Author: Zamai (page 1 of 18)

Bibliophile: How to Fall in Love with Reading

Is it possible to be a bibliophile in this era?

A Bibliophile is someone who loves books. In today’s fast-paced world, information is everywhere. But with so much content at your fingertips, how do you sift through it all and truly learn? The answer is simpler than you might think: reading.

This guide will unveil the power of reading, not just for staying informed, but for personal and professional growth.

You will learn why reading is essential, what to read, and most importantly, how to love the process.

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

WHY SHOULD YOU LEARN TO READ EVEN TILL NOW?

You can stay up to date on the latest research and trends in your field by reading. For instance, keeping up with the most recent findings can offer you a competitive advantage if you work in a technical field. Similarly, if you work in a creative field, branching out into new genres can inspire innovative ideas and techniques.

Reading also enhances your writing skills and communication abilities. And these are valuable assets in any profession.

WHAT SHOULD YOU READ?

The secret is simple – Read what you love until you love to read.

What do you enjoy reading now? Starting with topics you’re interested in makes reading fun. And you’re more likely to stick with it and develop a lifelong habit.

Since every person is different, finding the right books for you is more important than anything else.

HOW TO START READING?

It almost doesn’t matter what you read.

Books. Blogs. Tweets. Anything with ideas and information and learning. The best ones to read are the ones you’re excited about reading all the time.

You will eventually read enough to make a significant improvement in your life (and your interests will lead you there).

HOW DO YOU INTERNALIZE WHAT YOU READ?

Explain what you learned and read to someone else.

Teaching forces real learning. Do you know that you retain approximately 90% of what you learn when they explain/teach the concept to someone else. This is the best way to internalize and remember what you read.

3 Important Factors to Consider if you want to Love to Read

  1. Reading is not a race.

Infact, the better the reading material, the slower you should read it. Enjoy it like a delicious meal – slowly instead of gobbling it down. Take your time to absorb and understand the content fully.

  1. The number of books completed is a vanity metric.

A true bibliophile focuses on quality, not quantity.

Stop counting how many books you finish in a month or year; rather focus on what you get out of reading. The truth is that as you gain more knowledge and experience, you might start reading more challenging books or in-depth articles. Because you’re now choosier about what you spend your time on, it’s okay to ditch reading materials that isn’t grabbing your attention.

So it’s not only about finishing books; it’s also about also about the quality of learning and insight gained from them.

  1. No book or article should scare you.

Whether it’s a lengthy Medium article, complex e-books, or X threads. You should be able to pick any book or article from the internet and read it to the end. You might find many of them to be too challenging. It’s alright, read them anyhow. After that, go back and read them again and again.

After all, the beauty of online information is you can revisit it easily.

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Bibliophile-How-to-Fall-Love-with-Reading

Embrace the Journey, Reap the Rewards

Remember, reading isn’t a race to the finish line.

Becoming a bibliophile is undertaking an adventure filled with discovery and growth. Don’t be afraid to tackle challenging material, and revisit what sparks your curiosity.

By embracing the joy of reading, you’ll unlock a world of knowledge and empower yourself to excel in all aspects of life.

So, grab that forgotten book today (or your favorite online resource!), and happy reading!

Sonder and Maintaining Your Main Character Energy

The concept of Sonder reminds me of the Justice League series.

I will explain why. When I was younger, it is one of my favorite cartoons to watch on a Saturday morning. The Justice League was a group of superheroes who banded together to make the universe a safer and better place. Even though they were together, each character had their own stories.

The Justice League worked better together, and each superhero was unique.

The Flash faced his own speedster villains. Batman always had a tragic back-story. Superman protected his Lois Lane. It’s the same thing today. We are all superheroes in our way.

And you are the main character.

Getting through your work and doing your job (or business) to make money is a multi-player game you are currently engaged in. However, your mindset and how happy or miserable you are – this is entirely up to you.

Because Life itself is a single-player game.

Life as a Single-Player Game

It’s like how Naval said.

“The reality is life is a single-player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone…. Before you showed up, nobody cared. It’s all single player.”

With this, it’s time to start thinking as a single player and being the main character.

What does it mean to be the main character

Being the main character means you will never be good being somebody else.

You are unique for your own storyline. Listen to the little voice inside your head that wants to do things a certain way. Find the people, business, project, or art that needs you the most.

Forget about the world of competition and comparison. Life may seem multiplayer, but the deep truth is that you are only competing against yourself.

Sit down and reflect on what it means to be a main character.

How to Maintain a Main Character Energy.

