Season 1 Ep 7

You're listening to the productive Muslim podcast, season one, Episode Seven Assalamualaikum and welcome to the productive Muslim podcast, the weekly podcast where we help you live a productive lifestyle so that you can be successful in this life

Assalamu alaikum productive Muslims Welcome to the show. I'm your host roofer my roof and in this episode we will be speaking about books. So things such as how to be able to start the habit of reading books into our life. Why is it so important to start this habit? What kind of benefits we will find as a result of implementing this habit? All these will be discussing with our guests, brother Chi Whiting Sekai is our productive Muslim Academy director, and also the founder of a review site called quake books. So he has many insights to share on this topic, especially being an avid reader himself. So if you're struggling to implement a habit of reading, or even if you're not

that convinced about the importance of reading, then I suggest you check out this episode. There are a lot of practical takeaways. After you finish this episode two, let me know what you think about it, and what book you're planning to read. by heading over to the productive Muslim website. And they you'll be able to find out the show notes for this episode, along with all other episodes, which we have released for this podcast.

This show is sponsored by the productive Muslim Academy, an online platform built for serious and committed individuals like yourself who want to improve themselves. I'm a member myself. And I must say this place is a goldmine of knowledge with unlimited access to personal development courses by experts. And the best thing about it is that it's all faith based meaning it combines between religious teachings and the best of modern personal development. It also contains access to a private Facebook group where you can network with like minded individuals, a book club to encourage you to read regularly, exclusive webinars and more. Plus, there's a 30 day money back guarantee. So

that means if you don't like it, you can request a refund, no questions asked. So give it a try by hitting over to productive Muslim academy.com and take your life to another level.

Assalamu alaikum. Carrie, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to have you on. So first of all, I want you to give an introduction to our audience to just know who you are, or who I am. I'm the director of the productive wisdom Academy. So you may not know me if you've already fallen productiveness in.com. I run the book club for the reductionism Academy. And I'm the founder of QuickBooks dotnet. There's a little bit of my professional background. I'm a revert. I'm from the UK Originally, I currently live in Portugal. And I enjoy a lot of things like problem reading I deal with enjoy YouTube, I do enjoy podcasts, and I

will talk about reading. I'm not just a crazy guy only reads. So I would like to get into that about how you can also be Muslim or Muslim or who reads but doesn't spend the whole life really important to say that. Yeah. So So the reason why I wanted to have you on the show today was just pretty much to ask about your reading, because I'm aware that one of the things I found out when I was researching about you while doing some online research, you can say and I found that that you read 60 books last year. So it's like, wow, do people even read 60 books in a year? So I mean, so that just brought up all these questions for me. And to just find out. Why do you read books? I read

books, because actually makes them more productive. I know, that's really cliched for the podcast, but it's actually true. I save more time by reading the night spend reading. And let me just unpack that a little bit. So you say for example, and you're right in saying I had read 60 books last year, How on earth did I find the time, I stopped making the same mistake over and over again, I became more efficient and effective at what I was able to do. I was able to better develop myself personally, professionally, emotional intelligence being why I'm still working on and why by not making the same mistake over and over and over again, I was actually faster, more efficient, less

stressed, less irritated. And that really facilitated my learning. And there was a purpose behind that. And so you can read 60 books a year, if you know why you're reading. If you want to learn about how to run a podcast, then maybe there's a book for you. It may also be that you should watch your YouTube video, or listen to other podcasts. But if you can really, you know, work your craft, you'll save so much time. And so people think I don't have time to read. It's kind of like then you don't have time to improve then you don't have time to stop making the same mistake over and over. And you don't have time to get the noise out of your head because a lot of people think they don't

have time. What they don't have is they don't use attention. It's not a time management issue. It really is an attention issue. When I say I don't have time what i mean i don't have

Attention, or I'm too tired to do something because I have time. But I prefer to go to bed right now because I'm exhausted, for example. Okay. So my question is, if you read books in order to get certain information out of it, then why not get information on blogs or Book Summaries or YouTube videos? I mean, Why must it be through reading books, especially with you know, today's technology, we have countless courses and all these all these materials out there that you can get what you can get from a book in a faster time, you could say, so I can watch a one hour video about a book summary as opposed to reading that book for 17 hours. It might take me for example. That's that's

absolutely correct. And it's a valid argument, I would say, first of all, it's like anything, the more you read, the faster you read. So yeah, in the beginning, you're gonna read really slow. But in the beginning, you spoke really slow. When you were two years old, you only get a few words until you're 20 ua without compensation without thinking about it. I don't speed read, I don't like speed is not a mechanism that I actually use. Because I don't particularly for my own personal development. I'm not saying I never speed read to get to a pile of text. I know really well, I just want to check. But in terms of learning, I don't say great. I just learned to read quickly through

practice, like anything else like walking, walking. So if you say it takes me 17 hours, I'd say Yeah, it does. Now, if you read a book every week, for a year, it would take you half that time. I mean, besides, besides the time that it takes you to read read books, I mean, what is the immediate impact that it has on your life? Because I mean, even if say, you know, it's nice to be able to speed read, but then what impact is it going to have on your life that would make it more productive? Yeah. So you said, and rightly so that I could watch a video for an hour. Yeah, thing is watching a video is actually a very passive exercise unless I'm taking notes. All right. And so and

it is only one hour, when I'm reading, if I'm pretty, if I'm really into what I'm reading, he'd read for an hour and a half, I could read for two hours and really get if I really need to learn something that I'm really immersed. And then I get into something called flow, which is a psychological state of being where I can really assimilate information much quicker,

is not literally the place to look up flow, but is to put yourself in a position where you really can control control your mind and get where you want to go with what you're what you're reading. thing about having a YouTube videos that often you're sitting down your internet, and then you open in another tab and another tab or another in another tab and you're not actually listening to what has been said. Yeah, so there's nothing wrong or inherently wrong with listening to a podcast or watching YouTube here. It really doesn't give you that in depth richness, though, that book could give you doesn't give you the context. podcasts are very good, but you don't have in one hour, how

much context can you get about a person's life, you can only skim it, because if you read the person's autobiography then Okay, it's, it's how they see their own life. So it may not be completely accurate. But you can see much more about the details behind why they're successful. That podcast, I feel that they focus on the overnight success is present successful. And we only get to the point where they are now successful. If I read an autobiography, I've got there when they weren't successful when they felt really miserable when they really struggled. And I really understand their journey in a much better way. And you can I can only get that through read it.

Okay, so pretty much what what you're saying is that reading allows you to strengthen your attention span, and also in depth knowledge of a particular

knowledge that you you want to gain. That's correct. All right. All right. So I mean, what if what if you don't like reading? That's a very good question. And I use it as far as if you don't like praying, what happens if you have your five? You know, your five prayers. It's funny, I can't I don't like praying. I'm not gonna I'm very fortunate. I like praying but say I did. Well, in Ramadan, I actually managed to bring a lot more than I would even I would like, for instance, if my legs get really tired standing up, you know, when you've got to work today, and then you're standing up, but then you've realized that you've gone through the whole Quran, you have no idea how that

happened. You had no idea how you managed to pray that much. But your spirituality just went up not like you actually accelerate your learning growth without law. And you really become more dynamic. If you're very caring. If you're very careful, then you then take what you don't remember that and you run with it, the next they're doing a year. So if you don't like reading is a case of you just do it. Because you don't it's not that it's not what you actually agreed on. The process that you like, is the benefit you get. So I don't like personally standing up for an hour and a half prayer because I don't like standing up very much. But I really like the connection a lot. Yeah, and that's

why I pray. It's not It's not the mechanism, per se of praying the actual movement is is the way you're going to get exactly the love of Allah that drives me. So I would say the same thing. If you're reading say, I don't like reading, don't think about the process. Think about what you're trying to achieve. Okay. So if if say a person is convinced, okay, I need to start with

reading, reading is really important, but they're starting from zero books. How? How does one a person like that actually get started? I mean, what are some practical ways that they can implement reading into their life without it feeling like they're just overwhelmed by it? Yeah, I'm gonna say when you say zero books that they can read, so I'm assuming zero books is in terms of a hobby. So I would say that the problem they had with reading is probably because they went to school, and they were forced to read something they didn't like, you have no reason. And there's nothing worse than reading a book for no reason other than to pass an exam. I can't think of a worse reason to read. It

is absolutely pointless. I read for Romeo and Juliet, just because someone told me that's not conducive.

Back in English class, I did not like it. Exactly. So people tend to have this memory. And so I asked them fine saying something or somebody you really, really admire really like and read about them? Because unless you love it, you're never going to read. And that's how you get started. You get started with with with something that loves you. Exactly. A friend of mine started on Elan musk. He was I can't stand read it. I said, Who do you like that? I like in a mask, as I will read the Bible theory in a month. This guy and I read a book a week, because he said I fell in love with religion, because I understood how even must work. And I really liked Elon Musk. Now, I don't like

him so much to read about him every week. But he was really intrigued about how that person thinks. Yeah, and for example, if you say, Well, I find it really hard to read the Quran, I find it really hard to read the comments while I listen to it's actually one of the few things that I prefer to listen to. So what I would do is I would read a book on Islam that I really appreciate. And one of them would be, you know, productive wisdom book that really got me to thinking about productivity and growth. So if you said I really struggle with the Quran, okay, that's fine. Listen to it and find a way to fake the crime and you like it, make sure it's in your life. So take the first step

towards reading. Okay, so would that how would this method actually work? Say if a person takes a first step by reading a fiction book? Because I know that you you've been mentioning autobiographies and nonfiction books, but safe, they just got out like a fiction series. Absolutely. That's it. I mean, yeah, wherever you are, I think is actually bad. I'm glad you asked that question. It's actually better for a lot of people to start a fiction book, like I've known people who've started on the alchemist, and really loved it. So if you really like a fiction book, or you read it up at 704, you think you might like, and then some people start on Stephen King, now not Stephen King fan,

by any means. But if he gets you reading, and a lot, excellent. That's exactly what that purpose is. And sometimes, you know, I think a book club was really helpful. That's why we run one at the production museum khadem II, which is exclusive to members, because it's not the reading that they like, is the community. It's like,

exactly on the Facebook group yesterday was Watch out for the old guys. And I was like, are the buyers because they were be regular

eyes out possible. So they got really into it, they reached out to Iran and what they're learning and how to put into practice. And that's what they needed they people have written to me is that it's not I don't read, because I like reading, I like the community feel. So if you don't like reading, find someone to read with, have a community feel, I'm not saying that you should necessarily join a book club, you may not want it. But there's Goodreads for

book clubs, and there are a lot of ones in your local area. Very difficult not to get, there's also other ways to achieve that. Like, for example, when when I read a book, I'll go and discuss that with my husband. And he also kind of did describe what books he's reading. So it's like it serves as a food for a conversation pretty much. Exactly. You know, I think reading with the husband is an excellent idea because it shows that you're interested in growth, and you're interested in self development, and you're interested in, in putting forward you know, ideas in your mind and, and I guess, be uncomfortable with certain ideas and discussing, and I'm sure you've had like, oh, what do

you think that and you actually learn a lot from someone in a non threatening, like, an argument where you're trying to defend something? As the benefit. It's really like, what do you think about this? And when you watch it, I think about this, I think that a book is an interesting insight into the world. We don't have to agree with the author. But it's very, it's an excellent as a resident, for example, to know what non was and think of how we ever get our message across to them. If we have no bridge and they they don't know, they and ask the numbers and worry about the moment Unfortunately, it doesn't want to reach out to us particularly. So I feel that it's up for us to

reach out to them in a very positive way. And that can start by saying actually I did read this book. I did read for example obstacles the way by Ryan Holiday. I didn't agree with everything. But I really liked the book. So I can have that conversation from us and I can talk to say reverse about the productive listening but as I say they asked me a lot of readers. Which book should I start with? I said the production newsmen book. Yes, I practical. Yeah. And then I don't understand. You know how our profit is peace be upon him. I'm really confused.

Don't start, start with something that is practical that you can put into practice today, it becomes part of your life. Yeah. And when it's part of your life, then by all means I'll give you more, quote unquote, appropriate books. It's really about finding that first step, finding that one book find that one person to have that conversation with. So, you know, going back to your point that you mentioned about how books have allowed you to exercise your attention span? I mean, how how has that impacted your other areas of your life?

Wow, what a question. That's such an excellent question. It's been profound. It's been exponential growth in so many areas, because I didn't realize that attention is that is a commodity. Now that's undervalued, we talk about multitasking, multitasking is such a false concept, which should only be linked to computers, which was back in the 1960s. It was about computers multitasking, we use it today to show that we're efficient. And that's not true. And actually, by focusing and learning to focus on one thing, at one time, I had exponential abilities to do more things to get more things done in a quicker way in a better with a better attitude, because I don't feel stressed, that didn't

feel bad things bled into other parts of my life, professional and personal. Yeah. professional relationships with people reaching out to them, because books give me a lot of credibility. Because I can say, Oh, I read your book, and you've been feedback. And then then I'm having dinner with famous people. And I was like, how does this happen? Because I by reading their book, I invited myself into their life. And by commenting on how I how it made me feel, they're like, okay, you actually know me. People have said to me, thank you, I feel that you actually know me. I'm like, Well, I read your book. Yeah. So it's given me social capital, which I think is the most underrated

capital. Yeah, so a lot of business, people will say, I need to start a business and what you need to do first, enhance your social capital, enhance your connections and your network, you can do that through reading.

To start a business, read a book by a person who has started up a business, following their footsteps copy their system, not 100%. But if they know how to start a business, then they are a good person to learn from. And I think sometimes we read for the sake of it, because we think we should. And that's a really poor way of reading because you have no nothing to latch on to nothing to connect your ideas to. So if you want to go to business, after a read read with a purpose. So before before you even have a purpose before you open a book. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. even

read that book. And this is the book I listed the book club.

Book Club. Yeah, that would be really it would be counterproductive in many ways. Yes. So for example, if I wanted to start a business, not based in UK, I would probably pick Richard Branson. Now based in the US or Africa, US dollar, because there are nuances. If I if I'm a Muslim, and I particularly want to allow income, there are there are books out there again, I would start with productive Muslim and ask myself, am I being personally productive? Because I'm not personally productive? I'm not gonna be professionally productive. Yeah. So kind of like his whole journey of discovery, really reading books. Yeah. That's interesting. You know, the point that you mentioned

about how being able to have longer span of attention has helped you focus more in your professional life, your purpose in life and get things done with that stress. It kind of reminds me of this book called Deep work by Cal Newport and how he was saying about, we we have so much anxiety within us because of all these social networks, and all these different things that were a part of, but we don't really need to be a part of and our phones and everything just kind of grabbing a part of our attention. So by being able to train our mind to single focus and not multitask, we're in turn being able to exercise superpowers, he he calls it superpower salutely. Absolutely correct. Yeah. And

there was also another another book that complimented that idea in me was the book was called the shallows. And that book spoke about how when, when we're when we have all these pieces of information coming at us, we're not learning as effectively as when we're silencing our mind when we're reading because when we're reading, we're kind of just like, just doing one thing. Absolutely. That kind of focus makes us focus. And it's quite interesting to see how that had an impact on on your on your life, especially coming from someone who's been reading a lot because for me, that's some that's an idea. That's very theoretical, because I read the idea, but I'm not able to practice

it as much. But for you, I see that you're already in a high level in terms of reading. So that was interesting. I think you do. I think you do practice it, but maybe you're not conscious of it, because part of my journey was to because I run a book club and I am I have a book review website is to understand the process. You probably didn't notice it because I made sure I was conscious of it. Because it's part of my quote unquote brand. It's part of who I am, is becoming

caught my DNA. But I often think about our Prophet peace be upon him if he had been multitasking when Allah was trying to talk to him, we would not have a faith. The reason why we have a faith or religion, wherever where people would like to call it is because our Prophet peace of mind was able to focus at that moment is not saying we should close yourself away. If they can do poor people would say that he says talk about coding yourself away. He's saying it's a Pacific amount of time to get a certain job done. So for example, when I like to get a lot of work done just before budget, like I woke up tomorrow, because it's quiet, there's no distractions, other people are asleep, like

in my timezone. So it's about it's not about shutting yourself away. It's about making sure that, you know, following nonprofits example, like when did he makes most of his most of his work that needed to get done and at what time of the day, in Islam, it's very, we're very fortunate that we have a break fire to focus

in exactly, and the Western world doesn't have that they have 24 seven, but we can actually say, I will do this after us, I will do this for 5g. If you love them, you have no ability to do that. That's such a blessing. It's unbelievable to say before 5g, I'm going to get this work done between fudger and this time, I'm going to get this done. And we have that ability. And I love knowing that we are not multi tasking robots or computer operating systems has actually given us the perfect example. Did you know for example, that after Isha, you're terrible at like concentrating the dunk contract, what's your what's your you know, you're Netflix at that point. If you know that your best

work is between fudger and lunchtime, then make sure that between five to 10 hours time you're working, you've got that perfect structure that other SST, we should be the envy of the rest of what other people who don't have that. So I get a lot of my reading done early in the morning or late at night, because I find during the afternoon is the best time for me to work. So it's about structuring. Alright, so speak to me about structure like as in how do you how do you structure your time with regards to reading? Again, just following following the natural rhythms of the day and following the natural prayer cycle. So with you again, play was harder in the summer? Yeah, it's

hard in the summer, you have to have us, you know, like a sister, I guess, during the day, but I said, Okay, I know that I'm best in terms of where I was living in Colombia, I was waking up at like three in the morning to read before. Because that's something that I really, really valued. So it's about structuring, when is the best time for you, according to the natural rhythm of the day, which thankfully for the rhythms is very clear that we are very, very, very clear when the natural rhythm of the day starts and stop. Even if you have major seasonal changes, then then we can you can focus because you're saying I'm not forcing myself to read all the time, and not locking myself away. I

didn't read 60 books a year by locking myself away. I did it by strategically picking the best times for me to read, which was just before work, because my brain, although it was awake, it wasn't able to work, quote, unquote. But it was able to read and assimilate. And before I went to bed I read so basically that content continuity between sleeping and waking. So then my brain was like, Ah, yes, this is where you are reading last night. So I used to read it. You know, I still didn't actually read it in the evening, just before bed and they read in the morning. So how long is that? How long do I read? Yeah.

Yesterday was about half an hour before bed today was half an hour in the morning. And then that your aim that you have. So before you go to work half an hour before you go to bed half an hour. Yeah, the continuity is really helpful people underrate the the need to wake up and have something already in your mind understood. And when you've got writer's block, because I also coach writers as you, you actually know, you say to them, make sure that you write something have written so that when you wake up the next day, you really know what you're going to write because people that I know I need to finish this idea, they wake up the next day and they have writer's block, I'm like no have

finished the idea. Half finish it so that when you wake up the next day, you already know what you're going to write because you have finished it. I'm not saying half and a half a sentence, I'm just saying don't complete the idea if a block is a problem for you. So it's the same as reading it's that that process of slowly getting into your day, life is hard, but you must increase that optimizes on your best times of the day for you personally, so my best friends are not your best friends. If you have children is going to change. Maybe the children are asleep. Yeah. Or when you know, or maybe you can't typically read with your eyes. So you have an audio book and you drive the

children to school or you try to work a lot of people commute and like you have more time in the day to read than I do. You're commuting for an hour they're an hour back is two hours of reading. You don't need to use your eyes to re engage your brain. So if you're an audio learner then that's great and if you're if you're if you're connected, but you have to move then then listen was cleaning. Like a lot of people clean the house and they say oh I need to you know I can't be anything new.

To learn, let them then then clean the house and listen to a podcast or listen to an audiobook, then you're learning and moving at the same time. So it's really about finding your strategy and making it your own not trying to get this done. Exactly. consistency is key. If you don't read for four days, and you forgot you read, then it's just very slow.

All right. So I mean, my final question I want to ask you, before we wrap up is like, so you have a reading schedule, you have a way that you're reading and the way that you approach how you're going to read a book, I mean, by by interest, what's what's going to benefit you the most. So now my question is, how do you complete that book in a way that brings you the most benefit? Because people have all sorts of approach on how they've read a book. I mean, some people might read cover to cover and then they might read it again, but then others may not. I mean, how do you go about with that? How do you get? How do you make the most out of your reading time? In the beginning, I used to

recover scholar, because I think it's pretty good practice. But then this is this is actually for non fiction books. I just want to clarify two books is I mean, yeah, you'd read it to cover to cover? That's a very good point, actually. Yes. So I used to read it from cover to cover because I wanted to get into the practice, I tend to do, I pick a book. And then now I then pick up that two more books, or at least another book on the same subject. So that whatever I missed in the first pocket in a second, and that way, I can actually, when I sometimes get two chapters, I skip them because I know what they're going to say or that's not longer relevant to me. So again, it's your

purpose, if you get to a chapter for performance reading and performance on sales, and they started talking about massive organizations, what I don't run a massive organization. So yeah, that chapter about army effect. First of all, this is actually very helpful to me, because I don't run an organization with 100 staff. So I don't need a database. If they're talking about I don't need that. There's talks. That's interesting. So I did

it, I skipped the section, I mean, you should skim skim read in the beginning and then go, I actually need this. That doesn't mean I will never need it. It means right now that information will be I have no context. As I said, before, it's not just that content is context databases, content is king context is gone. I don't like that expression. What he's trying to say is that without context, we have nothing to really gain. So if I'm not running an organization, then my reading, reading is just becoming for the sake of breathing like reading your fellow, what would be the point I can't apply it. So that's I'm saying, pick a book if you really like reading about somebody, because you

really need to solve an issue. Now, you need to solve an issue now, then you'll be reading and then you'll be acting and reacting to give us an example of an issue that you would use to read a book. And then how would you go ahead with that, I just want to see see it in action. Very, very simple one, there is Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vee, what you do for social media. So I read the book, you know, I read a chapter on Facebook, and I put it into practice in my Facebook page, I read a chapter. So what was the purpose behind reading it? Like? how did how do you make out the purpose? The purpose is basically this book is a very short book is a case study about how to do

social media, right? And how to do social media wrong. And I realized I spent one year doing it all wrong, really all wrong. There's ways of doing it and his ways of not doing it. And so that was really shocking to me. I was really sad to know that. But then, so I looked at cases. And now I know why, you know, x, y, and Zed is happening. And I was continuing to pick up that book with the idea that I want to improve in my social media. Yeah, kidding. So they picked up his book. So that was your purpose. That was my purpose. I feel a lot better than I was. But yes, this is not working. I have no idea why it's not working there. I understand. This is why I said, this is why I save time.

So instead of spending the next five years putting out a message, which is completely wrong, not because I wanted to because it just didn't know because my own ignorance. Now, I'm not going to do that anymore. So I actually can do use social media less, I can use it in a more effective way. So I can spend less time on social media, which is a big thumbs up for me, I see and spend more time doing other things like spend time with my family, before we like is about quantity is about getting the message of crisis about is actually not true, you have to do that. You have to do some analysis and say when's the best time to pose but once you know that, you can just trigger the two, the two

messages you need that week, you know how much time that saves like hours, because there's back to the thing. So if I use that same approach, like say, for example, as a student or something, I'd be like, I'm not I'm not doing so well in my studies right now. Or I want to be a student who's going to get like a really high GPA. So I'm going to go pick up a book on how I can be a very successful student. And so that would lead me to pick up a book on that topic, like the best book on that topic. Absolutely. And then I read through that with my problem, my purpose in my mind and then take it from there. That's correct. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily die.

