I’ve Spent the Last 10 Years Reading +100 Books and This Happened

Drumrolls.

At 19, I had nothing.

Some of my (younger) peers were dating girls, getting jobs, driving cars, and studying to do what they wanted in life.

I had never kissed a girl, hardly earned any money, and never even drove a scooter.

I like to blame my unpreparedness on the education my parents gave me and the lack of healthy models, but the truth is that I was terrified of growing up and sought to remain in infancy as long as I could.

Yet I was smart enough to know that I was immature. It annoyed me, too.

So I flew to Australia to learn how to do life. I got drunk, made some friends, and even kissed two girls!

But eight months and a half halfway across the world weren’t enough to catch on 15 years of delayed social skills.

I had issues, and I knew it.

I wanted to know what they were, where they came from, and how to fix them.

And I wanted to know how to get all of the things I wanted, basically girls, money, and body like any other guy on this planet.

Since I didn’t know how to get any of these, I turned to sources of knowledge that could teach me: books.

I read. Read. Read. Read. And read.

I thought that knowing stuff would help me solve my problems. I thought I’d find solutions and that being knowledgeable would help me have friends because I’d be an interesting person.

I was completely mistaken.

• When my peers went out to make friends, I stayed in and read how to make friends.
• When they’d go out to talk to girls, I’d stay in and read how to find girls.
• When they’d go get jobs, I’d stay in and read how to earn money.

The more I read, the more I knew, the less it seemed I was getting closer to my goals, the unhappier it made me.

So naturally, I read even more.

Then I discovered that writing helped me think and learn more.

So I became addicted to that too, and built an entire creator career on these two addictions.

I have been doing this for almost four years now.

And you know what changed?

Nothing.

I’m still the 19-year-old who left for Australia except that now, I am 29. I am not as lost. Not as virgin either.

But I am far from having gotten the things I already wanted at the time: money, body, and girls.

10 years is a long time.

If you do something for 10 years and it doesn’t work, you probably should change your strategy.

I am far more knowledgeable than most of the people I know and meet on a daily basis.

But I have got none of the things I thought I’d have by now.

And as painful as it is to admit, I exactly know why: I didn’t go and get them.

You don’t get stuff by reading about them. You get them by actually doing them.

You can read all of the books in the world, it won’t do sh!t if you don’t do anything afterward.

So…

• Make that phone call.
• Start that company.
• Invite that girl out.
• Go to the gym.
• Reach out to that friend.

Anything else is a waste of time.

I should know.

I’ve paid a decade to learn my lesson.

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