I’m not going to give you detailed tips on it (Breakthrough Rapid Reading is a good book for that), but I’d like to give you one simple tip that I have found useful.

It uses something called “no-stakes practice” that Tim Ferriss mentioned in an interview. In essence, it means that in order to be good at a technique, you should practice it in a pressure-free environment. For instance, if you want to learn how to shoot in basketball, you should practice it alone when there is no fear of embarrassment from other people. That way you can focus on your technique until it becomes good.

Applied to reading skills, it means that you should practice the skills in a way that is pressure-free. What is the pressure? Well, you might have a different opinion, but for me the pressure is the need to comprehend the material. That’s the case when I read a book or article that contains ideas I can’t afford to lose.

Consequently, the first step is to find non-essential materials to practice on. The materials that fall under this category are different for everyone. In my case, I have articles that I use for this purpose. The articles fall under the “nice to know but not essential” category. Therefore, I can afford to miss the ideas.

The next step after finding the materials is to use your finger as a pacer. Move your finger throughout the text and follow it with your eyes. Since your goal is to increase your reading speed, you should move your finger faster than your normal reading speed. This technique is useful to eliminate (or at least reduce) sub-vocalization, which is an obstacle to faster reading.

Combining the two parts above, here is a tip on how to read faster:
Find non-essential reading materials to practice finger pacing on.

I’ve tried this technique for some time now and it works. It trains my mind to comprehend the text at a faster rate without the fear of missing an important idea. I can later use my improved reading skill on “real” reading materials.

What do you think? Do you have a suggestion on how to read faster? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Start Your Own Business the Right Way

Having your own business – even if it’s just a side business – is a good way to diversify your income sources.

A Dent in the Universe: 36 Small-Business Lessons from Steve Jobs is an e-book I wrote that can help you best run your own business. If you are still thinking about starting a business, it can help you start with the right mindset and attitude. If you already have a business, it can help you take it to the next level.

Learn more »

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It was a great read, but I especially like the closing paragraph. It’s about how the writer (Burkhard Bilger) went out with a NASA scientist named Grotzinger. They visited Death Valley in California, which has similar terrain to Mars. Here is the paragraph:

After we’d hiked down to the valley again, Grotzinger pulled an ice chest from the back of his S.U.V. and set out a picnic of salami and cheese, hard rolls, and ripe tomatoes. The valley seemed barren now, he said, but in the spring, after a dusting of rain, it would be bright with cactus blossoms and yellow creosote. When he camped here with his students, he could sometimes hear kangaroo rats or kit foxes moving beyond the firelight. “On a clear night, with the stars and planets blazing above you, it could be breathtakingly beautiful,” he said. “You look at enough pictures from Mars, and you really start to appreciate the Earth.”

For me, the last sentence is powerful: “You look at enough pictures from Mars, and you really start to appreciate the Earth.”

Just think about it. Compared to the other planets, the Earth is like heaven. Mars is covered in deadly deserts everywhere you look, not to mention the poisonous atmosphere. The other planets are even worse. They have extreme temperatures, terrible hurricanes, and often no place to step on. In contrast, here on Earth we have trees, waterfalls, birds, lakes, and fresh air. What a beautiful place. We, however, often take this place for granted. We don’t realize what a miracle the Earth actually is.

Similarly, we might have other things in life that we take for granted. Our health is a good example. In order for you to be healthy, so many things in your body have to work right. If even just one thing goes wrong, you could lose your health. Being healthy is miraculous, but often we don’t appreciate it enough.

You might have problems in your life. Everybody does. But you are more fortunate than you think.

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While he was at the White House, TR read at least one book a day, even when he was busy. If he had no event at night, he could read one or two more books. Not only that, he had a strong memory of what he had read. Often he could quote passages.

With TR, reading had become a habit since his youth. Whether he was with the cowboys or soldiers, his favorite pastime was reading. This habit gave him an immense knowledge and a broad perspective. It helped him become the effective person he was.

