Do You Want to Hire Elon Musk as Your Mentor?

How much would you be willing to pay Elon Musk to teach you how to create a big company?

Hint: In 2025, Elon Musk's wealth increased by more than $800 million every day.

And how much would you pay Steve Jobs?

Hint: You would have to first pay a scientist to create a time machine.

It seems impossible. Why would people like them teach us?

But wouldn't life be amazing if they did? And not just them, but all the great leaders, philosophers and thinkers in history took it upon themselves to make you richer, more successful and wiser. Wouldn't life be magical?

And that too, almost at the cost of a Starbucks coffee per mentor.

Why would you not do it?

One has to be stupid, right?

No. One has to be just a normal, average human being. Like probably 98% of people.

And all of them have a very genuine reason not to take advantage of this opportunity. I am sure you will feel empathy for them.

Do you want to know what their unsolvable, genuine reason is?

"I don't like reading."

I get it. Such a big problem.

Experience is the best teacher. Really?

People say experience is the best teacher. I say it's bullshit.

How do you know that if you jump from a mountain or a 10-storey building, you will die? I am sure you did not get that experience. I don't want ghosts to be reading my blogs.

You learnt it from someone else's experience. Almost everything you know came from someone else. Your teachers. Your parents. Your driving instructor. And any extra lesson you didn't want to learn came from your life partner.

The best way to learn is from other's experience. But for an average person, everyone around them is also average.

There is nothing wrong with that. Not everyone wants to be great. But if you want to be great and choose to learn only from your own experience or the average people around you, I wish you the best of luck.

If you're that lucky, you should probably try your luck with a billion-dollar lottery ticket.

The greatest minds are waiting for you

All great leaders are great readers. Bill Gates reads more than 50 books a year. Warren Buffett has said he spends around five to six hours a day reading.

And you can't find 10 minutes?

You don't need five hours. Read for 10 minutes a day. You could get through roughly six books a year.

Ten minutes a day. That's enough to make you better read than the majority of people.

And the majority will continue to say, "I don't have time."

But don't just read. Read actively. Make notes. Underline. Question the author. Teach someone what you learnt. Apply it like there is no tomorrow.

Is reading even necessary in the world of AI?

I strongly believe that with the advent of AI, people are going to become dumber.

We have outsourced thinking to machines, and the more we do it, the less we exercise our own brains.

That is why I think of reading as going to the mental gym. Your brain needs a workout too. And the best workout machine you can find in that gym is a book.

Reading forces you to slow down, concentrate, form your own thoughts and wrestle with ideas. AI can give you an answer in seconds. But if you never think for yourself, what exactly are you strengthening?

The people who continue to exercise their brains will have an unfair advantage over those who don't.

Whether you enjoy reading or not does not matter. I read this line a long time ago: "Unsuccessful people don't do things which they don't enjoy. Successful people do things which they don't enjoy."

You don't have to enjoy reading.

You just have to decide whether you want to remain average because you couldn't spare 10 minutes a day.

Because there is no difference between people who cannot read and people who do not read.

One is a limitation. The other is a choice. Choose wisely.