The Best $20 I Ever Spent: A Book That Made Me a Millionaire
Written by
Cindy Lamothe
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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What if $20 could set you on the path to your first million? Sounds almost too good to be true — but there’s a book out there that just might do it.
A small investment like this comes with potentially huge returns: Ideas, strategies and insights that could change the way you think about money — and maybe even your life.
GOBankingRates spoke with Vitaly Yagodkin, founder and CEO of PhotoGov, about the best $20 book that set him on his own path to wealth.
“Good to Great” by Jim Collins
“When I was building PhotoGov, one of the books that truly changed my approach to business was ‘Good to Great‘ by Jim Collins,” said Yagodkin.
He said the first, and probably most famous, quote from it that has stuck in his head forever is: “Good is the enemy of great.”
One Lesson He Learned: Normalcy Is a Trap
Yagodkin explained that at first, everything seemed fine for his company: The product was working, customers were happy, and revenue was growing.
But this very sense of normalcy turned out to be a trap.
“The book made me wonder: What if ‘good’ was the ceiling, actually preventing us from becoming truly great?’ Collins argued that great companies succeed not by doing a lot of things but by doing everything well,” Yagodkin said.
Putting the Lesson Learned into Action
Following the above realization, Yagodkin forced his team to focus intensely on one goal: PhotoGov had to become the best tool in the world for document photos — not just another AI service that bungled photo editing.
“We cut unnecessary features, streamlined our processes for quality and stability, and that became our turning point,” according to CEO.
Other Crucial Rules He Learned From the Book
“I stopped being the sole problem-solver and began building a system where everyone on the team is accountable for the result, rather than waiting for instructions,” said Yagodkin.
He explained that when you aren’t dependent on one person, you unlock the ability to grow. Consequently, he also learned three crucial rules from the book that he still applies today.
One of them is the “Hedgehog Concept”: Do one thing, but do it exceptionally well. Another is to not be afraid of mistakes; instead, you need to build a system around them, rather than simply trying to avoid them.
And most importantly, focus not on random, fleeting results, but on the results of sustained, hard work.
“We consciously stopped chasing quantity and started prioritizing quality,” Yagodkin concluded.
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