Why You Should Become a Voracious Reader

There are many benefits you can get by being an avid reader. Here are some of them (I focus on non-fiction books here):

• It broadens your perspective.
  Reading helps you see the world from a new perspective. Among other things, it helps you foresee new opportunities and threats. You will also be able to assess a situation more accurately.
• It helps you be more creative.
  By feeding your mind with many different ideas, there is a good chance that your various thoughts will cross-pollinate and produce fresh ideas. You will become more creative as a result.
• It relaxes your mind.
  TR said that reading is “a pure imaginative therapy.” Immersing yourself in a good book is like watching a good movie. It can take you to new worlds. Such an experience is entertaining and relaxing for your mind.
• It gives you a deeper appreciation of the world.
  Sometimes we don’t appreciate something because we don’t know how wonderful it actually is. Reading can give you a deeper understanding of the world around you which, in turn, will grow your appreciation of it.
• It enriches your conversational repertoire.
  Knowing more about the world around you means having more topics to converse with. That will help you connect with different kinds of people.

How to Become a Voracious Reader

Now that we have seen the benefits of becoming an avid reader, here are some ways to become one:

• Build your curiosity.
  If you are curious, you don’t need to push yourself to read. Instead, you will want to read because it will satisfy your curiosity. To build your curiosity, be aware that there are many interesting things in this world that you don’t know. Your life will be much more exciting if you find them. Even seemingly boring things have interesting sides if you dig deep enough.
• Teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows.
  This advice comes from Stephen King in On Writing. Whenever you have idle time, whether long or short, fill it with reading. Waiting in the doctor’s office could be a good time to read, so is waiting to board your plane. It means that you should always take a book with you. Fortunately, that’s easy to do these days: simply put e-books into your tablet or smartphone and you are set.
• Read diversely.
  Reading diversely prevents you from getting bored because you constantly enter new worlds. The sense of wonder will motivate you to read more.
• Immerse yourself in your reading.
  When you are reading, visualize what you read. Imagine being in the world. TR was so immersed in his reading that he couldn’t even hear his name being called. When you achieve this level, reading will become a flow. It will become a “pure imaginative therapy.” You will end up wanting more of it.

***

Do you have tips on becoming a voracious reader? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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There are many aspects of personal finance, so I’d like to focus on just one for now: saving money. Here is my question for you:

What are your best money-saving tips?

Please share your answer in the comments so that everyone can read it. Thanks!

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In this post I’d like to share with you some inspirational quotes about life. Many of them are classic, but they become classic precisely because they contain a lot of truth.

I carefully selected each of the quotes below. My hope is that they can inspire you to move to the next level.

Without further ado, here they are:

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success
when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life
spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
Steve Jobs

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience
your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Joseph Addison

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
Chinese Proverb

A single day is enough to make us a little larger.
Paul Klee

The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her
constant companion Humility.
Charles Caleb Colton

Think to Thank. In these three words are the finest capsule course for a happy
marriage, formula for enduring friendship, and a pattern for personal happiness.
Thomas S. Monson

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes
taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Anne Bradstreet

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies
within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties
disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
John Quincy Adams

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
Confucius

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.
Elmer G. Letterman

If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An
investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really.
Double your rate of failure.
Thomas J. Watson

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot
solve it, then what is the use of worrying?
Shantideva

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was
started with a dream and a mouse.
Walt Disney

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There is a common misconception here: many people assume that the more money they make, the happier they will become. To an extent, that’s true. When you have no house to live in and no warm food on the table, making more money does increase your happiness. But beyond a certain point, studies find that additional income brings no increase in happiness. In general, I would say that you reach that point when you are considered “middle class.”

Once you reach this point, making more money is not a good strategy to increase your happiness. What should we do then?

The answer lies in the fact that there is another side of making money: it’s not the amount you make, but how you make it. Once we reach the point where increasing the amount doesn’t increase happiness, it’s time to focus on the other side of the equation. This, then, is what you should do:

Improve the way you make money instead of the amount.

There is nothing wrong with making more money. But you should focus more on how you make money rather than on how much. What’s the use of making a lot of money if your work makes you stressful and unhappy? Isn’t it better to earn a decent income in a way that makes you happy?

