I Read 200 Books, Why Am I Not a Millionaire?

[mikecarlooch]

I feel like I need to throw this commitment out there into the universe to make it seem more real.

And anyone who wants to do this challenge with me, I'll call it the 1 for 10 challenge.

From now on, reading = entertainment. If you're reading something and it is not going to help you solve something that is right in front of you, it is entertainment, not progressive.

I'm sure many people can relate to this - have you read like 100+ books and FEEL smarter after reading them, but then just go on to the next book because you still feel "incomplete" about business?

Yea, it's cool to impress your friends with, when you pull out some cool wacky tactic from a hypnotic sales book - but did that make you $$..? No.

If reading was what creates fastlane millionaires, don't you think all of us who read for the sake of constantly "learning" about business would be millionaires many times over?

As a matter of fact, I think it was on @Kak or @Vigilante podcast (I don't remember which) I believe they were talking about how Sara Blakely (i think it was her) got through Walmart gatekeepers by doing something that she didn't KNOW she WASN'T supposed to do and that was the big launch to her brand.. Because the thing that everybody else knew they weren't supposed to do WORKED for her when she did it..

As someone who reads a lot, trying to get every damn needle in the haystack of every book, I often find myself denying myself of a lot of actions based on what I've read in books, which causes analysis paralysis and inaction. Starting to realize just how much time it has sucked up.

@Antifragile said it best, that he reads a lot but he doesn't do it to "make money". He does it as a hobby, to keep his mind sharp and enjoy the process.

It REALLY is exactly like Mike Tyson said - "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face".

Information from a book you read the previous day feels good in the moment but then usually, trying to remember it and apply it just goes out the window because you're like "how in the world do I do this?"..

There are those few books that really stick with you - but how many of those have you been like "DAMN this is LIFE CHANGING!" and then two weeks later not even remember reading the book?

So here's what I'm committing to and challenging others who feel this way too - long bouts of reading are now "Netflix" time. They can be enjoyable times at the end of the day to relax when normally you'd start getting tired & unproductive. It can be a replacement from that dog crap TLC 90 day fiance mental junk food.

1 hour of studying = 10 hours of work. Unless it solves an immediate problem.

I think another thing we all need to remember is that for every single person in a book saying one thing, there are 10 others saying something else, and then there are 10 others saying something ELSE. I feel like some of us may get sucked into this facade that there's a right way of doing anything. There are 8 billion different perspectives on the planet.

To one person, carnivore diet is the best thing ever. To another person, vegan is the best thing ever. It's pretty crazy to think about, that there is no right or wrong way of doing things, and that everything we do on this planet are based on our own accumulation of life experiences that create what we believe.

So naturally, if we go out and take on a ton of conflicting viewpoints with one group saying something is bad, and another saying it's good, won't that cause us to feel.. A little stuck if we're unable to take those conflicting viewpoints and just do what we think is right for us?

 

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[Rangermac2]

It REALLY is exactly like Mike Tyson said - "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face".

Information from a book you read the previous day feels good in the moment but then usually, trying to remember it and apply it just goes out the window because you're like "how in the world do I do this?"..

I spend a lot of time reading as well and I came across the same problem. Sometimes its best not to move onto a new book, maybe reread it multiple times if you have to. You don't have to remember every concept - instead keep the book as a reference manual. One of the books that really got me out of the shell and very sociable was "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, and I've mentioned it here before on its impact due to how shy and opinion conscious I used to be. Occasionally if I choose to respond to a social situation in an abnormal way or just need a refresher I go back to the most impactful chapters I recall or the ones I'm instantly drawn to that may be a source of gold.

Its an important balance between mastery and absorption of the available resources - dig a few mines deep, or dig many mines shallow - its a choice as to what's applicable. For example Richest Man in Babylon helped me better with understanding money management and I didn't need to reread it but I still refer "Great Rat Race Escape " by MJ because there are unused principles and lessons I want to implement and learn from.

Another important thing to consider is to find how to implement the ideas to learn them. Anyone can be taught in a class but no one remembers the material. You remember by practice. If you're struggling with communicating with strangers then put yourself in the position of communicating a lot with strangers - and then implement what you learned from the book that helps with communicating and social interaction such as "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

 

[JordanK]

Books are great in the beginning when you know absolutely nothing and can absorb everything. Such a radical shift in mindset is needed. We can easily identify people who show up here on the forum when they haven't internalized a lot of MJ & similar entrepreneurs ideas. These books give you a cheap insight into the mind of successful people when you know nobody in business and have access to nobody.

