I used to read a lot as a child. My grandma had a big library and every day I would spend at least a couple of hours reading about pirates, Indians, musketeers or whoever else I happened to come across on my armchair journeys. Then I went to high school and just about stopped reading altogether. I got involved with a bad crowd, and at one point in time, could safely assume that none of my closest friends have ever read anything of substance. Does that sound familiar? Most people start out right, but then lose their way before finally finding it again. Kind of like most self-made millionaires at some point lose their fortunes before finally becoming rich again, this time for good. Life’s got a funny way of testing our strength and showing us a little contrast to make us really appreciate that which we have finally come to possess. The good news is that if you’re reading this, you have found your way (again) or at the very least, are on your way to finding it.
But as I was saying, before I was even out of my teens, I was on a narrow path to nowhere. Then one day, something happened that changed everything. I accidentally came across a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It wasn’t exactly a small book, but once I opened it, I was literally unable to put it down until I finished reading. The outcome can best be described as getting hit over the head with a frying pan. A heavy one. Many, many times over. In other words, my life flashed in front of my eyes and I finally realized how ridiculously stupid I was to have stopped reading. If I learned so much from one book, how much more was out there?!
Some people brag about having too much spare time, but I say that's nothing to brag about. The world is a giant place. That word doesn't really do it justice, but it's the best I could think of. If we have too much spare time, then it's not because there's nothing to do with it, but because we don't know what to do with it. There is so much to learn, so much to experience out there that we couldn't even get a basic grasp of most things if we spent ten lifetimes learning. That’s why it’s commonly accepted that it's the people who claim to know everything that usually know nothing. That's because they've barely even started learning and don't realize how much they still don’t know.
And I’m not even talking about general knowledge that can hardly be applied to real life. I'm talking about specialized knowledge, or rock-solid, useful knowledge that can make a huge difference and even completely turn our lives around. I mean literally turn someone from say, a fat loser with a dead-end job and a one-way ticket to a lonely death at a poorhouse, into the happiest and most successful guy that anyone he knows has ever met. Success at everything we currently think is out of our reach, at things we attribute to luck or natural talent, is actually within our grasp. It always has been. There is no luck, and persistence is ten times more powerful than talent. Seduction is just one example. Making millions of dollars is another. Getting ripped like a fitness mag model is yet another. The list is only limited by the extent of our imagination.
Here's an analogy we can all easily relate to. Most people think that approaching a random girl on the street and walking off with her number minutes later is a pipe dream. We know that not to be the case. We have proven, tested methods for accomplishing this, methods that can be learned and followed by anyone. There is a series of steps, and if they are followed, so will success. We're seductionists, and among us, these steps are commonly known, but outside of our community, they "don't exist." Likewise, most people think making millions of dollars by the time they hit middle age is a pipe dream. In reality, there are proven, tested methods for accomplishing this that exist among millionaires but are unheard of outside their circles. The way some people think these methods don’t exist is comparable to the way AFCs think methods for laying girls on the day of meeting them don't exist either. Few things are as dangerous as ignorance.
So why are there guys who aren't getting laid? Guys who aren't (at the very least) making six figures by the time they're out of their twenties? Guys who don’t exactly look like cover boys? Two reasons and only two reasons. The first is lack of understanding of the fact that armed with solid information and every bit as importantly, undying persistence, absolutely nothing is out of their reach. The second is lack of solid information, obviously caused by lack of the right sources of such information. Unfortunately, unless they’re already seducers, millionaires or bodybuilders, their closest friends are often far from being the right kind of sources. Would we take dating advice from our AFC buddies? Precisely. And that's where books come in. They allow us to dig into the minds of those who know. Know truly, deeply, better than anyone, how to get whatever it is we're after. Books give us access to the grand sum of the knowledge of our species - collected, combined and concentrated over millions of lifetimes, and finally passed on to is in form of something we can buy for the price of a meal. Fascinating, isn’t it?