Being content plays a role here. In order to move your attention away from making more money, you should learn to be content. You should believe that what you have is already enough. Only then can you move your focus to how you make money.

The next question is: what is the ideal way to make money?

To answer this question, I’d like to refer to an interview with Andreas Illiger, the creator of Tiny Wings. Tiny Wings is a successful iOS game that has sold more than six million copies. Even more astonishing, the entire game (coding, graphics, and music) is created by just one person. You might want to read the complete interview, but here is an excerpt:

Q: How has success changed your lifestyle?
A: I still live in my cheap two-room apartment together with my girlfriend, I still do not have a car (I don’t even have a driver’s license), and most of my days are the same as before Tiny Wings: sitting in my room doing creative stuff. Things that changed: I am buying good food, mostly organic (in [2010] I was very poor and had to buy cheap food); I bought a new laptop and some cool toys.
Q: What would you like to be doing in five years?
A: … I live my passion and never want to do something else, so I would like to do the same thing I do now.

The excerpt above shows us two things about Illiger. First, he was content. He earned millions of dollars but his lifestyle was practically the same. His work wasn’t motivated by material things. Second, he lived his passion. He said that even with the success he had, he wouldn’t want to do anything else. He would keep doing what he had been doing.

That gives us a sign of the ideal type of work for a person: you live your passion and don’t want to do something else. Even with a lot of money in hand, you would keep doing what you have been doing. Why? Because it’s your passion. It makes you feel alive.

Once you reach the middle class, I believe your goal should be to live your passion rather than make more money. Find ways to make a living from your passion. You might not be able to do it right away, but you can start a side project and keep building it over time. Eventually you will reach a point where you can live entirely from your passion.

When that happens, work will feel like play. I like the way Stephen King put it in On Writing:

For me, not working is the real work. When I’m writing, it’s all the playground.

It’s a great way to live, isn’t it?

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I have often talked about the importance of taking challenges to expand your capacity (here is an example). But I didn’t emphasize enough the fact that the challenges should be difficult.

I realized this when I wrote my first e-book (A Dent in the Universe) and prepared it for self publishing. It was a difficult challenge for me. Writing a book in a foreign language was difficult enough (I’m not a native English speaker), but the rewriting process was even more difficult. On top of that, I still needed to do everything related to publishing the book: finding a proofreader and a cover designer, formatting the book, checking for errors, converting the books to different formats, and so on.

After going through the whole process, though, I realized that I have expanded my capacity. The last time I took a challenge of a similar level was when I developed and published my first iOS app.

Through the whole process, I learned a lesson: if you want to grow significantly, make taking on a difficult challenge a habit.

That, however, is against our nature of doing comfortable things. We tend to avoid difficulties and choose comfort whenever possible.

So what can we do to overcome this tendency?

In his book, Mastery, Robert Greene has good advice: cultivate a kind of pleasure in pain. This is what successful athletes do: they have learnt to enjoy rigorous practice. It’s not easy to do all the hard work needed to become a good athlete, but they have learnt to enjoy the process.

Similarly, you should learn to enjoy working on a difficult challenge. Learn to take pleasure in pain. Having this attitude will give you a strong foundation to grow yourself upon.

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Q: What do you do for fun? I find it hard to fathom how someone like you can just disconnect. Disconnect from the emails, calls, the media. All of it. What would be your definition of a chill and fun day?

A: I love playing tennis. I am an avid bridge player (a card game if you have not heard of it – it was more popular in the past!). I like to tour interesting things with my kids like power plants, garbage dumps, the Large Hadron Collider, Antarctica, missile Silos (Arizona),… I read a lot and watch courses (online or the Learning Company)…

The part I highlighted above states that he loves to read and to watch courses. But what kind of books does he read? To give you an idea, here is a page that showcases them. The question, remember, was about what he does for fun. But, to be honest, I don’t think many people will consider the books on that page fun. As for watching courses… well, I guess it’s quite obvious. :)

So how can Gates consider those activities fun while many people don’t?

The answer, I believe, lies in an important trait he has that many people lack. The trait is a love of learning. In fact, I can’t think of any other explanation of how someone could consider such activities fun unless the person loves to learn.