I would assume we'd have a con learning how to learn. How do I learn so that every subsequent book I read, or I would read two or three books on subjects, every subsequent book? So you read a few subjects on that problem? Yeah, because I always use my get first thing when you first start, you pick something, you pick the wrong books. And it's good to have one or at least two so that you can compare because somebody just because somebody says something doesn't mean it's right. So when you start, when you start to see the pattern, you go, actually, I know this is not true. If I didn't read, I wouldn't know. And the problem with going Google and like reading a random articles, how do

you know that's actually true? If you've got no context? That's a really dangerous thing. How do you know someone isn't just writing up an article in order to fill in the woods? And they certain types of the advice that they themselves haven't tried? And I think that's very dangerous? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

And people don't realize how easy once you know how to write an article, you can just write it and how many gross words say anything like, top 10 tips on how to earn money, and the person who's writing that article has not even made one cent, or maybe, minus? Absolutely, and there's a lot of there's a lot of that. So there's a lot of, absolutely, and it's really painful to watch people waste a lot of time reading that kind of stuff. That's true. So pretty much by reading multiple books on a particular topic, you're able to pick out what will work and what is just like fluff pretty much as long as you bring into action because people say knowledge, knowledge is power.

That's why knowledge is not power. Knowledge is knowledge. Knowledge, is not power, unless you convert it into action, the minute you convert the knowledge you have, which is correct most because you've created your own books, then you act and you start to see results. That's power. If you just have knowledge in your head and think about it, for example, I had a question recently, how do I stop being lazy? You just choose to stop being lazy and do something you can't just choose by thinking about it. How do I run my own business? Well, read a lot about how visitors run, read and make sure you know about it, because you're going to make a lot of mistakes along the way, if you

don't and, and find credible sources of information. Yeah, for that. All right. Fantastic. That's a really useful insights that you've given us about reading. Is there anything else that you want to mention before we wrap up that you didn't get to MIT mentioned throughout the interview?

Yes. So if you do want information about the book club that we run in production as an academy, and please read them, please reach us at Academy at productive wisdom calm, your email may or may not get forwarded to me if it's a very specific question, I'm happy to answer it, always, my team will answer it for you. It is free for members. If you're already a member in the academy and you haven't used it, then you should, we have a worksheet every week, and then for four weeks, then we have a podcast recording at the end. So we bring in one in together in the other moment in the Facebook group. So that's how that works. And it's a book a month, so it's not particularly stressful. If

you're not sure which book to read. Then you have QuickBooks dotnet, which is my book review style. And that will go there's about 60 books on there. So that's enough for most people for a few years and to find one developer found something. Yeah. And if you haven't gotten productive wisdom book yet, absolutely. can't recommend it enough. It's amazing. And if you're a revert, it's the one for you. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We hope to see you again soon. Figure it out. So there you have it, our episode on reading books. I hope you took away many insights on this. One of the things that I took away was a point about reading multiple books on a

particular topic. That way you can be able to get the bigger picture on a goal as opposed to just one way on how to achieve it. I'm interested to know what you took away from this episode, and what book there you're planning to read. Please let me know by heading over to our show notes. Also, brother Kai has a special offer for podcast listeners. So he said that he will be sending out worksheets from the productive Muslim Academy book club. So this is a book club which is a part of the paid membership that he'll be offering out worksheets free. If you leave a review for this podcast by heading over to iTunes or Stitcher Radio. And then taking a screenshot of that review and

sending it over to Kai. That's k ay ay, at productive muslim.com so again, there were two productive Muslim podcast.com and then you find the links to iTunes or Stitcher Radio. leave a review there, take a screenshot of your review and send it over to Kai Kay I at productive muslim.com you will receive worksheets from the book club. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Till next time remember, be sincere and work hard.