I think there's two different types of readers, people who read books.
There's the accidental reader, and then there's the intentional reader.
What's the accidental reader?
Accidental reader.
What's the accidental reader?
The accidental reader is somebody that just says, "I accidentally found this book" or
"somebody told me about it, so I'm reading it."
Versus the intentional, is graduated the accidental mindset and the intentional is saying, "How
do I pick and choose which books for me to read as an entrepreneur?"
I want to talk about that with you here today on how you should process which book for you
to read next so you can save a lot of time, because as a business owner, as an entrepreneur,
your time is very valuable, and you've got to make sure you protect your time as much
as possible.
And there's nothing worse than reading a book that's a terrible book.
So let's go through the system together.
First of all, for me, there are four reasons why we read books.
One is purely entertainment.
So this could be you like to read certain fiction or whatever, simply because of entertainment.
Another one is inspiration.
I like to read biographies because they inspire me.
Oh my gosh, when I read the story of Steve Jobs or Benjamin Franklin, or Elon Musk, or
Nicola Tesla.
. . I just go so inspired when I read it.
Or it's how-to.
How to raise money.
How to master the art of selling.
How to . . . How to tell a story.
How to -- all that stuff is how-to to get steps.
And then the last one is Knowledge.
Knowledge could be what?
Philosophy.
Knowledge could be the specific details about health, on how to cut your body fat because
you read all these different diets.
I want to be knowledgeable in my diet on how to become more healthy.
That's the knowledge part, right?
So there are four different types of books that we read.
Entertainment, inspiration, how-to, knowledge.
Now this complete opposite side is how I pick and choose my books to read.
One is the author.
What do I mean by author?
It's similar to an actor.
If I see Matthew McConaughey in a movie, I'm going to watch that movie.
If I see Rachel McAdams in a movie, I'm going to watch that movie.
If I see Denzel, Will Smith -- there's a list of actors that if I seem them in a movie,
I am most likely going to go watch that movie.
Same exact thing with a book.
If Robert Greene writes a book, I'm the first one reading it.
Robert's a good friend of mine.
He's written 40 Laws of Power, 33 Strategies of War, Art of Seduction, Mastery.
. . If he writes a book, I'm the first one that's reading it, because I follow the author.
So you may read a book simply because you enjoy the author.
The second one may be reviews.
You know, you've got certain books that get raving reviews, so you're like, wait a minute.
. . Like, the other day I read a book, and the reviews are just astounding about the
book.
I bought the book simply because of the reviews.
The other thing may be subject.
This is very, very important to keep in mind about subject.
See, eventually, you as a reader, this is my suggestion to you as a reader, is to read
intentionally based on subject.
Meaning, you are not a good leader.
You want to learn how to become a leader.
Go immerse yourself on all the best leadership books.
You are not a very good salesman.
You want to become a better salesman.
Go study all the sales books out there.
I get a lot of messages from people telling me, Pat, can you make a top 10 recommendation
for sales books?
I'm thinking about that, I'll get back to you guys on whether I'm going to do that episode
or not.
All on sales.
You want to become a very good entrepreneur.
Go read everything on entrepreneurship.
Go read everything on marketing.
Pick a topic, pick a skill, obsess about learning about that topic.
I have a friend of mine that he wants to study real estate development, and real estate investing.
He's reading everything on that.
That's how it ought to be.
Social media - read everything on social media, instead of going all over the place scattermind.
So subject.
And the fourth one for me is the credibility of the recommender.
There is nothing more annoying to me than when somebody gives me a book and says, "Hey,
I've never read this book, but I think you'll like it."
That's kind of offensive.
And let me tell you why it's kind of offensive.
Can you imagine recommending a movie that you've never seen?
Hey, go watch this movie.
I've never seen it, but go waste your two hours of your life and then tell me if it's
good.
It's kind of offensive to me.
Right?
I mean, I like to recommend a book to somebody and say, I read this book, here's what I got
out of it, and based on what you're asking, I think this is a very good book for you.
That shows respect on when you recommend the book to somebody.
So credibility of the recommender.
So many times, you may read a book because - let's just say you have a mentor, you have
somebody that's your adviser, your mentor, and they may recommend a book to you for you
to read.
You better believe if my mentor recommends a book for me to read, and it's my mentor,
and they've read the book, I am not even hesitating about reading this book.
That book is done.
Now I don't have a lot of mentors.
I have a handful of mentors, of live mentors.
I have a lot of dead mentors, but a handful of mentors that have influence over me.
If they come and say, "Pat, you've got to read this book," like this [snap], the book
is done.
Why?
That person sees an area in my life that either needs inspiration or needs improvement or
needs clarity -- that's willing to take the time to recommend me to read a book -- I'm
not hesitating because my advisers and my mentors are more valuable to me than any million
dollar checking account they could have or ten million dollar checking account.
So if they're recommending anything to me, I will go out there and make sure I move on
it.
I get people that message me and say, "Hey Pat, I want you to be my mentor."
Really?
Yes.
Read these two books - 25 Laws for Doing the Impossible and The Life of an Entrepreneur,
then I'll mentor you.
No, no, I don't want to read books.
I just want you to mentor me.
Then you don't understand the subject of mentoring.
You want lazy way of becoming wealthy, but you don't want the hard work way of you having
to click as you're going through this and all of a sudden you get clarity about a certain
thing you need to do.
And so credibility of the recommender.
So this is how I suggest to pick books to read.
Don't just go out there and wing it.
Generally when a new person becomes an entrepreneur, you typically read Rich Dad Poor Dad or you
start off with How to Win Friends, and Influence People or Think and Grow Rich - there's a
certain group of books that everybody reads, and then they get stuck.
And that typically happens after reading about 20, 30, 40 books.
Once you've read the 40 books, follow this system here.
And my suggestion is that I don't waste a lot of time with entertainment.
I don't waste a lot of my time with entertainment.
As my life started getting busier and busier and busier, I minimized things that were wasting
my time.
If I read a book that's entertainment and it takes me six hours to read this book, it
just wasted six hours of my life -- unless if it's entertainment to inspire my imagination,
then I'm game for that.
But if it's entertainment.
romance novel, what am I trying to inspire?
Am I having that terrible of a personal marriage or relationship that I need inspiration to
read this?
I don't need that.
I'm okay with that.
I'll figure out ways to inspire myself then using that entertainment part.
So hopefully this here set up, when people ask, Pat, how do you choose your books, and
what books should I read?
This is the formatting I use, when choosing books because eventually one ought to go from
being an accidental read to an intentional reader to make sure your subjects you're reading
are progressing in the area of your business as a CEO, as a leader, as an entrepreneur,
you're constantly advancing to the next level.
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