UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS (WITH BOOKS, AUDIOS, VIDEOS…)
When you can’t meet the person you’d like to spend time with—at least for now—you can still learn from them. Make the most of books, podcasts, courses, social media, eBooks, videos, articles, audio books—most of which are either free or very affordable. What a time to be alive!
Pursuit of knowledge has never been easier than it is now, as technological advances mean we can access an indefinite amount of information at our fingertips. There’s a common misconception about learning. Somewhere throughout history, it became associated with formal education. Unfortunately, our society is teaching people that graduating from high school and college is all that’s needed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are colleges a major financial scam, especially in the US, but they only bring you out-of-date theoretical knowledge.
I’m talking about business, of course. It’s another story if you plan to be a doctor, a chemist, an architect. In an ever-changing market and a rapidly evolving world, it’s more important than ever to stay competitive and up to date. And it’s so simple to OUTLEARN them all! I can tell you this as someone who’s entered many industries despite not knowing a single thing about them.
Do you want to know how I became an investment banker? I wanted to sell a business of mine, and I just discovered that it was worth close to nothing. I didn’t understand the reason why, as one of my peers in the same industry just had sold his business similar to mine in size, for almost half a million.
I went for a walk alone to clear my mind, when I passed by a Porsche dealership. I’ve always liked German cars. I walked in and looked at the cars; some were new, some were used. Prices ranged from $30k to $400K! The salesman asked me if he could help. I told him that I found it crazy how they all looked the same, despite the significant difference in price. He smirked and went on to explain why they were in fact very different and that although there were many similarities, Porsche enthusiasts knew exactly what to look at, to determine the value of each of them at a glance.
“Wait … can you repeat what you just said?” I asked. He said it again: “They all look the same, but EXPERTS know how to value each of them at a glance.”
THAT was it! I had just made the connection with my business. To an undiscerning eye, the business of the guy I knew who sold it for almost half a million and MY business looked very similar. But from an expert’s point of view, his business was worth 10x more than mine. It was all of a sudden obvious that several other factors were involved in the valuation of a company, beyond what they look like, as was the case for these cars. At the time, I had no clue as to what those factors were.
The salesman started listing the differences, such as the year of the model, the engine, and so on … which I didn’t give a crap about. I could feel my heart beating as I was processing all my thoughts. To know exactly what makes a business valuable … what makes the difference … which criteria to look at … I needed to be the equivalent of a Porsche expert but for businesses!
The sales rep ended by asking what I did for a living. My answer was: “I’m in Mergers and Acquisitions.” I’d just made my decision on the spot. To know exactly what makes a business a valuable business, I needed to be an insider. I’d made up my mind. As soon as I got out of there, I ordered some books, locked myself away at home, and delved into them as a priest studies the Holy Scriptures.
Long story short, that’s how:
If you want to know more about my journey in the finance world, you can go right here:
It all started by self-teaching. Compacting time, I intensely immersed myself in the M&A world, and unknowingly established the basis of this capital principle of The 400-Hour Workweek, instead of spending years in expensive business schools. Today I can help any owner of a business that makes up to low nine figures in revenue to grow, sell, or buy a company; and I can do so better than any certified or chartered advisor from Goldman Sachs or McKinsey—because those people don’t actually have any idea of what being a business owner FEELS like.
Bear in mind, I’m a high-school dropout. Everything I’ve learned is self-taught. It’s not hindered me, or thousands of others for that matter.
Many people may think there’s simply no extra time to learn anything more, while others prioritize the creation of time in their hectic lives each day to educate themselves on new concepts and ideas. These individuals understand the importance of creating plentiful opportunities in all spheres of life. This is where the self-starters get ahead. They understand the importance of time management and prioritizing daily growth. They’re constantly striving to learn more and do things differently. This competitive edge propels them to success in other areas of life.
There are many simple, effective, and realistic ways to implement daily learning, and it doesn’t necessarily always come at an inconvenience to you. Learning on the go has actually never been easier. For those who are auditory learners, audio books are perfect while stuck in traffic on that forty-five-minute commute to and from work, or while going about other mundane business, such as household chores or when you’re getting ready for work first thing on a morning.
Think about all the time you spend driving, commuting, working out, or waiting in a long checkout line. You could be listening to a podcast or reading a few pages of a book of your choice. A simple fifteen minutes a day would have you completing a new book every other week. It’s estimated that Americans are spending around twenty hours every week on social media. Imagine spending that time on your craft or your personal enrichment. By changing your habits and mindset, you could learn to speak five languages and be the font of all knowledge.
So, what’s the process?
Learning has to become an obsession or habit. What’s an easy way to help build a habit …? Schedule it.
That’s first and foremost. Second, you must be willing to expand your mind. Rid yourself of assumptions and your limiting convictions so that you can be open and receptive to new information. This at times may even contradict what you have always believed. But in being mentally agile, you’ll eventually come across information that challenges your biases and worldview. Digging deeper will separate you from the crowd and allow you to see the value in developing an independent mind.
Live to LEARN, and you’ll learn to LIVE.
Actually, the only thing you can’t afford not to do is to LEARN. And never, EVER forget: learning something aren’t empty words; they have meaning! To learn means to change your behavior. If you don’t change your life, it’s not learning. It’s entertaining.
Improve. Boost. Upgrade. Strengthen. Refine.
Actually, becoming better might be the very meaning of our lives. If it’s not, well, it sure feels close.
Someone once told me the definition of hell: the last day you have on earth, the person you became meets the person you could have become.
Think about it:
a 1% daily improvement, when compounded, would double your results every seventy-two days.
