Books are some of the highest ROI products that you can own. For a measly price of anywhere from a few bucks to at most twenty or thirty dollars you can have a life’s work and knowledge distilled down to its best bits. Sure there are bad books out there as there is bad anything but when you’re looking for a high ROI as far as times go then it’s hard to beat making reading a habit. I’ve heard others say that “reading is a superpower” and I agree. Without reading I would in no way, shape, or form be where I am today. I know for certain that I would not have started this site or shared half the insights that I have shared over the years.
So while knowing which book to read next may sound like a trivial topic at first, upon further examination I think its plain to see that this is in fact a very important topic, one that has the literal potential to be life changing. What I aim to do with this article is show you how to take a high value habit such as reading and turn it into an even higher value habit. Let me break it down to you like this. We all know the Pareto principle where we gets 80% of an effect from 20% of actions, among other meanings. And we know this applies to almost all things in life.
So we know that reading is one of those “20%” habits that are going to give you 80% of the good results in life that you’re looking for. But even within the “20%” habits themselves there is another Pareto principle taking place. So within reading, which is a “20%” activity there are “20%” of books that are going to give you 80% of your results for the benefit of reading. Now I essentially flunked out of math but I believe this may be called a “fractal” or something like it. Where we can keep going deeper and deeper or wider and wider with it.
So what I’m saying is we’re going to figure out what books are going to give us our biggest bang for our buck.
I should also note that in this case I’m talking about non-fiction books. While I whole heartedly think everyone should read fiction as well, that’s another topic entirely.
So let’s get started.
Let’s Start With The Specifics
Let me ask you this, if you drowning in the ocean and I threw you a spear, how useful would that be to you? Not very. Now let’s say you were unarmed and facing down a charging boar and I threw you a life preserver, how useful would that be? Again, not very. Whenever we’re looking at how to get the most out of something we have to look at specificity, namely what’s going to make the biggest difference for you. And to do that we have to look at where your problem areas are. Everyone has them and while we may all share similar things we need to work on, namely wealth, health, and relationships. It goes beyond that to more specific items.
So when you look at your life, what are your problems areas. What are the areas that you are struggling with and could use some knowledge on to help you out? Are you struggling financially? Are you struggling with the dating and mating game? Do you suffer from depression or another malady? Are you overweight? Suffering from a chronic disease? Live in an unsafe area? As you can see there are endless problems that could be troubling you and therefore making broad recommendations to read this or that aren’t going to help very much. So we have to drill down to what your specific problems are. And before you say “A book isn’t going to help my problems.” take a second to think about them.
Because I honestly can’t think of a problem where having more knowledge on it, isn’t going to help in at least some capacity. Also understand that solving one problem generally leads to having to solve others. This isn’t a bad thing but rather a natural function of life. So don’t see it as a failure if solving a problem leads to others. Those other problems were likely already there, just not in your conscious mind. So answer this question “If I could solve one problem, what would it be?” you’ll likely have more than that is bothering you but take some time to think about what the biggest problem is that you want solved.
Popularity, Recommendations, & Specificity
So now that you have a problem picked out, try to define what “genre” of problem it is. While it may seem trite to designate a life issue, often severe, as a “genre” I’d ask that you bear with me and do so. Because this will lead you to the highest ROI information. Define your problem then look at what type of books mighty help solve it. Let’s use, “Can’t afford to live in a safe area” as a problem. Now the first thing to understand is that this is a money issue. But just because it’s a money issue doesn’t mean that we need to necessarily go to sales books, though that could of course be the case.
We have a couple of topics we could look for in books. How to fine affordable housing, how to raise one’s income, how to take advantage of certain programs, where is living cheapest, and so on and so forth. So what you’ll have to do is make a list of these potential problem solvers and then narrow it down to what you think will give you the biggest bang for your buck. You may very well guess wrong at first but you’ll still end up further than you were before. And as you do this process more and more you’ll have a deeper and deeper understanding of the process and therefore get better at it.
But choose something, let’s say finding affordable housing. Next we’ll look for recommendations. I recommend searching amazon, using a search engine to look up best books on finding affordable housing, look for sites like reddit and the like for recommendations. What you want to look for is books that keep popping up again and again and again. Look for commonalities, because while everyone may have their pet favorite book if there’s one that keeps coming up over and over and over again then that’s a sign that that’s the right choice for you.
And start there.
Make A High ROI Activity Even Higher
I’m not saying you’ll pick a winner every time or that in a matter of months all your problems will be solved or anything of that nature. All I’m saying is that this is a way to take a high ROI activity and make it even higher. Identify a specific problem, research that problem, then select the best fit. Not rocket science and obvious if you spend some time to think about it. But what’s more important is that you actually sit down and do it. Because that’s what will make the difference.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
