📚 How To Read Ebooks & Audiobooks for Free, The 5 Types of Wealth, and more.

👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 10 Awesome book summary visuals.

• 30 Super short books you can read in a day.

• Why you shouldn’t feel bad about not finishing a book.

PS: Thank you to everyone who entered the recent giveaway, the winner was Carolyn P. Stay tuned for a 50-book giveaway next month!

🎧 Cool New App To Read Books for Free:

It’s called ElevenReader and it gives you access to thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for free.

But wait, it gets better…

• You can upload ebooks (ePub, PDF, URL) and instantly turn them into audiobooks

• You can choose from hundreds of remarkably realistic voices to narrate the audiobooks

• You can also read your ebook and listen to the audio narration in sync which is great for retention

And the best part?

It’s 100% free to download, and available for both iOS and Android.

Check out the ElevenReader app here.

📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “The 5 Types of Wealth” by Sahil Bloom.

In this book, entrepreneur Sahil Bloom explains that there isn’t just one type of wealth, but rather there are five: time wealth, social wealth, mental wealth, physical wealth, and financial wealth.

To be truly wealthy and fulfilled, you need to focus on all of these areas, not just money.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

📖

1) Be Careful of A Pyrrhic Victory

The term Pyrrhic victory originates from King Pyrrhus of Epirus.

Around 280 B.C., King Pyrrhus went to war with the Romans, thinking he’d have an easy victory.

However, the Romans rallied and fought back hard with days of bloody hand-to-hand combat. By the end of the battle, King Pyrrhus was able to declare victory, but at an exceptionally high cost, losing many of his best soldiers, including his lead general.

The battle had left his army so physically and mentally decimated that he had to withdraw from Italy and return home.

Today, the term Pyrrhic victory refers to a victory won at such a steep cost that it feels like a defeat. Just like Pyrrhus, you might win the battle but lose the war.

This isn’t just a random history lesson, it’s an important life lesson to remember.

Be careful of:

• Picking a client dinner over your anniversary dinner.

• Traveling constantly for work but missing your son’s soccer games.

• Saying yes to overtime but not finding time to connect with old friends.

• Getting a higher-paying job but spending twice as long in traffic that makes you miserable.

• Doing hundreds of hours of overtime to make more money than ever before but also gaining 30 pounds and having trouble going up the stairs.

If you only have your eyes set on more money, it’s very easy to win that battle, but you’ll likely lose the war of having a truly wealthy life.

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2) The Most Impressive Status Is Earned, Not Bought

Humans are status-seeking animals, we want to be liked and respected by others.

However, trying to buy status is a losing game and will put you on the hedonic treadmill:

• You might splurge on a new sweater but are disappointed when it goes unnoticed, overshadowed by your colleague’s new watch.

• You might buy a new car but forget about it the second you see your neighbor has an even more expensive car in their driveway.

• You might buy a new handbag but get jealous when you see someone at a party who has an even more luxurious bag.

One of the problems with buying status is that it only impresses people who are less successful than you.

If none of your friends have a Mercedes, they will be impressed. But no one with a Bently or Ferrari will be impressed by it.

But the real problem is that the thing most of us actually want–respect and admiration–cannot be bought in a store. It must be earned.

Earned status is received through hard-won tasks:

• The strong and fit physique built through countless hours at the gym.

• The healthy and loving family made possible by years of present energy.

• The sought-after wisdom accumulated through decades of lived experience.

• The calm and adaptable mindset shaped through countless meditation sessions.

• The freedom to choose how to spend your time after spending years growing your own business.

As the famous investor Naval Ravikant once said, “A fit body, a calm mind, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought–they must be earned.”

Status games are a part of life, you will never truly escape them. But the important lesson here is that you choose to play the right game.

Bought status is fleeting. Earned status is lasting.

If you want to achieve true wealth, picky wisely

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3) The 3 H’s To Help Someone You Love

This is one of my favorite lessons from the book.

Sahil shares that over the years, his fix-it mentality led to a lot of tense moments with his wife, family, and friends.

They’d come to him with a problem, and he’d immediately start offering solutions (I’m sure a lot of guys can relate–myself included).

But the other person would often reject the solution and withdraw, or even sometimes become angry with him.

Then he had the realization that sometimes people don’t want you to fix their problem, they just want you to know you’re there for them.

Now, whenever someone he loves comes to him with a problem, he asks them, “Do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged?”

• Helped: Deconstruct the problem and identify potential solutions. The fix-it mentality can come into play.

• Heard: Listen intently and allow the other person to express and vent as needed.

• Hugged: Provide a comforting physical touch. Touch is a powerful love language for many. Sometimes people just want to feel your presence with them.

You don’t always have to directly ask this question to the person, but rather ask it to yourself and take a moment to analyze the situation.

The goal of this question is to snap you out of the default fix-it setting and become aware of the situation.

That way instead of showing up for loved ones in a way that’s natural for you, you can meet them in the way that’s best suited for them.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) Be careful of winning the battle but losing the war:

• Don’t solely focus on money and forget about many of the other important parts of your life (friends, family, health, etc.).

2) Focus on earning status instead of buying it:

• A family that loves you > A new car

• A healthy and fit body > A new watch

• A job you love with great hours > A prestigious job you hate with long hours

3) The next time someone you love comes to you with a problem, ask them (or think to yourself):

• “Do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged ?”

• Have a conversation with them instead of jumping into a solution.

💎 Weekly Gem:

35 Simple Health Tips from 35 Experts

I loved this short article where 35 experts share their favorite health tips.

A few of my favorites:

• If something feels too hard to do, it just means that the first step isn’t small enough.

• “Stop, Breathe, Be” is a three-second brain reset to help manage anxiety in the moment.

• The 10-10-10 Rule: Take a 10-second break every 10 minutes to stare at something 10 feet away. This helps reduce eye strain from screen time and can boost your focus.

💸 Last Chance Deal:

Earlier this month I reached out to the team at Shortform (my favorite book summary app) and asked if they could hook up my readers with a special discount.

They agreed and gave me an exclusive 30% discount link (it’s true, I looked around and saw other creators only had a 20% discount) but the deal ends this week (Jan. 31st).

So if you want to get access to 1,000+ awesome non-fiction book summaries, use this link to get a 5-day trial and 30% off the annual plan.​

Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.