To better illustrate this point, imagine having Donald Trump among our closest friends and having him offer to spend day and night telling us everything he knows about getting rich. Would we listen? Of course, who in their right mind would turn down an offer like that!? So why is it that some of us have never even considered reading any of his books? How can we so easily walk right by them in a bookstore, on the way to check out the babes on the covers of fitness magazines? This is a man who has spent his entire life learning everything there is to know about becoming fantastically rich by using opportunities that others would walk right by, because they haven’t spend their entire lives learning how to become fantastically rich, or allowed him to teach them through one of his books. The opportunities presented to us by books really are that simple, abundant and easily accessible. All we have to do is take them.
So here’s your chance. I’ve made up a small list of books that I consider to be absolutely essential to one’s development as an individual and the advancement of one’s goals. Nearly all of them have large followings of people who swear by them as being books that have changed their lives. You don’t have to go far to confirm that – just check the reviews on Amazon. There have been more colossal fortunes single-handedly attributed to Think and Grow Rich for instance, than any other book ever written. Some of these books, like the one I just mentioned, are “main” books, and others delve a little deeper into individual concepts. Nevertheless, all are equally important, and each contains pieces that will eventually form the jigsaw puzzle that is success and happiness. Feel free to contribute to this list: surely I’ve missed countless great books, and I’d like to have them on this list so that I can eventually read them myself. Enjoy!
Allen, James - As A Man Thinketh
Blanton, Brad - Radical Honesty
Carnegie, James - How to Win Friends and Influence People
Clason, George - The Richest Man in Babylon
Coue, Emile - Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion
Covey, Stephen - Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Greene, Robert - 48 Laws of Power
Gurdjieff, Georges - An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man
Hill, Napoleon - Think and Grow Rich
Kehoe, John - Mind Power into the 21st Century
Kiyosaki, Robert - Cashflow Quadrant
Kiyosaki, Robert - Rich Dad Poor Dad
Machiavelli, Niccolo - The Prince
Mandino, Og - Greatest Salesman in the World
Murphy, Joseph - The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Musashi, Miyamoto - Book of Five Rings
Nance, Jef - Conquering Deception
Robbins, Tony - Awaken the Giant Within
Robbins, Tony - Unlimited Power
Tzu, Sun - The Art of War
Various - Crucial Confrontations
Various - In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
But as I was saying, before I was even out of my teens, I was on a narrow path to nowhere. Then one day, something happened that changed everything. I accidentally came across a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It wasn’t exactly a small book, but once I opened it, I was literally unable to put it down until I finished reading. The outcome can best be described as getting hit over the head with a frying pan. A heavy one. Many, many times over. In other words, my life flashed in front of my eyes and I finally realized how ridiculously stupid I was to have stopped reading. If I learned so much from one book, how much more was out there?!
Some people brag about having too much spare time, but I say that's nothing to brag about. The world is a giant place. That word doesn't really do it justice, but it's the best I could think of. If we have too much spare time, then it's not because there's nothing to do with it, but because we don't know what to do with it. There is so much to learn, so much to experience out there that we couldn't even get a basic grasp of most things if we spent ten lifetimes learning. That’s why it’s commonly accepted that it's the people who claim to know everything that usually know nothing. That's because they've barely even started learning and don't realize how much they still don’t know.
And I’m not even talking about general knowledge that can hardly be applied to real life. I'm talking about specialized knowledge, or rock-solid, useful knowledge that can make a huge difference and even completely turn our lives around. I mean literally turn someone from say, a fat loser with a dead-end job and a one-way ticket to a lonely death at a poorhouse, into the happiest and most successful guy that anyone he knows has ever met. Success at everything we currently think is out of our reach, at things we attribute to luck or natural talent, is actually within our grasp. It always has been. There is no luck, and persistence is ten times more powerful than talent. Seduction is just one example. Making millions of dollars is another. Getting ripped like a fitness mag model is yet another. The list is only limited by the extent of our imagination.