As you progress you'll naturally form bonds with people in a similar situation to yourself. If I have a problem in my business now I have so many people that I can call up that are light years ahead of me who can advise me on the best path to take. They'll also know by the language I use if I have any mental blocks that may be holding me back as they've been through that before. You learn much quicker and any books you read may only give you a single nugget that earns you more money.

Eventually a lot of entrepreneurs start to really niche down in the books they read to super specific problems or to become the best at one area of their business that they enjoy the most or earns them the most money. The rest is delegated or outsourced. You also have a network that can put you in touch with the best people in almost every industry, someone who can solve your problem or simply you have the money to hire or learn from the best too.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Largely because 200 books is nothing. But anyone who has read 5,000+ books will have accumulated essential knowledge in being successful and could become a millionaire if they wanted to.

It’s also important to spread those books across different domains, since being an entrepreneur isn’t about a limited number of specialized skills. You need to know sales, marketing, design, persuasion & influence, philosophy, sciences, etc.

I have spoken with some really intelligent people, one who has read 18,000 books another who has read 30,000. They’re both millionaires.

You could spend from morning to night just reading. It wouldn’t be wasting time, but you won’t be making visible progress. If you want visible progress you need to take some action.

I have read a few thousand books myself. And I can’t tell anymore where the information is coming from, but I can very easily come up with information when I need it and often outthink most people. One of the most valuable skills as an entrepreneur imo.

 

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[Andy Black]

Curious if you've read this one Mike:

NOTABLE! - What if you already know enough?

The most obvious danger of consuming too much is that it turns you into a consumer. A lot of that “free” (and paid) content out there is designed to turn you into someone else’s consumer. (And it’s not free btw... not unless you put zero value on the time it took to consume that “free”...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I feel like I need to throw this commitment out there into the universe to make it seem more real.

And anyone who wants to do this challenge with me, I'll call it the 1 for 10 challenge.

From now on, reading = entertainment. If you're reading something and it is not going to help you solve something that is right in front of you, it is entertainment, not progressive.

I'm sure many people can relate to this - have you read like 100+ books and FEEL smarter after reading them, but then just go on to the next book because you still feel "incomplete" about business?

Yea, it's cool to impress your friends with, when you pull out some cool wacky tactic from a hypnotic sales book - but did that make you $$..? No.

If reading was what creates fastlane millionaires, don't you think all of us who read for the sake of constantly "learning" about business would be millionaires many times over?

As a matter of fact, I think it was on @Kak or @Vigilante podcast (I don't remember which) I believe they were talking about how Sara Blakely (i think it was her) got through Walmart gatekeepers by doing something that she didn't KNOW she WASN'T supposed to do and that was the big launch to her brand.. Because the thing that everybody else knew they weren't supposed to do WORKED for her when she did it..

As someone who reads a lot, trying to get every damn needle in the haystack of every book, I often find myself denying myself of a lot of actions based on what I've read in books, which causes analysis paralysis and inaction. Starting to realize just how much time it has sucked up.

@Antifragile said it best, that he reads a lot but he doesn't do it to "make money". He does it as a hobby, to keep his mind sharp and enjoy the process.

It REALLY is exactly like Mike Tyson said - "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face".

Information from a book you read the previous day feels good in the moment but then usually, trying to remember it and apply it just goes out the window because you're like "how in the world do I do this?"..

There are those few books that really stick with you - but how many of those have you been like "DAMN this is LIFE CHANGING!" and then two weeks later not even remember reading the book?

So here's what I'm committing to and challenging others who feel this way too - long bouts of reading are now "Netflix" time. They can be enjoyable times at the end of the day to relax when normally you'd start getting tired & unproductive. It can be a replacement from that dog crap TLC 90 day fiance mental junk food.

1 hour of studying = 10 hours of work. Unless it solves an immediate problem.

I think another thing we all need to remember is that for every single person in a book saying one thing, there are 10 others saying something else, and then there are 10 others saying something ELSE. I feel like some of us may get sucked into this facade that there's a right way of doing anything. There are 8 billion different perspectives on the planet.

To one person, carnivore diet is the best thing ever. To another person, vegan is the best thing ever. It's pretty crazy to think about, that there is no right or wrong way of doing things, and that everything we do on this planet are based on our own accumulation of life experiences that create what we believe.

So naturally, if we go out and take on a ton of conflicting viewpoints with one group saying something is bad, and another saying it's good, won't that cause us to feel.. A little stuck if we're unable to take those conflicting viewpoints and just do what we think is right for us?

