About the book

Author : Hassan Kuba, Ash Ali

Genre  : Self-Help 

Pages : 234

Published : 9 January 2020

Goodreads : 4.1/5

Review

Have you ever thought some people have it easy in life? Well, it’s because they do.

The Unfair Advantage is a book that says how it is. Some people are just born with an unfair advantage, it’s simple as that. But it’s not all bad because this book is here to teach you how you can discover your unfair advantage. And yes, there will be some, even if you think otherwise.

The authors spend the entire first part introducing the unfair advantage and what kind of mindset to keep while considering them. They bring up good points like, “at the end of the day life isn’t fair” and even if you have all the unfair advantages, nothing really matters if you don’t work hard. In the authors own words :

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. But combine the two, and that’s when you get rocket fuel.”

    Both authors are startup owners, with their startup gathering a whooping 1.5 billion in initial public offering (IPO). This book is a product of people constantly asking them how they made it. So most of the book refers to how these advantages can help you and your startup. But personally, I don’t own a startup, but I still found it useful in some ways.

    After the initial introduction, they quickly go into how you can find your unfair advantage, which according to the authors is possible by following the MILES framework. Which they represent as :

You’ll definitely have a few or all of these unfair advantages, and you just don’t know it yet. Each subsequent chapters go in depth on each of these pillars and how each complement one another. Of course, I’m not going to explain each one. But don’t judge yourself just by looking at these 5 pillars at face value and thinking you don’t have them. They have more depth and sub-categories that might change your opinion. 

Overall, it was a good read. I was always of the impression I got the short end of the stick in some aspects of life. But this book showed I had a lot to appreciate in my own life, and I still have a lot to learn. Ultimately, what the book taught me is, (quote from the book): 

“Mind over matter, but matter still matters“

Where to buy the book?

Amazon India | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

This post The Unfair Advantage – Book Review #5 first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

Don’t know ANYTHING about the stock market or anything related to investing?

Read these books in the order I mention, and they’ll guide you in empowering yourself with the knowledge of investing.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Author : Robert T. Kiyosaki

Genre  : Business, Finance

Pages : 336

Published : 1997

Goodreads : 4.1 / 5

BUY THE BOOK

This book lays a great foundation of how one should view money in his life. This book is not about the stock market or investing particularly, but about the perception of money itself. But PLEASE DON’T SKIP THIS, reading this book is what made me want to take control of my future finances. If you want to know my full opinion, read my review HERE. The biggest takeaway from this book can be summarized in this quote from the book:

“The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them”  

Learn To Earn

Author :  Peter Lynch, John Rothchild

Genre  : Business, Finance

Pages : 272

Published : 1995

Goodreads : 4.04 / 5

BUY THE BOOK

This book starts from square one. It takes you from the very begining of, “What is a company?” to buying your first stock. The one gripe I have with this and the next one from Peter Lynch, is that both have aged poorly. Being released in the 1990s where people were exclusively trading by physically going to the stock exchange, before the dawn of the internet, so there is a lot of outdated advice. But don’t be fooled by its age. The fundamental principles of investing haven’t changed since it began, and this book lays a good foundation. Also, I would highly recommend keeping notes as you read along. One of the best takeaway from this book is the quote: 

“Time is makes money”

One Up On Wall Street

Author :  Peter Lynch, John Rothchild

Genre  : Business, Finance

Pages : 304

Published : 1989

Goodreads : 4.25 / 5

BUY THE BOOK

The same problem of the advice being dated applies here as well, but this book goes more in-depth on the technical terms and finding your first business to invest in. There are a lot of case studies about different companies and their history which can be skipped, even though I’ll recommend reading at least a few to understand the surrounding culture more. Again, this book is more technical terms explained in layman terms. Also, there are end chapter summaries which were quite useful. Now for my personal favorite quote from the book:

“It is personal preparation, as much as knowledge and research, that distinguishes the successful stock picker from the chronic loser”

Rule #1

Author :  Phil Town

Genre  : Business, Finance

Pages : 320

Published : 2006

Goodreads : 4.13 / 5

BUY THE BOOK

This is the last book (on my list) that you should read, and which will summaries everything you learned in the previous books and shed some 21’st century light on it. This book is a definite step-by-step guide to preparing yourself, finding a company, and finally investing in it. The book is up-to-date and tells us what numbers we should really be looking at to see how a business is doing. As a quote, I’ll tell you what this book teaches you: 

Rule #1

1. Find a wonderful business  
2. Know what the business is worth
3. Buy it at 50% off
4. Repeat until very rich

This post 4 Books to Learn About the Stock Market and Investing first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

