‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey hey! Nik in the house.

Did I ever tell you the story of how I started Four Minute Books and why? I don't think I have.

Given that, this year, we crossed 10 million lifetime visitors, it might be a good time.

It's a little hard to fathom how many people 10 million actually are. That's as if every inhabitant of a city like London or New York had visited the website at least once. 10 million is more people than live in Switzerland, Costa Rica, or Hong Kong — or in any of another 130 countries and, in fact, in more than half of all countries worldwide. In any case, it's a lot of people, and a whole lot more than I ever could have imagined.

If every person who went to Four Minute Books saved one minute of time in their research or effort to learn from some books, we've saved people over 20 years of time. You can do a lot of living in 20 years, and so that prospect makes me very happy.

It makes me even more happy, however, that people keep telling me they feel that the website gives them permission to read — even if they don't have a lot of time. Where others might mock them and say, "If you don't read at least a book a month, you're doing it wrong," we say: It's okay. You're allowed to start small. It is better to read a little than not at all, and you can always make this habit bigger as time goes on.

Speaking of bigger, like I said, 10 million users is not an aspiration I began with. Big things never start big. Everything in this life starts small.

In my case, in the fall of 2015, I was trying to learn how to write. I published somewhat regularly on my blog, but I felt that I wasn't moving fast enough. I wasn't learning quickly enough. I wasn't posting often enough. If I kept up my publish-once-a-month pace, I'd never get off the ground!

So for 2016, as my New Year's resolution, I decided to...

Wake up at 5 AM every day
Write an article and don't quit until I publish it
Create a dedicated website to host this experiment

Mind you, I was mostly doing freelance work to sustain myself at the time. In order to even have the faintest chance in hell to succeed, I knew I needed one thing above all: simplicity.

If my research took too long, I would fail.

If I got distracted during writing, I would fail.

If the scope of any one article was too big, I would fail.

As I was trying to find a structure that would at least somewhat contain the effort I would have to put in each day, three things happened: an idea, a realization, and a gut feeling.

1. The Idea

The idea hit me like lightning one morning: 1 input, 1 output.

For every one piece I would publish, I would only use one source of research and inspiration. This way, I wouldn't get stuck in internet rabbit holes all the time. I still recommend this system for beginning writers now, by the way. It keeps your head clear and your writing focused.

When you only have one input, you spend limited time on research, and when your job is to comment, review, and improve on that input, the scope of what and how much you'll want to say is also somewhat defined. Win-win!

2. The Realization

Around the same time, I was a power user of Blinkist*, a professional, German-founded book summary service. Earlier in the year, my best friend had sent me a link to an epic, 90-day free trial (that deal doesn't exist anymore), and I had been hooked ever since. I even constantly showed it to other people and referred some of my coaching clients to the app in exchange for more free days of using the service.

Now notorious internet guru Tai Lopez had put the idea of "reading a book a day" into my head, and though I understood that's not exactly what he was doing (he was just reading interesting sections of various books after a lot of filtering), I thought a book summary app was the next best thing for me anyway — and also the only way I could afford this habit both time- and money-wise.

Once again, two and two came together, and...

"I should use book summaries as my inputs! I can spare 15 minutes every morning, and I'd love to 'read a book a day' and then write about it!"

That was the moment Four Minute Books was born.

3. The Gut Feeling

Well, actually, there was one more step: For some reason, my gut told me I should write and publish my book reviews on a separate website. I had a feeling it might do well, and since I was studying SEO and affiliate marketing at the time, I thought there might be a way to at least make a little money on the side from this project.

Fun fact: Initially, I named the website "Blinkist Review." I know, super creative, right? I even bought the domain blinkistreview.com — until I realized there might be a slight copyright issue with all of that.

As for how the name "Four Minute Books" came about, I was literally sitting in my living room, counting numbers on my hands: "Well, if Blinkist says I can digest a book in 15 minutes a day, my lessons from those summaries will be even shorter!"

"One Minute Books...nah. No one will believe that. Two Minute Books...no. Still too short. Three Minute Books...hmm. Four Minute Books. Oh! That one has a nice ring to it!"

Well...seven years later, here we are!

The Hard Part

If, so far, all of this sounds like I started this thing as a little passion project and mostly for fun, that's because that's exactly what it was — but that doesn't mean it was all roses and sunshine.

Despite Four Minute Books' initial "side project" nature, I took it very seriously. I spent 5-6 hours on it every day in the beginning. I had to rework my summary structure multiple times until I had something I could manage without running myself into the ground productivity-wise. And there were plenty of setbacks along the way. Some highlights:

Just while I was getting a big wave of traffic, my website broke, and I frantically spent the entire day trying to fix it, ultimately having to hire someone to do so.
On some days, I really had to slog it out. Like, really. I was slow or busy or just struggled to find enough interesting material in the summary I was reading.
After 3 months, I got sick and had to drop my 5 AM wake-up habit. I never managed to get back into it again.
When I wrote a guest post about the project that ended up on Reddit, they tore it to pieces, saying I was stupid for pursuing such an idea and that "this will never make any money."