I can really relate to this. I've read hundreds of books and now that I look back at it, all I ever achieved was mental masturbation. Complete waste of time in most cases. I learned a lot more being on the job and doing the actual thing. Books give you the feeling of making progress, but you aren't really accomplishing anything.

 

[Artiom O]

I remember MJ once said "1 hour of action is worth 10 hours of reading".

The main takeaway is that reading and knowledge is useless if it doesn't help you in any way.

There is no shortcut of information out there. Instead of wasting a lot of time learing things that are useless, you can take action.

And every problem that stops you from making progress, is the exact thing that you need to learn about and solve.

 

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[Bernard Ng]

I had/ probably still have the problem of reading more than taking action.
I frequently refer to this quote to snap myself out of it.

 

[Andy Black]

The main takeaway is that reading and knowledge is useless if it doesn't help you in any way.

I think it can be worse that useless. Consuming more info can make you second guess yourself. I refer back to that thread I linked to earlier.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I think it can be worse that useless. Consuming more info can make you second guess yourself. I refer back to that thread I linked to earlier.

I think this is what happens when you move from ignorance into very little knowledge. Suddenly, you become aware of all that you DON'T know, hence that paralyzes you from acting. Which in a way is natural since you begin to be aware of the mass of things you still don't know, and your brain wants to keep you safe.

When you become very knowledgeable over time, your ability to take action massively increases since you begin to be able to see many moves ahead. Think of how you are atm with Google Ads Andy -- the knowledge you have gained from experience and probably also study of thousands of Google Ads campaigns makes you able to act much faster than say someone like me who lacks that knowledge and isn't able to see as many moves ahead as you are.

 

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[Andy Black]

I think this is what happens when you move from ignorance into very little knowledge. Suddenly, you become aware of all that you DON'T know, hence that paralyzes you from acting. Which in a way is natural since you begin to be aware of the mass of things you still don't know, and your brain wants to keep you safe.

When you become very knowledgeable over time, your ability to take action massively increases since you begin to be able to see many moves ahead. Think of how you are atm with Google Ads Andy -- the knowledge you have gained from experience and probably also study of thousands of Google Ads campaigns makes you able to act much faster than say someone like me who lacks that knowledge and isn't able to see as many moves ahead as you are.

When most people encounter a problem they believe the right course of action is to hit the books or courses first.

When entrepreneurs encounter a problem they determine if it actually needs solved, whether it needs solved now, who needs to solve it, and then they arrange to get it done (by themselves or someone else).

That's a big difference in mindset.


Specifically about me and Google Ads:

I fell into Google Ads in 2009 when a voucher fell out of an SEO book (that I hadn't read). I loaded up the voucher and figured out how to create campaigns and ads (with Google open next to me as I found and read articles to help me do so).

Once I had campaigns running and got results I then bought Perry Marshall's "Definitive Guide To Google Ads". I skimmed that, realised I'd mostly done it right, but picked up a few more nuggets.

Once I'd a few more clients and decided this was what I wanted to do I bought a $2k course on a specific way of using Google Ads to find out what people wanted based on their search term. I didn't need that course but I thought it looked interesting.

I've not read any other Google Ads books since.

 

[Fox]

Don't read 30,000 books one time.

Read one book 30,000 times.







I am joking.

 

[Andy Black]

Don't read 30,000 books one time.

Read one book 30,000 times.







I am joking.

Books don't hit back.

 

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[LiveFire]

I feel like I need to throw this commitment out there into the universe to make it seem more real.

And anyone who wants to do this challenge with me, I'll call it the 1 for 10 challenge.

From now on, reading = entertainment. If you're reading something and it is not going to help you solve something that is right in front of you, it is entertainment, not progressive.

I'm sure many people can relate to this - have you read like 100+ books and FEEL smarter after reading them, but then just go on to the next book because you still feel "incomplete" about business?

Yea, it's cool to impress your friends with, when you pull out some cool wacky tactic from a hypnotic sales book - but did that make you $$..? No.

If reading was what creates fastlane millionaires, don't you think all of us who read for the sake of constantly "learning" about business would be millionaires many times over?

As a matter of fact, I think it was on @Kak or @Vigilante podcast (I don't remember which) I believe they were talking about how Sara Blakely (i think it was her) got through Walmart gatekeepers by doing something that she didn't KNOW she WASN'T supposed to do and that was the big launch to her brand.. Because the thing that everybody else knew they weren't supposed to do WORKED for her when she did it..

As someone who reads a lot, trying to get every damn needle in the haystack of every book, I often find myself denying myself of a lot of actions based on what I've read in books, which causes analysis paralysis and inaction. Starting to realize just how much time it has sucked up.