In other words, you become five times better every year. Don’t underestimate the value of micro-improvements, as long as it’s regular and consistent.
With self-teaching, your growth is limitless—contrary to having a mentor, where you can never be better than them because they represent a kind of a ceiling. That’s why I call this the LIMITLESS METHOD: if every day, you become just 1% better than you were yesterday, your personal growth becomes infinite.
READING VS STUDYING
How many times have you heard somebody telling you that they read one or two or three books per week, or maybe even one book a day? If it’s a novel, no problem. You can easily digest 200–300 pages of a novel twice per week if you make some room in your planning. But if we’re talking about business books, or personal development books, there’s a problem. A big problem. My question is:
What do they mean by reading?
I mean, the main, or maybe sole purpose of reading business and personal development books is to get better by learning something. The process looks like something like this: we read; we implement; we get results; and we reread and refine. Thus, we get better results. It’s a process that takes time: whatever you want to change in your business, you have to understand it, plan it, find and train the right person to do it, analyze it, redo it, reanalyze it.
Now if you tell me you read one or two business or personal development books per week, there are two possibilities:
In both cases, you should ask yourself what the purpose of reading a book is. Now, there’s also a third possibility: there were great ideas in the book that you do plan to implement LATER—later meaning never most of the time—in which case you should postpone the reading of any other material and focus instead on the insights that you can start implementing RIGHT AWAY.
“The problem with tomorrow is that I have never seen a tomorrow. Tomorrow does not exist. Tomorrow only exist in the mind of dreamers and losers.”
– Robert KIYOSAKI –
I want you to imagine someone who’s read hundreds of business or personal development books (maybe this person is you). Can you imagine where this person or their business would be if they’d followed and implemented all the instructions in there? There are a few possibilities to consider: (1) either this person has had tremendous results in business, or (2) the books they’ve read were all useless. But a third possibility is more often than not the sad reality: (3) the books were useful, but this person didn’t get any results … because they didn’t apply anything they’d read, thinking, “I’ll do it later. For now, let’s grab another book.”
What I want you to understand is that browsing is not reading, which is not studying, which is not experiencing.
There are four levels of reading:
Look at the last two or three books you’ve read. What was your level of reading? Why?
The same principles apply to going to conferences or taking online courses.
Are you browsing, taking some good time, and avoiding taking action? Or are you really committed to implementing what you’re reading?
If you’re in the latter camp, then there’s no need to take another course or book any other conference until you’ve applied the knowledge you’ve already learned, and transformed your business.
Going back to the initial example, if someone tells you they read two books per week, what this person is talking about is either Level 1 or Level 2 reading. Reading one book per week at Level 3 on a regular basis is almost impossible if you’re working full time. Not to mention Level 4.
As long as we’re not talking about the recreational reading of novels and, say, other classical works of fiction, reading is not an end in itself. The purpose of reading development books and business books is to access the mind of an expert on a topic that is of interest to us, to be able to transform something in our lives and create a positive impact.
If this expert was a good friend or family member, we would have direct access to them, and we wouldn’t even need the book. The book is just the medium, the tool that allows us to pick the brain of our targeted expert. Now imagine this friend or family member were to spend multiple hours of their personal time teaching you. Once the teaching is done, you can easily conceive that they’d also like to follow up with you, to know where you’re at in the execution phase. What would you have to show for all your mentoring? How different is your business thanks to what you’ve learned?
Now, I understand that reading has other benefits, in particular with regards to literacy skills. Learning new words, and therefore USING them, regularly allows us to expand our vocabulary and use the exact ones that correspond to our ideas, to be able to clearly and precisely articulate our thoughts. Expanding our repertoire of words means expanding our vision. No less. That’s why I always encourage people to read, especially the younger generation, regardless of format or genre.
I have nothing against reading classic texts. In fact, quite the opposite. Actually, if I had the time, I’d be quite happy to spend all my life reading books and doing nothing else. I like books more than anything else; I’ve read since I was six; and everybody in my family is a big reader. In actual fact, I’ve had to make an enormous effort and take measures to avoid spending too much of my life reading books.
When you do something, whatever activity you undertake, I want you to understand where you are. You can read between the lines when someone is talking about reading one or two books per week. Are they really reading with INTENT? Or is it that this person is in the business of reading books but not applying anything?
Reading a book, like taking a course, going to school, or getting trained, isn’t about knowing. It’s a transformational process. It’s about becoming. The more ENERGY, TIME, and MONEY you sacrifice, the more chances there are you’ll CHANGE and become who you want to be. You must always give something to get something. Value doesn’t just spontaneously burst into existence.
If you plan to transform your life, you have to read books at Level 4. Read, live, and breathe them. Or at least, at Level 3, if it’s something that will be valuable for you later, make sure later is not never. Schedule it.
That’s why you should choose the business and personal development books you read very carefully. Ask yourself if what you’ll study is something you can implement right away. Besides, once you’ve read about 40% of a book, if you think there’s nothing new to implement for you, throw it away. Don’t hesitate. There are tons of valuable books out there, with tons of things to implement.
WARNING: there’s a time for PREPARATION, and there’s a time for ACTION. Most of your time must be devoted to ACTION. Upgrading your skills is imperative, but that’s all PREPARATION. Don’t confuse the two. Be like Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible—do everything to get ready, but don’t spend all your time in preparation! Once you know what needs to be done, do it! Action time. Time for reflection has passed. Some people fool themselves by learning things they’ll never use in their lives; that’s just to avoid taking action and doing the hard work.