How I Read 50 Books A Year
And find your next million dollar business idea.
Good morning, y’all. Welcome to the first edition of THREE by 5—where I bring 3 interesting ideas to help you become the best version of you. Let’s get into it!
Crappiest Way To Read 50 Books A Year
In January I read 4 books. If I followed that pace, I’d have completed 48 books by the end of 2025. How do I do it? Every time I go to the bathroom to go #2 I take a book with me. Simple as that.
The benefits are simple. I use the bathroom a couple times a day. In that time I typically read anywhere from 2-3 pages. But the productivity power is after the dump.
By anchoring the habit of reading to using the restroom—something I do every day—I turn myself into the type of person that reads every day. Now, instead of scrolling on my phone I pull out my e-reader, or a physical book. Now I’m on track to read 48 books this year. Good shit, right?
The main takeaway here is to pull out a book instead of your phone in the bathroom, and you’ll be on your way to reading 50 books a year.
Your Next Million Dollar Business Is An Old Idea Executed Better
ELIZA was a computer program invented in 1967 by a guy named Josef Weizenbaum. It was a project to explore a way for man to communicate meaningfully with machine. He essentially built a simple chatbot meant to simulate conversation by reflecting the person’s statements right back at them. People were amazed, but ELIZA didn’t become a wildly successful business.
Fast forward to 2022, and Chat GPT blasts onto the scene. It reached 100 million users in 2 months, and is now the leader in AI. There were other chatbots before Chat GPT of course, but they were by far the biggest commercial success, valued at $157 billion as of October 2024.
The lesson here is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to build a million dollar business. Oftentimes the most commercially successful ventures come from old ideas. Here are some examples:
Archie (1990) – The first search engine ever, designed to index FTP sites. It lacked relevance filtering, making it unsuccessful commercially. In 1998, Google introduced PageRank, an algorithm that identified the most relevant web pages, using hyperlinks (which already existed at the time). As of today, Google is worth $2.5 trillion.
Bookstores – Physical bookstores dominated book sales for centuries, but they were limited by inventory space and location. In 1994, Amazon disrupted the model by offering a massive selection online by not actually owning the inventory (at this time, they didn’t have warehouses, and just drop shipped books). Amazon is worth about $2.55 trillion now.
Taxis (20th century) – Traditional taxi services required passengers to hail cabs on the street or call a dispatcher, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent pricing. In 2009, Uber eliminated these issues by using GPS, real-time pricing, and a marketplace to connect riders to drivers instantly. Uber is worth $146 billion now.
If you’re getting into entrepreneurship, don’t reinvent the wheel. Look at what’s out there first and make it 10 times better.
Why You Should Build A Business Around Your Lifestyle
For my wedding, I decided to get my suits from an independent tuxedo vendor, run by one guy named Romanoff. I asked him how he got into the business and he said that he’d always wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age, just like his dad, who liked to point out what a good or bad business was.
He had a previous venture selling hardware, but hated how frequently customers complained about the software. He asked himself “Why do I put myself through this?” The reality is that no business is perfect. But in entrepreneurship, you have the freedom to choose a business that fits the lifestyle you aspire for.
Shortly after this realization, he started a tuxedo rental store. His logic is that everybody getting fitted for a tuxedo is extremely excited because they’re celebrating a wedding, graduation, or a special occasion. So he started a tuxedo fitting store, and eventually grew to a sizable client base.
He loves what he does and makes a comfortable living. And most importantly to Romanoff, his clients are all happy campers–like me back in July of last year preparing for my wife and I’s wedding.
The main takeaway is when starting a business, figure out what aspects of your lifestyle you care about most, and build a business around that.
Key Takeaways
Read while you use the bathroom to read 50 books per year.
In entrepreneurship, do something that’s already been done, better.
Build a business around your lifestyle by identifying your ideal daily work.
That’s it for this first edition of THREE by 5. Subscribe to get this sent to your inbox at 5am on Monday, or share with a friend.
The post THREE by 5: Read 50 Books This Year, Your Next Million Dollar Idea, and Build A Business Around Your Lifestyle appeared first on Grant Varner.