There is a big difference between those who love to learn and those who don’t. Those who love to learn will consider activities that widen their perspective (such as reading books) fun. Those who don’t, on the other hand, will consider those activities boring. Those are very different ways of viewing the same activities.

This difference can manifest into a big gap between the two groups in the long run. Those who love to learn will absorb new knowledge like a sponge, while those who don’t will actually avoid opportunities to learn. Can you guess which ones are more likely to achieve their full potential?

Love of learning, I believe, is an essential trait to have. We need to have it. It’s even more true given the fast-changing world we live in now. Those who love to learn are the ones who will be able to adapt and thrive. The reason is simple: they are the ones who enjoy learning new things.

But one question remains: how can we have this trait? How can we love to learn?

As with many other things in life, the main thing is to find the motivation. If you can find it, everything else will fall into place. But if you can’t, it will be hard to get anything going.

From my experience, here is a good way to find the motivation:

Have a strong desire to get the most out of your life

Simple, isn’t it? But think about it. If you have this desire, the love of learning will naturally follow. Why? Because to fulfill the desire you will need to achieve your full potential. And to do that, you need to constantly learn. That’s why if the desire is strong enough, learning will become something you love.

So what do you think? How do you cultivate your love of learning?

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I live in Tonga, a small island in the South Pacific. I’ve witnessed the changes over the years here, many good and some not so good. But compared to many places in the world, many people consider this place ‘paradise’. However, happiness isn’t guaranteed. An old friend used to say that ‘Happiness is a state of being’. To be or not to be, is a free choice you make – it has nothing to do with status or wealth.

Your email reminded me of a story of an American lady (Patricia Ledyard) who came here in the 1960s to volunteer as a teacher for the Methodist mission. She was posted to Vava’u, an outer island group further north (beautiful place… so beautiful that they warn you that if you go there you may never come back). Long story short she loved the place, the people especially, and fell in love with an English doctor.

In her book, Utulei, My Tongan Home (Utulei is the village where she lived), she talks of the one most valuable thing she learned from her ‘Tongan’ family and that was that the most appropriate attitude to life was gratitude. People would always show gratitude as was always the proper thing to do. She then explained that, to her amazement, the Tongan social etiquette was based on thankfulness. The Tongan word for hello is Malo lelei which means ‘most grateful that you are well.’ When you greet someone at work or who is working, you say Malo e ngaue which means ‘thanks for your hard work.’ Even when you greet someone that has just arrived, you say Malo e folau which means ‘thank you for making the journey.’ When visiting someone that is sick you greet them by saying Malo e mo’ui which means ‘so thankful that you are alive.’

Nowadays we seem to be so caught up in the world of consumerism and material success that we’ve traded real happiness (through appreciating the important things in life) for the ‘happiness’ that money can buy.

I found it inspiring that an attitude of gratitude is so entrenched in Tongan culture. With the examples that Collin gave, it’s easy to see that such a culture encourages its people to view life in a positive way. For any event, you can see it in a positive or negative light. Seeing it positively, I believe, will increase your level of happiness. No wonder many people call Tonga ‘paradise.’

We don’t have to adopt the Tongan’s vocabularies, but we can learn from their attitude toward life. We should make gratitude an integral part of our lives. See your life in a positive light and you will become happier as a result.

To Collin: many thanks for sharing the story!

Photo by Ibrahim Iujaz

As I touched on in the last post, the goal of the book is to help you best run your own business. If you are still thinking about starting a business, it can help you start with the right mindset and attitude. If you already have a business, it can help you take it to the next level.

The PDF version of the book is 92 pages long. When you buy the book, you will get not just the PDF version (which is printable) but also the .mobi (for reading on the Kindle) and the .epub (for reading on the iPad) versions. Further instructions on how to use them are available on this page and on the readme.rtf file within the package.

The normal price of the book is $6.99, but for the first week (until next Monday) I set it at a special launch price of $4.99.

Writing this book has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I hope reading it will give you the same benefit. You can buy the book through the link below.

Click here to buy the book.