Back in high school, I was the definition of “hyperactive.” To me, being a man meant being “out there”—getting your hands dirty, breathing in the dust of the road, and living life full-throttle. It definitely didn’t involve sitting still, clutching a thick, dusty book.
I used to look at “readers” with a mix of disdain and pity. “Why are these passive bookworms just sitting there? Why don’t they actually DO something?” My prejudice was rock-solid: I believed real-world experience was everything, and words on a page were just hollow theories for the faint-hearted.
But hey, life has a funny way of slapping the arrogance right out of you.
The Turning Point: When Books Became Weapons
My “big-shot” ego as a graduating senior started to crumble when I realized that being “fired up” wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Someone handed me Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book. For the first time, I didn’t read to “enjoy” it; I read to survive. I treated it like a tactical manual to map out my life. It worked. I landed my dream job.
Turns out, I was dead wrong. Books aren’t boring lectures; they are weapons.
Fueling that momentum, I dove into my career, using How to Win Friends and Influence People and On the Runway (Trên Đường Băng) as my “combat guides” for working abroad. My travels and collaborations with international colleagues taught me a hard lesson: Experience is what you get right after you needed it. Books are the lessons learned by people who already paid the price so you don’t have to.
Suddenly, the world didn’t feel so big and intimidating anymore.
The Financial Game and the “Thousand-Dollar” Slap
As soon as I had some spare cash, my ego flared up again. I devoured the “titans” of finance: Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Intelligent Investor, One Up on Wall Street… I was so confident I thought I had the market by the throat.
The result? I wiped out my entire first investment. It stung. I lost faith—not just in the money, but in everything I thought I’d “learned.”
A colleague who never touched a book laughed in my face: “If reading books made people rich, everyone would be a billionaire by now.” That comment almost killed my spirit. But in that moment of near-collapse, I found the answer back in the very books I’d read: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1 (and keep reading until you get it right).”
I realized the fault wasn’t in the books; it was in my “shallow reading.” I started over with a different mindset—slower, more disciplined, and more grounded. I dug into Payback Time, William O’Neil’s CANSLIM method, and studied the journey of Warren Buffett.
Books didn’t make me rich overnight, but they gave me something better: Stoicism. I stayed calm while the world outside went into a frenzy. I finally understood how to design a grand financial plan, which is worlds apart from just “chasing money” without a clue.
From Chasing Money to Finding Myself
After years of grinding, my finances were stable, but I hit a painful paradox: I studied investing to find peace, so why was I spending so many restless nights just to get it?
That question led me to a new, deeper journey. I turned to Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Minh Niem, Osho, and even the Bible. I read to find an “anchor” for my soul in a chaotic world. I stopped just “existing” to chase numbers and started actually living.
Even the New Testament I keep in my car isn’t about religion—it’s a reminder: Design a life worth living, with the support of the entire universe.
Most importantly, I now see the massive gap between being “Rich” and being “Prosperous.” I don’t care about being rich anymore. I’m on a journey toward prosperity.
The Mission: 1,000 Tickets to Freedom
Looking back at the journey from a book-hating brat to someone who breathes through disciplined reading, I realize how lucky I was to find the right “maps” at the right time.
I don’t want to keep these maps to myself. I have a soul-mission: To give away 1,000 books to the world. This isn’t “charity” in the sense of a handout. It’s about handing over “Tickets to Freedom” to those who are currently lost, just like I was. To date, I’ve given away over 200 books, consistently, week after week.
And that’s why the “Applied Books” section at Ahaalife.com was born. This is where I “dissect” knowledge from pages and tell you exactly how I applied it to real life—raw, practical, and effective.
I hope you find a new ingredient here to start designing your own Life Worth Living.
Discipline for freedom. Give it a shot—it feels damn good.