About the book

Author : Mark Manson

Genre  : Self Help

Pages : 224

Published : 13 Sep 2016

Goodreads : 3.9 / 5

Review

Learn to stop giving a f*ck from this book by Author and blogger Mark Manson, where he argues that life’s struggles give it meaning, and that the mindless positivity of typical self-help books is neither practical nor helpful. This is the second book from Mark Manson released in 2016 after his first book : Models: Attract Women Through Honesty (2011), and before his latest book called Everything Is F*cked (2019)

The book is divided into 9 chapters, with chapters like “Chapter 1: Don’t Try” to “Chapter 9 : .. And then you die”. The Author goes through a lot of different concepts like understanding that “any problem is not unique to us” or “the problems of having bad values”, but the authors conveys this in his own way, which involves naming the sections, “kill yourself” and “shitty values” respectively. As you might have guessed, the Author is in your face most of the time, and that’s probably what turned some away from this book. But behind all the fucks and shits, there’s some great life values to earn from this book. The Author is honest and blatant about what he believes, and I certainly appreciated that. The degree to which I agree with the Author on the concepts he presents vary, and I’m sure I’ll keep changing my mind, but that just means I’m learning and growing. But be ready to hear sentences like “While not giving a fuck may seem simple on the surface, it’s a whole new bag of burritos under the hood. I don’t even know what that sentence means, but I don’t give a fuck. A bag of burritos sounds awesome, so let’s just go with it.”

“Maturity is what happens when one learns to only give a fuck about what’s truly fuckworthy.”

Personally, I am a person who already gives less f*cks that most of my peers. Most of the things that others my age talks about are menial and (according to the author) not f*ck worthy to me. And I might be a social oddball because of that, but I’m happier than ever minding my own business. Reading this book just reconfirmed and shed some new light into the things I already do. Also I get anxiety thinking about some of the most random est shit, and also always trying to make the “Right Choice” in everything. Don’t worry, I’m not going to say this book cured my anxiety (I wish), but it made me understand some things like: we all are wrong about everything and that’s okay or playing the hand we dealt in life or understanding failure is the way forward.

One of my favorite sections is when he talks about liking the reward vs the struggle. It really hit home as I’m in my 20s and constantly trying out new things I might make a career out of, and most times I’m in my head thinking about how awesome it would be if I was like that person or had that profession, but we never think about the decades of hard work that got them there. When we think about that, we back out. That means we wanted the reward and not the process. These quotes convey that thought very well :

“I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love with not the fight but only the victory. And life doesn’t work that way”

“Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.”

The opinions about the book seem pretty diverse, I have seen reviews giving it a 1-star calling the author a sexist, self-indulgent, white male and also plenty of 5-star reviews saying this book gave them confidence and ways to stop caring about menial matters. Me personally, I liked it, but I can also see why people don’t. The author is pretty blatant and some people might find that hard to swallow. But since the author covers such a wide array of topics, I’m sure everyone will find some value from this book, nonetheless.   

Where to buy the book?

Amazon India | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

This post The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck – Book Review #4 first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

About the book

Author : Robert T. Kiyosaki

Genre  : Self Help

Pages : 336

Published : 1997

Goodreads : 4.1 / 5

Summary of Content

“The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.” 

This is from Lesson 1 of Rich Dad And Poor Dad, and probably the single best quote that explains everything this book is trying to convey. Author Robert T. Kiyosaki gives invaluable advice on money, the importance of education and financial literacy, and how we should see money and make it work for us instead of spending all our life working for it.

The book starts off with the Author saying he has two dads, a Rich Dad and a Poor Dad. The Rich Dad never finished eighth grade while the poor dad was highly educated with a Ph.D. But the rich dad went to become the richest man in Hawaii while the educated dad struggled financially throughout his life. The entire book is based on how his two dads, or in contrast how the rich and poor view money and why there exists a social hierarchy in the first place

The book is divided into six lessons, which spans over ten chapters. These lessons are : 

1) The Rich Don’t Work For Money 

2) Why teach Financial Literacy?

3) Mind your own business

4) The History and Power of Corporations

5) The Rich Invent money

6) Work to learn, Don’t work for money

The book has some great advice like the importance of owning assets and not liabilities, the importance of education, the obstacles that we might face along the way and how to get past them and at the end some steps to get started. 

Here are some inspiring quotes I found throughout the book :

“Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities, but they think they are assets”

“Education is more valuable than money in the long run”

“It’s what in your head that determines what’s in your hands“

My Thoughts

This book really opened my eyes on how I viewed money and made me ask questions that I didn’t really know I could ask. I’m an Engineering major and have zero financial IQ because I was never taught any of this in my school. I completely agree with the Author’s complaint about our educational system being insufficient in teaches us this. But since reading this book I have taken it upon myself to educate myself on the topic of finance, accounting and how I can make money work for me. I’ve also gained interest into investing and started learning about the stock market. This is, in my opinion, a great book if you want to start learning about investing, as it is a great introduction on how to view money and changing your mindset.

