Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to the podcast today, I want to highlight something that had been going on in my mind for a long time. And I couldn’t find a window to come across and present this. Today’s today. And this, again, is a question from a podcast listener. Generally listening to many podcasts came across this podcast in March, or April of this year, sent me an email, a long email, and I’m catching up with that email. And that had been in my inbox for over a month now. And the question is very simple, in one line for how to say it is I started reading books, and have been doing that for a long time. For some reason, I’m not able to complete reading the books that I start, and I keep listening to your podcast, and you keep on insisting that I should read books. And I don’t know when I’ll be able to complete it. And why is that? I’m not able to complete it. I didn’t actually take this question very seriously, because I thought I was answering this anyway on the podcast. But then this gentleman texted me two days ago, asking about his question, so I thought I should answer it here.
Okay, so first of all, let me be very clear, every time I talk about reading books, I suggest reading books because reading books, obviously, you learn different techniques, different ideas, different thought patterns, you get to pick the brain of someone who has done it, somebody who has painstakingly written a book about all his or her experiences, and you can learn from those. But the reason why I suggest and what I do is, I want to take action. So this is not about knowledge gathering, this is not about trying to tell people that I read four books or five books, I get those emails all the time, people telling me, I read this book, I read that book, and I read four books last month, and I’m on reading one book a week, I get those messages. It’s not about what you consume. It’s not about what you put into yourself. It’s what stays within you. When you read something for the sake of reading, you’ll rush through things, which I’ve seen people do. It’s difficult. It’s difficult, you have to experience what you are reading. And for you to experience what you’re reading or what you’re learning, you got to put that new learning into action. So you have to do something with this newfound knowledge and newfound information. If not, it doesn’t matter how many books you read, I have read many books, and I make that claim here. And I’ve listened to a few and spent time with many authors along the way, all these years. And I don’t think I can, you know, measure myself with a number of books. And if I do, and I think I’m an idiot, if I think those lands, pardon my language in here, but you get to the point, I cannot measure myself with the number of books I read, I do measure myself with the number of books I have given away to people, random people on my radio shows, in my seminars, workshops, it’s I’ve given away books, and I take pride in giving away books, I think one of the best gifts that you can really, really give away is a book, The sad part is the worst gift that you can receive is a book. And given that you are not a reader, so you get a book, you don’t value the book, you don’t know why you got it, it’s gonna stay there with you for years and years and years. And then you just lost the wealth and, and the wisdom that it could create for you.
So it’s not a good gift to get, but an incredible gift to give. Because you really are doing and you’re creating the impact. You’re just really making taking the first step to transform an individual’s life and you give a book to them. They don’t value that that’s, that’s not your problem. But again, you shouldn’t give a book to somebody who’s not going to value your book or any book for that matter. So that’s why I go on the radio. And I recently, just a week ago, I just gave away a book, literally that $75 of $65 book, this book on cricket. I mean, the phone lines were full, like literally calls coming for people to win the book. And finally, we did there was one winner. So that individual wants the book that individual there is a high possibility we’ll read that book and at least some parts of it. They will remember that okay, I got this book from Srini and he gave it to me so in a way I am In the memory as long as that book is there with them. So you know, I have a vested interest in doing this, of course, it costs me money and all that. Now coming back to the question, you start a book, you can’t complete the book, it’s because you don’t, clearly, you don’t have commitment, you don’t have value. At every step in life, you build value at every step of life, you have to buy the value. Why are you in this relationship? Why are you in this job? Why are you in this entity called you, you wake up in the morning, you don’t value yourself, you can’t value anything simple. So you have to constantly sell yourself to yourself, you have to sell the actions that you’re taking yourself, interactions that you’re having to yourself, every idea every thought you have in you, you have to sell those to you, if you don’t buy them, then you can’t sell it to anybody else outside. It’s a very simple, simple phenomenon. But some, for some reason people miss this. So every time you’re stuck reading a book, ask yourself, why did I start this book in the first place, and why I’m having trouble completing this? Now, let’s talk about the results. Reading a book, I think you kind of in a way refer to that in your email. Just because you read a book doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the results. And then I don’t think any author claims that either. None of the authors claim that you’re going to get results because you read a self-improvement book. So self-improvement books are designed to inspire you, motivate you, and bring you together towards achieving that outcome, which that book is saying, provided you put in the effort provided you do the work nearly 60 years ago, 60 years to the date Edgar Dale, that was back in the 60s, Edgar Dale came up with a theory. And specific to learners, people who learn want to learn. He said that learners retain more information by what they do, as compared to what they hear, read or observe. It’s very profound. So learners retain more information by what they do, as opposed to what they hear, read, or observe.