@Antifragile said it best, that he reads a lot but he doesn't do it to "make money". He does it as a hobby, to keep his mind sharp and enjoy the process.

It REALLY is exactly like Mike Tyson said - "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face".

Information from a book you read the previous day feels good in the moment but then usually, trying to remember it and apply it just goes out the window because you're like "how in the world do I do this?"..

There are those few books that really stick with you - but how many of those have you been like "DAMN this is LIFE CHANGING!" and then two weeks later not even remember reading the book?

So here's what I'm committing to and challenging others who feel this way too - long bouts of reading are now "Netflix" time. They can be enjoyable times at the end of the day to relax when normally you'd start getting tired & unproductive. It can be a replacement from that dog crap TLC 90 day fiance mental junk food.

1 hour of studying = 10 hours of work. Unless it solves an immediate problem.

I think another thing we all need to remember is that for every single person in a book saying one thing, there are 10 others saying something else, and then there are 10 others saying something ELSE. I feel like some of us may get sucked into this facade that there's a right way of doing anything. There are 8 billion different perspectives on the planet.

To one person, carnivore diet is the best thing ever. To another person, vegan is the best thing ever. It's pretty crazy to think about, that there is no right or wrong way of doing things, and that everything we do on this planet are based on our own accumulation of life experiences that create what we believe.

So naturally, if we go out and take on a ton of conflicting viewpoints with one group saying something is bad, and another saying it's good, won't that cause us to feel.. A little stuck if we're unable to take those conflicting viewpoints and just do what we think is right for us?

Good post here. This is exactly why I made an adjustment most recently to my approach. Educating myself is important, but all of my time can't be spent in reading. I front loaded reading 9 books from beginning of the year - mostly in mindset/motivation every 2 weeks which gave me the shift I needed, but I realized that I am taking valuable time away from building on my efforts. I now limit my reading of a book to 15 minutes a day to digest it and roll that remaining time into fastlane efforts. I can keep growing, but in a minimal and consistent way.

 

[mikecarlooch]

Largely because 200 books is nothing. But anyone who has read 5,000+ books will have accumulated essential knowledge in being successful and could become a millionaire if they wanted to.

It’s also important to spread those books across different domains, since being an entrepreneur isn’t about a limited number of specialized skills. You need to know sales, marketing, design, persuasion & influence, philosophy, sciences, etc.

I have spoken with some really intelligent people, one who has read 18,000 books another who has read 30,000. They’re both millionaires.

You could spend from morning to night just reading. It wouldn’t be wasting time, but you won’t be making visible progress. If you want visible progress you need to take some action.

I have read a few thousand books myself. And I can’t tell anymore where the information is coming from, but I can very easily come up with information when I need it and often outthink most people. One of the most valuable skills as an entrepreneur imo.

I definitely agree with you to a degree. I think reading to keep your mind sharp and expose yourself to new ideas is important, and I've definitely gotten a lot of subconscious things from reading that I can pull out and use in certain situations.

But what I'm also saying is - I know people who are WAY further ahead of me who have never read more than 10 books (the people I'm comparing myself to are doing like 50k/mo revenue). And during that time I always felt the need to be different. I gotta be so different than them that I'm going to over-complicate the hell out of everything and create these super complex things right from the get-go.

Yet these dudes throw up a landing page, start doing some reachouts, all of a sudden they're at 50k/mo. They keep it dumb simple. I kept it extremely complicated.

It makes me think - what if I just kept it simple from the start? What if I didn't do all this dallywacking reading trying to find answers to "get ahead" of everyone else and do it different?

I also think 200 books is enough to understand everything you mentioned. I've read books on everything you mentioned and yes the books have produced some invaluable insights. But moving from book to book again has it feeling like one person says one thing, then someone else will invalidate that and say it's bad.. And it gets confusing.

30,000 books is changing the frame size a bit. I once saw a dating dude on youtube blasting rollo tomassi for having like 40 partners and he's like "What an idiot! I've been with 1,861!" It's a lot, but at what point is it too much?

 

[Andy Black]

Just leaving this here...

GOLD! - MINDSET - The rarest Reddit find of all... actual gold. (Legendary Comic)

Author: http://zenpencils.com/

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Antifragile]

I have spoken with some really intelligent people, one who has read 18,000 books another who has read 30,000. They’re both millionaires.

C’om man…

30,000 books?! That’s 1 book a day, every day for 82 years. I call bullshit.

Cereal boxes aren’t books.

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

C’om man…

30,000 books?! That’s 1 book a day, every day for 82 years. I call bullshit.