One gripe I have with the book is that the Author has been redundant in some parts of the book, explaining the same concept over and over again.

Lesson 3 is probably the chapter where I finally understood how I can implement all this into my own life. Up until then I was thinking, “Well I’m currently doing my Engineering degree, what do I do now?”  but when the Author said “There is a difference between your profession and your business” , I finally got it. You can have your day job (your profession) until your business is up and running (your assets). Also, he goes into how he ran his business while having a profession and was able to retire at the age of 47, which was inspiring. I would recommend this book to everyone, even if you don’t take action from this book, it provides a perspective on money that I personally did not get from my parents or from my education system.

Where to buy the book?

Amazon India | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

This post Rich Dad Poor Dad – Book Review #3 first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

About the book

Author : Austin Keleon

Genre  : Self Help

Pages : 224

Published : 6 March 2014

Goodreads : 4.1 / 5

Summary of Content

Show Your Work! is a book that teaches you, well, how to show your work.

Author Austin Kleon gives some great insight into how creativity and self-promotion is to be seen in the tiny book. The book consists of 10 chapters, each exploring different ways to make yourself or your content discovered.

I. You Don’t Have to Be a Genius.
2. Think Process, Not Product.
3. Share Something Small Everyday.
4. Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities.
5. Tell Good Stories.
6. Teach What You Know.
7. Don’t Turn Into Human Spam.
8. Learn to Take a Punch.
9. Sell Out.
10. Stick Around.  

As the chapters are tiny, talking a moment after each chapter to reflect on how each value can be implemented in your life can help you get more out of this book.

My Thoughts

Don’t be fooled by the number of pages, the book is small, and I mean by size and by the amount of content to read. The book is filled with pictures and abstract writing, which definitely shows the quirkiness of the Author. You can easily finish this book in a day or even within a few hours. 

This book has some of my favorite quotes, which isn’t from the author itself, but from other notable figures. Some of them include : 

“The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish…. Somehow the more you give away, the more conies back to you.” – Paul Arden 

“When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things” – Richard Ford

 “The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.” – Brian Michael Bendis 

“Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it” – Milton Glaser

It’s a fairly simple and straight forward book, which can certainly help content creators or, in the least, give them that last push they need to put themselves out there.

Where to buy the book?

Amazon India | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

This post Show Your Work! – Book Review #2 first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU

About the book

Author : James Clear

Pages : 226

Genre  : Self Help

Published : 16 Oct 2018

Goodreads : 4.4 / 5

Summary of Content

“An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.”

Atomic Habits is a book that walks you through the process of creating a new habit or stopping undesirable ones. After a brief introduction about the Author, the first chapter begins, which is probably the most important in my opinion. James Clear lays a great foundation for the entire book, describing concepts like “1% better every day” or “positive compounding” or “what progress is really like” and my favorite, the different ways to go about it : Outcome based habit vs Identity based habit. He also makes some great points, like : 

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient”

“If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

Then he moves onto the main concept of the entire book, which is a 4 step process for creating or breaking a habit. 

How to Create a Good Habit :

• The 1st law (Cue) Make it obvious.
• The 2nd law (Craving) Make it attractive.
• The 3rd law (Response) Make it easy.
• The 4th law (Reward) Make it satisfying.

How to Break a Bad Habit :

• Inversion of the 1st law (Cue) Make it invisible.
• Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving) Make it unattractive.
• Inversion of the 3rd law (Response) Make it difficult.
• Inversion of the 4th law (Reward) Make it unsatisfying.

The remaining chapters are expansion / explanation on each of the steps with a final chapter that explains some advanced tactics to close off the show

My Thoughts 

“I didn’t know I needed this book until I read it”

This was the first self-help book I read, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t even trying to form a new habit, someone had recommended this as a must-read for anyone, so I picked it up. But as I was reading it, I started reflecting on my own habits and started to realize places where I could improve.

And if you’re wondering, yes it does work. James Clear definitely knows how humans form a new habit and made it easier for us to hack the system and create desirable habits for oneself. Even if you don’t form a new habit, I think you will undoubtedly find some tips to improving your existing ones from this book.

Another key thing I liked about this book is how “to the point” and practical this book is. The author doesn’t waste your time providing hundreds of useless examples or being redundant with the topics. He’s always to the point and I certainly appreciated that.

Where to buy the book?

 Amazon India | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

This post Atomic Habits – Book Review #1 first appeared on R1CHU and is written by R1CHU