Be honest with me. You’re 12 years old. Don’t you feel that way?
On any given day, I’m somewhere in between 12 and 17 years old. Claudia, I’m sure, will gladly tell you that I’m mostly 12.
It doesn’t matter that I live inside a 47 year old body. I sort of feel 47 year old “men” wear suits. And they drink whiskey. And they read GQ.
And maybe they check out the interior of a new car. Or they know how to turn on the motor of a boat. Or sometimes they can fix things (non-jews).
I do admit, I like to wear a tuxedo. But only if it’s five in the morning and Claudia hasn’t woken up yet and I know it’s good for at least one laugh. If I get one laugh out of her to start my day then that’s like starting the motor of the boat.
But here’s the real reason I know I’m somewhere between 12 and 17. When I read a book that I LOVE I like to think I can call up the author and ask him all my questions about the book.
Most of the time people don’t want to talk to me. Ugh! So I started a podcast in order to have an excuse. In order to sound like I’m 47. Now I can say, “well I spoke with X, Y, and Z. Can you talk to me also?”
Maybe that helps a little. When I worked at HBO in the 90s it was easy. I could go up to any person in the street at 3 in the morning and say, “hi, I work at HBO. Can I ask you some questions?” It helped that I had a camera crew with me.
But podcasting is similar. I get to talk to all of these superheroes and ask them where they got their super powers and how I can get them also.
It’s changed my life. So I want to give you the most recent books I’ve read by the superheroes who have talked to me.
I’m giving away 5 sets of 30 books for free.
Here’s the link to potentially get the books. I hope you win. But even if you don’t, I hope some of these books look fun for you and you buy them.
- When to Rob a Bank by Freakonomics
- What to Do When It’s Your Turn by Seth Godin
- The Game by Neil Strauss
- Bold by Peter Diamandis
- Finding Ultra by Rich Roll
- Ready. Fire. Aim by Mark Ford
- Live Your Truth by Kamal Ravikant
- The End of Power by Moises Naim
- Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- Live It! By Jairek Robbins
- Cool Tools by Kevin Kelly
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Low Carb Myth by Ari Whitten
- Do More Faster by Brad Feld
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
- How to Survive the Most Critical 5 Seconds of Your Life by Tim Larkin
- Mastermind Dinners by Jayson Gaignard
- Straight Flush by Ben Mezrich
- Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich
- An Astronauts Guide To Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
- The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
- Sacred Cows by Astro and Danielle Teller
- It’s Not News, It’s Fark by Drew Curtis
- Give and Take by Adam Grant
- How to Fight Presidents by Daniel O’Brien
- Meet Your Happy Chemicals by Loretta Breuning
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robbins
- The Ordinary Spaceman by Clayton Anderson
All of these fine young ladies and men have been on my podcast. I hope I’ve absorbed a little bit of their powers. I know you will also as you read their books.
When I prepare to do an interview I:
- Read all the books by the person I’m going to interview.
- Watch every interview they’ve given before so I make sure I don’t ask the same question that they’ve been asked a million times before.
- I write down every question I want to ask. I then throw away that list and write it again. Then repeat one more time. The questions that remain are probably the ones I’m most curious about.
- Then I throw out that list and just wing it. Because the conversation will go where it will go.
I used to get accused of interrupting too much (“used to” means yesterday. It hasn’t happened at all today yet!)
But when someone says something like it was nothing and I get curious, I want to know EXACTLY what they are talking about.
I can’t handle it if I don’t know something. I don’t let anyone just give me their marketing message. I need to KNOW the personal details of their lives.
I’m really grateful for all the people who have said “yes” to coming on my podcast.
It was much more work to do this than I thought it would be. There’s no money in it. It takes sometimes days to prepare for a single guest. I’ve interrupted vacations and my own writing in order to interview a hero of mine.
But you can only be 12 years old for 90 or so years, give or take.
I hope you either win this set of 30 books, or one of your friends wins a set, or you even get some of the books that look interesting to you.
Then, if we run into each other on the street, we can talk about who our heroes are and how they changed our lives. Maybe when we grow up we’ll be heroes also.
To Enter the Book Giveaway Click here.