3 Books That Changed My Life
I quickly summarize them and I talk about the lessons I’ve learned.
Around February this year, I decided to start reading for fun again. Since then, as of August, I have read about 20 books.
Most of them influenced me in good ways. Albeit, some of them left a big mark on me and completely changed my view on certain things.
A Man’s Search for Meaning
— Viktor E. Frankl
Mr. Frankl is a psychiatrist as well as a holocaust survivor. He survived multiple concentration camps.
What is so interesting about this book is the fact that he talks about the experiences in a concentration camp but from a psychological perspective.
He talks about how people who started smoking instead of exchanging their tickets for soups and doing all of those self-deprecating things were the most likely to die in the near future.
It meant that they had given up on life.
He is putting forward the fact that having a meaning can get you passed anything.
“He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.”
— Nietzsche
He strongly believes that it was his desire to teach and publish studies that kept him from giving up.
In the second part of the book, he talks about his own theory. It is called Logotherapy. The purpose is to help man find meaning.
Lessons learned
This book made me realize how fortunate and ungrateful I am.
In concentration camps, people were happy to see water running down the drain. They finally had access to water after days of transportation. I have an inground pool sitting in my backyard.
“At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him.”
They had a tiny piece of bread as well as a bit of soup every day. I have access to a full fridge in my kitchen. I take it for granted… I shouldn’t!! I should be grateful for that.
It also made me realize that mindset is everything.
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”
Whatever the situation is, I get to choose how I react to it.
If I am missing an arm, I have two choices: I move one, or I continue to cry on the fact that I am missing an arm.
“Be OK with what you ultimately can’t do, because there is so much you CAN do.”
— Sam Berns
“I broke my neck, It didn’t break me.”
How To Win Friends and Influence People
— Dale Carnegie
“Education is the ability to meet life’s situations.”
Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer.
This book is a compilation of principles on effective speaking.
It is very well written and easy to read. I adore the author’s writing style.
Each principle is thoroughly explained and Mr. Carnegie gives us some real-life situations with stories that happened.
It is a book that teaches you how to communicate properly, how to change people’s minds, how to win friends and how to influence people.
Lessons learned
Communication is very important and not many people understand how it works.
“That survey revealed that health is the prime interest of adults — and that their second interest is people: how to understand and get along with people”
People usually only care about themselves.
If you start listening closely, you are going to notice that most people only talk about themselves. Myself included. I am now more careful about how much speaking time each person gets.
It is important to be a good listener and not always do monologues.
“To be interesting, be interested.”
It is funny because, now, people usually say that I am a good conversationalist. It even happens when I feel like I don’t talk that much.
That is because I let the conversation flow and I am interested in the other person’s thoughts.
Remembering people’s names is very important.
“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
Now, when I go to places I make sure to remember the name of everyone. I even had fun with this in a classroom as well. One day, I decided to find out about the name of everyone in my class.
When I use the name of people that don’t know me they start wondering why I know their names.
Then, they want to know more about me and I appear to be this confident beast.
Elon Musk autobiography
— Ashlee Vance
The title is pretty self-explanatory.
It documents the story of arguably the world’s most important entrepreneur. It is basically an adventure into the mind of, in my opinion, the most interesting person in the universe.
It talks about how he started, how he thinks, how he acts and how he gets things done.
It goes over Elon’s childhood in Africa, his debut at PayPal, the foundation of SpaceX, the making of Tesla, how SolarCity started, his love life, his parties, etc.
It even talks about the money involved in each decision.
Lessons learned
I don’t work enough. This man works 90 hours a week at both SpaceX and Tesla. He knows how to get things done.
Seeing all the things he is accomplishing only makes me wanna be productive.
“Elon came to the conclusion early in his career that life is short. If you really embrace this, it leaves you with the obvious conclusion that you should be working as hard as you can.”
You can accomplish anything. It all started with a dream. Everybody was laughing at him. EVERYBODY. Until it all became reality. Now, who is the one laughing?
When critics say you can’t do this… you say?
We’ve done it!
When you have a vision, you can make it happen. You just have to put all you have in it.
“You don’t tell Elon you can’t do something.”
At one point in his career, he had a very difficult decision to take. Either he forgets about one of his 2 companies or he pushes them both and hopes for the best.
Everybody kept telling him that keeping them both was insane.
Still, he managed to pull off the impossible and keep both of his companies.
Do things yourself. Don’t wait for things to happen. Just do it!
When Elon is not happy about the outcome of a job. He does the job himself.
As CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, you would think that his job is to manage everything.
It turns out, that it is not the case. In fact, he spends most of his time with the engineering team designing things. He wants the projects to move. He makes sure things happen by being part of the things.
Are you going to use some of these principles? Let me know in the comments down below!
If you have enjoyed this article, consider reading this one! :)