Here's an analogy we can all easily relate to. Most people think that approaching a random girl on the street and walking off with her number minutes later is a pipe dream. We know that not to be the case. We have proven, tested methods for accomplishing this, methods that can be learned and followed by anyone. There is a series of steps, and if they are followed, so will success. We're seductionists, and among us, these steps are commonly known, but outside of our community, they "don't exist." Likewise, most people think making millions of dollars by the time they hit middle age is a pipe dream. In reality, there are proven, tested methods for accomplishing this that exist among millionaires but are unheard of outside their circles. The way some people think these methods don’t exist is comparable to the way AFCs think methods for laying girls on the day of meeting them don't exist either. Few things are as dangerous as ignorance.
So why are there guys who aren't getting laid? Guys who aren't (at the very least) making six figures by the time they're out of their twenties? Guys who don’t exactly look like cover boys? Two reasons and only two reasons. The first is lack of understanding of the fact that armed with solid information and every bit as importantly, undying persistence, absolutely nothing is out of their reach. The second is lack of solid information, obviously caused by lack of the right sources of such information. Unfortunately, unless they’re already seducers, millionaires or bodybuilders, their closest friends are often far from being the right kind of sources. Would we take dating advice from our AFC buddies? Precisely. And that's where books come in. They allow us to dig into the minds of those who know. Know truly, deeply, better than anyone, how to get whatever it is we're after. Books give us access to the grand sum of the knowledge of our species - collected, combined and concentrated over millions of lifetimes, and finally passed on to is in form of something we can buy for the price of a meal. Fascinating, isn’t it?
To better illustrate this point, imagine having Donald Trump among our closest friends and having him offer to spend day and night telling us everything he knows about getting rich. Would we listen? Of course, who in their right mind would turn down an offer like that!? So why is it that some of us have never even considered reading any of his books? How can we so easily walk right by them in a bookstore, on the way to check out the babes on the covers of fitness magazines? This is a man who has spent his entire life learning everything there is to know about becoming fantastically rich by using opportunities that others would walk right by, because they haven’t spend their entire lives learning how to become fantastically rich, or allowed him to teach them through one of his books. The opportunities presented to us by books really are that simple, abundant and easily accessible. All we have to do is take them.
So here’s your chance. I’ve made up a small list of books that I consider to be absolutely essential to one’s development as an individual and the advancement of one’s goals. Nearly all of them have large followings of people who swear by them as being books that have changed their lives. You don’t have to go far to confirm that – just check the reviews on Amazon. There have been more colossal fortunes single-handedly attributed to Think and Grow Rich for instance, than any other book ever written. Some of these books, like the one I just mentioned, are “main” books, and others delve a little deeper into individual concepts. Nevertheless, all are equally important, and each contains pieces that will eventually form the jigsaw puzzle that is success and happiness. Feel free to contribute to this list: surely I’ve missed countless great books, and I’d like to have them on this list so that I can eventually read them myself. Enjoy!
Allen, James - As A Man Thinketh
Blanton, Brad - Radical Honesty
Carnegie, James - How to Win Friends and Influence People
Clason, George - The Richest Man in Babylon
Coue, Emile - Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion
Covey, Stephen - Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Greene, Robert - 48 Laws of Power
Gurdjieff, Georges - An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man
Hill, Napoleon - Think and Grow Rich
Kehoe, John - Mind Power into the 21st Century
Kiyosaki, Robert - Cashflow Quadrant
Kiyosaki, Robert - Rich Dad Poor Dad
Machiavelli, Niccolo - The Prince
Mandino, Og - Greatest Salesman in the World
Murphy, Joseph - The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Musashi, Miyamoto - Book of Five Rings
Nance, Jef - Conquering Deception
Robbins, Tony - Awaken the Giant Within
Robbins, Tony - Unlimited Power
Tzu, Sun - The Art of War
Various - Crucial Confrontations
Various - In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching
