Every Content Creator and Business Owner Should Read This Book

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📚 Hey! Time to win.

Today I want to pass along one of my absolute favorite books, but it’s not strictly about content creation, making money, achieving prominence in your field, or anything else we like to talk about here at The Competitive Advantage.

I’ll warn you straight up that this is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read, but out of all the books I have read, perhaps only a few have made a bigger impact on my life and work.

It’s called The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch.

I recommend this book all the time, and you should absolutely watch Randy’s “Last Lecture” on YouTube if you can spare the time.

Please, spare the time. 

Plenty of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture,” the idea being that they would reflect on the totality of their lives so far and offer their most life-changing wisdom, the kind of advice that you’d give knowing that this was your very last day on Earth.

As it turns out, this was Randy’s last lecture, something he knew going into it.

Randy’s father used to say that whenever there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them, and so he began his original lecture by showing the audience his latest CT scans.

The scans showed an aggressive cancer spreading quickly throughout his body, and he mentioned in the beginning of the lecture that his doctors predicted that he had only a few months to live.

I warned you in the beginning.

The actual lecture you’ll see on YouTube is barely sad at all though! Except for maybe the ending and the beginning. But the book that came out of it is nothing less than heartbreaking. And brilliant. And phenomenal. And everything in between.

Like I said, I recommend it all the time, and it’s rarely - very rarely - that anyone will tell me they weren’t profoundly changed by it. I know I was.

But one of the things Randy was asked to talk about was why you should never stop having FUN, and creators like us need reminders of this every so often.

He said that he couldn’t even conceive of NOT having fun. “I’m DYING, and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun, every single day I have left. There’s no other way to play it.” That’s what he said.

And I wanted to pass it along to you because no, business doesn’t have to be so deadly serious all the time.

Yes, I want to make money. Yes, I want to grow my social following and my influence, but I will NEVER stop having fun while I do it. There’s no other way to play it.

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1. Born Rich, by Bob Proctor

2. Renegade Millionaire, by Dan S. Kennedy

3. Time Management, by Brian Tracy

4. De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde

5. The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim, by Mitch Horowitz

Within My Direct Control:

Finish Reading 20 Great Books | 15 Books Left

Publish 8 New Course Videos | 8 Videos Left

Publish 15 YouTube Videos | 15 Videos Left

Publish 150 Medium Articles | 132 Articles Left

Completely Update My Social Media | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Patreon Page | Incomplete

Completely Update My Newsletter Platforms | Incomplete

Completely Update My Entire Main Website | Incomplete

Launch Affiliate Program for My Paid Community | Incomplete

Update 30 Patreon Book Notes | 18 Book Notes Left

Network with 600 New Authors | 490 Authors Left

Not Within My Direct Control:

Get Monetized on YouTube | 3,484 Watch Hours Left (12.9% Complete)

Negotiate 12 Newsletter Partnerships | 9 Partnerships Left

Organize 12 Instagram Collaborations | 11 Collaborations Left

Reach 119,000 Instagram Followers | 4,252 Followers Left

Reach 24,000 Threads Followers | 3,900 Followers Left

Reach 11,000 Twitter Followers | 3,209 Followers Left

Reach 4,000 Medium Followers | 2,042 Followers Left

Reach 2,000 Facebook Followers | 690 Followers Left

Reach 2,000 LinkedIn Followers | 1,109 Followers Left

Reach 10,000 YouTube Subscribers | 8,449 Subscribers Left

Reach 10,000 Reading Life Subscribers | 5,455 Subscribers Left

Reach 1,000 Competitive Advantage Subscribers | 426 Subscribers Left

Reach 50 Competitive Advantage Members | 11 Members Left

Reach 50 Patreon Supporters | 19 Supporters Left

Note: I’ll update follower counts once per week, since it’s such a waste of time to go through all of them every single night. Also, Threads annoyingly doesn’t give exact numbers. Oh well.

Read 7 New Books | 7 Books Left

Publish 4 New Course Videos | 4 Videos Left

Publish 4 YouTube Videos | 4 Videos Left

Publish 25 Medium Articles | 25 Articles Left

Upload New VSL for Skool Community | Editing Now

Upload Skool Community Testimonials | Gathering Now

Completely Update My Instagram Profile | Almost Finished

Completely Update My Patreon | Almost Finished

Network with 150 Authors | 150 Authors Left

Note: “Week Four” Runs From September 22nd-30th

Woke Up: 12PM

Sleep Quality: 90%

Pages Read: 75

Workout: Back + Biceps

Low Rows - 180lbs, 180lbs, 180lbs, 180lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)

Lat Pulldowns - 130lbs, 130lbs, 125lbs, 125lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)

MTS Pulldowns - 85lbs, 85lbs, 80lbs, 80lbs (8 reps, last set to failure)

EZ Curls - 60lbs, 60lbs, 50lbs, 50lbs (12 reps, last set to failure)

Work Completed:

Posted 1x on Instagram

Posted 4x on Twitter

Posted 4x on Threads

Posted 3x on LinkedIn

Posted 3x on Facebook

Drafted Next 5 Medium Articles

Worked on Current Author Campaigns

Worked on My Next Book Breakdown

Worked on Next Reading Life Newsletter

Managed Paid Competitive Advantage Community

Completely Organized My Workflow for Tomorrow

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Longer day than I intended, so I’m going to get right to bed after this. I ended up watching the entire “Last Lecture” on YouTube - it’s a little more than an hour long - and it kinda pushed me back a little bit on time.

Other than that, I put in a solid day of work. Next Reading Life newsletter goes out tomorrow, and I’ll be clearing out some emails that I have backlogged, people I need to respond to, etc. All that’s tomorrow.

But hey, it’s 5:27AM here right now and I’m going to bed!

All the best,

Matt Karamazov

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three more ways I can help you:

1. Work with me personally to scale your business past $5K per month and experience the intoxicating freedom of finally being in control of both your time and your income. High-performers only.

2. Become a Premium Member of The Reading Life and enjoy unlimited access to 150+ Premium Book Breakdowns, my complete notes from 1,300+ books, exclusive discounts, monthly donations made on your behalf to an incredible literacy charity, and more!

3. Join The Competitive Advantage, my private business mastermind for creators looking to add at least$1,000/month to their revenue and save at least 20+ hours of productive time each and every week.