Mohamed El Hadri's Books: MIDDLEMAN, THE EDGE and The Family Secret

I've written three books and you've probably only heard of one. Here's all three in one place: what each one actually is, what it costs, and which one you open first. No ranking, no "my best work". Each does a different job.

Who's writing this

I'm Mohamed El Hadri. Also @mointhemarket on Instagram, if that's where you found this. I started on the tools in construction, then went and built a property maintenance company in London that worked for housing associations and letting agents, using a network of subcontractors. I ran the back office, the subbies did the physical work, and the gap between what the client paid and what the job cost was the business.

For a long time I thought owning that company meant owning a business. It took me a while to see it was closer to owning a job that happened to carry staff. Working that out, slowly and the hard way, is most of what these three books are actually about. I just tell it three different ways.

Three books came out of that gap. They don't say the same thing three times. They're three different angles on one argument, because not everyone takes a lesson in the same way and I'm not going to pretend they do.

MIDDLEMAN: the 48 laws, on paper or in your ears

Start here if you read. MIDDLEMAN is the one with the laws in it: 7 x 7 = 48, the maths wrong on purpose, 48 laws spread across 7 floors, plus a sealed 49th floor. Each floor is a stage of the climb, from learning to see the middlemen already standing around you, up to owning a position nobody can go around.

The ebook is $6.99: an ePub and a PDF together, no DRM, delivered the second you pay. No subscription, no account to make, one payment and both files are yours. The first floor, seven laws, is free by email if you want to read before you spend anything.

It's also out in hardcover, paperback and Kindle through Amazon, and as a listening edition on ElevenReader if forty-eight laws in a sitting isn't your idea of a good night. Read about MIDDLEMAN here.

THE EDGE: the one you listen to, not read

THE EDGE is the one you listen to, not read. It's Volume One of what I learned about money after I put the tools down, and it was built to be heard, not read. Twenty-four chapters across five parts, on ElevenReader, the reading app from ElevenLabs. You open the link, press play, and a chapter runs while you drive to site or lie there at midnight because an invoice didn't land.

The first chapters are free, no card needed. The full book is $4.99. I made it to be heard, not read, because the time most tradesmen have spare is in the van, not at a desk. It covers the float, the payment rules, and winning work without being the cheapest name on the quote list.

Listen to THE EDGE on ElevenReader.

The Family Secret: the one you can't buy

The Family Secret is the 49th law, the one MIDDLEMAN seals shut on purpose. It's how construction arbitrage really works, the version certain families keep in the back room and never write down. I haven't made the decision to publish it publicly yet.

There's no price on it, because there's nothing to sell. It's shared with the inner circle only, people who write to me directly and tell me what they're building and why they want in. I read every letter myself. Write me a letter and request entry.

Sell the hour and you have to turn up again tomorrow. Own the customer and you can pay someone else to turn up instead.

Which one do you actually start with

Depends what you've got free right now, not what you wish you had.

• Got ten minutes and like to read: start with the first floor of MIDDLEMAN, free by email.
• Got an hour in the van and nothing for your ears to do: start THE EDGE free on ElevenReader.
• Already run your own trade business and want the part I haven't told yet: request entry to The Family Secret, though that one is by invitation, not by download.

MIDDLEMAN and THE EDGE don't need each other to make sense. Read or listen to whichever one matches the ten minutes you've actually got today.

What the three books agree on

The question behind all three is the same: are you selling the hour, or do you own the customer? The man who sells his hours is capped by the hours he's got. The man who owns the doorway isn't. MIDDLEMAN gives you the laws of that doorway. THE EDGE gives you the mechanics, the float and the payment rules, of running one inside a real trade business. The Family Secret, when I let someone in, gives them the part before all of that: how a family keeps the doorway for generations instead of just one climb.

MIDDLEMAN and THE EDGE are both available right now. The Family Secret stays inside the inner circle until I decide otherwise.

If the books aren't enough

Some people finish a book and want the discussion that comes after it, not just the next chapter. That's what Contractor Club is for: operators building their own trade businesses, trading notes on the same gap the books are about. For more on the gap between the work and the money, read Construction Arbitrage.

Where to go next

If you want the step by step on becoming a middleman in the first place, read how to become a middleman. If you want the bigger argument underneath all three books, read how the rich get richer. For the full staircase, start with MIDDLEMAN and the first floor, free by email.

Got an hour and nothing to read it with? Listen to THE EDGE on ElevenReader, free to start tonight.