Last week in Dubai, I spent more time here than anywhere else.
– Not the Burj Khalifa fountains.
– Not the desert safaris.
– Not the world-class restaurants.
Instead? The top floor of Dubai Mall. Their legendary Kinokuniya bookstore.
It’s become my ritual. Every Dubai trip, hours dissolve between those shelves. The business section alone is larger than most complete bookstores.
Here’s what fascinates me:
For €20, you can buy decades of someone’s hard-earned wisdom.
Think about that value proposition.
I’ve read a book a week for over twenty years straight.
That’s over a thousand books.
Not counting re-reads.
Not counting the ones I discarded.
(Yes, I’ve become ruthlessly selective. Life’s too short for books that stretch one idea into 300 pages.)
Reading isn’t a hobby.
It’s one of my strategic advantages.
My approach:
• 5 books simultaneously
• Mix of technical and strategic, all non-fiction by the way
• Implementation focus
• System for execution
What most “successful” people miss:
Reading isn’t about collecting information.
It’s about transformation.
Those €20 books?
• Warren Buffett’s investment wisdom
• Ray Dalio’s principles for life and work
• Naval Ravikant’s wealth creation insights
• James Clear’s habit-building systems
Each one is a mentor in disguise.
Each page a potential breakthrough.
But knowledge without implementation is just entertainment.
That’s why I have a system:
– Read strategically (not just productively)
– Extract key principles (I save them in the Readwise app)
– Design implementation steps
– Test in real life
– Measure results, adjust and optimize
The real ROI isn’t in the reading.
It’s in the execution.
That €20 book?
It’s not an expense.
It’s an investment in your design for life, waiting to give you a crazy ROI.
What book changed your game?
PS: Enjoy this?
Ready to build your own Epic Life?
Join my community of subscribers to the Epic Life Newsletter here> https://robin-coenen-newsletter.kit.com/53c375a1b4