Cereal boxes aren’t books.

He just makes stuff up...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

As I like to say, You can only read so many books about swimming. At some point you have to jump in the pool.

10% vs 75%.

Doing is 7.5X more valuable than reading.

Reading is still valuable but my stand is the best book you should read...

GOLD! - The absolute BEST book you MUST read!

A reader emailed me last week and asked the following question: I've read all three of your books and I can't thank you enough, you've changed my life. [Redacted] What other books do you recommend to help me get started on my Fastlane? While I appreciate the compliment, there are two mental...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

30,000 books?! That’s 1 book a day, every day for 82 years. I call bullshit.

That's the beauty of math, when used properly with a little critical thinking, you can expose someone who is giving you a line of bullshit, or minimally, is grossly exaggerating.

ASK THE AI - When someone says, "I've read 30,000 books" they are lying.

If someone started reading books at age 16 and they currently were 45 years old, how many books would they need to read PER DAY in order to read 30,000 books total?

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Kevin88660]

Read more articles instead.

You will have more time for actions to test out the ideas you read. There is a faster feedback loop.

 

[Kevin88660]

Why not also focus on content that teach you how to get the a$$ moving to actually go and do things?

“Getting things done” is a good classics. Write things down and strike them off one by one when done. Very hard to not adopt a single thing into action after reading.

Short story of Sun Tze training the concubines. Cost you at most five minutes to google it and read it. A short story about attitude and mindset. Important things should be treated as life and death matters. Human nature is lazy but you need to find your own routine for accountability and punishment.

The big genre on “speed is king”. Many essays and content fell into this category. Many successful entrepreneurs follow this mantra. Faster fail, faster succeed. Can’t believe that you actually want to binge more books after believing this mantra.

 

[mikecarlooch]

Yes, if you want to be a scam artist, I can teach you how to do that. You'll be at $50K/mo 2-months from today, it's not a problem.

90% of the sales and marketing industry are scammers. 90%. And that's not an exaggeration. It's who your competitors are.

I have direct competitors NOW who are doing $200K/mo while I'm there struggling along at $50K/mo. And I know for a fact they are running a scam, because I've seen the inside of their business. I've seen what's happening to their customers. They will run that scam for 3-4 years, they've made their money, and they will close their doors.

And then they'll sell a course about how they've done it, selling to other impressionable folks who see a few numbers and start salivating.

The purpose of my business is to work with reputable businesses, who want to build reputable, long-lasting client acquisition pipelines. I suggest you focus on working with reputable businesses who need video content to grow.

To build an ethical business it will take you longer, and you'll feel confused, because the truth is there is a LOT you don't know. So you SHOULD be confused, and need to work harder.

Good point ! I have no disagreements here.

Let's test it out then.

Well before I answer your questions I think it's good to note that something can't be set in stone and I'm not gonna act like you don't know that. Clearly, there's lots of ways of doing things. But I'll give you my model of reality based on what I know.

I'll ask you a series of questions, and you answer me WITHOUT any research (and you are your only witness, so please be honest).

1) Is a 2-step call process better than a 1-step call process in terms of percentage effectiveness at closing sales for an agency? Why/why not?

2 step is way more effective. The "7 touches" rule (which is obviously not set in stone) is massively important. Another thing that creates liking is familiarity - the more times they've seen you, the more they like you. The more they like you, the more likely they are to listen to you and trust you when you get to the sales call.

2) What do you need to do before you make your pitch to someone you've just met who is in the market you're targeting? And how do you do it?

Well this is pretty obvious - pitching someone that's never heard of you before is like walking up to a chick in broad daylight and asking if she wants to sleep with you. My answer lies in creating liking. Pointing to similarities and associations. By associations I mean - "you know this really popular person..? Me too! Hey, I actually had that person on a podcast recently.." You've now created a similarity effect and associated yourself to someone who is doing better than you and somewhat popular in your market, therefore that should be enough to create some kind of liking and differentiation from every other spammer trying to get their attention.

I could keep going on and on . If there's someone you desperately need to get through to make something happen, you go and create something for that person and literally lead with value .. Do I need to mention the cliche' "reciprocity"? Could you create a bonus for their product? Give them something related to your service for free?

Whatever makes that person go "Wow! this random dude really went out of his way to help me out!"

You get the point.

3) How do you structure a discovery call? What is the purpose, and what are the objectives you're trying to achieve?

The goal of a discovery call is to be like a doctor and diagnose their problem. Questions are the answer. Let them convince themselves, you're not convincing anybody of anything.

Ask, Help, Ask, Help, Close.

