The One Thing That Changed My Life
The one major thing that changed my life wasn’t a dramatic circumstance that inspired me to change. Although an unfortunate event triggered and sparked me to change, it wasn’t the fuel that fueled me to strive and grind.
The one thing, the one trait that I learned to love and do often is also dying trait of today’s generation. That trait is reading. Reading and the acquisition of knowledge is what really changed my life.
No one reads anymore. It’s no wonder most people stay stuck in mediocrity. Very broadly put, reading stimulates the mind, expands your imagination, and provides the knowledge and understanding to fulfill those imaginations.
For me, every time I read about something I didn’t know, it motivated me and gave me the sense of empowerment. It made me feel empowered because I knew that almost everyone else didn’t know what I knew, for the reasons that no one reads anymore. Knowing that, it me feel powerful. I understood first hand the meaning of the cliche saying, “knowledge is power”.
It’s no wonder why majority of the people do not hold that power. It’s because of ignorance and not even knowing that the “power” exists.
It may seem selfish and cynical of me thinking the way I did of taking advantage of people’s ignorance for my own motivation. Well, in my perspective it’s not. Because everyone has access to the information that I have and it’s there for the taking. I also understood that if I wanted to be successful and financially free, I had to do things opposite of what everyone else that I knew was doing. No one that I knew at that time had or was where I wanted to be, so I knew I had to be contrarian to what they were doing.
That is why I began to read a lot, because no one read.
The kind of books I read up books on were non-fiction, self help books, to business and financial books. I just went with the flow. After reading up on one subject, it led to another, and another. What this did for me is it began to make connections from one seemingly unrelated subject to another. I began to see the “big picture” of various things.
I remember the very first book that sparked it all. It was recommended to me by a friend that has a mobile auto mechanic business in Hawaii. The book was Rich Dad Poor Dad by author and business tycoon Robert Kiyosaki. It’s a book basically about financial education, stuff that they don’t teach in public nor private schools.
The information and lessons in that book tripped me out! Because rarely anyone that I knew, other than the friend that recommended it to me, knew about the information held in that book. I knew that the information in that book was a key to acquire my visions and ambitions of financial freedom. And it did. The information I learned in that book is the cornerstone to what I have built today.
So my advice for anyone that wants to be an entrepreneur, business person, or anything, is to read, read, read, and read some more.
It’s a great start that you’re reading this post. And perhaps maybe I’ve inspired you to pick up the book Rich Dad Poor Dad and go from there to start you off on your journey to empowerment and success!