I first started consistently reading at the age of 19. The first book that I read was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. As soon as I finished it I fell in love with books and the concept of reading. Now, one of my absolute favourite things to do in the world is to read. I love learning new information. Things that I resonate with and can apply in my life to reach my ultimate ever lasting goal of becoming the best possible version of myself. I also really enjoy reading biographies. To me, reading other people’s failures and triumphs motivates me in my own life to always push myself more, not to mention it gives me added perspective on how some people walk this life, which in turn forces me to express gratitude over mine. Yes, I know comparison is the thief of joy, but when you use comparison as a leverage to gain a deep perspective of your own life you’re allowed to compare.

When I first started to read, I would read a book a week, which meant I was reading 4-5 books a month. One by one I was powering through all these books, because there was that notion out in the universe that every successful CEO reads 52 books a year. When you think of the words successful CEO you instantly think: successful, rich and powerful. Who wouldn’t want to be successful, rich and powerful. So I followed suit. I would cruise through books, but now looking back on the entire situation I realized that it’s not how many books you can read, its the quality over quantity. Let me explain.

Anyone can pick up a book and read it, but for a book to actually serve its purpose and leave you in a better place than it found you is entirely different. Have you ever read a book and after you finished it you had no idea what you learned, you didn’t apply anything to your life, but you reached your goal of simply reading that book and now you’re on to the next one? At the beginning stages in my reading journey that happened to me a lot and thats when I came up with this concept of quality versus quantity with reading.

For instance, let’s say there’s two people. John and Sally. John read 52 books this year and and Sally read 6. If you asked John what he learned, what he resonated with and what he applied in his life and he can’t even give you a few points, but Sally can list what she learnt and how the books changed her life in a positive way, who benefited more? Don’t focus on the number of books that you read, because it doesn’t matter. Someone can read a 100 books in a year and you could read 4. But out of those four books if each of them impacted your life in a positive way, you resonated with them, you learnt from them and applied what you learnt in reality and it made you grow and prosper, who’s the real winner? Never focus on the number of books you read. Learn from my mistake. Read to simply gain information, resonate with it and apply it to your life. You can read 1-2 books in a year and if those books changed the trajectory of your life that book served it’s true purpose. Focus always on quality over quantity.