By Gabe Salinas, Founder of Window Ninjas
If you look back at the books you read this year, can you see the person you became?
I can.
This year, books didn’t just entertain me, they transformed me. They sharpened my leadership. They expanded my vision. They punched me in the gut with truth. They challenged my excuses. And they elevated the man, the husband, the father, the entrepreneur, the mentor that I am becoming.
So this week, instead of giving you the usual Book of the Week, I’m giving you the Book of the Year Edition… the top 5 books that shifted my thinking, reshaped my habits, and fueled the Window Ninjas machine.
These aren’t just books I read.
These are books I lived.
Let’s dive in.
1. Elon Musk – Walter Isaacson
Relentless vision, unreasonable standards, and one dangerous question: Why not?
Reading about Elon Musk is like drinking battery acid and gasoline at the same time. It burns… in a good way.
This book slapped me awake to the level of intensity required to build world-changing companies. Musk’s life isn’t glamorous. It’s pressure, risk, obsession, and drive that refuses to take a day off.
The biggest takeaway?
Constraints create clarity. Pressure creates greatness. Vision demands sacrifice.
I finished this book with one thought:
I’m playing big, but I can play even bigger.
Golden Squeegee Rating: 5/5
2. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
Art, obsession, perfection, and the power of seeing the invisible
Jobs was a storm. Emotional. Irrational. Hard to work with. But he was also a genius who could see the world as it should be, not as it was.
The lesson for me?
Greatness requires taste. Taste requires standards. Standards require courage.
Jobs didn’t just build products. He built experiences. He built feelings. He built a lifestyle people wanted to buy into.
This book pushed me to level up the Window Ninjas brand. To obsess over the details. To build a franchise experience so clean, so consistent, and so dialed in that customers can feel it.
Golden Squeegee Rating: 4.7/5
3. Outlive – Dr. Peter Attia
Longevity is not luck, it is strategy, discipline, and ownership.
Health is wealth… and this book made me realize how much wealth I was leaving on the table.
Outlive hit me in the soul. The chapters on sleep, muscle mass, VO₂ max, and emotional health forced me to take responsibility for my long game. It’s not about living longer. It’s about living better for the years you have left.
This book changed my workouts.
It changed my evenings.
It changed my mindset.
My biggest takeaway?
Your future health is built today, one choice at a time.
Golden Squeegee Rating: 4.5/5
4. Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
Grit, risk, failure, near collapse… and the birth of Nike.
If you want a book that grips you like a thriller, this is it. Phil Knight almost lost everything a thousand times. Nike was built on passion, wild ideas, broken rules, and pure stubbornness.
This book reminded me of my own early days with Window Ninjas. The long nights. The risks. The doubts. The moments where quitting looked easier but losing was unacceptable.
Knight’s story proves one thing:
Success is never clean. It is messy, painful, expensive, and worth every drop of sweat you put into it.
Golden Squeegee Rating: 5/5
5. Outwitting the Devil – Napoleon Hill
Fear, drifting, discipline, and the mental war you must win before you win anything else.
This book turned my brain inside out.
Hill explains how fear and poverty, criticism and failure, keeps people stuck for life. And then he introduces the idea of drifters, people who move through life without direction… and how dangerous drifting really is.
This book punched me in the face with awareness.
My biggest takeaway?
If you don’t discipline your mind, the world will happily discipline it for you.
This one is a must-read for anyone who feels stuck or wants to understand the psychology of success.
Golden Squeegee Rating: 4.8/5
Honorable Mentions:
Books that didn’t make the Top 5 but absolutely deserve recognition.
Super Agers – Eric Topol
This book made me rethink aging, health, and longevity. If you want to stay sharp, strong, and capable into your later years, read it!
The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel
One of the most important money books ever written. Simple, human, relatable. It forces you to understand your own beliefs about wealth, scarcity, and financial behavior.
10x Is Easier Than 2x – Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy
This one changed how I goal-set. It proved that playing small is actually harder. Thinking bigger simplifies your decisions. This book ignited the next chapter of Window Ninjas franchising.
What All These Books Had in Common
I didn’t pick these books because they were easy.
I picked them because they changed me.
Each one hammered home a theme:
You become who you study.
Read about Musk, you start thinking bigger.
Read about Jobs, you start raising your standards.
Read Attia, you prioritize health.
Read Knight, you embrace the grind.
Read Hill, you conquer your mind.
Read Hardy, you expand your goals.
Read Housel, you rewire how you think about money.
This year, I didn’t just read books.
I added new weapons to my arsenal.
Gabe’s Book Of The Year Takeaway
If you want next year to be different,
you have to think differently.
If you want to grow,
you have to feed your mind the information that forces growth.
Books are mentors.
Books are mirrors.
Books are roadmaps.
Every major breakthrough in my life, from franchising Window Ninjas, to becoming a better leader, to optimizing my health, started with a book.
One Challenge for You:
Pick 12 life-altering books to read in 2026.
One per month.
Non-negotiable.
Your year will look different.
Your mind will operate differently.
Your results will explode.
Final Thought
This was one of my greatest years of reading.
Not because of how many books I finished,
but because of how many books finished me
and rebuilt me into someone stronger.
2026 is going to be massive.
Not by accident.
By intention.
Keep reading.
Keep growing.
Keep Shining.
