The Start of Something New: Why You Should Invest 1-hour to read Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
Written By: Nick Nguyen | Read full profile
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It’s 5:29 AM in the morning on May 3rd, 2020. My girlfriend and I just got through watching this incredibly cringey movie, Just Friends, on Netflix because the thumbnail of Ryan Reynolds in a fat suit caught our eyes. And the next thing I knew, I found myself wide-awake, kicking myself for not going to sleep earlier (seriously kids, if you’re dealing with insomnia too, don’t do this. If you can’t fall asleep, telling yourself that you’ve messed up your sleeping schedule isn’t going to help. It just makes it that much worse, so EMBRACE IT!).
Anywho, like anybody who owns an iPad, iPhone, Android, or virtually anything portable that can access the internet, I found myself surfing Youtube. I’ve been really getting back into this productivity hooha, and because I had stumbled across the outrageously talented and brilliant junior doctor Ali Abdaal (could you tell I was fanboying hard there?), back in January, his video on “How I Read 100 Books a Year - 8 Tips for Reading More” populated on my screen.
There are SO many tips to take away here, so I’ll just let you check out my continuous posts of fanboying and related to legitly everything he said in this other post.
But anyways, one thing led to another, and yup - 30 minutes later - I’ve gone down the time sucking spiral of youtube. Luckily, I landed on Dr. Abdaal’s other video - “3 Books that Changed My Life.” Now serendipitously, due to the building fogginess in my brain from it being 5 AM in the morning, I was too lazy to click “thank you, next” from the underwhelming first book he spoke about, Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Work Week, (before anyone hates me, it wasn’t that the book was underwhelming. The book is amazing. It’s just because I already knew about it, and was searching for new content to consume).
This act of fate led me to discover two books - Anything You Want by Derek Sivers and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.
I’ll definitely circle back and read Show Your Work and take the time to discuss it in another entry, but my short attention span was drawn to a specific quote that he read from Anything You Want that really jived with me.
In the next 10 minutes, I decided “screw it, I’m not tired yet.” So instead I got up, grabbed a bowl of Frosted Flakes with my Kroger brand lactose-free milk and started searching for a copy that I could read online.
Now Derek Sivers is a kind and generous man for putting his entire book on the internet to be read for free here. So, I quickly grabbed my iPad and started hammering away. Not even 3 pages in, I’ve already been hit with a bunch of those “Ahh!! That’s Me!” moments as I relate to the words on the page. Next thing I know, I’m pulling quotes and writing down my thoughts in this new series that I decided to call - yup you guessed it - “Ahh!! That’s Me!”
Okay but to get back to the main point, why should you read Anything You Want? I totally get the feeling of wanting to read but never having the time. And I’d get more frustrated when I try to read something but just couldn’t get into it. This book helps with both, especially if you’re a budding entrepreneur (which well, we all are cause as Jay-Z said, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.”) Okay, I’ve got to give credit to my childhood friend, Abhi P. for providing that suggestion. But to keep it simple:
It’s a short, easy read, packed with a TON of great information on running a business.
You’ll WANT to read more of it when you start.
It’ll kickstart your reading habit.
You’ll either learn something new or really vibe with something he said.
Hey friends, thanks for checking this post out.
This is my first post towards Nick’s Book Recommendations. In this threaded series we are going to dive into some books that I’ve read in the past or am reading currently. This is my way to show you the book worm side of me. A lot of inspiration for starting this blog and our other channels came from these books, so hope you can enjoy! Feel free to shout out the books you finished reading with #YFFIENationBooks on instagram and twitter!
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