So, a lot of people have asked me lately, "How do you read so many books?" And the answer
isn't in what Britney does. So basically what Britney does is this... She watched a YouTube
video once, and she was told that she could read any book in two minutes. So all she has
to do for this is get the book, and then look at the cover, and then look inside the table
of contents, read that, and she's read the book. And she did this with The 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and now she tells everyone that she's read
the book. But the problem with this is that nothing that Britney read resonated with her.
So if you read, let's say, Habit 4: Think win-win, that doesn't really mean anything
to you until you hear about a person in business who used that to grow his business into something
great. And I'm not saying do what, who should we pick now, Bill, do what Bill does. So what
Bill does is he has to read every single word in the book, every single word! And if he
misses something, then he thinks he hasn't read the book. If he misses the part where,
you know like the author dedicates the books to his wife or something, he thinks that he
hasn't read the book. So I'm not saying that. But what I'm talking about is you have to
know the stories behind the principles for them to really resonate with you. So here's
one of the greatest changes that I have made in my life... And usually all the changes
that I make are really strategic, they come from strategy but this is sort of tactics,
like a really pragmatic tip for what you can do. So basically I looked at my life, and
I realized, "Well, I always have, everyday I have an hour of mundane stuff." So that
can be when you wake up and you get ready for work, or driving to work, or your lunch
break, or when you take a bath. And basically I realized there was an opportunity for me
to use that time to develop myself. So here's how it would work with some of my friends...
So a lot of my friends drive 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes back. So what you can
do is pick a book and let's again pick The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen
Covey and that will be a book that's about 10 hours, let's say. So what you do is you
put it at 2X the speed, which is pretty much double the tempo, so that gives you 5 hours
of listening time. And I've listened to so many books like that, it's not too fast. So
you listen to that and the total listening time is 5 hours, so what that person can do
is listen to it on the way to work and on the way back, and he's listened to an hour
in one day. So in 5 days, he will have finished the entire book. And there's always that one
person that's going to be, "Well, I don't have a 30 minute drive." Neither do I, but
look at your daily activities where you do the mundane things and use those, so I do
it when I take a bath and when I eat lunch, and that sort of a thing. And this is really
really powerful. You can read books in 3 to 5 days. And instead of being on your way to
work and thinking about how your boss is going to be an asshole yet again, you can be doing
that. So the two issues that I come across with this, and this is only 10% of the people
or I'd say even less that do this, are the following... The first one is, I always have
one person tell me, "That's too much. Why are you straining yourself, dude? Like that's
way too much." And they say something like, "I read a couple of books every year, and
I'm fine with that." And that's okay. I'm not going to criticize that, but that's what
I do when I play tennis for example. So I play tennis a couple of times a month, but
I would never go up to a professional tennis player, who's passionate about what he does,
and tell him, "Dude, why are you straining yourself? You know, just relax. You don't
have to practice that much." You know, it's the exact same thing. And reading is something
that I'm most passionate about because, it has really transformed my life. With every
book that I read, I become happier, I become financially stronger, physically stronger,
emotionally stronger. And the second issue that I come across with sometimes is this
whole thing of, I call it "pseudo-aristocrat problem." Basically a person that read a bunch
of Mark Twain back in the day or whatever, and he tells you, "You know, if you don't
read a book, then it doesn't count." And I have done both. I've read many books and I've
listened to many books, and I can tell you there is pretty much no real difference in
doing either one. And you have nothing to be ashamed of. Think about it this way...
You are having a conversation with one of the greatest minds that ever existed, that
ever existed! One of the greatest minds! And someone's telling you, "That's not the right
way to do it." Come on. So there is nothing to be ashamed of, and finally I want to end
it with, this is something that I've done a lot of research on. And I've practiced it,
I've tried different methods, and this is something that has been one of the most helpful
things that I have done. So if any of you have advice on how you do things that can
help me, and not only just me but everyone else in regards to this, please share so everyone
can benefit.