The best sales calls I've ever been on and been sold on have all been about that. A no-strings-attached helpful session that makes it extremely hard for me to say no because the reciprocity and constant yes sets (commitments) make it extremely hard to say no at the end to the offer, especially if they are making it a no brainer. You have it make it feel like you are doing them a favor.

Assuming the person already knows what they're going to learn on the discovery call and knows who you are, my model of reality for this is -

Content - get straight to the point. Start helping them, asking them questions, and delivering the value you promised to deliver on the discovery call while simultaneously getting commitments by asking questions that anyone would say yes to. Make it seem like you're just diagnosing

After diagnosing, if the solution you're offering is clearly not for the person that you're on the phone with, anti-sell them. Tell them it's not for them and they should not work with you.

If it is for them, then move onto the next part.

Transition - Ask some more yes set questions asking them if they found it valuable, "does that all make sense?" stuff like that. Get them to say yes yes yes, and then say something along the lines of "After I've given you all of that, do you feel ready to move forward?" Tell me it's not hard to say No in that situation, of course it is.

Close - The way that you reveal an offer is in the following way - first, reveal the main components of the offer and get it out of the way fast. Reveal your price quickly. Then immediately switch back to value with your bonuses that you have lined up and keep throwing in bonuses to make it seem like you're doing them a favor until they finally determine that there's enough value involved for them to say yes. Then, give them an even bigger dopamine high by, if they say yes to you on the first bonus or even before the first bonus, revealing all of the unexpected bonuses they're also going to get.

Boom. Close.

4) When you create a video, how do you make sure an educated, B2B audience keeps watching it? What are your top 5 most important points?

Sure -

make it stupid clear as to why what you're saying is important and exactly what result they can get from implementing what you're going to say in their business. Anyone who needs that result and is actively looking for a solution will continue watching to hear what you have to say.

Reveal the information in either steps or factors.

EX : This is step 1, here's why it's important, here's what's involved, here's ho two use it, and here's what can happen if you do the step.

On each step assure them that they will need the next step in order to complete the puzzle, and that they ultimately will need all 5 steps to solve the problem, therefore they need to keep watching.

Repeat the formula for each step

Then give them a recap of what they learned and some main action points they can do immediately to go out and implement.

That's it, we're only going to test a picayune part of your knowledge. Let's see how well you answer. Remember... no research!!

No research done

 

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[Antifragile]

This gentleman would read 10 books a day brother. There are all sorts of speed reading techniques to get you there. But yes, it's sort of inhuman, and very painful to do. And most of the big readers have a period in their life when all they do is read. For example, the gentleman who read the 17,000 books (I stand corrected, I thought it was 18K, it's actually 17K), he did it all by the time he was 18. I've interviewed him and asked him about his exact strategy in the past on my podcast.

Again, being around super high IQ people is how I know all these things. But mongoloids like @thechosen1 will go on thinking I'm making this up.

Just a thought... for whatever little my thoughts are worth for you. Maybe you should spend less time with your super high IQ people and come down to earth with the rest of us?

When you think about it critically, speed reading is like speed sleeping.

I told @mikecarlooch that I typically go through 20-50 books a year (it depends on books and my time). I read a lot. I've been on the "speed-reading" band wagon a decade+ ago and learned that none of that shit works.

What did you mean by mongoloid? I had to look it up and still don't get it? Was it a jab at @thechosen1 ?






It's simple folks, MJ nailed it with the image doing > reading by a huge factor. That's because by doing you get the experience type of knowledge.

That's not to say "don't read". Reading calms me down, keeps my mind sharp, entertains me and give me big ideas for my business. It's almost like meditation.

But if it is preventing you from doing things because you think you "don't know enough", then please heed the advice of @Andy Black ! He's right. Try doing, make mistakes, adjust, do it more, change again and so on. That iteration is what you need, not books.

 

[rory182]

Agreed with @Antifragile

Reading is great for mental practice and keeping your mind sharp, something which is becoming rarer as people are glued to their phones and can't even focus to read a few pages anymore.

If you can read 100 pages in a row you're more likely to get a hard task done and not become the average person who checks their phone every 10 seconds.

I'd also stress to not see this post as an action to just read and that's it

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

Just a thought... for whatever little my thoughts are worth for you. Maybe you should spend less time with your super high IQ people and come down to earth with the rest of us?

When you think about it critically, speed reading is like speed sleeping.

I told @mikecarlooch that I typically go through 20-50 books a year (it depends on books and my time). I read a lot. I've been on the "speed-reading" band wagon a decade+ ago and learned that none of that shit works.

