are a god send my friend and you are a great man on a great journey.

I’m amazed by the clarity written by Patrick on this book, it became a blueprint for how to plan and execute a growth path, balancing and connecting business and personal purpose. So far, this is the book I have the most amount of highlights because in every section I found valuable suggestions. It worth every page, for every level of leader who wants and strongly willing to succeed and have an impact.

Just a quick note: I have both the audiobook and hardcover versions and they are both very good. Patrick is a great narrator and I enjoyed his other two audiobooks, especially "Doing The Impossible: The 25 Laws for Doing The Impossible," as well.

This book is an excellent book to help those are uncertain about what they want out of life, how to start a business, maintain a business, and survive in a business environment. The book emphasizes self awareness, knowing what you ultimately want out of life and a job, and after that how to structure your career path around that if you are someone that want to run a company by giving the reader 5 moves to think about. The book is well thought out and recommendations are backed by life experience, but throughout the book the reader is told to use their own judgment and not to just take the recommendations as orders. The 5 moves are broken down as follows with some highlights I picked:

1. Know yourself: be self aware; know who you want to be, what you want in life. Do you want to be a CEO, intrapreneur (someone who is not necessarily a founder but a key member of building a company without being the CEO), an influencer, etc.? What drives you--job promotions, lifestyle, fame, helping others?

My favorite part of the book is actually here, right at the beginning. Patrick talks about how a heart attack his father had helped guide him to removing distractions out of his life and to focus on bettering his life and his family's life. Although based on the "Know yourself and what drives you" theme, it is obvious we all have a desire to have a nice life, and we all will have different definitions for what that may be. It is important to realize we have competing desires with our one for a better life, no matter how seemingly innocent they may be, and that we need to remove these competing desires as barriers to do the work and make the sacrifices necessary to fulfill our desire for a better life.

2. Ability to reason: the book speaks about great processors of information and gives 8 traits for them, but the first two are the ones that I find most important--ask lots of questions and don't care about being right or wrong initially, just in reaching the truth. I appreciate the frankness here because many people, not all, try to act like they know everything and have to be correct, both in business and in life, and they end up hurting their relationships and prospects of success do this. If those people would focus on improving and not worrying about how not knowing everything appears to others they would succeed more.

3. Building the right team: understand your teams desires; talks about firing people, which as someone who may not be a CEO but has worked with coworkers who should have been fired, I am glad he does not shy away from doing what is necessary for the good of the team; communicate expectations--you'd be surprised how many people/bosses do not do this and act angry when something is not completed at the time or in the fashion of their desire. By communicating expectations, the level of urgency and detail required for the task is conveyed and the employee knows exactly how to prioritize their work--for some bosses I've had, if they said to do something in an open ended fashion, they wanted progress to be done on it, but for the day to day tasks to take priority; others wanted it done and handed over to them with a quick turn around regardless of other tasks. People are not mind readers and clear communication can help avoid unnecessary friction.

4. Strategy to scale--raising capital; accountability; building systems for measurement and making things systematic to easily train the next wave of talent. My favorite parts were the respect shown for predictive analytics and recommendation of codifying your business methods to more easily train the next wave of talent in your company. If more company's took this approach, they'd save tons of time and grief (I have been on the receiving end of the grief due to poor training).

5. Power plays: beat the dominant entities of your industry and control your narrative and brand. This one has quite a few points to get into, but one thing I will like to point out is the point of not prostituting your brand. Patrick lives this. He does not talk about the company he runs, PHP, much on his Valutainment YouTube channel. He uses it when he draws on his life experiences, yes, but he does not promote it. This built my trust in him and I will vouch that he seems like an honest person that knows how to respect his viewers/readers/customers time and will not jerk them around.

He will make mention in the book to use your own judgement and not necessarily just go by what he says. He does not try to come across as a know it all, but as someone who has gone through many different situations, learned many things, come up with strategies for putting a situation in his favor, and being highly curious and willing to evolve and change his thinking. If you are looking for guidance on figuring out how you be self aware, aware of coworkers/employees desires, how to build a company, maintain it, and grow it, this will be a solid and perhaps even indispensable source of knowledge for you.

Your Next Five Moves

Watch the Documentary about that Chess player.

1. Master Knowing Yourself. Who do you want to be? Story about Body Total Fitness. Part of Strategy is having a back up plan in case yours doesn’t work.

2. The story about his father and the poor health care he was getting due to it being public health care.

3. I’m a nerd at heart. I love the fact I was a great student in high school. I never really embraced that. I didn’t know how. My self esteem was so low and I was always scared.

4. The busier you are the more organized your gotta be.

5. Do the personal identity audit at www.yourmextfivemoves.com

6. Most people fail to see, or don’t want to see, the pressure that comes with success (I can relate to this part and can write 1,000 books about it)

7. Gordon Bethune’s book From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental’s Remarkable Comeback.

8. The key to dealing with lions is challenging them.

9. If you want to be liked, if you find delight only in making people confortable, you are not cut out to deal with a lion (remember Lester?)

10. Momentum is BAE. Momentum and Phil Jackson. Treat it like a serious relationship. The Game of Numbers. Success Decease. Start stop. Insecurity. Identity. Self-esteem. Confidence.

11. Overdose with speed.

12. Non-negotiable traits: speed, execution, efficiency.

13. Always out-improve.

14. Laptop and internet increases speed.

15. “I go towards where the ball will be, not to where it has been” - Gretzky

16. Minimize regrets to the fullest.

17. Vice management

18. The Five Deadly Sins of an Entrepreneur

19. When are you going to look at the numbers?

20. Systems, systems, systems.

21. To scale your business, it’s not what works, but it’s duplicatable that matters. Video library.

22. Your numbers expose you in a great way: leaks and trends.

23. Trust numbers, not people.

24. “You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present.” From the book 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene

25. The Better You Do, The More Vulnerable You Are.

26. Staying Centered Despite Uncertainty (page 209 - three steps)

27. Manage Your Ego and Build Alliances (page 212)

28. Seek Wise Counsel (page 214)

29. How to Beat Goliath and Control the Narrative.

30. Social Media: when you post 1) really share yourself 2) challenge your audience to challenge your views 3) Ask them to share their thoughts 4) recommendations to solve problems 5) be consistent 6) be always align with who you are (page 226)

31. Be Shameless About Self-Promotion. Afraid of being wrong and humiliated? Consider the alternative: never being wrong and no one knowing who you are (page 227)

32. Fifteen (15) moves PBD made to improve his YouTube Channel (page 231)

33. Turn off the Noise and Cut The Fat - Sex and Revenue Producing Activities (page 233)

34. Future Truth Versus Positive Affirmations (page 235): INTERESTING

35. Incremental Growth

36. Study Mobsters: Negotiate, Sell, Influence

37. Cultivate Your Power, and Stay Battle Tested: Long term game of power (humility and service); shadow who you want to be; leadership is knowing what drives people; understand/position/lead and do not try to fix.

38. Checkmate: Leveling up means starting over at the bottom; use entrepreneurship to solve the world’s problems.

These are 38 takeaways I got from the book. Great book!

Patrick Bet David overcame arduous life circumstances as an immigrant to become a successful entrepreneur. He offers lots of practical advice and anecdotes to motivate you. In his case, his desire to achieve propelled him. He seems to have a manic personality - in his early 20’s he claims he went clubbing excessively and presumably his motivation was always burning - just misdirected. When he finally took accountability for his life and committed himself to achieve, his doggedness propelled him. The major takeaways from this book is to remain hungry for success, stay resilient and humble, try to predict future outcomes and prepare as best as you can for your future vision.