Time, and the Best Book I Ever Read

"We must use time as a tool, not as a couch." John F. Kennedy

I had a meeting the other day with a business acquaintance. At some point during the conversation, I said the best business investment I made in the past year was in a book. In particular, I was talking about an out-of-print autobiography I purchased a year ago for $200 on Amazon. He expressed disbelief about the price and mentioned that he had no time to read books.

It got me thinking: what are the things in life we must make time to do?

Said differently, what things in life provide such compounding returns on time invested that if you didn't do them, you might decrease the quality and even duration of your life?

Take exercise, for example. Just one hour of exercise per day is about 1/16 of your waking life. That 6% daily investment of time will most likely extend your life AND improve the quality of the remaining 94% of your waking life.

Reading, to me, is another example of something we must make time to do. If you're like me, you learn best through the iterative process of trial and error. I love good old trial and error as much as anyone, but it is time-consuming. Reading is a way to learn the best insights and mistakes from those who came before us. None of us have the time to make obvious mistakes, so we must learn from the mistakes of others and adjust our behavior accordingly, and if we're smart, the only mistakes we make are original ones.

A good book that has survived the test of time is a great starting point for anyone looking for sound advice. Time, if we're to use it as a tool, as JFK recommends, is an excellent filter for quality. The athlete looking to understand the "new" high-volume approach to endurance training may start by reading what Arthur Lydiard had to say about it in the 1960's. Or, if they want to learn about the modern "Norwegian" approach to blood lactate testing, they may want to start by reading the work of Dr. Jan Olbrecht from the 80's and 90's. The insights from these great coaches were well ahead of their time, and their insights have accordingly survived the test of time.

As my friend and I wrapped up our conversation, I described the changes we made to our business based on a few key lessons from that $200 book and how those changes resulted in an increase in sales and cost savings of over $100,000—a 500x return on investment.

He bought the book later that day.

Antonio Gonzalez

7/8/24

p.s. The book was Pride in Performance, by Les Schwab (the tire store founder).