The Two Books That Changed My Life
Two years into my college curriculum, I was lost. I had no goals, no clear end-game for what I was doing. I just knew that I was expected to graduate and when I did, I’d get a job and the rest would take care of itself. After a semester not getting above a C in any of my five courses, I took a hiatus from school. Not a year-long vacation to find myself while backpacking through Europe. Nope. This was a year-long journey to work. A year-long journey to find out how much I valued education. What did learning provide me? Did I want to spend another two years and tens of thousands of dollars to fill my head with more stuff I might not remember five years down the road?
What I found during the next year, in those early morning hours stocking Walmart shelves was that the knowledge I filled into my head was my one-way ticket away from minimum-wage. For the first time in my life, reality set in and I realized I had no tangible skills or knowledge to leverage into wealth. It was this frustration that led me to pickup a book. This was a pretty big step for me considering I hadn’t read a book for pleasure since high school, maybe. Two months later, I was reading every day. A year later, I was back in school, sitting in the back of my college classes, reading. Reading has become like my family (shout out to King Curtis). Reading has given me direction, it has helped me to build strong habits and break my worst vices. It has helped me to learn about myself and the world, and find long-term goals for how I want to live my life. Below are the two most important books that have had a profound impact on my life. I’ll share why they had such an impact, and why I think you should read them as well.
The Snowball : Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
The Snowball was my first real challenge in this college dropout phase. Not because it was a tough read, but because the size of this book makes you really question how much time you want to invest. But I had no money and Warren Buffett was the richest man on the planet. So I assumed there was wealth within these pages. I was right.
Up to this point, I had thought that everyone was born with a natural innate talent. If you were successful at what you did, it was because you were lucky and others weren’t. This book revolutionized my idea on what it was to be successful. Warren Buffett was a regular person who loved finance, business, and investing so much that he devoted his entire life, all waking hours to perfect his understanding of these topics. This is what made him the worlds best investor. Don’t get me wrong, I think Buffett has more natural intelligence than most people, Buffett achieved his success more by developing valuable habits and avoiding harmful ones. This seems so obvious, but the action of implementing these habits is the principal reason most of us don’t accomplish our goals. I believe this book will teach you how to find an interest, experiment with that interest, fail, and try again. Maybe you won’t become the worlds wealthiest investor but you will learn. If you are looking for a role model in your life, Warren Buffett is an outstanding example for you to emulate.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
This was a more recent read. I am a sucker for a story about someone who was at one point nothing, had a revelation and changed their life seemingly overnight to become something great. David Goggins is the only other individual who comes to mind when I think of people who have made this transformation.
Malcolm X had nothing, came from nothing, and for the first 20 years of his life didn’t have any aspiration to live a long, fruitful life. Arrested at 21, he was referred to as ‘The Devil’ by the other prison inmates. He took great pride in his nickname and the actions reputation he carried. He barely knew how to read or write. Today Malcolm X is one of the most recognizable names from the civil rights movement. How does one go from ‘The Devil’ to become one of the greatest civil rights leaders of all time? During his time in prison, Malcolm X taught himself to read by going word by word through the dictionary, eventually reading for around16–20 hours a day. When the lights would go out in the prison, he would sit in the one part of his cell where a small sliver of light shown through, and continue reading through the night. He eventually developed astigmatism from reading in the dark over his 10 years in prison. He managed on four hours of sleep. He forced himself to lead book clubs and take part in the debate groups within the prison. His years in prison developed within him the habits he needed to change the world.
In more or less words, this book taught me there are no excuses for me not to achieve my goals. Further, there is no reason I shouldn’t set my goals much further than what I believe I could accomplish. I have had every opportunity in my life that Malcolm X never had and yet what have I done with my abilities? It is this challenge I saw Malcolm X give to himself that I believe can help you take upon yourself. Additionally, there is so much history doesn’t share with us. For example, grade school teaches very little about civil rights leaders other than Martin Luther King Jr. What we do learn about Malcolm X was that he supported violence against others. This book clearly illustrates that this was not remotely close to the truth. Malcolm X was a passionate man who stood firmly for what he believed; he set strict principles for himself to abide by, and most importantly, he allowed himself to learn and adapt his values based on new knowledge. This is by far the most important book I have ever read and I challenge you to read it as soon as possible.
If you are going through a trying time in your life, if you don’t know your purpose or where you stand, the best thing you can do is read. Learn from others. You are not the first person who has been challenged by life. By developing a habit of taking knowledge from others and applying it to your life, you can overcome any obstacle.
