4 Examples (Among Many Others) of How You Can Use the Power of Books to Become Rich.
Featuring J.K. Rowling, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Elon Musk.
We are all different. We are all unique in our way, and that's a great opportunity. Your uniqueness must be cultivated because it is what will allow you to stand out from others and do great things in life. So, the biggest mistake you could make would be to absolutely want to copy the success of others.
People don't want yet another copy of successful people. On the contrary, they want unique people who can bring their own new and unique ideas. Their unique way of seeing the world.
However, to express your uniqueness in the best possible way in your quest to become rich, there are certain things that you will have to use like everyone else. One of those things is the power of books.
When I talk about the power of books, many people tend not to take me seriously. And yet, these people are wrong. Books are something fundamental to anyone who wants to achieve great things in life. The power of books is the power of knowledge. And the power of knowledge is limitless.
There are many examples of people who have used the power of books to their advantage to become rich, but I will try to show you that there are different ways to use the power of books to your advantage. That's what makes the power of books so powerful.
While everyone thinks mainly of reading when we talk about books, someone has to write those books that millions of people will read. So the first way to harness the power of books is to write books.
Take the example of J.K. Rowling.
From a modest family, J.K. Rowling wrote her first story at the age of six. After studying at the University of Exeter and the Sorbonne, where she earned a degree in French literature and philology, she worked for a time with Amnesty International, then taught English and French.
It was at the age of twenty-five that she built the first concepts and institutions of her wizarding world, in which an orphaned child discovered both his tragic heritage and his magical talents. She wrote her first novel, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”, in a precarious and depressed context and had to wait more than a year before its publication in 1997 by Bloomsbury.
The incredible success of this first novel changed the life of J.K. Rowling who was placed by Time Magazine in 1998 in the prestigious “100 Women of the Year”.
J.K. Rowling then continued to take advantage of the power of books by writing numerous sequels to the adventures of Harry Potter. Adventures that were turned into movies eventually made her a billionaire. The lesson here is that your words can make you rich if you know how to translate them in a way that appeals to the general public within books.
Take the example of Jeff Bezos.
In 1994, Jeff Bezos was already a millionaire and enjoyed a comfortable position in the Wall Street financial world. Many would have been content with that. Not Jeff Bezos!
Then thirty years old, Jeff Bezos is increasingly tempted by an idea that obsesses him for a while:
“I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles — was very exciting to me.”
Many tried to dissuade him from embarking on such an adventure, as he enjoyed a comfortable position. Considering that he might later regret not having participated in the Internet adventure, he founded Amazon.com, with the desire to build the world's largest bookstore like the Amazon is the world's largest river, on July 5, 1994, in Seattle.
Jeff Bezos would become a billionaire by using the power of books differently: by making it easier for people to buy books on the Internet.
At the beginning of the company's launch, Jeff Bezos was working with his employees in his garage on software development. Jeff Bezos put all his savings into Amazon and even asked his parents for help, who invested $245,573 to boost their son's project. Amazon was launched in July 1995 and has continued to expand ever since.
Today, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world and Amazon is a company with a market cap of well over $1 trillion.
Take the example of Warren Buffett.
I don't think I need to introduce you to Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha is one of the most famous investors in history. Why? Simply because Warren Buffett's success has never wavered for several decades. Such constant success commands respect and is not due to chance.
Of course, there is Warren Buffett's value-oriented investment philosophy. A philosophy inherited from his mentor Benjamin Graham. But above all, there is the power of books once again. On the reading side this time!
Warren Buffett loves to repeat that he reads up to 500 pages every day.
This is a huge number, but the point here is that Warren Buffett uses the power of books to his advantage by trying to reduce his ignorance every day. He has to make decisions every day that could potentially cost Berkshire Hathaway millions of dollars. To make the best decisions possible, Buffett reads extensively because he understands this essential fact: in life, it is your ignorance that makes you lose money.
This way of using books to his advantage has allowed Warren Buffett to accumulate a colossal fortune of over $100 billion.
Take the example of Elon Musk.
The example of Elon Musk's use of the power of books is similar to Warren Buffett's, as Elon Musk reads a lot of books. However, I wanted to mention Elon Musk's story because there is a notable difference that is worth remembering.
Buffett seeks to reduce his ignorance on all subjects by using the power of books. His goal is to then make better investment decisions.
Elon Musk reads books to reduce his ignorance and to be able to realize his most ambitious projects in any field. One day, a journalist asked Elon Musk how he learned to build rockets. Elon Musk simply replied: “I learned how to build rockets by reading books.”
Of course, this was not enough for Elon Musk who had the intelligence to surround himself with many experts in the field of aeronautics and space at SpaceX, but still, it shows you how much Elon Musk considers that the power of books has changed his life.
In fact, in the mid-1980s, Elon Musk was able to develop his first video game in BASIC by reading a book on computer programming in this language. So he became aware of the power of books very early on.
Final Thoughts
For those who want to achieve great things in life and don't like books, I think this article will have opened their eyes to an essential reality: the power of books is expressed in many different ways and you absolutely must take advantage of it.
Whether you read, write, or sell books, you will be able to achieve all of your goals if you make books your ally and not a feared, boring-looking enemy.
Some reading
The Best Business Book of All Time Dates From 1969 and Almost Nobody Knows About It. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates recommend everyone to read at least once.
Elon Musk Has Reached Olympus in 2022. But the Challenges Ahead to Keep Him There Are Perilous. The hardest thing is not to reach the top, but to stay there by keeping your promises.
WeWork, WeCrashed, and Now (We) Flow … a New Disaster on the Horizon for Adam Neumann? Investors always prefer to believe the smooth talkers rather than focus on profitability.