A couple of weeks ago I was at my favourite MPH at 1-U to pick out another book.
I read a lot, and reading is something I really really enjoy doing. Heck if I were to retire one day or take a year off for holidays, I would go to some nice tropical island, sip ice lemon tea and read some very good books.
The books I read these days are mostly about businesses or entrepreneurs that have made it. Everything from the Google Story, to Philip Green’s success with BHS, Topman and Dorothy Perkins to Richard Branson’s Virgin.
Don’t get me wrong though… I don’t read these books because I feel I have to. I read them because as an entrepreneur, in many ways I draw inspiration from them to face the adversities we all go through in life.
I love reading novels too, I used to read every other John Grisham book I could find 
but after a while I had this thinking that hey… entertainment-wise, I get a little more satisfaction or enjoyment by watching a movie than I do reading.
So if I were to read something, I’d wanna read something that could help me learn things I won’t learn from watching TV.
Picking a great book though is really hard.
Heck go to MPH and look at the business corner and you’ll find books with titles
“Retire Rich” or “How To Be A Millionaire“…. heck I NEVER touch these books, at least not since the first time I browsed through a couple of them out of curiosity.Why?
These books or the authors who write them are what I like to call “The Master of the Obvious“.
It’s like you go to some leadership course or some entrepreneur course teaching you to start your own business and you hear tips like:
“You Have To Work Hard To Succeed”
At the end of the courses you think to yourself..
“Wait a minute… wtf?!?! Don’t I already know that? and I paid RM100 for him to tell me that??“
And it’s true… YOU DO ALREADY KNOW THAT!!!
Who the hell doesn’t know that you have to work hard to succeed in life??? They teach us that since we started learning to spell the F word in school.
Or here’s the other favourite that these courses or books love to tell you
“A Successful Entrepreneur Must Be Determined”.
Who the flying f*ck doesn’t know that?
My mind turns off when I hear “Obvious” statements like this, hence the term “Master of the Obvious”.
Hell if I heard someone say
“TO BE RICH AND SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE.. YOU MUST BE LAZY”.
I will be all ears dammit… trying to learn how I can be lazy and yet be rich!
Then there are books that go along the lines of
“INTERNET SECRETS UNLOCKED… BE A MILLIONAIRE IN YOUR PAJAMAS”.
All I gotta say to that is… What the hell have we all been doing working so hard if we could earn all that money in our pajamas at home with our smelly bolsters by our side.
I remember buying a book called The Perfect Pitch or something trying to learn a thing or two about giving a good pitch or presentation…. and the points they had in the book were
“Always Prepare Before Your Presentation”
Uhmm.. yeah this is new to me.. I never knew we were supposed to prepare ourselves before any presentation. I bet everyone else didn’t know this either? Right guys?
“Look Your Audience In The Eye When You Present”
WTF?!?!? WHERE ELSE WOULD I NORMALLY LOOK WHEN I PRESENT?? AT THEIR BALLS!?!? OR AT MY BALLS?!?!
Anyyyywaayyyy… what kind of books do I read?
I prefer to read real life success stories of really successful people and draw my own lessons from these stories I read and from the mistakes they made.
Like this book I just read called “Winner Takes All” which tells you how all the major casinos in Las Vegas actually came about…. about all the success and failures and the failures that subsequently led to successes.
Casinos like the Bellagio, Mirage, Venetian etc etc and the wonderful people who put all these things together.
Two weeks ago I went to MPH looking for another book to read.
And I went home with a book about Second Life.
Why?
Because I have read so much about it, heard a few friends (just a few) play it… and tried it myself but thought it sucked so I thought I’d pick up the book and try to learn what that game really is all about. I mean it has to be good for something or it can’t be getting this much hype!
Curiosity is the root of all knowledge and books are the tools that we use to feed that root.
Dammit can anyone tell me what’s so fantastic about Second Life?
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space