Category: Books

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How To Stop Wasting Time Like Seneca

Nik

“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.” — Seneca

Every month, 550,000 people want to know more about procrastination via Google. An interesting question about this phenomenon I asked myself is this:

“If I could send each of those 550,000 people just one book to help them deal with procrastination, which one would it be?”

One book instantly shot to the top of my mind.

What if I told you that someone has already solved the procrastination puzzle, once and for all?

What’s more, what if he’d done so 2,000 years ago?

Well…someone has.

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You Still Have Time To Make 2017 The Best Year Of Your Life

Nik

13 Ways to Get Your Grip On Life Back

With each passing year, I find more and more truth in this:

“The days are long, but the years are short.” — Gretchen Rubin

It’s that time of the year again. Tax day’s got you throwing your hands up in frustration, your New Year’s resolutions have long vaporized into thin air and you feel like your hold on 2017 is getting weaker and weaker.

I’m here to tell you: You still have time. Read More

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How To Reach Your Goals With 27 Self Awareness Activities

Nik

I’m doing it again. I can feel it. Like a toothpick, my thumbnail rests in the gap between two teeth. It’s the position it takes right before I bite it. When I catch myself, like right now, I can prevent it. But it’s always a battle.

Often, I’m okay with losing it, as long as it means I’m winning the war with the article I’m writing. After all, what ends up on your screen isn’t a picture of my fingernails, but a (hopefully) helpful blog post.

It wasn’t always a conscious decision though. For over ten years, I bit my fingernails, unaware of the habit. When I started learning about self-improvement in 2012, it was the first habit I made a conscious effort to break. This both required and helped me with one of the most important human capacities: self-awareness.

Today, I’d like to help you cultivate yours, with 27 self-awareness activities, which you can practice on three distinct levels to improve your thinking, mental health and decisions – and thus, your results in the game of life.

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Investing For Millennials: How To Really Go For Financial Freedom

Nik

Last week I accused my fellow millennials of not preparing for their financial future. But pointing fingers is easy. So this week, we’ll do something about it. In fact, I have been doing something about it for quite some time.

I started investing 25%+ of my monthly income in January 2015, and have since been growing my money at just under 7% compound annual growth rate.

But I never could’ve done it without the advice of several personal finance books, which are what I’ll draw on this week to present to you: my guide for investing for millennials. I think this is one of the most practical approaches to reach financial freedom.

Of course this isn’t just for millennials, but it does help if you have time on your side. When I look at how I’ve gotten to the point I’m at right now, it breaks down into seven steps:

Let’s walk through them.

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14 Warnings From Trust Me, I’m Lying

Nik

I’m a writer. As such, I’ve always written to the best of my ability and with the purest of intentions. You might think that’s the most natural thing in the world, but just recently I learned that many writers don’t consider these two items – which are really just the right thing to do – part of their job description.

As part of my quest to learn more about writers, who inspire me, I decided this year I would get all books from one author I like, read them in chronological order, and look at how they and their style have evolved. I started with Ryan Holiday.

Trust Me, I'm Lying Summary Books by Ryan Holiday

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How to Come Up With Real Startup Ideas Cover

How to Come Up With REAL Startup Ideas

Nik

“Fruit salad!”

I had to blink a couple times. She couldn’t possibly be serious, could she?

“What do you mean, ‘fruit salad?’”

“I want to create a fruit salad brand. The best one ever! You know, I want to become the Hershey’s of fruit salad!”

My roommate and I were attending a startup event at a reputable VC fund in Munich. Free food, free booze and more hot air than in Richard Branson’s balloon, most of which came straight from the founders’ mouths.

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I Wrote 500,000 Words In 2016, But No Book. Here’s Why.

Nik

500,000. That’s how many words I wrote in 2016. 1,370 per day. 450,000 of those went into summaries and content on Four Minute Books.

Add to that 12,000 words on this blog, another 15,000 words for Time 2 Read, Medium articles, a few long guest posts, work for clients, copy for landing pages, etc. and the half a million mark falls faster than you can say writer’s block.

Up to a million books are published each year in the US alone, half or more self-published by independent authors. When I first saw how much I’d written last year, I wanted to punch myself.

“Why didn’t you write a book, you idiot? Or 2? Or 5?”

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The Most Important Person You Work For In Life Is You

Nik

On Monday, I picked up the official lecture notes for my “Fundamentals of German Law” class. It’s 180 pages long. The exam is in exactly four weeks, and I don’t know the first thing about law.

Comes in 7 parts. As if that made it better.

In a slight rush of feelings — mostly panic mixed with determination — I sat down and went through the first half the same day. Before this day is over, I’ll have done the rest. But not before writing this.

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