And yet, despite everything, I kept going. Learning. Writing. Working. Publishing. I stuck to my system. Every day, I ate a little piece of inspiration pie, and I wrote about it, and I released my work for the world to see.

I had decided to do this experiment every day for a year. It was my New Year's resolution, and I would either see it through or die trying.

Today, in hindsight, we know how the story turned out: I did manage to publish 365 book summaries in that first year, and by the end of it, the site received around 10,000 visitors each month. It was obvious that it had potential, and from there, it felt somewhat natural to keep going.

But in the middle of it? None of that was obvious. At some point, I was writing three summaries a day to make up for the shortfall I had incurred when I was sick, and there was more than one day when I thought, "I'm not sure I can keep this up. I don't know if I can complete this."

But that's just life, isn't it? Sometimes, maybe most of the time, you just have to try your best and have faith that things will work out.

The Takeaway

I can't tell you how crazy and asinine of an idea it seemed to be in 2015 to summarize already-summarized books. Maybe it still is today.

Then again, that's exactly what some of the world's smartest people are now trying to train artificial intelligence programs to do — so maybe I was just ahead of the curve after all?

I think the big takeaway from this story is this:

Bet. On. Yourself.

If you don't bet on yourself in this life, no one else will.

I mean, what did I have at the beginning of all of this?

A desire...to write more and learn faster.
An idea...to use a mind-numbingly simple, almost stupid system.
A realization...to just piggyback off what I was already doing.
A gut feeling...that all of this would eventually work out.

In the grand scheme of things, that's...nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn't have any tangible proof that this would be a success. I didn't have most of the skills I would need. I just committed, had faith in myself, kept adjusting, and hoped the big picture would work out.

And I think Blinkist*, the app fueling both my daily learning habit and writing inputs — the app without none of this would have happened, without which I wouldn't be here, and neither would you — is actually still a great way to do just that — even if, for you, the journey will look very different.

Bet. On. Yourself.

The Invitation

A lesson that I'm constantly relearning, no matter how often I have to swallow it, is that, at the end of the day, you are responsible for everything that happens in your life — not at fault, but responsible.

We can't control what happens to us, but it is our job to deal with whatever the consequences may be, no matter how ugly they sometimes get.

When I see that a book summary wasn't released on time, I might get frustrated, but I remember that it's my job to make sure our content goes live on schedule.

When I spend five hours talking to ConvertKit support because our email signup forms are broken, I may be annoyed at them, but I remember that it's my duty to make sure our site is up and running.

When a reader sends me an email saying they are disappointed with our latest newsletter, I may be sad, but I remember that it's my responsibility to try and write the best thing I can write every time.

Thankfully, it's not always hard to take this responsibility. On most days, when everything functions normally, it is actually a lot of fun. Fun. That's how all of this began, and I hope that, if ever, that's how all of this might one day also end.

Since Blinkist was at the heart of all of this — the fun, the responsibility, the betting on myself, and of course the website itself and, therefore, my connection to you — I'd like to invite you:

Bet on yourself.

Take full responsibility for everything in your life.

Have fun.

Learn.

And, maybe, in the process of all of this, you'll build something big.

This week, for Black Friday, Blinkist* is offering 60% off your first year. I think it's a phenomenal way to bet on yourself or, at the very least, invest in yourself and get the confidence you need to start something crazy, like I did.

With the discount, you'll pay less than 3 bucks a month for an app filled with 5,500+ great book summaries in both text and audio. That's one a day for 15 years. I think that'll be enough time to start your next big thing, no? 😁

Even Netflix costs three times as much, and while, yeah, their documentaries are cool, I think books that have stood the test of the time are at least as much fun — if not more!

They even give you a second Premium account to share with someone you care about, free of charge. Who knows? Maybe you'll get them to keep you accountable on your daily learning (and doing) journey.

Best of all, Blinkist* doesn't really believe in the whole "no risk, no fun" thing: Despite locking in your 60% discount, they'll allow you to test-drive the full experience for 7 days, free of charge. You don't like it? You cancel. No harm done. You can start the trial here, by the way.

Well, I hope you found this story entertaining. Some tidbits I've never shared before, I think. If you're curious where Four Minute Books is headed next, all I can say is: So am I! I don't know where we're going, but I know I'll be here, trying to make more useful things for you.

But you know what I'm most curious about?

What will you build? What adventure will you go on, fueled initially by nothing but self-belief and, perhaps, a little digital mentor and friend?

If you have an idea, don't hesitate: Hit reply and let me know.

And if you want to give Blinkist a try and see where it might lead, it'd be awesome if you used the button below. You'll help us help the next 10 million people, as we'll get a small commission for referring you:

Try Blinkist Free for 7 Days (Bet On Yourself) »

Thanks for listening, and remember: Don't be afraid to start small. It's the only way to start at all.

Happy reading,
-Nik

PS: When I first used Blinkist, I kept extending my membership for free by inviting my friends. You can see how that strategy works here, but to use it, first, you'll have to sign up for a free trial*. Happy referring!