What did you mean by mongoloid? I had to look it up and still don't get it? Was it a jab at @thechosen1 ?


View attachment 48191



It's simple folks, MJ nailed it with the image doing > reading by a huge factor. That's because by doing you get the experience type of knowledge.

That's not to say "don't read". Reading calms me down, keeps my mind sharp, entertains me and give me big ideas for my business. It's almost like meditation.

But if it is preventing you from doing things because you think you "don't know enough", then please heed the advice of @Andy Black ! He's right. Try doing, make mistakes, adjust, do it more, change again and so on. That iteration is what you need, not books.

I guess he would consider MJ a mongoloid as well for doing the math. Reminds me of the pound of feathers versus pound of iron debate... What's wrong with being an indigenous person from Asia or the Arctic region of the Americas anyway? Oh well. When it comes to making up statistics...math is hard!

I read a lot. But I think the original post is solid. Reading can be an action fake. That's why there have been numerous threads on why reading is a waste of time if you are doing it instead of taking direct action to get you closer to your goals. This has been rehashed again and again on the forum and is a proven fastlane principle. OF COURSE more knowledge is better than less knowledge, but if your goal is to build more houses, sell more cars, or ship more goods, then reading more books won't necessarily get you there.

The best thing to learn is the thing that will solve the problem right in front of you.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

Except MJ and Antifragile never accused me of lying (or making stuff up). I know these distinctions are hard to make for some people. I know, believe me.

MJ said if someone tells you they read 30K book, they’re lying. Which means that the person who said that to me is lying. Which is his opinion and he’s entitled to it. I’d agree with that, in most cases actually, but I happen know this person and spoke to him, I know what he says is most probably true.

You should check out this thread:

ASK THE AI - When someone says, "I've read 30,000 books" they are lying.

If someone started reading books at age 16 and they currently were 45 years old, how many books would they need to read PER DAY in order to read 30,000 books total?

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Black_Dragon43]

You should check out this thread:

ASK THE AI - When someone says, "I've read 30,000 books" they are lying.

If someone started reading books at age 16 and they currently were 45 years old, how many books would they need to read PER DAY in order to read 30,000 books total?

www.thefastlaneforum.com

You honestly think I didn’t do the calculations? I did that way before MJ mentioned it and actually brought it up with the guy. All your comments and gloating simply betrays that you think I don’t know about these things and somehow you caught me by surprise. Well, you didn’t.

Suffice to say the guy was in his mid 60s back when we spoke/met. He said he started reading heavily at 12, and read for most of the day. So MJ’s calculation is wrong about him. Let’s say he read for 50 years, so 30000/50/365 = 1.64 books a day, every day. That probably still sounds excessive to you, and it did to me, which is why I brought up the same point with him.

But that’s not the reality, because his reading slowed down a lot in his 30s by his own claims. I asked him what’s the most he read in a day, and he said it was 14 books. Roughly 2500 pages.

Did the guy lie to me? I honestly don’t think so. He had no reason to do it. But sure, there’s always a chance he could have.

In addition, the gentleman who came on my podcast is a proven genius and polymath, good friends with highly influential people around the world, some of them whom you’d know. He read 17,000 books by the time he was 18. That’s like 4.5 books per day every day, assuming he started reading at 7 (I don’t know when he started, just making an assumption here). And I believe him — I had quite a long conversation with him, and he is a genius 180+ IQ.

So these feats are definitely possible, regardless of what you guys think. @Antifragile for example considers himself a big reader at 20-50 books/year. That may be a big reader compared to your average mooch, but believe me, it’s not big at all if we compare it to people who do read a lot.

Even nowadays I read 200+ books a year, and I’m not a big a reader by any stretch atm. I used to read 700+ some years in the past.

As an example, past 7 days I’ve already read Ayn Rand’s Virtue of Selfishness, re-listened to Jordan Belfort’s Way of the Wolf, and read Art Sobczak’s Smart Calling. Whenever I have free time I’m reading or posting here. Whenever I’m exercising, I’m reading or listening to an audiobook. I can read while on my indoor bike munching along and sweatin’.

 

[Antifragile]

Even nowadays I read 200+ books a year, and I’m not a big a reader by any stretch atm. I used to read 700+ some years in the past.

 

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[NajTheDon]

Wow, this summed up something that I've been dealing with for years. Going from one book to the next and still feeling like there's something I need to figure out. Wasted so much time not taking action.

 

[mikecarlooch]

That’s true brother, some are just better than others though. Usually people say there’s lots of ways of doing things because they don’t want to pass judgement — but passing judgement is useful, without judgement you can’t improve. You first judge something to be better, THEN you change how you act.