Now, his theory, later on, was further developed. And backed, which we now know, as the cone of learning or cone of experience, different people say differently, but the cone of experience. So learning by doing is, in a way, also known as experiential learning or action learning. So, in the scorn, you can Google this, you might have heard about this before, on this podcast, or maybe somewhere else. I have referred to this multiple times in different contexts, but essentially Edgar Dale, what he says as a part of the cone of experience, is people generally retain 10% of what they read, I guarantee you, you can read 100 books, but you will only retain 10% of everything that you have read. That’s the average, if you’re above average, then maybe a little bit more, but not a lot. If you listen to someone speaking, you’re listening to this right now, right, that is a high chance that you’re going to retain 20% of what you are listening, right now, at this moment, whatever I’m saying, You’re gonna retain 40% of it. If you’re watching pictures, photos, moving objects, exhibits, and demonstrations, there is a possibility that you are going to retain 30% of what you’re seeing and 50% of What you are seeing and hearing simultaneously in demonstrations, for that matter. If you participate in a hands-on workshop or something like a roleplay situation, maybe some hands-on stuff, like some games or maybe some activity group activity, something like that, then you retain 70% of that. If you engage directly, or model or simulate a real experience, actually take that back. If you directly engage. You’re completely set Something as your porpoise, engage directly with it and get the real experience of doing something, then you will retain 90% of that which you are doing every task that you’re doing everything that you’re seeing everything that you’re listening, everything that you’re experiencing 90% of that you’re going to retain people in my observation, they want to solve complex career problems, complex relationship problems, financial problems, all kinds of problems by simply buying a book at the bookstore, which they will not read, which they will not complete, which they cannot reflect upon, because they don’t consume.
They want their life to change, and to behave as if the entire they have a lifetime to deal with the problems. No, you don’t. It’s more shocking than the percentages the statistics of how people, you know, drop and die, just like that. It’s crazy. The single biggest cause for that is people dropping and dying. Just like that. Not cancer, not smoking, none of that stuff, just people, people just go drop dead. From a heart attack. We don’t know what that is. It’s crazy. I cannot guarantee tomorrow morning, I’m going to have a podcast here. That’s the truth. The statistics for South Asian males, at this age, the stats are completely against me. So why should I pick up a book, read the book for the next five years, and think that my problem is going to go away? If you want a solid problem if you want to have the fun of reading something, yes, of course. So the cone of learning is reading a book on the very top. And at the bottom of the cone or the pyramid are you really doing something about it with somebody who has the experience and knowledge the talent to really guide you and get you must and get you out of your situation? This is the reason why people go to therapists, mentors, and coaches who will work directly with them to get the result that they are seeking. Very few are smart enough to cut through the books, cut to the seminars, and workshops, and directly work with someone hands-on. I’m not saying you do that. And I’m not selling you into anything. But I’m telling you that if you’re serious about a solution that you’re seeking an outcome that you’re seeking, or you want to get to a certain position in life, with a certain kind of a return on your investment, whether you want to grow your business, whether you want to build a body that you’re seeking, whether you want to fix a relationship issue that is going on, or the job that you want, whatever it is, when you have a tangible outcome in your mind. Why would you spend an infinite amount of time trying to fiddle through hundreds of sources of information? Knowing now, or for that matter, knowing from before that if you directly go and work, you can fix the problem. And you can accelerate the outcome. I’m not saying the outcome is going to be the perfect outcome that you’re seeking. But at least you can get there. If you want to write a resume, go work with a resume writer. You want to really build wealth. Go work with a mentor who can help you put together a plan on how you can get there and work with you, you know, on a daily or weekly or monthly basis to get you there in some shape or form using their own methods, whatever methods they have, and whatever appeals to you. Can you read a book on finance and figured out finances? Can you read a book on career development figured out? Yes. Can you listen to this podcast and 20 other podcasts and pick up 30 Different ideas here and there and come up with your own theories and own models?
Yeah. There’s a cost though, that cost is more expensive than anything else. Because time is the most precious commodity that you have. And this is something that I had been driving here on this podcast forever. Time is the single biggest differentiator. How you use your time is what is going to define how far you will go and how deep will go and how wide you will go. Okay, I hope I answered the question. I’m going to stop here. And I’m going to pick up a different topic tomorrow. Appreciate you all listening. Thank you for your questions. Thank you for keeping me on the tipping point. Love this. Take care of yourself and I’ll be talking to you tomorrow.
Bye now.