Thread by @AliAbdaal

So far, I’ve probably read more than 400 books.

Some of them were great, others were decent, and the whole bunch remains unread.

But 3 of them have completely changed my life. 👇

🏝 The 4-Hour Work Week by @tferriss - while the book is mostly known as the passive income bible, it really is about the idea of living the life you want without having to work your whole life and wait for retirement.

4 key ideas...

🤖 Automated passive income - by setting up businesses that can run without our constant involvement we can do all sorts of cool stuff like travelling and taking care of activities that bring joy to our life.

⛱ Mini-retirements - most people wait for their 60s to live the life they want to live. Tim’s idea is not to wait until we get old and tired from all the time spent working and instead go on many mini-retirements to live the life we desire before our older years.

💻 Remote work - these days working remotely is the new normal but when 4HWW was first published it was quite a new concept. Still, the remote work that Tim talks about is focused on working and travelling at the same time so we can live whenever we want at any point in our life.

⏩ Productivity tips - 4HWW is packed with useful productivity tips. This is where I’ve first heard about the concept of outsourcing certain types of tasks which has made my first business really successful and has likely kept my mental health intact.

🖼 Show Your Work by @austinkleon - my blog, YouTube channel, and likely this thread wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for this book. Only after reading Show Your Work I realised there’s nothing wrong in sharing your experience even if you’re not an expert.

3 Key Ideas...

🧑‍🏫 Teach what you know - we all have some type of knowledge that seems obvious to us but can be something brand new for others. Share things that you’re curious about, have expertise on, or you’re naturally good at.

🧠 You don’t have to be a genius - this idea that you have to be the expert in order to make content about it can be a killer for someone who wants to start their blog or YouTube channel. The truth is it doesn’t matter as long as you’re sharing your personal and authentic story.

✍️ Share something small every day - each day is an opportunity to share a piece of your experience with the world. Of course, not every day will be super exciting but we can find a lesson or an interesting story in pretty much anything we do.

🙌 Anything You Want by @sivers - a mix of Derek’s story of how he set up his first company CDBaby and very counterintuitive business advice. Instead of focusing on growth and scaling your business, Derek concentrates on making something that you enjoy running.

2 Fav Quotes...

💰 “Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.”

🥰 “Never forget why you’re doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?”

The most important lesson from Derek’s book is that the real point of doing anything is to be happy, so only do what makes you happy. And I try to remind myself of that whenever I’m worried about the YouTube algorithm or some minor business-related thing.

If you want to hear about all the books that had a profound impact on my life, check out the video I made on that topic and explore a bunch more Book Club videos that I have on my channel 👇