This was a good solid answer. So I don’t have much to add, good job. Only thing I’d add is the other person expects to buy, that’s why they show up on that second call and agree to have it.


While creating rapport is important, your answer is not so good here. Because the first thing you do is qualify — should I even waste my time speaking with this person?

You can walk up to a chick and ask her to sleep with you, directly, just like that. And if you did that, I’m quite sure you’ll find one who will say yes eventually. Maybe after 50 tries.

So the trick if we can call it that is to “rack the shotgun” quoting Perry Marshall whom Andy mentioned. Do something in front of a sufficiently large number of people so you only speak with those who are qualified.

So in your specific situation, I’d ask: “is growing your brand with organic traffic from video content something you’re currently doing or interested to do?” — straight up. If the answer is no, stop wasting your time. Just be polite, “kay john, thx for letting me know!” And NEEEEXT!


If you did that to me, I’d think you’re wasting my time, and ignore you actually. I’d be like, “I don’t care who you had on your podcast dude, you want me on it? If you do, here’s a media kit. Let me know if you wanna do it”

Doing something for free for me? Will also probably get ignored, because it most likely isn’t very good, to become very good it would need details that aren’t publically available. But who knows, may get attention. But for the most part it doesn’t. I think “if this guy is so good, why is he doing work for free wtf?! Next!”


The first part of your answer is once again correct, the rest no so much. The point of a discovery call isn’t to sell or close. Also, I can tell you haven’t been in the hands of a master salesman before.

So first, the discovery call. Your only purpose is to build rapport, and qualify the person — do they have NEED, WANT and MONEY. If they don’t, they don’t move to the next stage. Regardless of whether your product can help them or not, THERE IS NO SELLING ON THE DISCOVERY CALL — that’s actually why you convince them to come on it, because they won’t be sold to.

Next, since you brought it up let’s talk about the next part when you close them. Asking questions is good, but you need to ask questions to uncover where they want to go, where they’re at now, and what’s stopping them. You also do this in the discovery call, but just around the MAIN category you offer results on, whereas in the sales call you do it across all categories.

So say you offer results on:
• brand awareness
• growing revenue
• increasing clients
• increasing quality of clients

In the discovery call you may just explore revenue. Where are you now and where do you wanna be? In the sales call, you’ll explore all of them.

Today I spoke with a lady, asked her where she is in terms of new clients, got +4 last month. Where she wants to be? Get +4 this month. What’s holding you back? Nothing — you’re not a good fit, come back when you actually want help to get more clients. “Ughh ugh but what do you do?” Go check the website, thanks, bye!

I immediately discipline losers who wanna waste my time. I only talk with people who wanna buy. Don’t wanna buy? That’s ok.

Now going back to the sales call. A masterful salesperson will create the solution with you. They’ll say, so Looch, I feel your sales process needs some work, because you’re struggling to bring in clients from cold traffic. All your past clients are referrals, but it looks quite dry otherwise. What do you think?

And then you’ll start blabbering ugh ugh ugh whatever. And the salesperson will be like OK so if I understand you correctly, what you need is X, and to take care of it we’ll do Y. How does that sound?

Then using your benefits strategy is a HORRIBLE way to pitch. It makes it feel like a used car salesman low value guy, who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Here’s how to do it.

The point of what we do is to get you from $10K/mo to $30K/mo. We do that through a 3-point strategy.

Point 1 — explain how it will overcome the obstacles you uncovered. Put extra emphasis on that.

Point 2 - same story

Point 3 - same story

Does that all make sense so far?

Ok. Here’s how to get started. First you just start your subscription, then here’s what’s going to happen.

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-

-

All clear?

How do you feel about everything so far?

That’s awesome. So we went through everything, where do you want to go from here?

Let them eat from your palm dude. You’re a GOD when you sell. If they don’t eat from your palm, they’re not a good fit. Say next.


You didn’t really list a top 5 here, but there are some good ones.

You are missing a few essential ones:

— speak in their language

— talk about problems, NOT promises

— no hype / BS

— dress like the President of your country (Uncle Joe) — slight exageration this one, hopefully you know that already lol

This is real helpful stuff. Thanks! Can tell this comes from the heart and it's not just to prove me wrong or nothing like that.

Most of your content is way too long btw dude. That’s why the engagement is so low on your LinkedIn.

Yea to be honest I just take videos and post them on there lol. Not even scripted or nothing.

Question - have you noticed that treating LinkedIn kinda like tiktok/shorts has done well? And adjusting the size to fit the platform?