  1. Choose to build Yourself.

The greatest superpower you have as the main character is the ability to change yourself. Always be internally ready for a complete change. Also don’t spend time doing things you know ultimately aren’t part of your mission.

  1. Choose to Grow Yourself.

Here is a spoiler alert!

You don’t need to be the most successful person on the planet. Just be the most successful version of yourself while working the least hard possible. You want to live in a way that if your life played out 1,000 times, Zamai is successful 999 times.

  1. Choose to Free Yourself.

Be aware that are no “adults.”

Everyone makes it up as they go along. Find your own path, picking, choosing, and discarding as you see fit. Figure it out yourself and do it.

Value your time as well.

It is all you have. It’s more important than your money. It is more important than anything. Your time is all you have. Do not waste your time.

Adopt the Concept of Sonder.

Sonder was coined to explain that everyone around you has a rich inner world just like you do.

Sonder is a realization that everyone from your family, friends to even strangers, has their own life story and experiences as vivid and complex as your own.

Treat everyone you meet like a main character as well.

It is why the Golden Rule exists – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you. When playing, surround yourself with people happier than you. – Naval Ravikant

And remember this…

There is no endpoint to being a main character. It’s a lifelong process you hopefully keep getting better and better at.

The only way is to keep moving forward.

 

Productize Yourself: Become The Best at What You Do

“PRODUCTIZE YOURSELF: Productize has specific knowledge and leverage. Yourself has uniqueness and accountability. Yourself also has specific knowledge. So you can combine all of these pieces into these two words.”

This term Productize Yourself is popularized by the Angel Investor – Naval Ravikant. Naval is an investor, who invested early in companies like Uber or Notion. He is also an entrepreneur, co-founding AngelList.

As a product manager, I’ve always been fascinated by this concept and in recent times, I decided to take a deeper look at this notion of productizing yourself.

What does it Mean to Productize Yourself

Productizing yourself means that you must figure out what you’re uniquely good at and apply as much leverage as possible. It’s like taking the best of what you are and packaging it in a way that creates value for others. This concept is common in entrepreneurship, freelancing, consulting, and personal branding.

And you can apply this concept to yourself today.

Productize Yourself

Productize Yourself

Start with Leverage

Making impact and building influence requires leverage.

To Leverage is to use ‘something’ to its maximum advantage. In this context, that ‘something’ is yourself. How can you fully optimize your skills, knowledge, and experience?

And there are many ways to build leverage.

Leverage can be built through labor or capital. However, these kinds of leverage are gifts from other people. For labor, somebody must follow you. To obtain capital, someone must give you money, assets to oversee or equipment.

Yet, there is a new form of leverage.

Leverage with Code and Media to fully productize yourself

These include books, media, movies, and codes. With this new form of leverage, you can easily package your knowledge with the intention of making it simple to duplicate and distributing them to everybody without having to pay significant additional expenses. Naval called them ‘products of no marginal cost of replication’.

This is the perfect strategy for productizing yourself.

You can locate your audience by searching the internet and social media platforms. And you can use the internet to express yourself uniquely, grow a business, provide value, and make people happy. Any specialized interest can be pursued online, provided you’re the best at it.

All you need is your phone (or a computer) —you don’t need anyone’s permission.

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts – Naval Ravikant

Be Credible and Accountable

Intentions don’t matter. Actions do – Naval Ravikant

To get the best of your leverage, you must establish credibility and accountability.

Credibility is risky because you have to do everything in your own name. On the other end, accountability has two drawbacks. It enables you to accept responsibility for successes and bear the consequences when things go wrong.

But imagine this…

You’re waiting for the chance to shine when something new comes along that requires your set of skills. Meanwhile, you have built your brand on LinkedIn, on X and by constantly sharing your knowledge. You took some risks to establish your reputation. When it’s time to seize the opportunity, you can do so by applying as much leverage as you possibly can.

That’s what being accountable will help you.

You have to enjoy it and keep doing it, keep doing it, and keep doing it. Don’t keep track, and don’t keep count because if you do, you will run out of time. – Naval Ravikant

And here is the last step.

Be Authentic to truly Productize Yourself

No one can compete with you on being you. Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most. – Naval Ravikant

There will always be competition out there.

Finding your unique skill set and being authentic are the keys to breaking free from the competition trap. No one will be able to compete with you because you love what you do, so you know how to do it better.

The good news is that, despite our individual differences, everyone excels at being themselves.

Remember this as well…

Make your most important decisions when you are determining what is right to do and who is best to collaborate with. The real secret to making major improvements in both your financial and personal relationships is staying committed and positive in the long term.

Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true. – Naval Ravikant